The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions

The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions is an album by blues musician Howlin' Wolf, released in the summer of 1971 on Chess Records, catalogue CH 60008. It was one of the first of the super session blues albums, setting a blues master among famous musicians from the second generation of rock and roll, such as Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman. It peaked at #79 on the Billboard 200.

History

Backstage at the Fillmore Auditorium, after a concert by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag, and Cream, Chess Records staff producer Norman Dayron spotted the guitar players of the latter two bands, Michael Bloomfield and Eric Clapton, talking and joking around. Dayron approached Clapton and, on impulse, asked "how would you like to do an album with Howlin' Wolf?"The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, Deluxe Edition, MCA 088 112 985-2, 2002. Liner Notes, p. 4. According to the notes, Dayron stated that the plan "was hatched in '69 or '70." His dates and concerts must be confused; Bill Graham moved the Fillmore from its original location to become the Fillmore West in 1968, the same year Cream played its farewell concerts and Bloomfield quit Electric Flag, having left the Butterfield Band previously. It is possible that Dayron saw Clapton backstage at one of the recorded Al Kooper/Bloomfield shows at the Fillmore West in September of 1968, or saw Bloomfield backstage at a Blind Faith concert in Oakland in August of 1969, or even in...
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