Paul Kossoff - Session Man, Vol. 5

All Music Guide

If Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page (available elsewhere within the Session Man series) represented the first wave of British guitar gods, Peter Green (ditto) and Paul Kossoff highlighted the second, essentially purist bluesmen whose curse was that they would never rise as high as they should. Kossoff's story is particularly sad; between 1969, when Free first emerged onto a welcoming London club scene with the single which opens this collection, and the guitarist's death seven years later, he barely hinted at what he was truly capable of, and left only the vaguest suggestion of what he'd done. Free's own memory was swiftly effaced by the future exploits of Bad Company, and, if it wasn't for the mega-smash that was "Alright Now," would anyone even care today? Hopefully they would. The three Free tracks which belie this album's title remain matchless examples of the band's sheer vitality and Kossoff's peerless vision. Even more exciting, however, are the things which Kossoff got u...p to outside of the band. His playing on Martha Velez' Fiends and Angels album eclipses pretty much everything else on that record, and that includes fellow guest Eric Clapton, while producer Mike Vernon was so enamored by the young prodigy that when he came to make his own solo album, Kossoff was one of the first names on his guest list. His contributions to the Jim Capaldi and Amazing Blondel tracks are equally startling; he coaxes a lovely solo through the heart of "Oh How We Danced," while "Hole in the Head" is built around precisely the kind of lead lines which remain the fan's fondest memory of Free. Delicate, heartbreaking, but almost supernaturally intense, Kossoff raises a flippantly insignificant lyric to untold heights of meaning and importance. Unbelievable. The disc closes with a rare glimpse of Free before they were worth even that much, four tracks catching Black Cat Bones (as they were then known) live at London's Marquee, with a mix which favors Kossoff's guitar above anything else in the room. Listenable more for historical reasons than actual musical enjoyment, they nevertheless add a little more to our understanding of Paul Kossoff, and a lot more to the sense of loss which the thought of his passing still leaves. - Dave Thompson, All Music Guide Read more Less