P-Vine Special, the exemplary Japanese specialist reissue label, set the standard in blues box sets during the LP era with the Muddy Waters compilation The Chess Box, issued as an 11-LP set, with a bonus [...]
Mosaic Records has excelled in the compilation of high-quality boxed set reissues, primarily focusing on co-founder Michael Cuscuna's passion for Blue Note Records' vaunted jazz catalogue. Along the way Mosaic has also issued a few [...]
Hubert Sumlin made his mark with his sharp, innovative and unpredictable guitar work on Howlin' Wolf's classics such as Killing Floor, Shake for Me, and Hidden Charms, and became an acclaimed and beloved figure in [...]
T-Bone Walker is best remembered as the father of electric blues guitar, the icon who paved the way for B.B. King, Albert King, Otis Rush, and the rest. His work on his 1959 Atlantic LP [...]
Muddy Waters' historic recordings for Chess and Aristocrat Records are so iconic within the framework of the blues that several 'Greatest Hits'-type Muddy albums from the Chess vaults have been inducted into the Hall of [...]
Widely regarded as the premier blues composer of the post-World War II era, Willie Dixon (born July 1, 1915, in Vicksburg, Mississippi) was also probably the single most influential figure in shaping the Chicago blues [...]
Every time a guitarist in blues, jazz, or rock plays a solo today, he carries on the legacy of one of the first virtuosos of the instrument, Lonnie Johnson. The predominant style of modern blues [...]
At the age of 23, Otis Rush was able to mine the essence of deep blues with his classic single 'Double Trouble' for the Cobra label of Chicago in 1958. The minor-key masterpiece depicted a [...]
My Babe' was a No. 1 rhythm & blues hit for Chicago blues singer-harmonica player Little Walter in 1955 on Chess Records' subsidiary Checker label. With Robert Jr. Lockwood's memorable guitar riffs propelling the arrangement, [...]
Vee-Jay Records of Chicago came up with an unlikely formula to put John Lee Hooker on both the rhythm & blues and pop music charts with the catchy original version of his bad-man theme, 'Boom [...]