Ever heard of Z.Z. Hill? I hadn't until just a few days ago. I've recently set out to help a technologically disadvantaged friend and local New Orleans record collector digitize some vinyl. It's a bit time consuming but, I don't know that I can in good conscience call it 'work', as I'm listening to records for hours a day, learning about music I never knew existed and getting to keep the recordings. I don't imagine everyone gets to spend their days like this, so I thought it'd be cool to share some of the discoveries I make during the project.
The sheer number of amazing black artists whose work never broke through the mainstream Billboard charts, made in onto the radio stations, TV programs or into the magazines I've known in my life is staggering to imagine when I look through the stacks of wax I am preparing to transfer. I wouldn't consider myself a music scholar but feel well informed enough in the musical lexicon of the last fifty or so years to consider these observations relevant, and I'd like to start out by sharing a bit about Z.Z. Hill.
A Texas born, contemporary blues singer, he had mild commercial success throughout the 1960s-70's, culminating w/a breakthrough record: His 1982 release "Down Home Blues" became the first blues LP since B.B. King's "The Thrill is Gone" to sell more than one million copies. Unfortunately, Hill's career and life were cut short when he suffered a fatal heart attack in April of 1984 at the age of 48.
While those familiar with Hill are most certainly acquainted w/"Down Home Blues", I'd like to concentrate on a 1972 release Z.Z. recorded for the legendary Muscle Shoals, AL producer and artist, Jerry "Swamp Dogg" Williams on Williams' own Mankind label. "The Brand New" is a hard to find piece truly worthy of revival and attention. A relationship concept album of sorts, we follow the trials and "trib-au-lations" of young Z.Z. through 10-tracks of uncertainty, hopeful promises and candid self-reflection, culminating in a wedding. Whether or not it was to the right woman, we may never know. I'm a sucker for the concept album (Willie Nelson's "Redheaded Stranger" is an all time favorite), but what this record has that much of the contemporary Southern and Chicago 12-bar blues I'm familiar with does not (Clarence Carter, Lonnie Brooks, BB King, and the like), is a theme, coupled with production perfectly matched to the progression. It isn't a collection of tracks, it's an album, and a damn good one at that.
Check it out here.
