Tag Archives: Blues

Blues, Memphis, Music Calendar

Today: Jim Dickinson passed away 4 years ago

jim dickinson

“(Jim Dickinson is)…. that magical musical maestro from Memphis….   he was the kind of guy you could call to play piano, fix a tractor, or make red cole slaw from scratch.”
-Bob Dylan

“There are cool cats and there are cool Memphis cats but no one, not Elvis, not Jerry Lee, not even the Wolf came close to epitomizing Memphis and cool like Jim Dickinson did. He was the Top Cat Daddy, an inspiration, a mentor and my friend.

If you knew his music and understood his role as one of the links between black and white culture and between blues and rock and roll, you know what I’m talking about. If he is unfamiliar to you, now’s as good time as any to get to know him, even though he’s checked out of the motel.”
-Joe Nick Patoski

John Brown (from his great 1972 album “Dixie Fried” – words by Bob Dylan):

From Wikipedia:

James Luther “Jim” Dickinson (November 15, 1941 – August 15, 2009) was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the Memphis based band, Mudboy & The Neutrons.

Some highlights:

  • In the late 1960s, Dickinson joined with fellow Memphis musicians Charlie Freeman, Michael Utley, Tommy McClure and Sammy Creason; this group became known as the “Dixie Flyers” and provided backup for musicians recording for Atlantic Records. Perhaps their best-known work was for Aretha Franklin’s 1970 Spirit in the Dark.
  • In December 1969, Dickinson played piano on The Rolling Stones’ track “Wild Horses” at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama
  •  In 1972 Dickinson released his first solo album, “Dixie Fried”, which featured songs by Bob Dylan, Furry Lewis, and the title song by Carl Perkins.
  • In 1974 he produced Big Star’s Third
  • Co-produced with Alex Chilton on the 1979 Chilton album Like Flies on Sherbert.
  • He has produced Willy DeVille, Green on Red, Mojo Nixon, Neon Wheels, Jason & The Nashville Scorchers, The Replacements,Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and The Dick Nixons, among many others
  • in 1977 an aural documentary of Memphis’ Beale Street, Beale Street Saturday Night, which featured performances by Sid Selvidge, Furry Lewis and Dickinson’s band Mud Boy and the Neutrons.
  • He has also worked with Ry Cooder, and played on Dylan’s album Time Out of Mind.
    He played keyboards, Wurlitzer electric piano, pump organ on “Love Sick”, “Dirt Road Blues”, “Million Miles”, “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven”, “Til I Fell in Love with You”, “Not Dark Yet”, “Can’t Wait”, and “Highlands”
  • In 1998, he produced Mudhoney’s, Tomorrow Hit Today.

jim dickinson

Introducing himself – from www.artistshousemusic.org:

jim dickinson

Down in Mississippi:

Check out this great blog:

–

Spotify playlist of the day: 

More August-15:

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Grateful Dead, Music Calendar

Today: The late Jerry Garcia was born in 1942 – 71 years ago

Jerry Garcia 69346-7

Jerome John “Jerry” Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) is best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band The Grateful Dead. Though he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader or “spokesman” of the group.

One of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead from 1965 until 1995. Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders-Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders), Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, Legion of Mary, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage (which Garcia co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson). He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” cover story.

jerry garcia 3

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Jerry Garcia was best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead, the rock band for which he served as de facto leader for 30 years, 1965-1995. Concurrently for much of that time, he also led his own Jerry Garcia Band (JGB), and he performed and recorded in a variety of configurations and a variety of styles, particularly styles of folk and country music, sometimes switching to banjo or pedal steel guitar for the purpose. But the Grateful Dead remained his primary musical outlet, and he performed thousands of concerts with them and appeared on dozens of their albums (many of them live recordings), 28 of which reached the Billboard chart during his lifetime, including the million-sellers Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty,Europe ’72, Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead, What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been: The Best of the Grateful Dead, and In the Dark, and another eight that went gold. – From Allmusic (William Ruhlmann)

 jerry garcia 2

Lagacy:

  • Garcia was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead in 1994.
  • In 2003, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Jerry Garcia 13th in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
  • According to fellow Bay Area guitar player Henry Kaiser, Garcia is “the most recorded guitarist in history. With more than 2,200 Grateful Dead concerts, and 1,000 Jerry Garcia Band concerts captured on tape – as well as numerous studio sessions – there are about 15,000 hours of his guitar work preserved for the ages.”
  • Seattle rock band Soundgarden wrote and recorded the instrumental song “Jerry Garcia’s Finger”, dedicated to the singer, which was released as a b-side with their single “Pretty Noose”.

Jerry Garcia Band – I shall be released (fantastic version, great guitar playing!):

Album of the day – Keystone Companions – The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings:

Other August-01:

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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, 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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