Stpehen King

The potential for a collaboration between B.B. King and Eric Clapton is enormous, of course, and the real questions concern how it is organized and executed. This first recorded pairing between the 74-year-old King and the 55-year-old Clapton was put together in the most obvious way: Clapton arranged the session using many of his regular musicians, picked the songs, and co-produced with his partner Simon Climie…

This volume of Capitol/EMI's Legends Of The 20th Century profiles Nat King Cole, tracing his work as a jazz pianist and a massively popular singer. Both sides of Cole's talent are explored in this 22-track album, which includes "Nature Boy," "Unforgettable," "When I Fall In Love" and other vocal hits as well as jazz works like "Straighten Up And Fly Right," "When I Take My Sugar To Tea," "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" and "Body And Soul." A fine sampling of highlights from both of Cole's careers.

This impressive, impeccably packaged four-CD box set focuses solely on B.B. King's 1950s and 1960s recordings for the Modern family of labels. That was a period that basically encompassed the vast majority of his work prior to 1962, though he did a few non-Modern sides before signing with ABC Paramount in early 1962 and did a few other sides for Modern in the mid-'60s. So this is basically a box-set overview of King's early career, one that saw him score many R&B hits and build a career as a blues legend, even as the blues were falling out of fashion in favor of rock and soul. As many tracks as there are here - 106 in all, four of them previously unreleased - this isn't a catchall roundup of everything the prolific King did for the label…

After having lived in semi-obscurity ever since his deal with King/Federal fell through in the mid-1960s, the Blues Boom that was spreading across America and the UK in the late '60s gave Freddie King the opportunity to revive his career. He did so by signing on to Atlantic Record's subsidiary Cotillion.
Having been known mostly for his ferocious instrumental workouts ("Hide Away", "Just Pickin'", "San-Ho-Zay", "The Stumble"), soul genius and sax player King Curtis, who would produce the blues man's entire Cotillion output - decided to put an emphasis on King's vocal prowess as well. 'Freddie King Is a Blues Master' is therefore divided in a vocal and an instrumental side…