A pair of albums that made it clear that B.B.'s creative juices did not desert him with age - the first is a terrifically fun album of Louis Jordan music from 1999 where the King has Earl Palmer, Dr. John, Hank Crawford and David 'Fathead' Newman along for the ride. Turns out that his highness should have played jump blues more often because he is terrific at it!The second album comes from 2008 and here B.B. is often stripped down to a quartet with Dr. John, Jim Keltner and Nathan East and a well textured horn section that never upstages the star. A precious dozen killer blues songs that King had never previously recorded - this one grows on you.
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Very nice, thanks!
I already have these KC...as you would expect me to...
Playing some BB now and feeling melancholic and thoughtful...about the great loss to living Blues his passing has left...
And so many great albums... and he ran so well with many decades of shifting trends and modern genres etc...always cool hip and wise
I'll have one of his at my funeral...'The Thrill Is Gone'...literally ! Cheers Bro...and give Cliff a drink of his choice from me...put it on my tab !
Great combo of albums. I've enjoyed the Jordan album since you originally posted it.
I, too, have these in my collection; however, this post has prompted me to listen to them again and put aside the recordings to which I was listening as tribute to the King. Logically it makes sense that so many of the musical heroes of our lives are now moving on but it doesn't make it easier or even begrudgingly acceptable to me. As I wrote before, I discovered the greatness of B. B. King late; that is, after .y teenage years, when I stopped pretentiously dismissing Chicago blues as too slick, after having previously concluded that it was insufficiently raw or authentic enough for my puerile tastes. But once I discovered the three kings of blues, I always illogically assumed that Riley B. would live forever. After all, he had outlived Freddie and Albert and had always been there. I ignored his ill health in later years and assumed that someone so classy, talented and influential would have to be immortal because he was the corporal representation of the blues for decades and to so many generations. If nothing else, his longevity and honorable presence wordlessly provided a an alternative narrative to the stories and images of both the doomed and tormented blues troubadour a la Robert Johnson and the former inhabitants of the criminal demimonde a la Leadbelly, Skip James, and Son House. I always presumed that if I looked up a single synonym for gentleman and blues in a thesaurus, I would find a photo of Riley B.. I am grateful I saw him perform live even if only once and prior to my becoming an ardent fan.
Lacking a vocabulary or sufficient technical knowledge of music to accurately describe his style and technique, I can only describe my impressions of King's playing as fluid and seamless, as if he were born with a guitar already in his hands. Through his unpretentious and always respectful citation of his sources and influences, I would discover the music of the great T-Bone Walker and Booker White among others I suppose I can readily console myself by recalling that King lived a long and incredible life and achieved a level of success that must have been unimaginable as a youth in Mississippi but it seems unfathomable to me that I won't again see him every now and then on some televised celebration of an anniversary or event, sitting regally on a stage surrounded by other musicians and making love to Lucille through his fingertips, or learn of his issuing a new record. After all, the occasional commercial showed him successfully overcoming serious diabetes so if anyone other than Keith Richards, whom I always suspect of being a singular zombie given his past involvement with so many pharmaceutical and sundry illegal substances, could achieve immortality or at least outlive me and my peers, B. B. King seemed as plausible a candidate as any.
Thanks for these posts that spur reflection and memories of someone whose like we will never see again. Of all the genres I enjoy, the blues never fails to speak in intimate terms to me. We are so fortunate to live in an era in which compact discs, albums, and DVDs permit us to watch and listen to our heroes again after they are physically gone ; however, I just finished reading that Joni Mitchell has probably suffered a brain aneurysm and, coming so soon after King's death, it reminds me of how lucky we are for our memories and how much more we will be bidding farewell to the musical giants of our generation as we age.
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