The Blues Legacy: Lost and Found Series Vol. 1-3
06/23/2008
Music: Blues/Jazz:: 2 comments: by Stefan Halley
While it’s great to find new music from classic artist, the quality can vary greatly, such is the case here.
Of all the musical genres, blues seems to be suffering the most. There aren’t many artists recording the genre any more. When a collection of “lost” blues recordings come out it can either be a blessing or a curse. Chris Barber’s The Blues Legacy Series: Lost & Found is a three volume set featuring live recordings from Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Champion Jack Dupree and others. Chris Barber found some old ¼ inch magnetic tapes and was delighted when he heard the old recordings made in England 50 years ago. The Lost & Found Series is a bit of a blessing and a curse. While it’s great to find new music from classic artist, the quality can vary greatly, such is the case here.
Most of the recordings were made between 1957-1964 in the early days when the blues were being introduced to Europe. These are the earliest days of blues being introduced into Europe as the full invasion didn’t happen until the early 60’s. These are some of the earliest recordings of some of these artists and the first European recordings for many of them. The Lost and Found Series isn’t the best effort from any of these artists but they are all worth listening to.
Since these are old recordings from a long forgotten show, the mix quality varies greatly. Some of the tracks you can clearly hear the musician and on others, they’re drowned out by the band. Take “Walking Thru the Park”, Muddy Waters is over shadowed by the accompanying band. It’s a problem though all three volumes. Sister Rosetta Tharpe gets the worst of it. On most of her numbers, she’s barely audible.
Overall, it’s great to have new music on the market from some of the greatest Blues artist of all time. Fans of Blues will want to pick The Blues Legacy: Lost and Found Series Vol. 1-3 up to add to their collection. There is some great music here despite the original tape mixing flaws.
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About Stefan Halley
Location: Malmo, Sweden
Occupation: Editor-in-Chief
Bio: Stefan has been writing reviews for seven years and started Pop Syndicate out of need to voice his mis-guided opinion.
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Posted by Chris Barber on 06/25/2008, 01:39 AM
Hi......thank you to Stefan Halley for the four stars.....his actual review makes me imagine these are 4 stars out of perhaps 100 ??
seriously as the man responsible for these performances (note: the recordings were in all before 1962 made without our knowledge as public Halls in UK then had low quality PA systems and the Rock Revolution had not yet led to the invention of portable jigh class sound equipment)
The point of the whole thing is that at that time (1957-1958 and further) Blues and Gospel artists were not appearing here and WE (My Jazz & Blues Band and I) knew that it should be....The only way we were going to get the chance to hear and work with artists like these who could help us to achieve the musical standard which this wonderful music deserves was by bringing the artists over ourselves. The Promoters who arranged concerts featuring my Band told us that, as they already had sold-out concerts everywhere and were paying us on that basis, if we wanted to work with Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny & Brownie,Muddy Waters and the others we would have to find them and pay them............Which we did.......Also although our first motivation had been to learn and thrill ourselves by performing with these artists (NONE of whom ever objected to our contribution) We tried to persuade for example Rosetta Tharpe to do more numbers by herself...She wanted us to play all the way through.....to her I believe this was and is a group musical enterprise......All I can say, Mr.Halley, is that WE had a ball, THEY (the artists we imported) had a ball and the audience had a ball............Bu the way Mr Halley what did YOU ever do to actively promote the spread of good blues & gospel music?......yours .........Chris Barber, England
Posted by Stefan Halley on 06/25/2008, 02:10 AM
Chris, thank YOU for responding to MY review of your work. The rating is four out of five. I’M sorry you found my not your liking. I highly recommend this series but there are limitations to the work. I try to promote blues and gospel music by reviewing as many albums from that genre of music as I can.
I’M glad YOU had a ball recording these sessions. I thank YOU for releasing them on CD so future generations can also enjoy them.