Fleetwood Mac in Chicago: The Legendary Chess Blues Session, January 4, 1969

This is a pretty expensive book, but well worth it (especially if you have an Amazon token from your Daughter for Father’s Day!). When I bought the original double vinyl album, as a teenager at the end of the 60s, I was fascinated by the dozens of tiny photos inside the cover. I tried in vain to view them through a magnifying glass, but can now see them in glorious quality, full size, and with plenty more that I’m sure were not on the old album sleeve. We also get lots of background information from such luminaries as Mike Vernon (the man who produced the sessions), Marshall Chess (in whose studios the recordings were made) and various others who were either there, or wish they had been!In my opinion this is an indispensable item for all those of a certain age who will never forget that great Fleetwood Mac lineup.

Jeff Lowenthal’s unique photos from Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac’s visit to Chicago’s Ter-Mar studio in January 1969 are given a well-deserved presentation in this fine hardback book. Besides the photos - many previously unpublished - the book gives a voice to fans, associates and key people who were there as events unfolded. Particularly nice to see new, albeit brief, interviews with Kim Simmonds and Aynsley Dunbar. A great addition to the slim book shelf of Peter Green literature.

A fantastic photo history of an amazing event in blues history. Great quality black and white and colour pictures taken in an intimate setting in the world famous Chess studios. Excellent commentary and interviews with many musicians and foreword by Mike Vernon, producer of the Bluesbreaker album with Eric Clapton and Marshall Chess. Worth every penny!

This book is a fascinating visual time capsule featuring b&w and colour photographs of the session, on Saturday January 4th, 1969 at the Chess Ter-Mar Studios, at which Britain’s premier blues band met and jammed with Chicago greats such as Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy and Otis Spann – these being some of the artists who had first turned Mac onto the blues.Session photographer and co-author Jeff Lowenthal’s favourite subjects have always been musicians but his portfolio includes portraits of comedian Lenny Bruce and film star Sissy Spacek.Informed hindsight is to be found in written contributions and interviews with Mac contemporaries such as ex-John Mayall's Bluesbreaker, drummer Aynsley Dunbar, and Savoy Brown’s Kim Simmonds, plus next-generation blues stars such as Joe Bonamassa, for whom Peter Green has always been a hero. These interviews were compiled by co-author, Robert Schaffner.As session co-producer Mike Vernon points out in his Foreword, this session marked the last time Mac would record straight blues as a band: the following week in a New York studio, an early recording was made of Man Of The World - Peter Green’s melodic, introspective lament and future hit single. This, along with the chart-topping instrumental Albatross in effect reinvented a band determined to move forward by honing a broader take on the blues. In doing so they went on to reach a much wider audience.Previously, Peter Green had given some indication of what that broader take might be when he told a journalist that he considered The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby to be blues. Ironically though, Mac’s more commercial new blues-based material would not be made with the record label that launched them and also produced this Chess session – Mike and Richard Vernon’s Blue Horizon. After a one-single stay in spring 1969 with Immediate, they signed with Warner Bros Reprise.In addition to Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon and Otis Spann, also present were: one-time Elmore James’ sideman J.T. Brown on tenor sax; Delta blues guitarist and singer David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards who in the 1930s had often performed with Robert Johnson; harmonica player Shakey Horton; and Muddy Waters’ drummer S.P. Leary.One story goes that initially some of these Chicagoans were sceptical about the young, long-haired Englishmen. Mac bassist, John McVie felt rather put-out by this and reportedly there was some tension between him and Willie Dixon on upright bass about the right basslines for one track. Mac’s musicality and blues-cred soon shone through, though, and some memorable moments were taped which at the end of that year came out on Blue Horizon as the 22-track double album Blues Jam at Chess. Its centrefold sleeve featured 105 35mm contact-print sized photos, which are reproduced full-size in this book, plus over 50 unseen shots. The album did not chart, though.Jeff Lowenthal’s keen eye and silent Leica camera went to work during recording, and during breaks between takes. Especially, it is shots taken during the latter which now allow the reader to check out the faces and the body language, and then form their own opinion about the vibes and interactions going on in the studio.Peter Green looks at ease, enjoying himself and unwittingly in charge; Jeremy Spencer is clearly delighted to be playing with an Elmore James ex-sideman; Mick Fleetwood is focused, and John McVie mostly looks down.Danny Kirwan – aged only eighteen at the time – is captured in a couple of shots looking somewhat alone and bewildered. Unsurprisingly so - here was this young Brixton blues boy, long long ways from home for the first time in his life.To this end, it’s good that several interviews – most notably one with Walter Trout – draw attention to Kirwan’s eerily precocious prowess as a blues guitarist. Naturally, many interviews serve as fitting tributes to the genius and lasting greatness of Peter Green, but this book rightly and fairly places Danny well clear of Peter’s shadow.This book is an obvious must-have for devotees of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. That said, there is gold to be found in some contributions which is of broader interest, particularly in relation to the late-1960s transatlantic blues crossover topic.For instance, on New Year’s Eve four nights earlier, Hamer Guitars co-founder Jol Dantzig, was at the Kinetic Playground music venue in Chicago’s north side. After sets from the Muddy Waters Band and The Byrds, and seeing in 1969, he was feeling sleepy. Then Mac took to the stage. Dantzig recalls: “… Fleetwood Mac launched into their first number – a stunning blues shuffle {Stop Messin’ Round was one Mac opener around that time} that arrived with the power and cadence of a locomotive pulling out of a station, and I was wide awake and wide eyed.” In another interview, the sadly now late Kim Simmonds also references this turbo-charged aspect of Brit-blues: “The British blues is really Chicago blues. We added, I think, a little extra energy to it.”Also in his in-depth Foreword, Mike Vernon recalls the Kinetic Playground Muddy Waters/Byrds/Mac gig the night before the Chess session. As Mac performed he vividly remembers Muddy Waters’ band members in the audience cheering – especially so, Otis Spann.What these mentors joyfully were witnessing was that their ‘mentoring-on-vinyl’ was now complete and had served to make Chicago-rooted blues more accessible to a wider audience.Moving on from that crossroads, everyone was a winner. This book documents – with images and words - the spirit of that seminal era for electric blues.

Great book with lots of fabulous pictures.

Hi,Great.Thank you very much.Cheers.

I’m obsessed with this amazing photo history of a day when a young English blues, Fleetwood Mac, lead by the legendary Peter Green, met, played and recorded with some of their American Blues heroes. An Iconic day at Chess Records, that produced and amazing album! A young photographer, Jeff Lowenthal, was brought in to capture this event and OH BOY, did he!!! Along with over a hundred photos, some never published before, are great interviews and remembrances and anecdotes, from The Mac’s peers, industry insiders and apostles. Robert Schaffner, co author, pulls these all together for a fascinating glance of an exploding music era. An absolute music for any Fleetwood Mac fan, Blues fan or fan of that great period in the late 60’s music scene, that produced so much amazing sound!!!

not much text but a wealth of pictures

photos incroyables du fleetwood mac blues de 1969

A real tribute to Peter Green after more than fifty years from legendary Blues Jam at Chess Session double LP in January 1969. The autors, Lowenthal and Schaffner, recollect memories about the Fleetwood Mac session with main Chicago blues musicians. It's a deep sight on that era. The excellent book, essential and well written, is full of pictures of all musicians attended the sessions (160 pages). Schaffner wrote "this book is a photographic tribute to that double album set" Right, it's true. A visual delight for Peter and Mac fans. Recommended.

For me, and many like me, the Best era of Fleetwood Mac came early on. Soulful, sometimes Blistering Blues were their calling card. Nobody played this stuff better than Peter Green. Now add Danny Kirwan, Jeremy Spencer and host of elite Chicago Bluesmen such as Buddy Guy, Otis Spann and Willie Dixon and you have all the ingredients necessary for a true Super Session! This book is a chronicle of those those fabled Sessions from January 1969. The Brits came to Chi-town to play with the masters. How did it go? Buy this book! Read this book. A Fly on the Wall intimate accounting of those sessions. Gorgeous photos and revelatory text make this book such an experience you'll feel like a privileged guest in the recording studio as it happens. If you have a deep interest in Chicago/British Blues, or if you'd simply like a bit more insight into the enigmatic Mr. Green, you need this in your library. You might say I really enjoyed this book. Indispensable!