Bluesman Linsey Alexander was born in Mississippi and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. His first guitar was never retrieved from the pawn shop where he left it almost 50 years ago. Using the money to help pay his way to Chicago, he now has a variety of guitars. Linsey has played with B.B. King, Bobby Rush, Buddy Guy, Little Milton, Magic Slim Johnnie Taylor, Larry McCray, A. C. Reed, Byther Smith, John Primer, Otis Clay and Eddie Clearwater. Been There Done That is Linsey's Delmark debut and it features an eight piece band including the LA Horns plus special guest Billy Branch on harmonica. Lots of brand new original songs brought to life by Linsey's powerful vocals.

With Louis Myers, Dave Myers, Mac Simmons and Big Moose Walker! Blues vocalist Willie Buck was born in 1937 in the small town of Houston, Mississippi. Willie performed on what became known as the "Chittlin Circuit". Shortly after developing his reputation, Willie migrated to Chicago in 1954 where he truly immersed himself in the Chicago blues scene and became a real force on Maxwell Street. Willie was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Chicago in the summer of 2004. The Life I Love was recorded in 1982 and was issued then in a very limited edition LP. It appears on CD for the first time now and features previously unissued live tracks totaling 65 minutes of genuine Chicago blues.

This CD extols the hot "Chicago Style" jazz of the 20s and 30s. Led by octogenarian, guitarist Marty Grosz, the band features a contingent from The Fat Babies who hold forth at the Green Mill on Chicago's north side and special guest Jim Dapogny. In 1948 Marty Grosz hitchhiked from New York to Chicago in search of "Hot Music". He returned to New York in 1950, made his first records, and then, after a stint in the Army, returned to Chicago where he played for 21 years. A"too-good-to-be-true" offer lured him back to New York, to Carnegie Hall, The White House, and all over the globe. Marty has amassed an acoustic discography that's seventy-seven pages long. 16 songs.

DREAMY

No other contemporary blues artist brings as much of the rousing sanctified spirit of the church to his overall musical approach as Professor Eddie Lusk. One of the Windy City's busiest blues session players for the last decade, the Professor mastered the keyboards while still in his teens at his father's South Side church, and that enduring spiritual base remains at the heart of the Professor's blues. In addition to the Professor's hearty vocals, the band also showcases the gutsy pipes of Karen Carroll, a second generation blues woman whose mother, Jeanne Carroll, has graced the scene herself for many years.

FRENCH CONNECTION

After leading albums on Delmark that featured jazz vets Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp, Kahil El'Zabar is back with a pride of young lions. Tenor saxophonist Kevin Nabors has studied with Von Freeman, Ari Brown and recorded with Corey Wilkes. Keyboardist Justin Dillard is in many bands in various styles of music including his own D-O-3-O organ group. Bassman extraordinaire Junius Paul has recorded with many Chicago jazz greats including Corey Wilkes, Ernest Dawkins and Dee Alexander. Kahil is featured on drums, African hand drum and kalimba. What It Is features seven songs including a burning "Impressions".

Jazz cornet player Rob Mazurek has created a sound world that is uniquely his own, sculpting a total sound environment, by fully utilizing the beautiful instrumentation of the Exploding Star Orchestra and sounds from a variety of sources, including: rain from the Brazilian Amazon, insects at the turn of an eclipse, the hammering overdrive of bicycles in Copenhagen, stacked muted cornets run through various filters, drones built from electric eels and piano feedback, hi-frequency sinuous lines from tone generators, pitched bass guitars, and other prepared instruments. With Nicole Mitchell, Jason Adasiewicz, Greg Ward, Josh Abrams, Mike Reed. Also on LP; CD has one extended track and one bonus track not on the LP.

This live recording takes US back to just a few months after the release of the legendary Hoodoo Man Blues (DMK 612) album. Junior is accompanied by the Aces - Louis Myers, guitar; Dave Myers, bass; Fred Below, drums. Eleven songs and great bits between Junior and the audience in between songs comes to over 60 minutes of pure blues delight. "I Wanna Boogie", "Messin' with the Kid", "Man Downstairs", "Worried Life Blues", "Hideaway", "That's All Right", "Look on Yonder's Wall", "Fattening Frogs for Snakes", "Got My Mojo Workin'" and more.

AT CAFE DE COPAINS

Live archive release from the late Blues great. Before Magic Sam scored with 1967's West Side Soul, his recorded legacy included a handful of sides for Cobra in the late '50s, Chief in the early '60s and a few miscellaneous 45s in the mid-'60s. But just when it looked like things were going to really take off for Sam he passed away on December 1, 1969 at the age of 32. Delmark issued 1968's Black Magic and there have been several posthumous releases of live recordings including the classic Live. This album comes from a June 22, 1968 live concert recorded at the Avant Garde in Milwaukee. It features Magic Sam, vocals, guitar; Big Mojo Elem, bass and Bob Richey, drums. Over 65 minutes.

Add Cripple Clarence Lofton, Henry Brown and Speckled Red to the boogie woogie triumvirate cited in the album title, and you've got one solid, piano-pounding collection! Includes Pinetop's Blues Albert Ammons; Doll House Boogie Meade Lux Lewis; Dirty Dozens Speckled Red; Boogie Woogie Prayer Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson & Meade Lux Lewis; Deep Morgan Henry Brown; G-Flat Blues Pete Johnson; Streamline Train Cripple Clarence Lofton, and more.

NIGHT AFTER NIGHT

Ever since he burst on the scene in the late 60s Archie Shepp has been recognized as one of the great avant-garde jazz artists of all time. The New York Contemporary Five are Archie Shepp, tenor sax; John Tchicai, alto sax; Don Cherry, cornet; Don Moore, bass; J.C. Moses, drums. Recorded November 11, 1963 at Jazzhus Montmartre, Copenhagen. Features six compositions: "Cisum", "Crepuscule with Nellie", "O.C.", "When Will the Blues Leave", "The Funeral" and "Mik". "Since this was a recording of a performance, one is treated to a display of raw, highly emotional music. At turns the music is sloppy, powerful, imperfect, moving, irritating - but always alive and distinctly human." - Cadence.

Nicole Mitchell's Ice Crystal project explores water and glass chemistry of flute and vibes, by combining the creative flutist with young luminary Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone. Ice Crystal's sound reminds US of the legendary collaboration between flutist Eric Dolphy and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, but with a Chicago twist. Expression of yet another color in Mitchell's kaleidoscope of approaches, Aquarius is blues-inflected serenity, playfully swinging to the ethereal. Mitchell may have migrated to California, but her Chicago story continues, as she teams up with veteran improvisers Joshua Abrams (bass), Frank Rosaly (drums) and Jason Adasiewicz to take free swing to the ninth degree.