Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, & Bo Diddley Join Forces

What do you get when you cross three of the best blues artists of all time?

The album 'The Super Super Blues Band' was released in 1968, as a follow up to the previous release called 'The Super Blues Band' which featured Muddy, Bo, and Little Walter.

This album features group renditions of their classic songs, including Muddy's 'Long Distance Call', Wolf's 'Spoonful', and Bo's 'Diddley Daddy'.

It features a breat back up band featuring Buddy Guy on bass, Hubert Sumlin on guitar, and Otis Spann on piano.

The result is an interesting take on these songs, and it's difficult to imagine these guys working together seeing they all had rivalries within Chess Records and as bluesmen, especially Muddy and Wolf.

Here's 'Going Down Slow', featuring Muddy Waters' signature slide guitar.

'Moanin' - The Signature Hard Bop Tune

If anyone is to be associated with the hard bop sub-genre in Jazz, it's ambassador would be none other than Art Blakey and his band The Jazz Messengers.

Many jazz musicians evolved their sound from bebop to hard bop, and eventually moving on to either eccentric free jazz or to electric fusion / funk. Art Blakey however remained mostly in hard bop through his career.

This song, 'Moanin', the title track on the 1959 album of the same name, features heavy hitters trumpeter Lee Morgan, sax player Benny Goldon, bassist Bobby Timmons, and pianist Jymie Merritt, with Art on drums, deliver a high powered blues inspired riff that sets the mood and the genre on it.

Here's a live version from Belgium in 1958; prepare for some head boppin'!

Miles Davis Bops the Blues

Miles Davis, still in his very early days, recorded some unreleased tracks with vocalists Earl Coleman and Anne Baker in 1946. These bluesy bop numbers were released under the album name "Bopping the Blues". The performances are very mellow and shows Miles at a young age, and that early bebop sound. It's not well developed but it is an interesting take on the blues.

 Of interest, are Gene Ammons on sax  Art Blakey on the drums.

The album only has 4 songs but each one has 4 alternate takes.

Here's  'Don't Sing me the Blues' with Earl Coleman on vocals.

'Snake Oil Blues' Now Available for Free Download

I'm happy to announce that my new song 'Snake Oil Blues' is now available for free streaming and download!

The song is my throwback to the old days of the blues. I hope you all enjoy it! 

You can view and download the track (and my older one Dem Blues is Coming) here.

Thanks to Fuad Murad of Household Productions and to Bachir Najjar for the cover design.

My New Song 'Snake Oil Blues' to be Released Tomorrow!

Be on the lookout tomorrow when I upload my latest song called 'Snake Oil Blues', written and performed by me and produced by Fuad Murad of Household Productions.

 Here's the official description:

Snake Oil has come to mean any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit, most commonly associated with the American old west. 

This song describes a man's addiction to fake drugs. t's an old school throwback to the blues of old, in the style of country / folk / Delta blues. 

This song was recorded in one day, mimicking my previous track called "Dem Blues is Coming', of having one take per track to keep it sounding more spontaneous and 'live'. 

I used D standard tuning on rhythm guitar to get a fuller sound, but used E standard for the slide solo (to use the open strings that naturally fit the D chord). Bass was played with flatwounds on a Fender Precision with vintage pickups.

Never Trust a Woman... Until She's Dead

One day she says she loves you;
And the next day she'll throw you in the street.

She'll call you every mornin'
Every mornin' noon and night
She'll call you in between times
Just to see if you're doin' alright
She'll ask to borrow five
And then she'll beg for ten
And baby that five and ten
You won't ever see again!

- BB King

(Song heard in background)

Low Down and Dirty Dog Blues - Son House

Leave it to the master of Delta Blues Son House to take us off to the distant blue moods, with this track recorded in 1942.

Read all about the Font on the Cover of Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme'

An interesting website I discovered recently is called Rock That Font, which goes pretty in depth about the typography of rock and other music albums.

It was inevitable that John Coltrane's magum opus A Love Supreme was going to be a topic of discussion.

Apparently, the font used on the cover is "Anzeigen Grotesk, which in German loosely translates to “Advertising Sans-Serif.”

Read more [here].

New Music Store Opening in Kuwait?

My friend Omar K. has sent me this photo; a new music store apparently called "Music Square" will be opening at the Avenues Phase 3.

Could it possibly be music instruments? Or only audio? Time will tell, and if you have any news of this please let us know!

'Prisoner of the Blues' - Sons of Blues

Here's a great slow and mellow tune by Chicago blues vocalist and harpist Billy Branch and his band the Sons of Blues, which is great for the upcoming three day weekend.

Have a great long holiday!