Blues at Sunrise: Live at Montreuxby Anonymous

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December 27, 2003: Critics and fans alike have always placed Albert King’s live recordings atop or near the top of the heap of live Blues albums and rightfully so. King’s seminal live outing was Live Wire/Blues Power, which was highlighted by the ten minute plus “Blues Power” – arguably the most spectacular and engaging live track ever recorded by a lead guitarist. But to me, the rest of that album, as well as the companion albums released afterwards called Wednesday and Thursday Night in San Francisco (all three continue to be lauded till this day), aren’t nearly as great as they could and should be, and not nearly as consistent and fresh as the song “Blues Power” itself. Blues At Sunrise should not be overlooked. It is one of King’s very best. He has a very solid backing band that does an excellent job of recreating the soulful grooves that came out of King’s record label, Stax in Memphis. You will always have room in your collection for another live version of “I’ll Play the Blues For You”, and this one doesn’t disappoint. King’s guitar doesn’t really blow you away (at least compared to playing in front of San Francisco Rock fans), instead his playing, and his criminally underrated singing, is about as soulful as you will ever hear it. He and this band really groove to songs like “Little Brother (Make a Way)" and a great, great remake of Ray Charles’s “I Believe To My Soul”, a song he actually cut in the studio with Booker T. & the MGs that must have somehow inexplicably been forgotten about because it didn’t show up until years later when the United Kingdom’s Ace Records released some Albert King bonus tracks. This album proves that Albert was THE king of the Blues, not just because of his Blues power (which remember, he invented), but because of his use of dynamics, subtlety, and the fact that you will be hard pressed to find another guitarist so powerful, but yet so tasteful. In 1973, the crowd at the Montreux Jazz Festival was right there for one of the most infectious and joyful Albert King performances ever captured.