Canned Heat - Collaborations

Collaborations

Canned Heat have collaborated with many blues artists, recording and helping them to regain some notoriety. Notable names include:

John Lee Hooker – In 1971, Canned Heat backed John Lee Hooker on the album Hooker 'n Heat. In 1978 a joint performance was recorded live and released as Hooker 'n Heat, live at the Fox Venice Theatre (1981). In 1989 Canned Heat (and many others) guested on John Lee Hooker's album The Healer.
Sunnyland Slim – In the spring of 1968, Wilson, Bob Hite, and de la Parra took a cab whose driver turned out to be Sunnyland Slim. Wilson and Hite convinced him to go in the studio again and cut an album for a sublabel of Liberty Records. The album, Slim's Got His Thing Goin' On featured tracks with Slim fronting Canned Heat and Hite acted as co-producer. Slim thanked them by playing the piano on "Turpentine Moan" for the album Boogie with Canned Heat.
Memphis Slim – In Paris, on September 18, 1970, Canned Heat went into the studio at the request of French music producer Phillipe Rault to record with Memphis Slim. Three years later and after an overdubbing session with the Memphis Horns of Stax Records fame, Memphis Heat was finally released on the French label, Barclay (and was re-released in 2006 on Sunnyside Recordings).
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown – In 1973, Canned Heat went again in France to record for Rault, this time with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. The sessions did not work out as planned but the album was released as Gate's on the Heat and another track appeared in 1975 on his album Down South in the Bayou Country. Later they joined him for a set at the Montreux Jazz Festival. A DVD of the performance was released.
Javier Batiz – During the summer of 1969, de La Parra arranged in Los Angeles a recording session for Mexican R&B star Javier Batiz with whom he had played before moving north and joining Canned Heat. His band mate Larry Taylor took part in the project and also three musicians who in later years would perform with the band (two as members of the band): Tony de la Barreda (bass), Ernest Lane (piano) and Clifford Solomon (sax). The recording was released some 30 years later as The USA Sessions.
Albert Collins – In early 1969, Canned Heat met Collins after a gig and advised him to move to L.A. in order to boost his career; there they found him an agent and introduced him to executives for UA. In appreciation, Collins' first record title for UA became Love Can Be Found Anywhere, taken from the lyrics of "Fried Hockey Boogie".
Henry Vestine – A recording project from 1981 has been released more than twenty years later under Vestine's name as I Used To Be Mad (but Now I am Half Crazy). The musicians on the album are the Canned Heat members at that time: Vestine (guitar), Mike Halby (vocals, guitar), Ernie Rodrigues (vocals, bass), Ricky Kellogg (vocals, harmonica) and de La Parra (drums).
De la Parra and Walter de Paduwa, aka Dr. Boogie, have compiled an album of blues selected from Bob Hite's collection Rarities from the Bob Hite Vault, Sub Rosa SRV 271. Included are tracks by a dozen artists such as Pete Johnson, Johnny Otis, Clarence Brown, Otis Rush, Etta James and Elmore James.
Naftalina - In 1983, Fito de la Parra, along with some old friends and fellow Mexican rock groups I play with in the 60's, such as Los Sparks, Los Hooligans and Los Sinners, played the first album of Naftalina, covers of rock n roll 50´s - 60's, with versions full of black humor and sarcasm involved: Tony de la Barreda (bass and production), Federico Arana (guitar and lyrics), Eduardo Toral (piano), Baltasar Mena (vocals), Renato López (vocals), Angel Miranda (drums), Freddy Armstrong (guitar), Guillermo Briseno (piano) and Adolfo de la Parra (drums).