Henry James "Red" Allen (January 7, 1906 – April 17, 1967) was a jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose style has been claimed to be the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong.
Henry James "Red" Allen was born in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of bandleader Henry Allen. He took early trumpet lessons from Peter Bocage and Manuel Manetta.
Allen's career began in Sidney Desvigne's Southern Syncopators. He was playing professionally by 1924 with the Excelsior Brass Band and the jazz dance bands of Sam Morgan, George Lewis and John Casimir. After playing on riverboats on the Mississippi River he went to Chicago in 1927 to join King Oliver's band. Around this time he made recordings on the side in the band of Clarence Williams. After returning briefly to New Orleans, where he worked with the bands of Fate Marable and Fats Pichon, he was offered a recording contract with Victor Records and returned to New York City, where he also joined the Luis Russell band, which was later fronted by Louis Armstrong in the late 1930s.
In 1929 Allen joined Luis Russell's Orchestra where he was a featured soloist until 1932. Allen took part in recording sessions that year organized by Eddie Condon, some of which featured Fats Waller and/or Tommy Dorsey. He also made a series of recordings in late 1931 with Don Redman, and in 1933 he joined Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra where he stayed until 1934. He played with Lucky Millinder's Mills Blue Rhythm Band from 1934 to 1937, when he returned to Luis Russell for three more years by the time Russell's orchestra was fronted by Louis Armstrong. Allen very seldom received any solo space on recordings with Armstrong, but was prominently featured at the band's personal appearances, even getting billing as a featured attraction.
As a bandleader, Allen recorded for Victor from 1929 through 1930. He made a series of recordings as co-leader with Coleman Hawkins in 1933 for ARC (Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, etc.) and continued on as an ARC recording artist through 1935, when he was moved over to ARC's Vocalion label for a popular series of swing records from 1935 through late 1937. A number of these were quite popular at the time. He did a solitary session for Decca in 1940 and two sessions for OKeh in 1941. After World War II, he recorded for Brunswick in 1944, Victor in 1946, and Apollo in 1947.
Allen continued making many recordings under his own name, as well as recording with Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton, and accompanying such vocalists as Victoria Spivey and Billie Holiday. After a short stint with Benny Goodman, Allen started leading his own band at The Famous Door in Manhattan. He then toured with the band around the USA into the late 1950s.
In December 1957, Red Allen made an appearance on the "Sound Of Jazz" television show. In 1959 Allen made his first tour of Europe when he joined Kid Ory's band. From 1954 until the club ceased its jazz policy in 1965, Allen led the house band at New York's Metropole Cafe.
Allen returned to working under his own name making numerous tours of the United States and Europe. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late 1966, and after undergoing surgery, made a final tour of England ending six weeks before his death on April 17, 1967 in New York City. He left behind his widow, Pearly May, and a son, Henry Allen III.
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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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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!
Please email me at Info@Bmansbluesreport.com
Showing posts with label New Orleans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Orleans. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Summertime - WES MONTGOMERY w/ Pony Poindexter
Norwood "Pony" Poindexter (Feb. 8, 1926, New Orleans, Louisiana - Apr. 14, 1988, Oakland, California) was an American jazz saxophonist.
Poindexter began on clarinet and switched to playing alto and tenor sax growing up. In 1940 he studied under Sidney Desvigne, and following this attended Candell Conservatory in Oakland, where he based himself. From 1947 to 1950 he played with Billy Eckstine. In 1950 he played in a quartet with Vernon Alley, from 1951 to 1952 he was with Lionel Hampton and in 1952 he played with Stan Kenton. Neal Hefti wrote the tune "Little Pony", named after Poindexter, for the Count Basie Orchestra.
Through the end of the 1950s Poindexter played extensively both as a leader and as a sideman, recording with Charlie Parker, Nat King Cole, T-Bone Walker and Jimmy Witherspoon. From 1961 to 1964, he played backup for Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, who together also recorded a vocal version of "Little Pony". He was one of the first bebop saxophonists to begin playing soprano saxophone early in the 1960s, and recorded with Eric Dolphy and Dexter Gordon on a session for Epic Records around 1962. In 1963 he moved to Paris; while there he recorded with Ross, Phil Woods, Lee Konitz and Leo Wright. He later moved to Spain and then to Mannheim, Germany; in 1977 he returned to San Francisco and recorded again. He published an autobiography, Pony Express, in 1985, but had been largely forgotten by the time of his death in 1988.
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Labels:
Louisiana,
New Orleans,
Pony Poindexter,
Wes Montgomery
Friday, April 12, 2013
Pencil papa - Johnny Dodds
Johnny Dodds (April 12, 1892 – August 8, 1940) was an American New Orleans based jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist, best known for his recordings under his own name and with bands such as those of Joe "King" Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Lovie Austin and Louis Armstrong.Dodds (pronounced "dots") was also the older brother of drummer Warren "Baby" Dodds. The pair worked together in the New Orleans Bootblacks in 1926.
Born in Waveland, Mississippi, United States, he moved to new Orleans in his youth, and studied clarinet with Lorenzo Tio. He played with the bands of Frankie Duson, Kid Ory, and Joe "King" Oliver. Dodds went to Chicago and played with Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, with which he first recorded in 1923. Dodds also worked frequently with his good friend Natty Dominique during this period, a professional relationship that would last a lifetime. After the breakup of Oliver's band in 1924, Dodds replaced Alcide Nunez as the house clarinetist and bandleader of Kelly's Stables. He recorded with numerous small groups in Chicago, most notably Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7, and Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers.
Noted for his professionalism and virtuosity as a musician, and his heartfelt, heavily blues-laden style, Dodds was an important influence on later clarinetists, notably Benny Goodman.
Dodds did not record for most of the 1930s, affected by ill health. He died of a heart attack in Chicago, in August 1940.
In 1987, Dodds was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
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Labels:
Johnny Dodds,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Friday, April 5, 2013
Weary Blues - Louis Nelson
Louis Hall Nelson (September 17, 1902 – April 5, 1990) was a New Orleans jazz trombonist.
Louis Nelson was born on September 17, 1902 at 1419-21 Touro St. in New Orleans, LA. His father, Dr. George Harry Nelson, was a medical doctor. Dr. Nelson helped organize the 9th Louisiana Volunteers and served in the Spanish-American War. He was commissioned as first lieutenant. During the war he served in Cuba and also stormed San Juan Hill.
His mother, Anna Hattie Adams Nelson, was a teacher and pianist from Springfield, Massachusetts. She was a descendant of runaway slaves from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She was a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music. His mother moved to Louisiana to teach where she met his father. They had three children: Mary Nelson Welch, George Harry Nelson Jr. and Louis Hall Nelson. Both parents and his sister played the piano. His brother played the saxophone. In December 1902, his parents moved to Napoleonville, Louisiana because his father couldn't get medical patients after the July 1900 Robert Charles Race Riots in New Orleans.
At the age of 15, while living in Napoleonville, Louis Nelson started playing the valve trombone and switched to the slide trombone, studying under Professor Claiborne Williams of Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Mr. Nelson credited Professor Claiborne Williams with teaching him the proper way to breathe. Williams also taught him that technique and intuition were far more important than technical skill. Mr. Nelson was quoted as saying "I heard a fellow, Lawrence Johnson, playing with a band out of Napoleonville. I said, one day I'm going to play trombone like that man. He had a smooth tone, and gave the notes the full value. That's why I followed in his footsteps."
Weekdays, Louis Nelson lived with Reverend Isaac H. Hall in New Orleans, LA. Reverend Hall was a family friend who raised Mr. Nelson’s father. Mr. Nelson attended the Lutheran School on Annette St. and New Orleans University (high school) on St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans, LA, graduating in 1919.
Louis Nelson’s first band was Joe Gabriel's band of Thibodeaux, Louisiana. With Joe Gabriel's band, he traveled through Cajun country, playing in dance halls for a dollar a night.
Mr. Nelson married Julia Kissack in 1922. Louis Nelson and his wife moved to New Orleans after a brief stay in New York City as a Pullman porter because she was ill. While in New Orleans in the 1920s, Mr. Nelson played jazz music with: Buddy Petit, Kid Rena, Kid Punch Miller, Sam Morgan (musician), Chris Kelly (jazz), Papa Celestin, Willie Pajeaud, Kid Howard, Sidney Cates and Kid Harris' Dixieland Band.
Louis and Julia Kissack Nelson had two children: Louis Hall Nelson Jr. (deceased) and Anna Nelson Tircuit. Julia Kissack Nelson died in 1928 from pregnancy complications. After his wife's death, Mr. Nelson joined the Sidney Desvigne Orchestra. This group played for white audiences in such spots as the New Orleans Country Club and the Southern Yacht Club. Monday and Tuesday nights were reserved for black audiences at such venues as the Pythian Temple and the Bulls Aids and Pleasure Club. During his 15 years with Desvigne's 10 piece Orchestra, Mr. Nelson played for summer Mississippi River cruises on the steamer S.S. Capitol, traveling as far north as Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN.
To get work during the Depression, Louis Nelson joined the Works Progress Administration and became first chair in the WPA band. Between engagements, the musicians dug stumps at City Park in New Orleans. When WWII came along, Mr. Nelson volunteered for the U. S. Navy and became Musician 1st Class at the U.S. Navy base in Memphis, Tennessee. After serving in the Navy, Mr. Nelson returned to New Orleans and resumed playing with Sidney Desvigne's Orchestra until Desvigne moved to California.
Mr. Nelson joined the hard-driving Kid Thomas Valentine band in 1945. With this band, he played one night a week at dance halls like the Tip Top, Fireman's Hall in Westwego, LA, and Speck's Moulin Rouge in Marrero, LA. He also worked for the Herbert Leary Orchestra at this time. To make ends meet, Mr. Nelson was forced to take day jobs such as a driver for the post office and for a fish merchant. He also worked as a chauffeur and as a janitor.
In 1949, Louis Nelson made his first recording with clarinetist and leader Big Eye Louis Nelson Delisle, as well as Charlie Love, Johnny St. Cyr, Ernest Rogers, and Austin Young at Dr. Nelson's Touro Street house. This recording, by jazz historian Bill Russell of AM Records, marked the beginning of Mr. Nelson’s extensive recording career.
In the 1950s, New Orleans French Quarter art gallery owner Larry Borenstein liked to go to the West Bank to hear the Kid Thomas Valentine band play in the evenings, but because he had to keep his art gallery at 726 St. Peter Street open at night, his ability to hear jazz music was limited. As a result, Borenstein asked Kid Thomas Valentine to play jazz sessions, which he called "rehearsals", in order to avoid union trouble. In 1961, Barbara Reed went to Baton Rouge to get a charter named The Society for the Preservation of Traditional New Orleans Jazz. This charter gave them a non-profit corporate license status as they could not afford the entertainment tax when Ms. Reed and Grayson Mills, among others, officially opened Preservation Hall in 1961. Later that year, Allan Jaffe took over Preservation Hall.
Louis Nelson also played at the Paddock Lounge and later at Dixieland Hall, both on Bourbon Street. Because of Preservation Hall, Mr. Nelson now had permanent work, exposure to a new audience and was provided numerous opportunities for travel abroad as both a soloist and band member of the Billie and De De Piece and Kid Thomas Valentine's bands. Louis Nelson toured extensively from 1963, beginning with the George Lewis (clarinetist) band in Japan, Eastern, Western Europe, South America, Australia, Canada and Mexico, as well as the United States, until his death in 1990. Mr. Nelson appeared at every New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival until his death. Mr. Nelson joined the Legends of Jazz. In 1981, Mr. Nelson received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts where he developed a program in which he played for New Orleans public school students and discussed New Orleans jazz history. On April 5, 1990, Mr. Nelson died of injuries suffered from a March 27 hit and run automobile accident. The driver was never caught.
Widely recorded, including music for the movie Pretty Baby (1978 film) starring Brooke Shields, Mr. Nelson also appeared in many New Orleans jazz documentaries, including Art Ford's House Party, Live the Jazz, Three Men of Jazz and Till the Butcher Cut Him Down.
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Labels:
Louis Nelson,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me - Eddie Miller with Lino Patruno & the MCJS
Carlo Bagnoli (ss, bar), Eddie Miller (ts), Sante Palumbo (p), Lino Patruno (g), Marco Ratti (b), Carlo Sola (dm).
Edward Raymond Müller (June 23, 1911 – April 8, 1991) was a jazz musician who played tenor saxophone and clarinet born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
His professional career began in New Orleans at 16 with his recording debut occurring in 1930. He worked in Ben Pollack's orchestra and then with Bob Crosby. He stayed with Crosby until the band broke up in 1942. He had his own band for a brief time after that before being drafted. However, he was discharged from the military early because of illness and settled in Los Angeles. After that he worked with Pete Fountain, appeared in most of Crosby's reunions, and did club work. Eddie also played with trumpeter Al Hirt.
Miller was also a songwriter with his best known song being "Slow Mood," later known as "Lazy Mood" after Johnny Mercer noticed the tune and composed lyrics. Miller was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1998.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
SO MUCH TROUBLE - LARRY WILLIAMS
Lawrence Eugene "Larry" Williams (May 10, 1935 – January 7, 1980) was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Williams is best known for writing and recording some rock and roll classics from 1957 to 1959 for Specialty Records, including "Bony Moronie", "Short Fat Fannie", "High School Dance" (1957), "Slow Down", "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (1958), "Bad Boy" and "She Said Yeah" (1959), which were later covered by British Invasion groups and other artists. John Lennon, in particular, was a fan of Williams, recording several of his songs over the course of his career. "Bony Moronie" is listed as one of the Top 500 songs that shaped Rock and Roll.
Williams lived a life mixed with tremendous success and violence-fueled drug addiction. He was a long-time friend of Little Richard.
As a child in New Orleans, Williams learned how to play piano. When he was a teenager, he and his family moved to Oakland, California, where he joined a local R&B group called the Lemon Drops. In 1954, Williams went back to New Orleans for a visit. He began work as Lloyd Price's valet and played in the bands of Price, Roy Brown and Percy Mayfield. In 1955, Williams met and developed a friendship with Little Richard Penniman, who was recording at the time in New Orleans. Price and Penniman were both recording for Specialty Records. Williams was introduced to Specialty's house producer, Robert Blackwell, and was signed to record.
In 1957, Little Richard was Specialty's biggest star, but bolted from rock and roll to pursue the ministry. Williams was quickly groomed by Blackwell to try to replicate his success. Using the same raw, shouting vocals and piano-driven intensity, Williams scored with a number of hit singles.
Williams' three biggest successes were "Short Fat Fannie", which was his first hit, reaching #5 in Billboard's pop chart, "Bony Moronie", which peaked at #14, and its flip "You Bug Me Baby" which made it to #45. "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" charted at #69 on Billboard the following year. Both "Short Fat Fannie" and "Bony Moronie" sold over one million copies, gaining gold discs.
Several of his songs achieved later success as revivals, by The Beatles ("Bad Boy", "Slow Down", and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"), The Rolling Stones ("She Said Yeah") and John Lennon ("Bony Moronie" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy").
Williams had been involved with underworld activity since his early teens, and had reputedly been a pimp before he ever recorded music. After 1957 Williams did not have much success selling records. He recorded a number of songs in 1958 and 1959, including "Heebie Jeebies", with band members such as Plas Johnson on tenor sax and Jewel Grant on baritone, Rene Hall on guitar, Gerald Wilson on trumpet, Ernie Freeman or Williams himself on piano, and Earl Palmer on drums. He was convicted of dealing narcotics in 1960 and served a three-year jail term, setting back his career considerably.
Williams made a comeback in the mid-1960s with a funky soul band that included Johnny "Guitar" Watson, which paired him musically with Little Richard who had been lured back into secular music. He produced two Little Richard albums for Okeh Records in 1966 and 1967, which returned Little Richard to the Billboard album chart for the first time in ten years and spawned the hit single "Poor Dog".[8] He also acted as the music director for the Little Richard's live performances at the Okeh Club. Bookings for Little Richard during this period skyrocketed. Williams also recorded and released material of his own and with Watson, with some moderate chart success. This period may have garnered few hits but produced some of his best and most original work.
Williams also began acting in the 1960s, appearing on film in Just for the Hell of It (1968), The Klansman (1974), and Drum (1976).
In the 1970s, there was also a brief dalliance with disco, but Williams' wild lifestyle continued. By the middle of the decade, the drug abuse and violence were taking their toll. In 1977, Williams pulled a gun on and threatened to kill his long-time friend, Little Richard, over a drug debt. They were both living in Los Angeles and addicted to cocaine and heroin. Little Richard bought drugs from him, arranged to pay him later, but did not show up because he was high. Williams was furious. He hunted him down but ended up showing compassion on his long-time friend after Little Richard repaid the debt. This, along with other factors, led to Little Richard's return to born again Christianity and the ministry, but Williams would not escape LA's seedy underworld.
On January 7, 1980, Williams was found dead from a gunshot wound to his head in his Los Angeles, California home. He was 44 years old. The death was deemed suicide, though there was much speculation otherwise. No suspects were ever arrested or charged.
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Labels:
Larry Williams,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Clarence “Frogman” Henry
Clarence “Frogman” Henry (b. Clarence Henry, 19 Mar 1937 in New Orleans, LA, USA - aka Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry & Clarence Frogman Henry), is an rnb singer. Fats Domino & Professor Longhair were young Henry’s main influences, whilst growing up. When playing in talent shows, he dressed like Longhair & wore a wig, with braids on both sides. His ‘trademark’ croak - utilized manifestly, on his 1956 début hit Ain’t Got No Home - earned his nickname & jump-started a career that endures, to this day. You Always Hurt The One You Love & (I Don’t Know Why) But I Do (both 1961), were also big hits.
Henry opened eighteen concerts for The Beatles across the US & Canada (1964) - However, his main source of income was from the Bourbon St strip (New Orleans), where he played for nineteen years. His name could still draw hordes of tourists, long after his hit-making days had ended. “Ain’t Got No Home”, achieved fresh notoriety in the 1990s - through its use, for a time, as the “Homeless Update” theme music, on The Rush Limbaugh Show.
Clarence Henry’s pioneering contribution, to the genre, has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Mark Sandman (lead singer / bass player, of the rock band Morphine) - during a home-studio interview - cited Frogman as an important influence.
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Labels:
Clarence 'Frogman' Henry,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Salty Dog and Lizzie's Blues - Lizzie Miles
Lizzie Miles was the stage name taken by Elizabeth Mary Landreaux (March 31, 1895 – March 17, 1963), an African-American blues singer
Miles was born in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, in a dark-skinned Francophone Creole ("Creole of Color") family. She traveled widely with minstrel and circus shows in the 1910s, and made her first phonograph recordings in New York of blues songs in 1922 – although she did not like to be referred to as a "blues singer", since she sang a wide repertory of music.
In the mid-1920s Miles spent time performing in Paris, before returning to the United States. She suffered a serious illness and retired from the music industry in the 1930s. Not before she recorded "My Man O' War", described by one music journalist as "a composition stuffed with rococo suggestiveness". In the 1940s she returned to New Orleans, where Joe Mares encouraged her to sing again—which she did, but always from in front of, or beside the stage, since she said she had vowed in a prayer not to go on stage again if she recovered from her illness. Miles was based in San Francisco, California, in the early 1950s, then again returned to New Orleans where she recorded with several Dixieland and traditional jazz bands and made regular radio broadcasts, often performing with Bob Scobey or George Lewis.
In 1958 Miles appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival. In 1959 she quit singing, except for gospel music. She died in New Orleans, from a heart attack, in March 1963.
Her half-sister Edna Hicks was also a blues singer
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Labels:
Lizzie Miles,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Sunday, March 10, 2013
I'm all alone - Eddie Langlois
Eddie Langlois, He was born on 15 January 1936 in New Orleans and passed away on 10 March 1985 in Slidell, LA., was heavily influenced by Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones by far the city’s most successful exponent of the craft. In fact Lang was playing second guitar in Slim’s band when he cut his first session for Bullet.
Lang returned to small band blues for his Superdome tracks with “Food Stamp Blues” becoming his best ever seller when Jewel picked it up. At the end of the 70s he was sadly incapacitated by a stroke and he passed away in 1985.
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Labels:
Eddie Langlois,
Little Eddie Lang,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Blues For Norman, parts I & II - Lee Young
Howard McGhee, Al Killian - trumpets
Charlie Parker, Willie Smith - alto saxes
Lester Young - tenor sax
Arnold Ross - piano
Billy Hadnott - bass
Lee (Prez' brother) Young - drums
It's hard to decide quite whether the drummer Lee Young's place in jazz gained from the overwhelming importance of his brother Lester, or was cast in the shade by it. The two men worked together several times during Lester's short life, and in their own band Lester was the universal jazz muse while Lee took care of the more prosaic side of things. One thing not in doubt is that Lee Young was an outstanding accompanist, who eschewed drum solos and who fashioned his own career away from his brother. Young's pianist father raised his family in the New Orleans area, and all of his children were taught to play musical instruments. In the 1920s, he formed a family band, the New Orleans Strutters, which played at minstrel shows and carnivals. The band also toured the South on the infamous Theater Owners' Booking Association (TOBA – also known as "Tough on Black Asses"). Before he was old enough to play, Lee stood on stage in a miniature tuxedo before the band as its "conductor". By the time he was 10, he was the only one of the children to have received any kind of orthodox education. Despite the touring, he attended grammar school when the family regularly wintered in Minneapolis. This gave him confidence when, in later years, he co-led a band with Lester, who had a slender grip on the realities of life. As a child Lee learnt to play trumpet, trombone, piano and soprano saxophone. He played the soprano when, in the mid 1920s, the family formed a band of seven saxophones made up of himself, his father, his stepmother, his sister, his brother and two cousins. But eventually Young settled on the drums as his main instrument and became the drummer in his father's band. Settling at last in Los Angeles in 1929, he became a singer at the Apex Club, continuing as a vocalist in the city until 1934, when he joined the band led by the expatriate New Orleanian trumpeter Mutt Carey. Young moved to Buck Clayton's band in 1936, but times were hard in the music business. When he was on tour with Clayton, the young trumpeter Jimmy Maxwell found a band stranded in his home town of Tracy, California. "Aren't you Buck Clayton?" he asked the leader. "What are you doing here?" "I'm here with my band, and the promoters ran off with all our money," he replied. They hadn't eaten for a couple of days, so Maxwell took Clayton, Young and the six others home with him and his mother gave them all dinner. In 1937, Young worked and recorded with the pianist Fats Waller and in 1937 played in the band led by the newly emerging Nat King Cole. He worked as a musician in the Paramount and MGM film studios and then joined Lionel Hampton's band as a singer and drummer, staying for four months from September 1940. The next year saw him back with Cole and then he put together the house band, called the Esquires of Rhythm, at Billy Berg's Club Capri in Hollywood. In 1941, Lester Young joined the band as co-leader and the group broadcast twice weekly, moving with Berg to his new club, the Trouville. But Lee wasn't there on the opening night. He had been approached by Duke Ellington's tenor sax player. He recalled: Duke was opening at the Trianon Ballroom on the same night. Frog (Ben Webster) and Bear (Jimmy Blanton) told me that Duke's drummer, Sonny Greer, wasn't going to make it that night and they wanted me to play with the band. I told Billy Berg, "I'm going to play with Duke tonight. You have to get another drummer." "What do you mean," he said. "You're the leader." "I don't care," I replied. "I may not ever get a chance again in my life to play with Duke, and I'm not going to give this up." Luckily, when I came back the next night, I still had a job. At the Trouville, the Youngs' band accompanied Billie Holiday. Lee Young worked in Los Angeles with characters as diverse as Bunk Johnson and Charlie Mingus, and recorded with Dinah Washington, Ivie Anderson and Mel Powell. He recorded with Jazz at the Philharmonic in 1944 and 1946 and worked for Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton again in 1947. A brief period with Oscar Peterson saw him fall foul, in a concert, of the merciless practical joking that went on within the pianist's trio. We're getting ready to play and I can't find my snare drum. They had taken it out of my trapcase and hidden it from me. I was really up a tree because I couldn't imagine how you could leave your snare drum out of your trap case. They opened up with "Air Mail Special" just as fast as you could play it, and I had no snare drum. All of a sudden on stage, here comes a waiter with a tray with my snare drum on it! From June 1953 to March 1962, Young played in the Nat King Cole Trio. In 1964, he went into record production, being associated over the years with the record labels Vee-Jay, United Artists, ABC, Dunhill Records and Motown Records. The drummer had two particular distinctions in regard to Los Angeles. He was the first black musician to work in a major studio and, as Norman Granz's tennis partner in the late Thirties, he was the person who first introduced the great entrepreneur to jazz. Lee Young appeared in three films: the Red Skelton comedy I Dood It (1943), St Louis Blues (1958) and Feather on Jazz (1967). Steve Voce Leonidas Raymond "Lee" Young, drummer, vocalist and bandleader: born New Orleans, Louisiana 7 March 1917; twice married (one son, one daughter); died Los Angeles 31 July 2008.
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It's hard to decide quite whether the drummer Lee Young's place in jazz gained from the overwhelming importance of his brother Lester, or was cast in the shade by it. The two men worked together several times during Lester's short life, and in their own band Lester was the universal jazz muse while Lee took care of the more prosaic side of things. One thing not in doubt is that Lee Young was an outstanding accompanist, who eschewed drum solos and who fashioned his own career away from his brother. Young's pianist father raised his family in the New Orleans area, and all of his children were taught to play musical instruments. In the 1920s, he formed a family band, the New Orleans Strutters, which played at minstrel shows and carnivals. The band also toured the South on the infamous Theater Owners' Booking Association (TOBA – also known as "Tough on Black Asses"). Before he was old enough to play, Lee stood on stage in a miniature tuxedo before the band as its "conductor". By the time he was 10, he was the only one of the children to have received any kind of orthodox education. Despite the touring, he attended grammar school when the family regularly wintered in Minneapolis. This gave him confidence when, in later years, he co-led a band with Lester, who had a slender grip on the realities of life. As a child Lee learnt to play trumpet, trombone, piano and soprano saxophone. He played the soprano when, in the mid 1920s, the family formed a band of seven saxophones made up of himself, his father, his stepmother, his sister, his brother and two cousins. But eventually Young settled on the drums as his main instrument and became the drummer in his father's band. Settling at last in Los Angeles in 1929, he became a singer at the Apex Club, continuing as a vocalist in the city until 1934, when he joined the band led by the expatriate New Orleanian trumpeter Mutt Carey. Young moved to Buck Clayton's band in 1936, but times were hard in the music business. When he was on tour with Clayton, the young trumpeter Jimmy Maxwell found a band stranded in his home town of Tracy, California. "Aren't you Buck Clayton?" he asked the leader. "What are you doing here?" "I'm here with my band, and the promoters ran off with all our money," he replied. They hadn't eaten for a couple of days, so Maxwell took Clayton, Young and the six others home with him and his mother gave them all dinner. In 1937, Young worked and recorded with the pianist Fats Waller and in 1937 played in the band led by the newly emerging Nat King Cole. He worked as a musician in the Paramount and MGM film studios and then joined Lionel Hampton's band as a singer and drummer, staying for four months from September 1940. The next year saw him back with Cole and then he put together the house band, called the Esquires of Rhythm, at Billy Berg's Club Capri in Hollywood. In 1941, Lester Young joined the band as co-leader and the group broadcast twice weekly, moving with Berg to his new club, the Trouville. But Lee wasn't there on the opening night. He had been approached by Duke Ellington's tenor sax player. He recalled: Duke was opening at the Trianon Ballroom on the same night. Frog (Ben Webster) and Bear (Jimmy Blanton) told me that Duke's drummer, Sonny Greer, wasn't going to make it that night and they wanted me to play with the band. I told Billy Berg, "I'm going to play with Duke tonight. You have to get another drummer." "What do you mean," he said. "You're the leader." "I don't care," I replied. "I may not ever get a chance again in my life to play with Duke, and I'm not going to give this up." Luckily, when I came back the next night, I still had a job. At the Trouville, the Youngs' band accompanied Billie Holiday. Lee Young worked in Los Angeles with characters as diverse as Bunk Johnson and Charlie Mingus, and recorded with Dinah Washington, Ivie Anderson and Mel Powell. He recorded with Jazz at the Philharmonic in 1944 and 1946 and worked for Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton again in 1947. A brief period with Oscar Peterson saw him fall foul, in a concert, of the merciless practical joking that went on within the pianist's trio. We're getting ready to play and I can't find my snare drum. They had taken it out of my trapcase and hidden it from me. I was really up a tree because I couldn't imagine how you could leave your snare drum out of your trap case. They opened up with "Air Mail Special" just as fast as you could play it, and I had no snare drum. All of a sudden on stage, here comes a waiter with a tray with my snare drum on it! From June 1953 to March 1962, Young played in the Nat King Cole Trio. In 1964, he went into record production, being associated over the years with the record labels Vee-Jay, United Artists, ABC, Dunhill Records and Motown Records. The drummer had two particular distinctions in regard to Los Angeles. He was the first black musician to work in a major studio and, as Norman Granz's tennis partner in the late Thirties, he was the person who first introduced the great entrepreneur to jazz. Lee Young appeared in three films: the Red Skelton comedy I Dood It (1943), St Louis Blues (1958) and Feather on Jazz (1967). Steve Voce Leonidas Raymond "Lee" Young, drummer, vocalist and bandleader: born New Orleans, Louisiana 7 March 1917; twice married (one son, one daughter); died Los Angeles 31 July 2008.
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Labels:
Charlie Parker,
Lee Young,
Lester Young,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Thursday, February 28, 2013
SHE AIN'T GOT NO HAIR - Walter Papoose Nelson, Professor Longhair
Born Walter Charles Nelson Jr., 26 July 1932, New Orleans, Louisiana
Died 28 February 1962, New York City, New York
Guitarist Walter Nelson was born into a musical family. His father, Louis Nelson, was also a guitarist and had played with Louis Armstrong. Nelson Sr. taught music to both Smiley Lewis and Professor Longhair. Walter's younger brother, Lawrence Nelson (1936-1963), called himself Prince La La, who made a couple of classic R&B recordings in the early 1960s, before his untimely death from a drug overdose. Melvin and David Lastie were Walter's cousins. His sister, Dorothy Nelson, was married to singer Jessie Hill. They all grew up in a poverty-stricken area. Mac Rebennack : "They're all from the housing projects in the Ninth Ward which is the ultimate in ghettoes in New Orleans - bad conditions, gang wars, just a totally bad and violent situation. They've had very, very rough lives." (Quoted by John Broven, p. 93.) "Papoose", as Walter's nickname was, learned to play guitar from his father. By 1949 he had joined Professor Longhair's band and he plays on the Professor's earliest recordings. Fats Domino heard Papoose when he was playing with Longhair and persuaded him to join his band in 1950. Unfortunately, playing in shady clubs like Longhair's hangout, the Caldonia Inn, he had gathered some bad habits, notably an addiction to heroin. Still, Walter's driving-but-mellow style became the backbone of the Fats Domino band, as Billy Diamond put it.
>From January 1951 until September 1959, Papoose played on most of Fats Domino's sessions. When he was not available, it was mostly because he had to spend some time in jail, for drugs possession or non- support. Fats would bail him out, whenever possible. In a way, the Domino band was Papoose's family, as he became more and more estranged from his own relations because of his drug habit. "He was just a good-hearted cat who happened to be strung out", writes Mac Rebennack in his auto- biography. Papoose was Rebennack's first guitar teacher and Mac speaks highly of him. "He was a real soulful player, probably the most soulful guitar teacher I had." Dave Bartholomew was also full of praise for Nelson's guitar playing. Papoose could read music and sometimes he contributed to the arrangements of Fats's records, especially in the case of "I'm Walkin'". However, Alvin 'Red' Tyler didn't think too much of Nelson and rated Edgar Blanchard and Justin Adams, and especially Ernest McLean, higher as guitarists. (John Broven, p. 91-92.)
Nelson made one vocal record, "Why Did We Have To Part", on the flip of Herb Hardesty's "The Chicken Twist" (Federal 12460, 1962). On February 28, 1962 (Ash Wednesday), Billy Diamond drove to the Theresa Hotel in Harlem to pick up the members of Fats Domino's band. When Papoose didn't answer his knock, the bell captain opened the door. They found the guitarist lying askew on the bed with one shoe on and a needle in his arm. He was cold, dead from a heroin overdose at the age of twenty-nine.
The funeral in New Orleans was not attended by Fats and his band who were still on tour. Roy Montrell replaced Papoose as the guitarist in Domino's band. Montrell would die under very similar circumstances (at the Sonesta Hotel in Amsterdam), while the band was on tour in Holland in 1979.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
I'm In Love Again - Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino Jr. (born February 26, 1928) is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Domino is French Creole and Creole was his first language. Domino was delivered at home by his midwife grandmother. Like most families in the Lower Ninth Ward, Domino's family were new arrivals from Vacherie, Louisiana. His father was a well known violinist, and Domino was inspired to play himself. He eventually learned from his uncle, jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett. Fats released five gold (million-copy-selling) records before 1955. Domino also had 35 Top 40 American hits and has a music style based on traditional R&B ensembles of bass, piano, electric guitar, drums, and saxophone
Domino first attracted national attention with "The Fat Man" in 1950 on Imperial Records. This song is an early rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing "wah-wah" vocalizing over a strong back beat. "The Fat Man" sold one million copies by 1953. Fats Domino released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler and drummers Earl Palmer and Smokey Johnson. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That A Shame" (1955), which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit No. 1 with a milder cover of the song that received wider radio airplay in a racially-segregated era. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles.
Domino's first album, Carry on Rockin', was released under the Imperial imprint, No. 9009, in November 1955 and subsequently reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino in 1956.Combining a number of his hits along with some tracks that had not yet been released as singles, the album went on under its alternate title to reach No. 17 on the "Pop Albums" chart.
His 1956 version of the 1940 Vincent Rose, Al Lewis & Larry Stock song, "Blueberry Hill" reached No. 2 in the Top 40, was No. 1 on the R&B charts for 11 weeks, and was his biggest hit. "Blueberry Hill" sold more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956–57. The song had earlier been recorded by Gene Autry, and Louis Armstrong among many others. He had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop No. 14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop No. 4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop No. 8), "It's You I Love" (Pop No. 6), "Whole Lotta Loving" (Pop No. 6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop No. 8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop No. 8).
Domino appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock! and The Girl Can't Help It. On December 18, 1957, Domino's hit "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
On November 2, 1956, a riot broke out at Fats Domino's show in Fayetteville, NC, with police resorting to tear gas to break up the unruly crowd. Domino jumped out of a window to avoid the melee; he and two other band members were slightly injured.
Domino continued to have a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walkin' to New Orleans" (1960, Pop No. 6), co-written by Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop No. 14) from the same year. After Imperial Records was sold to outside interests in early 1963, Domino left the label: "I stuck with them until they sold out," he claimed in 1979. In all, Domino recorded over 60 singles for the label, placing 40 songs in the top 10 on the R&B charts, and scoring 11 top 10 singles on the pop charts. Twenty-two of Domino's Imperial singles were double-sided hits.
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!
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!
Labels:
Fats Domino,
New Orleans
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Luke Winslow-King Album Release Details, Tour + SXSW, Song Stream
LUKE WINSLOW-KING
ANNOUNCES RELEASE DATE, ALBUM DETAILS, AND PRE-RELEASE AND SXSW
TOURS
LISTEN TO A NEW SONG, “YOU DON’T KNOW
BETTER THAN ME”
[photo by Jason
Kruppa – LINK]
Two months ago Bloodshot announced
the signing of New Orleans-based artist Luke
Winslow-King. Now, we have details on his new album, The
Coming Tide, as well as dates for a pre-release tour and SXSW,
and the launch of an exclusive song stream.
Click to listen to a stream of “You
Don’t Know Better Than Me” over at CMT Edge. Feel free to re-post the
SoundCloud link (https://soundcloud.com/bloodshot-records/you-dont-know-better-than-me)
on Facebook, Twitter, etc. or embed it using the share button. We will also be
launching a promotional MP3 download – the album’s first single – around
mid-March.
Winslow-King’s Bloodshot debut
The Coming Tide will be widely
released on April 23. Leading up to the release date, Luke and the band – which
most often includes singer/washboard player Esther Rose, bassist Cassidy Holden,
and trumpet/piano player Ben Polcer – will tour from their home state of
Louisiana through Austin for SXSW and up into the Midwest. You can see the
collected tour dates as well as additional post-release shows HERE.
+++
[album cover –
LINK]
Recorded at Piety Street Studios
in New Orleans, The Coming Tide
brings together Winslow-King’s formal music education with a street-busking
resilience, a proficiency on bottleneck slide guitar, the featured vocals (and
washboard playing) of Esther Rose, and a cast of A-plus local players. The
result is a vibrant amalgam of early 20th century jazz, Delta blues, American
folksong, and Southern gospel.
TRACK
LISTING:
1. The Coming
Tide
2. Moving On
(Towards Better Days)
3. Let ‘Em
Talk
4. Staying In
Town
5. Keep Your
Lamp Trimmed And Burning
6. You Don’t
Know Better Than Me [LISTEN]
7. I’ve Got the
Blues For Rampart Street
8. You &
Me
9. I Know
She’ll Do Right By Me
10. Ella
Speed
11. I’ve Got My
Mind Set On You
+++
TOUR
DATES:
SXSW:
3.13 //
Austin TX - Blurt Day Party 1pm - 1:30pm || Mouth
By Mouthwest Showcase for the Health Alliance for
Austin Musicians
(HAAM) TBA || Continental Club @ 08:00 PM to 08:40 PM **OFFICIAL SXSW
Showcase
3.14 // Oxford America Showcase TBA
3.15 // Austin, TX - Bloodshot's Yard Dog Showcase
3.14 // Oxford America Showcase TBA
3.15 // Austin, TX - Bloodshot's Yard Dog Showcase
PRE-RELEASE
TOUR:
3.22 // Hattiesburg, MS – T-Bones @ 5:30pm || Thirsty Hippo @ 9pm
3.23 // Oxford, MS – Proud Larry’s @ 9pm
3.24 // New Orleans – d.b.a. @ 10pm
3.25 // Birmingham, AL – The Nick @ 10pm
3.26 // Florence, AL – Billy Reid In-Store (early performance) || the end theater – 10pm
3.27 // Nashville, Tn – Exit/In @ 9pm
3.28 // Terre Haute, IN – The Verve @ 10pm
3.29 // Springfield, IL- TBA|
3.30 // St. Louis, MO – Blues City Deli @ 12pm || Broadway Oyster Bar @ 10pm
4.2 // Champaign/Urbana, IL – Iron Post @ 8pm
4.3 // Fennville, MI – Salt of the Earth @ 8pm
4.4 // Chicago, Il – Fitzgerald’s @ 9pm4.5 // Three Rivers, MI – Rivieria Theatre @ 8pm
4.6 // Ann Arbor, MI - Hash Bash
4.7 // Grand Rapids, Mi – The DAAC @ 8pm
4.8 // Kalamazoo, MI – Old Dog Tavern @ 8pm
4.9 // Toledo, OH – Village Idiot @ 8pm
4.13 // New Orleans – French Quarter Festival
4.23 // Washington DC – Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
4.25 // Wilmington, DE – World Cafe Live at the Queen
5.4 // New Orleans, LA – New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
+++
Find out more about Luke
Winslow-King: lukewinslowking.net/
Bloodshot Records artist page: http://bloodshotrecords.com/artist/luke-winslow-king
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LukeWinslowKingMusic
Twitter:
@LukeWinslowKing
Labels:
Bloodshot Records,
Louisiana,
Luke Winslow-King,
New Orleans
Monday, February 18, 2013
Second Line - Kid Sheik, Brother Cornbread
A huge hunk of cornbread would not have been more welcome during the potato famine than it is as a nickname in the career of New Orleans jazz reed player and vocalist Joe "Cornbread" Thomas. Thanks to the appetizing moniker this superior player -- who kept busy with trad jazz up through his senior years -- has more than a tasty chance of being told apart from the Joe Thomas that played trumpet, the Kansas City jazz saxophonist who took over the Jimmie Lunceford band, or the funky flute player whose recording named Plato's Retreat was a hit.
Prelude to the Revival, Vol. 1
The New Orleans Thomas is the elder statesman of all these name-alikes, having a bit less than a decade of a head's start over either the trumpeter or the Kansas City jazz Thomas, both of whom were born in 1909. Jelly Roll Morton was among the earliest of bandleaders to put the cornbread in the musical oven, so to speak; at any rate, the Morton discography represents a body of work involving Thomas that has managed to remain in print for listener perusal. Early Thomas can also be sampled on a New Orleans jazz compilation titled Prelude to the Revival, Vol. 1.
Thomas did extremely well through the '60s and '70s in various New Orleans revival outfits, some of them fronted by European and Scandinavian players. Teaming up with the entertaining Kid Sheik Cola, the reedman was also billed as Brother Cornbread during this period, a name that sounds something like a movie that would star Bill Cosby and Harry Belafonte, nonetheless effectively documented on a series of live recordings released by the dedicated Jazz Crusade imprint. Thomas was a superb soloist in his later years, often given special billing as in Barry Martyn's Living Legends Band Featuring Joe "Cornbread" Thomas. He also performed and recorded with Peter Nissen's New Orleans Jazz Band.
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Labels:
Brother Cornbread,
Joseph Thomas,
Kid Sheik,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Groove Me - King Floyd
King Floyd (February 13, 1945 – March 6, 2006) was a New Orleans soul singer and songwriter, best known for his Top 10 hit from 1970, "Groove Me".
King Floyd III was born in New Orleans in 1945. His musical career started as a singer at the Sho-Bar on Bourbon Street. Following a stint in the army, Floyd went to California, where he joined up with record producer Harold Battiste. His debut album, A Man In Love, featuring songs co-written with Dr. John, failed to make an impact on the charts. Floyd returned to New Orleans in 1969 and worked for the Post Office.
In 1970, Wardell Quezergue, an arranger of R&B scores, persuaded Floyd to record "Groove Me" with Malaco Records in Jackson, Mississippi. Jean Knight recorded her hit, "Mr. Big Stuff," in the same sessions.
At first, "Groove Me" was a B-side to another Floyd song, "What Our Love Needs." New Orleans radio DJ's started playing "Groove Me" and the song became a local hit. Atlantic Records picked up national distribution of "Groove Me," which topped the United States R&B chart and reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. & went to #41 in Britain. This disc sold over one million copies, and received a gold disc awarded by the R.I.A.A. in December 1970. Floyd quit his job at the post office to perform a U.S. tour. His follow-up single, "Baby Let Me Kiss You" climbed up to number 29 on the Billboard Top 40 charts in 1971.
However, differences with Quezergue soon emerged and his 1973 follow-up album, Think About It, although a fine album, failed to make much impact. However, Atlantic released a song from the album, "Woman Don't Go Astray" as a single. His 1975 album, Well Done, was released through TK Records with Atlantic distributing. "I Feel Like Dynamite" from the album, written by Larry Hamilton,[4] became a minor hit.
None of his subsequent songs achieved the same, as disco dominated the charts for the remainder of the 1970s. However, Floyd had credits for "Boombastic," recorded in 1995 by Shaggy, which became a big hit. Floyd reunited with Malaco Records in 2000 for the Old Skool Funk album, but it failed to make an impact. However, his song "Don't Leave Me Lonely" was prominently sampled by the Wu-Tang Clan for the song "For Heaven's Sake" off their album Wu-Tang Forever.
He died on March 6, 2006 from complications of a stroke and diabetes. He is survived by his wife, children, and grandchildren.
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Labels:
King Floyd,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
What Can I Do - Charles Williams
Charles "Hungry" Williams, born New Orleans, LA February 12, 1935, the guy who started it. Earl Palmer says he thought Hungry Williams was the guy who originated that beat used by Clyde Stubblefield with "Cold Sweat," (James Brown). When he displaced the backbeat, was another landmark. That was a very important milestone in funk drumming. In terms of other monumental changes, of course, the ghost note that came in with the James Brown thing was an important step in the evolution of funk drumming. By utilizing those very soft notes in between the accents, the drumming had this undercurrent bubbling along with the whole thing. Clayton Fillyau played ghost notes all over Live At The Apollo. He credits the New Orleans drummer.
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Labels:
Charles Williams,
Hungry,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Hey Pretty Mama - Jump Jackson & His Orchestra
Started out in New Orleans, wound up in Chicago. The subject could be the blues backbeat, or it could be the life of Armand "Jump" Jackson. Or it could be both, since the two are almost one and the same. That fat, greasy sock rhythm that was heard on many of the blues records made in Chicago in the late '40s and '50s was created by the one and only Jump Jackson, sometimes while he was booking a tour in his head for one of his bands. In the late '40s, Jackson worked as a bandleader on sessions for labels such as Columbia, Specialty, and Aristocrat; his band backed up vocalists such as St. Louis Jimmy, Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, and Baby Doo Caston. He also drummed on at least a dozen classic urban blues albums, with leaders ranging from the most famous such as John Lee Hooker to the obscure but great Robert Nighthawk.
As well as performing, Jackson was indeed a certified booking agent. His taste for controlling as much of the business as possible spread to his recording career. In 1959 he founded La Salle Records and began putting out his own sessions as well as sides by Eddie Boyd, Eddy Clearwater, Little Mack Simmons, and his old playing partner pianist Slim. Performer Clearwater even got his name from Jackson, who came up with the stage name as a reaction to his friend Eddy Harrington's fondness for blues giant Muddy Waters. The blues audience was ready for clear water as well as muddy, since the change in names was just what this artist apparently needed for his career to start taking off. In 1962, Jackson was chosen as the drummer for the first American Folk Blues Festival tour of Europe, although by then he could feel the cold wind of progress blowing on his neck, even among all the other breezes in the Windy City. The swing-era style of blues drumming he had pioneered was slowly being taken over by a newer kind of hard-edged backbeat, as practiced by blues drummer Fred Below for example.
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Labels:
Jump Jackson,
Louisiana,
New Orleans
Will You Ever Be Mine - Donnie Elbert
Donnie Elbert (May 25, 1936 – January 26, 1989) was an American soul singer, who had a prolific career from the mid 1950s to the late 1970s. His US hits included "Where Did Our Love Go?" (1972), and his reputation as a Northern soul artist in the UK was secured by "A Little Piece of Leather", a performance highlighting his powerful falsetto voice.
Elbert was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but when aged three his family relocated to Buffalo, New York. He learned to play guitar and piano as a child, and in 1955 formed a doo-wop group, the Vibraharps, with friend Danny Cannon. Elbert acted as the group's guitarist, songwriter, arranger, and background vocalist, making his recording debut on their single "Walk Beside Me". He left the group in 1957 for a solo career, and recorded a demonstration record that earned him a recording contract with the King label's DeLuxe subsidiary. His solo debut "What Can I Do?" reached #12 in the U.S. R&B chart, and he followed it up with the less successful "Believe It or Not" and "Have I Sinned?", which became a regional hit in Pittsburgh.
He continued to release singles on DeLuxe, but with little commercial success, and also played New York's Apollo Theater and toured the chitlin' circuit of African-American owned nightclubs. After completing an album, The Sensational Donnie Elbert Sings, he left DeLuxe in 1959, joining first Red Top Records, where in 1960 he recorded "Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You)", and then Vee-Jay Records, where he had another regional hit with "Will You Ever Be Mine?," which reportedly sold 250,000 copies in the Philadelphia area but failed to take off nationwide. His career was also interrupted by a spell in the US Army, from which he was discharged in 1961. He then recorded singles for several labels, including Parkway, Cub and Checker, but with little success. However, although the 1965 Gateway label release of "A Little Piece of Leather" failed to chart in the US, the record became a #27 pop hit when released on the London label in the UK several years later in 1972, and remains a Northern soul favorite.
Elbert relocated to the UK in 1966, where he married. There, he recorded "In Between The Heartaches" for the Polydor label in 1968, a cover version of The Supremes' hit "Where Did Our Love Go?". and an album of Otis Redding cover versions, Tribute To A King. His 1969 Deram release "Without You" had a rocksteady rhythm, and went to the top of the Jamaican charts. He returned to the US the same year, and had his first US chart hit in over a decade with the Rare Bullet label release "Can't Get Over Losing You," which reached #26 on the Billboard R&B chart. Following the success of that record, "Where Did Our Love Go?" was released on the All Platinum label, and became his biggest hit, reaching #15 on the US pop charts, #6 on the R&B charts, and (in 1972) #8 in the UK. Its follow-up "Sweet Baby" reached #30 on the R&B chart in early 1972.
Elbert then signed with Avco-Embassy, where he entered the recording studio with the successful production team of Hugo & Luigi. Although his cover of The Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself" reached #14 on the R&B chart, Elbert balked at the label's insistence that he record material associated with Motown. He returned to All Platinum and had a run of minor R&B hits, but left after he claimed authorship of Shirley & Company's R&B chart-topper "Shame Shame Shame" which was credited to label owner Sylvia Robinson. For 1975's "You Keep Me Crying (With Your Lying)," Elbert finally formed his own label, and "I Got to Get Myself Together," appeared on an imprint bearing his surname, but it was among his final recordings.
By the mid 1980s Elbert had retired from performing, and became director of A&R for Polygram's Canadian division. He suffered a massive stroke and died in 1989, at the age of 52.
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
Everybody Plays The Fool - Aaron Neville
Aaron Neville (born January 24, 1941, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American soul and R&B, country singer, and musician. He has had four top-20 hits in the United States (including three that went to number one on Billboard's adult contemporary chart and one that went to number one on the R&B chart) along with four platinum-certified albums. He has also recorded with his brothers Art, Charles and Cyril as The Neville Brothers and is the father of singer/keyboards player Ivan Neville. Of mixed African American and Native American heritage,[citation needed] his music also features Cajun and Creole influences.
The first of his singles that got airplay outside of New Orleans was "Over You" (Minit, 1960). Neville's first major hit single was "Tell It Like It Is", which topped Billboard's R&B chart for five weeks in 1967 and also reached #2 on the Hot 100. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. A remake of the song was a Top 10 Pop hit for the Rock group Heart featuring Ann and Nancy Wilson in 1981.
In 1989 Neville teamed up with Linda Ronstadt on the album Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. Among the duets recorded for the disc were the #1 Grammy-winning hits "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life". "Don't Know Much" earned a million-selling Gold single, while the album was certified Triple Platinum for US sales of more than 3 million.
His other hits have included "Everybody Plays the Fool", his 1991 cover of the 1972 Main Ingredient song, that reached #8 on the Hot 100; "Don't Take Away My Heaven", "Hercules" and "Can't Stop My Heart From Loving You (The Rain Song)." Neville's biggest solo successes have been on the Adult Contemporary chart, where "Don't Know Much," "All My Life," and "Everybody Plays the Fool" all reached Number One in 8 European countries.
In August 2005, his home in Eastern New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina; he evacuated to Memphis, Tennessee before the hurricane hit. He moved to Nashville after the storm.[2] and had yet to return to the city as of early 2008, causing the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to temporarily change its tradition of having the Neville Brothers close the festival. However, the Neville Brothers, including Aaron, returned for the 2008 Jazzfest, which returned to its traditional seven-day format for the first time since Katrina. Neville is in the process of moving back to the New Orleans area, namely the North Shore city of Covington.[2] Neville performed Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" during NBC's A Concert for Hurricane Relief on September 2, 2005.
Neville signed to SonyBMG's new Burgundy Records label in late 2005 and recorded an album of songs by Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke and others for Bring It on Home…The Soul Classics, released on September 19, 2006. The album, produced by Stewart Levine, features collaborations between Neville and Chaka Khan, Mavis Staples, Chris Botti, David Sanborn, Art Neville, and others. The album's first single was a remake of The Impressions' 1963 classic "It's All Right."
Aaron Neville with his distinctive mole visible above his right eye (1990)
Neville's career has included work for television, movies and sporting events. Neville sang the National Anthem in the movie The Fan starring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. He also sang the anthem at the WWF's SummerSlam 1993 and at WCW Spring Stampede in 1994. Neville sang the theme music to the children's TV series Fisher-Price Little People. He also sang a new version of "Cotton," for Cotton, Inc. which was introduced during the 1992 Summer Olympics. In 1988 he recorded "Mickey Mouse March" for Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films, one of Various Artists. In 2006, Neville performed "The Star-Spangled Banner", alongside Queen Of Soul Aretha Franklin and Dr. John on keyboard at Super Bowl XL in Detroit, Michigan. The performance was widely panned, however. In addition, Neville (along with brothers Art and Cyril) did background vocals for the songs "Great Heart", "Bring Back the Magic", "Homemade Music", "My Barracuda", and "Smart Woman (in a Real Short Skirt)" on Jimmy Buffett's Hot Water, released in 1988.
On October 27, 2006, Neville made a guest appearance on an episode of the soap opera The Young and the Restless. He sang "Stand By Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine", from his album, Bring It on Home … The Soul Classics. In 2008 he released Gold, which includes a double album of his hits.
In 2009, Neville, along with the Mt. Zion Mass Choir, released a version of the song "A Change Is Gonna Come" on the compilation album, Oh Happy Day.
On December 12, 2010, while performing at Baton Rouge's Manship Theater in the Shaw Center, Neville was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame.
Neville is an inductee of the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame in Ferriday, Louisiana.
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Labels:
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Monday, January 21, 2013
Mississippi Rising - MIA BORDERS
Mia Borders has captured the attention of both local and national audiences with her energetic blend of funk, soul, and contemporary songwriting. Offbeat Magazine's Alex Rawls writes, "Note to self: Pay more attention to Mia Borders," and USA today named Mia one of the 2010 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival's “hidden surprises.” The April 2010 release of her second full-length album, "Magnolia Blue,” earned her a nomination for Best Emerging Artist at the Big Easy Music Awards, as well as a nationally broadcast performance at N.O. Jazz Fest '10. She hit the road and performed at Mount Helena Music Fest, San Jose Jazz Fest, Taos Mountain Music Fest, Voodoo Fest, Bonnaroo (VIP pre-party with Big Sam's Funky Nation), the Kennedy Center, VOW Festival, and Gretna Fest, among other notable venues. When she opened for Corinne Bailey Rae at the House of Blues New Orleans in September 2010, "Borders drew the crowd in and had them cheering for more" (NewOrleans.com). With this and much more ahead, Mia Borders has secured her role as one of the fastest rising artists from New Orleans.
Her collection of albums – 2007’s “the ep,” 2008’s “The Nashville Cuts,” 2009’s “Southern Fried Soul,” and 2010’s “Magnolia Blue” and “Live at House of Blues New Orleans” – all feature original music and are available at miaborders.com and wherever digital music is sold.
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!
Labels:
Louisiana,
MIA BORDERS,
New Orleans
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