VA - Vintage Blues (1988)

But let's start with another "controlled city"- St. Louis. Many southern bluesmen stop here on their way to Chicago or travel between the two cities. Albert King, a longtime St. Louis resident who is now famous not only for his hat, pipe, and flying-v guitar, but also for his inimitable blues style, helped create the city's postwar blues scene. A native of Mississippi with an impressive physique, Albert recorded his first records in Chicago for the Parrot label. Recorded in 1953, "Merry Way", "Bad Luck" and "Murder" benefit from the presence of pianist Johnny Jones, who at the time was in transition between the bands of two of Chicago's best bluesmen, Tampa Red and Elmore James. John Brimbut also played guitar at the session, but we'll learn more about him later. Shortly after this session, Albert returned to St. Louis and gave up music for a while. Then, in the late fifties, he began releasing records for the Bobbin label, some of which were released for distribution nationwide by King Records. In the middle of these sessions, with the participation of the same musicians, a recording is released that makes up the rest of his contribution to this cause. The rhythm may be different from what it was on his seventies recordings, but it contains all the familiar King licks melodies backed by a cool band that shows from the first bars of "Searchin' For A Woman" that they intend to make their leader work hard.
Like Albert King, Otis Rush is also left-handed, which means that they both get a different vibrato when they produce notes, because the strings are "stretched" rather than "pressed". Another native of Mississippi, Otis recorded a series of deservedly famous records for the Cobra label in the mid-fifties. In fact, "All Your Love" included here was one of the last songs he recorded for Cobra, and "I Can't Stop" sounds a lot like "I Can't Quit You, Baby." But one of the novelties of that time was "So Many Roads". Since these tracks were recorded, Otis's blues fortunes have risen and fallen several times, but he has continued to perform his highly individual blues throughout the United States and Europe.
It doesn't often happen that a pianist becomes as famous a performer as guitar heroes like Albert King and Otis Rush. But throughout his life, Otis Spann has consistently maintained his reputation as the king of Chicago piano blues. Much of his fame was due to his long-term involvement in the Muddy Waters Band, as well as his performances at chess and draughts sessions with Bo Diddley, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson. Otis has recorded several records under his own name, and among the tracks presented here are two that were completely unknown a few years ago: "I'm Leaving You" and "I'm In Love With You, Baby", which are accompanied by magnificent accompaniment, which includes Walter Horton on harmonica, Robert Jr.. Lockwood on guitar and the formidable Fred Below on drums. The first number is actually a version of "Tee Nah Nah", which Spann performed at concerts and recorded for the rest of his life. "It Must Have Been The Devil" and the instrumental track "Five Spot" were recorded two years earlier, and it is generally accepted that B.B. King appears as one of the guitarists, although the fact that the other is Jody Williams supports the opposite theory that he is the one playing the solo.- the guitar. In the end, it doesn't matter because it's Otis' show, and he makes us wish he'd record his own albums more often during his career.
Finally, we came to John Brim, one of the countless worthy bluesmen who never achieved the fame and recognition that our previous members were able to achieve. A native of Kentucky, he moved north when he was in his twenties and worked with Sonny Boy Williamson in Chicago and Big Maceo Merriweather in Detroit. His first recordings were made in 1950 for Fortune. In the following years, he also recorded for Random and JOB in Chicago, before the Chess brothers selected him to record a response to Big Mama Thornton's song "Hound Dog," which they named "Rattlesnake." During this session, he was assisted by Little Walter, who was supposed to be present at all but one of his chess sessions. Some time after John supported Albert King at his Parrot session, he also recorded for the label. "Tough Times" ranks alongside "Eisenhower Blues" by J.B. Lenoir (also recorded for Parrot) as one of the classic post-war "protest" blues. His last chess lesson was attended by almost the same musicians who would perform so spectacularly in front of Otis Spann about three months later, and Little Walter once again proved his skills as an accompanist. So, here it is. A fascinating dive into chess vaults to show that, regardless of the year of release, each of them was of the best harvest, and it should be opened and tasted only the best. And now is the time to listen! Tom Carter - from the booklet