John Lee Hooker – His Best Chess Sides – Chess/MCA CHD-9383 

This 1997 release features 15 selections from “The Boogie Man” and harken to his time with the Chicago powerhouse Chess Records label.  Beginning with his earliest sides for a string of modest labels such as JVB, Staff/Prize, and Danceland, and into what many consider his halcyon days with the Modern and Vee-Jay imprints, Hooker’s work remained true in formula across his long career as one of pounding one-chord cadence development, eerie glooms arising from various tunings, periodic eruptions of jagged notes, and an overall satisfying structure of persisting rhythms. 

This sterling collection finds Hooker’s initial 1950s Chess label work as the backbone of the assemblage, representing 11 of the solid tracks here, with some tasty 1960s cuts being the icing on the cake.  Hooker’s early work certainly emphasized his guitar competencies, and here too is the case.  His notorious ambling rhythms abound, and most of the tracks here are unaccompanied efforts.

This is vintage Hooker.  And while some would argue that it is a collection that appears as somewhat of a byproduct of prior outings, themes, and sounds he’d already laid down, I’d counter that those voices don’t “get it;” this is Hooker continuing to blaze a blues trail that remained in opposing correlation to common blues standards.  Hooker was seemingly harvesting notes up and down his guitar neck in an almost experimentally and somewhat rudimentarily approach, yet his rough instrumental forays decidedly please.    

Toward the end of this entrancing collection are four 1960s era tunes that indeed sound more contemporary; but make no mistake, they are similarly robust.

Spellbinding, insistent, droning, and perhaps even rather primitive, these Chess label sides display an established bluesman continuing to hold true to his musical framework, one that was in no way undiminished; it still was a thrilling ride.

This is an essential blues release without any stipulation.  This anthology needs to be in any serious blues collection!