The Aces (blues band)
The Aces were one of the first and most influential bands in the Chicago electric blues . They combined the rural country blues from the southern United States with elements of the upbeat jazz that was played in Chicago in the 1940s . As a backing band to Little Walter , they recorded a number of hits in the first half of the 1950s.
Band history
The brothers Dave (1926–2001; guitar, bass) and Louis Myers (1929–1994; guitar, harmonica) came to Chicago with their family in 1941 from Mississippi . They appeared together as "The Little Boys". With Junior Wells (1934–1998; harmonica) as the third man, they first called themselves “The Three Deuces”, then “The Three Aces”. In the early 1950s, drummer Fred Below (1926–1988) joined them and they became “The Four Aces”, and finally just “The Aces”.
In 1952 Wells joined Muddy Waters' band . Little Walter, who had just left Muddy Waters, hired the remaining Aces as his backing band and named them "The Jukes" ("Little Walter & His Jukes"), after the great success of his instrumental title Juke . With Little Walter, the Aces recorded a number of hits including Mean Old World , Sad Hours , Off the Wall and Tell Me Mama .
In the mid-1950s, the former Aces members one after the other left Little Walter's band to work as studio musicians . New musicians in Walter's band included Robert Lockwood Jr. , Luther Tucker and Odie Payne . The Myers brothers went on tour again in the 1970s as "The Aces", Dave Myers later founded "The New Aces".
Web links
- The Aces at Allmusic (English)
- Dave Myers at Allmusic (English)
- Louis Myers at Allmusic (English)