Bman's Blues Report

Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one major source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz". Earl Hines was born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, 12 miles from Pittsburgh city center. His father, Joseph Hines, played cornet and was leader of Pittsburgh's Eureka Brass Band, his stepmother a church organist. Hines intended to follow his father on cornet but "blowing" hurt him behind the ears - while the piano didn't. The young Hines took classical piano lessons - at eleven he was playing the organ in his local Baptist church - but he also had a "good ear and a good memory" and could re-play songs and numbers he heard in theaters and park 'concerts': "I'd be playing songs from these shows month...

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  Our New Year's Eve Celebration is in the Ramada Ballroom in Topeka KS this year...call 785-234-5400 for tickets! On this tour Hamilton and Band will unveil lots of new songs which will be released very soon on the next long-awaited studio CD...you can buy advance tickets to select shows below!  All tour dates also listed on www.hamiltonloomis.com/schedule.htm. DECEMBER 2012 FRI 28th Omaha , NE 21st AMENDMENT SALOON (FORMERLY MURPHY'S) 6pm - 9pm 402-339-7170 CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS SAT 29th Red Oak, IA PRIVATE EVENT 8pm MON 31st Topeka , KS NEW YEAR'S EVE CELEBRATION @ RAMADA 8:30pm call 785-234-4317 for tickets JANUARY  2013 WED 2nd Grand Junction , CO AFTERSHOCK 7pm - 10pm FRI 4th Las Vegas , NV FUSION EXCHANGE 11pm & 1am SAT 5th Phoenix , AZ RHYTHM ROOM 6pm - 7:45pm 602-265-4842 TUE 8th Fresno , CA TOWER THEA...

Gene Conners or Connors (December 28, 1930, Birmingham, Alabama – June 10, 2010 in Arizona) was an American trombonist and singer. He was known as "The Mighty Flea". The birth spelling of his name was actually Conner. He grew up on New Orleans, and may have played with Papa Celestin when he was eleven years old. As a teenager he played at jazz funerals and with territory bands, and served in the Navy during the Korean War. Following this he played with Johnny Otis; his nickname was given to him by Bardu Ali while he was in Otis's band. Conners played with his own ensemble in Long Beach, California in the 1950s, and subsequently played with Ray Charles and Dinah Washington. In 1969 he returned to work with Otis, playing with him at the Monterey Jazz Festival and appearing in the film Play Misty for Me in 1971. He continued touring the world with Otis through 1974; concomitantly he played in Europe in 1973 with Illinois Jacquet and Jo Jones. In 1975 he appeared at the ...

Bobby Comstock (December 28, Ithaca, New York) is American rock & roll guitarist and singer. Along with The Counts, Bobby Comstock, enjoyed considerable success not only in the Central New York area but nationally as well. His highest charter was a teen-oriented adaptation of Patti Page’s “Tennessee Waltz” performed as a 4/4 rocker instead of a waltz, which he followed with a similar rock & roll treatment of Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya.” “Let’s Stomp” is a dance song similar to Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say,” and “Your Boyfriend’s Back” is an answer to the well-known hit by the Angels. Comstock continues rockin’ the oldies with an interpretation of Gogi Grant’s “The Wayward Wind” and apes Elvis Presley on “Jealous Fool.” Later in the ’60s, Comstock met the British Invasion head-on with a tribute to the Beatles titled “The Beatle Bounce” and an energetic cover of the Searchers’ “Ain’t That Just Like Me.” Originally waxed for labels such as Blaze, Atlantic, Jubilee, Lawn, Mohawk,...

Willmer "Little Ax" M. Broadnax, (December 28, 1916[1] – 1994) also known as "Little Axe," "Wilbur," "Willie," and "Wilmer," was an African-American hard gospel quartet singer. A tiny man with glasses and a high, powerful tenor voice, he worked and recorded with many of the most famous and influential groups of his day. Broadnax was born in Houston in 1916. After moving to Southern California in the mid-40s, he and his brother, William, joined the Southern Gospel Singers, a group which performed primarily on weekends. The Broadnax brothers soon formed their own quartet, the Golden Echoes. William eventually left for Atlanta, where he joined the Five Trumpets, but Willmer stayed on as lead singer. In 1949 the group, augmented by future Soul Stirrer Paul Foster, recorded a single of "When the Saints Go Marching In" for Specialty Records. Label chief Art Rupe decided to drop them before they could record a follow-up, and shor...

"Blind" Lemon Jefferson (Lemon Henry Jefferson; September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929) was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues". Jefferson's singing and self-accompaniment were distinctive as a result of his high-pitched voice and originality on the guitar. Though his recordings sold well, he was not so influential on some younger blues singers of his generation, who could not imitate him as they could other commercially successful artists.However, later blues and rock and roll musicians attempted to imitate both his songs and his musical style. His recordings would later influence such legends as B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Son House and Robert Johnson. Lemon Henry Jefferson was born blind near Coutchman, Texas in Freestone County, near present-day Wortham, Texas. Jefferson was one of eight children born to sharecrop...

Leroy Jackson, d. December 27, 1985 was a bass player for artists such as Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Charlie Parker and others. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Blues influences plucked from the 20th century by a tornado and dropped in Oz. We're not in Kansas anymore toto! Slide guitar, blues harp, bass, percussion, odd songs, mandolin, military cadences, gospel, folk, hard edged boogies, jump swing...WTF?? Stormcellar are a 5 piece modern-blues/roots/boogie outfit hailing from the gritty Inner West of Sydney, recombining every style of blues influenced music we can find into a mutant DNA. 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!

Live recording from the maiden gig of the Jensen Interceptors , a new Blues Band featuring - Gary Martin- vocals and Harmonica, Kirk Lothian - keys, Charlie Nodgy- drums, Jamie James - bass and Al Brown - guitar ! If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Have Bass Will Travel.... I was born in South East Missouri in a small town Haiti, where I lived on a farm. I moved to Chicago in 1955. I lived in the back of a night club on the West Side, where Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters played. It looked like they were having a lot of fun and I made up my mind that what I wanted to do was play music. I got married at an early age and I used to watch my brother-in-law play music. His name was Johnny Ferguson and he and JB Hutto had a band they called the Twisters. They were working on 39'th and State Street in Chicago and I would carry them to work every night and watch them. Then at home I would try to teach myself to play. My cousin Ralph Ramey said that we should start a band and we did just that. We got my brother (John Stroger), who played the drums, to learn the songs we knew and in four months we were making some noise. We went to a club and played two songs and the man said we had a job. It was one of the better clubs, where musicia...

“Tracy Nelson isn’t so much a singer as she is a force field — a blues practitioner of tremendous vocal power and emotional range.” - Alanna Nash, Entertainment Weekly “ . . . a bad white girl . . .” —Etta James, from her autobiography, Rage To Live She has one of the signature voices of her generation. That natural gift has always guided Tracy Nelson’s soul; indeed allowed her to both write and seek out the deeper songs regardless of niche or genre. A fierce singer of truth, a fountain of the deepest heartache, she is an ultimate communicator and has regularly destroyed audiences across decades of performing. She is one of the few female singers who has had hit records in both blues and country genres, performing with everyone from Muddy Waters to Willie Nelson to Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas, with Grammy® nominations for both her country and blues efforts. John Swenson, writing in Rolling Stone, asserted, “Tracy Nelson proves that the human voice is the most expressive instrument...

Matt "Guitar" Murphy (born December 29, 1927) is an American blues guitarist. Matt Murphy was born in Sunflower, Mississippi, United States, and was educated in Memphis, where his father worked at the Peabody Hotel. Murphy played with Howlin' Wolf in 1948; harpist Little Junior Parker was also in the band at the time. By 1952, Murphy was in Chicago, where he began his long association with Memphis Slim by playing on his dates for United Records and Vee-Jay Records, including the album, At The Gate of Horn (1959). Murphy did not have a band of his own until 1982, but played with many famous bands. Among them (more or less chronologically): Howlin' Wolf Little Junior Parker Ike Turner Muddy Waters Memphis Slim James Cotton Otis Rush Etta James Sonny Boy Williamson II Chuck Berry Joe Louis Walker The Shaboo All Stars The Blues Brothers He played with some of these bands for many years (for example, 20 years in a r...

Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III (born December 27, 1931) is an American guitarist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years. He was ranked 44th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2011. He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame (category: sideman) in 2000 Scotty Moore was born near Gadsden, Tennessee. He learned to play the guitar from family and friends at eight years of age. Although underage when he enlisted, Moore served in the United States Navy between 1948 and 1952. Moore's early background was in jazz and country music. A fan of guitarist Chet Atkins, Moore led a group called the "Starlite Wranglers" before Sam Phillips at Sun Records put him together with then teenage Elvis Presley. Phillips believed that Moore's lead guitar and Bill Black's double bass were all that was needed to augme...

Robert Conti (born November 21, 1945) is an American hard bop jazz guitarist. Conti was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was an autodidact, first performing locally at age fourteen. In 1966, after four years on the road touring North America, he settled in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1970 he left music to pursue a career in the securities industry. In 1976 he began playing jazz again. In 1979, he was signed to LA based Discovery Records label. Conti released Latin Love Affair and a Direct To Disc recording titled Solo Guitar as his debut efforts as a leader in 1979. In 1982 he left music again for the business world. In 1985 he managed to released another album, and in 1986 he headlined the Florida National Jazz Festival, with Jimmy McGriff and Nick Brignola as his sidemen. In mid 1988 he was offered a position under filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis in Beverly Hills, California. After a lengthy recovery from a back injury in late '88, he was offered a position as resident jazz ...

Guitarist/songwriter Lowman Pauling was a member of '50s R&B/rock vocal group the "5" Royales and co-wrote "Dedicated to the One I Love," covered by the group on a 1958 King Records single. The song was a 1961 hit for the Shirelles and a 1967 hit for the Mamas and the Papas. Besides "Dedicated...," Pauling also wrote "Think" -- not to be confused with Aretha Franklin's million-selling smash -- originally recorded by the "5" Royales and covered as a 1960 R&B hit single for James Brown (a labelmate of theirs doing their stint on King Records) and Ray Charles' cover of "Tell the Truth" made it to number 13 R&B during the summer of 1960. Other "5" Royales hits written by Pauling are their two number one R&B hits, "Baby Don't Do It," "Help Me Somebody," "Crazy, Crazy, Crazy," "I Do," "Tears of Joy," and "Too Much Lovin'." Lo...

Willie James Lyons b. 5 December 1938, Alabama, USA, d. 26 December 1980, Chicago, Illinois, USA. A west side Chicago blues guitarist in the 50s, Lyons worked as an accompanist with many artists, including Luther Allison, Jimmy Dawkins and Bobby Rush. Unaccountably ignored by Chicago record companies, he was taken up by French blues enthusiasts in the 70s. He recorded as an accompanist, made a disappointing half album, and in 1979 visited Europe, where he recorded his only full album. This proved to be the work of a fine singer and guitarist, influenced by B.B. King and Freddie King, ‘ T-Bone’ Walker and Lowell Fulson. 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!

Clarence LaVaughn Franklin (often billed as Bishop C. L. Franklin) (January 22, 1915 – July 27, 1984), was an American Baptist preacher, a civil rights activist, and father of the legendary soul and gospel singer Aretha Franklin. He was born Clarence LaVaughn Walker in Sunflower County, Mississippi, to sharecroppers Willie Walker and Rachel Walker née Pittman. C.L. would recall that the only thing his father did for him was to teach him to salute when he returned from service in World War I in 1919. Willie Walker abandoned the family shortly thereafter (Clarence was only four years old), and the next year Rachel married Henry Franklin, whose surname the family adopted. At age 16, he became a preacher, initially working the Black itinerant preaching circuit, before settling at New Salem Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, where he remained until May 1944. From there he moved to the pulpit of the Friendship Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York, where he served until June 1946 when h...

Buddy Ace (November 11, 1936 – December 26, 1994) was an American blues singer, known as the "Silver Fox of the Blues." His best known tracks were "Root Doctor" and "Pouring Water on a Drowning Man". Born James Lee Land in Jasper, Texas, United States, he was raised in Baytown, Texas, and began his singing career by singing gospel together with Joe Tex. He joined Bobby "Blue" Bland and Junior Parker, before being signed to Duke/Peacock Records in 1955. His hits include "Nothing In the World Can Hurt Me (Except You)." In the late 1960s, he moved to California performing on live shows. Buddy Ace died of a heart attack performing in Waco, Texas, in December 1994, aged 58. 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!...

JD Short Born February 26, 1902 in Port Gibson, MS Died October 21, 1962 in St. Louis, MO Gifted with a striking and almost immediately identifiable vocal style characterized by an amazing vibrato, J.D. Short was also a very versatile musician. He played piano, saxophone, guitar, harmonica, clarinet and drums. Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, Short learned guitar and piano. He was a frequent performer at house parties before he moved to St. Louis in the '20s. Short played with the Neckbones, Henry Spaulding, Honeyboy Edwards, Douglas Williams, and Big Joe Williams from the '30s until the early '60s. He recorded for Vocalion, Delmark, Folkways, and Sonet. Short was in the 1963 documentary The Blues, but died before it was released. 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 gro...

John Scofield (born December 26, 1951, Dayton, Ohio), often referred to as "Sco", is an American jazz-rock guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham, Medeski Martin & Wood, George Duke, Jaco Pastorius, John Mayer, and many other well-known artists. At ease in the bebop idiom, Scofield is also well versed in jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul, rock and other forms of modern American music. Early in his life, Scofield's family left Ohio and relocated to the small, then mostly rural location of Wilton, Connecticut; it was here that he discovered his interest in music. Educated at the Berklee College of Music, Scofield eventually left school to record with Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan. He joined the Billy Cobham/George Duke Band soon after and spent two years playing, recording and to...