A functional, focused document of early electric blues — technically unadorned, emotionally direct, structurally repetitive. Its power lies in what it omits: no embellishment, no explanation, no departure from the form.
Live at the Regal is a 1965 live blues album by B.B. King, recorded on 21 November 1964 at the Regal Theater in Chicago. King’s backing band included Duke Jethro on piano, Leo Lauchie on bass, Kenneth Sands on trumpet, Johnny Board and Bobby Forte on tenor saxes, and Sonny Freeman on drums. Jethro was scheduled to play organ but switched to piano after his organ broke — despite not knowing how to play it. King later said the session was among his best because ‘that particular day in Chicago everything came together’. The album was recorded live with no overdubs or edits.