Lists : Great Black Music

I love lists. I make a lot of lists with my friends at Acclaimedmusic.net, a site who compiles every "best-of " list ever published by critics in books, sites or newspapers.
Recently I found at the library a French book called Great Black Music : un parcours en 110 albums essentiels. (Great Black Music : A Journey in 110 essential albums) by Philippe Robert, a French critic and writer working for various great magazines (Les Inrockuptibles, Vibrations, Jazz Magazine).

This list is interesting but the title can be misleading : it is not an anthology of Afro American music in general, but of “conscious” black music.
That explains the omissions : very few blues. The blues wasn’t a protest music, at least in a direct way, the singers being to afraid of retaliation.

Everything that is suspected of being too “whitey-oriented” is left aside. So no black rockers from the ‘50s (Chuck, Fats et al), few Motown artists from the ‘60s.
No more than one album per artist, which broadens the range but also means hard choices (like Stevie W).
These considerations aside, it is an interesting list, quite personal, not caring much about objectivity, and strongly relying on ‘70s soul and jazz. Very few rap, or old-school and avant garde stuff. For the soul and jazz lover, it is a gold mine.
Here are 2 links to the list :

Great Black music : 110 essential albums (Microsoft Word document)

Great Black music : 110 essential albums (InTernet link to Acclaimed Music's Forum Page)


My best discovery so far in that list is the excellent British group Demon Fuzz with their 1970 album Afreaka!

Demon Fuzz - Disillusioned (buy) (1970)

Now, like in every list, there are things we would have loved to find but that have been omitted.
The author himself acknowledges that, as he added an appendix with even more albums than in the original list !!

The next song is from the first artist/album in my top 200 that Robert failed to include in his list (but I think it's in the appendix).

Professor Longhair - Tipitina (buy) (1974)

If you love New Orleans music, you should hear this album if you haven't already.

AND YOU ? What are your favorite Great Black Music albums ? What omissions make you jump and shout ? I'd love to hear from you cause you've been a bit silent these days..

Album of the week : Various Artists - Chess Soul, a Decade Of Chicago's Finest

Chess Records is famous for being the main blues record company in postwar Chicago, thanks to producer/songwriter/talent scout Willie Dixon and his protégés (Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter); later in the mid-fifties, thanks to DJ Alan Freed's help, Leonard and Phil Chess launched black rockers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.
But Chess was also, during the'60s, a very good soul and R&B company, and one of the main providers of Chicago soul. Compared to the Detroit sound, Chicago-made records were "much cooler, with jazzy horn arrangements and casual guitar licks dominating most productions; where Detroit aimed at the kids, Chicago went for an older, most sophisticated audience" (Charlie Gillett). So Chess became, if not a major soul label, a good follower, thanks to producer and A&R man Billy Davis.
Chess' biggest hit was "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass in 1966 "one of the best attempts to capture a Motown kind of sound, produced by veteran St Louis bandleader Oliver Sain" (CG), one of the highlights of this very pleasant compilation full of lesser-known soul gems.

Fontella Bass - Rescue Me (buy)

Another one I love, very different, and more an attempt to capture Stax and Southern soul sound (it was recorded at legendary Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama) :

Maurice & Mac - You Left The Water running (buy)

Chess est connue comme étant LA maison de disques du blues électrique de Chicago dans les années 50, avec Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf et le producteur-songwriter Wille Dixon; on connaît aussi l'importance qu'elle eut pour le rock'n roll puisque 2 de ses artistes, Chuck berry et Bo Diddley, venus de cette scène blues, devinrent les légendes que l'on sait.

Mais on connaît un peu moins les productions soul de Chess dans les années 1961-71, et c'est l'objet de cette très bonne compilation : monter qu'il n'y avait pas, loin de là, que la Motown à Detroit et la Stax à Memphis, mais que Chicago était aussi un centre important, d'abord avec Vee-Jay (qui lança Curtis Mayfield et ses Impressions), puis avec Chess, qui, voyant que le blues traditionnel était en perte de vitesse, s'engouffra dans la brèche soul, grâce au producteur Billy Davis. Les frères Chess recrutèrent alors Etta James, les Dells, Billy Stewart pour moderniser leur catalogue
Un de mes titres préférés est cet enregistrement de Johnny Nash, chanteur originaire du Texas et qui allait être célèbre dans les années 70 en devenant le premier non Jamaïcain à chanter du reggae ("I Can See Clearly Now"). On le retrouve avec ce très swingant titre enregistré en 1964

Johnny Nash - Love Ain't Nothin' (But A Monkey On Your Back) (buy)

that's all folks ! Je sais que vous êtes pas très forts en commentaires, dommage, mais bon...