Ruth Brown (1957). Ruth Brown at her stinging, assertive, bawdy best, doing the sizzling, innuendo-laden R&B that helped make Atlantic the nation's prime independent during the early days of rock & roll. There's also plenty of equally fiery, hot musical accompaniment, with then-husband Willis Jackson sometimes featured on tenor sax.
Miss Rhythm (1959). Ruth Brown's second LP is a minor masterpiece, built around a handful of hit singles and B-sides from the prior year ("Book of Lies," "Just Too Much," "When I Get You Baby," "This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'," "Why Me") and containing a pair of current single sides, "Jack O' Diamonds" and "I Can't Hear a Word You Say." Brown is amazing in her range, from the upbeat, romantic "I Hope We Meet (On the Road Someday)" to the jaunty shouter "Why Me" - her timbre ranges from sweetly romantic to hard and raspy, and listening to the transformations…

After too many years during which he was missing and presumed forever lost in action, Brown returned to prominence with this very credible album, cut with backing by guitarist Tinsley Ellis and the Heartfixers and originally issued on the tiny Landslide logo. He reprises his salacious blues "Lemon Squeezin' Daddy" and rolls his R's like the good old days on dusties by Little Walter, the Midnighters, Howlin' Wolf, and even Bob Dylan and the Allmans.

Feel Like Blowing My Horn is a spectacularly vibrant, historically monumental, and masterfully synchronized classic Chicago blues studio masterpiece led by the legendary American barrelhouse piano pioneer and vocal titan Roosevelt "The Honeydripper" Sykes, reissued with bonus material in 1997 by Bob Koester's premier independent blues preservation imprint Delmark Records. Spanning over 50 minutes of raw, infectious instrumental and vocal interactions across 14 tracks, this high-fidelity restoration serves as an absolute peak monument in 1973 urban blues archaeology. Originally recorded in August 1970, the session captures Sykes returning to a robust, horn-augmented ensemble format, executing a fierce, liberating sonic blueprint that seamlessly marries his booming, boogie-woogie piano architecture with sophisticated jump blues and traditional South Side ensemble dynamics.

This Collectables reissue combines two post-R&B-era Big Joe Turner Atlantic sides, Big Joe Is Here and Joe Turner Rides Again, originally released in 1959 and 1960, respectively. The focus here is on the jazzy blues side of Turner's career, closer to Kansas City jazz and traditional pop than his pioneering R&B hits. Alongside a few tracks penned by Turner, he tackles several standards, including "Time After Time," "Pennies From Heaven," "Until the Real Thing Comes Along," and "I Get the Blues When It Rains."

The Birth Of Northern Soul! is an absolutely electrifying, high-octane, and historically monumental archival compilation documenting the raw, mid-century roots of the UK’s most legendary dancefloor subculture, released in 2013 by the specialist reissue label Outta Soul Records. Spanning over 65 minutes across 27 blistering, hyper-kinetic tracks, this high-fidelity document captures the evolutionary flashpoint of the early 1960s, where driving American rhythm & blues, gritty early soul, and syncopated jump blues collided to form the unstoppable blueprint of the Northern Soul movement. Packed with incredibly rare, dance-heavy obscurities and underground club classics, the compilation features an unmatched roster of pioneering vocal powerhouses and exceptional studio musicians. Listeners are treated to soaring, stomping performances by legends and cult icons alike, including H.B. Barnum, Little Willie John, Joe Tex, Ruth Brown, Eddie Bo, and Willie Cobbs. The tracklist reads like a holy grail playlist for vintage dancefloors, highlighted by the explosive momentum of Barnum's It Hurts Too Much To Cry, Johnny Love's frantic Chills And Fever, the driving R&B grooves of Jo Ann Henderson's Baby Please Don't Go, and Carl Lester & The Show Stoppers' anthemic When You See Me Hurt. Exceptionally preserved in pristine lossless audio quality with full retail booklet scans, this definitive historical archive stands as an absolute mandatory cornerstone and a prized collector's treasure for global purists of early soul music evolution, rare R&B history, and Mod/Northern Soul dance culture.

Captured live during a blazing European tour in 1953 and released by Natasha Imports in 1992, Oh, Rock! Live is an extraordinarily high-octane, historic, and brilliantly sweat-soaked testament to the showstopping genius of master vibraphonist and bandleader Lionel Hampton. Renowned for injecting a fierce, volcanic energy into the swing era, Hampton's mid-fifties big band was a legendary incubator of talent and a vital bridge between classic big-band swing and the raucous emergence of rhythm & blues and rock & roll. This pristine historical broadcast captures the ensemble firing at absolute maximum velocity. Hampton's percussive, dazzlingly fast mallet work commands the stage, beautifully balanced by blistering horn arrangements, screaming tenor saxophone solos, and an unstoppable rhythm engine. Moving effortlessly from the roaring momentum of the opening track and the deeply swinging, celebratory title track to gorgeous, lushly reimagined readings of timeless standards like Summertime and Stardust, this live set remains an essential, electrifying document of pure, unadulterated jazz showmanship.

Illinois Jacquet's Jumpin' Jacquet, released in 2002 by Proper Records as part of their acclaimed retrospective storytelling series, is an exhilarating, comprehensive document capturing the foundational years of a true tenor saxophone titan. Spanning his historic mid-to-late 1940s small-group recordings across the Apollo, Savoy, and Aladdin labels, this collection perfectly encapsulates the missing link between big band swing, modern bebop, and the fiery roots of rhythm & blues. Jacquet, famed for inventing the "screech and honk" style that paved the way for rock & roll instrumentalists, blows with a muscular tone and an astonishing sense of rhythm. Backed by a historic roll call of jazz legends—including his brother Russell Jacquet on trumpet, piano master Bill Doggett, bass pioneer Charles Mingus, and drummer Johnny Otis—the legendary saxophonist attacks classic speed trials like the title track, Savoy Blip, and Illinois Stomp, while showing incredible emotional depth on gorgeous ballads like I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You. Beautifully compiled and transferred, this collection remains an essential, swinging celebration of acoustic jazz at its most kinetic and influential.

Big Joe Turner, too heavy to stand for long, sat impassively in a chair in front of the band and filled the room with his presence, his magisterial baritone, and the passion of the blues. The band might have been Count Basie’s in the ballroom of a great hotel or a pickup group in a crummy bar. It didn’t matter; Big Joe gave any evening full voice and the accumulated wisdom of a life at the center of the blues. In this 1975 recording, Turner applies his incomparable blues story-telling skills to five classics and his new “Martin Luther King Southside.” The band includes one of Turner’s favorite sidekicks, guitarist Pee Wee Crayton. And there are solos by a saxophone giant, Sonny Stitt.

Singer/Guitarist Brownie McGhee and his life-long musical partner, blind harp-man, Sonny Terry are best known as champions of the "Piedmont"-style blues pioneered by artists such as Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller. In the 1960s, they became icons of the folk-blues revival. The recording presented here however showcase a different chapter of the story. This is a collection of raw and rocking jump blues cut between 1947 and 1955 for juke boxes in black beer joints and dancehalls by the New Jersey-based Savoy Record company. Essential blues recordings from two of the genres' most revered artists.

Good Rocking Tonight is a dynamic collection showcasing the electrifying energy and charismatic vocal style of Wynonie Harris, one of the most influential figures in the evolution of rhythm and blues and early rock 'n' roll. Released in 1999 by Altaya, this compilation gathers many of Harris’ most celebrated recordings from the late 1940s and early 1950s, a period during which his powerful voice and outrageous stage persona helped shape the future sound of popular music. Blending jump blues, boogie-woogie rhythms, and raw rhythm & blues intensity, the album captures the rebellious spirit and infectious excitement that would later inspire generations of rock musicians. Harris delivers every performance with swagger, humor, and emotional force, while the energetic horn sections and swinging arrangements create an irresistible atmosphere throughout the record. Songs such as the legendary title track demonstrate why Wynonie Harris became a crucial bridge between blues traditions and the birth of rock music. This collection stands as an essential document of classic post-war American rhythm and blues at its most vibrant and entertaining.

Modern day Chicago blues warriors present 14 original songs inspired by the electrifying blues sounds of 1940s through 1960s, and performed with taste, sly humor and pure joy. From locomotive shuffles to deep, slow blues, Moss shines with a Willie Dixon-like ability to write and sing the blues’ honest truth. “An incendiary brew…fiery fretwork and wailing harmonica…soulful, playful and exuberant.”