Various artists Chicago/The Blues/Today! (Vanguard...

October 10, 1999|By Steve Knopper.

Various artists

Chicago/The Blues/Today! (Vanguard)

In a photo with this CD reissue, Jimi Hendrix appears with volume three under his arm, which pretty much sums up this 1966 collection's influence. Before it, the rich, deep Chicago blues scene was largely unknown to white record buyers; afterward, bluesmen began receiving record deals and some of the international admiration they'd long deserved. Among the many highlights: Johnny Shines injecting his Mississippi Delta howl into the electric "Dynaflow Blues"; guitarist Johnny Young unleashing a potent mandolin; Otis Rush doing "I Can't Quit You Baby" like he means it; and visionary harpists Junior Wells, Big Walter Horton, "Memphis" Charlie Musselwhite and Jimmy Cotton practically staging a head-cutting contest. After 23 years of endless imitators, the familiar 12-bar style doesn't carry quite the revolutionary bite that originally inspired Hendrix and so many others. But it's still hungry, lean and strong.