Vanguard Releases Chicago Blues CD Series

Otis Spann, Johnny Shines and Johnny Young never enjoyed the recognition that fellow bluesmen Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf or John Lee Hooker have among rock fans.

But those and other bluesmen--many of whom played in Muddy’s bands over the years--contributed greatly to the vitality of the Chicago blues scene and they teamed up in 1965 for a three-volume series of albums for Vanguard Records that showcased that spirit quite marvelously.

The series--”Chicago/The Blues/Today!” and produced by author-musicologist Samuel Charters--has just been released on CD by Vanguard, now part of the Welk Record Group family. These recordings still offer a rewarding sample of the music of the era. Each volume is sold separately as part of Vanguard’s budget “Mid-line” series.

There is an intimacy and sense of spontaneity to the music that suggests it was recorded in the wee hours in a Chicago club. The absence of crowd noise makes it more likely that they took place in a studio.

Volume 1 features five selections each by groups led by Junior Wells, J.B. Hutto and Spann, the extraordinary blues pianist. Volume 2 contains five numbers each from groups fronted by James Cotton (then known as “Jimmy”) and Otis Rush plus four tunes featuring Homesick James Williamson. Volume 3 consists of six numbers by Young’s South Side Blues Band, four by the Johnny Shines band and three by Big Walter Horton’s Blues Harp Band with Charlie Musselwhite.

ON THE WAY: That David Bowie box set “Sound + Vision” coming from Rykodisc--and containing unreleased material as well as hits and selected album tracks--now has a scheduled release date: Sept. 15.

Pete Howard’s Santa Monica-based ICE newsletter, now in its second year as the nation’s most helpful overview of CD software, reports that Geffen Records is releasing in September a John Hiatt compilation, drawn from the singer-songwriter’s Geffen albums and MCA albums.

PolyGram, meanwhile, is putting together a 20th anniversary edition of Derek & the Dominoes’ “Layla” for the fall of 1990, complete with a remix of the original album as well as some additional jams.

BUDGET REVIEW: The O’Jays’ “Collector’s Items” (Philadelphia International)--In such key tracks as “Back Stabbers” (1972) and “For the Love of Money” (1974) the R&B; vocal group matched the powerful combination of social observation and imaginative arrangements that the Temptations achieved in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. But the O’Jays sometimes resorted to mushy sermonizing (“Family Reunion” and “Survival”) and unduely lush arrangements. This budget package (a double album on a single, 74-minute disc) contains the highs and the lows.