The centerpiece of these next two entries is Chess Records talent scout, session bassist (including for Chuck Berry), and the most-covered blues songwriter of all time (and it's not even close): Willie Dixon. Originally, I was only going to do one entry on Dixon's first solo album and just lump in the recordings he made with blues groups decades before. However, Big Three Trio, Dixon's third group, left such a considerable backlog of singles and such a palpable influence on the Chicago scene and the development of Rock and Roll that I felt obliged to make an emergency stop in order to highlight this three-piece blues band.
Although a retrospective importance has been placed upon the role of Willie Dixon because of his imminence in the growth of the recording industry and rock and roll, his bass playing and bass vocals would be nothing without the Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston's piano and Ollie Crawford's guitar. Together, they'd found their sound on the interplay of their instruments and the three-part harmonies of their voices. They were a major presence in the Chicago blues scene and would join it as it went electric by the late forties. All of the members were established in the community and had been jumping between blues groups starting before World War II in The Five Breezes, Four Jumps of Jive, and The Rhythm Rascals Trio.
The band formed in 1946 and broke up by 1952 with the departure of Caston from lineup. Their singles have since been gathered in a couple of incomplete compilations including the Willie Dixon-centric The Big Three Trio from 1990 that compiles a majority of the Trio's body of work up until their dissolution.
Here is the complete discography for Big Three Trio:
Sweet Louise (1940 single with The Five Breezes)
Laundry Man (1941 single with The Five Breezes)
My Buddy Blues (1941 single with The Five Breezes)
What's the Matter With Love? (1941 single with The Five Breezes)
Satchelmouth Baby (1946 single with Four Jumps of Jive)
Cigarettes, Whiskey & Wild Wild Women (1947 single)
Signifying Monkey (1947 single)
Lonely Roamin' (1947 single)
Baby, I Can Go Without You (1947 single)
No More Sweet Potatoes (1947 single)
You Sure Look Good to Me (1947 single)
Big Three Boogie (1947 single)
Reno Blues (1947 single)
Since My Baby's Been Gone (1947 single)
Hard Notch Boogie Beat (1949 single)
Big Three Stomp (1949 single)
No One to Love Me (1949 single)
Don't Let That Music Die (1949 single)
Goodbye Mr. Blues (1949 single)
Why Do You Do Me Like You Do (1949 single)
Blip Blip (1949 single)
Lonesome (1951 single)
It's All Over Now (1951 single)
Blue Because of you (1952 single)
You Don't Love Me No More (1952 single)
Come Here Baby (1953 single)
I Feel Like Steppin' Out (compilation album of songs up to 1952)
The Big Three Trio
"Big Three Boogie" by Big Three Trio
"My Love Will Never Die" by Big Three Trio
"My Buddy Blues" by The Five Breezes
Pass the Headphones!!
No comments:
Post a Comment