Maybe this half-century commemoration of the Chicago-based, blues-focused label should have been titled, "The Last of the Independents."

Almost alone of the mid-major labels that formerly thrived in the 1980s and '90s by specializing in non-mainstream styles of music, Alligator has managed to navigate stunning changes in the music business—from the vinyl of LPs and 45s to cassettes and CDs, and then, most recently, the virtual collapse of the retail record business and wholesale pivot to online digital sales.

While those other specialty independents—from the folk label Rounder to the bluegrass-oriented Sugar Hill, the Bay Area rock label Fantasy to the Midwestern jazz label Telarc—were merging or being bought, Alligator has soldiered on doing its own thing, its own way.

That ability to chart its own course may largely be attributed to what's found on this new 3-CD box set: Alligator did for late-20th Century blues what labels like Blue Note, Verve, Riverside and others did for mid-century jazz: Not only gave it a home, but celebrated it. Loved it, really.

Just as