Johnny Winter - ...and on guitar (1977)

John Dawson Winter III was born in Beaumont, Texas, on February 23, 1944, two years before his brother Edgar made an apperance in 1946. They were encouraged in their musical pursuits by their father John Dawson Winter Jnr, who was also a musician who played saxophone and guitar and sang at churches and weddings, and they appeared on a local children's show with Johnny playing ukulele when he was 10 years old. His recording career began at the age of 15, when his band Johnny and the Jammers released 'School Day Blues' on a Houston record label, and after recording a single with Roy Head And The Traits, he released his first album 'The Progressive Blues Experiment' in 1968. His big break came at the end of that year, when Mike Bloomfield, whom he met and jammed with in Chicago, invited him to sing and play a song during a Bloomfield and Al Kooper concert at the Fillmore East in New York City. Representatives of Columbia Records were at the concert, and after Winter played and sang B.B. King's 'It's My Own Fault' to loud applause, they snapped him up with reportedly the largest advance in the history of the recording industry at that time — $600,000. Winter's first Columbia album 'Johnny Winter' was recorded and released in 1969, using the same backing musicians who played on 'The Progressive Blues Experiment', plus blues legend Willie Dixon on upright bass and Big Walter Horton on harmonica. With brother Edgar added as a full member of the group, Winter recorded his third album 'Second Winter' in Nashville in 1969, with the two-disc album having just three sides of music, with the fourth side being blank. In 1970 the original blues trio disbanded, after Edgar left to record a solo album 'Entrance', and to form Edgar Winter's White Trash, an R&B/jazz-rock group, with Johnny playing guitar on both 'Entrance', and White Trash's debut album. He then formed a new band with the remnants of The McCoys who had just split, nabbing guitarist Rick Derringer, bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, and Derringer's brother Randy Z on drums, with the original name of Johnny Winter And The McCoys being shortened to Johnny Winter And. 

Winter's momentum was throttled when he sank into heroin addiction during the Johnny Winter And days, but after seeking treatment for and recovering from the addiction, he returned to the music scene with the release of the prophetically titled 'Still Alive and Well', a basic blend of blues and hard rock, whose title track was written by Rick Derringer. In live performances, Winter often told the story about how, as a child, he dreamed of playing with the blues guitarist Muddy Waters, and in 1974 he got his chance, when renowned blues artists and their younger brethren came together to honor Waters with a concert featuring many blues classics, and which was the start of an admired TV series 'Soundstage', with 'Blues Summit In Chicago' being the first episode. In 1977 he took Waters into the studio to record 'Hard Again' for Blue Sky Records, a label set up by Winter's manager and distributed by Columbia, and it was this record that kick-started the resurgence of Waters' career, with this and their subsequent two albums together producing three Grammy Awards. Throughout his career Winter has helped out friends and relatives on their records, contributing to solo albums by Rick Derringer and former White Trash singer Jerry LaCroix, as well as playing with James Cotton in 1970, who returned the favour by contributing harmonica to the 'Hard Again' sessions seven years later.

 

Track listing

01 She Moves Me (from 'Taking Care Of Business' by James Cotton Blues Band 1970)
02 Tobacco Road (from 'Entrance' by Edgar Winter 1970)
03 I've Got News For You (from 'Edgar Winter's White Trash' by Edgar Winter's White Trash 1971)
04 Funny Boy (from 'The Second Coming' by Jerry LaCroix 1974)
05 Skyscraper Blues (from 'Spring Fever' by Rick Derringer 1975)
06 King Tut Strut (from 'Temple Of Birth' by Jeremy Steig 1975)
07 Reggae Rock & Roll (from 'Hit It Again' by Tornader 1977)
08 Mannish Boy (from 'Hard Again' by Muddy Waters 1977)

Tommy Bolin - ...and on guitar (1975)

Thomas Richard Bolin was born in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1951, and began playing with The Miserlous as a teenager, before he was asked to join Denny and The Triumphs in 1964, at the young age of thirteen. They played a blend of rock and roll, R&B and the pop hits of the moment, and after leaving them they were followed by American Standard when he moved to Boulder, Colorado in his late teens, and then by Ethereal Zephyr. This last group was named after a train that ran between Denver and Chicago, and when record companies became interested the name was shortened to Zephyr. This band included Bolin on lead guitar, David Givens on bass, and Givens' wife Candy Givens on vocals, attempting to emulate Janis Joplin, and not always successfully. Their second album 'Going Back to Colorado' featured a new drummer, Bobby Berge, who would pop up from time to time in musician credits in Bolin's later projects. In 1972, now aged 20, Bolin formed the fusion jazz-rock-blues band Energy, but they were unable to secure a record contract, and so never released an album during Bolin's lifetime, although recordings have been released posthumously. Stuck between the musical direction he wanted to pursue and a nearly-empty bank account, 1973 found Bolin replacing Domenic Troiano, who had in turn replaced Joe Walsh, in the James Gang. He recorded two albums with them, 'Bang' in 1973 and 'Miami' in 1974, and had a hand in writing nearly all the songs on both records.
 In between the two James Gang albums, Bolin played on Billy Cobham's 1973 solo album 'Spectrum', which included Bolin on guitar, Cobham on drums, Leland Sklar on bass and Jan Hammer on keyboards and synthesizers. After the 'Miami' tour, Bolin left the James Gang and filled his time doing session work for various rock and jazz bands, and he also toured with Carmine Appice and The Good Rats. Later in 1975, he signed with Nemperor Records for a solo album, and it was during the recording of 'Teaser' that he was contacted by Deep Purple. After Ritchie Blackmore left the band, the other members had a meeting and discussed whether to disband or try to find a replacement. They chose the latter option, and Bolin was suggested by David Coverdale, who had been listening to his work on Billy Cobham's 'Spectrum' album. He was invited over for a jam session, and four hours later the job was his. 'Come Taste the Band' was released in October 1975, and contained a number of Bolin co-writes, but the band broke up a year later, leaving him free to put together the Tommy Bolin Band. After releasing just one album, 'Private Eyes' in 1976, Bolin died on 3rd December 1976 from an overdose of heroin, cocaine and alcohol. As you will hear from this album, he was a talented guitarist in a number of styles, from hard rock with Moxy and Deep Purple, to the most intricate jazz-rock fusion with Billy Cobham and Alphonse Mouzon, and he is a great loss to the world of music.   

Track listing

01 Sun's A-Risin' (from 'Zephyr' by Zephyr 1969)
02 Destiny (demo recording with Jeremy Steig 1971)
03 Naked Edge (from unreleased album by Energy 1972)
04 From Another Time (from 'Bang' by The James Gang 1973)
05 Quadrant 4 (from 'Spectrum' by Billy Cobham 1973)
06 Carbon Dioxide (from 'Mind Transplant' by Alphonse Mouzon 1975)
07 Fantasy (from 'Moxy' by Moxy' 1975)
08 Bolin/Paice Jam (from 'Come Taste The Band' sessions by Deep Purple 1975)