Easy Listening Blues

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing including bonus material. This collector's release includes B.B. King's all-instrumental 1962 LP Easy Listening Blues, which marks King's tenth budget-priced album. The album title is a bit misleading, considering that King, who might be smooth and urbane in some respects, rarely recorded music that could be categorized as "easy listening." Although this material is lesser known than the bulk of King's popular repertoire, it is in no way inferior. The blues giant imbues each number with a spectrum of moods, ranging from a subdued quality ("Blues for Me" and "Walkin'") to highly charged intensity ("Rambler" and "Shoutin' the Blues"). King also plays here with his usual authority, making occasional nods toward the rock & roll twist craze on cuts like "Night Long" and "Hully Gully." The tunes were recorded in Los Angeles, in 1962, as part of the stockpiling process before B.B. King switched to the ABC-Paramount label. He is backed on the album by Lloyd Glenn on piano, Maxwell Davis on organ, Ralph Hamilton on bass, and Jesse Sailes on drums (no horns were booked for the dates). Formal arrangements were kept to a minimum, with relaxed and elegant readings of "Confessin'," "Slow Walk" (re-titled "Slow Burn" when it reappeared on a Kent single some years later), and "Walkin'." "Don't Touch" recalls past glories by utilizing the principal riff from King's Latin-tinged 1953 smash "Woke Up This Morning" as it's starting point. "Shoutin' the Blues" takes a similar tack, quoting from the broom-dusting beginning of another 1953 King classic, "Please Love Me," before breaking into a salty shuffle. Because there have been so few purely instrumental releases by King, this album should be considered an essential part of his discography. In addition to the original masterpiece, this collector's LP includes two bonus tracks, "Talkin' the Blues," and the catchy R&B tune "3 O'Clock Stomp," both of which are instrumentals that were cut during the same period.