Chuck Berry’s legendary breakthrough 1950s Chess recordings has gotten their first thorough presentation anywhere via a 4-CD, 103-song box set on Chess/Hip-O Select Records. These are the groundbreaking recordings by the first poet laureate of rock ’n’ roll that set the tone lyrically and musically for all that came after. To paraphrase John Lennon, if they didn’t call it rock ’n’ roll, they’d call it Chuck Berry music, and this remarkable new set shows why. Digitally remastered from the original Chess masters, the collection features not only such oft-covered classics as “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Rock And Roll Music,” “Memphis,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Carol,” and “Little Queenie,” but it also shows the evolution of the artist and his songs, while presenting a surfeit of rarities, including 16 previously unreleased tracks. 　　With the exception of two live recordings, all of these tracks were recorded at Chess Studios from May 21, 1955, through a massive late July 1959 session, which culminated in the only time Berry played session lead guitar for an artist other than himself: two tracks by a studio group called the Ecuadors. Other rarities on the set, aside from the unreleased tracks, include a pair of live versions of “Maybellene” and “Roll Over Beethoven” Chuck recorded for Alan Freed’s 1956 New York “Camel Rock ’n’ Roll Dance Party” album, several original masters overdubbed for the fake On Stage Chess album, and a number of recordings making their U.S. CD debut. 　　The unreleased recordings include take 3 of “Sweet Little Sixteen,” which is one of five versions of the song that tells the story of its recording—from its demonstration record to two rejected (and intriguingly different) session takes to the original master to the sped-up master finally released by Chess. There are also unreleased alternate takes at different tempos than those released, some with different lyrics, and one (for “Broken Arrow”) which features Chuck Berry instructing his backup singers in their parts. And, finally, there is a pair of previously unreleased 11 minutes-plus in-studio jams featuring Chuck with pianist Johnnie Johnson, bassist Willie Dixon, and drummer Jasper Thomas – a blues called “Long Slow Jam” and a rocker called, suitably, “Long Fast Jam” from 1958. 　　All of this remarkable music is elaborated on by tidbits of studio dialog, complete session by session credits, a ’50s Chuck Berry singles discography, period photos, and comprehensive liner notes by Chuck Berry’s discographer/biographer Fred Rothwell, author of Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry’s Recorded Legacy, who also compiled the set with Universal’s reissue producer Andy McKaie.