Established by Rudy Van Gelder, an optometrist turned visionary sound boffin and audio engineer, Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, was the go-to recording destination for Blue Note, the iconic New York jazz label that recorded many of its classic LPs there. It was also where in 1960, Texas country blues meister Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins cut Last Night Blues, his first of eight LPs for Bluesville, a sister imprint of jazz indie label Riverside, established in 1959 to cash in on the interest in blues and folk music on American college campuses. Thanks to Van Gelder’s audio expertise, Last Night Blues with its clarity, warm presence, and vivid sound stage, is sonically a cut above other blues records of the era. Just how good it sounds is apparent as soon as the needle hits the vinyl of this AAA-mastered LP-only reissue by Craft Recordings, which is packaged in a durable, high-quality tip-on outer sleeve garnished with a Japanese-style obi-strip.
Armed with a molasses-rich bourbon voice, which he answers with stinging acoustic guitar licks, Hopkins is captured in his prime. He’s joined on the session by blues harp supremo, Saunders “Sonny Terry” Terrell, a blind musician born in Georgia who was an exponent of the ragtime-influenced Piedmont Blues style and is best remembered for his long-running partnership with Brownie McGhee. Joining them are a couple of New Yorkers, bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Belton Evans, who provide sympathetic and subtle accompaniment throughout.
His nicotine-stained voice punctuated by Terry’s howling harmonica asides, Hopkins reveals he is a magnetic storyteller whose compositions depict the vicissitudes of love and life. Opening with the chugging ‘Rocky Mountain,’ a stunning showcase for Hopkins’ and Terry’s intuitive musical interplay, the album’s other highlights include the more urgent, rhythm and blues-tinged boogie-style tracks ‘Got To Move Your Baby’ and ‘Take A Trip With Me.’ Hopkins also slows down the tempo to a soft simmer with the mournful title track and ‘So Sorry To Leave You,’ where his world-weary, pain-racked voice brings the theme of heartache vividly alive. On the finale, ‘Conversation Blues,’ Terry, the tune’s co-writer, joins Hopkins at the microphone for a playful number where they trade laughter as well as vocals. It brings the curtain down on a spectacular audiophile release whose enduring brilliance attests to the genius of two long-gone master musicians.
(CW) 4/5
