Lowell Fulson - The Complete Chess Masters

Lowell Fulson's career is so long that it needs digesting in segments. In his own analysis the 40's were his Swing Time years, the 50's were his Chess years, the 60's his Kent years, the 70's were Jewell, the 80's he "laid low" and in his final decade he made some nice albums on the Bullseye imprint of Rounder.

The 50's long-distance marriage of Fulson and Chess is an uneasy one from the start. Fulson needed a new label, Chess was signing every major Blues artist they could get their hands on so the initial hookup is easy to get, although Aladdin would seem a more natural fit in hindsight. The problem was that Lowell was based in Oakland and L.A., had his own West Coast club blues style that he was developing, and he had a tight, well rehearsed band that he was unwilling to art with. Guys like Ray Charles, Stanley Turrentine, Maxwell Davis, David Newman, Dexter Gordon and Lloyd Glenn passed through that band!

When discussions of Fulson's first Chess session began, the tension between Lowell and Leonard Chess began. Chess assumed that Lowell would come to Chicago and record in his studio using Willie Dixon and the gang but Fulson was having none of leaving his band behind and instinctively knew he didn't want Chess contriving his sound. After some invective laced tirades from Chess melted a few phone lines, the agreement was made that Fulson would be record the first time in Dallas and the results would be mailed to Chess. Chess warned the record had better hit or else. It did.

Reconsider Baby was Fulson's biggest single ever, the opening walking bass/piano line is punctuated by Lowell's biting guitar then soon adds his plaintive vocal and the marvelously swinging but understated horns that are just perfect. The track makes it to #3 on the R&B charts and you would think that Fulson had proven his point. Leonard Chess still obstinately insisted that the next session take place in Chicago, in January no less! One can imagine that Fulson was less than thrilled at the prospect.

The first Chicago session is by all accounts excruciating for all concerned. Dixon, Spann and the Chess horns sound leaden and primitive compared to Fulson's L.A. band and Lowell fights with Chess and Dixon the whole way. The first track, Lonely Hours is suitable for a boat anchor, so heavy and plodding it is hard to believe it is Fulson. Check Yourself recovers some of the Fulson swagger as does Do Me Right but the session is far from successful and Fulson flees home to California.

Lowell's next session is done in L.A. with a return to his bounce and swagger but a year later Chess once again drags him to Chicago in the dead of winter with entirely similar results. The resulting 5 tracks are mostly leaden and forgettable with the possible exception of Smokey Room. This time Fulson flees Chess studio never to return and for the rest of his tenure everything is done in L.A. and finished product is mailed to Chess with instructions to not mess with it. This in large part accounts for why Fulson's records sound like nothing else at Chess.