Muddy Woters

The Chess Box does not contain all the great music Muddy Waters made. His talent and legacy are too large to be captured in a mere three discs, even one that spans from 1947 to 1972. This means, of course, that his legendary plantation recordings with Alan Lomax are not here, nor is his dynamic late-'70s comeback, Hard Again. But, truth be told, it doesn't feel like they're missing, since Waters' legend was built on the music that he made for Chess, and much of the greatest of that is here. Few box sets have chronicled an artist's best work as effectively as this; even the handful of rare, previously unreleased recordings sit perfectly next to the essential singles (this is particularly true of alternate takes of Fathers and Sons material). Sure, there are great Chess sides that aren't here, but those are great sides that the serious listener and aficionado need to seek out. For everybody else, this is a monumental chronicle of Waters at his best, illustrating his influence while providing rich, endlessly fascinating music.

This Muddy Waters set was recorded live in at the so-called "Jazz Jamboree" at the Palace of Culture and Sciences in Warsaw, Poland, in 1976 and has been issued many times under various titles over the years, including Floyd's Guitar Blues, Baby Please Don't Go, Hoochie Coochie Man Live!, I'm Ready Live, In Concert, and Live at Jazz Jamboree '76, among others. It's actually a pretty decent outing, and finds Waters working with what amounts to an all-star band with Bob Margolin and Luther Johnson on guitars, Pinetop Perkins on piano, Jerry Portnoy on harmonica, and a rhythm section of Calvin Jones on bass and Willie Smith on drums. It probably isn't an essential Muddy Waters purchase, but it certainly isn't a waste of money either, and dedicated fans shouldn't hesitate to pick it up under one of its various titles.

The Sony Legacy issue features completely remastered sound and Margolin's candid notes, but it also hosts two bonus tracks from the King Bee sessions that Winter didn't see fit to release the first time. There's a redo of "I Won't Go Down," a cut from the '50s that Waters sings in his lower baritone roar, and "Clouds in My Heart," a deep, long, sad blues that is one of the great unearthed treasures in Waters catalog. This cut alone with all of its deep emotion and the sound of a band trying to hold the storm of emotions in check and failing is a masterpiece and one of the most amazing blues tunes of the last 30 years.

Graeme Edge was the drummer in The Moody Blues. Surprisingly (as he wasn't in the same vein as the Gurvitz brothers), they teamed to develop a couple of superb albums…

On November 22, 1981, just prior to a three-night stand at the Rosemont Horizon arena in Rosemont, Illinois, The Rolling Stones dropped in on a Muddy Waters gig at Chicago’s Checkerboard Lounge. Waters, who would pass away less than two years later, already had the audience’s rapt audience before the Stones even entered the club. With supreme authority, the Chicago blues legend led his band through several numbers before inviting Mick Jagger up to the stage to join him on “Baby Please Don’t Go.”