I Wonder Why - Alphonse Mouzon Quintet

Alphonse Mouzon (born November 21, 1948) is a well-known jazz-fusion drummer and percussionist, and the Chairman/CEO of Tenacious Records. He also composes, arranges and produces, as well as acts. Alphonse Mouzon's popularity as a performing artist first became realized in the late 1960s and early 1970s Mouzon, of African-American, French and Blackfoot descent, was born on November 21, 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina. He received his first musical training at Bonds-Wilson High School and moved to New York City upon graduation. He studied drama and music at the City College of New York as well as medicine at Manhattan Medical School. He continued receiving drum lessons from Bobby Thomas, the drummer for jazz pianist Billy Taylor. He played percussion in the Broadway show "Promises, Promises", he then worked with pianist McCoy Tyner. He spent a year as a member of the jazz fusion band, Weather Report. After that Mouzon signed as a solo artist to the Blue Note label in 1972. Mouzon's visibility increased with his tenure with guitarist Larry Coryell's Eleventh House fusion band from 1973 to 1975. His power, style and speed helped propel the band to notoriety. Albums from this period include Introducing the Eleventh House, Level One, Mind Transplant (a solo album), and in 1977, a reconciliation recording with Coryell entitled Back Together Again. Mouzon recorded Mind Transplant in 1974 with Tommy Bolin, who had previously played in Billy Cobham's Spectrum, which is often regarded as one of the most important and essential albums within the fields of jazz fusion drumming.[citation needed] He recorded four albums of an R & B / dance style, including The Essence Of Mystery (Blue Note 1972), Funky Snakefoot (Blue Note 1973) and The Man Incognito (Blue Note 1976), including 'Take Your Troubles Away' and in the 1980s By All Means featured Herbie Hancock, Lee Ritenour, Seawind Horns and Freddie Hubbard. Alphonse Mouzon has also played and/or recorded with most of the active musicians of the jazz-fusion genre throughout his career. In 1991, he performed with Miles Davis on the movie soundtrack album entitled "Dingo". Mouzon composed the song "The Blue Spot" for the jazz club scene and appeared as an actor and drummer in the Tom Hanks-directed film, That Thing You Do in 1996. Alphonse Mouzon played the lead role as "Miles" in the film The High Life. He also can be seen with Michael Keaton and Katie Holmes in the film First Daughter, and as 'Ray" in the movie The Dukes, along with Robert Davi, Chazz Palminteri and Peter Bogdanovich. Mouzon has also played with Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Patrick Moraz, Betty Davis and Chubby Checker. Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin, during his acceptance speech for induction into the 1995 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, named Alphonse Mouzon one of the band's major influences. In 1992 Alphonse Mouzon formed Tenacious Records and, also in 1992, released his Top ten CD entitled The Survivor. Subsequent releases on Tenacious Records On Top of the World, Early Spring, By All Means, Love Fantasy, Back to Jazz, As You Wish, The Night is Still Young, The Sky is the Limit, Distant Lover, Morning Sun, and Absolute Greatest Love Songs and Ballads were all at least top twenty albums. Live In Hollywood is the latest album. Mouzon also played on a recording with Albert Mangelsdorff (Trombone), and Jaco Pastorius (Bass), named Trilogue. Originally recorded in 1976 and re-released in 2005, this performance was from November 6, 1976 at the Berlin Jazz Days. He currently resides in Northridge, California with his daughter Emma Alexandra and their Shih Tzu named Princess. 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!

She Left Me Crying - Esquerita

Esquerita was the stage name of singer, songwriter and pianist Eskew Reeder Jr, originally known as Steven Quincy Reeder Jr. and also known as S.Q. Reeder and SQ Jr. A native of Greenville, South Carolina, he was born on November 20, 1935, and died in Harlem, New York on October 23, 1986, aged 50, of AIDS. He is credited with influencing rock and roll pioneer Little Richard, though the extent and nature of Reeder's influence or vice-versa is uncertain. Eskew Reeder attended Sterling High School in Greenville from 1947 to 1950. Reeder was a self-taught piano player whose roots were in gospel music. His music career started as a teenager, when he dropped out of high school and joined the gospel group "Heavenly Echoes" based in New York City. Little is known about Reeder's early career as a secular rock and roll piano player. As Esquerita, he often wore heavy makeup, sunglasses, and two wigs, piling his pompador high on his head. The question of Reeder's influence on Little Richard (Richard Penniman) is complicated by the fact that Reeder did not record until after Little Richard's initial mid-1950s recordings for RCA and Back Beat labels, which makes it unclear that Esquerita influenced Richard stylistically. However, early Little Richard recordings made at WGST Radio Station in Atlanta do not show the style that was to make Little Richard famous. Little Richard also had not intended to use what came to be his (and Esquerita's) characteristic style during his first New Orleans session for Specialty Records. The session producer, Robert "Bumps" Blackwell had been unhappy with Penniman's initial songs on the session, so, taking a break from recording, he went with Richard to a local cafe, where Richard jumped on a piano and began singing an X-rated version of "Tutti Frutti", in true Esquerita fashion. Blackwell felt that a cleaned-up version of the song with the same style of presentation would be just what his boss Art Rupe was looking for, and this song launched Little Richard's career in 1955. Reeder's first solo studio recordings came about when Paul Peek got him to record some demos at a Greenville radio station (WESC) around 1958. At that time, Peek was a member of the rockabilly group The Blue Caps, led by manic performer Gene Vincent. Peek even co-wrote "The Rock-Around" with Reeder, and Reeder played piano on the 1958 recording that launched the NRC (National Recording Corporation) label. From these contacts and Paul Peek's influence with Capitol Records came a record contract for Reeder; Cub Koda described the results as "some of the most untamed and unabashed sides ever issued by a major label."[1] At this point, Eskew Reeder, Jr. adopted the stage name "Esquerita." The ensuing years found Reeder cutting several singles with various backing musicians in studios in Nashville, Dallas, New Orleans and Detroit. Capitol Records released the LP Esquerita in 1959, his only album in the traditional sense (that is, not a compilation of earlier singles, or re-issues). Some of the musicians he recorded with during this era included Jimi Hendrix, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, and The Jordanaires (Elvis Presley's backup singers). His best known songs from this time include: "Hey Miss Lucy", "Get Back Baby", "Getting’ Plenty of Lovin’", "Rockin’ the Joint", and "Oh Baby". In 1963, he recorded a session for Berry Gordy's Motown Records but the recordings were never released. In 1968, Reeder changed his name to "The Magnificent Malochi" and signed with Brunswick Records. He played keyboards on "Takin' Care Of Business" by John Hammond in 1970. Shortly after this, he began to fade from the music scene, but Linda Hopkins released a song written by Reeder called "Seven Days and Seven Nights" in 1973. Around this time, Esquerita formed a new group, consisting of Charles Neville (the saxophone player of The Neville Brothers) who then resided in Brooklyn, New York, and drummer Jerry Katz of Queens, New York. They and a few other musicians played a steady gig at Tommy Smalls Night Club on 50th Street and 8th Avenue in New York City. Several months later the group disbanded. According to an interview with Billy Miller and Miriam Linna in the ReSearch book Incredibly Strange Music, Reeder occasionally performed at African-American gay clubs under the name "Fabulash" during the 1970s. He was eventually tracked down by a writer for Kicks Magazine in 1983 or 1984, who found him performing in second-rate New York City clubs. According to an article ("Who Was Esquerita?") by music historian Johnny Carter[disambiguation needed] in an international oldies magazine, music maven Bill Lowery (who originated National Recording Corporation and was involved in the Peek sessions for NRC) was approached by Esquerita on the street in New York in 1985 after a conference at Broadcast Music, Inc.. Lowery confirmed that Esquerita was down on his luck and was working as a parking lot attendant but was still as flamboyant as ever. A few months before his death he was seen washing windshields of cars for tips at an intersection in Brooklyn, NY. In this same article, Esquerita's father, Eskew Reeder Sr., said that his son had died of complications brought on by AIDS in 1986. Esquerita's father (who was born on March 25, 1907) died in February 1989, a little over two years after his son Esquerita's death. Eskew Sr.'s last known residence was Simpsonville, South Carolina. On March 13, 2012, it was announced that Norton Records will be releasing a new single and new album by Esquerita entitled "Sinner Man: The Lost Session." These will include unreleased recordings that were recorded during a session in New York City in June 1966. “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson 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!

Ninety-Nine Year Blues - Julius Daniels

Julius Daniels (November 20, 1901 – October 18, 1947) was an American Piedmont blues musician. His song "99 Year Blues" appeared on the box set Anthology of American Folk Music and has been covered by Jim Kweskin, Chris Smither, Johnny Winter, Charlie Parr and Hot Tuna on their album Burgers. It has been often credited as a possible source for the tune "Viola Lee Blues", recorded by Cannon's Jug Stompers in the 1920s and the Grateful Dead in 1966. Daniels was born in Denmark, South Carolina, United States. Although he only recorded a few tunes, Daniels plays an important role in the history of Piedmont blues. One of the first black artists to record in the Southeast, Daniels inspired future bluesmen with his mix of finger-picked blues, sacred and country music. Recording for the first time, in 1927, Daniels was accompanied by the guitarist Bubba Lee Torrence, with whom he shared billing. During his second recording session, Daniels was joined by the guitarist Wilbert Andrews. Daniels lived in Pineville, North Carolina, near Charlotte between 1912 and 1930. Relocating to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1930, he lived the rest of his life there, working in a variety of jobs, including as a firefighter. Daniels is buried at the Silver Mount Church Cemetery near Fort Mill, South Carolina. The Historic Society of Bamberg County held the first Julius Daniels Memorial Blues Festival at the Dane Theater in Denmark, South Carolina, on October 23, 2010. Performers included Drink Small, Beverly Watkins, The Meeting Street Sheiks and Hitman. Gary Erwin was the artistic director. The second JDMBF was held on October 22, 2011, and featured Sandra Hall, Roy Roberts and The King Bees with Rob Baskerville serving as artistic director. The Historic Society moved the JDMBF to the last Saturday in February. Juke Joint Johnny and Elliot & the Untouchables will be performing at the 3rd Julius Daniels Memorial Blues Festival on February 25, 2012. “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson 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! Discography

The Time - Justine "Baby" Washington

Justine "Baby" Washington (born November 13, 1940, Bamberg, South Carolina) is an American soul music vocalist. Washington was raised in Harlem, New York. In 1956, she joined the vocal group The Hearts, then became s a solo artist the following year. Washington had 16 rhythm and blues chart entries in 15 years, most of them during the 1960s. Most of her early work was released as singles. Washington initially recorded on Donald Shaw's Neptune Records label. She established herself as a soul singer with two hits in 1959: "The Time" (U.S. R&B Top 30) and "The Bells" (U.S. R&B Top 20). She followed up with the hit "Nobody Cares" (U.S. R&B Top 20) in 1961. She next signed with ABC Paramount, but her two releases for the label were not hits, although the self-written "Let Love Go By" later became a notable Northern Soul single.

Washington then moved to Juggy Murray's Sue Records in 1962, scoring her only entry on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 with 1963's "That's How Heartaches Are Made" (1963). Two years later, she hit again on the U.S. R&B Top 10 with "Only Those In Love". Among her other Sue recordings were "I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face", written by Jerry Ragovoy, and "Careless Hands", penned by Billy Myles. Washington revived her career in the early 1970s covering The Marvelettes' "Forever", (number 30 R&B) as a duet with Don Gardner. Her solo release, "I've Got To Break Away", made number 73 on the R&B charts, after which the advent of disco led to a decline in her popularity. Washington has never experienced great crossover recognition, although Dusty Springfield cited Washington as her all-time favorite singer. Washington is still active as a live performer, appearing several times a year on the East Coast. She performed with the Enchanters at a Philadelphia-area show in March 2008, and in Baltimore in June 2008. Washington was among the 2008 honorees in Community Works' Ladies Singing the Blues music series. “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson 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”

Thank You For Your Kindness - J.B. Hutto and His Hawks

J. B. Hutto (April 26, 1926 – June 12, 1983) was an American blues musician. Hutto was influenced by Elmore James, and became known for his slide guitar work and declamatory style of singing. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame two years after his death Joseph Benjamin Hutto was born in Blackville, South Carolina, United States, the fifth of seven children. His family moved to Augusta, Georgia when Hutto was three years old. His father, Calvin, was a preacher and Hutto, along with his three brothers and three sisters, formed a gospel group called The Golden Crowns, singing in local churches. Hutto's father died in 1949, and the family relocated to Chicago. Hutto served as a draftee in the Korean War in the early 1950s, driving trucks in combat zones. In Chicago, Hutto took up the drums and played with Johnny Ferguson and his Twisters. He also tried the piano before settling on the guitar and playing on the streets with the percussionist Eddie 'Porkchop' Hines. After adding Joe Custom on second guitar, they started playing club gigs, and harmonica player George Mayweather joined after sitting in with the band. Hutto named his band The Hawks, after the wind that blows in Chicago. A recording session in 1954 resulted in the release of two singles on the Chance label and a second session later the same year, with the band supplemented by pianist Johnny Jones, produced a third. Later in the 1950s Hutto became disenchanted with music, and gave it up to work as a janitor in a funeral home after a woman broke his guitar over her husband's head one night. He returned to the music industry in the mid 1960s, with a new version of the Hawks featuring Herman Hassell on bass and Frank Kirkland on drums. His recording career resumed with, first, a session for Vanguard Records released on the compilation album Chicago/the Blues/Today! Vol. 1, and then albums for Testament and Delmark. The 1968 Delmark album, Hawk Squat!, which featured Sunnyland Slim on organ and piano, and Maurice McIntyre on tenor saxophone, is regarded as his best work on album up to this point. After Hound Dog Taylor died in 1975, Hutto took over his band the Houserockers for a time, and in the late 1970s he moved to Boston and recruited a new band which he called the New Hawks, with whom he recorded further studio albums for the Varrick label. His 1983 Varrick album Slippin' & Slidin', the last of his career and later reissued on CD as Rock With Me Tonight, has been described as "near-perfect". Hutto returned to Illinois in the early 1980s, where he was diagnosed with cancer. He died in 1983, at the age of 57, in Harvey. He was interred at Restvale Cemetery, Alsip, Illinois. In 1985, the Blues Foundation inducted Hutto into its Hall of Fame. His nephew, Lil' Ed Williams (of Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials) has carried on his legacy, playing and singing in a style close to his uncle's. A "J.B. Hutto" model guitar is often used to refer to a mid-1960s, red, Montgomery Ward Res-O-Glas Airline guitar. Although he was not a paid endorser, Hutto made the guitar famous by appearing with it on the cover of his Slidewinder album. If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Its Just A Matter Of Time - Brook Benton

Brook Benton (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988) was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote. He made a comeback in 1970 with the ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia." Benton scored over 50 Billboard chart hits as an artist, and also wrote hits for other performers. Benjamin Franklin Peay was born on September 19, 1931 in Lugoff, South Carolina. When Peay was young he enjoyed gospel music, wrote songs, and sang in a Methodist church choir in nearby Camden, where his father, Willie Peay, was choir master. So in 1948 he went to New York to pursue his music career. He went in and out of gospel groups such as The Langfordaires, The Jerusalem Stars, and The Golden Gate Quartet. Returning to his home state, he joined a R&B singing group, The Sandmen, and went back to New York to get a big break with his group. The Sandmen had limited success, and their label, Okeh Records, decided to push Peay as a solo artist, changing his name to Brook Benton, apparently at the suggestion of label executive Marv Halsman. Brook earned a good living writing songs and co-producing albums. He wrote songs for artists such as Nat King Cole, Clyde McPhatter (for whom he wrote the hit "A Lover's Question"), and Roy Hamilton. Soon he released his first minor hit, "A Million Miles from Nowhere". Later he went on to the Mercury label, which would eventually bring him larger success. Also he appeared in the 1957 film Mr Rock And Roll with Alan Freed Finally in 1959 he made his breakthrough with his hits "It's Just a Matter of Time" and "Endlessly". "It's Just a Matter of Time" peaked at #3 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart, while "Endlessly" made it to #12. Both of the first two hits were written by Benton with Clyde Otis. They were originally offered to Nat King Cole, but when Otis became an A&R official at Mercury, he convinced Benton to sign with the label and record them himself, while asking Cole not to record the songs as planned. He followed this success with a series of hits, including "So Many Ways" (#6), "Hotel Happiness" (#3), "Think Twice" (#11), "Kiddio" (#7), and "The Boll Weevil Song" (#2). In 1960, he had two top 10 hit duets with Dinah Washington: "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" (#5) and "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)" (#7). He also recorded his own version of "Take Good Care of Her" in 1962. In the mid- and late 1960s, Benton recorded for RCA Records and Reprise Records with minimal commercial success. In 1969 he signed with Cotillion Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, where the next year he had his last major hit with "Rainy Night in Georgia". Benton eventually charted 49 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, with other songs charting on Billboard's rhythm and blues, easy listening, and Christmas music charts. The last album made by Benton was Fools Rush In, which was released posthumously in 2005. At one point he was recording on Groove Records Weakened from spinal meningitis, Brook died of pneumonia in Queens, New York City, at the age of 56 on April 9, 1988. If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Bow-Legged Mama - Tom Delaney

Born in Charleston; sang in the Jenkins Orphanage choir in the early 1900s; a popular and prolific blues composer/songwriter on Tin Pan Alley and in the 1920s whose songs were used by recording artists of the era; worked as a pianist on vaudeville circuits; he wrote “Jazz-Me Blues” and in 1924, his “Down Home Blues” was a huge success for Ethel Waters and “I Wanna Jazz Some More” became famous for his rhymes about “Miss Susan Green from New Orleans” recorded by Helen Gross; several of his songs were recorded by Bessie Smith; his “Sinful Blues” (1923) was one of many Delaney songs that was exploited by producer, publisher and record company manager, Joe Davis – other examples were Maggie Jones’ recording on the Columbia label of “If I Lose, Let Me Lose” and Clara Smith’s recording of “Troublesome Blues”; Delaney also recorded on his own – “I’m Leavin’ Just to Ease My Worried Mind” and “Bow-Legged Mama” (1925); he was pianist/manager for Ethel Waters; Delaney passed away in Baltimore.
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Pray Sometimes - Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke

Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke (1918 - September 4, 1967) was a renowned gospel singer and recording artist from 1949 until her death in 1967. Personal information about Ms. Cooke is scarce and most of her biographical details have been gleaned from the liner notes of her various albums. Ms. Gallmon Cooke is best known for her recordings of "Stop Gambler" and "Heavy Load".

Born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1918, the daughter of a Baptist preacher, Reverend Eddie J. Gallmon, Edna Gallmon Cooke was more formally educated and musically trained than most of her gospel peers. As a young adult, she lived and studied in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, attending Temple University and briefly teaching elementary school. She had contemplated a career in semi-classics and show tunes when she underwent a musical conversion of sorts after hearing gospel singer, Willie Mae Ford Smith in the late 1930s. "I was shocked. The woman sang with such finesse ... I knew I had to be a gospel singer." Shortly after, Ms. Gallmon Cooke joined the Holiness Church and became preeminently consecrated—with the Holiness Church bestowing the honorific ‘Madame’ to her name to announce her devotion.

During the 1940s, Madame Gallmon Cooke toured the Southeast, billed as the "Sweetheart of the Potomac". She performed hymns and gospel songs in the manner of Willie Mae Ford Smith, but her mezzo-soprano could not duplicate Smith’s contralto blasts. Elaborating on that style, Gallmon Cooke returned to familiar sources, popularizing the sermonettes and spirituals her father Eddie Gallmon had performed in the 1920s. Madame Gallmon Cooke became a "transcendent moaner and a mistress of what note-bending musicologists call melisma and church folks call curlicues, runs and flowers and frills." Ms. Cooke began recording in the late 1940s for the Nashboro Recording Label in Nashville, TN usually accompanied by her father’s choir, The Young People's Choir of the Springfield Baptist Church of Washington, DC. Her later recordings included male vocal groups.

Madame Gallmon Cooke's commanding switch in styles occurred after her marriage to Barney Parks, Jr., a former member of The Dixie Hummingbirds and a founder of The Dixie Nightingales. They had met in 1951 when Marie Knight, Rosetta Tharpe's old partner, organized a tour featuring herself, Cooke, and The Nightingales. Under Park's management and direction, Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke became a household name in gospel. It is suspected that the name Cooke was from her first marriage which ended because of the death of her husband.

The liner notes to "Mother Smith and Her Children" describes Madame Cooke as "an exquisite stylist, with a sensuous appeal akin to Billie Holiday. She is referred to as rap music’s gospel progenitor; a penchant for rhymed, spoken chants produced her most famous recordings."

Ms. Cooke died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 4, 1967. She was 49 years old.
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I've got to find a Way (To Hide my Hurt) - Moses Dillard & The Tex Town Display

Moses Dillard had a dual career in music for more than 20 years, leading his own bands, and as a guitarist working out of Muscle Shoals. Born in Greenville, SC, he put together a touring band of his own, the Dynamic Showmen, before he was 20 and saw some local success. Dillard later teamed up with James Moore in a duo called Moses & Joshua, recording for Don Schroeder's Papa Don Productions out of Pensacola, FL; scoring hits with "My Elusive Dreams" and "Get Out of My Heart" on the Mala label in 1966-1967, and "Soul Symphony" for Coral in 1968. While working for Schroeder, Dillard's guitar virtuosity came to the fore, and he played sessions with most of the company's acts, including James and Bobby Purify during the tail end of their history, and Oscar Toney, Jr. and Mighty Sam. His playing can be heard throughout their respective late-'60s outputs, and recording and touring with these and other acts kept Dillard busy until the close of the decade.
Dillard returned to Greenville in 1970 to resume his own career and put together the group Tex-Town Display, with a lineup that included Peabo Bryson. Their 1970 recording of "I've Got to Find a Way" got serious local airplay, enough to get it (and their contract) picked up by Curtom Records for national distribution, selling 250,000 copies. Tex-Town Display earned a follow-up shot with "Our Love Is True," which didn't sell nearly as well, and by 1971 the group was recording for the much smaller Shout label of Atlanta, before it broke up after Bryson exited.
Dillard continued to be based in Atlanta with his next group, the Lovejoy Orchestra, who had an instrumental hit with a self-titled theme in 1975. The 1970s saw Dillard get an increasing number of opportunities with major labels; he kept busy recording under a multitude of names, including Moses, and Dillard & Johnson in partnership with Lorraine Johnson, the latter act signed to Epic Records. Dillard had success during the disco era with the Constellation Orchestra, and he later reunited with his one-time Dynamic Showmen bassist/singer Jesse Boyce as Dillard & Boyce, on the Mercury label in the early '80s.
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Aint'cha Got Me (Where You Want Me) - Buddy & Ella Johnson

Ella Johnson (June 22, 1919 – February 16, 2004) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues vocalist. Born Ella Mae Jackson in Darlington, South Carolina, United States, she joined her brother Buddy Johnson in New York as a teenager, where he was leading a popular band at the Savoy Ballroom. Her singing drew comparisons to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Johnson scored her first hit with "Please, Mr. Johnson" in 1940. Subsequent hits included "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?", "When My Man Comes Home" and "Hittin' On Me". Her popular 1945 recording of "Since I Fell for You", composed by her brother, led to its eventual establishment as a jazz standard. She continued to perform with Buddy Johnson into the 1960s. In February 2004, she died in of Alzheimer's disease in New York, at the age of 84. If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

RedHouse - Keith Patterson Band

Since the release of Keith's debut album Stone Cold & Blue in April of this year, the band has built a loyal fanbase here in the USA & across Europe,the UK, New Zealand & Australia. The band is currently booking shows concentrating on their home state of South Carolina & the East Coast. Keith & the band are currently writing new material & performing some of the new songs live in preperation for the recording of their 2nd album in spring of 2012.
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HOW LONG BLUES - Bertha Chippie Hill

Bertha "Chippie" Hill (March 15, 1905 – May 7, 1950), was an American blues and vaudeville singer and dancer, best known for her recordings with Louis Armstrong.
Hill was born in Charleston, South Carolina, one of sixteen children, but in 1915 the family moved to New York. She began her career as a dancer in Harlem, and by 1919 was working with Ethel Waters. At age 14, during a stint at Leroy's, a noted New York nightclub, Hill was nicknamed "Chippie" because of her young age. She also performed with Ma Rainey as part of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, before establishing her own song and dance act and touring on the TOBA circuit in the early 1920s.

She settled in Chicago in about 1925, and worked at various venues with King Oliver's Jazz Band. She first recorded in November 1925 for Okeh Records, backed by the cornet player Louis Armstrong and pianist Richard M. Jones, on songs such as "Pratt City Blues", "Low Land Blues" and "Kid Man Blues" that year, and on "Georgia Man" and "Trouble in Mind" with the same musicians in 1926. She also recorded in 1927, with Lonnie Johnson on the vocal duet, "Hard Times Blues", plus "Weary Money Blues", "Tell Me Why" and "Speedway Blues". In 1928, came the Tampa Red vocal duets, "Hard Times Blues" and "Christmas Man Blues", and in 1929 with "Scrapper" Blackwell & The Two Roys, with Leroy Carr on piano, the song "Non-skid Tread". Hill recorded 23 titles between 1925 to 1929.

In the 1930s she retired from singing to raise her seven children. Hill staged a comeback in 1946 with Lovie Austin's Blues Serenaders, and recorded for Rudi Blesh's Circle label. She began appearing on radio and in clubs and concerts in New York, including in 1948 the Carnegie Hall concert with Kid Ory, and she sang at the Paris Jazz Festival, and worked with Art Hodes in Chicago.

She was back again in 1950, when she was run over by a car and killed in New York at the age of 45. She is buried at the Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Cook County, Illinois
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Rev. Gary Davis - Sally Where'd You Get Your Liquor From

Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis, (April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972) was an American blues and gospel singer and guitarist, who was also proficient on the banjo and harmonica. His finger-picking guitar style influenced many other artists and his students in New York included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Roy Book Binder, Larry Johnson, Woody Mann, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Winslow, and Ernie Hawkins. He has influenced the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Townes van Zandt, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Keb' Mo', Ollabelle, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, and Resurrection Band.
Gary Davis was born in Laurens, South Carolina, and was the only one of eight children his mother bore who survived to adulthood. He became blind as an infant. Davis reported that his father was killed in Birmingham, Alabama, when Davis was ten, and Davis later said that he had been told that his father had been shot by the Birmingham High Sheriff. He recalled being poorly treated by his mother and that before his death his father had given him into the care of his paternal grandmother.

He took to the guitar and assumed a unique multi-voice style produced solely with his thumb and index finger, playing not only ragtime and blues tunes, but also traditional and original tunes in four-part harmony.
Bull City Blues, Durham, North Carolina

In the mid-1920s, Davis migrated to Durham, North Carolina, a major center for black culture at the time. There he collaborated with a number of other artists in the Piedmont blues scene including Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red. In 1935, J. B. Long, a store manager with a reputation for supporting local artists, introduced Davis, Fuller and Red to the American Record Company. The subsequent recording sessions marked the real beginning of Davis' career. During his time in Durham, Davis converted to Christianity; he would later become ordained as a Baptist minister. Following his conversion and especially his ordination, Davis began to express a preference for inspirational gospel music.

In the 1940s, the blues scene in Durham began to decline and Davis migrated to New York. In 1951, well before his 'rediscovery', Davis's oral history was recorded by Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold (the wife of Alan Lomax) who transcribed their conversations into a 300+-page typescript.

The folk revival of the 1960s re-invigorated Davis' career, culminating in a performance at the Newport Folk Festival and the recording by Peter, Paul and Mary of "Samson and Delilah", also known as "If I Had My Way", originally a Blind Willie Johnson recording that Davis had popularized.

Davis died in May 1972, from a heart attack in Hammonton, New Jersey. He is buried in plot 68 of Rockville Cemetery in Lynwood, Long Island, New York.
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Thank You For Your Kindness - J.B. Hutto

J. B. Hutto (April 26, 1926 – June 12, 1983) was an American blues musician. Hutto was influenced by Elmore James, and became known for his slide guitar work and declamatory style of singing. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame two years after his death.
Joseph Benjamin Hutto was born in Blackville, South Carolina, United States, the fifth of seven children. His family moved to Augusta, Georgia when Hutto was three years old. His father, Calvin, was a preacher and Hutto, along with his three brothers and three sisters, formed a gospel group called The Golden Crowns, singing in local churches. Hutto's father died in 1949, and the family relocated to Chicago. Hutto served as a draftee in the Korean War in the early 1950s, driving trucks in combat zones.

In Chicago, Hutto took up the drums and played with Johnny Ferguson and his Twisters. He also tried the piano before settling on the guitar and playing on the streets with the percussionist Eddie 'Porkchop' Hines. After adding Joe Custom on second guitar, they started playing club gigs, and harmonica player George Mayweather joined after sitting in with the band. Hutto named his band The Hawks, after the wind that blows in Chicago. A recording session in 1954 resulted in the release of two singles on the Chance label and a second session later the same year, with the band supplemented by pianist Johnny Jones, produced a third.

Later in the 1950s Hutto became disenchanted with music, and gave it up to work as a janitor in a funeral home after a woman broke his guitar over her husband's head one night. He returned to the music industry in the mid 1960s, with a new version of the Hawks featuring Herman Hassell on bass and Frank Kirkland on drums. His recording career resumed with, first, a session for Vanguard Records released on the compilation album Chicago/the Blues/Today! Vol. 1, and then albums for Testament and Delmark. The 1968 Delmark album, Hawk Squat!, which featured Sunnyland Slim on organ and piano, and Maurice McIntyre on tenor saxophone, is regarded as his best work on album up to this point.

After Hound Dog Taylor died in 1975, Hutto took over his band the Houserockers for a time, and in the late 1970s he moved to Boston and recruited a new band which he called the New Hawks, with whom he recorded further studio albums for the Varrick label. His 1983 Varrick album Slippin' & Slidin', the last of his career and later reissued on CD as Rock With Me Tonight, has been described as "near-perfect".
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Its Just A Matter Of Time - Brook Benton

Brook Benton (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988) was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.

He made a comeback in 1970 with the ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia." Benton scored over 50 Billboard chart hits as an artist, and also wrote hits for other performers.
Benjamin Franklin Peay was born on September 19, 1931 in Lugoff, South Carolina. When Peay was young he enjoyed gospel music, wrote songs, and sang in a Methodist church choir in nearby Camden, where his father was choir master. So in 1948 he went to New York to pursue his music career. He went in and out of gospel groups such as The Langfordaires, The Jerusalem Stars, and The Golden Gate Quartet. Returning to his home state, he joined a R&B singing group, The Sandmen, and went back to New York to get a big break with his group. The Sandmen had limited success, and their label, Okeh Records, decided to push Peay as a solo artist, changing his name to Brook Benton, apparently at the suggestion of label executive Marv Halsman.
Weakened from spinal meningitis, Brook died of pneumonia in Queens, New York City, at the age of 56 on April 9, 1988.
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Christmas Man Blues - Bertha "Chippie" Hill

Bertha "Chippie" Hill (March 15, 1905 – May 7, 1950), was an American blues and vaudeville singer and dancer, best known for her recordings with Louis Armstrong.
Hill was born in Charleston, South Carolina, one of sixteen children, but in 1915 the family moved to New York. She began her career as a dancer in Harlem, and by 1919 was working with Ethel Waters. At age 14, during a stint at Leroy's, a noted New York nightclub, Hill was nicknamed "Chippie" because of her young age. She also performed with Ma Rainey as part of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, before establishing her own song and dance act and touring on the TOBA circuit in the early 1920s.

She settled in Chicago in about 1925, and worked at various venues with King Oliver's Jazz Band. She first recorded in November 1925 for Okeh Records, backed by the cornet player Louis Armstrong and pianist Richard M. Jones, on songs such as "Pratt City Blues", "Low Land Blues" and "Kid Man Blues" that year, and on "Georgia Man" and "Trouble in Mind" with the same musicians in 1926. She also recorded in 1927, with Lonnie Johnson on the vocal duet, "Hard Times Blues", plus "Weary Money Blues", "Tell Me Why" and "Speedway Blues". In 1928, came the Tampa Red vocal duets, "Hard Times Blues" and "Christmas Man Blues", and in 1929 with "Scrapper" Blackwell & The Two Roys, with Leroy Carr on piano, the song "Non-skid Tread". Hill recorded 23 titles between 1925 to 1929.
She was back again in 1950, when she was run over by a car and killed in New York at the age of 45.
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Come On In My Kitchen - James "Guitar Slim" Stephens

James “Guitar Slim” Stephens was born on March 10, 1915 near Spartanburg, South Carolina. He began to play the pump organ at the age of 5 and two years later he switched to piano. Slim was so small that his feet would not even reach the organ pedals, so he has one of his brothers do the pumping while he practiced the keys. In his early teens he joined the John Henry Davis Medicine Show. He soon picked up the guitar an instrument, which he truly mastered. It was his welcoming spirit that opened the doors of the Carolina blues, a world rarely seen by an outsider to Tim Duffy. Slim told Axel Kustner when he visited his home what the blues was all about.

“Blues will be popular as long as the world stands. It’ll take away any other musician you may come up with. Them Ol’ Blues is just a natural born killer and they always have been, cause they come from slavery on up, you understand?”
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Dupree Blues - Willie Walker

Blind Willie Walker (1896 – March 4, 1933) was an early American blues guitarist and singer, who played the Piedmont blues style. He was described by blues musicians such as Reverend Gary Davis and Pink Anderson as an outstanding guitarist, Josh White called him the best guitarist he had ever heard, even better than Blind Blake: "Blake was quick, but Walker was like Art Tatum." In his performances, he was often accompanied by guitarist Sam Brooks.
The birthplace of the blind-from-birth Walker is unknown, but he spent most of his life in and around Greenville, South Carolina. On 6 December 1930, Walker recorded for Columbia Records in Atlanta, Georgia. This session produced his only known titles. Blind Willie Walker died in Greenville in 1933 at age 37 of congenital syphilis, which may have been the reason for his blindness. On his death certificate he was listed as being a professional musician. The compositions "Make Believe Stunt" and "Cincinnati Flow Rag" ("Slow Drag"), made famous by Revered Gary Davis, were attributed to Walker.
For a complete discography: "Discography"
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Hide & Seek- JB Hutto & His Hawks

J. B. Hutto (April 26, 1926 – June 12, 1983) was an American blues musician. Hutto was influenced by Elmore James, and became known for his slide guitar work and declamatory style of singing. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame two years after his death.

In Chicago, Hutto took up the drums and played with Johnny Ferguson and his Twisters. He also tried the piano before settling on the guitar and playing on the streets with the percussionist Eddie 'Porkchop' Hines. After adding Joe Custom on second guitar, they started playing club gigs, and harmonica player George Mayweather joined after sitting in with the band. Hutto named his band The Hawks, after the wind that blows in Chicago. A recording session in 1954 resulted in the release of two singles on the Chance label and a second session later the same year, with the band supplemented by pianist Johnny Jones, produced a third.

Later in the 1950s Hutto became disenchanted with music, and gave it up to work as a janitor in a funeral home after a woman broke his guitar over her husband's head one night.
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Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out - Josh White

Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969), better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s.

White grew up in the Jim Crow South. During the 1920s and 1930s, he became a prominent race records artist, with a prolific output of recordings in genres including Piedmont blues, country blues, gospel, and social protest songs. In 1931, White moved to New York, and within a decade his fame had spread widely; his repertoire expanded to include urban blues, jazz, traditional folk songs, and political protest songs. He soon was in demand as an actor on radio, Broadway, and film.

White also became the closest African-American friend and confidant to president Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, White's anti-segregationist and international human rights political stance presented in many of his recordings and in his speeches at rallies resulted in the right-wing McCarthyites assuming him a Communist. Accordingly, from 1947 through the mid 1960s, White became caught up in the anti-Communist Red Scare, and combined with the resulting attempt to clear his name, his career was damaged. White's playing style influenced many future generations of guitarists, including Blind Boy Fuller, Brownie McGhee, Pete Seeger, Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, Lonnie Donegan, Eartha Kitt, Alexis Korner, Odetta, Elvis Presley, The Kingston Trio, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, Merle Travis, Dave Van Ronk, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Eric Weissberg, Judy Collins, Mike Bloomfield, Danny Kalb, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Richie Havens, Don McLean, Roy Harper, Ry Cooder, John Fogerty, Eva Cassidy and Jack White.
White had a hands-on influence on Ovation. White used to come to the factory. His fingernails were brittle and prone to cracking, a condition that got worse as he grew older. Ovation's subassembly foreman, Al Glemboski, made a cast of White's fingers, from which he made a set of fiberglass nails. White glued on these false nails with a special industrial glue called Eastman 910, which would later be marketed as Super Glue. He returned to the factory every other month for a new set of nails.
In 1961, White's health began a sharp decline as he experienced the first of the three heart attacks and the progressive heart disease that would plague him over his final eight years. As a lifelong smoker he also had progressive emphysema, in addition to ulcers, and severe psoriasis in his hands and calcium deficiency in his body that would cause the skin to peel off of his fingers and leave his fingernails broken and bleeding with every concert. During the last two years of his life, as his heart weakened dramatically, his wife Carol would put him in the hospital for four weeks after he completed each two-week concert tour. Finally, the doctors felt his only survival option was to attempt a new procedure to replace heart valves. The surgery failed.

He died on the operating table on September 6, 1969 at the North Shore Hospital in Manhasset, New York
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