Jimmy Dawkins – All For Business – Delmark Records DE-634

An army of young, aggressive, west side Chicago blues guitarists showcased themselves to the blues field in the late 1950s.  They proudly offered a fiery, forceful design of blues, some would argue even suggest a somewhat jazz-inspired wallop of sound that may also have incorporated full horn orchestrations.  It was a reading of the Chicago blues modernized to mirror the feelings of the stressors and contentions that were day-to-day components of existence on Chicago’s tough west side.  It was brash, it was heavy, and it was a shift away from the country blues roots of the Chicago blues to that point.  The west side Chicago blues bellowed and screamed its weights to the world; it mimicked the gravities of Chicago existence for west side Blacks.  It was a required new reading of the blues.

1973’s original All For Business was an eight-cut outing, and this 1990 re-release updated the offerings with an additional three selections.  With fellow blues guitar titan Otis Rush lending an expert hand, Sonny Thompson providing keyboard energies, Ernest Gatewood providing the low-end bass efforts, Jim Conley laying down superb tenor saxophone lines and fills, and both Charley Hicks and Robert Crowder forming staunch percussive frameworks, what sets this set apart from other Dawkins outings were the inclusion of the passionate, deep vocal proficiencies of Andrew “Big Voice” Odom.  Dawkins carries the vocal work on two songs.

In every way, this is a very substantial set of blues from Dawkins and his blues cohorts, with Odom’s deep, churchy singing bringing a profound emotional depth to the proceedings.  Odom’s hefty vocals drip with the spot-on comparisons most generally attributed to his style, those of Bobby “Blue” Bland and B.B. King.

Dawkins’ guitar aptitudes are in superb form, vivid, piercing, tenacious, and bold, tearing and ripping when compulsory, yet they are certainly able to establish a melancholy posture as necessitated.  With the inclusion of Rush’s excellent guitar partnership, blues fans of the west side Chicago guitar model are sure to be thrilled. 

Dawkins’ work with the famed Delmark Records endures to prevail as some of the best the imprint ever generated, and though he went on to record for various other labels over the course of his extensive blues career, his work for then-Bob Koester’s Delmark Records label is, in this assessor’s belief, his preeminent, and was influential in assisting to characterize Chicago’s west side blues uniqueness along with fellow blues giants Freddie King, Buddy Guy, and Otis Rush, among others.

Highly recommended!