John Hammond Jr.

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John Hammond Jr.: Bear's Sonic Journals: You're Doin' Fine - Blues at the Boarding House, June 2 & 3, 1973 (3CD)

by Doug Collette
December 28, 2024

John Hammond Jr. was perhaps the first white musician to gain some measure of recognition for his devotion to the blues. The offspring of the famed Columbia Records mogul never relied on his name or rested on his laurels. On the contrary, the son of the man who signed Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen to that heralded label (and helped nurture the career of Billie Holiday as well as the legacy of Robert Johnson) evinced a loyalty to ...

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John Hammond: John Hammond at the Crossroads

by C. Michael Bailey
October 15, 2003

I began listening to John Hammond at the Crossroads at the same time as I was listening to Richard Goode’s long awaited completion of Bach’s Partitas for Keyboard (Nonesuch, 2003). It struck me that the two recordings were very similar. Both are interpretations of a cultural canon. Bach’s Partitas for Keyboard are considered among his best compositions and has been the subject of hundreds of recordings and performances. Like the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas for Keyboard exist as an artistic ...

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John Hammond: Best of the Vanguard Years

by Ed Kopp
April 1, 2000

John Hammond Jr. is a steady performer who continues to revive some classic blues material that might otherwise be forgotten. Best of the Vanguard Years provides a nice overview of his early days.

Hammond began his recording career on the Vanguard label, generating five albums between 1964 and 1967. After stints with Atlantic and Columbia, Hammond returned to Vanguard for three records in the late '70s. Both intervals are represented on this retrospective CD, but only five of the 23 ...