This album is a literal encyclopedia, and apprenticeship for the blues guitarist! There is no date listed as to when this was recorded, but Robben shows who he is this night and one can only guess what an illustrious carrer he has awaiting him. He shows the importance of the minor 6th scale, and his Mike Bloomfield influence shows strongly. Jimmy Witherspoon a man who needs no introduction, and is missed sadly today by many, displays his usual, dazzling charm, and stage presence.

While some purists would like to compartmentalize boogie woogie into a nice, neat box as strictly a form of piano blues, this 18 track collection clearly demonstrates that the form lends itself to a wide variety of treatments. Tracks like "Baby Boogie Woogie" by country picker Curley Weaver, "Boogie Woogie" by Delta Cum. Detroit bluesman Calvin Frazier and jazz visionary Art Tatum's "Tatum Pole Boogie" do much to support that claim, as does the inclusion of tracks from Red Saunders, Adrian Rollini and Harry James. Much of the material reprised here comes from one of the very first Columbia 78 RPM 'albums, ' a collection of boogie woogie classics produced by John Hammond, the man who brought the music into national vogue in the late 30s by simply letting giants like Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner do their thing…

The hard-edged, horn-fueled R&B band Roomful of Blues has been going strong since the 1960s, building its reputation with electrifying live shows and an irresistible blend of blues, swing, rock, and soul. RAISIN' A RUCKUS shows the group has lost none of its punch. New lead singer Dave Howard brings his gruff, growling pipes to the Roomful's brass-tacks charge, and the rhythm section, horns, and lead instruments have never sounded better. With a sound that nods to the jump blues of yesteryear, but with steely contemporary edge, RAISIN' A RUCKUS does precisely what its title suggests. Get your dancing shoes and head for the floor.

This incarnation of Roomful of Blues includes vocalist and harmonica player Sugar Ray Norcia taking the singing spotlight, Matt McCabe now their pianist and Chris Vachon principal guitarist. This CD blends blues and R&B classics with a couple of originals; highlights include a fine reading of Smiley Lewis' "Lillie Mae," a remake of "Hey Now" originally done by Ray Charles and Norcia's fiery vocal and torrid harmonica solo on Little Walter Jacobs' "Up The Line." This is faithful to the classic tradition, but contains enough contemporary qualities to have a fresh and inviting sound.

Despite the title, this actually leans considerably further to the jazz side of Witherspoon's muse than the blues one, with backing by Pepper Adams on baritone sax, Roger Kellaway on piano, Bill Watrous on trombone, Richard Davis on bass, and Mel Lewis on drums. The songs, too, are much more in the jazz/pop vein than the blues/jazz one, heavy on standards by the likes of Johnny Mercer, the Gershwins, and Ellington. Witherspoon's one of the masters of closing-time bluesy jazz, and he doesn't let anyone down on that account on this relaxed (but not sleepy) session.

Roomful of Blues is an American blues and swing revival big band based in Rhode Island. With a recording career that spans over 50 years, they have toured worldwide and recorded many albums. Roomful of Blues, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, "Swagger, sway and swing with energy and precision". Since 1967, the group’s blend of swing, rock and roll, jump blues, boogie-woogie and soul has earned it five Grammy Award nominations and many other accolades, including seven Blues Music Awards (with a victory as Blues Band Of The Year in 2005). Billboard called the band "a tour de force of horn-fried blues…Roomful is so tight and so right." The Down Beat International Critics Poll has twice selected Roomful of Blues as Best Blues Band.

You know it's about time somebody took all the little records that Big Joe Turner managed to make back in the day and brought them out in sequence the way they appear in the Classics Chronological Series. Nobody in the world ever sounded quite like Joe Turner and nobody ever will. There is a magical quality that makes his blues performances feel like rituals full of clarity and grace. Each and every Joe Turner record is as beautiful as a massive stand of tiger lilies growing up through the middle of a brickyard, silent, solid, and dignified under the dew in the first light of dawn. Incredibly, despite his enormous popularity during the Second World War, by 1949 this gifted vocalist was scuffling to get recording gigs. Ten tasty sides were cut in Los Angeles for the MGM label with a solid band fairly bursting with hot horns and driven by Pete Johnson's piano. Joe Turner closed out the year by waxing two sides for Rouge Records in Baton Rouge, LA, and four for the Freedom label in Houston, TX. In April of 1950, Joe Turner made a fistful of records in New Orleans backed by Dave Bartholomew & His Orchestra with Fats Domino at the piano.

Vocalist/cornet player Al Basile's longtime friend Duke Robillard gets front cover billing, as well he should, as co-producer and guitarist on this impressive outing. The album, Basile's fifth, was even recorded at the guitarist's Pawtucket, RI studio called the Mood Room, hence the album's title. Musically, it's a combination of old-school R&B ("Baby Sister," "Be a Woman"), swamp-tinged rock & roll ("I'm in a Mood"), mid-tempo, Chuck Berry styled groovers ("Coffee and Cadillacs"), grinding blues ("Picked to Click") and even a jump blues throwback to the duo's Roomful of Blues days ("She's on the Mainline"). Robillard keeps the sound full yet stripped down – most of the tracks feature a standard three-piece – bass/drums/guitar setup – which leaves space for Basile's sly vocals and snappy lyrics. Basile, a teacher and fiction author who also has a Master's degree in creative writing, not surprisingly crafts lyrics that are far more imaginative and original than most blues artists'. But they never detract from these melodies that glide along sparked by Robillard's tasty licks.

Modern electric blues guitar can be traced directly back to this Texas-born pioneer, who began amplifying his sumptuous lead lines for public consumption circa 1940 and thus initiated a revolution so total that its tremors are still being felt today. Few major postwar blues guitarists come to mind that don't owe T-Bone Walker an unpayable debt of gratitude. B.B. King has long cited him as a primary influence, marveling at Walker's penchant for holding the body of his guitar outward while he played it. Gatemouth Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, Goree Carter, Pete Mayes, and a wealth of other prominent Texas-bred axemen came stylistically right out of Walker during the late '40s and early '50s.