B. B. Kingfreddie Kingmuddy Waters

B. B. King/ Freddie King/ Muddy Waters

B.B. King, Lucille Talks Back (ABC); Freddie King, Larger Than Life (SRO/Atlantic); Muddy Waters, The Woodstock Album (Chess/GRT)

The past ten years have seen scores of pale young British guitarists and singers rake in millions of dollars from record sales and personal appearances, performing their souped-up versions of a musical form created and perfected by a scattered group of relatively obscure black American musicians based in Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, Houston and Los Angeles.

These hard-working, hard-travelling, hard-living blues masters had been born and raised in the rural south and migrated to the black ghettos of the industrial centers as part of the general movement of black people into the nation's cities during and after World War II. Amplifying their guitars, voices and harmonicas in order to be heard in the urban bars and nightclubs which offered them the chance to make a living playing music, and adding the standard jazz rhythm section of piano, bass and drums to be able to move with the energy of the cities, musicians such as Elmore James, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Guitar Slim and Freddie King-among many others too numerous to mention here-began in the early 1950's to develop the blues-band music so beloved by, and so profitable for, a whole generation of white British and American kids in the sixties and seventies.

Now, fifteen and twenty and twenty-five years later, these original rhythm& blues creators who are still alive are still struggling to achieve the level of recognition (and remuneration) which seems to be the natural right of a young white kid with a guitar and a good manager. What's more, these Original Masters continue to create moving urban blues in the classic tradition yet as up-to-date as anything you can hear. The emotional power of the form has been informed by 1975 instrumental and recording technology and the continually expanding intelligence and perceptiveness of the players moving through the world, so that the music not only sounds as good as it did in the 50's but also feels better than most of everything else coming out today.

The recent releases by B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Freddie King,enumerated at the beginning of this review, provide easily-accessible evidence in support of that claim. Each of the three also brings the artist closer to his natural working form, with B.B. going so far as to produce his own set with his own road band- a musically rewarding strategy which has long been out of favor with major-label blues producers.

Muddy Waters is featured with part of his band (pianist Pinetop Perkins and rhythm guitarist Bob Margolin) plus Woodstockian guest stars Paul Butterfield, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, and Howard Johnson on a cooking set of Muddy's originals and nightclub favorites ("Caledonia," "Let the Good Times Roll," "Kansas City") produced by veteran r&b session organizer Henry Glover. The session has a loose, free feeling all the way through, with Muddy singing in ace form and Paul Butterfield contributing some of his typically beautiful harp work. It's certainly one of the Master's more satisfying recordings in recent years, not spectacular in any way but perfectly solid and swinging and soulful-a good place to start listening to Muddy Waters if you haven't dug him up close before.

Freddie King's Larger Than Life is an interesting mixture of live tracks (recorded at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas with an augmented hand including David "Fathead" Newman and Jerry Jumonville on saxophones), three "commercial" numbers produced by England's Mike Vernon ("Boogie Bump," "It Is Better To Have," and a very hip "It's Your Move"), and the standard "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" recorded with Freddie's regular working group. Far superior to Freddie's sessions for Leon Russell at Shelter Records in recent years, Larger Than Life comes a few steps closer to capturing the power and drive of this monstrous performer. Maybe by his next album they'll let him go on record like he does on stage, and then we'll have a real Freddie King masterpiece, but this one will certainly do until then.

B.B. King's Lucille Talks Back is the B.B. King record one has been waiting tor ever since he's been with ABC- or at least since Live at the Regal, his early ABC masterwork. Focusing on his mellower side, producer B.B. lets guitarist/vocalist B.B. have his laid-back way, and the music just flows and flows. The guitar is ably assisted by a well-pumped wah-wah pedal, the tunes are right in there (including a beautiful version of the Lowell Fulson classic, "Reconsider Baby"), the band is gorgeous as usual, and even the cover looks like it belongs on a supremely tasteful record like this one.

All in all, three delightful doses of the sure-enough blues, well-packaged, well-produced, and well-designed to whet your taste for more of the same. Music fans of all stripes and persuasions are well advised to check these sides out-right away! -John Sinclair