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.

Lowell Fulson - My First Recordings

World famous Oklahoma born bluesman Lowell Fulson has been making hit records since his discharge from the Navy after World War II. This set features the early sides Lowell made for the legendary producer, Bob Geddins between 1946 and the early 50s. Many of these early hits showcase Lowell's fine blues vocals and his distinctive guitar accompanied by a small rhythm section as well as selections featuring just Lowell's singing and guitar accompanied only by his brother Martin on second guitar. Today, about 50 years since these performances were recorded, Lowell is still one of the active, leading blues singers of his generation.

1. Western Union Blues
2. Lazy Woman Blues
3. River Blues Pt.1
4. River Blues Pt.2
5. I Walked All Night
6. Between Midnight And Day
7. The Blues Is Killing Me
8. Did You Ever Feel Lucky
9. I'm Wild About You
10. Three O'clock Blues
11. Crying Blues (Street Walking Woman)
12. You're Gonna Miss Me
13. Miss Katy Lee Blues
14. Rambling Blues
15. Fulson Blues
16. San Francisco Blues
17. I Want To See My Baby
18. Trouble Blues
19. Don't Be So Evil
20. Black Widow Spider Blues
21. I'm Prison Bound
22. My Baby Left Me
23. Blues With A Feeling
24. Why Can't You Cry For Me
25. There Is A Time For Everything
26. Lowell Jumps One (Cash Box Boogie)

 tracks 1-10 likely recorded in June 1946 but released in 1948, 11-16 also June 1946. 17-20 late 46 or 47, 21-24 are some time in 1948, 25-26 are likely June 1952 (Bob Geddins did not keep accurate dates)

“They are all beautifully crafted country blues, recorded in San Francisco between 1946 and 1951, with basic guitar far removed from Fulson's later pyrotechnics, and with either Lowell's brother Martin on basic but effective rhythm guitar or a small combo with the great Lloyd Glenn on sparkling piano.... This really is a superb collection of an under-rated giant in his formative years, but with no sense of the beginner... If you know only Fulson's soul sides (available on a fine Ace CD) this gritty down-home material will be a revelation.”

-David Harrison, Folk Roots

Lowell Fulson - The Complete Kent Recordings vols 3 & 4

As promised!

Volume Three

Volume Four

Lowell Fulson - Kent Recordings 1 & 2

The more knowledgeable of followers here will likely be scratching their heads about now and wondering why I would start Lowell with THESE recordings. Well the truth is - mostly by mistake - but since I have these uploaded and they are totally killer, lets just say I am using this material to whet your taste for the earlier Chess material. Also I'll let you all know now that I don't have the JSP set that covers 1946 to 1953 so that would make a killer contribution. (Hint, Hint)

I approached this four disc set with full intentions of paring it down; the only problem is that I REALLY like Lowell Fulson and there just wasn't anything I could bring myself to exclude! These first two volumes give you 51 tracks that are the Meat of his Kent output. Volumes 3 & 4 have the collectors stuff but they will follow shortly as they are too good to leave out.

" Lowell Fulson (March 31, 1921 – March 7, 1999) was a big-voiced blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. Fulson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also recorded for business reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom. After T-Bone Walker, Fulson was the most important figure in West Coast blues in the 1940s and 1950s.

According to some sources, Fulson was born on a Choctaw reservation in Oklahoma. Fulson stated that he was of Cherokee ancestry through his father, but he also claimed Choctaw ancestry. At the age of eighteen, he moved to Ada, Oklahoma, and joined Alger "Texas" Alexander for a few months in 1940, but later moved to California, forming a band which soon included a young Ray Charles and tenor saxophone player, Stanley Turrentine. He recorded for Swing Time Records in the 1940s, Chess Records (on the Checker label) in the 1950s, Kent Records in the 1960s, and Rounder Records (Bullseye) in the 1970s.

Fulson was drafted in 1943, but left the United States Navy in 1945. His most memorable and influential recordings included: "Three O'Clock Blues" (now a blues standard); the Memphis Slim-penned "Everyday I Have the Blues"; "Lonesome Christmas"; "Reconsider Baby" recorded in 1960 by Elvis Presley and in 1994 by Eric Clapton for his From the Cradle album as well as by Joe Bonamassa); and "Tramp" (co-written with Jimmy McCracklin and later covered by Otis Redding with Carla Thomas, ZZ Top (on 2003's Mescalero), Alex Chilton, and Tav Falco.

"Reconsider Baby" came from a long term contract agreed with Chess Records in 1954. It was recorded in Dallas under Stan Lewis' supervision with a saxophone section that included David "Fathead" Newman on tenor and Leroy Cooper on baritone.

Jackie Brenston played in Fulson's band between 1952 and 1954. (remember Jackie from Ike Turner?)

Fulson stayed with the Checker label into 1962, when he moved to the Los Angeles-based Kent Records. 1965's "Black Nights" became his first hit in a decade, and "Tramp," did even better, restoring the guitarist to R&B stardom.

In 1993 at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California a show entitled "California Blues - Swingtime Tribute" opened with Fulson plus Johnny Otis, Charles Brown, Jay McShann, Jimmy Witherspoon, Jimmy McCracklin and Earl Brown. Fulson's last recording was a duet of "Every Day I Have the Blues" with Jimmy Rogers on the latter's 1999 Atlantic Records release, "The Jimmy Rogers All-Stars: Blues, Blues, Blues."

A resident of Los Angeles, Fulson died in Long Beach, California, in March 1999, at the age of 77. His companion Tina Mayfield stated that the causes of death were complications from kidney disease, diabetes, and congestive heart failure. He was the father of four and grandfather of thirteen