From New Orleans to Harlem. The most important recordings of the golden age. Mit King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Jimmie Noone, Sidney Bechet, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Jack Teagarden, Red Nichols, Clarence Williams, Muggsy Spanier, Frank Teschemacher, Adrian Rollini u.a. 100-CD-Box with original recordings. From the early days to the late 1950s, the highlights of Swing are presented on these 100 CDs.
The Blues Masters series, much to Rhino`s credit, adopts an expansive definition of blues, allowing the likes of Count Basie, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Muddy Waters and even Louis Prima admission. There is none of the purist`s quibbling over strict 12-bar form or the relative significance of prewar and postwar styles.
What Rhino delivers instead is the blues in all its myriad guises. This music is old and new, black and white, acoustic and electric, folksy and jazzy, performed by women and men, and yet it is all still blues at its core.
This box is separated into 4 categories by CD: Guitar, Piano, Vocalists and Chicago. The assortment is staggering…contains tracks by all of these must-hear artists: John Lee Hooker, the Kings (BB, Freddie and Albert) on the Guitar ad Chicago CDs, as well as Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor…on the Piano CD you get "Champion" Jack Dupree, Big Joe Turner, Dr. John AND Professor Longhair AND Ray Charles.
The Robert Shaw recordings on this Document Records CD features a selection of Mac McCormick recordings, live concert recordings, radio sessions and the recording by Ben Conroy, on a reel-to-reel recorder at a house party of his making, in 1971. The party went on for at least 4 hours, capturing a whole evening with Robert Shaw, his music and many personal recollections of his earlier performing years.
By the time he was a teenager, Robert Shaw would slip away from the farm to hear Jazz musicians play in the clubs and roadhouses in and around Houston. As soon as he was able Robert sought out a piano teacher and paid for the lessons out of his own earnings…
‘The blues come to Texas, loping like a mule,’ Blind Lemon Jefferson sang through a shower of surface noise as he made his recording debut in March 1926. He established the primacy of Texas blues musicians that continued unchallenged for the next 30 years, encompassing the likes of Henry ‘Ragtime’ Thomas, Texas Alexander, T-Bone Walker, Smokey Hogg, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown, Clarence Garlow, Lil’ Son Jackson, Lowell Fulson and Frankie Lee Sims. Other famous musicians recorded when they were passing through Texas, and that included Lonnie Johnson, Walter Davis, The Mississippi Sheiks, Robert Johnson, Roy Brown, Joe Turner, Honeyboy Edwards, Memphis Slim and Jimmy McCracklin.
From pioneering guitar legends Blind Lemon Jefferson & Blind Willie Johnson to pre-blues songsters and field holler-inspired singers, the state of Texas has long played a key role in the evolution of the blues. This Rough Guide charts the many different facets to this incredibly rich and diverse of early blues genres.
Taking inspiration from Charlie Christian and Lonnie Johnson, T-Bone Walker plays with an exceptionally elegant and relaxed style, the perfect foil for Charles Brown's piano. An innovator of this caliber could only spark emulation. T-Bone Walker's influence can be heard in B.B. King, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown or Buddy Guy. Even Jimi Hendrix confessed his indebtedness. Today guitarists, like Duke Robillard, Pete Mayes or Otis Grand, still perpetuate his legacy. In 1962 he toured with the very first American Folk Blues Festival (with John Lee Hooker). T-Bone Walker subsequently performed in Europe on a regular basis, with a marked preference for France. In November 1968, Black & Blue took advantage of one of his tours to have him record the album "Feelin’ The Blues," rightly considered to be one of the best he made at the end of his career. We thought it appropriate to add a few titles from his sessions with Jay McShann and Eddie Vinson, recorded a few months later while T-Bone was doing a stint at the Trois Mailletz club in Paris. T-Bone Walker is surely the most jazzy blues musician, while McShann and Vinson are among the most bluesy jazz musicians! It was impossible for this confrontation to produce anything but success.