Tag Archives: Got My Mojo Working

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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