15-07-2018 10:19 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past]

L i t h i c s

15-07-2018 10:19 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past] # Lithics, Wand, Angel Olsen, The Heliocentrics, Gwenno Saunders, Jo Passed, L'Orange, Warmduscher, Walking Papers, Boss Hog, Esperanza Spalding, David Bowie

M U S I C

pres_perf_mix # The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 

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Mating Surfaces is the second full length release, and first for Kill Rock Stars, as well as a couple of EPs from Portland, OR band Lithics. The band like to keep a little bit of a mystery to themselves as they have very little online presence outside of some local independent articles, and that carries over to the music as well.
Lithics
Excuse Generator 2:18
Boyce 5:02
from Mating Surfaces 2018
Mating Surfaces is the second full length release, and first for Kill Rock Stars, as well as a couple of EPs from Portland, OR band Lithics. The band like to keep a little bit of a mystery to themselves as they have very little online presence outside of some local independent articles, and that carries over to the music as well. There are many shifts and turns that can happen at the drop of a hat and every once in while vocalist/guitarist Aubrey Hornor’s usually detached vocals are sprinkled with emotions. There are some touches of some classic post-punk influencers like early Fall and Sonic Youth, but more-so in the sense of some fearless and wild abandonment in the name of experimentation...  Mating Surfaces is a record that is filled with tension and walks on the border of full on breakdown that it never really succumbs to until it’s fitting ending.

Los Angeles-based garage psych quartet championed by Ty Segall.  When the Los Angeles group Wand formed in 2013, they played a wickedly spooky brand of psychedelic garage rock tinged with heavy metal. Over the course of three albums recorded in a couple years, the band's leader Cory Hanson wielded full control over their claustrophobic sound. The band's lineup changed along the way and Hanson loosened his grip on their sonic boundaries, allowing the new bandmembers more say in their newly classic rock- and modern pop-influenced approach.
Wand
Perfume 7:29
Pure Romance 3:37
from Perfume 2018
After an album that saw Wand shifting from Cory Hanson's project where he called all the shots to a fully fledged band, consequently losing some of the claustrophobic brilliance of earlier work, the 2018 EP Perfume is another democratic effort that suffers the same fate. While the seven songs included aren't exactly bad, they just lack the attention to detail and spooky outsider psych feel of Wand when it was only Hanson pulling the strings...

St. Louis native whose intimate indie folk bridges classic country crooning and stylized garage rock.  Raised in St. Louis, Missouri and later relocating to Chicago, Illinois, indie folk singer/songwriter Angel Olsen began performing in St. Louis coffee shops in her teenage years, eventually branching out and tapping into a network of like-minded artists.
Angel Olsen
Fly on Your Wall (Angel Olsen) 3:38
Sweet Dreams (Angel Olsen) 3:11
Special (Angel Olsen) 7:21
from Phases 2017
Arriving a year after her Top 50 album My Woman, 2017's Phases compiles rarities spanning Angel Olsen's prior output, including early demos, stand-alone singles, and unreleased material from the My Woman recording sessions. Having made a gradual but marked shift in her sound during that time, it offers tracks representing the sparer, country-inflected lo-fi of her earliest work as well as the full-band retro rock present on My Woman... While likely of interest mostly to dedicated fans due to the eclectic nature of the recordings, it may also pique the curiosity of those less familiar with Olsen's growing, distinctive catalog.

Eclectic U.K.-based ensemble blending influences such as hip-hop, jazz, soundtracks, Ethiopian funk, outré electronics, and more.  Hailing from the United Kingdom, the youth-oriented ensemble the Heliocentrics are hard to pigeonhole, though some have dubbed them a contemporary acid jazz band. Led by drummer Malcolm Catto, the band straddles hip-hop, funk, modern creative jazz, soundtracks, library music, psychedelic electronica, and world musics.
The Heliocentrics
Visions of Himself 1:37
The Pit 5:26
Night and Day 4:02
from From the Deep 2016
On their 2016 release From the Deep, eclectic British rare groove enthusiasts the Heliocentrics take a dip through their archives, unearthing a multitude of tracks cut at their former recording home base, Quatermass Studios. As with most of their recordings, however, these outer-dimensional transmissions could have been beamed from seemingly any time in the past, present, or future. The band's heavy, spacy grooves resist easy categorization, laying down heavy, fluid drum patterns and filling them with cosmic synth squiggles, dubby echo, and the occasional squawking horns...

12-07-2018 11:40 - PREHiSTORiC:MiX ~ 33 pieces excavation finds from ancient sounds ~ 1940s-1930s

12-07-2018 11:40 - PREHiSTORiC:MiX ~ 33 pieces excavation finds from ancient sounds ~ 1940s-1930s   >>Alberta Hunter, Cecil Gant, Big Joe Turner, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Four Clefs, Lester Young, Tommy Dorsey, Lena Horne, Xavier Cugat,Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, Marilyn Monroe, Lonnie Johnson, Memphis Jug Band, Blind Lemon Jefferson, The Boswell Sisters, Django Reinhardt,Fats Waller & His Rhythm, Count Basie and His Orchestra, Billie Holiday<<

Z E N E  /  M U S I C



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1940s-1930s

Jazz-blues singer soared to popularity in the '20s & '30s, returned in the '80s. Alberta Hunter was a pioneering African-American popular singer whose path crosses the streams of jazz, blues and pop music. While she made important contributions to all of these stylistic genres, she is claimed exclusively by no single mode of endeavor. Hunter recorded in six decades of the twentieth century, and enjoyed a career in music that outlasted most human lives.
Alberta Hunter
You Can't Tell the Difference After Dark (Alberta Hunter / Maceo Pinkard) 2:58
Beale Street Blues (W.C. Handy) 3:17
from Alberta Hunter Vol. 4 (1927-c. 1946)
The fourth and final volume of Alberta Hunter's early recordings as reissued by Document during the 1990s covers a substantially longer stretch of time than any of the preceding installments, beginning in May 1927 and following her progress through the year 1946. Although she recorded sporadically during these years, she worked with an impressive roster of instrumentalists as her voice gradually deepened, enabling her to deliver the goods with visceral fortitude and earthy candor. This fine disc opens with three duets featuring Thomas "Fats" Waller at the pipe organ, with Hunter singing in a mellifluous contralto. Dazzled by his amazing ability to play real jazz on an instrument usually confined to churches...

Alberta Hunter, far right, performs Vaudeville

Cecil Gant -  I Wonder 2:45
Big Joe Turner - S.K. Blues, Part 1
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Strange Things Happening Every Day 2:53
Four Clefs - V Day Stomp 3:10
from Blowing the Fuse: 28 R&B Classics That Rocked the Jukebox in 1945
Blowing the Fuse is a killer series of compilation CDs issued by Germany's premier archivist label, Bear Family. Subtitled "R&B Classics That Rocked the Jukebox," each volume is compiled by year. This one, covering 1945, hosts 26 tunes. What is immediately arresting is the sequencing here...

A tenor sax legend, known as Pres, whose melodic, smooth-flowing lines made him the most influential and inventive player of the pre-bop era. Lester Young was one of the true jazz giants, a tenor saxophonist who came up with a completely different conception in which to play his horn, floating over bar lines with a light tone rather than adopting Coleman Hawkins' then-dominant forceful approach. A non-conformist, Young (nicknamed "Pres" by Billie Holiday) had the ironic experience in the 1950s of hearing many young tenors try to sound exactly like him.
Lester Young
Jones-Smith Incorporated - Shoe Shine Boy (1936-11-09, Chicago) 2:57
Kansas City Six With Lester Young - Countless Blues (1936-11-09, Chicago) 2:58
Kansas City Six - I Got Rhythm 3:14
from The Ultimate Jazz Archive Set 20 - CD 2 / Lester Young 1936-1944

Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra - Boogie Woogie (Pinetop Smith) 3:10
Lena Horne - Stormy Weather (Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler) 3:23
Xavier Cugat & His Orchestra - Brazil (Ary Barroso / Bob Russell) 2:48
from TIME LIFE MUSIC Your Hit Parade: 1943
1943, the second full year of World War II for the U.S., and the first full year of the recording ban called by the musicians union (though Decca Records settled with the union by the fall), was an odd time in American popular music, one in which vintage recordings were re-released for hits and in which new recordings were made a cappella to circumvent the ban....

2018. 07. 09. 10:06 # magyarugar:MiX # 33 válogatott szám

2018. 07. 09. 10:06 # 33 válogatott szám >>Papaver Cousins, Anima Sound System, SmokeFish, Én meg az Ének, Bérczesi Robi, Darvas Benedek, Czitrom Ádám, Elkövetlek Projekt, Alone In The Moon, Péterfy Bori & Love Band, DLRM, Black Nail Cabaret, cs. kalotas | k6, Apey & the Pea, Bohemian Betyars<<

Z E N E  /  M U S I C

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Papaver Cousins
Boyz and Girlz 3:41
Selfish Enough 3:01
~ Bad Writing 2018
PAPAVER COUSINS: BAD WRITING (LEMEZKRITIKA)
A Papaver Cousins duó a kétezertizes évek hazai akusztikus zenei reneszánszában tűnt fel a Lone Waltz kiadónál, tavaly megjelent debütlemezük (Lack Of Lightness) az egyik legjobb a színtéren. A kétgitáros-kéténekes felállás legtöbb árnyalatát bemutatták, így alighanem joggal érezték, hogy a dúsabb zenekari megszólalás felé érdemes kanyarodniuk. A Bad Writing részben ennek a fordulatnak a lenyomata, részben pedig a még cizelláltabbá tett akusztikus, szolidan folkrockos dalok tárhelye...

Anima Sound System
'68 (S Olbricht Crisis Mix) 4:42
'68 (Bernazhy Renix) 5:53
~ #SZABAD ('68 Remixes) 2018
BESKATULYÁZHATATLAN # AZ ANIMA SOUND SYSTEM ’68 REMIXALBUMA
Prieger Zsolt zenekarvezető összefoglalta a remixlemez sztoriját: „Húsz éve elveszettnek hittük a ’68 sávjait, aztán Route8 szólt, hogy megtalálta a Soundcloudon egy link alatt, amiből meg kiderült, hogy aki feltette, anno az index.hu – de lehet, hogy még elődje, az Internetto – remixversenyén megnyerte a közönségdíjat. Remixre jelentkező egyből akadt sok, vagy aki meg még nem vette hírét a munkának, azt magam kértem fel a feladatra.
Azt akartam, hogy olyan remixalbum szülessen, amilyen az Anima: beskatulyázhatatlan. Legyen rajta kísérletezés, tombolás, táncparkettre való és meditatívabb darab is, legyen rajta fiatal és tapasztalt alkotó, régi arc és nagyon fiatal is. Nem hiszem, hogy túl sok album lenne, ahol szépen megfér egymás mellett iamyank és Budai, Imre Kiss és HOTX, S Olbricht és Jutasi, Subotage és a SanFranciscoBeat vagy Bernáthy Zsiga és Mateo. Itt meg szépen elvannak egymás mellett és ezt én szeretem. Nagyon szeretem. Ha valamiről szól az Anima, hát akkor erről: sokan dolgoznak egy ügy érdekében, nem számítanak a felszínes különbségek.”

SmokeFish
The City of the Thousand Sculptures 6:47
The Experiment is Experiment 4:43
~ The Doomed City (The Experiment Is Experiment) 2018
SMOKEFISH: THE DOOMED CITY (LEMEZKRITIKA)
... ’Faszi, a Quimby-dobos’ persze eleve nehezebben érhető tetten egy másik zenekaron keresztül, pedig mellékprojektből bizonyára neki van a legtöbb. Az ősi Marlboro Man-es zenésztárssal, Selmeci „Basstard” Péter gitárossal most megvalósították rég dédelgetett álmukat és összehoztak egy ízig-vérig progrrocklemezt, ami döntően instrumentális, kettejük alkotása (néhány vendégzenésszel) és a Sztrugackij-testvérek igen súlyos, sokáig betiltott A kárhozott város című sci-fije ihlette konceptlemez. Karakteres, végig sokrétű főhajtás a műfaj nagyjai előtt, de úgy, hogy a lépten-nyomon előkerülő idézetek cseppet sem patchworkké, hanem – főleg a vége felé – egyre kíméletlenebb kísérleti támadássá állnak össze. Progrockereknek és nyitott fülűeknek kötelező.

06-07-2018 16:06 # WORLD:MiX # 33 selected ETHNiC FUSiON tracks

Justin Adams

06-07-2018 16:06 # WORLD:MiX # 33 selected ETHNiC FUSiON tracks # WmW   Justin Adams, Kolinda, Lila Downs, Lo'Jo, Tony Allen, Samba Toure, Raul Rodriguez, Tania Saleh, Axel Krygier, Dina El Wedidi

M U S I C

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Guitarist/producer and composer Justin Adams is both one of Britain's great bluesmen and African crossover music's leading proponents. First coming to prominence in 1990 with Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart, Adams laid the foundations of his career through working as a respected sideman. His list of credits grew to include internationally known artists such as Sinéad O'Connor, Damien Dempsey, and more. His love affair with the music of North Africa first became evident with the release of his debut solo record in 2001.
Justin Adams
Desert Road (Justin Adams) 4:28
Blue Man (Justin Adams) 4:07
Majonoun and Leila (Justin Adams / Salah Dawson Miller) 6:08
from Desert Road  2001
Justin Adams has a fascination with the space of the desert, and on his solo debut, he recreates the feel, openness, and rhythms of the Western Sahara, where it bleeds into Mali, Morocco, and Mauritania. A proponent of the less-is-more school of playing, he inhabits a place where North African, West African, and blues music intertwine and notes bend, hang, and ultimately mix with a late 20th century recording studio, where samples and beats co-exist. The percussion, from longtime collaborator Salah Dawson Miller, fleshes out the bones. Although Adams is very much a player's player, he lets the rawness of style show through, never flashy, always to the point, whether plucking lead lines or fingerpicking, letting his left hand dictate the melodies and rhythms. The overall effect is soothingly hypnotic, as mesmerizing as shifting waves of desert sand. It's beautiful, often eerily bluesy (a nod to Blind Willie Johnson, one of his idols), and evokes the mystery of one of the earth's last great places. A tiny masterpiece.

Kolinda plays complex folk music with diverse instrumentation and with medieval and Eastern influences. They lived in France for a time, and were produced by Hughes de Courson of the French folk group Malicorne. Kolinda disbanded in 1979, only to reform five years later.
After playing as a group for 11 out of the past 16 years, with 7 albums under their belts, Kolinda is still relatively unknown in their native Hungary and virtually unheard of in North America.
"They're one of the most interesting European groups that I've heard," says Gary Cristall, organizer of the Vancouver Folkfestival, "but they do it in a different way. Even though they were doing traditional stuff, it had a different edge to it. They've never been looked on very favorably in Hungary. They were always a little too far outside."...
Kolinda
Napforduló / Solstice 4:48
Elfelejtett Istenek / Forgotten Gods 6:10
Rohanás 9-ben / Rush in 9 3:38
from Forgotten Gods 2000
Double Bass – Péter Kôszegi
Oboe – Endre Juhász
Percussion – Csaba Gyulai, Tibor Pongrácz
Violin – Lilla Várhelyi
Vocals – Kriszta Kováts
Vocals, Flute, Violin – Dóra Kováts
Vocals, Mandocello, Gadulka, Synthesizer – Péter Dabasi

A Mexican-American Laurie Anderson or if Frida Kahlo were a musician instead of a visual artist. Singer Lila Downs grew up with the culture of her father, a professor from the United States, but eventually turned her back on it to explore the tradition of her mother, a Mixteca Indian from Mexico. In doing so, she has created a very individual strain of song that has indigenous Mexican roots and North American sonorities. Born in 1968, she spent her early years in Mexico, but after her parents split up, she was shuffled off to live with a relative in California. She grew to love music, specifically classical and opera, and began studying those in college. After two years, however, she experienced a crisis, questioning why she was singing and dropping out to become a Deadhead, following the Grateful Dead around the country in a VW bus, earning money by making and selling jewelry, and not singing at all.
Lila Downs
La Sandunga (Máximo Ramón Ortíz) 4:13
Naila (Chuy Rasgado) 3:14
Ofrenda (Lila Downs) 3:10
Bésame Mucho (Consuelo Velasquez) 5:24
from La Sandunga 1999
Downs weaves a numinous tapestry of indigenous Mexican and Latin American traditions with Tex-Mex, North American folk, blues, jazz, rock, funk, and hip-hop inflections. Hers is an astonishing voice whose mimetic brilliance, affecting coloration and soaring range (in Spanish, English, and indigenous Mexican idioms) reflect a mesmerizing creative tension that razes all categories. Listeners unfamiliar with her work may recall her riveting appearance in the 2002 film Frida, wherein she played a Vargas-like singer, a one-woman Greek chorus to the protagonist's unrelieved suffering (even against a powerful cameo by Vargas herself, Downs more than holds her own). The ensemble (piano, clarinet, tenor and baritone sax, guitar, bass, Latin percussion) commands a variety of idioms, in brilliant complement to the singer. For Downs, music entails a sacred quest, one not without risk; but laying personal claim to some untouchable Latin classics...

04-07-2018 9:06 - JAZZ:MiX # 33 jazz tracks on the the JAZZ_line 1986-1974

Joe Zawinul

04-07-2018 9:06 - JAZZ:MiX # 33 jazz tracks on the the JAZZ_line 1986-1974 / 3:47 # Joe Zawinul,  Willem Breuker Kollektief, Mark King, David Friesen, Claus Ogerman / Michael Brecker, James Blood Ulmer, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Gary Burton, Jack DeJohnette New Directions, Keith Jarrett, Zbigniew Seifert, Joe Diorio, Flora Purim

J A Z Z   M U S I C

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1986-1974

An outstanding jazz pianist/keyboardist who worked with artists such as Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis.  Joe Zawinul belonged in a category unto himself -- a European from the heartland of the classical music tradition (Vienna) who learned to swing as freely as any American jazzer, and whose appetite for growth and change remained insatiable. Zawinul's curiosity and openness to all kinds of sounds made him one of the driving forces behind the electronic jazz-rock revolution of the late '60s and '70s -- and later, he would be almost alone in exploring fusions between jazz-rock and ethnic music from all over the globe. He was one of a bare handful of synthesizer players who actually learned how to play the instrument, to make it an expressive, swinging part of his arsenal. Prior to the invention of the portable synthesizer, Zawinul's example helped bring the Wurlitzer and Fender Rhodes electric pianos into the jazz mainstream. Zawinul also became a significant composer, ranging (like his idol Duke Ellington) from soulful hit tunes to large-scale symphonic jazz canvases. Yet despite his classical background, he preferred to improvise compositions spontaneously onto tape rather than write them out on paper.
Joe Zawinul 
The Harvest (Joe Zawinul) 6:02
Zeebop (Joe Zawinul) 4:52
Carnavalito (Joe Zawinul) 6:19
from  Dialects 1986
If Joe Zawinul was out to prove that he didn't need Weather Report anymore, he succeeded spectacularly in this virtual one-man show. Zawinul recorded many of the vocals (assisted now and then by Bobby McFerrin and a vocal trio) and all of the synthesizer and rhythm machine tracks himself in his Pasadena home studio, yet the results are anything but mechanical. Zawinul in fact achieves a rare thing: He manages to get his stacks of electronics to swing like mad in these pan-global grooves that pick up where WR was about to leave off... This is an important, overlooked album because it proves that electronic instruments can reach your emotions and shake your body when played by someone who has bothered to learn how to master them.

The Willem Breuker Kollektief is a jazz group formed in 1974 by 10 musicians leaded by Dutch bandleader Willem Breuker. The band plays unconventional jazz mixed with different styles, from latin to (contemporary) classical to theater and vaudeville.
Willem Breuker Kollektief
Like Other People Say 1:43
Hap Sap (But Not From Jaffa) 5:59
Driebergen-Zeist 10:00
from To Remain 1985
...There's a sense of wonder combined with the glee of a kid in a candy shop that he exploits with passion and humor, going so far to have composed sections with some band members "misplaying" their parts while others exasperatedly wait for them to get it right...

Virtuoso bass player and singer of English pop band Level 42 known for his bass-slapping technique. 
Mark King
Essential (Mark King) 18:36
I Feel Free (Pete Brown / Jack Bruce) 4:50
from Influences 1984
EXCLUSIVE! Level 42’s Mark King speaks to movingtheriver.com about his classic solo album Influences, released by Polydor in July 1984.

Talented and prolific jazz bassist who has continually experimented yet remained decidedly accessible.  A technically adept, immensely intuitive bassist and pianist, David Friesen is a forward-thinking performer whose albums touch upon spiritually minded contemporary jazz, folk, world traditions, and acoustic post-bop.
David Friesen
Amber Skies 8:16
Voices 7:17
from Amber Skies 1983
One of bassist David Friesen's better jazz sessions as a leader, this set (which has been reissued by other labels on CD) has some excellent playing by tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson on "Amber Skies" and "Underlying," a rare opportunity for flutist Paul Horn to take a solo in a straight-ahead setting ("Blue and Green"), and was the first opportunity that pianist Chick Corea and drummer Paul Motian had to work together; percussionist Airto completes the sextet. The diverse originals, all by Friesen, feature each of the players quite favorably, and the overall results are stimulating.

The prolific arranger and orchestrator, Claus Ogerman moved from Europe to the United States in 1959 and began an association with the Verve label, where his arrangements were featured on albums by Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967's Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim -- the first of two collaborative albums by the pair), Astrud Gilberto, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz, Cal Tjader, and other leading artists
Claus Ogerman / Michael Brecker
A remarkable technician and a highly influential tenor saxophonist (the biggest influence on other tenors since Wayne Shorter), Michael Brecker took a long time before getting around to recording his first solo album. He spent much of his career as a top-notch studio player who often appeared backing pop singers, leading some jazz listeners to overlook his very strong improvising skills.
Cityscape (Claus Ogerman) 8:46
Nightwings (Claus Ogerman) 7:45
from Cityscape 1982
...This 1982 collaboration with the late jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker is one of his most successful works, not least because the overlap between the extended harmonies of jazz and the chromaticism of the late German Romantic polyphony in which Ogerman was trained is large enough to allow Brecker to operate comfortably -- his improvisations seem to grow naturally out of the background, and the intersections between jazz band and orchestral strings come more easily here than on almost any other crossover between jazz and classical music. The mood is nocturnal and reflective. Brecker at this point had not yet made an album as a bandleader; he was primarily known to those who closely followed jazz and R&B session musicians. The album was originally billed as a release by Claus Ogerman with Michael Brecker. Yet notice how skillfully Ogerman eases the fearsomely talented young saxophonist into the spotlight....

01-07-2018 10:46 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1995-1985

01-07-2018 10:46 RULE BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1995-1985 # Tommy Castro, Phillip Walker and Otis Grand, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Luther 'Guitar Junior' Johnson, Johnny Winter, Jimmy Rogers, Charlie Musselwhite, Henry Gray, Snooky Pryor, Chris Thomas King, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray

B L U E S   M U S I C

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1995-1985

One of the brightest contemporary blues musicians, combining passionate, fiery guitar playing with powerful vocals. According to all the press and hype and hoopla for a time during the 1990s, Tommy Castro was pegged as the next big star of the blues. Long a favorite among Bay Area music fans, Castro -- in the space of two album releases -- took his music around the world and back again with a sheaf of praise from critics and old-time blues musicians alike. His music was a combination of soul-inflected rockers with the occasional slow blues or shuffle thrown into the mix to keep it honest. His vocals were laid-back and always a hair behind the beat, while his scorching guitar tone was Stevie Ray Stratocaster-approved. Crossover success did not seem out of the question.
Tommy Castro
Exception to the Rule (Tommy Castro / Shad Harris) 3:28
Had Enough (Tommy Castro) 4:55
Sho' Enough (Tommy Castro) 4:00
from Exception To The Rule 1995
EXCEPTION TO THE RULE by TOMMY CASTRO just rocks. It has a good blend of blues, soul and rock that is totally lacking from most of the music that is popular today. (Martin Lemos)

Despite recording somewhat sparingly since debuting as a leader in 1959 on Elko Records with the storming rocker "Hello My Darling," Louisiana-born guitarist Phillip Walker enjoys a sterling reputation as a contemporary blues guitarist with a distinctive sound honed along the Gulf Coast during the '50s...

Phillip Walker and Otis Grand 

b. Fred Bishti, 14 February 1950, Beirut, Lebanon. Grand has spent most of his life in the USA, although he lived in France for a few years. He began playing guitar at the age of 13, citing his influences as B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Otis Rush and Johnny Otis, and he has played with many San Francisco Bay area blues artists. Otis Grand And The Dance Kings created a sensation when they burst onto the British blues scene in the late 80s...

Dressin' Trashy (Nathaniel Dove / Phillip Walker) 3:51

She's Gone (Phillip Walker) 7:02

Play Me Some Blues (Jimmy Johnson / Phillip Walker) 8:54

from Big Blues From Texas 1994

Nice comeback set after a lengthy absence from the recording scene that was cut in London under the direction of guitarist Otis Grand (who shares axe duties throughout). Why this Louisiana-born guitarist hasn't been recorded more heavily is a mystery; he seldom fails to connect, and this import is no exception to the rule.

Indie '90 trio that bent the rules of rock while demonstrating a devotion to the music’s R&B roots. After a long and semi-successful tenure as leader of scuzz-rock heroes Pussy Galore, Jon Spencer shook up his anti-rock vision and hooked up with guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins to create the scuzz-blues trio the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Postmodern to the core, there was a genuine irony in the band's name; little of what they play resembles standard blues.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion 

Afro (The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) 2:55

Train #2 (The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) 2:25

from Extra Width 1993

On their self-titled debut album, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion had worked out the basic framework of their sound -- lots of guitar clatter, booming drums, and wild vocal gesticulations from Spencer -- but it took a while for the pieces to really come together, and 1993's Extra Width was the first album where they revealed their true potential...