Albert King/Stevie Ray Vaughan: In Session [STAX]

Why you'll love it

This US pressing captures the two guitarists live in the studio together, with their between-song banter left in. It's a blues giant trading licks with his most famous disciple, and Vaughan's "Pride And Joy" makes the setlist.

This edition

• Pressed in the USA
• Stereo mix

About the album

The most famous blues jam of the 1980s happened, of all places, at CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario. On December 6, 1983, Albert King, 60, sat down for a taping of the TV series In Session with a 29-year-old Stevie Ray Vaughan. King almost passed on it, since he didn't recognize the name, until he realized this was little Stevie, the skinny kid who used to sit in with him in Texas.

King drives the session, but he hands Vaughan the spotlight again and again, and the two Strat and Flying V tones circle each other beautifully. "Call It Stormy Monday" opens with a slow, smouldering exchange, Vaughan's own "Pride And Joy" gets a big, swinging run, "Ask Me No Questions" is pure Albert, and the epic "Blues At Sunrise" stretches into a long, patient conversation between teacher and student. The spoken interludes between songs let you hear the warmth between them.

Stax issued it as an album in 1999, and it has become one of the essential documents of both men's playing. A Hamilton TV studio hosting the blues summit of the decade is what we'd call a very good afternoon for Hamilton.

Also at Kops: more Albert King on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Stax (cat# STX-7501-1), a reissue of the 1999 live album.