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For this Back to Bayoulands BONUS episode we're revisiting our conversation with author Roger Wood about the legendary Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown plus a special introduction with KVLU music director Joe Elwell.Thanks for listening!
Blues Radio International With Jesse Finkelstein & Audrey Michelle
Doug MacLeod performs live at the 2024 Blues Music Awards on Edition 681 of Blues Radio International, with Vanessa Collier, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lowell Fulson, Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Arlen Roth and Detroit Junior.Photograph by Laura Carbone.Find more at BluesRadioInternational.net
Blues Radio International With Jesse Finkelstein & Audrey Michelle
Sugar Ray & The Bluetones perform live at the 2015 Blues Music Awards on Edition 668 of Blues Radio International, with music from Billy Branch, Roy Buchanan, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, and Frank Frost & The Night Hawks.Find more at BluesRadioInternational.net
Intro Song – The B.B. & The Blues Shacks, “Honeycomb”, Reservation Blues, from Germany First Set - Lil' Shaky & The Tremors, “I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled And Crazy”, Aftershock The Mighty Soul Drivers, “I Wouldn't Treat A Dog”, I'll Carry You Home Downchild Blues Band, “I'm Gonna Tell Your Mother”, Downchild 50th Anniversary CD Second Set - Chris Daniels & The Kings, “You Can Stay But That Noise Must Go”, Blues With Horns, Vol. 1 Chris Daniels & The Kings, “Dance Dance Dance”, Blues With Horns, Vol. 2 The Love Light Orchestra featuring John Nemeth, “Follow The The Queen”, The Love Light Orchestra featuring John Nemeth, 2017 Third Set - Joe Turner, “Bump Miss Susie”, Big Joe Is Here Roomful Of Blues, “Give It Up”, Roomful Of Blues, First Album Jack Mack & The Heart Attack Horns, “Standing Before The King”, Back To The Shack, 2016 Fourth Set - Ivan Appelrouth, “Drivin' With Ivan”, Blue & Instrumental, 2012 Clarence Gatemouth Brown, “C-Jam Blues”, No Looking Back, 1992 The R&B Bombers, “You Upsets Me”, Self Titled, 2008
This week on Blues is the Truth, Ian McHugh returns with another fantastic episode, delivering the very best in blues music, with a mix of both classic tracks and new releases. This episode is packed with an incredible lineup of artists that any blues lover will appreciate. Featured artists include the iconic Fleetwood Mac, whose influence on blues-rock is undeniable. Johnny Mars and the Cold Heart Revue bring their distinctive sound, while Mark Harrison captivates with his rich storytelling through song. The show also spotlights blues legend Clarence Gatemouth Brown and the soulful voice of Matthew Chaffey. Chad Strentz, known for his vocal prowess, will also feature, alongside the Memphis Royal Brothers and the powerful Shemekia Copeland. Listeners will be treated to tracks from rising star Thomas Heppell and the raw, traditional sound of Mad Dog Blues and William Harris. Colin James showcases his polished style, while Dave Ferra adds a touch of acoustic blues. The Muddy Waters 100 tribute brings an important historical element to the episode, with performances by Jovin Webb and Gary Nicholson adding contemporary flair. Classic blues is well-represented with tracks from Jimmie Vaughan and Jimmy Regal and the Royals, while Alvin Lee's guitar work will surely impress. Phil Coyne and the Wayward Aces, along with a dynamic collaboration between Johnny Burgin and Anson Funderburgh, will also be featured. The episode wraps up with the talents of Marcus Tummer, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Phillip Fankhauser, and the stunning vocals of Laura Holland. Regular features such as Title Track Tango, where Ian selects tracks that share their titles with the album, Blues Driver, where Paul Micheal picks an amazing classic track, and The Song Remains The Same, which dives into some of the most unexpected blues covers, make this episode of Blues is the Truth a must-listen. Tune in for an expertly curated journey through the blues, guided by the knowledgeable and passionate Ian McHugh.
This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast presents an interview with Alan Swyer, an award-winning filmmaker whose recent documentaries have dealt with Eastern spirituality in the Western world, the criminal justice system, diabetes, boxing, singer Billy Vera, and beyond. In the realm of music, among his productions is an album of Ray Charles love songs. His novel The Beard was recently published by Harvard Square Editions. His latest documentary, When Houston Had The Blues — the focus of this episode — shines a bright light on a vibrant Black music scene that has never gotten its just due…until now. Houston's early and indelible mark on American music and the blues — often overlooked despite its rich history — is celebrated in the soulful, feature-length documentary, When Houston Had the Blues. While Houston may not come to most people's minds as a major “music city” like Memphis, Chicago or New Orleans, it has a legacy that few other cities can match. Years before Elvis hit the charts with “Hound Dog,” it was originally recorded by Houston's Big Mama Thornton (arguably the defining version). And long before Motown, Houston was home to one of the most successful Black music empires in the country. When Houston Had the Blues features an extensive collection of photos from the '40s and ‘50s and vintage/contemporary performances by Bobby “Blue” Bland, Chic “Juke Boy” Bonner, Charles Brown, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Jewel Brown, C.J. Chenier, Arnett Cobb, Albert Collins, Diunna Greenleaf, Lightnin' Hopkins, Albert King, Freddie King, Trudy Lynn, David “Guitar Shorty” Kearney, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, Katie Webster aka The Swamp Boogie Queen, Don Wilkerson and more. With a unique timber and flavor unlike any other town in America, even other Texan cities, Houston's blues scene — ranging from “gut bucket” to highly sophisticated — has long been a melting pot of music, influenced by salsa, tejano, cajun, zydeco (then known as la-la), jazz, country and, later, rock ‘n' roll. Stream Houston Had The Blues on iTunes / Apple TV. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Intro Song – Zac Harmon, “Babe And Ricky's Inn”, Floreada's Boy First Set - New Blues! L.A. Big Daddy's, “Why I Sing The Blues”, Single Pontchartrain Shakers, “Going Fishing”, Self Titled Richard Wilkins, “Somebody”, Empty Seats Second Set – New Blues! Chris Cain, “Good Intentions”, Good Intentions Gone Bad Curtis Salgado, “Better Things To Lie About”, Fine By Me Glenn Patrik, “Down To The BarBQ”, Original Blues Third Set - From The Vinyl Vault Joe Williams with the Count Basie Orchestra, “Everyday”, Everyday I Have The Blues, 1959 Joe Turner, “Corinne Corrina”, Bosses of the Blues - Vol. 1, 1989 Lazy Lester, “Lester's Shuffle”, Rides Again, 1987 Jumping' Johnny and the Blues Party, “She Said, You Said, I Said”, Where y'at? Fourth Set - From The Vinyl Vault The James Cotton Blues Band, “Feelin' Good”, Self-Titled, 1967 T-Bone Walker, “Sail On”, Bosses of the Blues - Vol. 1, 1989 Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, “Real Life”, Real Life, 1986
This week's show, after a 1994 Lush lulling: brand new Jesus Lizard, Black Watch, Idaho, Steve Wynn, Alejandro Escovedo, GospelbeacH, and Matt Hunter & the Dusty Fates, plus Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Ringo Starr, John Renbourn, Augustus Pablo, Count ...
Today's show features music performed by Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Willie “The Lion” Smith
Calling all blues enthusiasts! Ian McHugh is back with another electrifying episode of Blues is the Truth, and this time he's joined by the legendary Paul Michael. Together, they've curated a lineup of tracks that'll have you feeling the soul-stirring power of the blues. In the "Blues Driver" segment, Paul Michael handpicks a track that's guaranteed to set your soul on fire. Meanwhile, "The Song Remains the Same" and "Title Track Tango" segments serve up even more blues goodness, with timeless tunes and hidden gems waiting to be discovered. From the gritty authenticity of Colin James to the raw emotion of Catfish, and from the smooth vibes of JP Soars to the heartfelt tunes of Eric Bibb, this episode is a journey through the diverse landscape of blues music. With tracks from Blues is Truth, Otis Grand and the Dancekings, and Little Georgie and the Shuffling Hungarians, you'll be transported to a world where the blues reigns supreme. But wait, there's more! Jo Carley and the Old Dry Skulls, Connolly Hayes, and Clarence Gatemouth Brown are also in the mix, alongside Boz Scaggs, Krissy Matthews and Friends, and the incomparable John Lee Hooker. Plus, classics from Muddy Waters, Mike Zito, and Adrianna Marie and Her Groove Cutters will keep you grooving all night long. With tracks from Peter Veteska and Blues Train, The Mighty Howlers, The Cinelli Brothers, Bryan Lee, Pinetop Perkins, Willie Big Eyes Smith, Freddie King, and Buddy Guy, this episode is a blues lover's paradise. So, grab your headphones, hit play, and let the music take you on a journey through the heart and soul of the blues. Don't miss out on the magic of Blues is the Truth!
A conversation with New Orleans styled piano and Hammond B3 player, Joe Krown (solo artist, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson) - www.joekrown.com
Air Week: March 4-10, 2024 Duke & Peacock Records This week, the entire “Juke In The Back” is loaded with records from the catalog of Duke/Peacock Records. Don Robey started Peacock in 1949 in order to record Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, whom he also managed. In 1953, Robey took over Duke Records (which was owned by […]
durée : 00:59:58 - Centenaires 2024 (3/5) : Blossom Dearie, Lucky Thompson, Otis Spann - par : Alex Dutilh - Quand on observe la liste des jazzwomen des jazzmen et des bluesmen dont on pourra célébrer le centenaire de la naissance en 2024, ça ressemble à une jam session au sommet de l'Olympe.
durée : 00:59:58 - Centenaires 2024 (3/5) : Blossom Dearie, Lucky Thompson, Otis Spann - par : Alex Dutilh - Quand on observe la liste des jazzwomen des jazzmen et des bluesmen dont on pourra célébrer le centenaire de la naissance en 2024, ça ressemble à une jam session au sommet de l'Olympe.
El portal de los podcast desde Aragón y para todo el planeta. Música y Palabras el programa de la música desde Aragón. En este episodio, 156, hablamos de los conciertos de Aba Taano, Santi Campillo, Daniel Ferruz, Electric Alley, Sunny War, y los nuevos discos de Daniel Cros, Laura Itandehui, Aitor Sanchez e Idoipe. AbaTaano, un grupo vocal de Uganda con el que Toño Berzal tuvo el placer de trabajar y de traer a Zaragoza por primera vez en la Expo de 2008, cuando era responsable de la programación musical del pabellón de África Subsahariana. Han pasado 15 años y han seguido creciendo y girando por todo el mundo. Ahora vuelven a Zaragoza. El concierto será el viernes 27 de octubre a las 20:00h, en La Rotonda del CC Delicias. Daniel Cros estreno el pasado viernes 20 de octubre, la versión del bolero "No Más Canciones Tristes" que grabo junto a la cantautora mexicana Laura Itandehui en el Estudi Rosazul. Escuchamos la canción original que daba nombre al disco homonimo del año 2016. Ademas escuchamos aparte una canción de Laura Itandehui, de su album homonimo. Aitor S es el proyecto en solitario de Aitor Sánchez, guitarra, cantante y compositor en la banda de rock “Nacho ́s Dick”, desde que la fundara en el año 2006. “Aitor S” se crea poco después de la pandemia a raíz de un mal momento de frustración personal y se centra en dar vida a algunas canciones en un estilo un poco más suave al de su grupo. A priori este proyecto se crea sin ninguna pretensión, ni está enfocado al directo, es un proyecto de creatividad, de hacer canciones y verlas publicadas. No se encasilla de momento en el estilo, es un sonido muy propio, y podemos ubicarlo entre el pop rock y el rock sureño. Actualmente está presentando su segundo single titulado “De mi Tío para mi Tía”, que como su nombre indica, este tema es una petición que hizo su tío, para su tía, en un momento en el que parecía que todo estaba en su contra, para expresarle su amor, y que nunca va a estar sola. La canción así lo expresa, además con un estilo muy personal, como es el de "Aitor S" Este tema, como todos, están grabados en su propio estudio “Dick Estudios”, y esta vez está mezclado y masterizado por Matty Harris en su estudio de Los Ángeles. El videoclip también está realizado enteramente por el propio “Aitor S”, dando rienda suelta a su creatividad, en vista de su escasez de medios y conocimientos técnicos en esa materia. Hablamos de la Novena edición del Festival BLUES MOON. como siempre, en Octubre, y en el escenario de La Rotonda del C.C. Delicias. Último concierto de este BLUES MOON 2023. Nos visita nada más y nada menos que SANTI CAMPILLO. Sábado 28 de octubre 20,00 horas Con un estilo que nace del blues y del rock y un filtro basado en la improvisación más salvaje e indómita. En sus inicios se vio influenciado por bandas como Led Zepellin, Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band y de guitarristas de Blues como Freddie King, Johnny Winter, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Albert Collins. Actualmente se encuentra en gira presentando su flamante nuevo disco titulado Cadillac Blues. En directo toca acompañado por Oneida James (La que fuera bajista de Joe Cocker durante 13 años) y Mini Drums (Batería). Continuamos ahora de la programación del ciclo Jazz y Más en el Rock and Blues en Zaragoza. Los conciertos seran a las 20,00 horas 29 octubre - Daniel Ferruz Quartet 5 noviembre – Luismi Segurado Trío 19 noviembre – Martin Burguez 26 noviembre – Marcos Sánchez 5tet La siguiente fecha de este ciclo será el día 29 de octubre, con el concierto de Daniel Ferruz Quartet. Ferruz es un joven músico zaragozano que con este proyecto muestra sus propias composiciones. Es compositor, pianista y docente y desarrolla su actividad en los ámbitos del jazz y la música moderna. Para este cuarteto ha contado con David Mengual al contrabajo, el baterista Adrià Claramunt y el saxo alto Joan Mas. El comienzo de la séptima edición del XXX Bourbon Festival, un consolidado ciclo de rock americano que se celebra en el Rock & Blues hasta finales de noviembre. La primera actuación será la de Electric Alley que tendrá lugar este viernes 27 de octubre a las 21h. Electric Alley es el nuevo proyecto rock de Nando Perfumo y Jaime Moreno. Estos hijos del rock, decidieron dar el paso definitivo y han dado a luz en su primer LP a un sonido maduro, crudo y sin ataduras. Con sus letras ponen de manifiesto su compromiso social e identificación plena con una generación a la que pertenecen y que busca dar rienda suelta a sus emociones compartiendo con el mundo sus impulsos artísticos. El martes 31 de octubre es el turno de Sunny War (21h), cantante y compositora establecida en Nashville y guitarrista virtuosa. War ha dado forma a una colección de canciones en un amplio espectro de estilos e ideas: hay góspel estático, country blues polvoriento, folk introspectivo, rock and roll de romper y rasga e incluso experimentos vanguardistas. Escuchamos a Idoipe que publico el pasado 6 de octubre su segundo álbum de estudio, 'Tañen furo'. El LP contiene la banda sonora creada por el artista para el documental que él mismo ha protagonizado y que se estrenó en el Centro Musical Artístico Las Armas de Zaragoza antes de ser proyectado en festivales de cine internacionales. Suscribete a nuestros episodios y no te pierdas ninguno Envíanos tus notas de voz a 654 93 42 41 Autor del programa: Francho Martinez Visita nuestros portales https://podcastaragon.es/ https://musicaypalabras.es/ Música y Palabras es un espacio musical que pretende difundir la música de diversos géneros y se emite en Radio Sobrarbe, Alto Jalón Radio, Radio Albada, Radio Monegros y Tea Fm.
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Get ready for another electrifying episode of Blues is the Truth with your host, the legendary Ian McHugh! In this latest installment, we've lined up an incredible array of blues legends, rising stars, and timeless classics to keep you grooving from start to finish. Prepare to be blown away by the mesmerizing blues journey curated by Paul Michael in the much-awaited Blues Driver segment. Paul Michael's impeccable taste and keen ear for the blues will introduce you to the finest selection of soul-stirring tunes that will leave you wanting more. But that's not all! The spotlight shines brightly on a stellar lineup of blues icons, including the incomparable Paul Weller, the soulful Elles Bailey, and the powerful Willy Mae Thornton. And we've got even more blues greatness in store for you with Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Wily Bo Walker, Duke Robillard All Star Band, and Free, each delivering their distinctive sounds and gripping performances. Join us on a captivating musical journey as we also showcase the exceptional talents of Pistol Pete Wearn, Greig Taylor Band, Guitar Jr, and Bee Bee Queen, who will captivate your senses with their remarkable artistry. Not to be missed are the unforgettable contributions from Monster Mike Welch, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Mick Pini, and Audio 54, Voodoo Ramble, Eric Johanson, Dom Martin, Al Lerman, and Guy King, each adding their unique flair to the blues landscape. And if that's not enough to enthrall you, we've got timeless classics from Lowell Fulson, Kirris Riviere and the Delta du Bruit, Nick Moss Band feat Dennis Gruenling, Micke Bjorklof and Blue Strip, Jimmy Regal and the Royals, and Rosies Smokehouse Deluxe, along with the captivating sounds of Colin James. So mark your calendars, clear your schedules, and get ready to immerse yourself in the captivating world of blues music with Ian McHugh on Blues is the Truth. Whether you're a devoted blues aficionado or a newcomer to the genre, this episode promises to be a soul-stirring experience that will leave you craving for more. Tune in and let the blues take you on an unforgettable ride!
Besides goofy skits, Hee Haw was known for featuring some of the top artists in country music during the 70s and 80s. On today's show we discuss albums from 3 artists featured on the hit TV show. Clarence ‘Gatemouth' Brown – Alright Again! (Andy)George Jones – I Am What I Am (Don)Garth Brooks – No […]
Sometimes you don't realize the hidden gems that are in plain sight. SLIM HARPO was such an influential artist that stemmed from Baton Rouge and gained international recognition from artists all over the world. With major hits like "I'm a King Bee", "Rainin' in My Heart" and "Baby Scratch My Back", which reached number one on Billboard's R&B chart and number 16 on its broader Hot 100 singles chart. Johnny Palazzotto and his amazing team has given next level dedication over with over two decades worth of work to present the Slim Harpo Documentary. With a long list of accomplishments of his own, I found that I had more questions that needed answers! Make plans to join us Saturday, April 15, 2023 at the Main Library on Goodwood for the showing of this amazing documentary. The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited... Please RSVP. Watch full interview HERE Read more on the man behind the scene running the scene. Johnny Palazzotto, a veteran of the entertainment industry, has become synonymous with discovering new talent and putting Louisiana artists on the international map, thus earning him a music business Lifetime Achievement Award from Offbeat Magazine (2011) as well as an induction into the Southern University Jazz Hall of Fame (2002). His work also landed him a spot on the Board of Governors' Memphis Chapter of the Recording Academy. The Baton Rouge native has helped to shape the careers of dozens of artists including Loggins & Messina. He has managed artists, auditioned and signed new writers, filed copyrights, negotiated contracts for recording artists, produced and distributed albums, and produced concerts from Los Angeles to Louisiana. Palazzotto is co-founder of Baton Rouge Blues Foundation,Inc. He currently produces the Slim Harpo Music Awards and presents Music in the Schools throughout Louisiana. This program introduces elementary, middle school and high school students to a music curriculum beyond the origins of all-American blues to gospel, rock and hip-hop. Palazzotto presented Baton Rouge Blues Week in conjunction with the Blues Festival including artists such as: Luther Kent, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Luther Allison, Johnny Adams, Percy Sledge, Ruthie Foster, Sonny Landreth, Bonnie Bramlett, Earl King, Philip Guy, Coco Montoya, Derrick Trucks, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Delbert McClinton, Jimmie Vaughan, Lou Ann Barton and Tony Joe White among local Blues Legends, Tabby Thomas, Henry Gray, Raful Neal, Larry Garner, ChrisThomas King, Kenny Neal. ************************************************************************************************* NEW MUSIC ALERT NEVER KNEW - LaTangela Fay NEW BOOK ALERT P.O.O.F. (Power Over Obstacles Forever) - LaTangela Fay Sherman ************************************************************************************ THE LATANGELA SHOW RADIO - WEMX- Baton Rouge, La. Mon-Fri 10a.m.-3p.m.CST TV - WLFT - Baton Rouge, La. KGLA - New Orleans, La. The Louisiana Film Channel YouTube - #LaTangelaFay Podcast - ALL digital platforms www.LaTangela.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
So just who did write "Flying Home"? Who recorded it first? What's it all about? In this episode of Same Difference, AJ and Johnny answer all these questions and more, while listening to versions of this fun Jazz standard by Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Tito Puente, and new-to-us artist The Robert Bell Hot Swing Combo.
This week's Blues is the Truth sees us in a new month, so that means a new song remains the same, along with everything you expect from the show, amazing new music, absloute classics, the title track tango... What more could you want. The show features tunes from Big Mama Thornton, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Tim Penn and the Second Line, Spencer MacKenzie, Elmore James, Joe Flipp, Gary Clark Jr, Bobby Mesano, Robin Bibi, Guy Verlinde, Tomislav Goluban, Buddy Guy, Cathy Lemons, Ronnie Earl, Jason Elmore and Hoodoo Witch, Jordan Officer, Rita Engedalen, Yates McKendree, Whitney Shay, Anna Davis and the Sinnermen, Roomful of Blues, Johnny Ray Jones, Albert King and Eric Clapton. As always please make sure to share like and review the show on your podcast platform of choice as well as joining us in our Facebook group on facebook.com/groups/bluesisthetruth
Neste programa falámos e ouvimos Clarence Gatemouth Brown natural Vinton, los Angels e Queen Sylvia Embry natural de Wabbaseka, estado do Arkansas.
SELECCIÓN 2 JUNIO 2022 BLUES SYNDICATE 1- CRAZY LOVE – LONG JOHN HUNTER 2- KEEP PLAYING THE BLUES – LARRY GARNER 3- GOTTA MOVE ON – EDDY CLEARWATER 4- NOW THAT I´M DOWN – SON SEALS 5- HAVE YOU NO SHAME – SEAN COSTELLO 6- BLUES IN MY SOUL – LURRIE BELL 7- SOMETIMES I´M RIGHT – HUBERT SUMLIN 8- TIMES MAKE TWO – ROBERT CRAY 9- TOO MANY DIRTY DISHES – ALBERT COLLINS 10- JESSANNE – JOHNNY COPELAND 11- AIN´T THAT JUST LIKE A WONAN – CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN
Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Scott EllisonSinger-songwriter, guitarist Scott Ellison emerged as a blues-rock powerhouse in his hometown of Tulsa, OK in the late 1970's. With Eric Clapton's and Freddie King's backing bands at the time both hailing from the region, Ellison's guitar shredding heavy blues style quickly brought him regional and then national attention. He first gained notice playing with Jessica James (Conway Twitty's daughter) in 1977, and national blues audiences learned about him via his work in iconic bluesman Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's touring band in 1980-81.
Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Veteran Connecticut-native Jazz Trombonist & Educator Peter McEachern .. We caught up with him in mid-November to talk about his new 2021 CD Code 2 out on SteepleChase showcasing his quartet. This Connecticut native has toured and recorded three CDs for Polygram with Blues legend Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. He's also a skilled educator and an overall champion of jazz .. Enjoy .. Click to listen.Neon Jazz is a radio program airing since 2011. Hosted by Joe Dimino and Engineered by John Christopher in Kansas City, Missouri giving listeners a journey into one of America's finest inventions. Take a listen on KCXL (102.9 FM / 1140 AM) out of Liberty, MO. Listen to KCXL on Tunein Radio at http://tunein.com/radio/Neon-Jazz-With-Joe-Dimino-p381685/. You can now catch Neon Jazz on KOJH 104.7 FM out of the Mutual Musicians Foundation from Noon - 1 p.m. CST Monday-Friday at https://www.kojhfm.org/. Check us out at All About Jazz @ https://kansascity.jazznearyou.com/neon-jazz.php. For all things Neon Jazz, visit http://theneonjazz.blogspot.com/If you like what you hear, please let us know. You can contribute a few bucks to keep Neon Jazz going strong into the future. https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=ERA4C4TTVKLR4
From Bernie Marsden through to Katie Bradley this is another amazing edition of Blues is the Truth... Along the way we pay tribute to Byther Smith, there are new tracks from Richard Townend and the Mighty Bosscats, and Tommy Castro. Classic hits from Freddie King, Junior Wells, Santana, Muddy Waters and Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Add in some all round great tunes from Jon Amor, Hans Theesink and Terry Evans, Lurrie Bell and more... It's an amazing show so hit play and enjoy!
For this episode, we're sharing an extended cut of Jason Miller's recent conversation with author Roger Wood. The interview was featured on episode 3 of this season of Bayoulands. Roger Wood's book Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues is a detailed and extensive portrait of the Houston blues scene. For this interview, Jason and Roger focused on one of the major players in the Houston blues scene, the late Clarence Gatemouth Brown. Our thanks to Roger Wood. Tune in to 91.3 FM and kvlu.org on Sunday, September 26that 5pm for a repeat of Episode 3 of Bayoulands, featuring the radio version of Roger Wood's interview along with music selections and an interview I did with the president of Lamar State College Orange, Dr. Thomas Johnson, about the college's upcoming plans to honor Gatemouth Brown by unveiling "Gatemouth Plaza" this October. If you want to take a local "Gatemouth" tour, check out the Texas Historical Marker which stands at the site of his grave at Hollywood Cemetary located on Simmons Drive in Orange and an exhibit of original artifacts on view in the Gulf Coast Music Hall of Fame at the Museum of the Gulf Coast located at 700 Procter Street in Port Arthur. Unfortunately, Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues is no longer in print, but there are a fare amount of copies for sale online. If you enjoy the conversations shared in this podcast, please remember to share and subscribe to Bayoulands TALKS wherever you find your podcasts. You can also listen on NPR One along with other podcast offerings from KVLU public radio. And join us on social media at 91.3 KVLU Public Radio on Facebook and bayoulands on Instagram. Bayoulands TALKS is produced in the studios of 91.3 KVLU Public Radio in Beaumont, Texas by Shannon Harris and Jason M. Miller. For more information and to stream KVLU online visit: kvlu.org.
We continue with eTown's special 30th anniversary series, sharing highlights from each of our 30 seasons of programs. This week, we feature Part One of a ‘best of' potpourri of stellar moments from our 1996 season, with musical guests Keb' Mo', Steve Earle, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Kate MacKenzie, Del McCoury Band, Jorma Kaukonen, Jonathan Edwards and Joan Osborne. Plus, Nick's conversation with Michael Moore is one you'll definitely want to hear.
Fabuloso Concierto tesoro de Muddy Waters en el Festival de jazz de San Sebastián. Muddy tenía 64 años y nos visitó con una banda de lujo, donde había tres guitarristas y varias leyendas vivas del blues. Plaza de la Trinidad, San Sebastián, 20 de julio de 1977. Producción propia de RNE Digitalizado para su emisión por José Miguel López, que estuvo presente en aquel concierto. MUDDY WATERS: XII FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE JAZZ DE SAN SEBASTIÁN. 1977 Contenido dado por el artista, cuyo orden no se corresponde: 01.- KANSAS CITY 02.- HOOCHIE COOCHIE MAN 03.- HONEY BEE 04.- CALDONIA 05.- WALKING AND TUMBLING 06.- I CAN'T BE SATISFIED 07.- HONKY TONK 08.- SCREAMING AND CRYING Intérpretes: Muddy Waters Blues Band: Muddy Waters (guitarra, voz) Bob Margolin (guitarra) Luther Johnson Jr. (guitarra) Jerry Portnoy (armónica) Este hombre se salió aquel día, ¡vaya recital! Pinetop Perkins (piano) Calvin Jones (bajo) Willie Smith (batería) Aquel año también tocaron en San Sebastián: Charles Mingus, Cab Calloway's Harlem Parade, Wallace Davenport New Orleans Band, Dolores, Nucleus y Clarence Gatemouth Brown, aparte de los grupos aficionados. Yo asistí acreditado por el vedpertino "Informaciones" donde firmaba como José Miguel López de Haro (JMLH). Mañana celebraremos el Día Internacional del Jazz. Escuchar audio
Today’s show features music performed by Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Willie “The Lion” Smith
Mais um final de semana e o #BluesBox segue sendo a sua melhor companhia para o sábado à noite. Hoje, o destaque fica com Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown e a identidade do blues!
The Happiness Quotient #71The Legend of CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWNThis episode of the The Happiness Quotient can be found in audio only format at:https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/8029682And on YouTube at this address: https://youtu.be/BDXmcezMIwQClarence Gatemouth Brown did not want to be known as a bluesman. He called his brand of music "American and World Music, Texas Drive and Swing"In a previous lifetime I was a television reporter for an NBC affiliate in western Massachusetts, WWLP, Channel 22. I was hired as a features reporter, wherein I’d produce, shoot, edit and report in a series that I called IN TOUCH WITH WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS. Today, I’m bringing you an inspiring, honest never-before-heard interview conducted by myself in 1988 with the amazing, Grammy winning, Blues Hall of Fame legend of the blues (for lack of a better word) CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN. I first met Gatemouth to interview him at his hotel, the Red Roof Inn in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, the morning before a show at the now defunct Sheehan’s Cafe in Northampton, Massachusetts. I’m going to play for you everything from that interview and impressive performance that evening, which took place during a time that many would say was the peak of his storied career. Gatemouth, who lived on Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, was diagnosed in 2004 with lung cancer. When the notorious Hurricane Katrina moved into the region in August 2005, he hurried away to stay with his brother in neighboring Texas. His home was ruined during the hurricane, and his guitars and instruments washed away. Gatemouth passed shortly after.Please enjoy this 1988 interview with the incredible Gatemouth Brown, including music from his performance that night. In the interview, Gate schooled me on what The Blues really is, and how he is most assuredly NOT a bluesman. He plays a special kind of music, and it’s not the blues.For more information about Clarence Gatemouth Brown on Alligator Records:https://www.alligator.com/artists/Clarence-Gatemouth-Brown/Gate’s iconic 1966 Gibson Firebird guitar:http://legacy.gibson.com/news-lifestyle/features/en-us/legendary-guitars-clarence-708.aspxGate’s NY Times obituary:https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/arts/music/guitarist-clarence-gatemouth-brown-dies-at-81.htmlGrateful Dan Tie Dye's Etsy page for Jerry Garcia glow-in-the-dark T:https://www.etsy.com/shop/GratefulDanTieDyeTom Reney, producer/host of Jazz a la Mode on New England Public Media:https://www.nepm.org/people/tom-reney#stream/0For more information about Thom Pollard:www.eyesopenproductions.comFor a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotientOur theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.For more information about The Wood Brothers:https://www.thewoodbros.com/The Wood Brothers on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvWKQovDZlLceuct1EEMMQHappiness Jones video can be seen here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIoiVWwF5AFor more about Thom Dharma Pollard, about personal coaching or his inspirational presentations, virtual or in person, find him at: www.eyesopenproductions.comTo join his mailing list for The Happiness Quotient, email him at thom.dharma.pollard@gmail.comSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient)
BLUES SYNDICATE Nº 25 1- B.B. KING. Caldonia. 2- DR. JOHN. Iko, iko. 3- LONNIE JOHNSON. C.C. Rider. 4- SNOOKS EAGLIN. C.C. Rider. 5- AMOS MILBURN. C.C. Rider. 6- LITTLE WALTER. Juke. 7- CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN. Midnight hour. 8- MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT. Avalon, my home town. 9- JIMMY ROGERS. Rock this house. 10- MOSE ALLISON. Parchman farm. 11- SHEMEKIA COPELAND. Ghetto child. 12- CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE. Revelation.
BLUES SYNDICATE Nº 25 1- B.B. KING. Caldonia. 2- DR. JOHN. Iko, iko. 3- LONNIE JOHNSON. C.C. Rider. 4- SNOOKS EAGLIN. C.C. Rider. 5- AMOS MILBURN. C.C. Rider. 6- LITTLE WALTER. Juke. 7- CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN. Midnight hour. 8- MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT. Avalon, my home town. 9- JIMMY ROGERS. Rock this house. 10- MOSE ALLISON. Parchman farm. 11- SHEMEKIA COPELAND. Ghetto child. 12- CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE. Revelation.
Nou programa aquest dilluns a Blues Barrelhouse. Aquest cop parlant d’aquest genial artista a cavall entre el Blues i el Jazz, pianista i organista. Ell va ser arranjador del mateix Lionel Hampton, i va col·laborar amb grans artistes tant del Blues com del Jazz. Noms propis com Clarence Gatemouth Brown o Roy Gaines dins del […] The post Blues Barrelhouse 05/10/2020 first appeared on Ripollet Ràdio.
BLUES SYNDICATE Nº 23 1- SON HOUSE. Death letter blues. 2- LIGHTNIN HOPKINS. Mean old Frisco. 3- PINETOP PERKINS. How long. 4- ALVIN YOUNGBLOOD HART. Big mama´s door. 5- R.L. BURNSIDE. Rollin and tumblin. 6- LUCINDA WILLIAMS. Happy woman blues. 7- ROBBEN FORD. Everthing´s gonna be alright. 8- JOHNNIE JOHNSON. I´m mad. 9- TAJ MAHAL. She caught the katy. 10- CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN. Song for Renee. 11- LARRY MITCHELL. I loved another woman.
BLUES SYNDICATE Nº 23 1- SON HOUSE. Death letter blues. 2- LIGHTNIN HOPKINS. Mean old Frisco. 3- PINETOP PERKINS. How long. 4- ALVIN YOUNGBLOOD HART. Big mama´s door. 5- R.L. BURNSIDE. Rollin and tumblin. 6- LUCINDA WILLIAMS. Happy woman blues. 7- ROBBEN FORD. Everthing´s gonna be alright. 8- JOHNNIE JOHNSON. I´m mad. 9- TAJ MAHAL. She caught the katy. 10- CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN. Song for Renee. 11- LARRY MITCHELL. I loved another woman.
Count Basie swings us into the groove this week, with his signature Jazz standard "1 O'Clock Jump" on this episode of Same Difference. Join AJ and Johnny as they listen to various versions of this absolute classic, including cuts from Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and a historic performance from the Benny Goodman Orchestra!
There are few artists whose names are synonymous with one instrument and how it's played in service to an entire genre. Utter the phrase "young blues rock guitarist" within earshot of anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the modern musical vanguard and the first name they are most likely to respond with will be Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The Louisiana born axeman and songsmith has sold millions of albums while throwing singles into the Top 10, shining a light on the rich blues of the past and forging ahead with his own modern twist on a classic sound he has embodied since his teens. In a 20-year recording career that began when he was just 16, Shepherd has established himself as an immensely popular recording artist, a consistently in-demand live act and an influential force in a worldwide resurgence of interest in the blues. From television performances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (amongst others) to features in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Maxim Magazine, Blender, Spin, USA Today and more, his musical career has been nothing short of phenomenal. At 16 years old, he signed his first record deal and burst onto the national scene with the release of his 1995 debut album Ledbetter Heights, which produced the radio hits "Deja Voodoo," "Born with a Broken Heart" and "Shame, Shame, Shame." His relentless touring and success on rock radio helped to drive the album to Platinum sales status. His 1998 sophomore effort Trouble Is… also went Platinum, yielding such radio hits as "Blue on Black," "True Lies" and "Somehow, Somewhere, Someway." 1999's Live On spawned the radio hits "In 2 Deep", "Shotgun Blues" and "Last Goodbye." 2004's The Place You're In was a blistering rock record and was followed up by 2007's ambitious 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads, for which Shepherd and his band traveled throughout the American South to record with such vintage blues greats as B.B. King, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins and David "Honeyboy" Edwards on their home turf. 2010 saw the release of Shepherd's long-awaited first live album, Live! In Chicago, recorded at Chicago's House of Blues during the all-star Legends tour and featuring guest appearances by such blues legends as Hubert Sumlin and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. The live disc debuted at #1 on Billboard's Blues chart, as did 2011's How I Go. In 2013, Shepherd further expanded his musical horizons by teaming with veteran rockers Stephen Stills and Barry Goldberg to form THE RIDES, whose first album Can't Get Enough helped to expand Shepherd's audience as well as his musical resume. 2014 saw the release of Goin' Home, Shepherd's sixth # 1 debut on the Billboard Blues charts. Goin' Home features several talented friends who shared Shepherd's enthusiasm for the project's back-to-basics ethos. Those guests include fellow guitar icons Joe Walsh, Warren Haynes, Keb' Mo' and Robert Randolph, longtime friend Ringo Starr, Fabulous Thunderbirds frontman Kim Wilson, the Rebirth Brass Band and co-producer Blade's father, Pastor Brady Blade Sr., who lends a bracing dose of preaching to Shepherd's version of Bo Diddley's' "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover." In the months since its release, Shepherd and his band have toured the world extensively blazing a fresh trail for the historical American art form in the 21st Century.
Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Scott EllisonA talented singer-songwriter, guitarist, and blues-rocker, Scott Ellison was born on June13, 1954, in Tulsa, OK. By the '70s, Tulsa had become an unexpected hotbed of blues-based rock bands as proven by both Eric Clapton and Freddie King's backing bands hailing from the area. It was the perfect match for Ellison with his heavy guitar shredding blues style. It was around that same time that Ellison began playing with legends in the business, such as country singer Jesseca James (Conway Twitty's daughter) in 1977 and renowned bluesman Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown in 1981.Scott Ellison,All Wound Up,Skyline DriveScott Ellison,Woman's Got A Hold On Me,Skyline Drivewww.makingascene.org,Scott Ellison,Scott Ellison,Skyline Drive,Skyline DriveScott Ellison,These Blues Got A Hold On Me,Skyline Drive
On the April 18 edition of Music History Today, a rock artist passes away, along with a member of Parliament Funkadelic and a bassist who wrote what is possibly the most famous bass line ever created. Also, happy birthday to blues great Clarence Gatemouth Brown and the funky drummer Clyde Stubblefield, without whom early rap probably wouldn't have existed.
Clarence Gatemouth Brown legendary Blues from an All Time Great. Leave your mind behind, forget it all and relax with music
With a band name that’s evocative of the thick, dizzying vibes coursing through their latest album, Holywater, Nashville-based blues-soul outfit HeavyDrunk continues to solidify their reputation both on record and in their live shows, which bristle with kinetic, freewheeling energy. The nine-piece group’s unusual name originated with a quip from no less than blues icon Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, relayed later to HeavyDrunk front man, Rob Robinson by a friend and musician who played in Brown’s band at one time. “Man, he’s a no-playin’ so-and-so... and a heavy drunk!” the music legend sneered, when urged to invite the unnamed subject of those derisive words – another well-known blues artist – on stage to play with him. While Robinson remains protective of the identity of the musician whose reputation inspired the band name, there’s no denying that the ace players who contribute to the HeavyDrunk sound create their own intoxicating blend of musical flavors including Mississippi Delta blues, rousing gospel, sultry soul and muscular rock ‘n’ roll.
Moe Denham is a Nashville-based, Hammond USA artist. He’s been a sideman to artists such as Count Basie and Clarence Gatemouth Brown. He’s opened for Ray Charles, B.B. King, and The Platters. He’s performed with Richard “Groove” Holmes, Neil Young, Bela Fleck and Ernest Tubb among many others. He’s a mentor and friend to many upcoming musicians, and lives with his wife Susan and Tud the Corgi.
Op zijn nieuwe plaat Baby Please Come Home doet rootsrocker Jimmie Vaughan waar hij goed in is:het opfrissen van obscure liedjes en vergeten pareltjes uit de blues en rhythm & blues van bijvoorbeeld Lloyd Price,Jimmy Reed of Clarence Gatemouth Brown. De weduwe en manager van J.J. Cale verzamelden onuitgebracht werk voor de CD Stay Around.En Dan Penn brengt een ode aan Memphis,de stad waar -toeval bestaat niet- Dusty Springfield 50 jaar geleden een iconisch album opnam.
Rode draad is vandaag Steve Miller. Daarnaast hoor je ook muziek van T-Bone Walker, Otis Span, Boz Scaggs, Earl Hooker, en Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.
Welcome to episode twenty-three of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. Today we're looking at "Pledging My Love" by Johnny Ace Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Also, remember I'm three-quarters of the way through the Kickstarter for the first book based on this series. ----more---- Resources As always, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. I've used two main books for the information in this episode -- The Late Great Johnny Ace and Transition from R&B to Rock 'n' Roll by James Salem is an exemplary biography, which gets far more detail about its subject than I would have though possible given his short, underdocumented, life, and which also provided some of the background material about Memphis. Big Mama Thornton: Her Life and Music by Michael Spörke is the only biography of Thornton. It's very well researched, but suffers somewhat from English not being its author's first language. I got some additional details about the overlap between Ace and Thornton, and some of the information about Don Robey, from that. The Patreon-only Christmas episode I mention is here, for Patreon backers. Normally when I'm recommending a way to buy the music I discuss, I link to things available as a CD. This time, I'm going to link to a digital-only release, but it's worth it. Ace's Wild! The Complete Solo Sides and Sessions contains every track ever recorded and released by Ace, including the posthumous overdubbed tracks; every released track he played on for other Beale Streeters including classics from B.B. King and Bobby "Blue" Bland; and a selection of the tribute records I talk about. I know of no physical release that's anywhere near as comprehensive. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A content warning: this episode contains a description of a death by gunshot. I am not using any of the more explicit descriptions of this death, though I do describe some aspects of it, but talking about that subject at all can be upsetting, so if you're likely to be disturbed by that, please turn off now. If you're unsure whether you'll be upset, remember that there are blog posts at 500songs.com containing the full text of every episode, and you can read the text there before listening if you wish. Johnny Ace was born John Alexander Jr -- he used a stage name because his mother didn't approve of secular music -- and he was part of a group of musicians called the Beale Streeters. To understand the importance of this group of people, you have to understand Memphis and why it was important. American regional musical culture could be incredibly specific, and different cities had different specialities. That's changed somewhat now, as transport and communications have got so much better, but certainly in the first half of the twentieth century you'd find that cities a hundred or so miles apart had taken a lot of the same musical influences but put them together in radically different ways. And Memphis, in particular, was an unusual city for the southern US. It was still an intensely racist city by any normal standards, and it was segregated, and thus still home to countless horrors and crimes against humanity. But for the Southern US black people led comparatively comfortable lives, simply because Memphis was very close to fifty percent black in the early decades of the twentieth century -- and was actually majority-black in the late nineteenth. In 1878, there was a plague -- yellow fever swept the city -- and it took an immense toll. Before the 1878 plague, there were fifty-five thousand people living in Memphis. Afterward there were fourteen thousand, and twelve thousand of those were black. The plague killed seventy-five percent of the white people living in Memphis, but only seven percent of the black people. Even though white people moved back into the city and eventually became the majority again, and even though they had all the institutional power of a racist state on their side, there was less of a power imbalance in Memphis, and the white ruling classes simply couldn't keep black people down as thoroughly as in other Southern cities. Memphis' regional speciality is the blues, and its first great musical hero was W.C. Handy. Even though Handy only lived in Memphis for a few years, having been born in Alabama and later moving to New York, he is indelibly associated with Memphis, and with Beale Street in particular. Handy claimed to have invented the blues, though his blues wasn't much like what we'd call "the blues" these days, and often had an element of the tango about it. And he was certainly the first person to have any kind of hit with blues songwriting, back in a time when hits in music were measured by sheet music sales, before recorded music had become more than an interesting novelty. [excerpt: "Beale Street Blues" by W.C. Handy] So Memphis was, as far as the wider world was concerned, and certainly as far as anyone in Memphis itself was concerned, the birthplace of the blues. And Beale Street, more than any other part of Memphis, was the blues area. Everyone knew it. Beale Street was the centre of black culture, not just for Memphis, but for the whole of Tennessee, in the late forties and early fifties. It wasn't actually called Beale Street on the maps until 1955, but everyone referred to it as "Beale Street" anyway. By 1950 people were already complaining about the fact that the "old" Beale Street had gone. Beale Street was where Lansky's was -- the place where the coolest people bought their clothes. There was Schwab's Dry Good Store, where you could buy everything you wanted. And there was the Beale Street Blues Boys, or the Beale Streeters -- accounts vary as to what they actually called themselves. They weren't a band in a traditional sense, but there were a few of them who got together a lot, and when they would make records, they would often play on each others tracks. There was the harmonica player Junior Parker, who would go on to record for every Memphis-based label, often recording in the Sun Studios, and who would write songs like "Mystery Train". There was the piano player Roscoe Gordon, who had a unique off-beat way of playing that would later go on to be a massive influence on ska and reggae music. There was the singer Bobby "Blue" Bland, one of the most important blues singers of all time, and there was guitarist Riley King, who would later be known as "the blues boy", before shortening that and becoming just "B.B." King. And there was Johnny Ace, another piano player and singer. But the Beale Street Blues Boys slowly drifted apart. Riley King went off and started cutting his own records for RPM, one of the myriad tiny labels that had sprung up to promote R&B music. And Bobby Bland got drafted, but before he had to go off to be in the armed forces, he went into Sam Phillips' studio and cut a few sides, which were released on Duke Records, backed by the Beale Streeters: [excerpt "Lovin' Blues" by Bobby "Blue" Bland and the Beale Streeters] That has BB King on guitar and Johnny Ace on the piano, along with George Joyner on bass, Earl Forest on drums, and Adolph Billy Duncan on the saxophone. Shortly after this, Ace's first single came out almost by accident. He was playing piano at a session for Bobby Bland, and Bland couldn't get the lyrics to his song right. In the session downtime, Ace started singing Ruth Brown's hit "So Long": [excerpt: Ruth Brown, "So Long"] Dave Mattis, Duke Records' owner, thought that what Ace was doing sounded rather better than the song they were meant to be recording, and so they changed it up just enough for it to count as "an original", with Ace coming up with a new melody and Mattis writing new lyrics, and "My Song" by Johnny Ace was created: [Excerpt Johnny Ace: "My Song"] This would be how all Ace's records would be created from that point on. They would take a pop standard or another song that Ace knew, someone would write new lyrics, and then Ace would come up with a new melody while keeping the chord progression and general feel the same. It was a formula that would lead to a string of hits for Ace. "My Song" might not sound very rock and roll, but the B-side was a jump boogie straight out of the Big Joe Turner style -- "Follow The Rules" [Excerpt Johnny Ace: "Follow the Rules"] The A-side went to number one on the R&B charts, and was the first of eight hits in a row. Ace's singles would typically have a ballad on the A-side and a boogie number on the B-side. This was a typical formula for the time -- you might remember that Cecil Gant had a similar pattern of putting a ballad on one side and a boogie on the other. The idea was to maximise the number of buyers for each single by appealing to two different audiences. And it seemed to work. Ace became very, very popular. In fact, he became too popular. Duke Records couldn't keep up with the demand for his records, and Don Robey, the owner of Peacock Records, stepped in, buying them out. Don Robey had a reputation for violence. He was also, though, one of the few black businessmen in a white-dominated industry, and it might be argued that you can only get to that kind of status with a certain amount of unethical practices. Robey's business manager and unacknowledged partner, Evelyn Johnson, was by all accounts a far nicer person than Robey. She did the day-to-day running of the businesses, drew up the business plans, and basically did everything that an owner would normally be expected to, while Robey took the money. Johnson did everything for Robey. When he'd decided to put out records, mostly to promote the blues singer Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, who he managed, Johnson asked him how they were going to go about this, and Robey said "Hell, I don't know! That's for you to find out!" So Johnson figured out what to do -- you call the Library of Congress. They had all the forms necessary for copyright registration, and whenever they didn't have something, they would give her the details of the organisation that did. She got every copyright and record-related form from the Library of Congress, BMI, and other organisations, and looked over them all. Everything that looked relevant, she filled out. Everything that didn't, she kept in case it was useful later, in a file labelled "It could be in here". Johnson ran the record label, she ran the publishing company, and she ran *and owned* the booking agency. The booking agency started the model that companies like Motown would later use -- cleaning the acts up, giving them lessons in performance, buying them clothes and cars, giving them spending money. She lost money on all the artists that were recording for Robey's labels, where the performances turned into a loss-leader for the record labels, but she made the money back on artists like B.B. King or Ike and Tina Turner, who just turned up and did their job and didn't have to be groomed by the Johnson/Robey operation. She never got the credit, because she was a black woman, while Don Robey was a man, but Evelyn Johnson pretty much single-handedly built up the careers of every black artist in Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi or California during the early part of the 1950s. From this point on, Duke became part of the Don Robey empire, run by Evelyn Johnson. For a while, Dave Mattis was a silent partner, but when he noticed he was getting neither money nor a say, he went to see Robey to complain. Robey pulled a gun on Mattis, and bought out Mattis for a tiny fraction of what his share of the record company was actually worth. Once Robey had bought Duke, Ace started working with Johnny Otis as many of the other Duke and Peacock artists did, and his records from then on were recorded in Houston, usually with the Johnny Otis band, and with Otis producing, though sometimes Ace's own touring band would play on the records instead. Ace's formula owed a lot to Charles Brown's sophisticated West Coast blues. For those who haven't heard the Patreon-only bonus Christmas episode of this podcast, Brown was the missing link between the styles of Nat King Cole and Ray Charles, and his smooth lounge blues was an important precursor to a lot of the more laid back kinds of soul music. Here's a clip of "Merry Christmas Baby" by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, with Brown on lead vocals, so you can see what I mean about the resemblance: [Excerpt "Merry Christmas Baby" Johnny Moore's Three Blazers] Now, there is a very important point to be made here, and that is that Johnny Ace's music was extremely popular with a black audience. He didn't get a white audience until after his death, and that audience was largely only interested in one record -- "Pledging My Love". It's important to point this out because for much of the time after his death his music was dismissed by white music critics precisely because it didn't fit their ideas of what black music was, and they assumed he was trying to appeal to a white audience. In fact there's a derogatory term for the smooth-sounding blues singers, which I won't repeat here, but which implies that they were "white on the inside". Nothing could be further from the truth. As Johnny Otis said, Ace was "too smooth for the white critics and white writers for a long time." He pointed out that this was "white arrogance", suggesting that "black people are not the best judge of what was the best art to come out of the community, but the white writers are." Otis' point, which I agree with, was that, in his words, "you have to take your cue from the people of the community. They know better than you what they like and what is black artistry." Ace's music -- yearning ballads about unrequited love, sung in a smooth, mellow, voice -- didn't fit with white preconceptions about the proper music that black men should be making, and so for decades his work was more or less airbrushed out of history. It was inconvenient for the white mythmakers to have a black man playing sophisticated music. But that music was hugely popular among black audiences. "The Clock", for example, went to number one on the R&B charts, and stayed on the charts from June through October 1953. [excerpt: Johnny Ace: "The Clock"] His follow-ups to “The Clock” weren't as big, and there was a sign he was entering diminishing returns, but his records stayed on the charts for longer than most, and as a result his releases were also less frequent. Don Robey stockpiled his recordings, putting out just one single every six months, waiting for the previous single to fall off the charts before releasing the next one. This stockpiling would prove very lucrative for him. Because while Ace was a sophisticated performer, he lived a less sophisticated life. One of his hobbies was to drive at top speed, while drunk, and shoot the zeroes out of road signs. With a lifestyle like that, it is probably not all that surprising that Ace didn't live to a ripe old age, but the story of his death is still one that might be shocking or upsetting, and one that is still sad even though it was probably inevitable. The last song Johnny Ace played live was "Yes, Baby" -- a duet with Big Mama Thornton, who had been his regular touring partner for quite a while. The two would tour together and Thornton would be backed by Ace's band, with another pianist. Ace would take over from the pianist for his own set, and then the two of them would duet together: [excerpt "Yes Baby" -- Johnny Ace and Big Mama Thornton] As you can hear, that wasn't one of his mellow ballads. Ace's live shows were a big draw. Evelyn Johnson said on several occasions that Ace was so popular that she used his popularity to make deals on less popular acts -- if you wanted to book Johnny Ace you had to book B.B. King or Bobby "Blue" Bland as well, and those acts built their own followings through playing those gigs, often on the same bill as Ace and Big Mama Thornton. By all accounts the show in Houston on Christmas Day was a massively enjoyable one -- right up until the point that it very suddenly wasn't. The rumour that went round in the days after his death was that he was killed playing Russian roulette. That's still what most people who talk about him think happened. This would have been a tragic way to go, but at least he would have known the possible consequences, and you have to think that no-one is going to play Russian roulette unless they have some sort of death wish. And there were other rumours that went around -- one that persists to this day, and that I inadvertantly repeated in episode ten, is that Little Esther was present. She wasn't, as far as I can tell. And the darkest rumours, repeated by people who like to sensationalise things, claim that it was a hit from Don Robey, that Ace was planning on changing record labels. But that's not what actually happened. What happened is much more upsetting, and even more pointlessly tragic. Johnny Ace was backstage in Houston with a bunch of people -- Big Mama Thornton and the band's bass player Curtis Tilman were there, as were Ace's girlfriend and some other people. It was Christmas day, they were killing time between sets, and they'd been drinking. Ace was waving a gun around and making people nervous. He was in a bad mood because he had a toothache, and he was feeling tired and annoyed. Accounts vary slightly as to what happened next, but Big Mama Thornton's was given as a legal deposition only a couple of hours after his death, before exaggeration set in. "Johnny was pointing this pistol at Mary Carter and Joe Hamilton. He was kind of waving it around. I asked Johnny to let me see the gun. He gave it to me and when I turned the chamber a .22 cal. Bullet fell out in my hand. Johnny told me to put it back in where it wouldn’t fall out. I put it back and gave it to him. I told him not to snap it to nobody. After he got the pistol back, Johnny pointed the pistol at Mary Carter and pulled the trigger. It snapped. Olivia was still sitting on his lap. I told Johnny again not to snap the pistol at anybody. Johnny then put the pistol to Olivia’s head and pulled the trigger. It snapped. Johnny said, ‘I’ll show you that it won’t shoot.’ He held the pistol up and looked at it first and then put it to his head. I started towards the door and heard the pistol go off. I turned around and saw Johnny falling to the floor. I saw that he was shot and I run on stage and told the people in the band about it." According to Evelyn Johnson, Ace's hair stood on end from the shock, and he died with "a smirky little grin on his face, and his expression was 'What'd I say?'" He was only twenty-five, and he'd been the most successful rhythm and blues singer of the previous year. When Cash Box, the trade paper, polled disc jockeys in December 1954 to find out who the most played artist of 1954 had been, Ace was the clear favourite. Shortly after his death, Duke Records announced that he had had three records top one and three quarter million sales the previous year. That is, to put it bluntly, a ludicrous amount -- almost nothing sold that much, and one is tempted to believe that Duke were slightly manipulating the figures -- but that it's at all plausible says a lot about how popular Johnny Ace was at the time. After Ace's death, "Pledging My Love" instantly became his biggest hit: [excerpt: "Pledging My Love", Johnny Ace] "Pledging My Love" is credited to Fats Washington, the lyricist behind many of B.B. King's songs from this period, and Don Robey as songwriters, but it's safe to say that Ace himself wrote the music, with Robey taking the credit. Robey apparently never wrote a song in his life, but you wouldn't believe it from the songwriting credits of any record that was put out by Duke or Peacock records. There, Don Robey, or his pseudonym Deadric Malone, would appear to be one of the most prolific songwriters of all time, writing in a whole variety of different styles -- everything from "Love of Jesus" to "Baby, What's Your Pants Doing Wet?" In total, he's credited as writer for 1200 different songs. “Pledging My Love” was released only days before Ace's death, and the initial expectation was that it would follow the diminishing returns that had set in since "The Clock", becoming a modest but not overwhelming hit. Instead, it became a massive smash hit, and his biggest record ever, and it gained him a whole new fanbase -- white teenagers, who had previously not been buying his records in any large numbers. Black people in the fifties mostly still bought 78s, because they tended to be poorer and so not buying new hi-fi equipment when they could still use their old ones. 45s, in the R&B market, were mostly for jukeboxes. But for the first time ever, the pressing plant that dealt with Duke's records couldn't keep up with the demand for 45s -- so much so that the record was held back on the jukebox charts, because the label couldn't service the demand. The records were being bought by young white teenagers, instead of his previous older black audiences -- although that other audience still bought the record. Ace's death came at a crucial transition point for the acceptance of rhythm and blues among white record buyers, and "Pledging My Love" acted as a catalyst. Until a couple of years earlier, songs owned by ASCAP, the performing rights society that dealt only with "respectable" composers for the Tin Pan Alley publishing houses, made up about eight times as many hits as songs owned by BMI, who dealt with the blues and hillbilly musicians. But in early 1955, eight of the ten biggest hits were BMI songs. "Pledging My Love" came at precisely the right moment to pick up on that new wave. There were white cover versions of the record, but people wanted the original, and Johnny Ace's version made the *pop* top twenty. What none of this did was give Ace's family any money. Don Robey told them, after Ace's death, that Ace owed him money rather than the other way round. And Ace and his family didn't receive even the songwriting royalties Ace was owed for the few songs he was credited with. While Robey was registered with BMI, and registered the songs with them, he had a policy of keeping his artists as ignorant as possible of the business side of things, and so he didn't let Ace know that Ace would also have to register with BMI to receive any money. Because of this, his widow didn't even know that BMI existed until James Salem, Ace's biographer, told her in the mid-nineties, and it was only then that she started to get some of the songwriting royalties she and her children had been entitled to for forty-plus years worth of sales and radio play. Robey wasn't the only one making money from Ace. Cash-in tribute records were released, including two separate ones by Johnny Moore's Blazers, and records by Johnny Fuller, Vanetta Dillard, the Five Wings and the Rovers. All of these records were incredibly tasteless -- usually combining a bunch of quotes from Ace's lyrics to provide his "last letter" or a letter from heaven or similar, and backing them with backing tracks that were as close as possible to the ones Ace used. This is a typical example, "Why Johnny Why" by Linda Hayes with Johnny Moore's Blazers [excerpt: "Why Johnny Why" by Linda Hayes] And after Don Robey had completely scraped the barrel of unreleased Ace recordings, he tried to sign Johnny Ace's brother, St. Clair Alexander, to a record deal, but eventually decided that Alexander wasn't quite good enough (though Alexander would spend the next few decades performing a tribute show to his brother, which many people thought was quite decent). Instead, Robey persuaded a blues singer named Jimmie Lee Land to perform as "Buddy Ace" in the hope of milking it some more, and put out press releases claiming that "Buddy" was Johnny Ace's brother. Buddy Ace's first record was released simultaneously with the last tracks from Johnny that were in the vault, putting out adverts talking about "the last record on the immortal Johnny Ace to complete your collection" and "the first record on the versatile Buddy Ace to start your collection". Buddy Ace actually made some very strong records, but he didn't really sound much like Johnny: [excerpt: Buddy Ace: "What Can I Do"] Buddy Ace did not duplicate Johnny's success, though he continued as a moderately successful performer until the day he died – which was, rather eerily, while performing in Texas, forty years to the day after Johnny Ace died. But Robey wanted to milk the catalogue, and tried in 1957 to resuscitate the career of his dead star by getting the Jordanaires, famous for backing Elvis Presley, to overdub new backing vocals on Ace's hits: [excerpt: Johnny Ace with the Jordanaires: "Pledging My Love"] This musical graverobbing was not successful, and all it did was sour Johnny Otis on Robey, as Robey had agreed that Otis' productions would remain untouched. Even forty years afterwards -- and twenty years after Robey's death -- it would still infuriate Otis. But probably the most well-known of all the posthumous releases to do with Johnny Ace came in 1983, when Paul Simon wrote and recorded "The Late Great Johnny Ace", a song which linked Ace with two other Johns who died of gunshot wounds -- Lennon and Kennedy: [excerpt: Paul Simon "The Late Great Johnny Ace"] That's from Simon's "Hearts and Bones", an album that was steeped in nostalgia for the music of the period when rhythm and blues was just starting to turn into rock and roll. The period defined by the late, great, Johnny Ace.
ESPECIAL CHRISTMAS BLUES Felices Fiestas a todos los bluseros. 1- CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE. Silent night 2- JOHN LEE HOOKER. Blues for Christmas. 3- SON SEALS. Lonesome Christmas 4- FLOYD DIXON. Empty stocking blues 5- ELVIN BISHOP. The little drummer 6- JIMMY WITHERSPOON. How I hate to see Chritsmas come around 7- CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN. Christmas 8- ANSON FUNDERBURGH. Sam´s Christmas blues 9- KENNY NEAL. Christmas time in the country 10- ALBERT KING. Santa Claus wants some lovin 11- LIL´ED & THE BLUES IMPERIALS. I´m your Santa 12- EARL KING. Santa don´t et me down 13- LONNIE BROOKS. Chritsmas in bayou 14- EDDIE C. CAMPBELL. Santa messin with the kid 15- LITTLE CHARLIE & THE NIGHTCATS. Santa Claus 16- B.B. KING. Christmas celebration 17- CHARLES BROWN. Boogie woogie Santa Claus 18- LOWEL FULSON. I want to spent Chritsmas with you
ESPECIAL CHRISTMAS BLUES Felices Fiestas a todos los bluseros. 1- CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE. Silent night 2- JOHN LEE HOOKER. Blues for Christmas. 3- SON SEALS. Lonesome Christmas 4- FLOYD DIXON. Empty stocking blues 5- ELVIN BISHOP. The little drummer 6- JIMMY WITHERSPOON. How I hate to see Chritsmas come around 7- CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN. Christmas 8- ANSON FUNDERBURGH. Sam´s Christmas blues 9- KENNY NEAL. Christmas time in the country 10- ALBERT KING. Santa Claus wants some lovin 11- LIL´ED & THE BLUES IMPERIALS. I´m your Santa 12- EARL KING. Santa don´t et me down 13- LONNIE BROOKS. Chritsmas in bayou 14- EDDIE C. CAMPBELL. Santa messin with the kid 15- LITTLE CHARLIE & THE NIGHTCATS. Santa Claus 16- B.B. KING. Christmas celebration 17- CHARLES BROWN. Boogie woogie Santa Claus 18- LOWEL FULSON. I want to spent Chritsmas with you
Welcome to episode four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. Today we're looking at Louis Jordan and "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" ----more---- Resources As always, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. Louis Jordan's music is now in the public domain, so there are many different compilations available, of different levels of quality. This four-CD set is very cheap and has most of the classic tracks on. And here's a similarly-priced collection of Chick Webb. There aren't many books on Louis Jordan as an individual, and most of the information here comes from books on other musicians, but this one is probably worth your while if you want to investigate more. And for all the episodes on pre-1954 music, one invaluable source is the book "Before Elvis" by Larry Birnbaum. Transcript We've spent a lot of time in 1938 in this podcast, haven't we? First there was Flying Home, first recorded in 1939, but where we had to talk about events from 1938. Then we had "Roll 'Em Pete", recorded in 1938. And "Ida Red", recorded in 1938. 1938 is apparently the real year zero for rock and roll -- whether you come at it from the direction of blues and boogie, or jazz, or country and western music, 1938 ends up being the place where you start. Eighty years ago this year. And 1938 is also the year that one man made his solo debut, and basically put together all the pieces of rock and roll in one place. If you've seen the Marx Brothers film A Day At The Races -- well, OK, if you've not seen A Day At The Races, you really should, because while it's not the best film the Marx Brothers ever made, it's still a good Marx Brothers film, and it'll brighten up your day immensely to watch it, so go and watch that, and then come back and listen to the rest of this. And if you haven't watched all their earlier films, watch those too. Except The Cocoanuts, you can skip that one. Go on. I can wait. OK, now you've definitely seen the Marx Brothers film A Day At The Races, so you'll remember the dance sequence where Ivie Anderson sings "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm", and the amazing dancers in that scene. [Ivy Anderson "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm"] That's a dance called the Lindy Hop -- you might remember that as the dance the "booglie wooglie piggy" did in a song we excerpted in episode two, it was named after Charles Lindbergh, the famous airman and Nazi sympathiser -- and the people dancing it are Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. And they were responsible for a controversy, on the night of Benny Goodman's first Carnegie Hall concert -- the one we talked about in episode one -- that is still talked about in jazz eighty years later. [Chick Webb "Stompin' At The Savoy"] That's "Stompin' at the Savoy" by Chick Webb, one of the most famous swing recordings ever, though it was later recorded by Benny Goodman in an even more fanous version. The Savoy Ballroom was where Whitey's Lindy Hoppers used to dance -- there was an entire corner of the ballroom set off for them, even though the rest of the floor was for the other dancers. The Savoy was where the Lindy Hop was invented, and it was the place to dance, because it was where Chick Webb, the real king of swing played. We've seen a few kings of swing so far -- Benny Goodman was the person most associated with the name, and he had the name longest. A few people called Bob Wills that, too, though he mostly billed himself as the king of Western swing. But Chick Webb was the person who deserved the title more than anyone else. He was a small man, who'd contracted tuberculosis of the spine as a child, and he'd taken up the drums as a kind of therapy. He'd been playing professionally since he was eleven, and by the time he was thirty he was leading what was, bar none, the best swing band in New York for dancing. People called him the King of Swing before Goodman, and his band was an absolute force of nature when it came to getting people to do the Lindy Hop. Benny Goodman admired Webb's band enough that he bought the band's arrangements and used them himself -- all of the Goodman band's biggest crowd-pleasers, at least the ones that weren't arrangements he'd bought off Fletcher Henderson, he bought from Edgar Sampson, the saxophone player who did most of Webb's arrangements. Sampson is the one who wrote "Stompin' at the Savoy", which we just heard. There was a rivalry there -- Goodman's band was bigger in every sense, but Webb's band was more popular with those who knew the real deal when they heard it. And in 1937, the Savoy hosted a cutting contest between Webb's Savoy Orchestra and Goodman's band. A cutting contest was a tradition that came from the world of stride piano players -- the same world that boogie woogie music grew out of. One musician would play his best (and it usually was a "his" -- this was a very macho musical world) and then a second would try to top him -- playing something faster, or more inventive, or more exciting, often a reworking of the song the first one had played -- and then the first would take another turn and try to get better than the second had. They'd keep going, each trying to outdo the other, until a crowd decided that one or the other was the winner. And that 1937 cutting contest was a big event. The Savoy had two bandstands, so they would have one band start as soon as the other one finished, so people could dance all night. Chick Webb's band set up on one stage, Goodman's on another. Four thousand dancers crowded the inside of the ballroom, and despite a police cordon outside to keep trouble down, another five thousand people outside tried to hear what was happening. And Chick Webb's band won, absolutely. Gene Krupa, Goodman's drummer (one of the true greats of jazz drumming himself) later said "I'll never forget that night. Webb cut me to ribbons!" And that just was the most famous of many, many cutting contests that Chick Webb's band won. The only time Chick Webb ever definitely lost a cutting contest was against Duke Ellington, but everyone knew that Chick Webb and Duke Ellington weren't really trying to do the same kind of thing, and anyway, there's no shame at all in losing to Duke Ellington. Count Basie, though, was a different matter. He was trying to do the same kind of thing as Chick Webb, and he was doing it well. And on the night of Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert, Webb and Basie were going to engage in their own cutting contest after hours. For all that the Goodman Carnegie Hall show was important -- and it was -- the real jazz fans knew that this after-show party was going to be the place to be. Basie had already played the Carnegie hHall show, guesting with Goodman's band, as had Basie's tenor sax player Lester Young, but here they were going to get to show off what they could do with their own band. Basie's band was on top form at that time, with his new vocalists Jimmy Rushing, a great blues shouter, and Billie Holiday, who was just then becoming a star. Chick Webb had a couple of good vocalists too, though -- his new teenage singer, Ella Fitzgerald, in particular, was already one of the great singers. [Chick Webb – Ella] And everyone was in the audience. Goodman's band, Mildred Bailey, Ivie Anderson (who we heard before in that Marx Brothers clip), Red Norvo the vibraphone player, Duke Ellington. Every musician who mattered in the jazz scene was there to see if Basie could beat Chick Webb. And… there was a dispute about it, one which was never really resolved in Webb's lifetime. Because Webb won -- everyone agreed, when it came to a vote of the audience, Webb's band did win, though it was a fairly close decision. Again, the only band to ever beat Chick Webb was Duke Ellington. But everyone also agreed that Basie's band had got people dancing more. A lot more. What nobody realised at the time was that Whitey's Lindy Hoppers had gone on strike. Chick Webb had misheard a discussion between a couple of the dancers about how good the Basie band was going to be that night, assumed that they were saying Basie was going to be better than him, and got into a huff. Webb said "I don't give a good Goddam what those raggedy Lindy Hoppers think or say. Who needs 'em? As far as I'm concerned they can all go to hell. And their Mammies too." After this provocation, Whitey issued an ultimatum to his Lindy Hoppers. That night, they were only going to dance to Basie, and not to Webb. So even though most of the audience preferred Webb's band, every time they played a song all the best dancers, the ones who had an entire quarter or so of the ballroom to themselves to do their most exciting and visual dances, all sat down, and it looked like the Webb band just weren't exciting the crowd as much as the Basie band. Of course, the Basie band were good that night, as well. When you've got the 1938 Count Basie band, with Jimmy Rushing and Billie Holiday singing, you're going to get a good show. Oh, and they persuaded Duke Ellington to come up and play a piano solo -- and then all the band joined in with him, unrehearsed and unprompted. But despite all that, Webb's band still beat them in the audience vote. That's how good Webb's band were, and it's also how good his two big stars were. One of those stars, Ella Fitzgerald, we've already mentioned, but the other one was an alto sax player who also took the male lead vocals – we heard him singing with Ella earlier. This sax player did a lot of the frontman job for Webb's band and was so important to the band in those years that, allegedly, some people thought he was Chick Webb. That man was Louis Jordan. [Chick Webb I Can't Dance I Got Ants In My Pants] Louis Jordan was a good sax player, but what he really was was a performer. He was someone who could absolutely sell a song, with wit and humour and a general sense of hipness that could possibly be matched at that time only by Cab Calloway and Slim Gaillard, and Jordan was a better musician than either of them. He was charming, and funny, and tuneful, and good looking, and he knew it. He knew it so well, in fact, that shortly after that show, he started making plans -- he thought that he and Ella were the two important ones in the Webb band, and he planned to form his own band, and take her, and much of the rest of the band with him. Webb found out and fired Jordan, and Ella and most of the band remained loyal to Webb. In fact, sadly, Jordan would have had what he wanted sooner rather than later anyway. Chick Webb's disability had been affecting him more, and he was only continuing to perform because he felt he owed it to his musicians -- he would often pass out after a show, literally unable to do anything else. He died, aged thirty-four, in June 1939, and Ella Fitzgerald became the leader of his band, though like many big bands it eventually broke up in the mid-forties. So if Jordan had held on for another few months, he would have had a good chance at being the leader of the Louis Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald band, and history would have been very different. As it was, instead, he formed a much smaller group, the Elks Rendez-vous Band, made up of members of Jesse Stone's band (you'll remember him from episode two, he wrote "Shake, Rattle, and Roll"). And on December 20, 1938 -- ten days before "Roll 'Em Pete" -- Louis Jordan and his Elks Rendez-vous Band went into the studio for the first time, to record "Honey in the Bee Ball" and "Barnacle Bill the Sailor". [excerpt of "Honey in the Bee Ball"] Shortly after that, they changed their name to Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. Before we talk about them more, I want to briefly talk about someone else who worked with Jordan. I want to talk about Milt Gabler. Gabler is someone we'll be seeing a lot of in this story, and he's someone who already had an influence on it, but here's where he becomes important. You see, even before his influence on rock and roll, Gabler had made one important contribution to music. He had started out as the owner of a little record shop, and he had a massive passion for good jazz music -- and so did his customers. And many of those customers had wanted to get hold of old records, now out of print. So in 1935 Gabler started his own record label, and licensed those out of print recordings by people like Bix Beiderbecke and Bessie Smith, becoming the owner of the very first ever reissue record label. His labels pioneered things like putting a full list of all the musicians on a record on the label -- the kind of thing that real music obsessives cared far more about than executives who only wanted to make money. After he had some success with that, he branched out into making new records, on a new label, Commodore. That would have stayed a minor label, but for one thing. In 1939, one of his regular customers, Billie Holiday, had a problem. She'd been performing a new song which she really wanted to record, but her current label, Columbia, wasn't interested. That song was too political even for her producer, John Hammond -- the man who, you will remember from previous episodes, persuaded Benny Goodman to integrate his band and who put on shows that same year sponsored by the Communist Party. But the song was too political, and too inflammatory, even for him. The song, which became Billie Holiday's best-known performance, was "Strange Fruit", and it was about lynching. [insert section of Strange Fruit here]. Billie Holiday could not get her label to put that track out, under any circumstances. But she knew Milt Gabler might do it -- he'd been recording several small group tracks with Lester Young, who was Holiday's colleague and friend in the Basie band. As Gabler was a friend of hers, and as he was politically left-leaning himself, he eventually negotiated a special deal with Columbia, Holiday's label, that he could produce her for one session and put out a single recording by her, on Commodore. That recording sold over a million copies, and became arguably the most important recording in music history. In December 1999, Time Magazine called it the "song of the century". And in 2017, when the black singer Rebecca Ferguson was invited to play at Donald Trump's inauguration, she agreed on one condition -- that the song she performed could be "Strange Fruit". She was disinvited. As a result of "Strange Fruit"'s success, Milt Gabler was headhunted away from his own label, and became a staff producer at Decca records in 1941. There he was responsible for producing many of the greatest records of the forties -- not least that famous Lionel Hampton version of "Flying Home" we looked at towards the end of episode one -- and he began a long collaboration with Louis Jordan -- remember him? This is a story about Louis Jordan. Jordan's new band had a sound unlike anything else of the time -- Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown later claimed that Jordan had most of the responsibility for the decline of the big bands, saying "He could play just as good and just as loud with five as 17. And it was cheaper." And while we've talked before about a whole raft of economic and social reasons for the decline of the big bands, there was a lot of truth in that statement -- while there were sometimes actually as many as seven or eight members of the Tympany Five, the original lineup was just Jordan plus one trumpet, one sax, piano, bass, and drums, and yet their recordings did sound almost as full as many of the bigger bands. The style they were playing in was a style that later became known as "jump band" music, and it was a style that owed a lot to Lionel Hampton's band, and to Count Basie. This is a style of music that's based on simple chord changes -- usually blues changes. And it's based on the concept of the riff. We haven't really talked much about the idea of riffs yet in this series, but they're absolutely crucial to almost all popular music from the twentieth century. A riff is, in its conception, fairly straight forward. It's an instrumental phrase that gets repeated over and over. It can act as the backbone to a song, but it can also be the basis for variation and improvisation -- when you "riff on" something, you're coming up with endless variations and permutations of it. Riffs were important in swing music -- generally they were a sort of back-and-forth in those. You'd have the saxophones play the riff, and then the trumpets and trombones repeat it after them. But swing wasn't just about riffs -- with a big orchestra, you had to have layers and stuff for all the musicians to do. In jump band music, on the other hand, you strip everything back. The track becomes about the riff, the solos, and the vocal if there is one, and that's it. You play that riff over the simplest possible changes, you play it to a rhythm that will get everyone dancing -- often a boogie rhythm -- and you make everything about the energy of the performance. Jordan's band did that, and they combined it with Jordan's own unique stage personality. Jordan, remember, had been the male singer in a band whose female singer was Ella Fitzgerald. You don't keep a job like that very long if you're not good. Now, Jordan wasn't good in the same way as Ella was -- no-one was good in the same way as Ella Fitzgerald -- but what he was very good at was putting personality into his vocals. One thing we haven't talked much about yet in this series is the way that there was a whole tradition of jive singing which dates back at least to the 1920s and Cab Calloway: [excerpt from "Reefer Man"] Jive singers weren't usually technically great, but they had personality. They were hip, and they often used made up words of their own. They were clever, and funny, and sophisticated, and they were often singing about the underworld or drug use or prostitution or other such disreputable concepts -- when they weren't just singing nonsense words like Slim Gaillard anyway. [Excerpt of "Flat Foot Floogie"] And Louis Jordan was very much in the mould of singers like Gaillard or Calloway or Fats Waller, all of whom we could easily do episodes on here if we were going far enough back into rock's prehistory. But Jordan is the way that that stream became part of the rhythm of rock music. Most of Jordan's songs were written by Jordan himself, although he's not the credited writer on many of them -- rather, his then-wife, Fleecie Moore, is credited for contractual reasons. Jordan and Moore later split up after multiple separate occasions where she stabbed him, but she retained credit on the songs. So, for example, she's credited on "Caldonia", which is a perfect example of Jordan's comedy jump band style. [Louis Jordan: Caldonia] "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie," Jordan's biggest hit, was slightly different. From early 1943 -- just after Gabler started producing his records -- Jordan had been having occasional crossover hits on the country charts. These days, his music sounds to us clearly like it's blues or R&B -- in fact he's basically the archetype of a jump blues musician -- but remember how we've talked about Western Swing using so many swing and boogie elements? If you were making boogie music then, you were likely to appeal to the same audience that was listening to Bob Wills, just as much as you were to the audience that was listening to Big Joe Turner. And because of this crossover success, Jordan started recording occasional songs that were originally aimed at the white country market. "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" was co-written by Gabler, but the other songwriters were pure country and western writers -- Denver Darling, one of the writers, was a hillbilly singer who recorded songs such as "My Little Buckaroo", "I've Just Gotta Be A Cowboy" and "Ding Dong Polka", while the other writer, Vaughn Horton, wrote "Dixie Cannonball" and "Muleskinner Blues". So "Choo Choo Ch' Boogie" was, in conception, a hillbilly boogie, but in Louis Jordan's hands, it was almost the archetypal rhythm and blues song: [insert section of Choo Choo Ch'Boogie here] You can hear from that how much it resembles the Bob Wills music we heard last week -- and how the song itself would fit absolutely into the genre of Western Swing. There's only really the lack of a fiddle or steel guitar to distinguish the styles. But you can also hear the horn-driven pulse, and the hip vocals, that characterise rhythm and blues. Those internal rhymes and slangy lyrics -- "take me right back to the track, Jack" -- come straight from the jive school of vocals, even though it's a country and western song. If there's any truth at all to the claim that rock and roll was the mixing of country and western music with rhythm and blues, this is as good a point as any to say "this is where rock and roll really started". Essentially every musician in the early rock and roll period was, to a greater or lesser extent, copying the style of Louis Jordan's 1940s records. And indeed "Choo Choo Ch' Boogie" was later covered by another act Milt Gabler produced -- an act who, more than any other, based their style on Jordan's. But we'll come to Bill Haley and his Comets in a few episodes time. For now, we want to listen to the way that jump band music sounds. This is not music that sounds like it's a small band. That sounds like a full horn section, but you'll notice that during the sax solo the other horns just punch in a little, rather than playing a full pad under it -- the arrangement is stripped back to the basics, to what's necessary. This is a punchy track, and it's a track that makes you want to dance. [sax solo excerpt] And this is music that, because it's so stripped down, relies on vocal personality more than other kinds. This is why Louis Jordan was able to make a success of this -- his jive singing style gives the music all the character that in the larger bands would be conveyed by other instruments. But also, notice the lyrics -- "the rhythm of the clickety clack". It's that backbeat again, the one we've been talking about. And the lyrics here are all about that rhythm, but also about the rhythm of the steam trains. That mechanical steam train rhythm is one of the key influences in blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll -- rock and roll started at almost exactly the point that America changed from being a train culture to being a car culture, and over the coming weeks we'll see that transition happen in the music. By the 1960s people would be singing "Nobody cares about the railroads any more" or about "the last of the good old fashioned steam powered trains", but in the 1940s and early fifties the train still meant freedom, still meant escape, and even once that had vanished from people's minds, it was still enshrined in the chug of the backbeat, in the choo choo ch'boogie. And so next week we'll be talking a lot more about the impact of trains in rock and roll, as we take our final look at the Carnegie Hall concerts of 1938… Patreon As always, this podcast only exists because of the donations of my backers on Patreon. If you enjoy it, why not join them?
Великие блюзовые гитаристы продолжают захват эфиров "Дельты Миссисипи". Подкаст посвящен техасскому мультиинструменталисту и талантливому гитаристу, вокалисту и композитору Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Его хиты не всегда попадали в чарты, но тем не менее оказали огромное влияние на развитие блюза. Начинаем слушать композиции музыканта, написанные с 1947 года и позднее.
De Week CD is Joe Henry - Thrum. Je hoort muziek van Clarence “Gatemouth Brown, The Neville Brothers, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band en Townes van Zandt.
De Week CD is Joe Henry - Thrum. Je hoort muziek van Clarence “Gatemouth Brown, The Neville Brothers, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band en Townes van Zandt.
Альберту повезло, дело в том, что его старший двоюродный брат – это известный блюзовый певец Лайтнин Хопкинс. Благодаря ему он увлекся музыкой. Кумирами и любимыми гитаристами Коллинза всегда были Ти-Боун Уокер, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Guitar Slim. Эти музыканты повлияли на то, что сегодня Альберт - один из лучших гитаристов, которому удалось соединить фанк и блюз. Артур Ямпольский говорит о поздних записях Коллинза периода 80-ых и начала 90-ых годов. Альбомы Frostbite, Don't Lose Your Cool, Live in Japan, а также слушаем концертные фанк-блюзовые записи. Первый выпуск об Альберте Коллинзе тут.
"T'agrada el blues?" proposa una novetat interesant
22:00 uur weer tijd voor OLM met Mart Smeets. In het eerste uur aandacht voor de Amerikaanse hit industrie van de jaren 60. In het tweede uur de Blues! Muziek The Contours, Duane Eddy, The Earls, Taj Mahal, Robert Palmer, Francine Reed en Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.
22:00 uur weer tijd voor OLM met Mart Smeets. In het eerste uur aandacht voor de Amerikaanse hit industrie van de jaren 60. In het tweede uur de Blues! Muziek The Contours, Duane Eddy, The Earls, Taj Mahal, Robert Palmer, Francine Reed en Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.
In OLM met Mart Smeets staat vanavond de letter B centraal. Muziek van de The Box Tops, The Brandos, Solomon Burke, Joan Baez, Ryan Bingham, Bad Company, Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown
In OLM met Mart Smeets staat vanavond de letter B centraal. Muziek van de The Box Tops, The Brandos, Solomon Burke, Joan Baez, Ryan Bingham, Bad Company, Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown.
Twee uur lang OLM met Mart Smeets. Mart heeft z’n cd kast opgeruimd en heeft weer prachtige dingen gevonden. Jimmy Buffett, Bachman Turner Overdrive, een opmerkelijk nummer van The Beachboys, Clarence Gatemouth Brown en Long John Baldry.
Twee uur lang OLM met Mart Smeets. Mart heeft z’n cd kast opgeruimd en heeft weer prachtige dingen gevonden. Jimmy Buffett, Bachman Turner Overdrive, een opmerkelijk nummer van The Beachboys, Clarence Gatemouth Brown en Long John Baldry.
ESPECIAL CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN Clarence Gatemouth Brown fue uno de los últimos referentes que quedaban de la música popular americana, una música donde se conjugan los diferentes géneros que interpretaba con gran maestría en un cóctel divergente que en manos de Clarence se hermana en un solo género, música popular. Las bases musicales de Clarence Gatemouth Brown se asientan sobre el legado blanco más arquetípico: el country and western y el bluegrass por una parte y el cajun por la parte francófona y folklórica. En esta ocasión el Especial está dividido en dos partes y os he subido las dos a la vez.
ESPECIAL CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN Clarence Gatemouth Brown fue uno de los últimos referentes que quedaban de la música popular americana, una música donde se conjugan los diferentes géneros que interpretaba con gran maestría en un cóctel divergente que en manos de Clarence se hermana en un solo género, música popular. Las bases musicales de Clarence Gatemouth Brown se asientan sobre el legado blanco más arquetípico: el country and western y el bluegrass por una parte y el cajun por la parte francófona y folklórica. En esta ocasión el Especial está dividido en dos partes y os he subido las dos a la vez.
ESPECIAL CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN Clarence Gatemouth Brown fue uno de los últimos referentes que quedaban de la música popular americana, una música donde se conjugan los diferentes géneros que interpretaba con gran maestría en un cóctel divergente que en manos de Clarence se hermana en un solo género, música popular. Las bases musicales de Clarence Gatemouth Brown se asientan sobre el legado blanco más arquetípico: el country and western y el bluegrass por una parte y el cajun por la parte francófona y folklórica. En esta ocasión el Especial está dividido en dos partes y os he subido las dos a la vez.
ESPECIAL CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN Clarence Gatemouth Brown fue uno de los últimos referentes que quedaban de la música popular americana, una música donde se conjugan los diferentes géneros que interpretaba con gran maestría en un cóctel divergente que en manos de Clarence se hermana en un solo género, música popular. Las bases musicales de Clarence Gatemouth Brown se asientan sobre el legado blanco más arquetípico: el country and western y el bluegrass por una parte y el cajun por la parte francófona y folklórica. En esta ocasión el Especial está dividido en dos partes y os he subido las dos a la vez.
Show 212, Big Band Blues! Intro Song James Boogaloo Bolden Blues Band, “Big Boss Man”, No News, Jus' The Blues, 2013 Real Records First Set Otis Grand, “In Your Backyard”, Blues ‘65,Main Gate Records Roomful of Blues, “Just Keep On Rockin'”, 45 Live, Alligator Records Bobby “Blue” Bland, “Time Out”, Brothers of Soul, R&B Records Second Set B.B. King, “Every Day I Have The Blues”, How Blue Can You Get, Retro Music, Glad to hear BB is well! Mark May Band, “I Gotta Know”, Release My Soul, Bad Fork Records Mighty Lester, “Swingin' at Lesters”, We Are Mighty Lester, Mighty Lester Productions Third Set FROM THE VINYL VAULT!!! Bobby Rush, “Two Eyes Full of Tears'”, Upstairs at United, Vol. 11, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, “Okie Dokie Stomp”, Real Life, Rounder Records, 1986 Earl King & Roomful of Blues, “Mardi Gras In The City”, Glazed, 1986 Black Top Records Fourth Set Eddie Shaw & The 757 AllStars, “Sack Full of Blues”, Still Hiding High Big James and the Chicago Playboys, “The Blues Will Never Die”, The Big Payback, Blind Pig Records Joe Turner and T-Bone Walker, “Lonesome Train”, Bosses of the Blues- Vol. 1, BMG Music Thanks as always to Michael Allen Engstrom for allowing me to use his fantastic artwork on my web site and social media. Check him out at Crossroadsbluesgallery.com
It's that time of year again and time for the "More Blues Yule Love, 2014" show! Intro Song Big Joe Turner, “Christmas Date Boogie”, Tell Me Pretty Baby, Arhoolie Records First Set Steve Gerard & The Mississippi Debonaires, “Every Day Is Christmas”, Sean Carney's Blues For A Cure Christmas, Bluesforacure.org Coco Montoya, “Bluesman's Christmas'”, Alligator Records Christmas Collection, Alligator Records Albert King, “Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'”, The Best of Blues: The Christmas Collection, Hip-O Records Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), “Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues”, King Biscuit Time, 1993 Arhoolie Records Second Set The Brian Setzer Orchestra, “White Christmas”, Dig That Crazy Christmas!, Surfdog Records Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers, “Merry Christmas Baby”, Christmas to Cure Cancer 5, Tony's Treasures Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, “Last Night (I Went Out With Santa Claus)”, Everything You Want For Christmas, Big Bad Records Roomful of Blues, “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, Roomful of Christmas, 1997 Bullseye Blues Third Set Davina and the Vagabonds, “Please Come Home For Christmas'”, Christmas to Cure Cancer 5, Tony's Treasures Joe Bonamassa, “Lonesome Christmas”, Unreleased, Never released, brand new from his web site Cyndi Lauper, “Blue Christmas”, You Can't Keep A Good Woman Down, Icehouse Records Fourth Set Carey Bell, “Christmas Train”, Alligator Records Christmas Collection, Alligator Records Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, “Christmas”, Alligator Records Christmas Collection, Alligator Records B.B. King, “Bringing In A Brand New Year”, A Christmas Celebration of Hope, 2007 Geffen Records Thanks to Michael Allen Engstrom for his great artwork and leeting me use them on my web sites!! Special thoughts and prayers go out to my friend Randy Chortkoff… And also to my mother, who both are having serious health issues and challenges… Congrats to my awesome son Daniel for his recent accomplishments! I love you, son! Until next time, BluzNdaBlood Dave
Programa de radio dedicado al blues, este es nuestro programa número 244 y en el podemos escuchar temas de Billy Boy Arnold, James Guitar Slim Stephens y Clarence Gatemouth Brown
Programa de radio dedicado al blues, este es nuestro programa número 244 y en el podemos escuchar temas de Billy Boy Arnold, James Guitar Slim Stephens y Clarence Gatemouth Brown
Kevin talks about fuel tank roulette, a stolen Chevy Suburban, Clarence Gatemouth Brown’s love of buttermilk, attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, playing with Bo Ramsey, old school bandleaders, East Nashville in 1995, Keith Richards recording one of his songs, his… Continue Reading →
Hey there! Welcome to another BluzNdaBlood Show! This is your missing in action blues DJ Dave Harrison coming at ya once again from the Star City of Virginia! This is Show #132! It's that time of year again! It's time for another "Blues Yule Love, 2011" This show is playign lots of new and old holiday tunes, not bluesy, some not so bluesy... I always enjoy putting these shows together Well, we started off the show a great cover from Davina and the Vagabonds playing "Sleigh Ride!" So who else is on my Blues Yule Love show? Well, how about Tinsley Ellis, Shemekia Copeland, Sean Carney & Omar Coleman, Lawrence Lebo, The Holmes Brothers, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Cyndi Lauper, Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women, Jeff Healey, The Rusty Wright, The Michael Burks Band, Cephas and Wiggins, Nasty Ned, and Ratcliff Bailey? So are youready to fill up on your egg nog, grab a seat and listen to some Blues Yule Love? Well, I hope so! Crank it up my friends, we're off and running! Well, I hope you've enjoyed show #132, "Blues Yule Love, 2011"... Thanks to Bruce Iglauer and Alligator Records, and all the others that helped assist in this show! Please keep in touch! Send your emails to dave@bluzndablood.com. Friend me on Facebook or MySpace, follow me on Twitter, check out my YouTube channel, but most importantly subscribe to the show through iTunes! So until next time, this is Dave Harrison reminding you to keep the blues alive and keep the blues in the blood!
The 142nd Roadhouse is an hour of big blue guitars. Acoustic, electric, uptempo, laid back, hard, soft - it's all here. Albert Cummings, Tommy Castro, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Robert Cray, Peter Green - some of the finest blues guitars you'l ever hear in another hour of the finest blues you've never heard, the 142nd Roadhouse Podcast.
The 142nd Roadhouse is an hour of big blue guitars. Acoustic, electric, uptempo, laid back, hard, soft - it's all here. Albert Cummings, Tommy Castro, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Robert Cray, Peter Green - some of the finest blues guitars you'l ever hear in another hour of the finest blues you've never heard, the 142nd Roadhouse Podcast.
The 105th Roadhouse Podcast starts year three with a broad view of the blues. Those broad stylings start with great cuts from Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88s, Blind Willie McTell, Tommy Castro, Snooky Pryor, and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Strong and lean from that starting point, the 105th Roadhouse Podcast is a little more than an hour of the finest blues you've never heard.
The 105th Roadhouse Podcast starts year three with a broad view of the blues. Those broad stylings start with great cuts from Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88s, Blind Willie McTell, Tommy Castro, Snooky Pryor, and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Strong and lean from that starting point, the 105th Roadhouse Podcast is a little more than an hour of the finest blues you've never heard.
We're running the rainbow in this edition with a full view of all the hues of the blues. Blues Rock, jazzy blues and, of course, the traditional sound of this amazing musical form. If you're new to The Roadhouse, you might be a bit surprised by the range of styles. But it's all blues - the finest blues you've never heard. You'll hear great cuts from The Beat Daddys, Tommy Castro, Fat Vinnie and the Wiseguys, Larry McCray, and Clarence Gatemouth Brown. We'll flash back on a couple of cuts played in previous shows in the Roadhouse Rewound segment and I hope you'll walk away with an interesting fact or two about many of the artists. It's the 71st Roadhouse Podcast, a rainbow of styles that all resolve to blue.
We're running the rainbow in this edition with a full view of all the hues of the blues. Blues Rock, jazzy blues and, of course, the traditional sound of this amazing musical form. If you're new to The Roadhouse, you might be a bit surprised by the range of styles. But it's all blues - the finest blues you've never heard. You'll hear great cuts from The Beat Daddys, Tommy Castro, Fat Vinnie and the Wiseguys, Larry McCray, and Clarence Gatemouth Brown. We'll flash back on a couple of cuts played in previous shows in the Roadhouse Rewound segment and I hope you'll walk away with an interesting fact or two about many of the artists. It's the 71st Roadhouse Podcast, a rainbow of styles that all resolve to blue.
Our thoughts are with Texas and Louisiania this week. Tracks from Dr John, C C Adcock, Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Champion Jack Dupree.