This concert in Paris (part of
Norman Granz's latter-day Jazz at the Philharmonic master holdings) emanates from a better-than-decent-quality board tape complete with maddening fader moves keying up the wrong instrument in spots --most notably two choruses of
Waters' rhythm guitar unintentionally drowning out everyone, plodding along while
Louis Meyers solos on
"Blow Wind Blow" -- and missing the first part of several guitar solos and intros by
Muddy. But even with every song in the same maddening key of G natural, this 1972 concert nonetheless catches
Muddy in good '70s form, presiding over the proceedings in typical dignified bearing. With an all-star lineup of
Pinetop Perkins on piano,
Mojo Buford on harmonica and
Calvin Jones on bass and
Willie Smith on drums (along with the aforementioned
Myers substituting for
Sammy Lawhorn on guitar), the music presented here is rock-solid, even if the key never varies.
Things catch fire early on, with the band laying back when
Muddy does (a fairly desultory reading of "Hoochie Coochie Man" that never really gets going) and getting hotter when he gets the itch, as he does on "County Jail," "Honey Bee," and "Lovin' Man," all boasting stinging slide solos. An interesting bonus are full-band treatments of "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and
Robert Johnson's "Walking Blues." There's nothing on here that's going to make you trade in your copy of
Muddy Waters at Newport, but as a document of latter-day
Waters (especially in light of all the samey, uninspired live discs from this period that have come out), this is some pretty great stuff. ~ Cub Koda
![I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! [LP]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0886979782211_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! [LP]")
