Re: Charly/Chess (was Little Walter)

[GREENWAY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

As it happens, the latest issue of the American Harmonica Newsletter
I got in the mail today has an article about the Chess/Charly issue.
According to it, MCA bought exclusive rights to the Chess masters in
1985 and then found out that several other companies, including Charly,
an English label, were also reissuing Chess recordings. MCA found out that
these companies all claimed they bought nonexclusive licensing to Chess
material from Marshall Sehorn (a well-known New Orleans record producer).
MCA has fought these companies aggressively in the courts and has won
every time. They won a suit against Sehorn last April, and in September
they won a US court case against Charly. So I guess if you're interested
in picking up the Charly Little Walter CD set you'd better do it soon.

I guess some might question the ethical basis of such a purchase, but
as a harp player who goes back to the days when little of the Chess
stuff was readily available, my instincts are usually to grab stuff
like this when I run across it. I remember combing the record stores
in New York City when I was in college in the late sixties, and it was
a rare day when you could find a decent blues record. I remember finding
a copy of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Down and Out Blues" in the Colony
Record Shop in midtown and carrying it out of the store like it was
the Hope Diamond. Things are a lot better now.

I read a post today inferring that Little Walter often ran to 35 takes
on tunes in the studio because he was drunk. Little Walter was no
stranger to all sorts of chemicals, and there may have been sessions
when his weaknesses gave Little Walter problems in the studio, but
there is a lot of evidence that his multiple takes were often based on
a perfectionist attitude. A French label, Roi du Blues, issued three
albums' worth of Little Walter alternate takes and unissued stuff several
years back that show that Walter's alternate takes were just as
compelling as his issued versions. I've heard a bootleg tape that's
been going around that has a half dozen alternate takes of "Off the
Wall," and they're all phenomenal. At least a couple of them are
probably superior to the issued version, except they don't have the
catchy drum break in the middle.

Walter did record some pretty sorry stuff just before he died, but between
1952 and 1960 his records were all brilliantly conceived and showed a ahea
creativity in arranging, much less his harp playing, that no other
Chicago bluesman could match, IMHO. There are so many ideas on those
records, such great use of twin guitars, drums, etc., that it's ridiculous.
Fred Below, Walter's drummer, said that Walter always had the band
rehearsing and that Walter was the man with the ideas. Muddy Waters has
also testified to Walter's creativity in the studio.

Consider also that the source for this info about Walter being wasted in
the studio was Willie Dixon. Dixon's position as the Chess brothers'rs
resident songwriter/arranger/producer led to a lot of the Chess artists
recording his tunes against their will. The fact that many of Dixon's
tunes were these artists' best-selling records didn't keep most of them
from resenting his status or disliking him personally. Little Walter
and Dixon didn't get along, despite the fact that Dixon's "My Babe"
was a big hit for Walter.

--Kim Field