(3CD)
As a teenager, McDaniel played and sang the blues on the streets of
Chicago, and in 1933, he joined a washboard band called the Rhythm
Rascals. In the early '40s, McDaniel learned to play the electric guitar
and joined the Four Blazes, a jump blues combo that later became the Five
Blazes and recorded for Aristocrat in 1947 and United Artists in
1952-1953.
The Blazes went through their share of personnel changes; some of the
artists McDaniel played with in the group included bassist Thomas Braden
and pianist Ernie Harper. After the Blazes drifted apart in the late '50s,
McDaniel was involved in a variety of activities, including operating a
tavern on Chicago's South Side in the '50s and '60s and playing with a
version of the Ink Spots in the '70s.
In the '80s, McDaniel joined forces with Dave Clark, a veteran tenor
saxophonist who ended up joining McDaniel's final group, the Blues
Swingers. McDaniel, who recorded for Delmark in the 1990s, died in Chicago
on July 23, 1995, only two days after his 80th birthday.