Pinetop Perkins - Back On Top (2000)

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Top boogie legend

“Pinetop” was 86 or 87 when he recorded this superb album featuring some staples from his repertoire.
Born in July 1913 in Belzoni, Mississippi, Joseph William Perkins became the legendary pianist we know by accident : originally playing guitar, his left arm tendons were badly injured in a knife fight in Helena, Arkansas, in the 1940s. Unable to play guitar anymore, he could have given up music definitely. But Mr Perkins is an obstinate man who loved playing music so much that instead of that he switched to piano ! I don't know if he was a good guitarist or not, but his lucky star decided differently, for the best as far as we are concerned.

Ronnie Earl, Pinetop Perkins, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones & Willie “Big Eyes” Smith - Eye To Eye (1996)

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Chicago blues magic

The album could have been titled “Ronnie Earl meets Pinetop Perkins” or the opposite, as the two musicians dominate the album, the great Perkins on piano and singing, the magnificent Earl on guitar. No matter, these 13 tracks produced by Earl are superb pieces of classic Chicago blues of the best kind, featuring three of the best former members of the Muddy Waters' band.

Drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith was the first to join Muddy Waters in 1961, followed by Perkins who took over Otis Spann's seat behind the piano in 1969, and by bassist Calvin “Fuzz” Jones who got on board in 1970 (his real nickname would be originally “Fuzz Box”). Perkins, Jones and Smith backed Waters for many years before leaving to form the Legendary Blues Band in June 1980 with harmonicist Jerry Portnoy.