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I started a quest to find terrific blues music and incredible musicianship when I was just a little kid. I also have a tremendous appreciation of fine musical instruments and equipment. One of my greatest joys all of my life was sharing my finds with my friends. I'm now publishing my journey. I hope that you come along!


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Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts

Monday, February 25, 2013

I Got News For You - Andrew Brown

Tragically under-recorded until late in his career, Chicago blues guitarist Andrew Brown still had time enough to wax a handful of great singles during the mid-'60s and two '80s albums (unfortunately, both of them were only available as imports) that beautifully showcased his fluid, concise lead guitar and hearty vocals. The Mississippi native moved to Chicago in 1946. With Earl Hooker teaching him a few key licks, Brown matured quickly; he was playing in south suburban clubs -- his main circuit -- by the early '50s. His 45s for USA (1962's "You Better Stop") and 4 Brothers (the mid-'60s sides "You Ought to Be Ashamed" and "Can't Let You Go") were well-done urban blues. But it wasn't until 1980, when Alligator issued three of his songs on its second batch of Living Chicago Blues anthologies, that Brown's name began to resonate outside the Windy City. Producer Dick Shurman was responsible for Brown's only two albums: the Handy Award-winning Big Brown's Chicago Blues for Black Magic in 1982 and On the Case for Double Trouble three years later. But Brown was already suffering from lung cancer when the second LP emerged. He died a short time later. ~ Bill Dahl, Rovi

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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Midnight Stomp - Jimmy Yancey

James Edwards "Jimmy" Yancey (February 20, 1894 – September 17, 1951) was an African American boogie-woogie pianist, composer, and lyricist. One reviewer noted him as "one of the pioneers of this raucous, rapid-fire, eight-to-the-bar piano style" Yancey was born in Chicago in (depending on the source) 1894, or 1898. His older brother, Alonzo Yancey (1894 – 1944) was also a pianist, while their father was a guitarist. Yancey started performing as a singer in traveling shows during his childhood. He was a noted pianist by 1915, and influenced younger musicians, such as Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons. While he played in a boogie-woogie style, with a strong-repeated figure in the left hand and melodic decoration in the right hand, his playing was delicate and subtle, rather than hard driving. He popularized a left hand figure which became known as the 'Yancey bass', and was later used in Pee Wee Crayton's "Blues After Hours", Guitar Slim's "The Things That I Used to Know" and many other songs. Part of Yancey's distinctive style was that he played in a variety of keys but ended some pieces in E flat, even if it was in another key. And he favored keys atypical for barrelhouse blues, like E flat and A flat. Most of his recordings were of solo piano, but late in his career he also recorded with vocals by his wife, Estelle Yancey, under the billing 'Jimmy and Mama Yancey'. They appeared in concert at the Carnegie Hall in 1948.In 1951, the twosome recorded the first album that was released by Atlantic Records the following year. During World War I, Yancey played baseball in a Negro league baseball team, the Chicago All-Americans. Throughout his life, Yancey kept a job as groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox. Yancey died of a stroke secondary to diabetes in Chicago on September 17, 1951. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986

  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 favorites band! ”LIKE”

 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Where (Blues) Legends Are Made: Howard and the White Boys Return To Buddy Guy's Legends



Howard Logo
            "Chicago's Hardest-Working Blues Band...For Over Two Decades!"














  
 
                        
 WHERE BLUES LEGENDS ARE MADE:
Howard & The White Boys Return To Buddy Guys Legends - Sun, Feb. 24
                             
   (CHICAGO,, IL)  - One of the first venues that Howard and the White Boys were fortunate enough to perform at regularly when they first formed was Buddy Guys Legends in their hometown of Chicago. Indeed, the blues guitar master not only became the band's unofficial mentor, but also took them on a major Midwestern tour in 1995 as his opening act, followed by a special appearance on their 1999 album Made In Chicago, where he dueted with lead vocalist Howard McCullum and contributed some scorching lead licks on the Sam And Dave classic, "I Thank You" (listen to the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztnrL8antQM).
      Howard and the White Boys return to perform at Buddy Guys Legends, 700 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Sunday, February 24. 9 pm. $10. Info: (312) 427-1190 or www.buddyguy.com.

   Known for a long time now as "Chicago's Hardest-Working Blues Band," the veteran blues quartet continue to perform through out the U.S., bringing audiences to their feet and out onto the dance floor - much as they have done for over twenty years - while getting ready to record the follow up to their critically-acclaimed most recent recording, MADE IN CHICAGO (Evidence Records).Most recently, band member Rocco Calipari has branched out with his side project Head Honchos', who have released a well-received debut CD.   

   MADE IN CHICAGO
represents the zenith of the group's recorded output, and it's certainly the disc that Howard & the White Boys are most proud of. While the band hadn't recorded in six years, they've been gigging continuously throughout the U.S. and Europe; this, in turn, has lent their trademark brand of contemporary blues an indomitable tightness brimming with raw power. All of this comes through on the new disc, proving that the wait was well worth it.           
                                  
      
   Here's a live rendition of H&TWB's popular song "Booty And Barbeque" from the group's Spring 2012 U.S. Tour.




                
     The members of Howard And the White Boys first met at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb in 1988 and began jamming together just for fun, but their fast-growing popularity soon convinced them they could make a career of it. After only a few months, they got their first big break by opening for Blues legend, B.B. King. The band soon made the move to Chicago and began performing with the biggest names in Blues: Koko Taylor, Albert King, Junior Wells, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry (the latter whom they were the backing band for in a headlining capacity at the 2002 Long Beach Blues Festival in Long Beach, Calif.).

                                                               

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Hoochie Coochie Man - Vinir Dóra And Chicago Beau

CHICAGO BEAU Bandleader, Vocal, Harmonica, Percussion, Author
Chicago Beau (L Beauchamp), was born on the south-side of Chicago on 13 February 1949, into a house of music. The recordings of Dinah Washington, Coleman Hawkins, Miles Davis, Billy Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and others inundated his senses from the beginning. From the age of 10 until 15, Beau studied tap-dancing with the great Afro-Cuban dancer and choreographer, Jimmy Payne. He participated in many Cabaret-type shows that were popular during that era. A show could consist of performances by Afro-Cuban dancers, magicians, tap dancers, Jazz and Blues performers, and drill teams. These shows gave young people the opportunity to participate with professionals in a community setting. There was little distinction in the taste of the audience, people of all ages appreciated the same talent. Beau was becoming quite a tap-dancer (sometimes still used in his shows), but it was the Blues and Jazz elements of these shows that really held his interest. He became so interested in Blues that he began sneaking around to Blues clubs after school to listen to Blues bands rehearse. On famous 47th street, he would slip into the 708 Club which sizzled at night with artists like Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Mama Thornton, Little Walter, and Billy Boy Arnold. Up the street from there was the Sutherland Lounge which featured Jazz and Blues acts as Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, Esther Philips, Von Freeman, E Parker McDougal, Louis Armstrong, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillispie, Chico Hamilton, Philly Joe Jones, and nearly everyone that had a name. Little did Beau know at the time that some of these performers he watched and listened would have a permanent impact on his life: Billy Boy Arnold gave him harmonica lessons (they later recorded together), and Muddy Waters gave him his name, ‘Chicago Beau.’ After spending three years from the age of 17 playing harmonica and singing in small clubs, mining and logging camps, and on street corners from Chicago, to Boston, to Nova Scotia, to Amsterdam, he moved to Paris where he met, performed and recorded with Archie Shepp in August, 1969, at age 20. Beau considers the first recording with Shepp to be the beginning of his professional career. For over 30 years Chicago Beau has recorded and performed with some of the most respected names in music including Memphis Slim, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Cal Massey, Anthony Braxton, Sunny Maurry, Pinetop Perkins, Anthony Braxton, Jimmy Dawkins, Johnny Shines, Billy Boy Arnold, Fontella Bass, Habib Koite, James Carter, Lester Bowie, Philly Joe Jones, Famoudou Don Moye, Jeanne Lee, Willie Kent, E. Parker McDougal, Amina Claudine Meyers, Zulu Chorus of Soweto, Frank Zappa, Sunnyland Slim, and others. Chicago Beau has received the CLIO award, the American advertising industry’s highest honor, for his music which was used in the 1991-92 National Basketball Association Champions, Chicago Bulls, cable television campaign. Chicago Beau is committed to the literary side culture. In 1988 he founded Literati Internazionale, a publishing company dedicated to multi-culturalism. To date his company has published over ten journals, books, and magazines. As a writer, Chicago Beau has written numerous articles and two books, Great Black Music-The Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Blues Stories. He was working with trumpeter Lester Bowie on his Autobiography at the time of his death. Excerpts from this work will be published soon. Chicago Beau also lectures in Universities, Schools, and music festivals on the topics: The Evolution of Blues as Language and Literature,’ and ‘History of Music Along the Mississippi River.’ Beau is currently touring with his BLUZ-MULTI-GROOVE BAND: CHICAGO BEAU AND HIS WONDERFUL TIME BAND 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 favorites band! ”LIKE”

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Rubbin' My Root - Big John Wrencher & His Maxwell Street Blues Boys

Big John Wrencher (February 12, 1923 - July 15, 1977), also known as One Arm John, was an American blues harmonica player and singer, well known for playing on Maxwell Street Market, Chicago in the 1960s, and who later toured Europe in the 1970s.John Thomas Wrencher was born in Sunflower, Mississippi, United States. He became interested in music as a child, and taught himself to play harmonica at an early age, and from the early 1940s was working as an itinerant musician in Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. By the mid 1940s he had arrived in Chicago and was playing on Maxwell Street and at house parties with Jimmy Rogers, Claude "Blue Smitty" Smith and John Henry Barbee. In the 1950s he moved to Detroit, where he worked with singer/guitarist Baby Boy Warren, and formed his own trio to work in the Detroit and Clarksdale, Mississippi areas. In 1958 Wrencher lost his left arm as a result of a car accident outside Memphis, Tennessee. By the early 1960s he had settled in Chicago, where he became a fixture on Maxwell Street Market, in particular playing from 10am to 3pm on Sundays. In 1964 he appeared in a documentary film about Maxwell Street, titled And This Is Free; performances by Wrencher recorded in the process of making the film were eventually issued on the three CD set And This Is Maxwell Street. During the 1960s he recorded for the Testament label backing Robert Nighthawk, and as part of the Chicago String Band. In 1969 he recorded for Barrelhouse Records, backed by guitarist Little Buddy Thomas and drummer Playboy Vinson, who formed his Maxwell Street band of the time. The resulting album, Maxwell Street Alley Blues, was described as "superlative in every regard" by Cub Koda at Allmusic. Wrencher toured Europe with the Chicago Blues Festival in 1973 and with the American Blues Legends in 1974, and during the latter tour recorded an album in London for the Big Bear label, backed by guitarist Eddie Taylor and his band. During a trip to Mississippi to visit his family in July 1977, Wrencher died suddenly of a heart attack in Wade Walton's barber shop in Clarksdale, Mississippi 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 favorites band! ”LIKE”

Monday, January 28, 2013

I Can't Stand The Rain - Grana`Louise and Troublemaker

Internationally known Graná Louise has delighted countless music fans around the world with her outstanding shows. Whether belting out Blues classics, rock ‘n roll or soul, her music will move and inspire you. She is the quintessential female voice of Chicago. Grana’s show brims with all the elements that make a performance a great one! Her rich voice belts out music that makes your spine tingle and heart ache. Her impeccable timing and keen staging gives an audience something to remember! She engages everyone watching her. Graná and her stellar band are a regular act at Chicago's hottest Blues Clubs and she is a repeat act at the famed Chicago Blues Fest. Graná Louise has rocked the house at the Apollo Theater in New York and prestigious venues worldwide. She has headlined internationally acclaimed festivals from Detroit to Mexico, Reykjavik to the French Riviera, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, France, Brazil & beyond. From festival to corporate event, Graná Louise will bring her brand of Chicago style to your next event! 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!

Good Morning Blues - Blind Arvella Gray

The only album by Blind Arvella Gray, a nearly forgotten street singer who spent the latter part of his life performing folk, blues and gospel music at Chicagos Maxwell Street flea market and at rapid-transit depots, received a deluxe reissue on August 2, 2005. The album, The Singing Drifter, was originally released in 1972 on vinyl and fewer than 1,000 copies were sold. Unavailable for more than 30 years, the album has now been released as a CD with full liner notes, extensive photography and four bonus tracks. The reissue kicks off the new Conjuroo Recordings label, an indie record company headed by Cary Baker, president of the music publicity company called conqueroo based in Sherman Oaks, Calif. Conjuroo is marketed by Emergent Music Marketing and distributed through RED Distribution. As a teenager in Chicago in the 70s, Baker made several forays to Maxwell Street to watch Gray, and was even responsible for connecting the artist with the label that released Drifter, the Wilmette, Ill.-based Birch Records. Until it recorded Gray, Birch had specialized in traditional country artists of the WLS Barndance lineage, including Doc Hopkins and Patsy Montana. Birch Records only released a handful of vinyl LPs, and had gone dormant by the inception of the CD. The Blind Arvella Gray album became a hot item, on collectors want lists for years. Finally, in 2004, Baker developed a strong desire to reissue the recording. It was not easy to find Birch Records founder David Wylie, who maintained no web site, nor even an email address. To reissue the album, Baker set upon launching Conjuroo Recordings and enlisted the services of Grammy Award-winning art director Susan Archie of w0rld of aNarchie, who oversaw innovative packages for Revenant reissues by Charley Patton and Albert Ayler. Additionally, Wylie found four unreleased tracks, which have been added to the release. Arvella Gray (real name James Dixon) was born in Texas in 1906 and was blinded in the 30s, possibly while holding up a bank, possibly in Peoria (he never told the story the same way twice). Arriving in Chicago in the 40s, he brought the music of the cotton fields and chain gangs to the industrial North, proving an unheralded missing link to the origins of American folk music, blues and gospel. His repertoire included many standards, such as the chain gang standard John Henry and the traditional country song More Pretty Girls Than One, while touching on the gospel tradition with songs like Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave it There. He accompanied himself on slide National steel guitar an instrument that was later sold on eBay. His fans included Bob Dylan, whose 1961 song He Was a Friend of Mine was said to have been borrowed from Gray. Arvella Gray died in Chicago in 1980. My father took me to the Maxwell Street flea market to show me where his Eastern European immigrant parents had shopped in the 30s and 40s, says Baker. In the ensuing years, it had become a hotbed for blues artists including Muddy Waters and Big Walter Horton, whose music was heard under the din of CTA buses and flea market hawkers on bullhorns augmented by the aroma of Polish sausages and onions grilling nearby. By the time I visited, Gray was among a handful of surviving buskers who continued to hold forth on Sunday mornings. I was taken by the unique sound and authenticity of his music. In historical perspective, Grays wailing slide Dobro stands in a category with Hound Dog Taylor, R.L. Burnside or Junior Kimbrough wild, unruly and imperfect. This album quietly slipped between the cracks and it is my privilege and honor to turn a new generation on to this unforgettable street singer. 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!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

VANCE KELLY

Vance Kelly (born January 24, 1954) is an American soul blues singer and guitarist, who has performed regularly at various music venues in the Chicago area, chief among them being the 1815, Checkerboard Lounge, Rosa's Lounge, Kingston Mines, Buddy Guy's Legends, and B.L.U.E.S. As a music journalist noted of Kelly, "Like Primer, he combines an enquiring eye for a song with a moderately conservative taste in sound, producing music that lives by the principles of classic Chicago bar blues yet is not enslaved by the past" Kelly was born in the Near West Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. His father was a gospel musician, and his uncle, LeRoy McCauley, was a part-time blues musician. Kelly's own interest in and talent for performing music were on display at an early age; he was playing guitar by the age of seven, despite never having had a formal lesson. Then, at the age of 10, Kelly performed blues for the first time at a Chicago school. As a teenager, he sat in at various clubs on Chicago's South Side and later appeared both as a solo artist and as a sideman in those clubs, backing such artists as the West-Side singer Mary Lane when he was 15. It was during this time that Kelly developed his unique "ringing" guitar sound, which raised his profile among members of Chicago's blues community Kelly experimented with disco music during the late 1970s, but he had rekindled his interest in blues music by the end of the decade. Major influences on Kelly's playing style during this stage of his musical development included B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Johnny Christian. In 1987, Kelly was invited to become a member of saxophonist A.C. Reed's Sparkplugs. Kelly's tenure with this group influenced his vocal style, while allowing him to refine his guitar skills, and provided him with road experience. After playing with Reed's band for three years, however, Kelly decided to strike out on his own. One reason for this decision was his eagerness to cultivate his own style, which has come to be characterized as a mixture of electric blues, R&B, funk, and disco. Kelly's urge to leave Reed's band also stemmed from his desire to adapt his blues playing to the perceived tastes of a particular audience. With regard to the latter point, Kelly has said, "If the older folks come in, I want to take them back to the Delta blues. When the middle-aged folks come in, they just want to hear regular-type blues. If a younger crowd comes in, they want to hear up-to-date type blues Kelly formed the Backstreet Blues Band soon after he ended his tenure with Reed, and signed a recording contract with the Vienna, Austria-based Wolf Records International in 1992. Members of Kelly's band included John Primer on guitar; David Honeyboy on harmonica; Eddie Shaw on the saxophone; Erskine Johnson on the keyboard; and Johnny Reed playing bass. In 1994, Kelly and his band had a breakthrough when his debut album, Call Me, earned critical acclaim and introduced Kelly to audiences beyond the Chicago area. The album went on to win the Best Album of 1994 (New Recording) as well as the Living Blues Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 1995. The following year, Kelly released Joyriding in the Subway, which featured assistance on lyrics and vocals by Vivian Kelly, Vance Kelly's daughter. As with Kelly's debut outing, Joyriding in the Subway also included the guitarwork of John Primer, bass playing of Johnny Reed, and keyboard music of Erskine Johnson. Critics largely praised the album and noted its "stylistic breadth," citing influences on the songs such as A.C. Reed, Tyrone Davis, and Little Milton Kelly has worked steadily since these two hit releases of the 1990s, producing a string of well-received albums that showcased his signature mix of blues, soul, and funk styles. He continues to record with the Backstreet Blues Band, most recently releasing the album Bluebird on October 2008. He has also played at numerous blues gatherings, including the annual Chicago Blues Festival. Between 1999 and 2002, Kelly took part in three separate European concert tours. While Kelly remains relatively unknown outside of the Chicago blues community, his fan base is loyal and has expanded considerably over the years. His daughter, Vivian Kelly, is a blues musician in her own right who released her debut album, Hit Me Up, on October 10, 2006. A musical documentary 'Someplace Else' made by filmmakers Kai-Duc LUONG & Avisheh MOHSENIN portraying Vance Kelly and featuring many of his trademark songs, was released in 2008 and played at international film festivals such as Hawaii International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (VC Film Fest), Rhode Islan>d International Film Festival.

  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 favorites band! ”LIKE”
 

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Prodigal Son - Harold Ousley

Harold Lomax Ousley (born January 23, 1929, Chicago, Illinois, United States) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and flautist. Ousley began playing in the late 1940s, and in the 1950s recorded behind vocalists such as Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. He played as a sideman with Gene Ammons in the 1950s and with Jack McDuff and George Benson in the 1960s. He released his first record as a leader in 1961. In the 1970s he played with Lionel Hampton and Count Basie in addition to releasing further material as a leader. After 1977 he did not release another album under his own name until his most recent effort, 2000's Grit-Grittin' Feelin' 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 favorites band! ”LIKE”

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Mojo Boogie - Robert "Big Mojo" Elem

When talking about deep bluesmen who are also great entertainers, the conversation will eventually get around to the coolest bassman/singer/showman the Windy City has in its blues arsenal, Big Mojo Elem. As a singer, he possesses a relatively high-pitched voice that alternately drips with honey and malice. As a bassist, his unique approach to the instrument makes him virtually one of a kind. Unlike most bass players, Elem seldom plays standard walking bass patterns, instead using a single-note groove that lends to any band he's a part of a decidedly juke-joint groove. And as a showman, he possesses an energy that makes other performers half his age look like they're sitting down. Born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, Elem grew up in fertile blues territory. Originally a guitarist, he soaked up licks and ideas by observing masters like Robert Nighthawk and a young Ike Turner first-hand. By his 20th birthday, he had arrived in Chicago and was almost immediately pressed into professional service playing rhythm guitar behind Arthur "Big Boy" Spires and harmonica man Lester Davenport. By 1956, Elem had switched over to the newly arrived (in Chicago) electric bass, simply to stand out from the pack of guitar players searching the clubs looking for work. He formed a band with harp player Earl Payton and signed on a young Freddie King as their lead guitarist, playing on King's very first single for the El-Bee label in late 1956. After Freddie's success made him the bandleader, Big Mojo stayed with King off and on for the next eight years. The '50s and '60s also found him doing club work -- mostly on the West side -- with Magic Sam, Junior Wells, Shakey Jake Harris, Jimmy Dawkins, and Luther Allison, with a short stint in Otis Rush's band as well. Aside from a stray anthology cut and a now out of print album for a tiny European label, Elem's career has not been documented in much depth, but he remains one of the liveliest players on the scene. 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 favorites band! ”LIKE”

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Ahmad's Blues - Ahmad Jamal Trio w/ Israel Crosby

Israel Crosby (January 19, 1919 – August 11, 1962) was an African-American jazz double-bassist born in Chicago, Illinois, best known as member of the Ahmad Jamal trio from 1957 to 1962. A close contemporary of Jimmy Blanton, Crosby is less considered as a pioneer, but his interactive playing in Jamal's trio and that of George Shearing shows how easily and fluently he displayed a modern approach to jazz double bass. He is credited with taking the first recorded bass solo on his 1935 recording of 'Blues for Israel' with drummer Gene Krupa (Prestige PR 7644) when he was only 16. He died of a heart attack two months after joining the Shearing Quintet 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!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Cherry Red Wine - Rob Blaine

Rob Blaine- Born in Chicago 1981, moved to Michigan, grew up listening to Blues, R&B, Funk, Rock, Soul, because of his father. Began playing guitar at 15, started giging and playing out by age of 17 with his guitar teacher, Charlie Schantz's band.Playing the blues standards. Started his own band with his brother Buck and other friends, playing around Grand Rapids for the next couple of years. He moved back to Chicago in 2003, where since has been on 3 U.S tours, and one European tour. Touring with Little Milton before his untimely passing, and currently touring with the Chicago Rythme & Blues Kings (formerly Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows) featuring Gene Barge a.k.a. Daddy G., and his own band. Big Rob Blaine plays at Kingston Mines every tuesday and at B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted once a month. 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!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

EARLY IN THE MORNING - RICKY ALLEN

Richard A. "Ricky" Allen (January 6, 1935 – May 29, 2005) was an American blues singer from Chicago. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee and began his singing career as member of a church choir in his home town. He relocated to Chicago in 1960, and received a recording contract one year later at Age Records. He had a local hit with "You Better Be Sure" and in 1963, his hit "Cut You A-Loose" reached #20 in Billboard's R&B chart. Some of his recordings of the 1960s such as "It's A Mess I Tell You" and "I Can't Stand No Signifying," portended the emerging soul-blues style of the 1970s. After his retirement from the music industry in the early 1970s, he conducted a laundry and a limousine service. In 2001, he performed at the MönsterÃ¥s Festival in Sweden, and the following year at the Chicago Blues Festival. He died in 2005, aged 70. 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!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

You'll Never Be Sorry - Gerald Sims

Guitarist/songwriter/producer/singer/arranger/director Gerald Sims is a key figure in Chicago soul history, singing lead on and writing the Daylighters' "Cool Breeze" and "Oh What a Way to Be Loved," Gene Chandler's "Here Come the Tears," and co-writing with producer Carl Davis Mary Wells' post-Motown hit "Dear Lover" (number six R&B in early 1966) and Jackie Wilson's "Since You Showed Me How to Be Happy" (Sims/Gary Jackson/Floyd Smith). Sims was a member Chess Records vocal group the Radiants who scored hits with "Voice of Choice" (Sims/Maurice McAlister) and "It Aint No Big Thing." Sims' talents are on display on various sides on the Okeh, Columbia, Chess, and Brunswick (the Artistics' "I'm Gonna Miss You") labels. Born January 5, 1940, in Chicago, IL, Sims grew up in Kalamazoo, MI. The self-taught guitarist returned to Chicago in 1959. WGES radio DJ George "G.G." Graves introduced Sims to the Daylighters that same year. Some of the sides he recorded with the group are the Dot Records-distributed single "Oh What a Way to Be Loved" b/w "Why You Do Me Wrong" (1961), "Cool Breeze" (fall 1962), "Why Did You Have to Go" b/w "Please Come Back" with singer Betty Everett ("It's in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)") on CJ Records, and various tracks with producer Don Talty (Phil Upchurch Combo's "You Can't Sit Down," Jan Bradley's "Mama Didn't Lie"). Another Daylighters single, "Cool Breeze," with an arrangement by Johnny Pate (Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions), was a local and regional hit, gaining some airplay on pop stations. Sims left the group and began recording as a solo artist with OKeh Records. Instead of getting a deal with the OKeh subsidiary, Sims was signed to the mother label, Columbia Records. "Cool Breeze" b/w "There Must Be an Answer Somewhere" was reissued as the first Gerald Sims single. In the '70s, Sims worked for Jerry and Billy Butler's Fountain Productions. During the early '80s, Sims purchased the Chess Records recording studios, which still housed one of the classic label's cutting lathes which was used to make the pressing masters. The location was briefly the base for his record label. In the late '80s, early '90s,Sims retired to Florida. Gerald Sims' work can be found on The Greatest Hits of Jackie Wilson, Chess Blues Classics:1957-1967, Essential Blues,Vol. 3, Greatest Hits,Vol. 1 by Bobby "Blue" Bland, Chess Blues, Very Best of Jerry Butler, One More Time:The Chess Years by Billy Stewart, Iceman:The Mercury Years by Jerry Butler, Beg Scream & Shout: The Big Ol' Box of '60s Soul, The Ultimate Collection by Mary Wells, The Best of Walter Jackson:Welcome Home ,The Okeh Years: Greatest Hits, Chess 50th Anniversary Collection by Little Milton, Chess Soul: A Decade of Chicago's Finest, Whispers/Higher & Higher by Jackie Wilson, That Did It!: The Duke Recordings 3 by Bobby "Blue" Bland, Love Makes a Woman/Seven Days of Night by Barbara Acklin, Dear Lover-The Atco Sessions by Mary Wells, and Everybody Loves a Good Time: The Best of Major Lance. by Ed Hogan 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!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Down in the Dumps - Valerie Wellington

Valerie Wellington (November 14, 1959 – January 2, 1993) was an African American, Chicago blues and electric blues singer and actress. Her 1984 album, Million Dollar $ecret saw her work with Sunnyland Slim, Billy Branch, and Magic Slim.In her early years, Wellington also worked with Lee "Shot" Williams. In a short career, she switched from opera to the blues. She was born Valerie Eileen Hall in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Wellington trained as an opera singer, graduating from the American Conservatory of Music,but in 1982 took up singing the blues in her local Chicago clubs. Her work extended to the theater, where she undertook roles portraying earlier blues singers such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Wellington's opera training enabled her to project her voice to theater audiences. She appeared at the 1984 San Francisco Blues Festival, on the bill alongside Marcia Ball and Katie Webster. Her recorded work blended the more traditional vaudeville approach with a contemporary Chicago blues format. Wellington appeared on a limited number of recordings, but her voice was used on several advertisements on both television and radio. Wellington's recording of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" was used on the soundtrack to the 1989 film, Great Balls of Fire!, in which she briefly appeared depicting Big Maybelle. In the same year, Wellington toured Japan, with Carlos Johnson. Wellington died of a cerebral aneurysm in Maywood, Illinois, in January 1993, at the age of 33. She was interred at the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. In 1995, Rooster Blues re-issued Million Dollar $ecret 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!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Fine And Dandy - Charlie Parker w/ Leroy Jackson

Leroy Jackson, d. December 27, 1985 was a bass player for artists such as Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Charlie Parker and others. 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!

Don't You Lie To Me - Bob Stroger

Have Bass Will Travel.... I was born in South East Missouri in a small town Haiti, where I lived on a farm. I moved to Chicago in 1955. I lived in the back of a night club on the West Side, where Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters played. It looked like they were having a lot of fun and I made up my mind that what I wanted to do was play music. I got married at an early age and I used to watch my brother-in-law play music. His name was Johnny Ferguson and he and JB Hutto had a band they called the Twisters. They were working on 39'th and State Street in Chicago and I would carry them to work every night and watch them. Then at home I would try to teach myself to play. My cousin Ralph Ramey said that we should start a band and we did just that. We got my brother (John Stroger), who played the drums, to learn the songs we knew and in four months we were making some noise. We went to a club and played two songs and the man said we had a job. It was one of the better clubs, where musicians like Memphis Slim worked. The owner wanted us to wear uniforms but we had no money to buy them, so we got black tams and put a red circle in the top and called the band the Red Tops and that was the way it started. We got so good that they wanted the band to travel, but Ralph's wife did not wont him to travel. so my brother formed a band with Willie Kent and myself and called it Joe Russel and the Blues Hustlers. We played together for a while,but eventually I decided to move on, because i wanted to travel more and see the world and I found out you can make money doing this. I joined a jazz band and played with Rufus Forman for about 3 years, but we were doing very little work. Then I met Eddie King and we talked. I told him I was in a jazz band and we needed a guitar player that could play blues. He sead OK and joined our groop, and we started playing blues and RB and things took off. We called the band Eddie King and King Men, and we stayed together for 15 years. Then we split up for about 2 years and later we started the band up as Eddie King and Babee May and the Blues Machine and we stayed together until Eddie King moved out of town. I quit playing for 2 years becouse we were so close I did not want to play with anyone but Eddie. Then I met Jessie Grean when I was playing with Morris Pejo and he liked the way I played bass and one night Otis Rush need a bass player, so Jessie said come and work with him. The rest is history. I have been playing music for 39 years and I am still having fun. 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!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

DON'T CHA MESS WITH MY MONEY, MY HONEY - L V JOHNSON

L.V. Johnson (December 25, 1946 – November 22, 1994) was an American Chicago blues and soul-blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is best known for his renditions of "Don't Cha Mess With My Money, My Honey Or My Woman" and "Recipe". He worked with The Soul Children, The Bar-Kays and Johnnie Taylor, plus his self penned songs were recorded by Tyrone Davis, Bobby Bland and The Dells. He was the nephew of Elmore James Johnson was born in Chicago, Illinois, and learned his guitar playing from B.B. King. Johnson was originally a session musician employed by Stax Records, and he played on recordings by The Bar-Kays, Johnnie Taylor, and The Soul Children. His songs "Are You Serious" and "True Love Is Hard to Find" were both hit singles for Tyrone Davis, while "Country Love" was recorded by Bobby Bland. The Dells reached the US Billboard charts with their version of Johnson's "Give Your Baby a Standing Ovation". Johnson's association with Tyrone Davis extended to him being Davis' accompanist, until Johnson embarked on a modest solo career in the early 1980s. He then recorded for ICA, Phono, and Ichiban Records, although his style did not garner much commercial success. Up to his early death from undisclosed causes, Johnson was also the part-owner of a steakhouse and nightclub in Chicago. L.V. Johnson died in Chicago in November 1994, at the age of 47. Johnson's track "I Don't Really Care" was sampled by J. Dilla in 2006, and appeared on the track "Airworks" on Dilla's album, Donuts. The same track was sampled by Strong Arm Steady in 2010, and featured on the track "Chittlins & Pepsi" (featuring Planet Asia), on Strong Arm Steady's album, In Search of Stoney Jackson 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!

Monday, December 24, 2012

I DON'T WANT NO WOMAN - Earnest Johnson with Magic Sam

Earnest Johnson is a bass player known primarily for playing with Muddy Waters and Magic Sam. Johnson died in Chicago on December 24, 1982. 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!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Five Long Years - Lurrie Bell

Lurrie Bell (born Lurrie C. Bell, December 13, 1958, Chicago, Illinois is an American blues guitarist and singer. His father was renowned blues harmonica player, Carey Bell. Bell started playing guitar at the age of six, and in his teens he polished his skills playing with the legends of Chicago blues scene including Eddy Clearwater, Big Walter Horton and Eddie Taylor. Bell in Paris, May, 30, 1980 In the mid 1970s, he went on to join Koko Taylor's Blues Machine and he toured with the band for four years. He made his recording debut in 1977 appearing on his father's album Heartaches and Pain and also on Eddie C. Campbell's King of the Jungle. It was around that time that he formed The Sons of Blues with musicians including Billy Branch on harmonica. Three tracks of the band's recordings were featured in the Alligator Records compilation Living Chicago Blues Vol. 3 released in 1978. In 1989 he released his first solo effort, Everybody Wants To Win, on JSP Records. Though Bell's career appeared to be headed in the right direction, drawing attention of the blues fans around the world as a young prodigy of the blues, he battled emotional problems and drug abuse for many years, which kept him away from performing on regular basis. He began a comeback in 1995 with the well-received album Mercurial Son, his first of several from the Delmark label. A series of albums followed thereafter, and he started to perform more frequently in the Chicago club and blues festival circuits. Bell is featured on Gettin' Up – Live at Buddy Guy's Legends, Rosa's and Lurrie's Home, a 2007 CD and DVD release from Delmark, where he plays with his father Carey. Soon after this release, Carey died and this became his last recorded effort 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 favorites band! ”LIKE”