Jimmy Rogers - The Complete Chess Recordings

Computer issues have made new posts impossible the last couple of weeks, but that is handled and here ya go....


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Muddy Waters - With Little Walter: 1950-1952

When most people think about the legacy of Muddy Waters, the first songs that come to mind are probably those macho Willie Dixon-produced shouts from the mid-1950s: Hoochie Coochie Man, Mannish Boy, I'm Ready, I Just Want to Make Love to You, Got My Mojo Working, etc.   But as far as I am concerned, the pinnacle of Muddy Waters' recorded output unquestionably lies here, in the records that he made with Little Walter in the early 50s before Willie Dixon entered the picture.  This is Muddy Waters playing his own music his own way in a manner that helped mold the evolution of Chicago and Mississippi blues in the 1950s and beyond.   It just doesn't get any better than this.  If I could only own one blues collection, I would choose this one.   I can't begin to describe here how much satisfaction and inspiration these recordings have given me over so many years.

I took these recordings from two sources:  The first 22 tracks come from the 2-CD set, The Anniversary Collection, released on Chess (MCA) in 2000.  The final 3 tracks come from the Hip-O-Select collection "Hoochie Coochie Man."  Together they present all of Muddy Water's recordings from June, 1950 to the end of1952.   The first session here marks the time when Leonard Chess finally honored Muddy's wish to allow him to record with Little Walter, and the result marked a milestone in recorded blues history.  (Parkway records had already recorded the two together in 1951, but Muddy Waters was essentially confined to guitar accompaniments for contractual reasons.)  Little Walter is co-featured on almost all of these tracks, although many believe that it is actually a teenage Junior Wells who takes care of the mean harp work on the last four tracks.  Jimmy Rogers is also present on many songs in this collection.

There are no weak tracks here (IMO), and the number of masterpieces is mind boggling:  Long Distance Call, Honey Bee, Louisiana Blues, She Moves Me, Still a Fool, Too Young to Know, Standing Around Crying, Iodine in My Coffee to name a handful.   I will stop here at the risk of sounding too fanatical.  When it comes to Muddy Waters, I am indeed a fanatic, and these recordings are IT for me.     

Kim Tolliver - The Rojac and Tay-Ster Recordings / Come And Get Me I'm Ready

It is time for this blog to pay tribute to Kim Tolliver, a great singer who was very active in the 60s-80s, but never managed to get the break she deserved that could have made her a household name.  She will nevertheless always be highly appreciated by lovers of classic R&B/Soul music.  Kim Tolliver could move gracefully from a deep sexy purr to an explosive raspy bluesy shout, and all in full service of delivering the emotional message of a song.  In other words, Kim Tolliver was solidly in the grand tradition, and bears comparison to others in the elite pantheon of soul divas.

This post contains two very short but sweet Kim Tolliver collections that were finally released on CD in 2008 and 2011, respectively.  One contains all of the dynamite recordings that Tolliver made for Rojac and Tay-Ster  
during the 1960s and 1980s.  The second collection contains her fine album that was released for Chess in the 1970s: Come and Get Me I'm Ready.

Kim Tolliver was born in Tennessee near Nashville in 1937, but grew up mostly in the Cleveland area, where she made her home.  She cut a few records in Houston for Don Robey at Duke in the mid-1960s before being signed by Rojac records, where she was very skillfully produced by Jack Taylor.   She was unfortunately only able to release a handful singles for Rojac in 1968-1969, which comprise the first precious tracks on the compilation shared here.

Kim Tolliver finally had the chance to release two LPs under her own leadership.  Ironically, the first recorded for Fantasy was not released under her name, but under an assumed name "Kimberley Briggs."   It was a good record, but did not really do Kim Tolliver justice (I can post it later here if there is interest).   The second album for Chess and presented here, "Come and Get Me I'm Ready," was another story: a fine overall document of the art of Kim Tolliver.

In 1980, Kim Tolliver fortunately had one last opportunity to record under the production of Jack Taylor for Tay-Ster records.  The last three tracks of the collection here come from that session, including the very moving "Where Were You?"

Kim Tolliver had the misfortune of being struck down by Azheimer's disease in the 1990s, and died in 2007.   Her legacy lives on.