Various Artists - ‘Anthology Of The Blues’

 

In 1969 and 1970 Kent Records released 'Anthology Of The Blues', a 12-volume LP series of recordings originally made for the Bihari brothers' (Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe) Modern Records label in the 1940s and 1950s.

It was in 1969 when my then boyfriend (and future husband) Jerry and I first came across the 'Anthology Of The Blues' series, at Canterbury Records (it’s still in business) in Pasadena, CA, which was a short walk from California Institute of Technology.  Back then, it was run by a gentleman named Lenny, who was a hysterically funny man and had an encyclopedic knowledge of Jazz.  One Saturday, Jerry and I stopped in to look through the record bins.  When we entered the store, Jerry greeted us and told us he had some new releases of old Blues records.  Lenny showed me 'Vol. 1 The Legend Of Elmore James' looking at the track list on the back of the record, there were a few tracks I was familiar with, but most of them I had never heard.  It was the same with 'Vol. 2 Memphis Blues' and 'Vol. 3 California Blues'.  Lenny told us they weren’t selling that well, and he thought it was because of the covers that mostly featured African-American children.  I told Lenny, I thought they were charming, and Lenny said, "Well, you know how some people are" and rolled his eyes.  Over the next few months we bought all the volumes released in 1969, and then the 1970 releases in Boston, MA. where we moved to further our studies.

The Bihari brothers, and Modern Records

In the late '40s and early '50s, Modern Records was able to attract many fine blues performers to the labels, including B.B. King, Roscoe Gordon, Elmore James, Smokey Hogg, Lightnin' Hopkins, Little Willie Littlefield, Jimmy McCracklin, Jimmy Witherspoon, Pee Wee Crayton and John Lee Hooker.  Modern also leased masters from Sam Phillips in Memphis, and was the first label to release material by the legendary Howlin' Wolf.  A split between the Bihari brothers and Sam Phillips occurred when Phillips started leasing the Howlin' Wolf masters to Chess Records in Chicago.


In the mid-'50s Joe Bihari made several trips into the Deep South to gather field recordings of living, breathing Juke Joint blues players, and the recordings he brought back weren't quaint, archaic folk pieces but raw and raucous delicious slices of blues.  The Bihari's guide in all of this was a young Ike Turner, who was Joe’s right-hand man, chauffeur, and played piano (not guitar) on many tracks.  The resulting material is moonshine loose, charmingly rough, ragged, and they hit like the proverbial "ton of bricks".

In common with almost all record companies at the time, the Biharis would often add their names to the writing credits to get some of the cash from publishing royalties. Jules was "Jules Taub", Joe was "Joe Josea" and Saul was "Sam Ling".  For example, John Lee Hooker’s 'Turn Over a New Leaf' is credited to Hooker/Ling.  On the other hand, the brothers were music fans, and very approachable characters, as many of their artists have noted.  While they may have been "nice guys", those practices just don't sit well with me.

The Modern label went bankrupt in the mid 60s, so the brothers set up Kent Records, which bought the Modern group’s back catalog.  They continued producing new Blues and R&B records until Saul’s death in 1975, at the age of 56.



For the most part, I'm not a big fan of Blues compilations, as I find them pedestrian and fine for beginners, with the usual hits such as Elmore James' "Dust My Broom", Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy", John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" and other Blues classics we’ve all heard thousands upon thousands of times.  'Anthology of the Blues' is different, while it has Blues giants such as Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, the songs included are what I like to call "deep cuts".  It also has lesser known Blues artists, but equally talented artists, who should be more well known, including: Willie Nix, Big Bill Dotson, Charlie Bradix, James "Peck" Curtis and many others.  In my eye, these twelve LPs belong in every Blues collection.

The 12-volume series: ‘Anthology of the Blues’ are:


Vol. 1   The Legend Of Elmore James
Vol. 2   Memphis Blues
Vol. 3   California Blues
Vol. 4   Blues From The Deep South
Vol. 5   Texas Blues
Vol. 6   Detroit Blues
Vol. 7   Arkansas Blues
Vol. 8   Lightnin' Hopkins: A Legend In His Own Time
Vol. 9   Mississippi Blues
Vol. 10 The Resurrection Of Elmore James
Vol. 11 B.B. King 1949-1950
Vol. 12 West Coast Blues

In the comments of the Candi Staton post, steVe asked, "So Babs, living on the west coast, I've wondered if you live in a Brownstone or skyscraper? Or what?", which turned into inside jokes from the Th' Isle O'Foam©.  So, for the freeload, tell us what type of dwelling you live in?