Chicago-based brothers
Leonard & Phil Chess financed
Aristocrat Records in the late '40s, refocusing it on jazz and blues
recordings, and by the time they changed the name to
Chess Records in
1950, the label had a classic blues roster that included the likes of
Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Rufus Thomas, Bobby Bland, and Howlin’
Wolf, to name just a few. And things grew, with classic artists like
Etta James, Bo Diddley, Solomon Burke, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, and a
whole host of others releasing sides through Chess or one its
sub-imprints, Checker and Cadet. And the story kept going for a couple
of decades, until Chess became one of the most important labels in the
history of pop music in the 20th century. It’s all presented here in
this four-disc, 20-year retrospective of the label and its affiliates.
It starts with with Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats' iconic “Rocket
88” and travels through to Chuck Berry's novelty hit “My Ding-a-Ling,”
with a whole lot of historic stops in between the two. It makes for a
wonderful and essential journey.
Charly Records is a British record label which specialises in reissued material. This is fantastic collection of 50 reissued blues albums.
