Paris Slim - Blues For Esther (1989) [CD Rip]

This is the first album by California blues artist Franck Goldwasser, formerly known as Paris Slim. The album was originally released in 1989 as a vinyl LP on the Belgian record label Blue Sting. It features some of the Bay Area's most prestigious players of the time, including members of the Robert Cray Band and the Etta James band. "Blues For Esther" was nominated in 1990 for a W.C. Handy award (now called the Blues Music Awards). Franck Goldwasser's first single for the Backtrack label, released in 1985, is included in this album.

Frank Goldwasser dropped out of art school in his native Paris to respond to an invitation by Oakland bluesman Sonny Rhodes to move to the San Francisco Bay Area in the spring of 1983 to pursue his musical aspirations. Goldwasser had fallen under the spell of bluesmen Elmore James and T-Bone Walker while still a teen-ager.

Upon arriving in Oakland, he soon landed a job in band-leader and club owner Troyce Key's Blues Band, playing every week-end at Oakland's notorious "Home Of The West Coast Blues", Eli's Mile High Club. As a member of the Eli's house band, Goldwasser was given the moniker "Paris Slim" and began to develop a following while working with West Coast Blues giants Big Mama Thornton, Lowell Fulson, Pee Wee Crayton and Jimmy McCracklin.

Key eventually turned-over the gig to Paris Slim who formed his own band and began to bring in such artists as Joe Louis Walker, Sonny Rhodes and Cool Papa. Stints as a sideman with Sunnyland Slim, A.C. Reed, James Harman and Mitch Woods followed.

Goldwasser worked with Charlie Musselwhite's group in 1985, and performed with his own band at local venues including Larry Blake's--where he hosted the popular Blue Monday Party for three years, Wolfgang's, Major Ponds and Jack's. Paris Slim appeared on the 1986 San Francisco Blues Festival, Oakland's Festival at the Lake and The Rose City Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon. An album, "Blues For Esther", was released in 1989 on the Blue Sting label and nominated for a W.C. Handy Award in 1990 in the Best (Foreign) Blues Album category.

In 1990, Paris Slim filled-in for the late great Mike Bloomfield for a reunion of the Electric Flag, and went on to headline the Rose City Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon. Paris Slim toured Europe in 1991 on a bill with Joe Houston and Philip Walker and appeared at the Bagneux Blues Festival near Paris in 1993 with Chick Willis and Jerry McCain. In 1994, He returned to Paris where he recorded and performed with French singer Benoit Blue Boy. Paris Slim teamed-up with Chicago Blues guitarist Steve Freund for an appearance on the 1995 San Francisco Blues Festival.