The History Of Rhythm And Blues 1942-1952
Various Artists - 4 CD box set with 64 page booklet and comprehensive track by track analysis

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The History of Rhythm & Blues series of CDs is a cross-label project that attempts to chronicle the rise of R&B from a historical perspective. Its aim is to demonstrate the breadth of new forms which arose from the fusion of the various styles and to showcase the most influential records while highlighting many of the more obscure discs, whose importance to the story is less well-known.

Rhythm & Blues was one of the most identifiable musical art forms of the 20th Century, with an enormous influence on the development of both the sound and attitude of modern music. The History of Rhythm and Blues series investigates the accidental synthesis of jazz, gospel, blues, ragtime, country, pop and latin music into a definable form of black music, which in turn would influence pretty well all popular music from the 1950s to the present.

Volume Two - the Pre-Rocknroll Years 1942-1952 investigates the transition from the race music of the 1940s through to the classic Rhythm & Blues of the 1950s, taking in the growing importance of radio, the rise of the independent record labels, the 45rpm record and the jukebox. It also attempts to clarify the distinctions between the different rhythms behind the blues from shuffle and jump through rhumba to rocknroll.

"There’s so little on this box set that I wouldn’t be overjoyed to play you… an absolutely essential purchase… as good as any (other sets) and probably better than all…indispensable music… thoroughly, thoroughly recommended."
Mark Lamarr - BBC Radio 2, God’s Jukebox Featured Record of the Week June 6th 2009

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The History Of Rhythm And Blues 1925-1942 - Highlights
Various Artists

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This exhilarating compilation …is a distillation of a four-CD set; as such, it’s an exceptionally strong collection, each of the 25 tracks a discovery, a joy. The liner notes are worth the price in themselves: Well-written and entertaining, they detail not only the history of each artist, but the context of each song…The most recent song on the album was recorded more than 65 years ago, but this is no dusty exercise in musicology. This is creative, vibrant music. Even today, it quickens the pulse.
M.D.Spenser

Anyone looking for a great sampler to hear some of the classic early rhythm and blues could do worse than to check out this 25-track release…As an introduction to early blues and more this compilation takes some beating – and to anyone doing research or a historian – I would imagine pretty essential, well done to compiler, Nick Duckett and to all concerned.
Grahame Rhodes

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Rolling Stones Beginnings
Volume One: From Blue Boys To Playing Chess

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A series of compilation CDs highlighting the songs and styles that inspired the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and which ultimately were responsible for shaping their sound. For too long the covers CD has been the province of freebie magazine cover-mounts and shoddy garage cheapies. No more. Because Rhythm And Blues Records are Doing It Right. Following on from their well-received compilations covering the roots of rhythm & blues, the R&B team shine a spotlight on the songs that shaped the Rolling Stones.

From Blue Boys To Playing Chess
Covers 1962-1964, documenting how Little Blue Boy and the Blue Boys became first the Rollin’ Stones and then the Rolling Stones we know and love today. The journey takes us from reel-to-reel recordings in suburban front rooms via primitive London studios with egg-box soundproofing to the legendary Chess studios in Chicago. Over twenty-five songs this CD features seminal artists such as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, Slim Harpo and Big Bill Broonzy as well as the lesser known Tampa Red, Will Bradley and Jazz Gillum. This compilation highlights the cover versions responsible for shaping the Stones sound, then and now.

All tracks have been carefully remastered to optimise the sound. An extensively illustrated 32 page booklet features detailed sleeve notes from compilers Nick Duckett and Simon Wright, including a track-by-track commentary and an essay explaining the significance of each song to the band.

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Beatles Beginnings
Quarrymen One: Skiffle - Country - Western

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A series of compilation CDs highlighting the songs and styles that inspired the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and which ultimately were responsible for shaping their sound. For too long the covers CD has been the province of freebie magazine cover-mounts and shoddy garage cheapies. No more. Because Rhythm And Blues Records are Doing It Right. Following on from their well-received compilations covering the roots of rhythm & blues, the R&B team shine a spotlight on the songs that shaped the Beatles

Quarrymen – Skiffle – Country – Western
Jazz, rocknroll, blues, music hall, guitar instrumentals, tin pan alley, rockabilly, dance band, soul, bolero, skiffle, trad, R&B, country, old-time, Broadway, doo-wop, folk, high school pop, Motown - the Beatles early influences are so wide-ranging that this series of discs could quite easily pass for an introduction to the history of twentieth century popular music. For the first six years of their career, the Beatles were essentially a covers band. When they were captured live on tape in two sets at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962, they played thirty-two songs, only two of which were their own compositions. They established a repertoire of over 600 tunes, allowing them to tailor their set to the occasion for jazz clubs, strip clubs, church dances, folk clubs and working men’s clubs. Quarrymen One covers the period 1957-60, investigating skiffle and the other music that the individual members of the group grew up listening to before rocknroll burst on to the scene. Quarrymen Two will look at the band’s rocknroll influences.

All tracks have been carefully remastered to optimise the sound. An extensively illustrated 32 page booklet features detailed sleeve notes from compilers Nick Duckett and Simon Wright, including a track-by-track commentary and an essay explaining the significance of each song to the band.