I just received the newest release, Saints & Sinners, from Paul Filipowicz and I really like it. This cd doesn't have pretty singing and it doesn't have perfectly manicured guitar riffs... but what it does have is great! Opening with Hound Dog Shuffle, and plodding blues instrumental, I know right away I'm gonna like this guy. Simple, straight forward, not perfect but raw and interesting. Spontaneous riffs, driving drums and grit! Bluesman, has a more distinct Albert King style blues funk and the guitar maybe sounds a little like Albert Collins... but this is great stuff. Filipowicz knows how to tell the story and lack or over production to me is a thing of beauty on something like this. Your True Lovin' has a bit of a lope to it and a lot of feel...this is the real deal. If you have been reading my reviews for a while you know I don't so much like "purty" and do like dirty and gritty... this is it! Hootin' and Hollerin' has a great bass by Dave Remitz and Filipowicz sounds scarily like my man Jimbo Mathus on vocals. With a Mustang Sally groove this is a great track. This is pure party stomp music! Filipowicz rips the fretboard up on this track ... I mean the guy isn't Joe Satriani... he's really good and playing blues! Excellent! Good Rockin' is a real driver with a walking bass line and Harris Lemberg on keys. ... did I mention Jimmy Voegell on drums. This is an excellent rock n roller with the drive of Alvin Lee but with the pace of a traditional blues man. Oh, and I have to mention his guitar tone... it's absolutely outrageous!! Filipowicz slows things down a bit on "Fat Richards" Blues. This is a great ripping slow instrumental. If you love slow guitar blues..and who doesn't, this is a terrific heartfelt dagger! Just sit back and let it tear you to shreds! Where The Blues Comes From has a little tint of Jimi added in but it is subtle. Raggedy ass vocals add to the real human nature of this track and I wouldn't change a thing. Everyday - Everynight is a bit of a swing blues more typical of Ronnie Earl and Filipowicz once again shows that he is up to the task. Such raw grinding blues playing I haven't heard in a long long time. I don't know where I've been but this guy is hitting me like a meteor from light years away. Hey Bossman is a great boogie track again keeping the raw texture but not losing any of the tightness of the band as a unit. Think La Grange but with a bit more drive and a little less BDG. Another great track. There are 3 bonus tracks included on this release including Clarence Carter's Back Door Santa, a more polished funky blues track with Will Smokey Logg on guitar, Fat Richard Drake on sax, Randy Joe Fullerton on Bass, Rob Strupka on drums and Chuck Solberg on piano. This band also plays on the next two tracks as well. These tracks are a bit more polished and recorded back in 1982. Drake plays a killer sax on this first track. Wolf's How Many More Years is hard bass driven and displays almost 7 minutes of machine gun guitar riffs. Great track. This release finishes up with Original Texas Strut, a fast mover that Stilladog would be struggling to keep up with. Rippin guitar solo and sax playing complete this short outro.
Don't know what to make of this review? Make your way to the closest place selling this cd and buy it! If this guy comes to my town...I'm not missing it!! This captures the spirit of Hound Dog Taylor, ZZ Top, Johnny Winter and Buddy Guy but doesn't sound like any of them. This thing will grow on you... I warned you!
I was born in Boston in 1949 and was brought up in nearby Brookline, Massachusetts. Inspired by Chuck Berry, I started to play guitar in 1964 and began playing in Rock bands right away.
I soon followed the path of Chuck Berry’s inspiration back to the Blues. I was especially taken by the music of Muddy Waters and listened to as much of it as I could find. I worked in Blues or Blues-Rock bands in the Boston area, including with Luther “Georgia Boy” “Snake” Johnson, and The Boston Blues Band.
In August, 1973, I went to see Muddy at Paul’s Mall in Boston. He had seen me in opening bands and had been very encouraging to me because I was trying to play his style of “Old School” (Muddy’s term) Chicago Blues. He had just lost long-time guitarist Sammy Lawhorn and he hired me to play in his band. While most musicians in modern times learn from listening to recordings, Muddy put me on his right side on the bandstand so I could watch him play guitar. I sure appreciated that opportunity while it was happening, and tried to use it to learn to give Muddy what he wanted on the bandstand, and for myself.
Bob and Muddy, 1978
Bob and Muddy, 1978
Muddy’s band toured the world and jammed with many great Blues and Rock musicians, but the biggest thrill was playing Muddy’s blues with him. He brought me with him to special shows and recordings too, when sometimes he didn’t use his whole band, to give him a familiar sound when he worked with other musicians: In 1975, we recorded Grammy® Award-winning Muddy Waters Woodstock Album, his last with Chess Records, featuring Paul Butterfield, and Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from The Band.
Throughout the last half of the ‘70s, when I had time off from Muddy’s band, I would add on to Washington D.C.’s The Nighthawks and The Charlottesville Blues All-Stars, playing Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll and making life-long friends.
In ‘76, Muddy brought me with him to San Francisco to perform at The Band’s The Last Waltz concert. Martin Scorcese filmed the concert for the movie of the same name. As it happened, only one camera was operating during our performance, zooming in or out, and since I was standing right next to Muddy, I was in every shot while he sang a powerful “Mannish Boy.” Now, when the movie is shown on TV, everyone I speak to tells me, “I saw you on TV!” for a few days. Then they tell me I looked scared, happy, mad, excited, or bored, or however they would have felt in my place. I also played on the four albums that Muddy recorded for Blue Sky Records, which were produced by Johnny Winter, and with Johnny on his Nothin’ But The Blues album. Three of those albums won Grammy® Awards.
Bob, Johnny Winter, Muddy - London, 1979
Bob, Johnny Winter, Muddy
In 1980, Muddy’s band left him over business problems, though we all remained personal friends with him until his death in 1983. It is sometimes presumed that I worked with Pinetop Perkins, Jerry Portnoy, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith in The Legendary Blues Band, which they formed, but actually Luther “Guitar Jr.” Johnson and I each started our own bands at that time. I was living in Washington, DC then and in 1985 moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, a beautiful college town in the mountains. All through the ‘80s I ran up and down the highways, mostly in Virginia and North Carolina (to where I moved in ‘89) and played Blues in bars for soulful folks having fun. I was able to make a living without the pressures of the music business, and didn’t even feel any need to make an album -- I was playing most nights, and with total musical freedom and no commercial considerations. Sometimes I’d make a live recording of my band off the mixing board, and make up cassette copies for my friends.
Bob Margolin Blues Band, 1980
In ’82 and ‘83, I did some gigs with my neighbor in Springfield, Virginia, Rocakbilly musician Tex Rubinowitz, who taught me the language of that music. We did a show backing original Rockabilly legend Charlie Feathers, and worked with fine players like Danny Gatton and Evan Johns.
Occasionally, I would do a “high-profile” gig, based on my Muddy Waters connection. In ‘84, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, we did a tribute to Muddy where Pinetop and I added on to The Fabulous Thunderbirds, with Etta James singing, and Taj Mahal and James Cotton opening. With my band, I opened shows for Stevie Vaughan, George Thorogood, Johnny Winter, and The T-Birds.
These years of playing many styles of Blues, as well as some Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rockabilly, Funk, and favorite oldies were important to my musical development, just as my Chicago Blues experience was. And beyond the music, being at home onstage, improvising on the moment, and treating the audience like friends in all kinds of performing situations helps me break down the barriers that are often found between musician and audience. We all have a better time than if I was playing a show AT them. Though I can’t mark my progress in the ‘80s by recordings, folks who were at my shows then come out now and let me know how much they enjoyed my band in places like Desperado’s in D.C., The Nightshade Cafe in Greensboro, North Carolina, or The South Main Cafe in Blacksburg, Virginia. Those clubs, and many more like them, are gone now. I worked with some wonderful musicians over hundreds of gigs in the ‘80s – Jeff Lodsun, Clark Matthews, Steve “Slash” Hunt, Rev. Billy Wirtz, Doug Jay, Terry Benton, Jeff Sarli, Tom Principato, Steve Wolf, Steve Jacobs, Rick Serfas, Big Joe Maher, John Mooney, Ben Sandmel, Dave Besley, Matt Abts, David Nelson, Mike Avery, Billy Mather, Nappy Brown, Fats Jackson, Sweet Betty and many more.
By the end of the ‘80s, it didn’t take a psychic to see that the Blues Scene was going to change a lot in the ‘90s. People were not going out to clubs as much for their entertainment but there were many new Blues bands emerging, all wanting to work. I realized that in order to continue making a living playing Blues, I would have to record and get back out on the world-wide Blues Scene and tour more widely.
In 1989 I recorded my first solo album The Old School for Powerhouse Records, which is owned by Tom Principato, a Washington D.C. guitar wizard who started the label to release his own albums and those of his friends. The Old School features Mark Wenner, harp player for The Nighthawks, Big Joe Maher on drums, and Jeff Sarli on bass.
I began 1990 doing a 10-week cross-country tour playing guitar with James Cotton, who was taking a break from his high-energy Blues-boogie to feature more traditional Chicago Blues. A big highlight of that tour for me was getting to work with and learn from the late Luther Tucker, a great Blues guitar player who had worked with Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Lockwood Jr., and of course, Cotton.
My second album for Powerhouse, Chicago Blues, released in ‘91, features songs from three different recording sessions. One had Chicago Blues legend Jimmy Rogers on guitar and harp master Kim Wilson, with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums. I did a few songs with Willie on drums, along with Pinetop Perkins and Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, all from Muddy’s band, and Kaz Kazanoff on sax and harp and co-producing. I also did some with my band at the time, Mookie Brill on bass and harp, and Clark Matthews on drums.
The Powerhouse albums are out of print.
Also in the early ‘90s, I began a second career as a music magazine writer. Local friends from the Piedmont Blues Preservation Society in North Carolina asked me to write a story for their newsletter about Chicago harp legend Carey Bell, a friend of mine who was coming to town for a concert. Soon, I began to write stories and Blues album reviews for a local entertainment weekly, ESP. After doing that in ’91 and ’92, I was interviewed for the new Blues Revue Quarterly magazine. It occured to me that my local Blues writing might be even more at home in this growing Blues magazine, and I contacted founder/publisher/editor Bob Vorel and submitted some of my stories. Since then, I have been a regular contributor, writing articles from my personal experience, profiles of musicians I know, and some Blues Fiction stories.
In August, ‘92 I began working on my third solo album in my hometown of Boston with help from friend and guitar star Ronnie Earl, and his band. Kaz was co-producing again, and I did some additional songs with my own band back in North Carolina. I also did a couple of songs with just my acoustic guitar and the vocals of legendary R&B singer Nappy Brown, whom I worked with occasionally. Another special guest was Chicago Blues legend John Brim, with whom I’d cut a Handy Award-nominated album for Tone-Cool Records, Tough Times, in ‘92.
I sent a rough tape to Bruce Iglauer, president of Alligator Records, the premier independent Blues record label. Bruce was not ready to pick up my album, but he made some very constructive suggestions about performance and mix. I appreciated the benefit of Bruce’s perspective and experience and reworked the songs and re-submitted them. Finally, in July ‘93, Bruce committed to finishing the album with me and releasing it on Alligator. The album is called Down In The Alley.
This was certainly the biggest “break” I’d had in music since Muddy took me into his band 20 years before, for Alligator is without peer for promoting their artists. At the same time, I signed with Piedmont Talent, a fine Blues booking agency based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Down In The Alley and Piedmont’s strong booking took me all over the world and helped me re-connect with the Blues audience that hadn’t seen much of me in years. At the end of ‘93, I did a gig at B.B. King’s club in Memphis with Billy Boy Arnold, a Chicago Blues harp legend who also had a new release on Alligator. Our success together led to a lot of bookings over the next few years with Billy Boy and my band, and we backed him on his next Alligator album, Eldorado Cadillac.
1994 found me touring hard and playing at many of the major Blues festivals during the Summer season. In August and September, The Muddy Waters Tribute Band, the musicians who were in Muddy’s band when I was, went on a national tour with B.B. King, Dr. John, and Little Feat. In December of that year, we cut an album featuring ourselves and special guests from the Rock and Blues worlds, You Gonna Miss Me, a Tribute to Muddy Waters on Telarc Records. That recording was nominated for a Grammy® Award in ‘96.
Also at the end of ‘94, I recorded my second album for Alligator, My Blues and My Guitar which featured special guest Chicago Blues harp legend Snooky Pryor, Kaz Kazanoff playing harp, horn, arranging for a horn section, and co-producing again, percussionist Jim Brock, and my band at the time, Chuck Cotton on drums and Steve “Slash” Hunt on bass. My Blues and My Guitar was released in ‘95 and I was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award in the guitar category in ‘96.
‘95 and ‘96 found me touring constantly, doing clubs, concerts, festivals, and overseas tours with my band, sometimes with Billy Boy Arnold or the Muddy Waters Tribute Band. At the end of ‘96 I toured again with James Cotton, this time in a trio with David Maxwell, an old friend from Boston who is one of the world’s greatest Blues piano players, and is featured on all of my Alligator albums.
My third album for Alligator, Up & In, was released in March, ‘97. I tried to play some deep Blues, but the song that got the most attention, and airplay on Blues radio, was “Blues for Bartenders.” This song is a string of “this guy walks into a bar...” jokes set to a Blues shuffle.
While I was making Up & In, I went out to dinner with Alligator Records president Bruce Iglauer and Piedmont Talent presidents Steve Hecht, and we were trying to think of a special way to promote the album. Bruce suggested that since Pinetop Perkins was a special guest on the album, that we book lot of shows with Pinetop added onto the band. Great idea. It has been my honor to work often with Pinetop since then.
I introduce Pinetop Perkins at our shows together this way, and it should work for you now if you don’t know about him: “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s Star Time. Please welcome a young man who worked with the original King Biscuit Boys in Helena, Arkansas. He played with great slide guitar players Robert Nighthawk and Earl Hooker, and spent twelve years in Muddy Waters’ band. On his own, he is a living legend of the blues piano and has won 10 W.C. Handy Awards, and was nominated for a Grammy this year...” – and since I originally wrote this for my website, Pinetop’s had more W.C. Handy Awards, Grammy® nominations, and a Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award too.
Pinetop Perkins and Bob, King Biscuit Festival 2003
Pinetop Perkins and Bob
Pinetop was born in 1913, two years before Muddy Waters. When we played in Muddy’s band together, I stood onstage between Pine and Mud, and those times are the deepest Blues music I will ever experience. Though many of my shows are still done with just me and my band, the many times in the last few years that Pine has been our featured guest are a pure pleasure for me. We try to back him up gracefully and to inspire him to play his best, deep Blue and good fun. Pinetop is getting the recognition he deserves now -- when I introduce him as above, fans rush the stage like he was Elvis.
Also in ’97, I scripted and was featured in an instuctional video, Muddy Waters’ Guitar Style, for Starlicks Video produced by Dave Rubin and distributed by Hal Leonard Corp. Originally on VHS tape, this video is now widely available on DVD. It gives up what I know about Muddy’s guitar playing for the Blues guitar player. It continues to sell strongly, according to the checks in my mailbox.
Eight times between ’95-’05, I played at the Handy Award shows in Memphis, usually leading an all-star band and performing with such fine musicians as Scotty Moore, Joe Louis Walker, Shemekia Copeland, Marcia Ball, Tracy Nelson, Reba Russell, Kim Wilson, Snooky Pryor, Charlie Musselwhite, Chris Layton, Pinetop, Rod Piazza, Dr. John, Ronnie Earl, Duke Robillard, Willie Kent, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, and bass players Mookie Brill and Tad Walters, who were in my band at the time.
In ’97, I appeared on a Kennedy Center Tribute to Muddy Waters, which featured Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, John Hiatt, G.E. Smith, Peter Wolf, Nick Gravenites, Keb’ Mo’, Big Bill Morganfield, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Charlie Musselwhite, Barry Goldberg, and Johnnie Johnson. A DVD, A Tribute to Muddy Waters, King of the Blues, of that show was released the next year.
In ’98, I was approached by Blind Pig Records to produce a debut album for Muddy’ son, Big Bill Morganfield. Rising Son won a W.C. Handy Award for Bill, “Best New Artist” in 2000. I was having artistic differences with Alligator Records and left them on friendly terms to make Hold Me To It for Blind Pig Records, released in June ’99. I made the album I wanted to with Blind Pig, and Big Bill Morganfield and I were co-billed on a number of shows in ’99 and 2000 which featured my band backing us.
During that time, Bill and I also played some shows which featured Pinetop Perkins. This revue was called “The Rolling Fork Revue,” a joke that musician/comedian Rev. Billy Wirtz made to our booking agents, referring to Muddy Waters’ birthplace and our traditional Blues. I still think it’s strange that the name stuck – I’ve still never even been to Rolling Fork, Mississippi, and I don’t pretend to be an old African-American Bluesman, and most people who hear the name don’t understand the obscure reference to Blues history. The “Rolling Fork Revue” name is retired now, but the idea of old-fashioned revues featuring well-known players is a good one and lives on...
As The Blues World grows tighter in the New Millenium, I’ve been putting together revues with my legendary Chicago Blues friends. In the Fall of 2002, I produced a recording of The Bob Margolin All-Star Blues Jam which features Pinetop, Carey Bell, Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy D. Lane, and my bass/harp/singer Mookie Brill. This album was released on May 27, 2003 on Telarc Records. In 2004, it brought me two W.C. Handy Award nominations: one for “Blues Band of the Year” and the other for “Traditional Blues Album.” It was recorded at Blue Heaven Studio in Salina, Kansas, known for it’s majestic acoustics and the audiophile dedication of owner/promoter Chad Kassem. It shows off the consummate engineering skills of Mark Williams, who has worked on all of my albums since ’93, and has taught me patiently about the process of recording music.
Hubert Sumlin and Bob, Chicago Blues Festival '05
Hubert Sumlin and Bob
At the end of 2003, booking agent Hugh Southard left Piedmont Talent to start his own booking agency, Blue Mountain Artists. Believing in Hugh and how he operates in business and friendship, I jumped over to Blue Mountain and have enjoyed the progress that they’ve made booking me on my own, with The Bob Margolin All-Star Blues Jam, and starting in 2005 with Legends of Chicago Blues. This gang features a customizable line-up of with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums and harp, a choice of harp players James Cotton, Carey Bell, or Jerry Portnoy, guitar genius Hubert Sumlin, piano players Pinetop or David Maxwell, and a choice of Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, Bob Stroger, or Mookie Brill.
I am also producing and consulting on re-issues of Muddy Waters’ recordings for the Blue Sky Label for Sony/Legacy. I played guitar on these recordings and it’s an honor to make them sound as good as we can, present unreleased recordings for the first time, and write liner notes that reveal the story of the recordings from the inside. The first was released in September, 2003 -- the Muddy “Mississippi” Waters Live Legacy Edition. It was remixed, remastered, and featured a new CD of a performance of Muddy and in his band in a small club. In 2004, it won the W.C. Handy Award Best Historical Recording. In May, 2004, the other three albums I did with Muddy for Blue Sky Records were reissued: Hard Again, I’m Ready, and King Bee. Each album features out-takes from the original sessions. The albums were remastered but not remixed, and I wrote new liner notes for each of them. King Bee and I’m Ready were nominated for Handy Awards for Best Historical Recording in 2005. I was particularly surprised and thrilled to win the Handy Award for Guitar in 2005. I will take it as an inspiration to honor all Blues guitar players.
In early 2004, Blues Revue magazine was sold by founder/publisher Bob Vorel to Visionation, which publishes the online Blues magazine Blueswax (Blueswax.com). The print and the online magazine exist independently and now I write articles for both regularly.
In 2005, I was honored to receive a W.C. Handy Award for Best Instrumentalist, Guitar. I took it as an inspiration to honor all Blues guitar players. I continued to tour worldwide, both with my North Carolina band and in revues which featured Chicago Blues Legends like Hubert Sumlin, James Cotton, Carey Bell, Pinetop Perkins, and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. 2006 brought more of the same, including tours in Finland, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
In January of 2007, I released In North Carolina, a CD that I crafted at home, alone. It is a solo album in that nobody else played a note on it, but there are songs where I overdubbed more than one guitar part, and I played electric bass and snare drum on some. I wanted to play the music that was in my heart, beyond the music I make onstage and in recording studios, and take my time recording it,. To release the album, I formed my own record label Steady Rollin’ Records, with partners Chip Eagle (publisher of Blues Revue and BluesWax) and Richard “Rosy” Rosenblatt (former President of Tone Cool Records, a great harp player, and an old Boston Blues Scene friend).
We soon realized that we could provide the same label services for other Blues musicians with independent labels. We formed the VizzTone Label Group. As of the beginning of 2010, we have 23 releases. VizzTone makes sense in today’s world where the twentieth-century business model of marketing recordings is long gone. It’s a win-win-win situation for VizzTone, the artists, and music lovers.
In January of 2007, as my own new CD was being released, I was in California producing and playing on Candye Kane’s Guitar’d & Feathered CD for Ruf Records. In February I produced Breakin’ It Up, Breakin’ It Down for Sony/Legacy. This live album is from concert tapes of a 1977 tour featuring Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, and James Cotton after the release of the legendary Hard Again album. I played in the original concerts, chose the songs for the CD, worked on the sound of the recordings with master engineer Mark Williams, and wrote the liner notes for it. The album won a Blues Music Award in 2008 as Best Historical Recording.
In 2008, I continued non-stop touring, but also co-produced and played on Gaye Adegbalola’s Gaye Without Shame and Big Bill Morganfield’s Born Lover. Both were released through the VizzTone Label Group. I also won another Blues Music Award for Guitar. In 2009, I produced and played on Mac Arnold’s Country Man and it was released on VizzTone. In October, 2009, I toured in Argentina and Chile with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and Bob Stroger.
For 2010, I’m hoping to finish and release a new CD, Steady Rollin’ Live with performances of my North Carolina band, Matt Hill and Chuck Cotton, plus some from the Chicago Blues legends I still work with, Hubert Sumlin, Bob Stroger, and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith.
All the music I’ve listened to and played, all the experience onstage, and all of the fine musicians I’ve worked with have left their mark on me, and are obvious when I play now. On the bandstand, I play what feels right at the moment, whether it’s featuring my original songs, telling stories, joking and talking with he audience, or just playing for the dancers. I like to be “professional” in terms of responsibility and competence, but past that, I am a musician playing for my friends.
Thank you for checking me out and getting to know me, but you can get much closer to who I am by listening to my music. I hope this background makes that more interesting for you.
Listening to one of Sonny Terry’s albums touched Jean-Jacques Milteau to the core, although he did confess, “I’d already heard a bit of harmonica...”. So we can just imagine this young Parisian born in 1950 and living in the 13th arrondissement, not far from the Porte d’Italie, and how his childhood and youth must have been lulled by one of the chromatic instruments of someone like Albert Raisner. The latter, once past the golden age of his second trio (i.e. 1947 – 1953) had now become a radio and TV star, and had been broadcasting bravura pieces such as Le Canari since 1959. Or maybe Milteau, like most of his fellow-countrymen, didn’t even know Jean Wetzel’s name but been nourished, perhaps even to excess, on his mouth organ – Jean was that enigmatic performer (1954) of Jean Wiener’s theme specially composed for the film Touchez Pas Au Grisbi. Here indeed was stuff to render the ears of a young man more sensitive, forge them even, but from there to inspiring a true vocation, there’s a whole world ! And that world is the Blues.
We can imagine Jean-Jacques Milteau much more sensitive to the You’re No Good that opens Bob Dylan’s first revolutionary album (March 1962) – and what do you bet he used to listen over and over again to the new Dylan version of the famous Freight Train Blues ? Then in October 62, Milteau fell under the spell of The Beatles’ first single Love Me Do, a Paul McCartney composition given extra polish by John Lennon with a riff on harmonica inspired by Delbert McClinton (who’d recently scored a hit with Hey Baby ! by Texan Bruce Channel [February 62]). Like most of his contemporaries, he only discovered recordings made by Cyril Davis and Paul Butterfield much later, yet as early as 1963, they were taking up position as real ambassadors for the instrument. But in February 1964, one thing our hero didn’t miss was the Rolling Stones’ first single, Not Fade Away, suffused from beginning to end with Brian Jones’ flaming harmonica, true to his own nature. “I bought a harmonica because there was some kind of rock-folk fashion at the time on the part of blokes like Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Donovan, John Mayall...”
John Mayall was on the scene from 66 and before that, in 1965, there’d been Sonny Terry and his breathtaking Lost John. From that moment on, this was the music, with that special sound, that form of expression that by common accord “could only come from the blues”. That title comes from a 1954 Folkways recording ; the label founded by Moses Asch in 1948 proposed recordings by the heroes of the folk scene at the same time – people such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Dave Van Ronck (all Bob Dylan’s idols)... and some survivors of the golden age of Country Blues such as Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Willie Johnson, Brownie McGhee, Jazz Gillum, LeadBelly, Josh White, Big Joe Williams, Reverend Gary Davis... Outside the USA the label was distributed by Le Chant du Monde – and this would be Jean- Jacque Milteau’s first producer.
Surprisingly enough, the harmonica was put aside or remained unknown to all those who took part in the Rock ‘n Roll revolution started by Elvis Presley, with one noteworthy exception : Bo Diddley, who took Billy Boy Arnold on board, whose incisive and decisive style on (most notably) Bring It To Jerome, Diddley Daddy and Pretty Thing struck home. When a so-called rocker wants a “blower” with him, he ‘s usually more likely to take a saxophone ! So it’s not the least of the merits we can credit Dylan with, as we can many of the early idols of English pop, who all worshipped the likes of Presley, Cochran, Berry, Holly and Jerry Lee, but didn’t forget to bring their other heroes lurking in the shadows to our attention too – Sonny Boy Williamson, for example (the real one, n° 1, John Lee Curtis d. 1948 and the fake, n° 2, Rice Miller), Bill Jazz Gillum, Howlin’ Wolf, Peg Leg Sam, Sonny Terry, Walter Horton, Slim Harpo, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton...
Like Bob Dylan, Brian Jones, Keith Relf, Cyril Davis, Paul Jones, John Mayall in England, Don Van Vliet and Alan Wilson in the USA, were all hammering out the same message through their records, and the Rolling Stones’ first album was typical of what groups such as the Pretty Things, the Yardbirds, The Blues Incorporated, Manfred Mann and so many others were doing at the time... Some famous names and titles are recalled or evoked on their albums : Little Walter, I Just Want To Make Love To You (a Willie Dixon theme first sung alongside Muddy Waters in 54) ; Jimmy Reed Honest I Do ; Billy Boy Arnold Mona – I Need You Baby (by and with Bo Diddley) ; James Moore (ex Harmonica Slim) alias Slim Harpo I’m A King Bee. Jean- Jacques Milteau received the message loud and clear and, fired with delight and passion, he took a new, exciting turn to set him on his personal “road to Damascus”. Soon he knew before many others who DeFord Bailey, Jaybird Coleman and Noah Lewis were... His first harmonica cost him the small fortune of 8.50 FF. No question of lessons or teaching ; like the Jew’s harp, the harmonica always responds to self-teaching. Jean-Jacques Milteau concluded his autodidactic period in autumn 1970 by taking a trip to the USA. This immersion in the home of the blues allowed him to drink at the source and tap into the true roots of this music that was his personal obsession. He got to know of contemporaries who were already fine marksmen on the scene : Charles Musselwhite who’d been recording since 67, and Carey Bell, since 69. There was also talk about a certain Charlie McCoy in Nashville working as a sideman since 61 under Chet Atkins’ leadership, though he’d recorded a promising first album in his own name in 1967.
Once back home, Milteau was aware he was ready to start a professional career, though for the moment he lived off odd jobs (some say he was a cook and a record dealer !). “It was pure chance, I was playing for sheer pleasure. Certain people needed what I could do and I happened to meet them”. (Standing at the crossroads bending on his knees ? History doesn’t tell us). For the moment, one day in 1977, our humble servant met Eddie Mitchell just back from Nashville, where, incidentally Charlie McCoy had become the star not to be missed on any account. In Milteau, Monsieur Eddy found his own McCoy ; it turned into an adventure that lasted till 1987. “I was playing with Eddy Mitchell in the late seventies. He’d had Charlie McCoy come to the Palais des Congrès and we’d played some harmonica duets. I still considered myself a beginner at the time and for me this was hugely exciting.”
Jean-Jacques’ fate was sealed, whether he liked it or not, and from now on he was a professional musician. The offers of jobs weren’t in short supply – concerts, music for advertising, film scores, recording sessions all lined up. In France it was clear as spring water for everyone – he was the one and only ! Recently a commentator called our attention to the fact that it would be easier to list the artists Milteau hasn’t accompanied than try and draw up a list of those he has. In 1973 his first recording for Le Chant du Monde was released, an album devoted to the harmonica in the Instrumental Special series. Then Blues Harp was released in 1980 and Just Kiddin’ in 1983. (The Blues Harp CD released in 1989 brings together pieces selected from both these albums). In 1991 Explorer does as it names suggests, going into all the potential areas for diatonic accordion except the blues. The following year Jean-Jacques Milteau was awarded a Victoire de la Musique (national music awards) for this same album. Meantime, he went on to record another album in 1992 with the Grand Blues Band before appearing as first part of Michel Jonasz’s and Eddy Mitchell’s shows. He was a member of the Enfoirés collective for the show Regarde les riches ! [Look At The Rich !], staged at the Garnier Opera House in Paris. His next album Live (1993) is evidence of his intense work for stage and theatre. In 1994, again with the Enfoirés, he went onstage at the Grand Rex with Eddy Mitchell, Paul Personne and Renaud for the show La route de Memphis [The Road To Memphis]. In 1995 he added texts to of 15 of his own compositions (sometimes penned jointly with Jean-Yves D’Angelo or Manu Galvin) for another album Routes. Then in 1996 came the deliberately chanson-oriented Merci d’être venus ; many of the guest stars here had once been his boss - Francis Cabrel, Maxime Leforestier, Charles Aznavour, Florent Pagny, Eddy Mitchell, Richard Bohringer, Michel Jonasz and Claude Nougaro. In 1997 he worked with the organisation Enfance et Musique by leading a workshop for sick children at the Bullion Rehabilitation Centre in the Yvelines. His assistant on this project was one of his pupils and another harmonica player, Greg Szlapczynski.
In 1998 came Blues Live, a double album with 22 titles recorded at the Petit Journal Montparnasse club during a particularly “hot” evening. Bastille Blues came out in 1999, and consisted almost entirely of his own new compositions, sometimes signed together with producer Michel-Yves Kochmann. This new programme plus his most bravura pieces were his arms for his forthcoming appearance at the Olympia. A new short-lived album of live music entitled Honky Tonk Blues appeared in 2000 as the record of this event. In 2001 another new album, Memphis, produced by Sébastien Danchin and recorded with some of the great names of American blues such as Mighty Mo Rodgers, Little Milton and Mighty Sam McClain, earned him another Victoire de la Musique, followed the next year with a major Sacem award, their Grand Prix du Jazz, the crowning honour for his whole career and his artistic itinerary. In 2003, Milteau went to New York to record the material for his new album Blue 3rd ; his fellow-musicians and guests this time were such notables as Gil Scott-Heron, Terry Callier, N’Dambi and Howard Johnson. In 2006, with a smaller gathering, he recorded Fragile, of much more intimate nature. 2007 saw the release of quite the opposite, Live, hot ‘n Blue, a return to music with a bit more muscle and flesh ! In 2008 he recorded Soul Conversation with singers Michael Robinson and Ron Smyth.
Jean-Jacques Milteau has travelled many different roads in both the geographical and musical sense of the term. From China to South Africa, from Nashville to New Orleans, or Ireland to Mexico, he is a musician whose curiosity knows no limits ; he’s forever searching for new encounters, open to others, ready for every new musical experience that might cross his path. And what about that question on everyone’s lips ? How far is he responsible for France’s annual sales figure of 20 000 harmonicas ?!
Maurice Bernard Translation Delia Morris
Alex Jenkins & the bombers is a rythym & blues based blues band. If you had to label this band the best way to describe their music is that it has elements of R&B, blues, jazz, rockabilly, roots and Americana with having an uptown, Westside Chicago sound. From the first song until the last song the band will have the audience jumping to their feet to tapping their toes. The bands current release “Creepin After Midnight” showcases the many influences in the playing and vocals. The Cd was on the Illinois Roots Airplay Radio chart for September 2012. The cd also made the top 25 airplay for the month of July 2012 at WEFT radio Champaign Illinois. The song she wants to rock made the top 50 songs for 2011 plays on WKCC radio Kankakee Illinois friends of the blues show. The band is currently working on material for their second release. They are currently performing many venues including festivals and state fairs. The band has appeared on the same bill with blues artists Royal Southern Brotherhood, Tinsley Ellis, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Nick Moss, Lil Ed at the Champaign Illinois blues, brews and bar b que festival on June 29th 2012. Also July 21st at the It Aint Nothing But The Blues festival in Bloomington IL. appearing on the bill with Anna Popovich, Sam Lay, Teeny Tucker and others. The Band Consists of Veteran Guitar Player/Vocalist Alex "Wayne" Jenkins, Brother Tim Jenkins on Drums/Vocals, Mike Crisp/Bass Guitar. Alex grew up on Chicago’s south west side within walking distance of the famous Maxwell St. It is there that he got his first exposure to blues music peering through windows of the blues clubs watching Muddy Waters, Howling wolf, Buddy Guy and others playing the blues. At age 13 is when he started playing guitar in local bands all throughout the 60’s in what was called oldtown. After moving out to Los Angeles for a few years Alex came back to the Midwest and spent the next several years playing and touring all throughout theUS And Canada performing in roadhouses, theatre’s and festivals. Alex then moved to Nashville where he lived from 1996-2002. While there, he played in blues bands and also hosted a pro blues jam in downtown Nashville. Alex decided to return to the Midwest to his roots and to form Alex Jenkins & The Bombers. Tim was born in Harvey Il. a south suburb of Chicago in 1961. He grew up listening to WLS & WVON radio where he was first exposed to motown and blues. He has played many styles of music in several bands throughout his career, but his true roots is with blues and R & B music. Tim currently plays vintage Rogers drums. Some of his influences include Charlie Watts, Frank Beard, Louie Bellson, Buddy Rich, Ginger Baker and others. Both Alex and brother Tim have many years combined playing experience. Alex and Tim have toured on the road for many years including playing venues in Memphis and Nashville. They competed in the international blues competition challenge in Memphis in 1989. Current members of the prairie crossroads blues society Champaign Il. and the Bloomington blowtorch blues society out of Bloomington Il. Their influences are many including artists such as Albert King, BB King, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Johnny Guitar Watson , Bobby Blue Bland , Robert Cray, Little Milton ,Jimmy Liggins, Roy Brown. Jazz artists George Benson, John Coltrane, Charlie Bird, Cab Calloway, Boz Skaggs and others, Rockabilly artists such as Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, Rick Nelson, and of course Motown, and Stax. Member bassist Mike Crisp played 4 years in the high school jazz band then attended Illinois State University in Bloomington Il. Where he played for four years in the Il. State University Jazz combo. Some if his influences include Stanley Clarke, Charles Mingus, Victor Wooten, Maynard Ferguson, Miles Davis, Dave Matthews, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
b. 29 April 1933, Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA, d. 16 April 1996, Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA. Tenor saxophonist and singer Hill played with many blues and R&B artists. He was influenced strongly in his early years by Jimmy Liggins and Joe Liggins. A friend and musical associate of then-drummer Billy Gayles, Hill joined up with Ike Turner with whom he first worked in the late 40s. He stayed with Turner for several years, playing in the Tophatters big band and also in the better-known Kings Of Rhythm. Hill appeared on several records, including ‘Rocket 88’, and his honking saxophone was soon an integral part of the sound of Turner’s band.
Although Hill appeared on many records with Turner and others, including Howlin’ Wolf, he made only a handful of tracks under his own name. These were for labels such as Highwater Records and Sun Records, and among the best-known tracks were ‘I’m Back Pretty Baby’, ‘Blue Man’, ‘You’re Driving Me Insane’, ‘The Snuggle’ and ‘Bourbon Street Jump’. Turner played guitar on the latter pair of titles. When Hill was in Ike Turner’s band, he formed an intimate relationship with the band’s young singer, Annie Mae Bullock, who later became Tina Turner, and in 1958 was father to her first son.
Calvin Newborn (born April 27, 1933, Whiteville, Tennessee, United States) is an American jazz guitarist.
He is the brother of pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. (1931–89), with whom he recorded between 1953 and 1958. They also formed an R&B band, with their father Phineas Newborn Sr. on drums and Tuff Green on bass. The group also included Willie Mitchell and Ben Branch.
The group was the house band in West Memphis, Arkansas, from 1947 until 1951 at the Plantation Inn Club. The group recorded as B. B. King's band on his first recordings in 1949, and also the Sun Records sessions in 1950.
On the 1950 recording of "B. B.'s Boogie", recorded at the Sun Studios, it was Newborn playing the lead guitar. Newborn also gave guitars lessons to Howlin' Wolf and is credited as being a big influence on Elvis Presley, who frequented the Plantation Inn Club twice a week to watch Newborn. "Elvis got swiveling his hips and wiggling his legs from me," said Newborn. Presley also used to eat at the Newborns' house and browse their music store for gospel records.
The group left West Memphis in 1951 to tour with Jackie Brenston as the "Delta Cats" in support of the record "Rocket 88". It was considered by many to be the first rock and roll record ever recorded, and was the first Billboard number one record for Chess Records.
Following this he played with Earl Hines starting in 1959. In the early 1960s, he toured with Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Forrest, Wild Bill Davis, Al Grey, and Freddie Roach, along with fellow Memphis jazz luminaries including Booker Little, George Coleman. Frank Strozier, and Louis Smith. Newborn also worked with Ray Charles, Count Basie, Hank Crawford, David "Fathead" Newman. Newborn Since the 1970s Newborn has remained mostly in Memphis, Tennessee, where he played regularly in local clubs well into the 1990s. His 1980 album Centerpiece hit No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard jazz albums chart, but much of his earlier material was not reissued on CD until 2005. He currently lives in Jacksonville, FL and continues to perform throughout Northeast Florida.
Little Arthur Duncan (February 5, 1934 – August 20, 2008) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter. He was a member of the Backscratchers, and over his working lifetime associated with Earl Hooker, Twist Turner, Illinois Slim and Rick Kreher
Duncan was born in Indianola, Mississippi, United States, and initially learned to play the drums. In 1950, aged 16, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, and made acquaintance with both Little Walter, who helped Duncan to learn the rudiments of harmonica playing, and Jimmy Reed. He found work playing his harmonica by accompanying Earl Hooker, John Brim and Floyd Jones. Billed and henceforth commonly known as 'Little Arthur Duncan', he played primarily in and around Chicago, and built up a local reputation over the years. He appeared with his own band in the Backscratcher's Social Club, which he also owned. Duncan worked in construction during the 1960s and 1970s, so was restricted to playing and singing in the evenings.
In 1989, Duncan recorded the album Bad Reputation, which was released on the Blues King record label. He later appeared on a compilation album, Blues Across America: The Chicago Scene, alongside Detroit Junior. In 1999, Duncan recorded for Delmark, who released Singin' with the Sun that year. On the album he was accompanied by the guitar player Billy Flynn. Live in Chicago followed in 2000.
His final recording was Live at Rosa's Blues Lounge, which was a live album recorded in Chicago in August 2007. One music journalist noted "...spirited, gritty performances of Reed's "Pretty Thing," Wolf's "No Place to Go," and two Dixon favorites ("Young Fashioned Ways" and "Little Red Rooster") leave no doubt that Duncan lives and breathes electric Chicago blues." However, a subsequent lengthy illness and hospitalization meant that Duncan could not build on his success.
Duncan died in Northlake, Illinois, in August 2008, from complications following brain surgery. He was aged 74
I just received the newest release, A Tribute To Little Johnny Taylor by Jimmy Wolf and it's a great showcase not only of Taylors music but Wolf's excellent guitar work. Opening with Walking The Floor, a standard 12 bar, Wolf plays some sweet riffs but never overplays giving the music the opportunity to breathe. One of my personal favorites, Somebody's Got To Pay, is up next and Wolf digs deep to find the right voice for such a deep track. Wolf has excellent backing on this release including Thomas "T.C." Carter on bass, Joe "Lawd Deez" Cummings on keys and Stephen "Rhythmcnasty" Bender on drums. Wolf rips a hole in this track with some voracious guitar riffs... out of control! Carter lays down some real funk for Hard Head and Bender is certainly up to the task. Wolf again lets it rip and he really plays fearlessly. Don't see that often and I like it! Everybody Knows About My Good Thing is another stellar song and Wolf's voice hits it's stride. The Wolf is on the loose and Katy bar the door! Really stiff hitting guitar riffs highlight this track. You'll Need Another Favor, a bottom driven blues track establishes a great groove and Cummings stretches out nicely on organ. Wolf keeps it simple on this track letting the groove speak for itself. Junkie For Your Love, a real funky number, gives Wolf the opportunity to show some searing riffs. Part Time Love, another of my personal favorites, has a real nice groove to it and Cummings brings the volume up and down to accentuate dynamics on this track. Wolf grabs his guitar by the throat on this one and doesn't let go. Real nice! Sometimey Woman has a R&B upbeat tempo and moves along quite nicely. Cummings takes another sail on the keys and creates a nice wake for Wolf to bust it loose. Using the patience of Albert King, Wolf lays down some pretty nice riffs and gets back to some of the better vocals on the track. On My Way Back Home closes the release setting a strong R&B driving rhythm. Wolf plays some real tasty riffs on this track and the tempo is spot on.
This is a really enjoyable release with hot guitar and great rhythm. Check it out!
Guitarist, bassist, and singer Jimmie Lee Robinson, active on the Chicago blues scene since the 1940s, died on Saturday, July 6th, 2002. Early this year Jimmie Lee was diagnosed with a large malignant tumor in his sinuses, which he had removed at the end of April. He began gigging again almost immediately, playing at a celebration of his 72nd birthday at the Deep Blue club in Schaumburg just four days after his surgery, but apparently the cancer had already spread to other parts of his body, and his health deteriorated rapidly over the following months.
For those who aren't familiar with him or his music, Jimmie's blues resume was long and illustrious. Born in Chicago's Cook County hospital and raised in the nearby Maxwell Street neighborhood, he began playing guitar on the bustling Maxwell Street market scene when he was in his early teens in the mid 1940s. By the late '40s he was good enough to have played behind blues legends Memphis Minnie and Big Bill Broonzy among others. Around 1950 he formed his first band, The Every Hour Blues Boys, which consisted of Frank "Sonny" Scott (still one of his best friends) on drums, with Jimmie Lee and a young Freddie King sharing guitars and vocals. In the mid 1950s Jimmie was playing on local gigs with Elmore James when Little Walter recruited him into his band, where he spent the next few years. He recorded on a couple of sessions with Little Walter, appearing on "Confessing The Blues", "Temperature", "Ah'w Baby" and several other of Walter's well-known recordings. He also moonlighted on sessions with his long-time friend Eddie Taylor on the Vee Jay label. In the late '50s Jimmie left Walter's band and joined up with Magic Sam for a while, and around this time cut a few singles of his own for the local Bandera label (backed by Luther Tucker and Eddie Clearwater, among others.) It was for Bandera that Jimmie Lee recorded his single "Times Getting Harder" and "Twist it Baby", notable now because future Delmark label-mate Jimmy Burns was then a member of The Medallionaires vocal group that provided the backing vocals.
In the '60s he played and / or recorded with Willie Mabon, Sunnyland Slim, Mighty Joe Young, Shakey Jake, Howlin' Wolf among many others, and made it over to Europe as part of the 1965 American Folk Blues Festival with John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Big Walter Horton, Big Mama Thornton, Eddie Boyd, et al, but eventually retired from music as a full time pursuit and opened a candy store on Chicago's South Side. During the '70s he played part time, often with his friend Little Willie Anderson (a disciple of Jimmie Lee's former employer Little Walter), made it over to Europe for a few more tours, and recorded sporadically, but by the '80s had almost completely abandoned his music.
When I met him in the late '80s, he was working as a cab driver; I encouraged him to get back into music, and invited him out to sit in on the regular gigs I was then doing at a club called Lilly's with The Ice Cream Men. This led to appearances on the Chicago Blues Festival in 1991 and '93, and eventually to Jimmie Lee's his first full-length album, Lonely Traveler released on Delmark in 1994 to widespread praise. He took off from there and started working again pretty regularly, but found it both financially and artistically advantageous to work as an acoustic solo artist rather than in a full band setting as he had for most of his professional career. Over the last decade he stayed busy doing festivals and short tours, including numerous trips overseas, and released four or five CDs of mostly acoustic material on various labels, including his own Amina Records. He retired from cab driving, but continued to drive his cab, emblazoned on the sides with "Delmark Recording Artist Jimmie Lee Robinson - The Lonely Traveler", around town as a rolling advertisement for his musical comeback. In addition to his own recordings, he also occasionally recorded as a sideman for several of his old friends and musical cronies on the Chicago blues scene.
In the early 1990s he wholeheartedly threw his support behind the fight to preserve what little remained of the historic Maxwell Street neighborhood he grew up in during the '30s and '40s, and became one of the most active and vocal spokespersons for this cause in his final years.
At some point fairly early in his musical career he converted to the Muslim faith and adopted the name Latif Aliomar. But to the end, his close friends and musical family knew him as Jimmie Lee, one of the kindest and gentlest souls on the Chicago blues scene. Jimmie Lee Robinson was 72 years old.
Scott Dirks is the co-author, with Tony Glover and Ward Gaines, of the recent book
Blues With A Feeling - The Little Walter Story, Routledge Press, 2002.
Lawrence "Bud" Freeman (April 13, 1906 – March 15, 1991) was an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, known mainly for playing the tenor saxophone, but also able at the clarinet. He had a smooth and full tenor sax style with a heavy robust swing. He was one of the most influential and important jazz tenor saxophonists of the Big Band era. His major recordings were "The Eel", "Tillie's Downtown Now", "Crazeology", "The Buzzard", and "After Awhile", composed with Benny Goodman.
One of the original members of the Austin High School Gang which began in 1922, Freeman played the C-melody saxophone alongside his other band members such as Jimmy McPartland and Frank Teschemacher before switching to tenor saxophone two years later. Influenced by artists like the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and Louis Armstrong from the South, they would begin to formulate their own style, becoming part of the emerging Chicago Style of jazz.
In 1927, he moved to New York, where he worked as a session musician and band member with Red Nichols, Roger Wolfe Kahn, Ben Pollack, Joe Venuti, among others. One of his most notable performances was a solo on Eddie Condon's 1933 recording, The Eel, which then became Freeman's nickname (for his long snake-like improvisations). Freeman played with Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra (1936–1938) as well as for a short time Benny Goodman's band in 1938 before forming his own band, the Summa Cum Laude Orchestra (1939–1940). Freeman joined the US Army during World War II, and headed a US Army band in the Aleutian Islands.
Following the war, Freeman returned to New York and led his own groups, yet still kept a close tie to the freewheeling bands of Eddie Condon as well as working in 'mainstream' groups with the likes of Buck Clayton, Ruby Braff, Vic Dickenson and Jo Jones. He wrote (along with Leon Pober) the ballad "Zen Is When", recorded by The Dave Brubeck Quartet on Jazz Impressions of Japan (1964). He was a member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band between 1969 and 1970, and occasionally thereafter. In 1974, he would move to England where he made numerous recordings and performances there and in Europe. Returning to Chicago in 1980, he continued to work into his eighties.
He also released two memoirs You Don't Look Like a Musician (1974) and If You Know of a Better Life, Please Tell Me (1976), and wrote an autobiography with Robert Wolf, Crazeology (1989).
In 1992, Bud Freeman was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
Joe Willie Wilkins (January 7, 1923 – March 28, 1979 was an American Memphis blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. Whilst he influenced contemporaries such as Houston Stackhouse, Robert Nighthawk, David Honeyboy Edwards, and Jimmy Rogers, Wilkins' bigger impact was on up and coming guitarists, including Little Milton, B.B. King, and Albert King. Wilkins' songs included "Hard Headed Woman" and "It's Too Bad."
Wilkins was born in Davenport, Coahoma County, Mississippi. He grew up on a plantation near Bobo. His father, Papa Frank Wilkins, was a local sharecropper and guitarist, whose friend was the country bluesman, Charley Patton. Young Wilkins learned to play guitar, harmonica and accordion. His early proficiency of the guitar, and slavish devotion to learning from records, earned him the nickname of "Walking Seeburg" (Seeburg Corporation being an early manufacturer of jukebox).
Becoming a well-known musician in the Mississippi Delta, by the early 1940s Wilkins took over from Robert Lockwood, Jr. in Sonny Boy Williamson II's band. In 1941, Wilkins reloacted to Helena, Arkansas, and joined both Williamson and Lockwood on KFFA Radio's "King Biscuit Time". Through the 1940s Wilkins broadcast regularly playing alongside Williamson, Willie Love, Robert Nighthawk, Elmore James, Memphis Slim, Houston Stackhouse and Howlin' Wolf. His guitar playing appeared on several recordings by Williamson, Love and Big Joe Williams, for the latter of whom he played bass.
For Muddy Waters, Wilkins was noted as the first guitarist from the Delta who played single string guitar riffs without a slide. Later on Waters stated
“ "The man is great, the man is stone great. For blues, like I say, he's the best." ”
Forming The Three Aces with Willie Nix and Love in 1950, he rejoined Williamson at KWEM Radio, which led on to Wilkin's becoming part of the studio band at Sun Records. He was also utilised by Trumpet Records, and as a prominent sideman, Wilkins recorded with Williamson, Love, Nix, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Roosevelt Sykes, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter, Mose Vinson, Joe Hill Louis, Elmore James, and Floyd Jones.
Charley Booker's final recording was as a guest with Wilkins at a 1973 blues festival at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The same year, Mimosa Records released a single of Wilkin's debut vocal performance. Adamo Records later issued a live album of some of his concert dates.
His working relationship and friendship with Houston Stackhouse endured over the years, with Stackhouse at one time living in the same premises as Wilkins and his wife. Wilkins and Stackhouse played at various blues music festivals, and were part of the traveling Memphis Blues Caravan. After undergoing a colostomy in the late 1970s, Wilkins still continued to perform until his final East Coast tour in 1981.
Wilkins is buried near Memphis in the Galilee Memorial Gardens.
Otis Spann (March 21, 1930 – April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician whom many consider to be the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist
Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style.
Born to Frank Houston Spann and Josephine Erby. One of five children - three boys and two girls. His father played piano, non professionally, while his mother had played guitar with Memphis Minnie. Spann began playing piano by age of eight, influenced by his local ivories stalwart, Friday Ford. At the age of 14, he was playing in bands around Jackson, finding more inspiration in the 78s of Big Maceo Merriweather, who took the young pianist under his wing once Spann migrated to Chicago in 1946. Other sources say that he moved to Chicago when his mother died in 1947 playing the Chicago club circuit and working as a plasterer. Spann gigged on his own, and with guitarist Morris Pejoe, working a regular spot at the Tic Toc Lounge before hooking up with Muddy Waters in 1952.
Although he recorded periodically as a solo artist, Spann was a full-time member of the Muddy Waters band from 1952 to 1968. In that period he also did session work with other Chess artists like Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley.
Spann's own Chess Records output was limited to a 1954 single, "It Must Have Been the Devil" / "Five Spot", which featured B.B. King and Jody Williams on guitars. He recorded a session with the guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. and vocalist St. Louis Jimmy in New York on August 23, 1960, which was issued on Otis Spann Is The Blues and Walking The Blues. A largely solo outing for Storyville Records in 1963 was recorded in Copenhagen. A set for UK Decca Records the following year found him in the company of Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton, and a 1964 album for Prestige followed where Spann shared vocal duties with bandmate James Cotton.
The Blues is Where It's At, Spann's 1966 album for ABC-Bluesway, sounded like a live recording. It was a recording studio date, enlivened by enthusiastic onlookers that applauded every song (Muddy Waters, guitarist Sammy Lawhorn, and George "Harmonica" Smith were among the support crew). A Bluesway encore, The Bottom of the Blues followed in 1967 and featured Spann's wife, Lucille Jenkins Spann (June 23, 1938 – August 2, 1994), helping out on vocals.
In the late 1960s, he appeared on albums with Buddy Guy, Big Mama Thornton, Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac.
Several films of his playing are available on DVD, including the Newport Folk Festival (1960), while his singing is also featured on the American Folk Blues Festival (1963) and The Blues Masters (1966).
Following his death from liver cancer in Chicago in 1970, at the age of 40, he was interred in the Burr Oak Cemetery, Alsip, Illinois. Spann's grave laid unmarked for almost thirty years, until Steve Salter (president of the Killer Blues Headstone Project) wrote a letter to Blues Revue magazine to say "This piano great is lying in an unmarked grave. Let's do something about this deplorable situation". This lit a spark in the blues community on a world wide level. Blues enthusiasts from Alaska to Venezuela, from Surrey to England, and Singapore sent donations to purchase Spann a headstone. On June 6, 1999 the marker was unveiled during a private ceremony. The stone reads "Otis played the deepest blues we ever heard - He'll play forever in our hearts".
He was posthumously elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980.
Born in Annapolis, Maryland, BILL DICEY began playing harmonica at age 8 when his father handed down his first Hohner Marine Band harp. Harmonicas were scarce at that time, so Bill learned to play his one harp in five different keys. Learning from the street musicians, young Bill used his talent to attract customers for his shoe shine business. Early influences on his technique included saxmen David “Fathead” Newman and Clifford Scott, and blues harp greats Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and later on Little Walter.
Associations with Sonny Boy and Buddy Moss helped him in developing a style uniquely his own. Bill teamed up with Buddy Moss in the late 60’s for many sessions which included engagements at colleges and clubs throughout the South, when Buddy turned over the reins of command, Bill brought the “Atlanta Blues Band” to New York City. Widely know and respected in the Blues world, Bill has performed with, opened for or recorded with a breathtaking array of talent including Sonny Boy Williamson, T-Bone Walker, Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, John Hammond, Phoebe Snow, Otis Spann, Slim Harps, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Louisiana Red, Roosevelt Sykes, Arthur Crudup, Big Mama Thornton, Charles Walker, Howling Wolf, Lightning Hopkins, the Coasters, Elvis Presley and Victoria Spivey.
Bill died at his home in 1993 of cancer.
Howard E. Scott (born March 15, 1946 in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California) is an American funk/rock guitarist and founding member of the successful 1970s funk band War.
Scott grew up in Compton, California. He began playing bass at a very young age under the guidance of his cousin, Jack Nelson, and in 1961 began playing guitar. A year later, he formed a group called the Creators with Harold Brown, and together they played at high school dances, car club parties and small night clubs in southern California. Scott was influenced by blues artists TJ Summerville, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Wayne Bennett. He frequented the local blues clubs in South Los Angeles to study professionals such as Lowell Fulson, Johnny Guitar Watson, and T-Bone Walker.
Howard graduated from Compton High School in 1964. He toured with The Drifters for a short time, until he was drafted into the United States Army in 1966. Upon his return, he formed his second group, The Night Shift, with Harold Brown. In 1969, the Night Shift was performing at the Rag Doll club in North Hollywood , when Eric Burdon and Lee Oskar stopped in to hear them play. Lee Oskar went to the stage to join in on a jam, and the next day Eric Burdon, Lee Oskar, Charles Miller, Papa Dee Allen, Lonnie Jordan and Peter Rosen joined Scott and Brown to form the band War.
Scott contributed lyrics, music, and co-produced some of War’s greatest hits, such as Cisco Kid, Slipping into Darkness and Why Can’t We Be Friends?. He was also the frontman and leader of the group. Scott and other members eventually left the original band in the 1990s, losing the right to use the band's name.
Scott now performs regularly with his nephew, B.B. Dickerson, Lee Oskar, and Harold Brown as the Lowrider Band
Listen to the music: when he sings, Willie Kent’s voice blazes out from the heart of the blues. Below the singing, you hear his bass guitar, flawless and rich. Between these two runs the music, a deep, honest blues that flowed from rural Mississippi to urban Chicago and remembers everything it learned along the way.
Willie Kent was born in 1936 in the small town of Inverness, Mississippi, just a hundred miles south of the border with Tennessee, and the blues ran all through his childhood. His first experience singing came in church, where he went "all the time" with his mother and brother. "Blues and gospel come from the same place," he would say later in life. "They're both from the heart." But the blues always called to him. Dewitt Munson, a neighbor wending homeward late nights with a guitar in his hand and a bottle in his pocket, would stop a while at the Kent porch to rest, letting the young Willie hold his guitar while he told stories. Through radio station KFFA’s famous "King Biscuit Time", Willie basked in the sounds of Arthur Crudup, Sonny Boy Williamson, and especially Robert Nighthawk. By the time he was eleven, he was regularly slipping out to the Harlem Inn on Highway 61 to hear it all live: Raymond Hill, Jackie Brenston, Howlin’ Wolf, Clayton Love, Ike Turner, Little Milton.
He left home at the age of thirteen. In 1952 he arrived in Chicago, where he soon was working all day and listening to music all night. One of his co-workers was cousin to Elmore James - and Willie Kent (still underage) took to following that famous bluesman from club to club, absorbing his music. Each weekend he’d go out looking for blues, and he found it: Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, J.B. Lenoir, Johnnie Jones, Eddie "Playboy" Taylor, A.C. Reed, J.B. Hutto, and Earring George Mayweather.
His love for the music led him further and further into it. He bought himself a guitar, and in 1959 through guitarist friend Willie Hudson, linked up with the band Ralph and the Red Tops, acting as driver and manager and sometimes joining them onstage to sing. He made a deal with Hudson, letting him use the new guitar in trade for lessons on how to play it. One night’s show was decisive: the band’s bass player arrived too drunk to play, and because the band had already spent the club’s deposit, they couldn’t back out of the gig; so Willie Kent made his debut as a bass player, on the spot. He never looked back.
From that point on, his credits as a musician read like a "Who’s Who" of Chicago blues. After the Red Tops, he played bass with several bands around the city and stopped in often for Kansas City Red’s reknowned "Blue Monday" parties. He was increasingly serious about his music and formed a group with guitarists Joe Harper and Joe Spells and singer Little Wolf. By 1961, he was playing bass behind Little Walter, and by the mid-60’s was sitting in with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Junior Parker. Toward the end of the 60’s, he joined Arthur Stallworth and the Chicago Playboys as their bass player, worked briefly with Hip Linkchain, then played bass behind Jimmy Dawkins.
He joined Jimmy Dawkins on his 1971 European tour, but when they returned to the States, their paths diverged: Dawkins wanted to keep touring and turned over his regular gig at Ma Bea’s Lounge to Willie Kent, who wanted to stay in Chicago. For the next six years, the Ma Bea’s house band was known as Sugar Bear and the Beehives, headed by Willie Kent (the Sugar Bear himself) with guitarist Willie James Lyons and drummer Robert Plunkett. In that setting, he set the tone of the club and backed up a stellar guest list including Fenton Robinson, Hubert Sumlin, Eddie Clearwater, Jimmy Johnson, Carey Bell, Buster Benton, Johnny Littlejohn, Casey Jones, Bob Fender, Mighty Joe Young, B.B. Jones, and Jerry Wells. (For a taste of the music, check out the superb 1975 recording Ghetto – Willie Kent and Willie James Lyons live at Ma Bea’s.)
Willie Kent had played occasionally with Eddie Taylor’s blues band during the late 70’s, and in 1982 became a regular member of the band, which then included Eddie Taylor on guitar, Willie Kent on bass, Johnny B. Moore on guitar, and Larry and Tim Taylor on drums. His relationship with Eddie Taylor was both a solid friendship and a warm musical partnership (evidenced in Eddie Taylor’s fine recording Bad Boy on Wolf Records).
After the death of Eddie Taylor, Willie Kent devoted his energies to his own band, Willie Kent and the Gents, with Kent on bass and vocals, Tim Taylor on drums, and Jesse Williams and Johnny B. Moore on guitar. And the Gents endured. Over the years, the composition of the group shifted as musicians joined or moved on, but the music remained as clear, powerful and steady as the bass line that held it true: a pure Chicago West Side blues.
By the end of his life, Willie Kent was well-known and respected in the blues world, but getting there wasn’t easy. In 1989, a series of heart problems led to life-changing triple bypass surgery. As he healed, he spent time reflecting on blues music, his career, and the future. He gave up his day job and turned his full attention to music.
His discography bears witness: before 1989, there were just two recordings to his credit; in the years since, he had ten releases under his own name, recorded behind many other blues artists, and appeared in countless blues compilations.
He always thought his singing should get more recognition than it did; but his bass playing earned him many honors.
