Muddy Waters was one of the most important figures in post-war blues, influencing some of the most significant rock musicians of his era. He was one of the most prominent, in a relatively small coterie of performers, who effectively invented and defined the approach to amplified guitar-based blues, in the hotbed of the genre, Chicago, and much of what has happened since then reflects Muddy's rich legacy. This 14-track collection, featuring such instantly recognisable numbers as I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man, Got My Mojo Working and I'm Ready, offers an entertaining overview of his recordings aimed at the commercial market, especially in the context of an R&B scene which was changing rapidly during a decade and a half of musical evolution and revolution. A delightful celebration of his unique style which became the template for every electric blues performer.

STATESBORO BLUES: COLLECTED RECORDINGS 1927-1950

Mildred Bailey - The Queen Of Swing: All The Hits And More 1929-47 Mildred Bailey was a jazz singer of Native American descent who was known variously as "The Queen Of Swing", "The Rockin' Chair Lady" and "Mrs Swing", and who enjoyed a successful career during the 1930s and '40s, having more than 40 hits in her own name and as a band singer with Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra, and the orchestras of Paul Whiteman, The Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman and Red Norvo (who was also her husband). This excellent-value 73-track 3-CD comprises all those hits, plus selected recordings by Mildred with those and other bands, like those of Eddie Lang, Frankie Trumbauer and Jimmie Noone, and leading her own orchestra or with various top class accompanists, including the Ellis Larkins Trio. It features the No. 1 hits "All Of Me" with Paul Whiteman, "Please Be Kind" with Red Norvo and "Darn That Dream" with Benny Goodman, along with recordings which were among the original versions from that era of future classic Great American Songbook standards. As her nicknames suggest, she was a leading performer during the swing era as a highly individual and stylish interpreter of songs from across the spectrum of jazz, swing, Hollywood, Broadway and Tin Pan Alley pop, and this collection offers a substantial and thoroughly entertaining showcase for her talent.

Lightnin' Hopkins - The Singles Collection Vol. 1 1946-53 - This substantial collection covering the early years of his recording career helps to explain and underline that view / Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins was one of the true blues greats, a singer, guitarist, songwriter and occasional pianist from Texas, who through a life as a long-time solo performer developed a highly distinctive style, playing rhythm, lead, bass and percussion, with a legendarily unstructured approach to the 12-bar format. Musicologist Mark McCormick said that Hopkins is "the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing it's ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act". Born in 1912, he did not get an opportunity to record until the post-war years, and then recorded prolifically for a variety of labels. Acrobat has addressed his output on 78s and 45s from 1946 to 1962 with two 3-CD sets of which this is the first. This 78-track collection comprises the A & B sides of just about all his releases during these years on the Aladdin, Modern, Gold Star and RPM labels. His RPM releases overlapped with his releases on the Sittin' In With label which begin in 1951 and start Vol. 2. It includes his hits in the US R&B charts with "Shotgun Blues", "T Model Blues" and "Tim Moore's Farm". It also includes records for Aladdin with pianist Wilson "Thunder" Smith. His New York Times obituary in 1982 said he was "one of the great country blues singers and perhaps the greatest single influence on rock guitar players", and this substantial collection covering the early years of his recording career helps to explain and underline that view.

HOW MANY HEARTS HAVE YOU BROKEN: SINGLES 1939-54

Bessie Smith, "The Empress Of The Blues", a uniquely powerful, soulful and uncompromising blues singer, was an originator and a star. She became one of the highest-paid Black performers of her time, influencing fellow blues and jazz singers for generations to come and helping transform the record industry. After treading the vaudeville boards in the 1910's alongside Ma Rainey, Smith rose to the top and was picked up by a struggling Columbia Records. Her first single Down Hearted Blues sold nearly a million in 8 months, saving Columbia from bankruptcy. Pressed on 140g black vinyl, this 13-track LP features some of The Empress' best-loved songs from her tragically short career. From her very earliest sessions in 1923, through collaborations with Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson to later reflections on prohibition. A fitting tribute to one of the true heroes, not only of the blues, but musical history itself.

VOUT FLOOGIE & TUTTI FRUTTI: SELECTED RECORDINGS

Benny Goodman HITS COLLECTION VOL. 2 1939-53 - This collection comprises all hits with his orchestra and small bands during these years on the Victor, Columbia, Okeh & Capitol labels. It features his No.1 hits from these years Darn That Dream, There'll Be Some Changes Made, Somebody Else Is Taking My Place, Jersey Bounce and Taking A Chance On Love. The collection includes performances by featured vocalists such as: Louise Tobin, Mildred Bailey, Martha Tilton, Helen Forrest, Peggy Lee, Art Lund, Lou McGarrity, Dick Haymes, Jane Harvey, Dottie Reid, Peggy Mann, Liza Morrow, Eve Young, Matt Dennis, Lillian Lane, Al Hendrickson, Jimmy Ricks, Nancy Reed and Helen Ward.

Hank Jones - Hank Jones: Solo & With His Own Bands 1947-59 / Hank Jones was a jazz pianist of the post-war decades, whose active recording career spanned 60 years, but who did much of his most renowned work during the post-bop years of the 1950s. Learning his trade as bebop developed in the '40s, he was a noted sideman with many different leaders' bands, but, with a style that critics called "eloquent, lyrical and impeccable", he made many noted recordings as a solo artist and leading his own small groups, recording for a variety of labels during these years. This 42-track 2-CD collection comprises selected recordings from these years of Hank Jones solo performances, plus recordings leading his own trios, quartets and quintets on the Clef, Savoy, Epic and Capitol labels. He played with many of the top names of the day, and this collection features performances with Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Ray Brown, Wendell Marshall, Kenny Clarke, Donald Byrd, Herbie Mann, Barry Galbraith, Milt Hinton, Paul Chambers, Kenny Burrell, Elvin Jones and others. It includes titles from his albums "Hank Jones Piano", "Urbanity", "The Jazz Trio Of Hank Jones", "Hank Jones Quartet & Quintet", "Blue Bird", "The Rhythm Section", "Have You Met Hank Jones", "Relaxin' At Camarillo", "Swing Songs From 'Gigi'", The Talented Touch" and "Porgy & Bess: Swinging' Impressions". It's a varied and fascinating insight into his approach to music in different environments playing standards and originals, and an entertaining showcase for an often overlooked jazz luminary.

CLASSIC SONGS OF RODGERS & HART / VARIOUS

Lil Green was one of leading female American blues and R&B singers and songwriters of the 1940s, with a sensuous and sinuous soprano voice, and a fine sense of phrasing and timing that made her one of the most distinctive blues song stylists of her day. Born in Mississippi, she was brought up with the music of the Delta, and performed in the juke joints there in her teens before heading to Chicago where she did all her recording. This 51-track 2-CD collection comprises just about all the A & B sides of her career releases on Bluebird, Victor, Aladdin and Atlantic labels. It includes her Top 10 R&B hit "Let's Be Friends" and her classic songs "Romance In The Dark" and "Why Don't You Do Right", with compositions from Big Bill Broonzy, Joe McCoy and other writers alongside her self-penned material and her versions of many well-known blues and jazz standards. It features performances with Champion Jack Dupree, Big Bill Broonzy, Ransom Knowling, Simeon Henry, Budd Johnson and other noted musicians from the Chicago scene. While not being an absolutely complete or definitive anthology, this collection offers a substantial proportion of here career recordings, and is a fine showcase for her highly individual style. This collection offers a substantial proportion of here career recordings

Vinyl LP pressing. Marion Little Walter Jacobs was possibly one of the most important blues artists of the post-war era. He not only revolutionised harmonica playing by using amplification to compete with the growling guitars of the Chicago blues movement, he changed the way the harp was perceived and opened up a new world of instrumentation. Walter purposely pushed his amplifiers beyond their intended technical limitations to explore and develop radical new timbres and sonic effects previously unheard from a harmonica or indeed, any other instrument. This natural distortion opened musicians ears to the possibilities of their own instruments and, in many ways, laid the foundations for the blues boom to come along in the sixties. Walter was the first, and to this point, only artist to have a No.1 hit with his self-penned, harp led instrumental Juke. He went on to have numerous R&B chart hits before succumbing to his wild, violent and hard drinking life-style. This LP features all Little Walter's biggest R&B chart hits from his debut No.1 Juke, to his last chart entry in 1959, the ironically titled Everything Gonna Be Alright.

Despite having such a short recording career, the original guitar hero Charlie Christian single-handedly revolutionised the electric guitar. With having no direct influence on his guitar playing, he used the horn and reed lines he heard from the likes of Lester Young as inspiration to develop his unique single line phrasing - and so was born the guitar solo. Christian tragically died at 25 of tuberculosis, just as he was jamming with cool cats Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker on the East coast, developing the future sound of be-bop. Our collection features some of the best material he recorded with the legendary Benny Goodman small bands. Playing alongside such luminaries of the jazz world as Goodman himself, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Papa Jo Jones, Lester Young and Lionel Hampton, Christian shone above them all with his utterly unique and pioneering playing.

Blind Boy Fuller, born in 1904 in North Carolina, was one of the noted bluesmen of the Piedmont school of blues, alongside the likes of Blind Blake, Josh White and Buddy Moss. A as a songwriter, singer and guitarist with a formidable fingerpicking style he occupies a significant niche in the history of blues during the late 1930s and into the 40/, prior to his untimely demise in 1941, His songs had honesty and integrity, reflecting his poor background, but also with a hokum humour redolent with double entendres. This 51-track 20CD collection comprises selected sides from the releases across his career on the Vocalion and Okeh labels, with tracks taken from as many of his sessions as possible in order to provide as representative an overview of his recorded output as we could, with notable titles featured including Rag Mama Rag, Get Your Ya Yas Out (borrowed by the Rolling Stones for an album title), Lost Lover Blues abd Step It Up And Go. It includes recordings with some of his noted collaborators, including harmonica luminary Sonny Terry, guitarist Brownie McGhee and washboard player Bull City Red (aka George Washington. His music is listenable and entertaining, and this collection is an enlightening showcase for a noted bluesman.

Fletcher Henderson was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader who is regarded as one of the most influential figures of the early jazz and swing eras, bridging the gap between Dixieland, swing and the big band as one of the most prolific and innovative arrangers of his time, ranked by some critics on a par with Duke Ellington in terms of influence. During his heyday as a bandleader in the 1920s and '30s he had a string of big sellers and recorded definitive versions of some of the classics of those times. This 48-track 2-CD set comprises selected recordings with the various incarnations of his orchestra on the Vocalion, Columbia, Brunswick, Harmony and Bluebird labels during this era, before he largely turned his attention towards arranging, including a couple of recordings as The Dixie Stompers and The Baltimore Bellhops. It features all his 20 chart hits, including 'Sugar Foot Stomp', 'Dinah', Henderson Stomp', Honeysuckle Rose', King Porter Stomp', 'It's The Talk Of The Town', 'Until Today' and many more. There are performances by Louis Armstrong, Buster Bailey, Don Redman, Tommy Ladnier, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, John Kirby, Henry 'Red' Allen, Dicky Wells, Horace Henderson, Edgar Sampson and many notable musicians who passed through his ranks over the years. It's a feast of classic jazz, and a fine showcase for one of the genre's legendary practitioners.