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Various - Midnight Steppers ; 70 Masterpieces From 34 Blues Piano Heroes
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Various - Midnight Steppers ; 70 Masterpieces From 34 Blues Piano Heroes
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Midnight Steppers celebrates the post war blues pianists and explores how their sound had its origins in the 30s and 40s, when boogie woogie piano and the Chicago-centric small combo Bluebird Beat held sway. Compiled by blues and early jazz authority Mike Rowe, Midnight Steppers presents 70 masterpieces by 34 pianists, including legendary names like Otis Spann, Memphis Slim, Big Maceo, Sunnyland Slim and Albert Ammons, as well as the unsung heroes of the keyboards. The 3CD set complements our recent blues guitar and harmonica bestsellers, Screaming And Crying and Just Wailing, which have enjoyed significant success crossing over to the rock market The roots of piano blues can probably be traced back to the late 19th Century, as a crude offshoot of ragtime. Midnight Steppers picks up the story in the 30s, by which time the elements of boogie woogie were in place. The 30s and 40s saw a boom in the popularity of boogie woogie (Disc 2), spearhead by the trio of Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis. The phenomenon crossed over to the big bands and popular singers, before ultimately falling victim to this very commercialisation, but not before great sides had been cut by the likes of Jimmy Yancey, Montana Taylor and Cripple Clarence Lofton. Simultaneously the post-Depression years saw a proliferation of urban blues, with piano blues very much to the fore, and much of it emerging on Victor s Bluebird label, thanks to producer Lester Melrose cornering the Chicago blues market. Exponents of what was retrospectively dubbed Bluebird Beat (Disc 1) include Memphis Slim, Roosevelt Sykes, Big Maceo, Walter Davis, Champion Jack Dupree and Little Brother Montgomery. Some of the players continued to record post-WWII (Disc 3), but had to compete with emerging names like Eddie Boyd, who adopted a more upbeat, raucous sound. Sunnyland Slim and Otis Spann recorded in their own right, but were often employed in (and better known for) a supporting role in combos, led by the likes of Robert Lockwood Jr and Muddy Waters. Henry Gray can be heard in this role on tracks by Howlin Wolf and Morris Pejoe. The combos came to be dominated by other instruments, especially the electric guitar, but great piano blues could still be heard, courtesy of Amos Milburn, Piano Red and Little Willie Littlefield. Part of the beauty of this selection is the inclusion of lesser-known names like Big Chief Ellis, Thunder Smith, Dr Hepcat, Lonnie Lyons and Leroy Ervin. Compiler Mike Rowe founded the pioneering 60s label Post-War Blues, edited Blues Unlimited magazine, and is author of Chicago Breakdown (reissued as Chicago Blues: The City & The Music).
