Saga Blues has been assembling fine blues and jump jazz collections and selling them at attractive prices since the early 2000s, and this early Muddy Waters set is no exception. Containing 24 tracks recorded between 1947 and 1953, it showcases McKinley Morganfield four years after his emigration north from Mississippi to Chicago and his earliest recordings for Aristocrat and Chess. The first half of the set details in full the early electric folk-blues he recorded either solo or with session players in the Chess studios such as Sunnyland Slim. The last half contains a dozen selections centering around the Chess brothers' hand-picked sidemen and then, later, Muddy's terrific first blues band that he assembled to pack a punch in clubs and at festivals as his reputation spread far and wide. That band included Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elga Edmunds (aka Elgin Evans) on drums, Otis Spann on piano, and Waters on vocals and second guitar. The highlights here include "Gypsy Woman," "I Can't Be Satisfied," "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "Rollin' Stone," and "Mad Love." The sound quality is terrific and so is the price point.
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