Robert Lockwood Jr - The Complete Trix Recordings (1973 & 1

Robert Lockwood, Jr. - The Complete Trix Recordings (FLAC)
Release Date: 1999
Recording Dates: 1973 & 1975

Review by Thom Jurek:
The Savoy Jazz issue of Robert Lockwood Jr.'s legendary Trix recordings is a gift for anyone

interested in the immediacy of raw, wide-open blues with no regard for convention or trend.

Lockwood's music could have been recorded anytime between 1950 and the present. His

production techniques are plaintive and serve to equalize everything at the same level, giving the

music a live feel usually left behind in a studio. His idiosyncratic tunings and distorted

amplification offer the listener the kind of in-your-face presence usually found only in a club. But

it's the material, the volume and range of it, that is the most staggering. Lockwood and band --

which includes the great blues saxophonist Maurice Reedus -- tear through the blues from Delta

to Chicago to Kansas City, from New York to Texas and beyond. Check the opener, "Little Boy

Blue," for its deep Delta root and contrast it with the beautiful saxophone wail in "Annie's Boogie,"

which comes straight out of T-Bone Walker. Or dig the acoustic Piedmont-style blues in "Driving

Wheel" and let it run you over before the jazzy blues of "Majors, Minors & Ninths," which echoes

Charlie Christian, knocks you on your ass. All of these cuts are on disc one, but there are two

totaling 25 tunes, recorded live in the studio without the benefit of a rehearsal or a mixdown. Disc

two features a bit more Chicago-oriented material, such as "This Is the Blues" and "Little Queen

of Spades," but it also features one of the most stunning reads of Robert Johnson's "Terraplane

Blues" ever recorded. Indeed, the listener gets a distinct impression that hearing these songs

played by this very same band on another night might sound very different than they do here;

thank God, yes. This music is only sketched in forms, leaving plenty of room for honest to God

improvisation, and the listener benefits mightily. Awesome.


Track List:

Disc: 1
(Contrasts)
1. Little Boy Blue
2. Come Day, Go Day
3. Annie's Boogie
4. Driving Wheel
5. Funny, But True
6. Mr. Down Child
7. Lonely Man
8. Hold Everything
9. Dust My Broom
10. Majors, Minors & Ninths
11. Forever On My Mind
12. I Am To Blame
13. Howdy Dowdy
14. Empty Life

Personnel:
Robert Lockwood Jr. - Guitar, vocals
Gene Schwartz - Bass
George Cook - Drums
Maurice Reedus - Tenor sax


Disc: 2
(Does 12)
1. Just A Little Bit
2. This Is The Blues
3. Down Home Cooking
4. Walkin' Blues
5. Angel Child
6. Terraplane Blues
7. Red Top
8. Selfish Ways
9. Half Steppin'
10. Little Queen Of Spades
11. King Biscuit Time

Personnel:
Robert Lockwood Jr. - Guitar, vocals
Mark Hahn - Guitar
Gene Schwartz - Bass
Jimmy Jones - Drums
Maurice Reedus - Tenor sax



And yes, I know there are only 11 tracks on disc 2 "Does 12" that is as it is nothing was omitted lol