Category Archives: Blues

Blues, Live, Music Calendar, Video

Today: Happy birthday Buddy Guy – Two great concerts

buddy guy smile

Happy 77th Birthday, Buddy Guy!

 

“He is the best living guitar player in the world”
– Eric Clapton

We celebrate George “Buddy” Guy’s birthday with two fantastic concerts. The first from The Montreal Jazz Festival, 6th July 1997. Check out the matching guitar and shirt! …also check out the Hammond B3 playing starting at 15 minutes in, just incredible!

Buddy Guy, Montreal 1997:

 

We want also to show you a concert from 2008, from a festival in Lugano (Switzerland). We get a happy Buddy Guy, clearly enjoying himself in a tremendous concert (and the checkered shirt is still with him).

Buddy Guy, Lugano 2008:

Enjoy!

– Hallgeir

Blues, Country, Festival, Live, Rock

Vikedal Roots Music Festival 11-14 July

plakat

Next week I’m visiting a local festival, Vikedal Roots Music Festival. It is the 15th year anniversary for this gem of a festival and they have some really great acts on their program.

It is located in Vikedal a beautiful little place here in the western part of Norway. They are setting up several stages and have concerts in the church, the harbour and in a big festival tent.

vikedal 2

We are talking about 23 concerts in 3 days, all of them firmly placed in the roots oriented music scene. Sometimes it’s roots-rock other times more folksy stuff.

The festival has given us some very good concerts through the years, and we have a long and loving relationship with this little, but great festival.

We here at Johannasvisions will try to see as many shows as we can, and we have chosen some favorites from this years

Here are our three must see artists at Vikedal Roots Music Festival 2013:

1. Ida Jenshus (with band)

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Ida Jenshus is always a safe bet, she and her band delivers on all shows, and she has a terrific band. Her latest release is less straight country and more into the Daniel Lanois /Emmylou Harris sound scape. We love it!

Here’s a concert taped for the Norwegian Broadcast Company (NRK). 22 minutes of great music with Ida Jenshus and her band:

 Place/Time: The Harbour, Thursday 11th July at 21:30

Our next choice is the up and coming “prairie-rock”-band, Yuma Sun.

2. Yuma Sun

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We have seen Yuma Sun in concert a few times, and they’re getting better with each show. They’ve toured extensively the last year and we are really looking forward to hear an even tighter band. As I write this they are playing at The Hove Festival, one of Norway’s biggest festivals.

Yuma Sun – Another Day:

In between all the gigs they are recording their second album. Hopefully we will get a release this fall.

Place/Time: The Harbour, Thursday 11th July at 23:30
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Blues, Jazz, Video

Newport Jazz Festival 1960 (Videos)

Newport 1960

The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the event to help them bring jazz to the resort town.
Most of the early festivals were broadcast on Voice Of America radio and many performances were recorded and have been issued by various record labels.The Newport Jazz Festival moved to New York City in 1972 and became a two-site festival in 1981 when it returned to Newport and also continued in New York. The festival was known as the JVC Jazz Festival from 1984 to 2008. During the economic downturn of 2009, JVC ceased its support of the festival and was replaced by CareFusion. As of 2012 the festival is sponsored by Natixis Global Asset Management. 
The festival is hosted in Newport at Fort Adams State Park, and is often held in the same month as its sister festival, the Newport Folk Festival.

In 1960 boisterous spectators created a major disturbance, and the National Guard was called to the scene. Word that the disturbances had meant the end of the festival, following the Sunday afternoon blues presentation headlined by Muddy Waters, reached poet Langston Hughes, who was in a meeting on the festival grounds. Hughes wrote an impromptu lyric, “Goodbye Newport Blues”, that he brought to the Muddy Waters band onstage, announcing their likewise impromptu musical performance of the piece himself, before pianist Otis Spann led the band and sang the Hughes poem.The 1960 event was notable also for the presence of a rival jazz festival that took place at the Cliff Walk Manor Hotel, just a few blocks away. This was organized by musicians Charles Mingus and Max Roach in protest against the lower pay that the Newport festival offered jazz innovators in comparison with more mainstream performers; the fact that the innovators were mostly black and the mainstream performers mostly white was also an aggravating factor.

Highlights included:

  • The Dave Brubeck Quartet
  • The Cannonball Adderley Quintet, featuring Nat Adderley
  • Nina Simone
    —
  • The Louis Armstrong All-Stars with Trummy Young and Barney Bigard
  • The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet
    —
  • Ray Charles
  • The Horace Silver Quintet
    —
  • Muddy Waters
  • John Lee Hooker
  • The Bill Evans Trio
  • The Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey

Videos from the festival:

Cannonball Adderley Quintet – Del Sasser:

Muddy Waters – Tiger In Your Tank:

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Blues, Muddy Waters, Music Calendar

Muddy Waters recorded – At Newport 1960 – 53 years ago

muddy waters at newport 1960

For many back in the early ’60s, this was their first exposure to live recorded blues, and it’s still pretty damn impressive some 40-plus years down the line. Muddy, with a band featuring Otis Spann, James Cotton, and guitarist Pat Hare, lays it down tough and cool with a set that literally had ’em dancing in the aisles by the set closer, a rippling version of “Got My Mojo Working,” reprised again in a short encore version.
~Cub Koda (allmusic.com)

A stomping live document of the period when Waters’ Chicago blues started reaching a wider pop audience. Newport has his classics – “Hoochie Coochie Man,” a torrid “Got My Mojo Working” – delivered by a tough, tight band anchored by harp genius James Cotton.
~rollingstone.com

Got My Mojo Working (part 1 & 2)

Wikipedia:

Released November 15, 1960 (US)
Recorded July 3, 1960
Genre Chicago blues
Length 32:38
Label MCA/Chess
Producer Leonard Chess

At Newport 1960 is a live album by Muddy Waters performed at Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island with his backing band, consisting of Otis Spann (piano, vocals), Pat Hare (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Andrew Stevens (bass) and Francis Clay(drums), in July 3. Water’s performances across Europe in the 50s and at Newport helped popularize blues to broader audience, especially to whites. The album is often said to be one of the first blues live albums.

muddy waters at newport 1960 back

The album was released in the US on November 15 that year, featuring eight songs, from “I Got My Brand On You” to “Goodbye Newport Blues”. In 2001, record label Chess released a remastered version, which includes three bonus tracks recorded in Chicago in June. Although At Newport 1960 never charted, it received critical acclaim and was influential for future bands. It was ranked on several music lists, including at number 348 on Rolling Stones “The 500 Greatest Albums of all Time” in 2003.

Hoochie Coochie Man:

Track listing:

Original vinyl release in 1960
  1. “I Got My Brand On You” (Dixon) – 4:24
  2. “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man” (Dixon) – 2:50
  3. “Baby, Please Don’t Go” (Morganfield) – 2:52
  4. “Soon Forgotten” (Oden) – 4:08
  5. “Tiger In Your Tank” (Dixon) – 4:12
  6. “I Feel So Good” (Broonzy) – 2:48
  7. “Got My Mojo Working” (Foster) – 4:08
  8. “Got My Mojo Working, Pt. 2” (Foster) – 2:38
  9. “Goodbye Newport Blues” (Hughes, Morganfield) – 4:38
Remastered version in 2001
  1. “I Got My Brand On You” (Dixon) – 4:24
  2. “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man” (Dixon) – 2:50
  3. “Baby, Please Don’t Go” (Morganfield) – 2:52
  4. “Soon Forgotten” (Oden) – 4:08
  5. “Tiger In Your Tank” (Dixon) – 4:12
  6. “I Feel So Good” (Broonzy) – 2:48
  7. “Got My Mojo Working” (Foster) – 4:08
  8. “Got My Mojo Working, Pt. 2” (Foster) – 2:38
  9. “Goodbye Newport Blues” (Hughes, Morganfield) – 4:38
  10. “I Got My Brand On You” (Dixon) – 2:22
  11. “Soon Forgotten” (Oden) – 2:41
  12. “Tiger In Your Tank” (Dixon) – 2:17
  13. “Meanest Woman” (Morganfield) – 2:18

muddy waters at newport 1960 live

Personnel:

  • Muddy Waters – Guitar, vocals
  • Otis Spann – Piano, vocals
  • Pat Hare – Guitar
  • James Cotton – Harmonica
  • Andrew Stephens – Bass
  • Francis Clay – Drums
  • Jack Tracy – Liner Notes
  • Burt Goldblatt – Photography

Spotify (remastered version):

Other July 03:

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Blues, Muddy Waters, Music Calendar

Today: Muddy Waters released – Rollin’ Stone: The Golden Anniversary Collection in 2000 – 13 years ago

Muddy Waters - Rollin' Stone - The Golden Anniversary Collection

This is powerful music and belongs in any serious music fan’s library. You can’t own too much Muddy Waters. And even if you bought the Chess Box Set, only a third of these tracks were included. ESSENTIAL
~Steve Vrana (amazon.com review)

Not just an essential historical record of an artist and genre, these are some of the most seminal and inspired blues performances ever recorded.
~Hal Horowitz (allmusic.com)

Down South Blues @ spotify:

Wikipedia:

Released June 27, 2000
Recorded 1947-September 17, 1952 Chicago
Genre Blues
Length 153:41
Label MCA/Chess
Producer Leonard & Phil Chess, Andy McKaie
Compiler Andy McKaie

Rollin’ Stone: The Golden Anniversary Collection is a compilation album collecting the first 50 master recordings of blues singer Muddy Waters for Chess Records. The collection spans Muddy’s debut with then named Aristocrat Records circa 1947, and traces his evolution as a songwriter and musician up to September 17th, 1952 on what became Chess Records after the company changed ownership. It is the first in a series of releases chronicling Muddy Waters’ complete recording career at Chess. The second release in the series is Hoochie Coochie Man: The Complete Chess Masters, Volume 2, 1952-1958 (2004) and the third release in the series is You Shook Me: The Complete Chess Masters, Volume 3, 1958 to 1963 (2012).

Muddy_Waters

Gypsy Woman @spotify:

Personnel:

  • Muddy Waters – vocals, guitar (all tracks)
  • Sunnyland Slim – piano
  • Ernest “Big” Crawford – bass
  • Alex Atkins – alto sax
  • Leroy Foster – guitar, drums
  • Johnny Jones – piano
  • Jimmy Rogers – guitar, vocals
  • Little Walter – harmonica, guitar, vocals
  • Leonard Chess – producer, bass drum
  • Elgin Evans – drums
  • Phil Chess – producer

Album of the day:

Other June 27:

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