Muddy Waters: Muddy, Brass & the Blues [CHESS / ELEMENTAL MUSIC]

Why you'll love it

This reissue is in stereo and copies the label artwork of the original US issue. Producers Gene Barge and Ralph Bass put Muddy in front of a horn section, and AllMusic says he almost crosses over into Otis Redding territory.

This edition

• Stereo
• Original US label artwork

About the album

In the summer of 1966 Chess tried something new with its biggest blues star. Over two days in June at Ter Mar Studios in Chicago, Muddy Waters set the guitar aside, stepped up to the microphone and sang ten blues standards over his road band and a section of saxophones, trumpet and trombone.

The band is a who's who of Chicago blues, with James Cotton on harmonica, Otis Spann on piano, Pee Wee Madison and Sam Lawhorn on guitars and Gene Barge on tenor sax. Muddy leans into "Corine, Corina," "Black Night" and "Betty and Dupree," swings through Big Joe Turner's "Piney Brown Blues," and closes on the tough "Hard Loser." Calvin Jones and Willie Smith keep the rhythm, and the whole album runs just over 30 minutes, ten songs with no fat on them.

It sits neatly between his classic 1950s sides and the psychedelic Electric Mud a couple of years later, and shows off just how strong a singer he was. Taking Muddy's guitar away is a bit like hiding a chef's knives; turns out he can still cook.

Also at Kops: more Muddy Waters on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Chess / Elemental Music (cat# 620884), a reissue of the 1966 album.