Tema: Albert Collins

Albert Collins - The Ice Axe Cometh: The Collection 1978-86 (1999)


Biography by Richard Skelly ~ Allmusic.com

Albert Collins, "The Master of the Telecaster," "The Iceman," and "The Razor Blade" was robbed of his best years as a blues performer by a bout with liver cancer that ended with his premature death on November 24, 1993. He was just 61 years old. The highly influential, totally original Collins, like the late John Campbell, was on the cusp of a much wider worldwide following via his deal with Virgin Records' Pointblank subsidiary. However, unlike Campbell, Collins had performed for many more years, in obscurity, before finally finding a following in the mid-'80s.

Collins was born October 1, 1932, in Leona, TX. His family moved to Houston when he was seven. Growing up in the city's Third Ward area with the likes of Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, Collins started out taking keyboard lessons. His idol when he was a teen was Hammond B-3 organist Jimmy McGriff. But by the time he was 18 years old, he switched to guitar, and hung out and heard his heroes, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker and Lightnin' Hopkins (his cousin) in Houston-area nightclubs. Collins began performing in these same clubs, going after his own style, characterized by his use of minor tunings and a capo, by the mid-'50s. It was also at this point that he began his "guitar walks" through the audience, which made him wildly popular with the younger white audiences he played for years later in the 1980s. He led a ten-piece band, the Rhythm Rockers, and cut his first single in 1958 for the Houston-based Kangaroo label, "The Freeze." The single was followed by a slew of other instrumental singles with catchy titles, including "Sno-Cone," "Icy Blue" and "Don't Lose Your Cool." All of these singles brought Collins a regional following. After recording "De-Frost" b/w "Albert's Alley" for Hall-Way Records of Beaumont, TX, he hit it big in 1962 with "Frosty," a million-selling single. Teenagers Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter, both raised in Beaumont, were in the studio when he recorded the song. According to Collins, Joplin correctly predicted that the single would become a hit. The tune quickly became part of his ongoing repertoire, and was still part of his live shows more than 30 years later, in the mid-'80s. Collins' percussive, ringing guitar style became his trademark, as he would use his right hand to pluck the strings. Blues-rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix cited Collins as an influence in any number of interviews he gave.

Through the rest of the 1960s, Collins continued to work day jobs while pursuing his music with short regional tours and on weekends. He recorded for other small Texas labels, including Great Scott, Brylen and TFC. In 1968, Bob "The Bear" Hite from the blues-rock group Canned Heat took an interest in the guitarist's music, traveling to Houston to hear him live. Hite took Collins to California, where he was immediately signed to Imperial Records. By later 1968 and 1969, the '60s blues revival was still going on, and Collins got wider exposure opening for groups like the Allman Brothers at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Collins based his operations for many years in Los Angeles before moving to Las Vegas in the late '80s.

He recorded three albums for the Imperial label before jumping to Tumbleweed Records. There, several singles were produced by Joe Walsh, since the label was owned by the Eagles' producer Bill Szymczyk. The label folded in 1973. Despite the fact that he didn't record much through the 1970s and into the early '80s, he had gotten sufficient airplay around the U.S. with his singles to be able to continue touring, and so he did, piloting his own bus from gig to gig until at least 1988, when he and his backing band were finally able to use a driver. Collins' big break came about in 1977, when he was signed to the Chicago-based Alligator Records, and he released his brilliant debut for the label in 1978, Ice Pickin'. Collins recorded six more albums for the label, culminating in 1986's Cold Snap, on which organist Jimmy McGriff performs. It was at Alligator Records that Collins began to realize that he could sing adequately, and working with his wife Gwen, he co-wrote many of his classic songs, including items like "Mastercharge," and "Conversation With Collins."

His other albums for Alligator include Live in Japan, Don't Lose Your Cool, Frozen Alive! and Frostbite. An album he recorded with fellow guitarists Robert Cray and Johnny "Clyde" Copeland for Alligator in 1985, Showdown! brought a Grammy award for all three musicians. His Cold Snap, released in 1986, was nominated for a Grammy award.

In 1989, Collins signed with the Pointblank subsidiary of major label Virgin Records, and his debut, Iceman, was released in 1991. The label released the compilation Collins Mix in 1993. Other compact-disc reissues of his early recordings were produced by other record companies who saw Collins' newfound popularity on the festival and theater circuit, and they include Complete Imperial Recordings on EMI Records (1991) and Truckin' With Albert Collins (1992) on MCA Records. Collins' sessionography is also quite extensive. The albums he performs on include David Bowie's Labyrinth, John Zorn's Spillane, Jack Bruce's A Question of Time, John Mayall's Wake Up Call, B.B. King's Blues Summit, Robert Cray's Shame and a Sin, and Branford Marsalis' Super Models in Deep Conversation.

Although he'd spent far too much time in the 1970s without recording, Collins could sense that the blues were coming back stronger in the mid-'80s, with interest in Stevie Ray Vaughan at an all-time high. Collins enjoyed some media celebrity in the last few years of his life, via concert appearances at Carnegie Hall, on Late Night with David Letterman, in the Touchstone film, Adventures in Babysitting, and in a classy Seagram's Wine Cooler commercial with Bruce Willis. The blues revival that Collins, Vaughan and the Fabulous Thunderbirds helped bring about in the mid-'80s has continued into the mid-'90s. But sadly, Collins has not been able to take part in the ongoing evolution of the music.

BIOGRAPHY ~ Alligator Records

There has never been and may never be again a bluesman quite like Albert Collins. "The Master Of The Telecaster" was born on October 1, 1932, in Leona, Texas. A cousin of the legendary Lightnin' Hopkins, Collins emerged with a blues sound and style all his own, featuring a combination of icy echo, shattering, ringing, sustained high notes, an ultra-percussive right-hand attack, and an unheard-of minor key guitar tuning (taught to him by his cousin Willow Young). Deeply influenced by T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker and Gatemouth Brown, Collins absorbed the sounds of Mississippi, Chicago, and especially Texas. He formed his own band in 1952, packing clubs around Houston. In the early 1960s, Collins' "cool sound" instrumentals like the million-seller Frosty (recorded with a young Johnny Winter and Janis Joplin in attendance at the studio) and follow-ups Sno Cone and Thaw Out were all over R&B radio. Soon he was sharing stages with his idols Gatemouth Brown and T-Bone Walker.

Then, in the mid-'60s (following a move from Texas to Kansas City to California), Collins broke into the rock 'n' roll world, releasing three albums produced by members of Canned Heat, and began playing the San Francisco psychedelic circuit. But Albert's greatest success came after he signed with Alligator in 1978 and cut Ice Pickin'. It won the Best Blues Album of the Year Award from the Montreux Jazz Festival, and was nominated for a Grammy. His following Alligator albums helped earn Collins every award the blues world had to offer. And, along with Johnny Copeland and Robert Cray (who decided on a career as a bluesman after seeing Collins play his high school prom) Collins cut the Grammy-winning Showdown!.

Even after he was firmly established as a major modern bluesman, Collins never got too big for his fans and friends, and never took things easy. And he never relinquished the wheel of his battered tour bus that he loved to drive so much. Along with his band, The Icebreakers, Collins' live shows -- driven by his kinetic stage presence -- were legendary testaments to the power of the blues. With his untimely death in 1993, Albert Collins left behind a blues legacy that continues to amaze and delight blues fans all over the world.


Tracklist -

01. Brick
02. Ego Trip
03. Lights Are on But Nobody's Home
04. Too Tired
05. Don't Lose Your Cool
06. Give Me My Blues
07. Highway Is Like a Woman
08. Frosty [Live]
09. Things I Used to Do [Live]
10. Tired Man [Live]
11. Master Charge
12. When a Guitar Plays the Blues
13. Hooked on You

138 MB - mp3 @ 320 kbps - covers included





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Albert Collins - Truckin' With Albert Collins (1969)




Tracklist:

01 Frosty
02 Hot 'N Cold
03 Frostbite
04 Tremble
05 Thaw Out
06 Dyin' Flu
07 Don't Lose Your Cool
08 Backstroke
09 Kool-Aide
10 Shiver And Shake
11 Icy Blue
12 Snow-Cone II

Size: 61 Mb
Bitrate: 256 Kbps
Covers: Front, Back & Inside




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Albert Collins - The Complete Imperial Recordings (1991)




TrackList:

CD 1:

01. Do The Sissy
02. Collins' Mix
03. Let's Get It Together
04. Got a Good Thing Goin'
05. All About My Girl
06. Stump Poker
07. Let's Get It Together Again
08. Ain't Got Time
09. Turnin' On
10. Whatcha Say (I Don't Know)
11. Pushin'
12. Doin' My Thing
13. Harris County Line-Up
14. Conversation With Collins
15. Jawing
16. Grapeland Gossip
17. Chatterbox
18. Trash Talkin'


CD 2:

01. Baby, What You Want Me To Do/Rock Me Baby
02. Lip Service
03. Things That I Used To Do
04. Back-Yard Back-Talk
05. Tongue Lashing
06. And Then It Started Raining
07. Soul Food
08. Jam It Up
09. Do What You Want To Do
10. Black Bottom Bayou
11. Junkey Monkey
12. 69 Underpass Roadside Inn
13. I Need You So
14. Bitsey
15. Cool 'N Collards
16. Blend Down And Jam
17. Sweet 'N' Sour
18. Swamp Sauce

Size: 138 Mb
Bitrate: 192 Kbps
Covers: Front & Back




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A.Collins, R.Cray & J.Copeland (1985) - Showdown




Tracklist:

01 T-Bone Shuffle
02 The Moon Is Full
03 Lion's Den
04 She's Into Something
05 Bring Your Fine Self Home
06 Black Cat Bone
07 The Dream
08 Albert's Alley
09 Blackjack

@ 320k; 100 MB


Line Up:
Albert Collins (vocals, guitar, harmonica)
Robert Cray (vocals, guitar)
Johnny Copeland (vocals, guitar)
Allen Batts (organ)
Johnny B. Gayden (bass)
Casey Jones (drums)





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Albert Collins - Cold Snap [MFSL] (1986)




Tracklist:

01. Cash Talkin' (The Workingman's Blues)
02. Bending Like A Willow Tree
03. A Good Fool Is Hard To Find
04. Lights Are On But Nobody's Home
05. I Ain't Drunk
06. Hooked On You
07. Too Many Dirty Dishes
08. Snatchin' It Back
09. Fake I.D.

Size: 99 Mb
Bitrate: 320 Kbps
Covers: Front & Back




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Albert Collins - Deluxe Edition (1997)




Tracklist -

01 I Ain't Drunk
02 If You Love Me Like You Say
03 Blue Monday Hangover
04 Melt Down
05 Master Charge
06 Too Tired
07 If Trouble Was Money
08 T-Bone Shuffle
09 Get To Gettin'
10 ...But I Was Cool!
11 Cold Cuts
12 When The Welfare Turns Its Back On You
13 A Good Fool Is Hard To Find

83.3 MB - mp3 @ 192 kbps - covers included




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Albert Collins & The Icebreakers - The Iceman At Mount Fuji (1995)




Tracklist:

01. Iceman
02. Put The Shoe On The Other Foot
03. Light's Are On But Nobody's Home
04. If You Love Me Like You Say
05. Same Old Thing
06. Travelin' South
07. Iceman (Extended Jam) (Version)
08. Put The Shoe On The Other Foot (Version)
09. Light's Are On But Nobody's Nome (Version)
10. Honey Hush
11. Same Old Thing (Version)
12. Frosty

Size: 190 Mb
Bitrate: 320 Mb
Covers: Front & Back




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Albert Collins & The Icebreakers - Live In Japan (1984)


While Albert Collins' LIVE IN JAPAN doesn't achieve the incredible audience rapport of B.B. King's LIVE AT THE REGAL or reach the musically telepathic heights of THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND AT FILLMORE EAST, it does offer a fine snapshot of a talented veteran band at work, churning out honest, gutbucket funky blues circa 1982. LIVE IN JAPAN came in the middle of Collins' long tenure on Alligator, and the Icebreakers were his steady band for most of that time. Tenor man A.C. Reed was a recording artist in his own right, and Collins generously gives Reed a spot at the vocal mike in this set, for the stompin' shuffle "Jealous Man." Generally, though, it's Collins' show, and he makes the most of it, coming out stinging on the opening vamp "Listen Here," stretching out on the set's other slow blues, "If Trouble Was Money," and doing a cool segue from "Stormy Monday" into the instrumental "Skatin'."

Recorded live at Kudan Kaikan, Tokyo, Japan on December 21, 1982. Originally released on Yupiteru Records.


Tracklist:

01. Listen Here!
02. Tired Man
03. If Trouble Was Money
04. Jealous Man
05. Stormy Monday
06. Skatin'
07. All About My Girl

Size: 99 Mb
Bitrate: 320 Kbps
Covers: Front & Back





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Albert Collins - Ice Pickin' (1978)


Of all the slabs of blues-guitar brilliance in Albert Collins's discography, ICE PICKIN', his landmark 1978 debut for Alligator Records, is arguably the best. In the '70s, Collinshad moved beyond his earlier R&B-themed groove instrumentals, and was writing more traditional blues tunes (with versesand choruses) that still showcased his playing. On the funky opener, "Honey, Hush! (Talking Woman Blues)", for example,his full-toned Telecaster slides in for quick embellishments and accents during the body of the song, before opening upinto a ferocious, angular solo. "Cold, Cold Feeling" is a smoldering, down-tempo blues that finds Collins playing against the song's spaces with searching, soulful leads.
Collins is joined by a seamlessly tight backing band here, including a keyboardist, tenor and baritone saxes, and a crack rhythm section. The group rollicks on "Too Tired", tones it down for the funny narrative of "Conversation with Collins", and locks in at mid-tempo for "Ice Pick" (on which Collins plays syncopated figures with stinging intensity). Collins's style, which involves a full, distinctive tone, rhythmic finger picking, and a sometimes quirky, but always soulful, sense of phrasing, is in full flower throughout. This is a superbdate from one of the blues-guitar greats.


Tracklist -

01 Honey, Hush!
02 When The Welfare Turns Its Back On You
03 Ice Pick
04 Cold, Cold Feeling
05 Too Tired
06 Master Charge
07 Conversation With Collins
08 Avalanche

85.3 MB - mp3 @ 320 kbps - covers included




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Albert Collins - Frostbite (1980)


Frostbite was the first indication that Albert Collins' Alligator albums were going to follow something of a formula. The album replicated all of the styles and sounds of Ice Pickin', but the music lacked the power of its predecessor. Nevertheless, there was a wealth of fine playing on the album, even if the quality of the songs themselves is uneven.


Tracklist:

01. If You Love Me Like You Say
02. Blue Monday Hangover
03. I Got A Problem
04. Highway Is Like A Woman
05. Brick
06. Don't Go Reaching Across My Plate
07. Give Me My Blues
08. Snowed In

Size: 59 Mb
Bitrate: 192 kbps
Covers: Front, Back, CD & Inside




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Albert Collins - Frozen Alive (1981)


Frozen Alive! demonstrates the exuberant power of Albert Collins in concert and contains enough first-rate solos to make it a worthwhile listen for fans of his icy style.


Tracklist:

01. Frosty
02. Angel Of Mercy
03. I Got That Feeling
04. Caldonia
05. Things I Used To Do
06. Got A Mind To Travel
07. Cold Cuts

Size: 84 Mb
Bitrate: 320 Kbps
Covers: Front, Back & Inside



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