Muddy Waters was interviewed countless times in his long career, often by people who had little knowledge of his life or his music. Pete Welding was a different case. He owned Testament Records, a Chicago Blues label that recorded many of Muddy’s contemporaries and friends. In this brief but illuminating interview, Welding knows the likely …
The prospect of making money always attracted the Chess brothers’ interest, and the same may be said of their star performer, Chuck Berry. In 1956 Berry’s music was still stigmatized as “race music,” not to be played on white rock and roll stations. But a novelty tune might just scrape through, and why not hop …
When the audience for Chicago blues shifted in the 1960’s from working class black to college age white, a good bit of strange and sometimes wonderful music resulted. Electric Mud certainly makes the first category. The second? Well… Leonard and Phil Chess had already tried to market Muddy Waters to suit the folk craze and …
When stars start to dim, producers tend to flail about, and strange music can result. By 1975, as Muddy’s sales figures were in decline, he became the first customer for Levon Helms’ Woodstock studio. Backed up by members of his own band, together with Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Paul Butterfield, and some accomplished studio musicians, …
“J’attendrai” (I Will Wait) was a pop hit for the French chanteuse Rina Ketty in 1938. Here it is covered in stunning fashion the next year by The Quintet of the Hot Club of France, led by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. This clip not only shows us the interplay of two jazz giants but …
Time Out, by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, is one of those rare recordings that no matter how many times they are played, never become wallpaper. One of the best-selling jazz records of all time, its obscure time signatures (anything but 4/4) and its seemingly effortless and laid-back complexities make it as fascinating today as when …
The music of Charles Mingus is famously powerful, complex, and energetic. Of the many fine albums he recorded, Mingus Ah Um (1959) is unique in that the vitality of the music is expressed with an unrelenting sureness of purpose and a masterful control. Every note seems placed precisely where and how it should be and …
This lovely clip of the fabulous Lena Horne in Ziegfield Follies (1946) is a joy and a treasure: a reminder of just how talented she was. It is also a reminder that, for all her star quality, Horne would never be offered a major role in a Hollywood movie. Horne’s left-wing sympathies were a major …
Otis Spann was an amiable, soft-spoken man who enjoyed a good drink, a good joke, and a good story. At the keyboard he was one of the giants of the blues. He will always be remembered as a driving force in the Muddy Waters band, the go-to session piano player for Chess Records, and a …
Otis Rush has been acknowledged as one of the greats of Chicago Blues for so long that his reputation is almost taken for granted. This performance, and the five others from the same session, is a breathtaking demonstration of how great he truly was when he was young and in his prime. This set, recorded …
“Mack the Knife,” which began life in 1928 as “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer” is a reliable evergreen, having been covered countless times by a multitude of singers from Nick Cave to Connie Francis to Ernie Kovacs (!) to Bertolt Brecht himself. It all comes from a Marxist remake of John Gay‘s 18th Century original …
Of the galaxy of stars at Chess Records, the grandmaster of them all was Rev. C.L. Franklin, pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan. Clarence LaVaughn Franklin (1915-84) was one of the greatest black ministers of the post-war era, a civil rights activist, and a friend of Martin Luther King. Many consider …
It is usually a bad idea to cover any song recorded by Howlin’ Wolf. You’re likely to come out second-best. But there are the rare exceptions, and this is one of them. Do Etta and Harvey blow away the Wolf in this version of Spoonful? No, but they certainly put their stamp upon it. Issued …
Now that she is dead, Etta James is being accorded the respect and acclaim she seldom enjoyed in life. These eulogies link her with other names: Johnny Otis (himself dead last week), who discovered her in the ’40’s; Leonard Chess, who recorded her in the ’60’s; Keith Richards, who helped revive her career in the …
In 1944, six weeks before D-Day, Warner Brothers filmed this gem of a jazz session, boasting a stellar lineup led by Lester Young in his prime. But it’s Marie Bryant who steals the show, first with a fine rendition of The Sunny Side of the Street, and next with an astounding dance number with Archie …
This is one of the most famous jazz performances ever recorded for television. When it aired live on Dec. 8,1957, Billie Holiday and Lester Young were both in terrible health and far past their artistic best. Formerly close, they were now estranged, but the jazz critic Nat Hentoff had persuaded them to share the stage …
Vincent Price was an actor whose range exceeded the horror movie roles that made his name (and paid the bills). His performance as Oscar Wilde in the one-man play Diversions and Delights was especially memorable. Here, on BBC-TV in 1982, he reprises Wilde reciting “The Harlot’s House.” It’s a minor poem, but Price plays it …
This is a charmer. It has that gentle briskness that seems from another time, say half a century ago. Come to think of it, so does the bookstore itself. – John Siscoe owns and operates The Globe Bookstore in Pioneer Square, Seattle. They don’t know the half of it. This morning when I came in …
Legendary Chicago blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin has died. Born in Greenwood, Mississippi on November 16, 1931, Sumlin had recently celebrated his 80th birthday with a public appearance. He died of heart failure December 4, 2011 in Wayne, New Jersey. When reached for comment, EPB blues expert John Siscoe replied: “So Hubert Sumlin is dead. Though …
Of all the American songs that came out of World War II, Hitler Blues is one the very few that blames Hitler for his mistreatment of the Jews. This gritty 1942 recording by Huddie William Leadbetter (Lead Belly) is the definitive version, but is not the original. Hitler Blues– it’s actually not a blues but …
When it comes to the single-string guitar solo, all roads lead back to Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson, the first recorded artist to perfect the technique and who directly influenced Robert Johnson, Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, and T-Bone Walker; which is another way of saying he has influenced just about everybody. Johnson, who was equally at home …
He went by many names- Rice, Willie, Footsie, The Goat. His real name may have been Aleck Miller. He claimed to be the well-known bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson. When it was pointed out to him that this was another man, he insisted he had adopted the name first. Of course he was an imposter, but …
I’m sure there will be people who find this diminutive duo to be charming, but I am not one of them. Oh, the kids are all right, it’s what’s been done to them. Training tykes to imitate the gestures and poses of adults– sexual innuendos aside– is a pretty creepy undertaking. People, no matter what …
Samuel Beckett was a fiercely private individual who hoped in vain that his legions of admirers would concentrate their attention on his work and leave his life alone. Not that he had anything to be ashamed about; his life was marked by extraordinary commitment, bravery, and kindness. He simply felt that one function of art …
Lowell Fulson, singer, guitarist, and songwriter, was one of the giants of the West Coast Blues scene, a commercial and artistic success for over forty years. This brief clip from 1963 doesn’t just rock; it gives us an extremely rare glimpse of a major blues talent performing in a club setting before a black audience. …
Still alive and singing at 81, Bobby “Blue” Bland is the last survivor of a remarkable group of artists– Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Little Milton, and Junior Parker— who in the 50’s and early ’60’s combined gospel and blues to create a new American music. Unlike his peers, Bland has never played an instrument or …
There are at least two Little Walters. One is the talented but troubled harmonica player, Muddy Waters’ sidekick, who drifted into brutality and alcoholism. This is the Little Walter of tragic legend. Then there is the consummate musician whose records outsold those of Muddy Waters or Howling Wolf, who fronted one of the best small …
. Two versions of a Willie Dixon novelty tune form a study in contrast. In the first (1963 above), Wolf and his band are at their peak, with everyone knowing what to say and when. The lyrics may be forgettable, but the performance gleams. In the remake (1968 below), a haphazard assemblage of studio musicians …
May 8, 2011 is the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson. Below are some internet resources and book suggestions which will give you a better feel for the man and his music. Even though Johnson actually lived, and has only been dead for 73 years, the few known facts …
It sounds like he can sing. I see a CD in the works,a national tour, a host of “cute” interviews (Scott Simon comes at once to the mind), American Idol, in short the whole whirligig hootenanny. When you see someone this young you can’t help but worry for them. – John Siscoe