In its making, the The Vintage Years was not a rush job. There are no less than 27 chart recordings, including four #1 R&B hits, 17 Top 10 R&B hits, and four Top 100 hits. For the record, the 106 tracks include four previously unissued cuts and 25 stereo recordings with almost one-third of the content new to Ace CD. B.'s career, with the accent on listening pleasure. The songs selected form a musical collage of the most creative stage of B. establishes his blues mastery as his association with Modern Records draws to an end. to record in a variety of styles from R&B, rock'n'roll, pop and doo wop to jazz and gospel.ĬD4: King Of The Blues is where B. By this time, the blues market had started to dip, leading B.

was touring constantly, and Maxwell Davis became the music director. finding his own style.ĬD3: Take A Swing With Me covers the mid-late 1950s when B. that he still plays to this day.ĬD2: Memphis Blues'n'Boogie is a look at the rare recordings of the early 1950s engineered by Sam Phillips in Memphis, followed by those directed by Bill Harvey in Houston. contains many of the big hits readily associated with B. The individual CDs here can be summarised as follows:ĬD1: The Great B. At the end of it all, my admiration for this body of B. Most notably I was struck by the purity of his vocals (which have tended to be overshadowed by his peerless guitar work), by his knowledge and adaptation of seemingly the entire history of black recorded music, by his growing musical sophistication, and by those superb Maxwell Davis arrangements that have truly matured with age. B.'s music even though I had been listening to him forever. Looking back as the leader of this project, I became drawn more and more to B. Here, his budding genius is revealed for all to see. is a true international icon, unquestionably the founding father of the blues and rock guitar styles. King's landmark recordings for the Modern Records group on the RPM, Crown and Kent labels in the 1950s and 1960s. (John Broven)Īce Records is extremely honoured to be able to present THE VINTAGE YEARS, a momentous 4-CD box set of B. We proudly present 106 tracks from that extraordinary body of work. His landmark recordings of the 1950s and 1960s for RPM, Kent and Crown were very influential at the time, and still are. King is an international icon, the founding father of the blues and rock guitar styles.

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