Search - Various Artists :: Montreux Festival

The 'Bought This Album' Blues

bluesjunkie | Osaka, Japan | 01/29/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Are you cool with putting on a CD and listening to only 1 or 3 songs? If not, pass on Montreux Festival and go buy one of the many excellent CD's that are available by Albert King, Little Milton & Chico Hamilton!The 3 Albert tracks here are outstanding - Albert in all his funky, string-bending, stage-bantering glory. But if you're buying it for the Albert tunes, you're only getting about 17 minutes of music.Little Milton is a blues stud in his own right, but not when you can't hear his guitar. What you can hear on this disc is him screaming to the sound guys "gimme some mike!" Unfortunately, he never gets it. The drums, bass, horns, and vocals are there, but that doesn't cut it. Little Milton without the guitar work is Little Milton you can do without! If you're interested, I recommend the albums Little Milton Sings Big Blues ('66) or Grits Ain't Groceries ('69).Chico Hamilton is an extremely talented jazz drummer and was influential on pyschedelic rockers such as Carlos Santana. Some of his music was on the bluesy side of what label-slingers call "soul jazz" and could work alongside some of Albert's stuff. In View is a good 12-minute jam of mostly drums, saxophone, and bass, but it isn't really bluesy and makes me wonder why it was chosen for inclusion on this album. If you're already into these guys, stay away from this one. If you're not, I highly recommend all 3 of them as musicians, but go with a different album."