Little Brother Montgomery - No Special Rider Blues (CD)

Release Date: 01/20/23

Little Brother Montgomery was much more than a Chicago blues piano player - he also entertained with boogie woogie, ragtime, jazz and popular songs.

'In March 1980 I was privileged to see Little Brother Montgomery playing solo at London's 100 Club, which was recorded by John Stedman. The 100 Club's grand piano was ideal for Brother, who delivered a terrific set of varied material, infusing so much life into those great old blues he had recorded fifty years before. I was especially thrilled to hear him play the masterpiece 'Vicksburg Blues', recorded for Paramount Records in 1930 and other tunes like 'Chinese Man Blues', from his Bluebird session in 1936. I remember that the UK blues guitarist and singer Dave Peabody, (who opened for Brother), seemed stunned by the fact he was sharing a dressing room with someone who had known Blind Blake.' Ray Templeton

Little Brother Montgomery was not just a Chicago blues piano player. He was an entertainer who played blues, boogie woogie, ragtime, jazz and popular songs. He began an extensive recording career in September 1930 and continued to record through to the early 1980s. He toured the world, sometimes as a solo artist or as part of a touring package of US blues artists.

'He could play anything for anybody. It's an insurance policy for the full-time musician and there have been long spells when he has drawn on it. In the 1930s he led bands and played sweet music when paying customers wanted it. In Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s where blues livings were hard won, and not often by men of his age and musical inclinations, he went over to traditional jazz.' Tony Russell

The great Chicago blues pianist Sunnyland Slim summed up Little Brother Montgomery's piano playing perfectly when he said: 'Brother can play things none of the rest of us would think of playing.'