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Original Chess Masters |
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Reviews
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Thursday, 09 February 2006 07:36 |
The Original Chess Masters
By John Sinclair
CH-9193 Look! It's The Moonglows (1956-58)
CH-9255 The Best of Muddy Waters (1947-54)
CH-9256 Chuck Berry Is On Top (1955-59)
CH-9258 John Lee Hooker: House of the Blues (1951-54)
CH-9259 Chuck Berry: Rockin' at the Hops (1959-60)
CH-9261 Muddy Waters: Folk Singer (1963)
CH-9263 Koko Taylor (1965-69)
CH-9264 Bo Diddley: In the Spotlight (1959-60)
CH-9265 Little Milton Sings Big Blues (1966)
CH-9266 Etta James: At Last (1960)
CH-9267 The Blues, Volume Two (1952-60)
CH-9268 Shaky Horton: The Soul of Blues Harmonica (1964)
The Chess Records catalog, compiled by Leonard and Phil Chess on Chicago's South Side between 1947 and 1972, is one of America's most important treasuries of recorded music.
Beginning with sessions by Muddy Waters and Sunnyland Slim for their Aristocrat label in 1947, the Chess brothers both documented and spurred the insurgence of Chicago's black music community to the point of world domination.
Like their competitors in the independent record business during the 1940s and 50s--aggressive little companies like Atlantic, Imperial, Savoy, Modern and Specialty--Chess recorded and promoted great productions from across the spectrum of urban black music.
Blues, jazz, rhythm & blues, gospel and soul music artists were powerfully produced in big-city studios and their records--78 and then 45 rpm singles were effectively marketed to black-oriented radio programmers and jukebox operators all over America.
Chess Records set the pace. They quickly cornered the market on the emerging urban blues idiom and signed its major figures--Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson--to exclusive contracts. They made hundreds of fantastic records with dozens of great bluesmen, from Elmore James and John Lee Hooker to Willie Mabon and Jimmy Rodgers.
When Black music began to break through America's iron curtain of racial segregation and into the lives of white teenagers in the mid- 50s, Chess led the charge with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.
Chess had the two top male vocal groups of the era, the Moonglows and the Flamingos. They had jazz hits with Gene Ammons, James Moody, Ahmad Jamal and Ramsey Lewis. Their gospel line, topped by the popular sermons of Detroit's Reverend C. L. Franklin (yes, Aretha's father), serviced millions of record buyers unmoved by popular music.
The Chess brothers also purchased or licensed masters from independent record producers around the country--Paul Gayten in New Orleans, Sam Phillips in Memphis, Bernie Bessman, Joe Von Battles and Berry Gordy in Detroit--and marketed them to a national audience.
As the first wave of modern black music receded in the early 60, Chess came right back with early soul classics by Little Milton, Fontella Bass, Etta James, Koko Taylor and Bllly Stewart.
The Chess brothers and their racially mixed staff of musicians, producers, engineers, and record promotion men documented and popularized some of the greatest Black music ever created. Their efforts enjoyed worldwide impact, and their records directly inspired the first English rock groups, starting with the Beatles, the Animals and the Rolling Stones.
The original Chess masters have been around the block since they were sold to GRT Records in the early 1970s. GRT in turn sold the Chess catalog to All-Platinum Records, and finally giant MCA Records picked them up several years ago. MCA's current re-issue program, The Original Chess Masters, is by far the best and most comprehensive attempt yet to keep these classic recordings in the popular marketplace.
Essential Chess LPs by the great masters of urban blues are now available in their original form, including the original cover art and liner notes. These are augmented by important discographical data, including recording dates and personnel, plus biographical sketches of the artists.
The 12 albums under review here fairly represent the breadth and depth of the Chess catalog and the scope of MCA's reissue program. Four or five essential LPs, four or five important albums and a couple of minor classics make this set a very welcome addition to the disgracefully short list of available recordings from the Golden Age of American Music (1945-65).
The Best of Muddy Waters is a record every American should own. Here is modern urban blues as it began to emerge between 1948 and 1954, embodied in the magnificent compositions and performances of the great McKinley Morganfield of Stovall, Mississippi. These recordings remain as fresh today as the moment they were captured on disc: "Long Distance Call," "Louisiana Blues," "Honey Bee," "Rollin' Stone," "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Still a Fool," "I Can't Be Satisfied"--it doesn't get any better than this.
Chuck Berry Is On Top is another record that belongs in every collection. A package of singles and out-takes from Chuck's master period, Berry On Top shows where rock and roll came from with masterpieces like "Maybellene," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Almost Grown," "Johnny B. Goode," "Carol" and "Little Queenie."
House of the Blues, with one of the most soulful album covers ever released, collects a batch of John Lee Hooker singles recorded by Bernie Bessman in Detroit between 1951-54. Essential cuts include "Sugar Mama," "Walkin' the Boogie" and "Leave My Wife Alone."
Look! It's The Moonglows features three must-have sides and several lesser works by this flawless vocal group. "When I'm With You" is among their greatest efforts, and their version of "Blue Velvet" is worth the price of the LP.
The Blues, Volume 2 is one of five brilliant Chess compilations which define the Chicago Blues movement for all time. This set includes such inescapable classics as "Evil" (Howlin' Wolf), "I'm a Man" (Bo Diddley), "Blues with a Feeling" (Little Walter), "Ten Years Ago" (Buddy Guy) and "So Many Roads" (Otis Rush).
Not so important in terms of the development of modern popular music but equally pleasing to the listener are excellent albums by Bo Diddley (In the Spotlight), Muddy Waters (Folk Singer) and Chuck Berry (Rockin' at the Hops).
Chess Records' output of the 60s is nicely represented by the Etta James album At Last, Little Milton Sings Big Blues and current blues queen Koko Taylor's self-titled first LP, featuring "Wang Dang Doodle" and other Willie Dixon gems.
Finally there is the Big Walter Horton LP from 1964, The Soul of Blues Harmonica, a splendid example of Chess's commitment to recording deep blues artists even after the market for their music among urban blacks had suffered a major contraction. Big Walter (he hated to be called "Shaky") was a major artist on harmonica but remains woefully underheard.
Special thanks must go to MCA's Bob Schnieders, mastermind of the Original Chess Masters project, for making these recordings available to a whole new generation of listeners. Kids! Collect the whole set before they all disappear again!
--Detroit
January 1988
(c) 1988, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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