JSP is a reissue label sent by angels to alleviate suffering and dispel ignorance in the world. We know this because
JSP has done a fantastic job of compiling remastered
blues,
jazz,
gospel,
country,
Cajun, and
western swing recordings in reasonably priced four-CD sets packed with loads of discographical information and insightful liner notes. Released in 2007,
JSP's intensive, 100-track tribute to
Chicago blues harmonica legend
John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson (1914-1948) zeroes in on his earliest recorded works, dating from the years 1937-1939. Rather than confining the scope of the retrospective exclusively to records issue under his name,
JSP has included 41 titles by musicians with whom he hung out, gigged, and recorded. These are guitarists
Big Joe Williams,
"Jackson" Joe Williams,
Robert Lee "Rambling Bob" McCoy,
Henry Townsend, and
Elijah Jones, as well as
blues mandolin man
Yank Rachell and
boogie-woogie pianist
Speckled Red. Additional support was provided by second chair mandolinist
Will Hatcher and the great
Big Bill Broonzy. This is where Chicago's modern
blues harmonica tradition really began. All of the genre's essential components are firmly in place; the songs tell us everything that needed to be said about living, loving, working, scuffling, and trying to survive in a city whose working class population was largely committed to the meat packing industry during the years immediately preceding the Second World War. This was
Sonny Boy Williamson I, not to be confused with
Sonny Boy Williamson II, an entirely different individual who lived long enough to make records with British rockers during the '60s.
Williamson I was beaten to death on the way home from a gig on the first of June 1948. Posthumously honored and widely imitated, his potent musical legacy is finally getting the sort of careful attention that it has always deserved. ~ arwulf arwulf
