Eddie Taylor In Session - Diary of a Chicago Bluesman 1953-1957

The title here is pretty self-explanatory - Eddie Taylor was a session man who played with some great artists on some of the coolest blues from the 50's. Stars like John Lee Hooker, Sunnyland Slim and especially Jimmy Reed, an old friend from down south whose sound Taylor helped to create, appear here, along with several others and some solo sides from Eddie.

This comp rolls out the numbers in chronological order based on the recording date, starting with a session by Reed's friend John Brim, who is now known for recording the original version of "Ice Cream Man", which later showed up on the first Van Halen record! Lots more amazing Chicago blues follows, with more cuts from Brim, several hits from Reed, a few from pianist Sunnyland Slim (nice interaction between guitar, piano and harp with Taylor providing some jazzy licks), some great, deep Delta blues from Floyd Jones [funny that for some of these sessions the personnel is the same and they just move the vocal mic], piano'n'harp Chicago blues from Little Willie Foster, some of John Lee Hooker's best and solid sides from Eddie himself (totally diggin' the raucous instrumental "ET Blues" - Taylor is ferocious here!).

Yes, I have a lot (though certainly not all) of these songs from the original artists, but this assembly of Taylor's work shows what a talent he was and, of course, having his solo work is worth the price alone. Excellent set!