In Session

Artist: Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan
Label: Stax
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Hybrid SACD
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 025218731027
EAN: 0025218731027
ASIN: B0000AZKLF

Release Date: 2003-09-30

Related Categories:

General

| Blues | Styles | Music

Electric Blues Guitar

| Blues | Styles | Music

General

| Live Albums | Blues | Styles | Music

Modern Blues

| Blues | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

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Essential Electric Blues Albums
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Stevie Ray Vaughan Live on CD and DVD
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12 great guitarist 24 FANTASTIC albums

Tracks:

Call It Stormy Monday
Old Times
Pride and Joy
Ask Me No Questions
Pep Talk
Blues at Sunrise
"Turn It Over"
Overall Junction
Match Box Blues
"Who Is Stevie?"
Don't Lie to Me

Similar Items:

Texas Flood
Live at Carnegie Hall
In Step
In the Beginning
Texas Flood

Customer Reviews:

Albert King SRV.......2007-04-03

All one has to do is to listen to this and realize that we were lucky that this event happened. I hear something new every time I play it. Enjoy

Blues that cut like a chainsaw.......2006-12-16

While Albert King never rose to the massive popularity of Stevie Ray Vaughan, as far as blues players go though, he was one of the more familiar to rock fans, thanks to his work being covered by Clapton and Hendrix ("Born Under A Bad Sign").
No modern guitarist was more influenced by King than Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose admiration and praise allowed him to share the stage in a Hamilton, Ontario TV studio right around the time of the release of Vaughan's "Texas Flood". This summit was long overdue, and is absolutely critical for Vaughan and King fans.
Mind you, there are many rehashes, repackagings and other posthumous releases of SRV, most of which are unforgivable, offering nothing new, only capitalizing on the myth and making a fortune off his memory.
"In Session", however, like "The Sky Is Crying", is one CD that does offer a fresh look at both masters.
King is still the star of this show, and his band provides the powerful backing music as the two titans trade off solo after solo, each careful to not overplay, but not hide behind their amps, either.
Vaughan sounds a lot like King, showing us the bedrock of his style. He was a little flashier, and could control feedback ala Hendrix, but when all is said and done, SRV was the best white blues player period. Brit players like Clapton and Page pale in comparison.
Prime cuts include "Pride And Joy" as handled by King's band, and it thumps and grinds mightily. "Overall Junction" is a King jam and indeed it does. Perhaps the best is "Matchbox Blues", with an absolutely wicked swing beat that allows both guitarists to soar, reaching blues nirvana over and over.
SRV fans will delight in this CD when he was probably at his greatest, and will come away King fans as well, after finding out who got this party started in the first place.

Wish I Could Have Been There.......2006-05-27

Albert King and SRV appeared on the Canadian TV show 'In Session' and the result was incredible. The music itself is really good, with two great musicians playing the tunes they loved. But it's the dialogue between Albert and SRV that puts this over the top.

Albert's story about Stevie sitting in with him about 10 years earlier when he was just a skinny kid in Austin was amazing. And while SRV was coming into his own at the time of the session, he was still paying a lot of respect to Albert. There was this aspect of passing the baton from one generation of blues players to another about this session.

Finally if the combination of 'Who Is Stevie' and 'Pride & Joy' doesn't have you smilin' and hummin' along - then you just don't like the blues.

You can't go wrong with this CD. In addition to the good music the recording is also pretty realistic. I keep wondering what it would have been like to be in the studio when this session was recorded...

A Jam Session Well Worth Listening To..........2006-02-15

Albert King was always overshadowed by BB King and thus never received the credit he deserved for the way he shaped how the electric guitar is played. This is true not only in the blues but indeed in all styles of music. Modern guitar players who look back with a sense of fondness for players such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Paul Kossof, etc. would do well to consider the man who so strongly influenced their playing as well as countless others. (Including bluesmen Otis Rush and Albert Collins: already distinctive stylists in their own right.) And perhaps no other guitar player was as influenced by Albert King as the young Texan Stevie Ray Vaughan.

To say that Stevie Ray Vaughan idolized Albert King would not be inaccurate nor would saying that Stevie's style was about 80% influenced by the mammoth Mississippi bluesman. On this album, the songs are mainly from King's repertoire but in many cases Stevie had been weaned on them and practiced them in his formative years so there was not much in the way of adjustment for him here generally speaking.

It starts with "Stormy Monday" which King begins with some of his signature mournful phrasing while Vaughan utilizes a tasteful countermelody in return. Albert's comments as the song was starting off indicate that they have played the song together before and the smooth way they played off one another would seem to verify that. From there a bit of dialogue takes place where they reminisce about old times and at Albert's request, Stevie kicks off "Pride and Joy." From there they moved into "Ask Me No Questions." Unlike the previous song where it was King who had to adapt to a new song, this time it was Vaughan and he does so quite well with tasteful vibrato fills and taking the first solo at King's request. They then dialogue a bit more with Albert asking Stevie to never settle but instead to always strive to work and play better.

At that point, Albert kicks off "Blues at Sunrise" and anyone who doubts that a fifteen minute blues song with a shuffle beat can be kept interesting for fifteen minutes needs to hear these two play off of each other as they do here.

From there, it moves (after some dialogue) into the instrumental "Overall Junction" which has a strident pacing to it. Vaughan starts it off and gets his bits in certainly -based on much of what he plays his familiarity with the original tune (as recorded by King in 1966) is evident to this listener. And King shows on the song for those who would question it that he can move around the fretboard nimbly...a feature he usually saved for instrumentals but not always. They then move pretty quickly into "Matchbox Blues" a longtime King concert staple. Stevie's playing in the song is a homage to Albert and he certainly could authentically approach the latter's style better than arguably anyone else. There is then another dialogual interlude prior to the last song "Don't Lie to Me", a song Stevie would recognize as "I Get Evil." Again the dueling is entertaining when Vaughan goes into the lower registers and Albert encourages him further in the process. That concludes the album but not this review.

The essence of blues playing requires soul and you cannot manufacture it by wanking speed riffs on a fretboard. (I note that here for those who think "better blues playing" means faster playing: that is not necessarily so.) Albert King was a master of the blues and Stevie Ray Vaughan was his most loyal disciple. Indeed, I believe Stevie is the only one who could so flagrantly use King's own signature riffs in his playing without the master himself taking offense. And when you consider that Albert did not take such things lightly --because he developed a unique style and by his reckoning owned it-that is no mean achievement.

Clearly on this album King had in mind to some extent a passing of the torch to Vaughan at one point in the recording because he plainly says so after they finished playing "Blues at Sunrise." Stevie laughs and says he does not believe it but the sentiments sounds convincing enough even if King was to continue playing live after Vaughan's passing in 1990 at the tender age of 35. (The former retired and made comebacks in the same fashion as Frank Sinatra: at least in King's case, he retained his form all the way to the end with minimal if any diminishment.) As far as Vaughan's death goes, King would recount in a 1991 interview published before his own passing that Stevie's loss hurt him deeply and if you listen to the way they interact musically and otherwise on this album, it makes sense. What started out as a young boy and his idol grew into a situation where they were contemporaries and there was a genuine affection between them. Albert seemed to view Stevie as his son in the blues and no father wants to see his son go before him. May they both rest in peace and may this recording stand as a testament to them.

Student And Teacher.......2006-02-01

This is a fantastic CD where student meets teacher. And yes, the student surpasses the teacher in the speed and dexterity category, but the ability to express the soul with the guitar is something that is unique to both Albert and Stevie and they are monsters. I've always been a SRV fan and when I learned that Albert King was his mentor, I can see why. Albert was definitely one of the greats. This performance was a great idea and you ought to grab this cd for your library while you can.

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