CD: The Dells – On Their Corner – The Best of The Dells

Discogs

Track listing: Oh what a night | Wear it on our face | Love is so simple | I can sing a rainbow-Love is blue | O-O I love you | There is | Nadine | The love we had stays on my mind | Run for cover | Stay in my corner | Give your baby a standing ovation | Always together | Open up my heart | I miss you | Since I found you | My pretending days are over | Learning to love you was easy | I wish it was me you loved

Released on CD on Chess CH-9333 in 1992. Also released on Cassette.

CD: Solomon Burke – The Chess Collection

Amazon | cd1109

Track Listing: Music to make love by Pt 1 | Let me wrap my arms around you | Come rain or come shine | You and your baby blues | All the way | Thanks I needed that | Everlasting love | Midnight and you | Music to make love by Pt 2 | Burning for your love | Night and day | Everybody’s got to cry some time | I’m going back to my roots | Precious flower | The do right song | Life has its’ ups and downs | Over and over | I’ll never stop loving you | I’m leaving on that late late train | Love’s Paradise

Issued on CD on Chess 9834379 in 2006.

Otis “Big Smokey” Smothers

Otis “Big Smokey” Smothers | Discogs | tc766

Blues guitarist, song writer and singer Otis Smothers was born in Lexington, Mississippi on March 21, 1929 and is the brother of Little Smokey Smothers. He relocated to Chicago in 1946 and played in the Howlin’ Wolf band (playing rhythm guitar on tracks such as “The Natchez Burning”) and with Ike Turner, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Little Walter and others. Many of his songs were written for Muddy Waters. He continued to record into the 1980s, but suffered from heart disease, and died in Chicago, Illinois on July 23, 1993.

Hosea Lee Kennard

l to r: Howlin’ Wolf, Hosea Lee Kennard and Tampa Red | Pinterest | tc767

Hosea Lee Kennard, the pianist/organist who plays on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack lightning” and other R&B classics, was born Hozie L. Kennard in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, on June 9, 1936 and he is now thought to be based in Georgia, he has recorded in Memphis (at Stax, with Booker T and the MGs) and at Muscle Shoals, Alabama (for Capricorn Records and the Allman Brothers Band). He was most recently credited on an album in 2020.

Many thanks to Marc for helping with a photo, real name and date of birth.

Tuff Green

Tuff Green | Spontaneous Lunacy/Copyright control | tc765

Bassist and band leader Richard “Tuff” Green was born in Greenville, Mississippi on July 23, 1911. He formed a band which included Hank Crawford, Willie Mitchell and Gene “Bowlegs” Miller, among others. In 1951 his band accompanied B. B. King on his first hit, “Three o clock blues”. The record was recorded in Green’s home – as was Bobby Bland’s first recording, and Roscoe Gordon’s “No more dogging”.

George “Mojo” Buford

George “Mojo” Buford | Copyright control/Discogs | tc764

Blues harmonica player George Carter “Mojo” Buford Jr. was born in Hernando, Mississippi on November 10, 1929. In his teens he relocated first to Memphis, Tennessee, where he studied the blues, and thence on to Chicago, Illinois. In 1959 he replaced Little Walter in Muddy Waters’ band. In 1962 he moved again to Minneapolis where he was given his nickname of Mojo for repeated requests to sing the song “I got my mojo working”. Why else? He returned to the Muddy Waters Band on other occasions. Mr Buford died in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a long period in hospital on October 11, 2011.

Willie Smith

Willie Smith | Independent/Agencies | tc763

Blues vocalist, harmonica player and drummer Willie Smith was born on January 19, 1936 in Helena, Arkansas. He moved to Chicago in his teens. In 1955 he played harmonica on Bo Diddley’s recording “Diddy Wah Diddy”. Drummers were in more demand than harmonica players, so he switched to playing drums and joined Muddy Waters’ band. He is featured on the 1960 album ‘Muddy Waters sings Big Bill Broonzy’. In 2011 he won a Grammy for his album with Pinetop Perkins, ‘Joined at the Hip’. Mr. Smith died in Chicago, Illinois on September 16, 2011, following a stroke.

Francis Clay

Francis Clay | Contributed Photo/Quad City Times | tc762

Blues drummer Francis Clay was born in Rock Island, Illinois, on November 16, 1923. He started professional playing when he was 15 and became one of the original members of the James Cotton Band. He went on to play with jazz, rock and blues luminaries including Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Parker and John Lee Hooker. Mr Clay, who became closely associated with the annual San Francisco Blues Festival, died in San Francisco, California on January 21, 2008.

Ransom Knowling

Ransom Knowling (left) | Weenie Campbell/Copyright Control | tc761

Blues multi-instrumentalist, but best known as a bass player, Ransom Knowling was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on 24 June 1912 and began playing professionally in bands in New Orleans from around 1930. As well as bass, Mr Knowling played tuba and violin. By the late 1930s he had moved to Chicago and was a regular player on many blues recordings, notably those of Arthur Crudup, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters and others. Mr Knowling died in Chicago, Illinois on 22 October 1967.

Mighty Joe Young

Mighty Joe Young | Marmoset Music | tc760

Joseph Young Jnr. was born on September 23, 1927 in Shreveport, Louisiana and was originally interested in boxing. He became more interested in music in the early 1950s, then moved to Chicago where he became a sideman, playing with Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, Tyrone Davis and others. He died in Chicago, Illinois on March 24, 1999.