slow blues music

[djstarr]

So, believe it or not, I really like slow, soulful blues songs. Yes, you think I am all about dancing fast and furious and DJing for my clones, but it's not true. I just like to keep my lindy hop separate from other dances, but that's neither here nor there.

You should check out "Blues in the Night" on the Louis Armstrong meets Oscar Peterson CD --- it's one of my favorite blues songs and Louis can bump and grind with the best of them.

[lindyholic]

I'm a big fan of Ellington's stuff when it comes to the really slow and grindy music. And when I say Ellington, I mean old school Ellington. Check out his Small Groups collections, there's some amazing stuff in there.

Harrison

[main_stem]

Johnny Hodges plays lots of great blues. His tone is just amazing.

[Lawrence]

Asking for good slow blues is such an open ended question that it is difficult to answer: sort of like asking for good Swing music, but without the controversies.

Charles Brown has some phenomenal slow blues. Every album from the 1990s has several great slow blues songs, but perhaps the best is Blues and Other Love Songs (Savoy 1992). (That Barnes & Noble link has samples of every song; Check out "I Put Myself Together".)

[Roy]

Here are my favorite slow blues songs right now:

Crawling Kingsnake-Buddy Guy
Evil Gal Blues-Mezz Mezzrow
If I were you I'd fall in love-Ernie Andrews
Black and Tan Fantasy-LCJO
Blues in the Dark-Count Basie
Fine and Mellow-Ella Fitzgerald
CC Rider-Jeanie/Jimmie Cheetam
When I've been drinking-Jimmy Witherspoon
Cherry-yoke noge and Jazz me blues
T-bone blues-T-bone Walker
Back water blues-Jay McShann
Please believe me-Big Bill Broozny
Sweet Home Chicago-Robert Johnson
How Long Blues-Count Basie's all american rythym section
Tommy's Blues=Mezz Mezzrow
Mean Old bed bug blues-Fats Waller
I'm getting along allright-Esther Phillips
When the Lights go out- Jimmy Witherspoon
Sugar sugar-Eshter Phillips with the Johnny Otis Show
Amtrack Blues-Alberta Hunter
Too many blues-Sam Price

[Lawrence]

Two words: Jimmy Witherspoon.

Singin the Blues 1959 (Blue Note)

Just to narrow the recommendation to one particular CD because Witherspoon did unfortunately put out some half-baked albums, I rediscovered this Jimmy Witherspoon album while going through my collection and was reminded how much of a gem it is for solid, seething, slow blues with great sound quality. I forgot these songs all came from the same CD. Every song is phenomenal: no throw-away songs. Some of them are the commonly played versions, but there are still several that have not been overplayed.

SK Blues 86 BPM
When I've Been Drinkin 72
All That's Good 73
Spoon's Blues 82
Ain't Nobody's Business 70
Wee Baby Blues 80
Times Are Changing 74
Sweet's Blues 68