Howlin’ Wolf, the London Sessions.

Wolf did a session in London in the 1960’s. I have no doubt that he acted as a magnet for all those Brit musicians who were heavily influenced by the Chicago bluesmen. So here we have Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, even Ringo Star having a go! Hubert Sumlin, regular Chess label guitarist was given special dispensation to fly over to help out; but really this was Wolf and the Brits together.

It comes out okay, but there is definitely something missing. Is it over-produced? Is there too much ‘cleverness’ going on? Particularly with Clapton – sometimes less is more.

Almost a side note to this album is 19 year old American harmonica prodigy Jeffery Carp. He was given the green light by the Chess production team to cross the pond to give some 'Chess style' harp playing. Jeffrey Carp is somewhat of a mystery, even his death remains a puzzle (he is said to have drowned jumping off a boat in the Gulf of Mexico and his body was never found).

The recording is well worth having. I particularly like the Wolf doing ‘Sittin’ on top of the world’, in fact more than the original 1958 single version. The ’58 version has Wolf on a ‘Bb’ harp, on the London version I believe it’s Carp on the harp playing on an ‘A’; it’s a little more elaborated in the key riffs; adding more bounce than the more doleful ’58 version.