COLLECTION (16CD)
REVIEW
The "Blowing The Fuse" series of CD compilations stretches across 16 volumes from 1945 to 1960 and was then followed by Bear Family's equally magnificent "Sweet Soul Music" series of 15 sets from 1961 to 1975.
Released between 2004 and 2006, each US-based yearly compilation comes in a 3-way foldout card digipak sleeve. The left flap pictures either a 7" single or album relevant to the year, the centre flap holds an 80 to 90 page oversized booklet that slips out so you can read it separately and the right flap a colour-themed CD that matches the outer packaging. As with the "Sweet Soul Music (2)" compilations, each of the 16 R&B spines makes up a whole photo when placed alongside each other (a fantastic black & white shot of a crowd of hip dudes and their gals dancing at some Saturday night bar). As you can see from the cover photos of these compilations too, the theme of people dancing and artists enjoying themselves is repeated right across all of these wonderfully restored photographs (they're from The Showtime Music Archive, Toronto).
Dave "Daddy Cool" Booth (David Booth) contributes as Re-Issue Producer, Disc Transfers, Original Discs source, Tape Researcher and Discographical Data. Each set mixes in the famous with the obscure, beginning in January and running in rough chronological order through December.
Bear Family have gotten all the ORIGINAL master tapes from each record company (both Mono and Stereo) and their resident expert Jürgen Crasser has mastered them with care - and given the wildly varying sources, the sound is uniformly glorious.
Each booklet has an intro on Page 4, the text for the songs begins on Page 5 and runs to page 80+. Each artist is pictured using quality publicity shots, the 7" single itself is there - or if not a trade advert for the label - and every now and then - a beautiful full colour plate of lesser-seen album sleeves. Each song then has a 2 to 3 page essay on its history by noted writer Colin Escott with knowledgeable contributions from Bill Millar and David Booth and Marv Goldberg's online R&B site. And because the booklet allows Escott to spread out on each song, the details come thick and fast - like Bill Dahl's work on "Sweet Soul Music".
In summary, this Compilation series has great track choices, properly remastered sound and all of it wrapped up in a knowledgeable and sumptuous presentation.