T-Bone Walker Joe Turner Otis Spann – Super Black Blues
Label: Flying Dutchman, BluesTime
Released: 1969
Re Released : 2014 (Ace)
Format : [email protected]
Bob Thiele, the former head of blues at ABC Records who founded the Flying Dutchman imprint BluesTime in the late '60s, designed the 1969 album Super Black Blues as a way to showcase the label's three recently signed blues legends, T-Bone Walker, Joe Turner, and Otis Spann. That this LP happened to follow the format of Blue Horizon's recent hit Blues Jam in Chicago -- a record that featured plenty of Chicago stalwarts, including Spann, backed by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac -- is not incidental. Super Black Blues was a way to bring these '40s stars to the attention of '60s audiences and perhaps entice a couple of old fans to listen as well. The record was just four tracks, with the long jams "Paris Blues" and "Blues Jam" anchoring the A and B sides and balanced by "Here I Am Broken Hearted" and "Jot's Blues." The emphasis on improvisation and long grooves certainly made Super Black Blues different than the original '40s and '50s sides by Walker, Turner, and Spann -- those were restricted by technology and taste -- and it's fun to hear them stretch out with George "Harmonica" Smith, Arthur Wright, Ernie Watts, Ron Brown, and Paul Humphrey in tow
Tracklist
1 Paris Blues 14:00
2 Here I Am Broken Hearted 3:45
3 Jot's Blues 8:11
4 Blues Jam 10:56
Recorded : 17. October 1969 ( Los Angeles)
Joe Turner, voc,
T-Bone Walker, voc, g;
Otis Spann, voc, p; (tracks 1 and 4)
George Smith, hca;
Ron Brown, b;
Arthur Wright, g;
Ernie Watts, ts;
Paul Humphrey, dr;
Produced. by Bob Thiele