Bman's Blues Report

Lowell Fulson (March 31, 1921 – March 7, 1999) was a big-voiced blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. Fulson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also recorded for business reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom. After T-Bone Walker, Fulson was the most important figure in West Coast blues in the 1940s and 1950s According to some sources, Fulson was born on a Choctaw reservation in Oklahoma. Fulson stated that he was of Cherokee ancestry through his father, but he also claimed Choctaw ancestry. At the age of eighteen, he moved to Ada, Oklahoma, and joined Alger "Texas" Alexander for a few months in 1940, but later moved to California, forming a band which soon included a young Ray Charles and tenor saxophone player, Stanley Turrentine. He recorded for Swing Time Records in the 1940s, Chess Records (on the Checker label) in the 1950s, Kent Records in the 1960s, and Rounder Records (Bullseye) in the 1970s. Fulson was drafted in 1943, but left the U...

William Orville "Lefty" Frizzell (March 31, 1928 – July 19, 1975) was an American country music singer and songwriter of the 1950s, and a proponent of honky tonk music. His relaxed style of singing was an influence on later stars Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, George Jones and John Fogerty. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Frizzell was born in [Corsicana, Texas], but shortly after his birth he moved with his family to El Dorado in southern Arkansas, where the Frizzells remained until the early 1940s. Frizzell began playing the guitar as a young boy. By age 12, he was appearing regularly on a children's show at local radio station KELD-AM. The family returned to Texas when Frizzell was still a teenager, his music career receiving a significant boost when he won a talent contest in Dallas. Called Sonny by his family, Frizzell got the nickname Lefty at age 14 after a schoolyard scrap, although his record company falsely suggested he had won a Go...

Etta Baker (March 31, 1913 – September 23, 2006) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer from North Carolina, United States. She was born Etta Lucille Reid in Caldwell County, North Carolina, of African American, Native American, and European American heritage. She played both the 6-string and 12-string forms of the acoustic guitar, as well as the five-string banjo. Baker played the Piedmont Blues for ninety years, starting at the age of three when she could not even hold the guitar properly. She was taught by her father, Boone Reid, who was also a longtime player of the Piedmont Blues on several instruments. Etta Baker was first recorded in the summer of 1956 when she and her father happened across folk singer Paul Clayton while visiting Cone Mansion in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, near their home in Morganton, NC. Baker's father asked Clayton to listen to his daughter playing her signature "One Dime Blues". Clayton was impressed and arrived at the Baker hou...

Franz Jackson (clarinet), Bob Shoffner (trumpet), John Thomas (trombone), Bill Oldham (tuba), Lawrence Dixon (banjo), Richard Curry (drums and Rozelle Claxton (piano) Franz Jackson blew up a storm until age 95. One of the last survivors of the pre-Swing era, and one of only a handful of his contemporaries still playing into the 20th century, the tenor saxophonist/clarinetist/vocalist was, quite literally, a living jazz treasure. He left us on May 6, 2008 to join the other greats who went on before him. Jackson was one of the last musicians to have learned Chicago jazz from its originators. His first professional gig in his 70-plus year career was with stride pianist Albert Ammons in 1929; he was 16. His career continued through the 30’s and 40’s with such jazz luminaries as Albert Ammons, Carroll Dickerson, Jimmy Noone, Walter Barnes, Roy Eldridge, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway and James P. Johnson. He replaced icon Ben Webster in Hender...

One of East Tennesse's Premiere Blues Guitarist, joined by Jay Corder on Saxaphone and Rex Boggs on Vocals and Guitar. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

The buzz on Jennifer Batten rose from the guitar underground, and the guitar magazines promptly began chronicling her savvy musicianship and highly original approach to the electric guitar in print. At one point Batten was in 6 different bands, playing everything from straight ahead rock, to metal,fusion, and funk. A major turning point came when she was selected from over one hundred guitarists to play in Michael Jackson's highly skilled band which toured the world for one and a half years playing for over four and a half million people. Jennifer wasted no time after the” Bad” Tour's grand finale, diving into work on her own album with renown producer (and Stevie Wonder guitarist) Michael Sembello. The stunning results can be heard on “Above, Below, and Beyond”, the title appropriately describing the interesting diversity within. With this debut release, the world at large learned what all the excitement was about. Shortly after the record's release in the spring of ...

Harold Burrage (March 30, 1931, Chicago - November 26, 1966, Chicago) was an American blues and soul musician. Burrage did session work as a pianist in the 1950s and 1960s as well as recording under his own name. He released singles on Decca, Aladdin, States, and Cobra in the 1950s, and for Vee-Jay and M-Pac in the 1960s. Burrage's backing bands included the likes of Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, and Jody Williams, while Burrage supported Magic Sam, Charles Clark, and others as a pianist. Burrage's only national hit was the 1965 Chicago soul song "Got to Find a Way", which reached #31 on the Billboard R&B charts. The following year Burrage died at the home of Tyrone Davis, a musician Burrage influenced   If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band! ...

Niklas Carlson – Vocals/Guitar Rasmus Grip – Guitar, Percussion Björn Jacobson – Harmonica, Percussion Pontus Olsson – Piano, Percussion Johan Olsen – Contrabass Sakarias Larsson – Drums Formed in the fall of 2011, first public appearance in january 2012. Homemade rhythm'n'blues from Stockholm, Sweden. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

This guitarist covered much stylistic territory in his long and active career, starting out in wandering '30s territory bands such as Eddie Johnson's Crackerjacks and winding up smack in the middle of the disco era, playing an important part in the career of singer Loleatta Hollaway, whom he married. Smith's father was a drummer; the boy's entry to guitar was a ukulele and after switching up he went to the trouble of studying music theory in high school. During the late '30s the guitarist was a member of the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and the Sunset Royal Orchestra as well as an outfit known as the Brown Skin Models. Prior to serving overseas during the second World War, Smith also flailed out chord changes behind bandleader Andy Kirk, doing a good enough job that this job was waiting for him when returned to civilian life. Smith began leading his own groups, usually small configurations such as trios. The stepping stone toward his later musical productions was the ki...

Jimmie Noone (or Jimmy Noone; April 23, 1895 – April 19, 1944) was an American jazz clarinetist. Noone was born in Cut Off, Louisiana, and started playing guitar in his home town; at the age of 15, he switched to the clarinet and moved to New Orleans, where he studied with Lorenzo Tio and with the young Sidney Bechet, who was only 13 at the time. By 1912, he was playing professionally with Freddie Keppard in Storyville, and played with Buddy Petit, Kid Ory, Papa Celestin, the Eagle Band, and the Young Olympia Band, before joining the Original Creole Orchestra in Chicago, Illinois in 1917. The following year, he joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, then in 1920 joined Keppard in Doc Cook's band which he would remain with for six years, and make early recordings with. In 1926, he started leading the band at Chicago's Apex Club. This band, Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, was notable for its unusual instrumentation—a front line consisting of just Noone and alto saxoph...

William McKinley Gillum (September 11, 1904 – March 29, 1966), known as Jazz Gillum, was an American blues harmonica player. He was born in Indianola, Mississippi. After running away from home at the age of seven, Gillum spent the next few years in Charleston, Mississippi, working and playing for tips on local street corners. He moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1923, meeting up with the guitarist, Big Bill Broonzy. The duo started working club dates around the city and, by 1934, Gillum started recording for both ARC and Bluebird Records. With his characteristic high, reedy harmonica sound, he appeared on many of the highly popular "Bluebird beat" recordings produced by Lester Melrose in the 1930s and 1940s, under his own name and as a sideman. Gillum was the first to record the blues classic "Key to the Highway" (featuring Broonzy on guitar) utilizing the now-standard melody and 8-bar blues arrangement. (The song had first been recorded a few months earlier by Charli...

I just received the newest (release date April 9, 2013) Duke Robillard release, Independently Blue , and it's killer. Robillard pulls out all of the stops on this release playing some of his best riffs in years. The release opens with Al Basile track I Wouldn't-a Done That , a loping Texas style blues track. Robillard takes a stinging guitar solo on the track and has fine support from Bruce Bears on keys, Brad Hallen on bass, Mark Teixeira on drums and percussion, and featuring guest musicians Monster Mike Welch on guitar, Doug Woolverton on Trumpet and Billy Novick on clarinet. Another Basile track, Below Zero has a real interesting sound with ZZ Top like guitar distortion and a simple blues rock beat. This is a great track! Monster Mike's Stapled To the Chicken's Back is a swing blues instrumental with great lead work. You want to hear classic Robillard, this is it! Robillard and Welch trade smokin' hot riffs on this track pushed along by Hallen and Teixeira. Po...

   PUT THIS IN YOUR PIPE AND TWEET IT: NEW BLUES REVOLUTION CD RELEASE PARTY AT HOUSE OF BLUES/HOLLYWOOD  -- SATURDAY, APRIL 6    (Hollywood) - In a music world where seemingly every band tries to be trendy, New Blues Revolution are transcendent. Where other groups feel a huge sense of accomplishment for playing one show a week, NBR are the Ernie Banks of the Blues - they prefer to play two gigs (often in the same day!). Where most bands pick a sound and stick to it come hell or high water, NBR willingly criss-cross the boundaries of blues, rock, soul and jazz with their music. And don't even get me started on the colorful character who fronts New Blues Revolution, Bill Grisolia. When they made Bill, they truly broke the mold!    Don't take my word for it: Come see (and hear) for yourself when New Blues Revolution celebrate their new record, Revolution #9 , with a CD Release Party on Saturday, April 6 at the House of Blues (Crossr...

Camille Howard (March 29, 1914 – March 10, 1993) was an American R&B pianist and singer. Howard was born in Galveston, Texas. When in California in the 1940s, she became the featured piano player with Roy Milton’s Solid Senders, playing on all their early hits on the Juke Box and later the Specialty record label, including "R. M. Blues" (1946). After that record's success, she featured on more of Milton’s records, occasionally as singer. Record label head Art Rupe also began recording her as a solo artiste, with her biggest hit coming with "X-Temporaneous Boogie". She continued to record successfully in the early 1950s, but the growth of rock and roll and her own religious convictions ended her career. Howard died in Los Angeles in March 1993   If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and tr...

Sue Foley (born March 29, 1968, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian blues singer and guitarist. Foley has been writing and playing professionally since 1984. She has recorded ten albums, for both Antone's Records and Shanachie Records. She has spent over fourteen years on the road as a bandleader, lead vocalist, guitarist and manager of her own band. In addition to her own touring, she has also shared the stage with blues musicians, such as Back Alley John, B. B. King, Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker. Her initial career began in Ottawa, Canada, at the age of sixteen where, in addition to solo work, she sang with the Back Alley John Revue. Foley sent a demo tape of herself to Clifford Antone's label (Antone's Records) in 1990. Impressed, the record label arranged an audition for the guitarist. She moved to Austin, Texas and soon signed a recording contract with Antone's. Foley appeared on the bill at the 1992 San Francisco Blues Festival. In 2000 Foley won a Juno Aw...

William Clarke (March 21, 1951 - November 3, 1996) was an American blues harmonica player. He was chiefly associated with the Chicago blues style of amplified harmonica, but also incorporated elements of soul jazz and swing into his playing. Born in Inglewood, California, United States, Clarke played guitar and drums as a youngster and learned the blues through The Rolling Stones records. He began playing harmonica in 1967 and played locally in Los Angeles, while he held a day job as a machinist. He soon struck up an association with George "Harmonica" Smith; the pair began playing regularly together in 1977, lasting until Smith died in 1983. Clarke began releasing albums in 1978 on small local record labels. From 1985 to 1988, Rick Holmstrom toured and played with Clarke. In 1987, Clarke was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award for his record Tip of the Top, and after sending a demo tape to Alligator Records, he secured a national recording contract. His debut for Alligator, Bl...

Although he is not a household name nationally, Van Broussard is almost legendary in the Cajun bayou areas of Southern Louisiana for helping forge the way for swamp pop music. At various times, he has performed as a solo act, as half of the team Van & Titus, and more recently with the Bayou Boogie Band. Before his sister, Grace Broussard, had a hit record in 1963 with Dale Houston in the pairing Dale & Grace, she also performed frequently with her older brother in their hometown of Prairieville, LA, at a nightspot called Cal's Club. During the early years of Broussard's career, his music revolved around Dixieland as he performed in the region of Ascension Parish. A turning point came in the mid-'50s, when Elvis Presley's early recordings caught Broussard's attention and he started leaning toward the sounds of R&B and, later, straight-ahead into swamp pop. Broussard's long career includes releases for a number of different labels, among them CSP, Red ...

Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane", he was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2004, and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Cheltenham Township, a local suburb, Michael Brecker was exposed to jazz at an early age by his father, an amateur jazz pianist. He grew up a part of the generation of jazz musicians, who saw rock music not as the enemy but as a viable musical option. Brecker began studying clarinet, then moved to alto saxophone in school, eventually settling on the tenor saxophone as his primary instrument. He graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1967 and after only a year at Indiana University, Michael Brecker moved to...

Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale. Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952. Bailey was born in Southampton County in southeastern Virginia, to the Reverend Joseph and Ella Mae Ricks Bailey. She was reared in the Bloodfields neighborhood of Newport News, Virginia. She made her stage-singing debut when she was 15 years old. Her brother Bill Bailey was beginning his own career as a tap dancer, and suggested she enter an amateur contest at Philadelphia’s Pearl Theater. She entered, won first prize, later won a similar contest at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater, and decided to pursue a ...

Sidney Arnandan or Arnondrin, better known as Sidney Arodin (March 29, 1901, Westwego, Louisiana - February 6, 1948, New Orleans) was an American jazz clarinetist and songwriter, best known for co-writing the pop standard "Lazy River" with Hoagy Carmichael. Arodin began playing clarinet at age 15 and played at local New Orleans gatherings and on riverboats. He made his way to New York City and played with Johnny Stein's New Orleans Jazz Band from 1922. He played with Jimmy Durante in the middle of the decade, then returned to Louisiana to play with Wingy Manone and Sharkey Bonano. In the 1930s he worked with Louis Prima and with a reconstituted version of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings which also featured Manone. After 1941, Arodin's poor health prevented him from playing frequently live, but before this time he recorded with Johnnie Miller, Albert Brunies, Monk Hazel, and the Jones-Collins Astoria Hot Eight. Many of his performances are mistakenly credited on original...

Joe Willie Wilkins (January 7, 1923 – March 28, 1979 was an American Memphis blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. Whilst he influenced contemporaries such as Houston Stackhouse, Robert Nighthawk, David Honeyboy Edwards, and Jimmy Rogers, Wilkins' bigger impact was on up and coming guitarists, including Little Milton, B.B. King, and Albert King. Wilkins' songs included "Hard Headed Woman" and "It's Too Bad." Wilkins was born in Davenport, Coahoma County, Mississippi. He grew up on a plantation near Bobo. His father, Papa Frank Wilkins, was a local sharecropper and guitarist, whose friend was the country bluesman, Charley Patton. Young Wilkins learned to play guitar, harmonica and accordion. His early proficiency of the guitar, and slavish devotion to learning from records, earned him the nickname of "Walking Seeburg" (Seeburg Corporation being an early manufacturer of jukebox). Becoming a well-known musician in the Mississippi Delta, by the ...

Louis Albert Cottrell, Jr. (March 7, 1911, New Orleans - March 21, 1978, New Orleans) was a Louisiana Creole jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. He was the son of the influential drummer Louis Cottrell, Sr., and grandfather of New Orleans jazz drummer Louis Cottrell. As leader of the Heritage Hall Jazz Band, he performed at the famous Carnegie Hall in 1974 Louis Cottrell was born into an upper-class Creole musical family. His father, Louis "Old Man" Cottrell, Sr., was a famed drummer, and cornetist Manny Perez was his godfather. The young Cottrell grew up around such great musicians as Barney Bigard, John Robichaux, and A.J. Piron. Cottrell studied clarinet under Lorenzo Tio, Jr. and Bigard. He began his career in the 1920s with the Golden Rule Orchestra, and then in 1925 played with Paul "Polo" Barnes. Later in the 1920s he worked with Chris Kelly and Kid Rena, then in 1929 found work on the riverboat SS Island Queen with Lawrence Marrero's Young Tuxedo Bra...

Blues guitarist Thomas Burt grew up hearing the reels, rags and spirituals that gave form to black musical expression in North Carolina's eastern Piedmont at the turn of the century. Born in 1900 near Raleigh to a family of sharecroppers, Mr. Burt gained his early knowledge of music informally within a family and community setting. His father played accordion for local dances, his mother sang hymns as she performed the daily chores, and friends dropped by often to pick the banjo or play tunes on the fiddle. By his early teens, Mr. Burt had joined the music-making, first learning banjo and later mastering the guitar. It was on the guitar that he earned his reputation, playing at house parties, in tobacco warehouses, and at community gatherings from the 1920s through the '40s. He became a prominent figure in Durham's flourishing blues community, performing alongside local masters such as Sonny Terry and Blind Boy Fuller. His occupations included sawmilling, laying railroad t...

From Chicago to Asia , guitarist James Green has hypnotized audiences around the world since 1979. James, a Montréal native, is known on the local and international music scene with performances in arenas, amusement parks, Montréal Jazz and various Blues festivals. At the Chicago Music-Fest, one of James’ favorite venues, he surprised crowds with his electrifying performances. “ Chicago is where you’ve got to be” says James, “if you can make it here, home of the electric Blues, you can make it anywhere”. James picked up his first guitar at age 16 and in 1979, a mere three years later, signed on as lead guitarist for cult-phenom band The Blushing Brides. From 1979 to 1981, the band toured across North America , averaging 250 gigs a year with attendance of up to 10,000 fans. After gaining popularity and experience, the band put out its first album, Unveiled in 1981. Their first hit, “What You Talkin’ About” was co-written by James and lead singer Maurice Raymond. In 1983, James left ...

                FRIDAY NIGHT BLUES CONCERT SERIES PRESENTS...                    Dave Widow and the Lineup        THIS FRIDAY, MARCH 29 - ALVAS SHOWROOM IN SAN PEDRO     (San Pedro) - The Chicago blues and soul-inspired music of acclaimed singer-songwriter-guitarist Dave Widow and his band The Lineup headline the Friday Night Blues Concert Series at South Bay live music emporium Alvas Showroom , 1417 W. Eighth St., Friday, March 29. 8 p.m. Tickets $20 (includes free Dave Widow CD with advance ticket purchase); $25. at the door. Info:   (866) 479-5644   or log onto https://www.facebook.com/events/140945589412012/?ref=ts&fref=ts . Opening the show is an acoustic set by Delta Slide Bluesman, Sean Lane. Performing in Widow's band The Lineup are highly-regarded musicians James Gadson (drums)...