Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Johnny "Guitar" Watson: Blues Masters: The Very Best of ...

172

Johnny "Guitar" Watson: Blues Masters: The Very Best of Johnny "Guitar" Watson

By

View read count
Johnny "Guitar" Watson: Blues Masters: The Very Best of Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Johnny "Guitar" Watson was a vastly underappreciated blues and R&B trendsetter whose adventurous guitar style influenced the likes of Bo Diddley, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. The Very Best of Johnny "Guitar" Watson focuses on the years 1952 through 1963, the period when Watson made his best music. Many of these tracks were previously unavailable on CD, so this collection is a must-have for anyone interested in the roots of modern blues, R&B or classic rock.

Born in Texas, Johnny Watson moved to L.A. when he was 15. He was just a teenager when he made his recording debut with Chuck Higgins as a boogie-woogie pianist on the single "Motorhead Baby," included in this collection. Watson's debut as a guitarist came on the pioneering instrumental "Space Guitar," also included here, on which he extended the sonic capabilities of the electric guitar to realms never before imagined.

The 18 tracks in this collection are notable not just for Watson's bold guitar playing, but also for his confident vocal style and clever horn charts. Watson was strongly influenced by jazz, and his music sounds highly sophisticated next to most blues and R&B from the '50s and early '60s.

In the CD notes, Etta James calls Watson her main model. "Johnny wasn't just a killer guitarist," says James. "The man was a master musician. He could call out charts; he could write him a beautiful melody or a nasty groove at the drop of a hat; he could lay out the harmonies and he could come up with a whole sound."

Watson was also one of the first popular artists to cop an attitude, acquiring the nickname "Gangster of Love" from his catchy 1963 single of the same title. He later remade himself into a pimp-like funk performer, and though some of his later albums were pleasingly funky, they never quite matched his early output.

The Very Best of Johnny "Guitar" Watson affirms Etta James' assessment of Watson as "the baddest and the best."

Personnel

Johnny "Guitar" Watson
guitar, electric

Album information

Title: Blues Masters: The Very Best of Johnny "Guitar" Watson | Year Released: 1999 | Record Label: Rhino

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.