1939 James Booker*
1942 Paul Butterfield*
1949 Paul Rodgers*
1975 Hound Dog Taylor+
1982 Big Joe Williams+
1989 Little Sonny Jones+
2004 Dick Heckstall-Smith+
2010 Captain Beefheart (Don Glen Van Vliet (geboren als Donald Vliet))+
2010 Robin Rogers+
Heiko Jung *
Tilo George Copperfield*
Happy Birthday
Paul Butterfield +17.12.1942
Paul Butterfield (* 17. Dezember 1942 in Chicago, Illinois; † 4. Mai 1987 in Hollywood) war ein US-amerikanischer Bluesmusiker. Er gilt als einer der besten und einflussreichsten weißen Mundharmonikaspieler.
Butterfield spielte Blues Harp und arbeitete zusammen mit den schwarzen Bluesgrößen Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter und James Cotton.
Mit der von ihm 1965 gegründeten Butterfield Blues Band, der u. a. Mike Bloomfield angehörte, wurde er zum führenden Interpreten des weißen Chicago-Blues. Mit der Verwendung elektrischer Instrumente sorgte die Band im gleichen Jahr auf dem Newport Folk Festival für einen Skandal und schockte die Anhänger des traditionellen Folk. Teile der Butterfield Blues Band spielten auch als Begleitband beim Auftritt Bob Dylans auf dem Newport Folk Festival, da Bloomfield Dylan auch bei den Aufnahmen zu "Like a Rolling Stone" unterstützt hatte.
Die Butterfield Bluesband nahm unter anderem 1967 am Monterey Pop Festival und 1969 am Woodstock-Festival teil.
Butterfield spielte nicht mehr nur den klassischen Blues, er verwendete auch Elemente anderer Musikrichtungen, wie Jazz oder asiatische Klänge. 1972 benannte sich die Butterfield Blues Band, die längst nicht mehr nur Blues spielte, in Better Days um.
Butterfield, der nun in Woodstock lebte, fand sich zusammen mit Mike Bloomfield und Musikern der Woodstocker Szene unter dem Namen Fathers And Sons zu einem Projekt einer gemeinsamen Plattenaufnahme zusammen.
Nach der Auflösung der Better Days verfiel Butterfield immer mehr dem Alkohol.
1976 spielte er auf dem Abschiedskonzert The Last Waltz von The Band.
Am 15./16. September 1978 spielte er mit seiner Band in der 3. Rockpalast-Nacht des WDR in der Grugahalle Essen. Das Konzert wurde europaweit live parallel in Radio und Fernsehen übertragen.
1986 zog er nach Los Angeles um. Drei Wochen nach seinem letzten Auftritt mit B. B. King, Albert King und Eric Clapton in Los Angeles verstarb der alkohol- und drogenabhängige Musiker am 4. Mai 1987.
2006 wurde Paul Butterfield in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
Paul
Vaughn Butterfield (December 17, 1942 – May 4, 1987) was an American
blues singer and harmonica player. After early training as a classical
flautist, Butterfield developed an interest in blues harmonica. He
explored the blues scene in his native Chicago, where he was able to
meet Muddy Waters and other blues greats who provided encouragement and a
chance to join in the jam sessions. Soon, Butterfield began performing
with fellow blues enthusiasts Nick Gravenites and Elvin Bishop.
In 1963, he formed the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who recorded several successful albums and were a popular fixture on the late-1960s concert and festival circuit, with performances at the Fillmores, Monterey Pop Festival, and Woodstock. They became known for combining electric Chicago blues with a rock urgency as well as their pioneering jazz fusion performances and recordings. After the breakup of the group in 1971, Butterfield continued to tour and record in a variety of settings, including with Paul Butterfield's Better Days, his mentor Muddy Waters, and members of the roots-rock group the Band.
While still recording and performing, Butterfield died in 1987 at age 44 of a heroin overdose. Music critics have acknowledged his development of an original approach that places him among the best-known blues harp players. In 2006, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015. Both panels noted his harmonica skills as well as his contributions to bringing blues-style music to a younger and broader audience.
Career
Paul Butterfield was born in Chicago and raised in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood. The son of a lawyer and a painter, he attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private school associated with the University of Chicago. Exposed to music at an early age, he studied classical flute with Walfrid Kujala of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.[3] Butterfield was also athletic and was offered a track scholarship to Brown University.[3] However, a knee injury and a growing interest in blues music sent him in a different direction. He developed a love for blues harmonica and a friendship with Nick Gravenites, who shared an interest in authentic blues music.[4] By the late 1950s, they started visiting some of Chicago's blues clubs and met musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Otis Rush, who encouraged them and occasionally let them sit in on jam sessions. The pair were soon performing as "Nick and Paul" in college-area coffee houses.[5]
In the early 1960s, Butterfield attended the University of Chicago, where he met aspiring blues guitarist Elvin Bishop.[6][7] Both began devoting more time to music than studies and soon became full-time musicians.[5] Eventually, Butterfield, who sang and played harmonica, and Bishop, accompanying him on guitar, were offered a regular gig at Big John's, an important folk club in the Old Town district on Chicago's north side.[8] With this prospect, they were able to entice bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay (both from Howlin' Wolf's touring band) into forming a group in 1963. Their engagement at the club was highly successful and brought the group to the attention of record producer Paul A. Rothchild.[9]
Butterfield Blues Band with Bloomfield
During their engagement at Big John's, Butterfield met and occasionally sat in with guitarist Mike Bloomfield, who was also playing at the club.[6] By chance, producer Rothchild witnessed one of their performances and impressed by the obvious chemistry between the two. He convinced Butterfield to bring Bloomfield into the band and they were signed to Elektra Records.[9] Their first attempt to record an album in December 1964 did not meet Rothchild's expectations, although an early version of "Born in Chicago", written by Nick Gravenites, was included on the 1965 Elektra sampler Folksong '65 and created interest in the band (additional early recordings were later released on the 1966 Elektra compilation, What's Shakin' and The Original Lost Elektra Sessions in 1995). In order to better capture their sound, Rothchild convinced Elektra president Jac Holzman to record a live album.[10] In the spring of 1965, the Butterfield Blues Band was recorded at New York's Cafe Au Go Go. These recordings also failed to satisfy Rothchild, but their appearances at the club brought the group to the attention of the East Coast music community.[6] Rothchild was able to get Holzman to agree to a third attempt at recording an album.[a]
During the recording sessions, Paul Rothchild had assumed the role of group manager and used his folk contacts to secure the band more and more engagements outside of Chicago.[12] At the last minute, Butterfield and band were booked to perform at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965.[6] They were scheduled as the opening act the first night when the gates opened and again the next afternoon in an urban blues workshop at the festival.[12] Despite limited exposure during their first night and a dismissive introduction the following day by folklorist/blues researcher Alan Lomax,[13][b] the band was able to attract an unusually large audience for a workshop performance. Maria Muldaur, with her husband Geoff, who later toured and recorded with Butterfield, recalled the group's performance as stunning – it was the first time the many of the mostly folk-music fans had experienced a high-powered electric blues combo.[12] Among those who took notice was festival regular Bob Dylan, who invited the band to back him for his first live electric performance. With little rehearsal, Dylan performed a short, four-song set the next day with Bloomfield, Arnold, and Lay (along with Al Kooper and Barry Goldberg).[13][14] It was not received well by some of the folk music establishment and generated a lot of controversy;[3] however, it was a watershed event and brought the band to the attention of a much larger audience.[12]
After adding keyboardist Mark Naftalin, the band's debut album was finally successfully recorded in mid-1965. Simply titled The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, it was released later in 1965. The opening song, a newer recording of the previously released "Born in Chicago", is an upbeat blues rocker and set the tone for the album, which included a mix of blues standards, such as "Shake Your Moneymaker", "Blues with a Feeling", and "Look Over Yonders Wall" and band compositions. The album, described as a "hard-driving blues album that, in a word, rocked",[8] reached number 123 in the Billboard 200 album chart in 1966,[15] although its influence was felt beyond its sales figures.[9]
When Sam Lay became ill, jazz drummer Billy Davenport was invited to replace him.[9] In July 1966, the sextet recorded their second album East-West, which was released a month later. The album consists of more varied material, with the band's interpretations of blues (Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues"), rock (Michael Nesmith's "Mary, Mary"), R&B (Allen Toussaint's "Get Out of My Life, Woman"), and jazz selections (Nat Adderley's "Work Song"). East-West reached number 65 in the album chart.[15]
The thirteen-minute instrumental title track "East-West" incorporates Indian raga influences and features some of the earliest jazz-fusion/blues rock excursions, with extended solos by Butterfield and guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop.[7] It has been identified as "the first of its kind and marks the root from which the acid rock tradition emerged".[16] Live versions of the song could last nearly an hour and performances at the San Francisco Fillmore Auditorium "were a huge influence on the city's jam bands".[17] Bishop recalled, "Quicksilver, Big Brother, and the Dead – those guys were just chopping chords. They had been folk musicians and weren't particularly proficient playing electric guitar – [Bloomfield] could play all these scales and arpeggios and fast time-signatures ... He just destroyed them".[17] Several live versions of "East-West" from this period were later released on East-West Live in 1996.
While in England in November 1966, Paul Butterfield recorded several songs with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, who had recently finished their A Hard Road album.[18] Both Butterfield and Mayall contribute vocals, with Butterfield's Chicago-style blues harp being featured. Four songs were released in the UK on a 45 rpm EP in January 1967, titled John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Paul Butterfield.[c]
Later Butterfield Blues Band
In spite of their success, the Butterfield Blues Band lineup soon changed; Arnold and Davenport left the band, and Bloomfield went on to form his own group, Electric Flag.[9] With Bishop and Naftalin remaining on guitar and keyboards, they added bassist Bugsy Maugh, drummer Phillip Wilson, and saxophonists David Sanborn and Gene Dinwiddie. Together, they recorded the band's third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, in 1967. The album cut back on the extended instrumental jams and went in a more rhythm and blues-influenced horn-driven direction with songs such as Charles Brown's "Driftin' Blues" (retitled "Driftin' and Driftin'"), Otis Rush's "Double Trouble", and Junior Parker's "Driving Wheel".[19] The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw was Butterfield's highest charting album, reaching number 52 on the album chart.[15] On June 17, 1967, most of this lineup performed at the seminal Monterey Pop Festival.[d][20]
Their next album in 1968, In My Own Dream, saw the band continuing to move away from their hard Chicago-blues roots towards a more soul-influenced horn-based sound. With Butterfield only singing three songs, the album featured more band contributions[21] and reached number 79 in the Billboard album chart.[15] By the end of 1968, both Bishop and Naftalin had left the band.[9] In April 1969, Butterfield took part in a concert at Chicago's Auditorium Theater and a subsequent recording session organized by record producer Norman Dayron, featuring Muddy Waters and backed by Otis Spann, Mike Bloomfield, Sam Lay, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Buddy Miles. Such Muddy Waters' warhorses as "Forty Days and Forty Nights", "I'm Ready", "Baby, Please Don't Go", and "Got My Mojo Working" were recorded and later released on his Fathers and Sons album. Muddy Waters commented "We did a lot of the things over we did with Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers and Elgin [Evans] on drums [Waters' original band] ... It's about as close as I've been [to that feel] since I first recorded it".[22] To one reviewer, these recordings represent Paul Butterfield's best performances.[23]
Butterfield was invited to perform at the Woodstock Festival on August 18, 1969. There they performed seven songs, and although their performance did not appear in the resulting Woodstock film, one song, "Love March", was included on the Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More album released in 1970. In 2009, Butterfield was included in the expanded 40th Anniversary Edition Woodstock video and an additional two songs appeared on the Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm box-set album. With only Butterfield remaining from the original lineup, 1969's Keep On Moving album was produced by veteran R&B producer/songwriter Jerry Ragovoy, reportedly brought in by Elektra to turn out a "breakout commercial hit".[3] The album was not embraced by critics or long-time fans;[24] however, it reached number 102 in the Billboard album chart.[15]
A live double album by the Butterfield Blues Band, simply titled Live, was recorded March 21–22, 1970 at the The Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. By this time, the band included a four-piece horn section in what has been described as a "big-band Chicago blues with a jazz base"; Live provides perhaps the best showcase for this unique "blues-jazz-rock-R&B hybrid sound ".[25] After the release of another soul-influenced album, Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin' in 1971, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band disbanded.[9] In 1972, a retrospective or their career, Golden Butter: The Best of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was released by Elektra.
Better Days and solo
After his Blues Band's breakup and no longer with Elektra, Butterfield retreated to the community of Woodstock, New York where he eventually formed his next band.[12] Named "Paul Butterfield's Better Days", the new group included drummer Chris Parker, guitarist Amos Garrett, singer Geoff Muldaur, pianist Ronnie Barron and bassist Billy Rich. In 1972–1973, the group released the self-titled Paul Butterfield's Better Days and It All Comes Back on Albert Grossman's Bearsville Records. The albums reflected the influence of the participants and explored more roots- and folk-based styles.[26] Although without an easily defined commercial style, both reached the album chart.[15] Paul Butterfield's Better Days, however, did not last to record a third studio album, although their Live at Winterland Ballroom, recorded in 1973, was released in 1999.[27].
After the breakup of Better Days, Butterfield pursued a solo career and appeared as a sideman in several different musical settings.[8] In 1975, he again joined Muddy Waters to record Waters' last album for Chess Records, The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album.[28] The album was recorded at Levon Helm's Woodstock studio with Garth Hudson and members of Muddy Waters' touring band. In 1976, Butterfield performed at The Band's final concert, The Last Waltz. Together with the Band, he performed the song "Mystery Train" and backed Muddy Waters on "Mannish Boy".[29] Butterfield kept up his association with former members of the Band, touring and recording with Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars in 1977.[7] In 1979, Butterfield toured with Rick Danko and in 1984 a live performance with Danko and Richard Manuel was recorded and released as Live at the Lonestar in 2011.[30]
As a solo act with backing musicians, Butterfield continued to tour and recorded the misguided and overproduced Put It in Your Ear in 1976 and North South in 1981, with strings, synthesizers, and pale funk arrangements.[3] In 1986, Butterfield released his final studio album, The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again, which again was a poor attempt at a comeback with an updated rock sound. In 1987, he participated in B.B. King & Friends, a concert that included Eric Clapton, Etta James, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and others.[31]
Legacy
Aside from "rank[ing] among the most influential harp players in the Blues",[32] Paul Butterfield has also been seen as pointing blues-based music in new, innovative directions.[33] AllMusic critic Steve Huey commented
It's impossible to overestimate the importance of the doors Butterfield opened: before he came to prominence, white American musicians treated the blues with cautious respect, afraid of coming off as inauthentic. Not only did Butterfield clear the way for white musicians to build upon blues tradition (instead of merely replicating it), but his storming sound was a major catalyst in bringing electric Chicago blues to white audiences who'd previously considered acoustic Delta blues the only really genuine article.[3]
In 2006, Paul Butterfield was inducted into the Blues Foundation Blues Hall of Fame, which noted that "the albums released by the Butterfield Blues Band brought Chicago Blues to a generation of Rock fans during the 1960s and paved the way for late 1960s electric groups like Cream".[32] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015.[34] In the induction biography, they commented "the Butterfield Band converted the country-blues purists and turned on the Fillmore generation to the pleasures of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Willie Dixon and Elmore James".[14]
Harmonica style
As with many Chicago blues-harp players, Paul Butterfield approached the instrument like a horn, preferring single notes to chords, and used it for soloing.[8] His style has been described as "always intense, understated, concise, and serious"[33] and he is "known for purity and intensity of his tone, his sustained breath control, and his unique ability to bend notes to his will".[35] Although his choice of notes has been compared to Big Walter Horton's, he was never seen as an imitator of any particular harp player.[6][8][e] Rather, he developed "a style original and powerful enough to place him in the pantheon of true blues greats".[3]
Butterfield played Hohner harmonicas, and later endorsed them, and preferred the diatonic ten-hole Marine Band model.[36] Although not published until 1997, Butterfield authored a harmonica instruction book, Paul Butterfield Teaches Blues Harmonica Master Class[37] a few years before his death. In it, he explains various techniques, demonstrated on an accompanying CD.[35] Butterfield played mainly in the cross harp or second position, although he occasionally used a chromatic harmonica.[8] Reportedly left-handed, he held the harmonica opposite to a right-handed player, i.e., in his right hand upside-down (with the low notes to the right), using his left hand for muting effects.[f]
Also similar to other electric Chicago-blues harp players, Butterfield frequently used amplification to achieve his sound.[8] Producer Rothchild noted that Butterfield favored an Altec harp microphone run through an early model Fender tweed amplifier.[38] Beginning with The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw album, he began using an acoustic-harmonica style, following his shift to a more R&B-based approach.[6]
Personal life
By all accounts, Paul Butterfield was absorbed in his music. According to his brother Peter
He listened to records and went places, but he also spent an awful lot of time, by himself, playing [harmonica]. He'd play outdoors. There's a place called The Point in Hyde Park [Chicago], a promentory of land that sticks out into Lake Michigan, and I can remember him out there for hours playing. He was just playing all the time ... It was a very solitary effort. It was all internal, like he had a particular sound he wanted to get and he just worked to get it.[8]
Producer Norman Dayron recalled the young Butterfield as "very quiet and defensive and hard-edged. He was this tough Irish Catholic, kind of a hard guy. He would walk around in black shirts and sunglasses, dark shades and dark jackets ... Paul was hard to be friends with."[4] Although they later became close, Michael Bloomfield commented on his first impressions of Butterfield: "He was a bad guy. He carried pistols. He was down there on the South Side, holding his own. I was scared to death of that cat".[39] Writer and AllMusic founder Michael Erlewine, who knew Butterfield during his early recording career, described him as "always intense, somewhat remote, and even, on occasion, downright unfriendly".[8] He remembered Butterfield as "not much interested in other people".[8]
By 1971, Butterfield had purchased his first house in rural Woodstock, New York and began enjoying family life with his wife Kathy and infant son Lee. According to Maria Muldaur, she and her husband were frequent dinner guests, which usually also involved sitting around a piano and singing songs.[12] Although she doubted her abilities, "it was Butter that first encouraged me to let loose and just sing the blues [and] not to worry about singing pretty or hitting all the right notes ... He loosened all the levels of self-consciousness and doubt out of me ... And he'll forever live in my heart for that and for respecting me as a fellow musician.[12]
Death
Beginning in 1980, Paul Butterfield underwent several surgical procedures to relieve his peritonitis, a serious and painful inflammation of the intestines often experienced as a result of chronic alcoholism.[7] Although he had been opposed to hard drugs as a bandleader, he began using painkillers, including heroin, which led to an addiction. These problems and the drug-related death of his friend and one-time musical partner Mike Bloomfield weighed heavily on him.[3] On May 4, 1987 at age 44, Paul Butterfield died at his apartment in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles. An autopsy by the county coroner concluded that he was the victim of an accidental drug overdose, with "significant levels of morphine (heroin)".[2]
By the time of his death, Paul Butterfield was out of the commercial mainstream. Although for some, he was very much the bluesman. Maria Muldaur commented "he had the whole sensibility and musicality and approach down pat ... He just went for it and took it all in, and he embodied the essence of what the blues was all about. Unfortunately, he lived that way a little too much".
In 1963, he formed the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who recorded several successful albums and were a popular fixture on the late-1960s concert and festival circuit, with performances at the Fillmores, Monterey Pop Festival, and Woodstock. They became known for combining electric Chicago blues with a rock urgency as well as their pioneering jazz fusion performances and recordings. After the breakup of the group in 1971, Butterfield continued to tour and record in a variety of settings, including with Paul Butterfield's Better Days, his mentor Muddy Waters, and members of the roots-rock group the Band.
While still recording and performing, Butterfield died in 1987 at age 44 of a heroin overdose. Music critics have acknowledged his development of an original approach that places him among the best-known blues harp players. In 2006, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015. Both panels noted his harmonica skills as well as his contributions to bringing blues-style music to a younger and broader audience.
Career
Paul Butterfield was born in Chicago and raised in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood. The son of a lawyer and a painter, he attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private school associated with the University of Chicago. Exposed to music at an early age, he studied classical flute with Walfrid Kujala of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.[3] Butterfield was also athletic and was offered a track scholarship to Brown University.[3] However, a knee injury and a growing interest in blues music sent him in a different direction. He developed a love for blues harmonica and a friendship with Nick Gravenites, who shared an interest in authentic blues music.[4] By the late 1950s, they started visiting some of Chicago's blues clubs and met musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Otis Rush, who encouraged them and occasionally let them sit in on jam sessions. The pair were soon performing as "Nick and Paul" in college-area coffee houses.[5]
In the early 1960s, Butterfield attended the University of Chicago, where he met aspiring blues guitarist Elvin Bishop.[6][7] Both began devoting more time to music than studies and soon became full-time musicians.[5] Eventually, Butterfield, who sang and played harmonica, and Bishop, accompanying him on guitar, were offered a regular gig at Big John's, an important folk club in the Old Town district on Chicago's north side.[8] With this prospect, they were able to entice bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay (both from Howlin' Wolf's touring band) into forming a group in 1963. Their engagement at the club was highly successful and brought the group to the attention of record producer Paul A. Rothchild.[9]
Butterfield Blues Band with Bloomfield
During their engagement at Big John's, Butterfield met and occasionally sat in with guitarist Mike Bloomfield, who was also playing at the club.[6] By chance, producer Rothchild witnessed one of their performances and impressed by the obvious chemistry between the two. He convinced Butterfield to bring Bloomfield into the band and they were signed to Elektra Records.[9] Their first attempt to record an album in December 1964 did not meet Rothchild's expectations, although an early version of "Born in Chicago", written by Nick Gravenites, was included on the 1965 Elektra sampler Folksong '65 and created interest in the band (additional early recordings were later released on the 1966 Elektra compilation, What's Shakin' and The Original Lost Elektra Sessions in 1995). In order to better capture their sound, Rothchild convinced Elektra president Jac Holzman to record a live album.[10] In the spring of 1965, the Butterfield Blues Band was recorded at New York's Cafe Au Go Go. These recordings also failed to satisfy Rothchild, but their appearances at the club brought the group to the attention of the East Coast music community.[6] Rothchild was able to get Holzman to agree to a third attempt at recording an album.[a]
During the recording sessions, Paul Rothchild had assumed the role of group manager and used his folk contacts to secure the band more and more engagements outside of Chicago.[12] At the last minute, Butterfield and band were booked to perform at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965.[6] They were scheduled as the opening act the first night when the gates opened and again the next afternoon in an urban blues workshop at the festival.[12] Despite limited exposure during their first night and a dismissive introduction the following day by folklorist/blues researcher Alan Lomax,[13][b] the band was able to attract an unusually large audience for a workshop performance. Maria Muldaur, with her husband Geoff, who later toured and recorded with Butterfield, recalled the group's performance as stunning – it was the first time the many of the mostly folk-music fans had experienced a high-powered electric blues combo.[12] Among those who took notice was festival regular Bob Dylan, who invited the band to back him for his first live electric performance. With little rehearsal, Dylan performed a short, four-song set the next day with Bloomfield, Arnold, and Lay (along with Al Kooper and Barry Goldberg).[13][14] It was not received well by some of the folk music establishment and generated a lot of controversy;[3] however, it was a watershed event and brought the band to the attention of a much larger audience.[12]
After adding keyboardist Mark Naftalin, the band's debut album was finally successfully recorded in mid-1965. Simply titled The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, it was released later in 1965. The opening song, a newer recording of the previously released "Born in Chicago", is an upbeat blues rocker and set the tone for the album, which included a mix of blues standards, such as "Shake Your Moneymaker", "Blues with a Feeling", and "Look Over Yonders Wall" and band compositions. The album, described as a "hard-driving blues album that, in a word, rocked",[8] reached number 123 in the Billboard 200 album chart in 1966,[15] although its influence was felt beyond its sales figures.[9]
When Sam Lay became ill, jazz drummer Billy Davenport was invited to replace him.[9] In July 1966, the sextet recorded their second album East-West, which was released a month later. The album consists of more varied material, with the band's interpretations of blues (Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues"), rock (Michael Nesmith's "Mary, Mary"), R&B (Allen Toussaint's "Get Out of My Life, Woman"), and jazz selections (Nat Adderley's "Work Song"). East-West reached number 65 in the album chart.[15]
The thirteen-minute instrumental title track "East-West" incorporates Indian raga influences and features some of the earliest jazz-fusion/blues rock excursions, with extended solos by Butterfield and guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop.[7] It has been identified as "the first of its kind and marks the root from which the acid rock tradition emerged".[16] Live versions of the song could last nearly an hour and performances at the San Francisco Fillmore Auditorium "were a huge influence on the city's jam bands".[17] Bishop recalled, "Quicksilver, Big Brother, and the Dead – those guys were just chopping chords. They had been folk musicians and weren't particularly proficient playing electric guitar – [Bloomfield] could play all these scales and arpeggios and fast time-signatures ... He just destroyed them".[17] Several live versions of "East-West" from this period were later released on East-West Live in 1996.
While in England in November 1966, Paul Butterfield recorded several songs with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, who had recently finished their A Hard Road album.[18] Both Butterfield and Mayall contribute vocals, with Butterfield's Chicago-style blues harp being featured. Four songs were released in the UK on a 45 rpm EP in January 1967, titled John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Paul Butterfield.[c]
Later Butterfield Blues Band
In spite of their success, the Butterfield Blues Band lineup soon changed; Arnold and Davenport left the band, and Bloomfield went on to form his own group, Electric Flag.[9] With Bishop and Naftalin remaining on guitar and keyboards, they added bassist Bugsy Maugh, drummer Phillip Wilson, and saxophonists David Sanborn and Gene Dinwiddie. Together, they recorded the band's third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, in 1967. The album cut back on the extended instrumental jams and went in a more rhythm and blues-influenced horn-driven direction with songs such as Charles Brown's "Driftin' Blues" (retitled "Driftin' and Driftin'"), Otis Rush's "Double Trouble", and Junior Parker's "Driving Wheel".[19] The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw was Butterfield's highest charting album, reaching number 52 on the album chart.[15] On June 17, 1967, most of this lineup performed at the seminal Monterey Pop Festival.[d][20]
Their next album in 1968, In My Own Dream, saw the band continuing to move away from their hard Chicago-blues roots towards a more soul-influenced horn-based sound. With Butterfield only singing three songs, the album featured more band contributions[21] and reached number 79 in the Billboard album chart.[15] By the end of 1968, both Bishop and Naftalin had left the band.[9] In April 1969, Butterfield took part in a concert at Chicago's Auditorium Theater and a subsequent recording session organized by record producer Norman Dayron, featuring Muddy Waters and backed by Otis Spann, Mike Bloomfield, Sam Lay, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Buddy Miles. Such Muddy Waters' warhorses as "Forty Days and Forty Nights", "I'm Ready", "Baby, Please Don't Go", and "Got My Mojo Working" were recorded and later released on his Fathers and Sons album. Muddy Waters commented "We did a lot of the things over we did with Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers and Elgin [Evans] on drums [Waters' original band] ... It's about as close as I've been [to that feel] since I first recorded it".[22] To one reviewer, these recordings represent Paul Butterfield's best performances.[23]
Butterfield was invited to perform at the Woodstock Festival on August 18, 1969. There they performed seven songs, and although their performance did not appear in the resulting Woodstock film, one song, "Love March", was included on the Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More album released in 1970. In 2009, Butterfield was included in the expanded 40th Anniversary Edition Woodstock video and an additional two songs appeared on the Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm box-set album. With only Butterfield remaining from the original lineup, 1969's Keep On Moving album was produced by veteran R&B producer/songwriter Jerry Ragovoy, reportedly brought in by Elektra to turn out a "breakout commercial hit".[3] The album was not embraced by critics or long-time fans;[24] however, it reached number 102 in the Billboard album chart.[15]
A live double album by the Butterfield Blues Band, simply titled Live, was recorded March 21–22, 1970 at the The Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. By this time, the band included a four-piece horn section in what has been described as a "big-band Chicago blues with a jazz base"; Live provides perhaps the best showcase for this unique "blues-jazz-rock-R&B hybrid sound ".[25] After the release of another soul-influenced album, Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin' in 1971, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band disbanded.[9] In 1972, a retrospective or their career, Golden Butter: The Best of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was released by Elektra.
Better Days and solo
After his Blues Band's breakup and no longer with Elektra, Butterfield retreated to the community of Woodstock, New York where he eventually formed his next band.[12] Named "Paul Butterfield's Better Days", the new group included drummer Chris Parker, guitarist Amos Garrett, singer Geoff Muldaur, pianist Ronnie Barron and bassist Billy Rich. In 1972–1973, the group released the self-titled Paul Butterfield's Better Days and It All Comes Back on Albert Grossman's Bearsville Records. The albums reflected the influence of the participants and explored more roots- and folk-based styles.[26] Although without an easily defined commercial style, both reached the album chart.[15] Paul Butterfield's Better Days, however, did not last to record a third studio album, although their Live at Winterland Ballroom, recorded in 1973, was released in 1999.[27].
After the breakup of Better Days, Butterfield pursued a solo career and appeared as a sideman in several different musical settings.[8] In 1975, he again joined Muddy Waters to record Waters' last album for Chess Records, The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album.[28] The album was recorded at Levon Helm's Woodstock studio with Garth Hudson and members of Muddy Waters' touring band. In 1976, Butterfield performed at The Band's final concert, The Last Waltz. Together with the Band, he performed the song "Mystery Train" and backed Muddy Waters on "Mannish Boy".[29] Butterfield kept up his association with former members of the Band, touring and recording with Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars in 1977.[7] In 1979, Butterfield toured with Rick Danko and in 1984 a live performance with Danko and Richard Manuel was recorded and released as Live at the Lonestar in 2011.[30]
As a solo act with backing musicians, Butterfield continued to tour and recorded the misguided and overproduced Put It in Your Ear in 1976 and North South in 1981, with strings, synthesizers, and pale funk arrangements.[3] In 1986, Butterfield released his final studio album, The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again, which again was a poor attempt at a comeback with an updated rock sound. In 1987, he participated in B.B. King & Friends, a concert that included Eric Clapton, Etta James, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and others.[31]
Legacy
Aside from "rank[ing] among the most influential harp players in the Blues",[32] Paul Butterfield has also been seen as pointing blues-based music in new, innovative directions.[33] AllMusic critic Steve Huey commented
It's impossible to overestimate the importance of the doors Butterfield opened: before he came to prominence, white American musicians treated the blues with cautious respect, afraid of coming off as inauthentic. Not only did Butterfield clear the way for white musicians to build upon blues tradition (instead of merely replicating it), but his storming sound was a major catalyst in bringing electric Chicago blues to white audiences who'd previously considered acoustic Delta blues the only really genuine article.[3]
In 2006, Paul Butterfield was inducted into the Blues Foundation Blues Hall of Fame, which noted that "the albums released by the Butterfield Blues Band brought Chicago Blues to a generation of Rock fans during the 1960s and paved the way for late 1960s electric groups like Cream".[32] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015.[34] In the induction biography, they commented "the Butterfield Band converted the country-blues purists and turned on the Fillmore generation to the pleasures of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Willie Dixon and Elmore James".[14]
Harmonica style
As with many Chicago blues-harp players, Paul Butterfield approached the instrument like a horn, preferring single notes to chords, and used it for soloing.[8] His style has been described as "always intense, understated, concise, and serious"[33] and he is "known for purity and intensity of his tone, his sustained breath control, and his unique ability to bend notes to his will".[35] Although his choice of notes has been compared to Big Walter Horton's, he was never seen as an imitator of any particular harp player.[6][8][e] Rather, he developed "a style original and powerful enough to place him in the pantheon of true blues greats".[3]
Butterfield played Hohner harmonicas, and later endorsed them, and preferred the diatonic ten-hole Marine Band model.[36] Although not published until 1997, Butterfield authored a harmonica instruction book, Paul Butterfield Teaches Blues Harmonica Master Class[37] a few years before his death. In it, he explains various techniques, demonstrated on an accompanying CD.[35] Butterfield played mainly in the cross harp or second position, although he occasionally used a chromatic harmonica.[8] Reportedly left-handed, he held the harmonica opposite to a right-handed player, i.e., in his right hand upside-down (with the low notes to the right), using his left hand for muting effects.[f]
Also similar to other electric Chicago-blues harp players, Butterfield frequently used amplification to achieve his sound.[8] Producer Rothchild noted that Butterfield favored an Altec harp microphone run through an early model Fender tweed amplifier.[38] Beginning with The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw album, he began using an acoustic-harmonica style, following his shift to a more R&B-based approach.[6]
Personal life
By all accounts, Paul Butterfield was absorbed in his music. According to his brother Peter
He listened to records and went places, but he also spent an awful lot of time, by himself, playing [harmonica]. He'd play outdoors. There's a place called The Point in Hyde Park [Chicago], a promentory of land that sticks out into Lake Michigan, and I can remember him out there for hours playing. He was just playing all the time ... It was a very solitary effort. It was all internal, like he had a particular sound he wanted to get and he just worked to get it.[8]
Producer Norman Dayron recalled the young Butterfield as "very quiet and defensive and hard-edged. He was this tough Irish Catholic, kind of a hard guy. He would walk around in black shirts and sunglasses, dark shades and dark jackets ... Paul was hard to be friends with."[4] Although they later became close, Michael Bloomfield commented on his first impressions of Butterfield: "He was a bad guy. He carried pistols. He was down there on the South Side, holding his own. I was scared to death of that cat".[39] Writer and AllMusic founder Michael Erlewine, who knew Butterfield during his early recording career, described him as "always intense, somewhat remote, and even, on occasion, downright unfriendly".[8] He remembered Butterfield as "not much interested in other people".[8]
By 1971, Butterfield had purchased his first house in rural Woodstock, New York and began enjoying family life with his wife Kathy and infant son Lee. According to Maria Muldaur, she and her husband were frequent dinner guests, which usually also involved sitting around a piano and singing songs.[12] Although she doubted her abilities, "it was Butter that first encouraged me to let loose and just sing the blues [and] not to worry about singing pretty or hitting all the right notes ... He loosened all the levels of self-consciousness and doubt out of me ... And he'll forever live in my heart for that and for respecting me as a fellow musician.[12]
Death
Beginning in 1980, Paul Butterfield underwent several surgical procedures to relieve his peritonitis, a serious and painful inflammation of the intestines often experienced as a result of chronic alcoholism.[7] Although he had been opposed to hard drugs as a bandleader, he began using painkillers, including heroin, which led to an addiction. These problems and the drug-related death of his friend and one-time musical partner Mike Bloomfield weighed heavily on him.[3] On May 4, 1987 at age 44, Paul Butterfield died at his apartment in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles. An autopsy by the county coroner concluded that he was the victim of an accidental drug overdose, with "significant levels of morphine (heroin)".[2]
By the time of his death, Paul Butterfield was out of the commercial mainstream. Although for some, he was very much the bluesman. Maria Muldaur commented "he had the whole sensibility and musicality and approach down pat ... He just went for it and took it all in, and he embodied the essence of what the blues was all about. Unfortunately, he lived that way a little too much".
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Unicorn Coffee House, Boston, MA (Bootleg Live)
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Unicorn Coffee House, Boston, MA
Spring 1966
set 1
01 Look Over Yonders Wall 0:01:30
02 Born In Chicago 0:05:03
03 Love Her With A Feeling 0:09:16
04 Walking Blues 0:15:16
05 Don't Say No To Me 0:19:10
06 One More Heartache 0:23:08
07 Work Song 0:27:15
set 2
08 Thank You Mr. Poobah 0:40:23
09 Serves You Right To Suffer 0:47:48
10 Got A Mind To Give Up Living 0:50:38
11 Walking By Myself 0:57:18
12 Baby Please Don't Go 1:02:06
13 World Is In An Uproar 1:06:16
14 Got My Mojo Working 1:10:53
Paul Butterfield - harp, vocals
Mike Bloomfield - guitar
Elvin Bishop - guitar
Mark Naftalin - keyboard
Jerome Arnold - bass
Billy Davenport - drums
Unicorn Coffee House, Boston, MA
Spring 1966
set 1
01 Look Over Yonders Wall 0:01:30
02 Born In Chicago 0:05:03
03 Love Her With A Feeling 0:09:16
04 Walking Blues 0:15:16
05 Don't Say No To Me 0:19:10
06 One More Heartache 0:23:08
07 Work Song 0:27:15
set 2
08 Thank You Mr. Poobah 0:40:23
09 Serves You Right To Suffer 0:47:48
10 Got A Mind To Give Up Living 0:50:38
11 Walking By Myself 0:57:18
12 Baby Please Don't Go 1:02:06
13 World Is In An Uproar 1:06:16
14 Got My Mojo Working 1:10:53
Paul Butterfield - harp, vocals
Mike Bloomfield - guitar
Elvin Bishop - guitar
Mark Naftalin - keyboard
Jerome Arnold - bass
Billy Davenport - drums
Paul Rodgers *17.12.1949
Rodgers wuchs mit Blues, Soul und Rock ’n’ Roll auf. Bereits in seiner frühen Jugend schrieb er eigene Songs, bevor er ein Instrument spielen konnte. Sein Vater kaufte ihm um diese Zeit seine erste Gitarre. Später brachte sich Rodgers auch das Spiel auf Piano und Bass bei.
Seine öffentliche Karriere begann Paul Rodgers im Alter von 13 Jahren, als er bereits in Clubs um Middlesbrough spielte. Seine letzte Band in Middlesbrough war Roadrunners, bevor er nach seinem Schulabschluss nach London zog und die Bluesband Brown Sugar gründete, für die er sang, Gitarre spielte und Songs schrieb. Da es in London zu dieser Zeit ein Blues-Revival gab, hatte er oft die Gelegenheit, Stars wie Muddy Waters live zu bewundern, was einen starken Einfluss auf seine spätere Karriere hatte.
Während seiner Zeit bei Brown Sugar sah ihn Paul Kossoff (kurz zuvor noch Black Cat Bones) und beschloss, mit Rodgers, Simon Kirke, der ebenfalls bei Black Cat Bones gespielt hatte und Andy Fraser eine Band zu gründen, der Alexis Korner nach einem Auftritt im Nags Head Pub von Battersea den Namen "Free" gab.
Nach deren Auflösung im Jahre 1973 gründete er zusammen mit Simon Kirke die Band Bad Company, die er Anfang der 1980er Jahre verließ, um eine Solokarriere zu starten. Nach der Veröffentlichung seines Debütalbums Cut Loose von 1983, spielte er in The Firm (zwei veröffentlichte Alben) und The Law (ein Album). Diese Bands enthielten Künstler wie Jimmy Page (The Firm) oder Kenney Jones (The Law), die bereits in den 1960er und 70er Jahren in der Rockmusik sehr erfolgreich gewesen waren. Bei The Law spielten auch Gastmusiker wie Bryan Adams und Chris Rea.
1993 folgten zwei Tributalben für Jimi Hendrix bzw. Muddy Waters. Letzteres wurde für einen Grammy nominiert und enthält Auftritte von Gastmusikern wie Slash, Richie Sambora, Jeff Beck, Steve Miller, Buddy Guy und David Gilmour. Nach einem Auftritt bei Woodstock II im Jahre 1994 gründete er im Folgejahr eine Backing-Band, mit der über ein Jahr lang auf Tour ging, bevor 1997 sein nächstes Soloalbum erschien, das er mit einer Tour zusammen mit Lynyrd Skynyrd bewarb.
2002 reanimierten Rodgers und Kirke ihre alte Band Bad Company für einige US-Dates und verewigten dieses Ereignis auf der Live-CD und -DVD Merchants of Cool. Im Jahr 2004 trat Rodgers mit vielen Stars in der Londoner Wembley Arena auf, um den 50. Geburtstag der Fender Stratocaster zu feiern. Von 2005 bis 2008 war er Sänger bei den Welttourneen von Queen + Paul Rodgers. Wobei sowohl Brian May und Roger Taylor als auch Rodgers selbst äußerten, dass er nicht der offizielle Ersatz für den 1991 verstorbenen Queen-Sänger Freddie Mercury sein könne. Die Bezeichnung des gemeinsamen Projekts lautet deshalb „Queen + Paul Rodgers“. 2008 erschien ihr Studioalbum The Cosmos Rocks.
Aktuell arbeitet Paul Rodgers an zwei Soloalben gleichzeitig. Auf dem einen plant er Soul Songs zu covern, das andere soll aus neuen Eigenkompositionen bestehen.
Paul Bernard Rodgers (born 17 December 1949)[1] is an English singer, songwriter, musician and multi-instrumentalist best known for his success in the 1960s and 1970s as vocalist of Free and Bad Company. After stints in two less successful bands in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Firm and The Law, he became a solo artist.[2] He has more recently toured and recorded with another popular band, Queen. Rodgers has been dubbed "The Voice" by his fans.[3][4] A poll in Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 55 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".[5] In 2011 Rodgers received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.[6]
Rodgers has been cited as a significant influence on a number of notable rock singers, including David Coverdale, John Waite, Steve Overland, Lou Gramm, Jimi Jamison, Eric Martin, Steve Walsh, Joe Lynn Turner, Paul Young, Bruce Dickinson, Robin McAuley, Jimmy Barnes, Richie Kotzen and Joe Bonamassa. In 1991, John Mellencamp called Rodgers "the best rock singer ever".[7] Freddie Mercury, the original Queen vocalist, in particular liked Rodgers and his aggressive style.[5]
Early career
Paul Bernard Rodgers was born in Middlesbrough, England, and played bass[8] (he later moved on to vocals) in local band The Roadrunners, which just before leaving Middlesbrough for the London music scene changed its name to The Wildflowers. Other members of this band were Micky Moody (later of Whitesnake) and Bruce Thomas (later of Elvis Costello and The Attractions).
Free
Rodgers made a mark on the British music scene in 1968 as singer/songwriter for bluesy rockers Free. In 1970, they shot up the international radio charts with "All Right Now", which Rodgers wrote with the group's bassist Andy Fraser.[9]
It was a number one hit in more than 20 territories and acknowledged by ASCAP in 1990 for having received over a million radio plays in the US. The song played a role in introducing Rodgers's vocal style, while helping to establish the sound of the British blues/rock invasion. For a short time, Free were alongside Led Zeppelin as among the highest grossing British acts though Free's status did not sustain. Free released four albums with a combination of blues, ballads and rock that were Top Five successes in the UK. When in 2000, the song "All Right Now" achieved the mark of two million radio plays in the UK, an award was given to Rodgers as one of the two writers.
After the first break-up of Free in the spring of 1971, Rodgers briefly formed a three-piece band called Peace. Alongside bassist Stewart McDonald and drummer Mick Underwood, Rodgers played guitar and sang lead vocal. Peace supported Mott the Hoople's UK tour in 1971, but broke up when Free reformed at the start of 1972. Two songs by Peace were eventually included on the fifth disc of the 2000 Free compilation Songs of Yesterday, along with a song that Rodgers recorded with the Maytals. A bootleg has circulated of a 22 December 1971 appearance by Peace on the BBC's Top Gear program.[10]
1970s: Bad Company
Rodgers formed his next band, Bad Company, with Mick Ralphs, former guitarist of Mott the Hoople. The lineup also included Rodgers' band mate from Free, drummer Simon Kirke, as well as Boz Burrell, former vocalist and bassist of King Crimson. Rodgers said he and Ralphs were still trying to come up a name for the band, "and I just said 'Bad Company', and there was this scuffling noise and he said, 'Shit, I dropped the phone—that’s it!'"[11]
Bad Company was the first act signed to Led Zeppelin's new record label, Swan Song. They toured successfully from 1973 to 1982, and had several hits such as "Feel Like Makin' Love", "Can't Get Enough", "Shooting Star", "Bad Company", and "Run with the Pack". Rodgers also showcased his instrumental talents on several tracks: "Bad Company" and "Run With The Pack" featured him on piano; "Rock and Roll Fantasy" on guitar; and on the ballad "Seagull" Rodgers played all of the instruments. Bad Company earned six platinum albums until Rodgers left in 1982 at the height of their fame stating that he wanted to spend time with his young family.
It was revealed in April 2011 that after Jim Morrison's death, the rest of The Doors wanted Rodgers to replace him. Rodgers has said that he was unreachably rural at the time, and the moment passed.[12]
1980s: Solo career and The Firm
In the early 1980s, it was rumoured that Rodgers would sing with The Rossington-Collins Band (made up of the survivors of Lynyrd Skynyrd).[13]
In October 1983, Rodgers released his first solo LP Cut Loose. He composed all of the music and played all of the instruments. The album reached number 135 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart.[14]
When his friend Jimmy Page started to come around to his house, guitar in hand and Led Zeppelin at an end, the duo's first live pairing was on the US ARMS (Action Research into Multiple Sclerosis) Tour, which had first been mooted by Eric Clapton and, besides Rodgers and Page, would include Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker, Steve Winwood and others. The inspiration behind ARMS had been former Small Faces/Faces member Ronnie Lane's own struggle with M.S. This led to Rodgers and Page's further teaming in the group The Firm, which resulted in two albums and two tours. Both Firm world tours managed only average attendance.[citation needed] Despite being panned by critics,[citation needed] The Firm's two albums, The Firm and Mean Business, achieved moderate sales success[15] and produced the radio hits "Radioactive", "Satisfaction Guaranteed", and, in the UK, "All The King's Horses".
During this same period, a series of albums were produced called Willie and the Poor Boys.[16] Rodgers and Page were briefly part of this and recorded "These Arms of Mine", an Otis Redding tune. This recording also became a video promoting the CD.
1990s: The Law and solo career
The Law, Rodgers' 1991 musical venture with former The Who and Faces drummer Kenney Jones, produced Billboard's number one AOR chart hit "Laying Down the Law" written by Rodgers, but the album peaked at number 126 on the Billboard 200 chart. A second album can be found on the bootleg market, which is often referred to as The Law II. It is believed that this collection of songs were leftovers from the first album.[17]
Rodgers acknowledged the influence of Jimi Hendrix by collaborating with Steve Vai, Hendrix's Band of Gypsys (Buddy Miles and Billy Cox) and the London Metropolitan Orchestra and recorded the track "Bold As Love", on the Hendrix tribute album In From The Storm. Then Rodgers teamed with Journey guitarist Neal Schon and released The Hendrix Set, a live 5-track CD, recorded in 1993 with Rodgers' interpretations of Hendrix songs. A Canadian and US tour followed.
His Grammy-nominated solo CD, Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters was released in 1993. Rodgers wrote the title track and was backed by guitarists Brian May, Gary Moore, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Steve Miller, Buddy Guy, Richie Sambora, Brian Setzer, Slash and Trevor Rabin.
For Woodstock's 25th anniversary in 1994, Rodgers pulled together drummer Jason Bonham, bassist Andy Fraser (from Free), guitarists Slash and Schon at the last moment to perform as the Paul Rodgers Rock and Blues Revue.
In 1995 he formed a new band consisting of Jaz Lochrie on bass, Jimmy Copley on drums and Geoff Whitehorn on guitar. The band (The Paul Rodgers Band) toured extensively in Europe, US and in the UK until 1998 and released three albums – Now, Now and Live and Electric. Now charted internationally in the Top 40. The single "Soul of Love" remained in rotation on more than 86 US radio stations for six months but was not a sales success. In 1996, he went to Australia and decided to play congas for The Wiggles' Wake Up Jeff! album.[18] His 1997 world tour included Russia, Japan, Canada, US, UK, Germany, France, Romania, Bulgaria, Israel, Brazil, Greece and Argentina.
Rodgers and Bad Company hit Billboard's US BDS charts with the number one single "Hey, Hey" in 1999, one of four new tracks off Bad Company's The Original Bad Company Anthology. The second single release, Rodgers's "Hammer of Love", reached number two. For the first time in 20 years, all the original members of Bad Company toured the US.[19]
2000s: Solo career, Queen and Bad Company reunion
Rodgers focused on his solo career in 2000 and released Electric, his sixth solo CD. In its debut week, the single "Drifters" was US rock radio's number one on the Most Added FMQB Hot Trax list, number two on Most Added R&R Rock and number three on Most Added Album Net Power Cuts. "Drifters" remained in the top 10 for eight weeks on Billboard's Rock charts. That year, he played sold-out concerts in England, Scotland, Australia, United States and Canada. After his appearance on TV's Late Show with David Letterman in New York, he met and jammed with B.B. King. That same year, Rodgers, Jimmie Vaughan, Levon Helm, bluesmen Hubert Sumlin, Johnnie Johnson, James Cotton and others performed a sold out concert in Cleveland as a Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters.
In spring 2001, Rodgers returned to Australia, England and Scotland for the second run of sold-out shows. That summer he toured the US with Bad Company.
Rodgers and Bad Company released their first official live CD and DVD, In Concert: Merchants of Cool, in 2002. It included all the hits and a new single, "Joe Fabulous", penned by Rodgers, which hit number one at Classic Rock Radio and Top 20 on mainstream rock radio in the US. In its debut week, the DVD sales sound scanned at number three Canada, and number four in the US. The Joe Fabulous Tour kicked off in the US and sold out in the UK. While in London, Rodgers performed with Jeff Beck at the Royal Festival Hall. Rodgers was invited by long-time fan Tony Blair to perform at the Labour Party Conference. "I had the entire Labour Party singing the chorus of "Wishing Well", a song I wrote and shared with Free, ...'love in a peaceful world'. 'Love in a peaceful world'... over and over and over hoping the words would sink in but we went to war" recalled Rodgers. Twice in 2002, Rodgers performed on Britain's TV show Top of the Pops 2.
In 2003, Rodgers toured as a solo artist for the first time in two years playing 25 US dates. In his solo band were guitarist Howard Leese (formerly of Heart), bassist Lynn Sorensen and drummer Jeff Kathan. Jools Holland invited Rodgers to record "I Told The Truth" for Holland's album Small World Big Band. The CD also featured Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood, Peter Gabriel, Michael McDonald, Ringo Starr and others. This led to Rodgers performing two sold-out nights at London's Royal Albert Hall with Holland and his 18-piece rhythm and blues orchestra, and several UK TV appearances. He also appeared with Jeff Beck, performing some songs from Beck's back catalogue (along with several other notable musicians, including John Mclaughlin, Roger Waters and the White Stripes) for part of a week-long series of charity concerts put on by Jeff Beck at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
Early in 2004, Rodgers joined Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox (Hendrix's Cry of Love), Buddy Guy, Joe Satriani, Kid Rock's Kenny Olson, Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell, Double Trouble, Indigenous, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and blues legend Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters) and performed three sold-out shows in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco as "Experience Hendrix". Once again, Rodgers only played 25 concerts in the US and Canada. He performed at Wembley for the fiftieth anniversary celebration for the Fender Stratocaster, along with David Gilmour who played Strat No. 001, Ronnie Wood, Brian May, Joe Walsh, Gary Moore, Rodgers sang and played a custom designed Jaguar Fender Strat. Rodgers was invited by The Four Tops to be part of their fiftieth anniversary TV/DVD concert celebration at Motown's Opera House and performed alongside Aretha Franklin, Dennis Edwards & The Temptations Revue, Sam Moore, Mary Wilson, Ashford and Simpson and The Four Tops.
In late 2004, after a successful live television performance, two of the four members of the British rock group Queen proposed a collaboration with Rodgers, in which he would sing lead vocals on a European tour. Rodgers thus joined Brian May and Roger Taylor (former bassist John Deacon retired in the late 1990s), with the group billed as Queen + Paul Rodgers and they subsequently toured worldwide in 2005 and 2006. The participants clearly stated, including on Brian May's own website, "that Rodgers would be "featured with" Queen as: "Queen + Paul Rodgers", not replacing the late Freddie Mercury". The group subsequently released a live album with songs from Queen, Bad Company and Free, called Return of the Champions, and a DVD of the same name. Both featured live recordings from their Sheffield Hallam FM Arena concert on 9 May 2005. The DVD features "Imagine" from Hyde Park. "For one glorious summer" opined music critic Sean Michaels "we were all Paul Rodgers".[20] Another DVD was released in 2006 from a live performance in Japan, called Super Live in Japan.
Queen + Paul Rodgers also released a single featuring "Reaching Out", "Tie Your Mother Down" and "Fat Bottomed Girls".
The summer of 2006 saw Rodgers again focused on his solo career with a world tour, which commenced in Austin, Texas, US in June, then on to Japan, finishing in Glasgow, Scotland, in October 2006.
On 15 August 2006, Brian May confirmed through his website that "Queen + Paul Rodgers" would begin producing a new studio album beginning in October, to be recorded at Roger Taylor's home.[21]
In April 2007 Rodgers released a live album of his 2006 tour, Live in Glasgow, recorded in Glasgow, Scotland 13 October 2006, with a DVD of the same show released the following month.
On 27–28 December 2007, Rodgers performed with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra during their Winter 2007 Tour in Houston, Texas and Dallas, Texas. Unannounced, he joined the band at the end of their show to sing "Bad Company" and "All Right Now".
Rogers was a judge for the sixth and seventh annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.[22]
On 27 June 2008, Rodgers and Queen performed at the Concert for Nelson Mandela to celebrate Mandela's 90th birthday.
On 8 August 2008, Rodgers and original members Mick Ralphs and Simon Kirke reunited as Bad Company to perform a one-night only, sold-out performance at the Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida. The live performance was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and CD on 9 February 2010 and the tracks included seventeen Bad Company hits. Rodgers dedicated "Gone, Gone, Gone" to original bassist Boz Burrell, who died in 2006.
On 14 May 2009, Rodgers announced he was ending his five-year-long collaboration with Queen, although did not rule out the possibility of working with them again. On 17 November 2009, it was announced he would join the other surviving members of Bad Company for an eight date UK tour in April 2010.
2010s: Solo career and more Bad Company
On 5 June 2010 he began a mini-California tour by performing at the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival. One week later, on 12 June, Rodgers and his band appeared as headliners on the Grandstand Stage at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar, California, followed by casino shows in Lemoore on 17 June and in Santa Ynez on 18 June.
Rodgers performed a solo UK tour in April 2011 with Joe Elliot's Down 'n' Outz. The concert of 28 April at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena was filmed for a future live DVD release.
In May 2011 Rodgers received an Ivor Novello Award (Ivor Novello Awards) for "Outstanding contribution to British music" [23][24]
Rodgers announced that he would be taking part in a Paul McCartney tribute album that would also feature contributions by Billy Joel, Garth Brooks, BB King, and KISS.[25] Originally planned for a late 2010 release, the album, entitled The Art of McCartney, will be released in late 2014. Rodgers' contribution is a cover of the Wings song "Let Me Roll It", originally from their 1973 album Band on the Run.
As of 2014 Rodgers is once again touring with Bad Company.[26]
Personal life
Paul Rodgers married Machiko Shimizu in 1971, and have two children from that marriage, Steve and Jasmine. The two children are also musicians and singers who formed a band, Bôa, in the 1990s. Rodgers and Shimizu divorced in 1996.
On 26 September 2007, Rodgers married a former model and Miss Canada, exercise physiologist and artist Cynthia Kereluk in Canada's Okanagan Valley.[27]
Rodgers became a Canadian citizen on 21 October 2011, and resides in Surrey, British Columbia.
Paul Rodgers- All Right Now (Live In Glasgow)
Paul Rodgers Live At Sunrise Records - April 19, 2014
James Booker *17.12.1939
James Booker (* 17. Dezember 1939 in New Orleans; † 8. November 1983 ebenda), mit bürgerlichem Namen James Carroll Booker III, war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-, Boogie- und Jazz-Pianist, Organist und Sänger.
Kindheit und Jugend
James Carroll Booker III wuchs als Sohn des Baptistenpredigers und Hobby-Pianisten James Carroll Booker II und der Gospelsängerin Ora Cheatham erst in New Orleans, später bei Verwandten in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, auf.
Im Alter von sechs Jahren Booker erhielt von seiner Mutter ein Saxophon geschenkt, da er sich aber mehr für das Klavierspielen interessierte, erhielt er in der Folge Klavierunterricht. Später nannte er als wesentliche musikalische Einflüsse die Blues-Pianisten Tuts Washington und Professor Longhair. Erste öffentliche Auftritte hatte der Organist in der Kirche seines Vaters.
Im Alter von neun Jahren erlitt Booker schwere Verletzungen, als er von einem Krankenwagen angefahren wurde. Auf die darauf folgende Schmerztherapie mit Morphinen führte er selbst später seine lebenslangen Drogenprobleme zurück. Nach dem Tod des Vaters zog die Familie 1953 wieder nach New Orleans, wo Booker die Xavier Preparatory School besuchte. Er begann ein Musikstudium an der Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana welches er jedoch nach zwei Jahren erfolglos abbrach.
Schon während seiner Schulzeit vermittelte ihn seine Mutter zum lokalen Radiosender WMRY. So arbeitete er schon früh als professioneller Musiker, und trat mit seiner Band „Booker Boy and the Rhythmaires“, regelmäßig in einer Samstagnachmittag-Show mit Blues- und Gospelprogramm auf. Diesem Ensemble gehörte zeitweilig auch sein Schulkollege Art Neville an.
Karriere
Unter dem Namen "Little Booker" gehörte er ab 1954 als Nachfolger von Fats Domino, der eine Solokarriere anstrebte, der Band von Dave Bartholomew an, später war Booker als Studio-Musiker im J&M Recording Studio in New Orleans beschäftigt, wo er sich mit Dr. John anfreundete.
Der von seinen Musikerkollegen sehr geschätzte Pianist wurde von diesen immer wieder als Studiomusiker engagiert. Er ist unter anderem auf Veröffentlichungen von Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex, Roy Hamilton, B.B. King, Earl King, King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Lloyd Price, Maria Muldaur, Ringo Starr, Jerry Garcia, den Doobie Brothers, Huey Smith, Phil Upchurch und Lionel Hampton zu hören.
Bookers Solokarriere stagnierte dagegen. Dem psychisch labilen und chronisch unzuverlässigen Musiker gelang zwar 1960 mit dem Orgel-Solo "Gonzo" ein Überraschungserfolg (Platz 3 in den R&B-Billboard-Charts),[1] jedoch führten exzessiver Konsum von Drogen und Alkohol immer wieder zu Karriereeinbrüchen. Im Jahr 1970 wurde er wegen Drogenbesitzes zu einer zweijährigen Haftstrafe verurteilt, von der ein halbes Jahr im berüchtigten Angola State Prison in Louisiana absitzen musste. Drei Jahre später zog er sich durch die Verwendung einer verschmutzten Injektionsnadel eine schwere Infektionserkrankung zu, die zum Verlust des linken Auges führte. Die schwarze Augenklappe mit aufgenähtem goldenem Stern wurde zu seinem Markenzeichen.
Bookers solistisches Werk ist zu einem nicht geringen Teil durch Live-Aufnahmen dokumentiert. Ab Mitte der 1970er Jahre trat er wiederholt beim Jazz&Heritage Festival in New Orleans auf, Konzerttourneen führten ihn mehrfach nach Europa (u.a. Auftritte beim Montreux Jazz Festival). In seinen Konzerten spielte der Pianist ein weitgestreutes Programm, das von Blues- und Jazzklassikern über Popsongs bis zu – fallweise – klassischer Musik (v.a. Chopin) reichte. Die musikalische Qualität dieser Auftritte soll sehr uneinheitlich gewesen sein: Nicht selten war Booker unfähig, überhaupt zu spielen; gelegentlich gelangen ihm aber immer wieder brillante Konzerte.
Ein letzter Versuch sich von seinen Drogenproblemen zu befreien scheiterte kurz vor seinem Tod: Eine Anstellung als Bürogehilfe im Rathaus von New Orleans verlor er wegen permanenter Dienstunfähigkeit. Im November 1983 verstarb James Booker, noch keine 44 Jahre alt, an den Folgen einer Überdosis Kokain.
Kindheit und Jugend
James Carroll Booker III wuchs als Sohn des Baptistenpredigers und Hobby-Pianisten James Carroll Booker II und der Gospelsängerin Ora Cheatham erst in New Orleans, später bei Verwandten in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, auf.
Im Alter von sechs Jahren Booker erhielt von seiner Mutter ein Saxophon geschenkt, da er sich aber mehr für das Klavierspielen interessierte, erhielt er in der Folge Klavierunterricht. Später nannte er als wesentliche musikalische Einflüsse die Blues-Pianisten Tuts Washington und Professor Longhair. Erste öffentliche Auftritte hatte der Organist in der Kirche seines Vaters.
Im Alter von neun Jahren erlitt Booker schwere Verletzungen, als er von einem Krankenwagen angefahren wurde. Auf die darauf folgende Schmerztherapie mit Morphinen führte er selbst später seine lebenslangen Drogenprobleme zurück. Nach dem Tod des Vaters zog die Familie 1953 wieder nach New Orleans, wo Booker die Xavier Preparatory School besuchte. Er begann ein Musikstudium an der Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana welches er jedoch nach zwei Jahren erfolglos abbrach.
Schon während seiner Schulzeit vermittelte ihn seine Mutter zum lokalen Radiosender WMRY. So arbeitete er schon früh als professioneller Musiker, und trat mit seiner Band „Booker Boy and the Rhythmaires“, regelmäßig in einer Samstagnachmittag-Show mit Blues- und Gospelprogramm auf. Diesem Ensemble gehörte zeitweilig auch sein Schulkollege Art Neville an.
Karriere
Unter dem Namen "Little Booker" gehörte er ab 1954 als Nachfolger von Fats Domino, der eine Solokarriere anstrebte, der Band von Dave Bartholomew an, später war Booker als Studio-Musiker im J&M Recording Studio in New Orleans beschäftigt, wo er sich mit Dr. John anfreundete.
Der von seinen Musikerkollegen sehr geschätzte Pianist wurde von diesen immer wieder als Studiomusiker engagiert. Er ist unter anderem auf Veröffentlichungen von Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex, Roy Hamilton, B.B. King, Earl King, King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Lloyd Price, Maria Muldaur, Ringo Starr, Jerry Garcia, den Doobie Brothers, Huey Smith, Phil Upchurch und Lionel Hampton zu hören.
Bookers Solokarriere stagnierte dagegen. Dem psychisch labilen und chronisch unzuverlässigen Musiker gelang zwar 1960 mit dem Orgel-Solo "Gonzo" ein Überraschungserfolg (Platz 3 in den R&B-Billboard-Charts),[1] jedoch führten exzessiver Konsum von Drogen und Alkohol immer wieder zu Karriereeinbrüchen. Im Jahr 1970 wurde er wegen Drogenbesitzes zu einer zweijährigen Haftstrafe verurteilt, von der ein halbes Jahr im berüchtigten Angola State Prison in Louisiana absitzen musste. Drei Jahre später zog er sich durch die Verwendung einer verschmutzten Injektionsnadel eine schwere Infektionserkrankung zu, die zum Verlust des linken Auges führte. Die schwarze Augenklappe mit aufgenähtem goldenem Stern wurde zu seinem Markenzeichen.
Bookers solistisches Werk ist zu einem nicht geringen Teil durch Live-Aufnahmen dokumentiert. Ab Mitte der 1970er Jahre trat er wiederholt beim Jazz&Heritage Festival in New Orleans auf, Konzerttourneen führten ihn mehrfach nach Europa (u.a. Auftritte beim Montreux Jazz Festival). In seinen Konzerten spielte der Pianist ein weitgestreutes Programm, das von Blues- und Jazzklassikern über Popsongs bis zu – fallweise – klassischer Musik (v.a. Chopin) reichte. Die musikalische Qualität dieser Auftritte soll sehr uneinheitlich gewesen sein: Nicht selten war Booker unfähig, überhaupt zu spielen; gelegentlich gelangen ihm aber immer wieder brillante Konzerte.
Ein letzter Versuch sich von seinen Drogenproblemen zu befreien scheiterte kurz vor seinem Tod: Eine Anstellung als Bürogehilfe im Rathaus von New Orleans verlor er wegen permanenter Dienstunfähigkeit. Im November 1983 verstarb James Booker, noch keine 44 Jahre alt, an den Folgen einer Überdosis Kokain.
James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 – November 8, 1983) was a New Orleans rhythm and blues musician born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Booker's unique style combined rhythm and blues with jazz standards. Musician Dr. John described Booker as “the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced.”[2] Flamboyant in personality, he was known as "the Black Liberace".
Early life
Booker was the son and grandson of Baptist ministers, both of whom played the piano.[3] He spent most of his childhood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where his father pastored a church. Booker received a saxophone as a gift from his mother, but he demonstrated a stronger interest in the keyboard. He first played organ in his father's churches.
After returning to New Orleans in his early adolescence, Booker attended the Xavier Academy Preparatory School. He learned some elements of his keyboard style from Tuts Washington and Edward Frank.[5] Booker was highly skilled in classical music and played Bach and Chopin, among other composers. He also mastered and memorized solos by Erroll Garner and Liberace. His performances combined elements of stride, blues, gospel and Latin piano styles.
1954 to 1976: Recording
Booker made his recording debut in 1954 on the Imperial Records label, with "Doin' the Hambone" and "Thinkin' 'Bout My Baby." This led to some session work with Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, and Lloyd Price.[5]
In 1958, Arthur Rubinstein performed a concert in New Orleans. Afterwards, eighteen-year-old Booker was introduced to the concert pianist and played several tunes for him. Rubinstein was astonished, saying "I could never play that ... never at that tempo." (The Times-Picayune, 1958) During this period, Booker also became known for his flamboyant personality among his peers.
After recording a few other singles, he enrolled as an undergraduate in Southern University's music department. In 1960, Booker's "Gonzo" reached number 43 on the United States (U.S.) record chart of Billboard magazine and number 3 on the R&B record chart.[7] Following "Gonzo", Booker released some moderately successful singles. In the 1960s, he commenced recreational drug use and in 1970 served a brief sentence in Angola Prison for drug possession.[8] At the time, Professor Longhair and Ray Charles were among his important musical influences.
As Booker became more familiar to law enforcement in New Orleans due to his illicit drug use, he formed a relationship with Harry Connick Sr., who was occasionally Booker's legal counsel. Connick Sr. would discuss law with Booker during his visits to the Connick home and made an arrangement with the musician, whereby a prison sentence would be nullified in exchange for piano lessons with Connick Sr.'s son Harry Connick Jr.
In 1973 Booker recorded The Lost Paramount Tapes at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California, U.S. with members of the Dr. John band, which included John Boudreaux on drums, Jessie Hill on percussion, Alvin Robinson on guitar and vocals, Richard "Didymus" Washington on percussion, David Lastie on sax, and David L. Johnson on bass guitar. The album was produced by former Dr. John band member David L. Johnson and by singer/songwriter Daniel Moore. The master tapes disappeared from the Paramount Recording Studios library, but a copy of the mixes that were made around the time of the recordings was discovered in 1992, which resulted in a CD release on DJM Records.
Booker then played organ in Dr. John's Bonnaroo Revue touring band in 1974, and also appeared as a sideman on albums by Ringo Starr, John Mayall, The Doobie Brothers, Labelle, Maria Muldaur, and Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia throughout this period.
Booker's performance at the 1975 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival earned him a recording contract with Island Records.[9] His album with Island, Junco Partner, was produced by Joe Boyd, who had previously recorded Booker on sessions for the Muldaurs' records.[12] In January 1976, Booker joined the Jerry Garcia Band; however, following two Palo Alto, California, concerts that involved Garcia "backing up ... Booker on most numbers,"[13] Booker was replaced by Grateful Dead pianist Keith Godchaux.
1976 to 1978: Success in Europe
Booker recorded a number of albums while touring Europe in 1977, including New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live!, which was recorded at his performance at the "Boogie Woogie and Ragtime Piano Contest" in Zurich, Switzerland—the album won the Grand Prix du Disque. He also played at the Nice and Montreux Jazz Festivals in 1978 and recorded a session for the BBC during this time.[14][15] Fourteen years later, a recording entitled Let's Make A Better World!—made in Leipzig during this period—became the last record to be produced in the former East Germany.
In a 2013 interview, filmmaker Lily Keber, who directed a documentary on Booker, provided her perspective on Booker's warm reception in European nations such as Germany and France:
Well, the racism wasn't there, the homophobia wasn't there—as much. Even the drug use was a little more tolerated. But really I think that Booker felt he was being taken seriously in Europe, and it made him think of himself differently and improved the quality of his music. He needed the energy of the audience to feed off.[16]
Keber further explained that Europeans refer to jazz as "the art of the twentieth century" and suggests that the "classical tradition" that is present in the continent led to a greater understanding of Booker among audiences. Keber states that Booker was "concert-hall worthy" to European jazz lovers.[16]
1978 to 1983: Return to the U.S.
From 1978 to 1982, Booker was the house pianist at the Maple Leaf Bar in the Carrollton neighborhood of uptown New Orleans. Recordings during this time, made by John Parsons, were released as Spider on the Keys and Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah.[17] Following his success in Europe, Booker was forced to adjust to a lower level of public recognition, as he performed in cafes and bars. Keber believes this shift was "devastating" to Booker, as he was aware of his own talent.[16]
Booker's last commercial recording, made in 1982, was entitled Classified and, according to producer Scott Billington, was completed in four hours.[17] By this time, Booker's physical and mental condition had deteriorated, even though he was able to attend the Charity Hospital in New Orleans during the 1970s. Furthermore, Booker was subject to the social stigma that affected people who used illicit drugs and who experienced mental health issues during this era of American history.[9][16]
At the end of October 1983, filmmaker Jim Gabour captured Booker's final concert performance for a series on the New Orleans music scene. The series, entitled Music City, was broadcast on Cox Cable and included footage from the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans and a six-and-a-half-minute improvisation called "Seagram's Jam."[18]
1983: Death
Booker died aged 43 on November 8, 1983, while seated in a wheelchair in the emergency room at New Orleans' Charity Hospital, waiting to receive medical attention. The cause of death, as cited in the Orleans Parish Coroner's Death Certificate, was renal failure that was related to his chronic history of heroin and alcohol use.
Early life
Booker was the son and grandson of Baptist ministers, both of whom played the piano.[3] He spent most of his childhood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where his father pastored a church. Booker received a saxophone as a gift from his mother, but he demonstrated a stronger interest in the keyboard. He first played organ in his father's churches.
After returning to New Orleans in his early adolescence, Booker attended the Xavier Academy Preparatory School. He learned some elements of his keyboard style from Tuts Washington and Edward Frank.[5] Booker was highly skilled in classical music and played Bach and Chopin, among other composers. He also mastered and memorized solos by Erroll Garner and Liberace. His performances combined elements of stride, blues, gospel and Latin piano styles.
1954 to 1976: Recording
Booker made his recording debut in 1954 on the Imperial Records label, with "Doin' the Hambone" and "Thinkin' 'Bout My Baby." This led to some session work with Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, and Lloyd Price.[5]
In 1958, Arthur Rubinstein performed a concert in New Orleans. Afterwards, eighteen-year-old Booker was introduced to the concert pianist and played several tunes for him. Rubinstein was astonished, saying "I could never play that ... never at that tempo." (The Times-Picayune, 1958) During this period, Booker also became known for his flamboyant personality among his peers.
After recording a few other singles, he enrolled as an undergraduate in Southern University's music department. In 1960, Booker's "Gonzo" reached number 43 on the United States (U.S.) record chart of Billboard magazine and number 3 on the R&B record chart.[7] Following "Gonzo", Booker released some moderately successful singles. In the 1960s, he commenced recreational drug use and in 1970 served a brief sentence in Angola Prison for drug possession.[8] At the time, Professor Longhair and Ray Charles were among his important musical influences.
As Booker became more familiar to law enforcement in New Orleans due to his illicit drug use, he formed a relationship with Harry Connick Sr., who was occasionally Booker's legal counsel. Connick Sr. would discuss law with Booker during his visits to the Connick home and made an arrangement with the musician, whereby a prison sentence would be nullified in exchange for piano lessons with Connick Sr.'s son Harry Connick Jr.
In 1973 Booker recorded The Lost Paramount Tapes at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California, U.S. with members of the Dr. John band, which included John Boudreaux on drums, Jessie Hill on percussion, Alvin Robinson on guitar and vocals, Richard "Didymus" Washington on percussion, David Lastie on sax, and David L. Johnson on bass guitar. The album was produced by former Dr. John band member David L. Johnson and by singer/songwriter Daniel Moore. The master tapes disappeared from the Paramount Recording Studios library, but a copy of the mixes that were made around the time of the recordings was discovered in 1992, which resulted in a CD release on DJM Records.
Booker then played organ in Dr. John's Bonnaroo Revue touring band in 1974, and also appeared as a sideman on albums by Ringo Starr, John Mayall, The Doobie Brothers, Labelle, Maria Muldaur, and Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia throughout this period.
Booker's performance at the 1975 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival earned him a recording contract with Island Records.[9] His album with Island, Junco Partner, was produced by Joe Boyd, who had previously recorded Booker on sessions for the Muldaurs' records.[12] In January 1976, Booker joined the Jerry Garcia Band; however, following two Palo Alto, California, concerts that involved Garcia "backing up ... Booker on most numbers,"[13] Booker was replaced by Grateful Dead pianist Keith Godchaux.
1976 to 1978: Success in Europe
Booker recorded a number of albums while touring Europe in 1977, including New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live!, which was recorded at his performance at the "Boogie Woogie and Ragtime Piano Contest" in Zurich, Switzerland—the album won the Grand Prix du Disque. He also played at the Nice and Montreux Jazz Festivals in 1978 and recorded a session for the BBC during this time.[14][15] Fourteen years later, a recording entitled Let's Make A Better World!—made in Leipzig during this period—became the last record to be produced in the former East Germany.
In a 2013 interview, filmmaker Lily Keber, who directed a documentary on Booker, provided her perspective on Booker's warm reception in European nations such as Germany and France:
Well, the racism wasn't there, the homophobia wasn't there—as much. Even the drug use was a little more tolerated. But really I think that Booker felt he was being taken seriously in Europe, and it made him think of himself differently and improved the quality of his music. He needed the energy of the audience to feed off.[16]
Keber further explained that Europeans refer to jazz as "the art of the twentieth century" and suggests that the "classical tradition" that is present in the continent led to a greater understanding of Booker among audiences. Keber states that Booker was "concert-hall worthy" to European jazz lovers.[16]
1978 to 1983: Return to the U.S.
From 1978 to 1982, Booker was the house pianist at the Maple Leaf Bar in the Carrollton neighborhood of uptown New Orleans. Recordings during this time, made by John Parsons, were released as Spider on the Keys and Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah.[17] Following his success in Europe, Booker was forced to adjust to a lower level of public recognition, as he performed in cafes and bars. Keber believes this shift was "devastating" to Booker, as he was aware of his own talent.[16]
Booker's last commercial recording, made in 1982, was entitled Classified and, according to producer Scott Billington, was completed in four hours.[17] By this time, Booker's physical and mental condition had deteriorated, even though he was able to attend the Charity Hospital in New Orleans during the 1970s. Furthermore, Booker was subject to the social stigma that affected people who used illicit drugs and who experienced mental health issues during this era of American history.[9][16]
At the end of October 1983, filmmaker Jim Gabour captured Booker's final concert performance for a series on the New Orleans music scene. The series, entitled Music City, was broadcast on Cox Cable and included footage from the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans and a six-and-a-half-minute improvisation called "Seagram's Jam."[18]
1983: Death
Booker died aged 43 on November 8, 1983, while seated in a wheelchair in the emergency room at New Orleans' Charity Hospital, waiting to receive medical attention. The cause of death, as cited in the Orleans Parish Coroner's Death Certificate, was renal failure that was related to his chronic history of heroin and alcohol use.
R.I.P.
Captain Beefheart (Don Glen Van Vliet (geboren als Donald Vliet)) +17.12.2010
Captain Beefheart (* 15. Januar 1941 in Glendale, Kalifornien; † 17. Dezember 2010 in Arcata, Kalifornien)[1] war das Pseudonym von Don Glen Van Vliet (geboren als Donald Vliet), einem US-amerikanischen Autor und Sänger experimenteller Rock- und Bluesmusik und Maler. Seine Musik wurde ab den späten 1960er-Jahren einem größeren Publikum bekannt. Dies wurde begünstigt durch Unterstützung und Zusammenarbeit mit seinem Schulfreund, dem Gitarristen und Komponisten Frank Zappa. Ein wesentlicher Teil von Beefhearts musikalischem Werk zeichnet sich durch ungewöhnliche Arrangements, nicht-metrisches Timing und oftmals kryptische oder bewusst absurde Songtexte aus. Seine wohl bekannteste Veröffentlichung ist das Doppelalbum Trout Mask Replica aus dem Jahr 1969.
weiter: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (/væn ˈvliːt/, born Don Glen Vliet;[2] January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called the Magic Band (1965–1982), with whom he recorded 13 studio albums. Noted for his powerful singing voice with its wide range,[3] Van Vliet also played the harmonica, saxophone and numerous other wind instruments. His music blended rock, blues and psychedelia with avant-garde and contemporary experimental composition.[4] Beefheart was also known for exercising an almost dictatorial control over his supporting musicians, and for often constructing myths about his life.[5]
During his teen years in Lancaster, California, Van Vliet developed an eclectic musical taste and formed "a mutually useful but volatile" friendship with Frank Zappa, with whom he sporadically competed and collaborated.[6] He began performing with his Captain Beefheart persona in 1964 and joined the original Magic Band line-up, initiated by Alexis Snouffer, in 1965. The group drew attention with their cover of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy", which became a regional hit. It was followed by their acclaimed debut album Safe as Milk, released in 1967 on Buddah Records. After being dropped by two consecutive record labels, they signed to Zappa's Straight Records. As producer, Zappa granted Beefheart unrestrained artistic freedom in making 1969's Trout Mask Replica, which ranked 58th in Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[7] Beefheart followed this up with the album Lick My Decals Off, Baby, released in 1970. In 1974, frustrated by lack of commercial success, he released two albums of more conventional rock music that were critically panned; this move, combined with not having been paid for a European tour, and years of enduring Beefheart's abusive behavior, led the entire band to quit. Beefheart eventually formed a new Magic Band with a group of younger musicians and regained contemporary approval through three final albums: Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (1978), Doc at the Radar Station (1980) and Ice Cream for Crow (1982).
Van Vliet has been described as "...one of modern music's true innovators" with "...a singular body of work virtually unrivalled in its daring and fluid creativity."[4][8] Although he achieved little commercial or mainstream critical success,[9] he sustained a cult following as a "highly significant" and "incalculable" influence on an array of new wave, punk, post-punk, experimental and alternative rock musicians.[8][10] Known for his enigmatic personality and relationship with the public, Van Vliet made few public appearances after his retirement from music in 1982. He pursued a career in art, an interest that originated in his childhood talent for sculpture, and a venture which proved to be his most financially secure. His expressionist paintings and drawings command high prices, and have been exhibited in art galleries and museums across the world.[4][11][12] Van Vliet died in 2010, having suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years.
During his teen years in Lancaster, California, Van Vliet developed an eclectic musical taste and formed "a mutually useful but volatile" friendship with Frank Zappa, with whom he sporadically competed and collaborated.[6] He began performing with his Captain Beefheart persona in 1964 and joined the original Magic Band line-up, initiated by Alexis Snouffer, in 1965. The group drew attention with their cover of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy", which became a regional hit. It was followed by their acclaimed debut album Safe as Milk, released in 1967 on Buddah Records. After being dropped by two consecutive record labels, they signed to Zappa's Straight Records. As producer, Zappa granted Beefheart unrestrained artistic freedom in making 1969's Trout Mask Replica, which ranked 58th in Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[7] Beefheart followed this up with the album Lick My Decals Off, Baby, released in 1970. In 1974, frustrated by lack of commercial success, he released two albums of more conventional rock music that were critically panned; this move, combined with not having been paid for a European tour, and years of enduring Beefheart's abusive behavior, led the entire band to quit. Beefheart eventually formed a new Magic Band with a group of younger musicians and regained contemporary approval through three final albums: Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (1978), Doc at the Radar Station (1980) and Ice Cream for Crow (1982).
Van Vliet has been described as "...one of modern music's true innovators" with "...a singular body of work virtually unrivalled in its daring and fluid creativity."[4][8] Although he achieved little commercial or mainstream critical success,[9] he sustained a cult following as a "highly significant" and "incalculable" influence on an array of new wave, punk, post-punk, experimental and alternative rock musicians.[8][10] Known for his enigmatic personality and relationship with the public, Van Vliet made few public appearances after his retirement from music in 1982. He pursued a career in art, an interest that originated in his childhood talent for sculpture, and a venture which proved to be his most financially secure. His expressionist paintings and drawings command high prices, and have been exhibited in art galleries and museums across the world.[4][11][12] Van Vliet died in 2010, having suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years.
Big Joe Williams +17.12.1982
Big Joe Williams (* 16. Oktober 1903 in Crawford, Mississippi, USA; † 17. Dezember 1982 in Macon, Mississippi), eigentlich Joseph Lee Williams, war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist, Sänger und Songschreiber. Er galt als einer der streitlustigsten, gleichzeitig aber begabtesten Musiker des Delta Blues.In seinen jungen Jahren war Big Joe Williams ständig unterwegs, um zwischen New Orleans und Chicago den Blues zu spielen, wo immer dies möglich war. In den 1930ern verbrachte er einige Zeit im Gefängnis.
Im Jahre 1935 machte er seine ersten Aufnahmen unter eigenem Namen, darunter auch seinen wohl bekanntesten Song Baby Please Don’t Go (als Joe Williams' Washboard Blues Singers). 1937 war er zusammen mit Sonny Boy Williamson I. im Studio.
Nach etlichen 78-rpm-Schallplatten erschien 1958 sein erstes Album, Piney Woods Blues, auf dem Delmar Label. 1962 erhielt das Album Blues on Highway 49 den „Grand Prix du Disque de Jazz“ des „Hot Club of France“. In der Folge trat Williams im Rahmen des American Folk Blues Festival auch in Europa auf.
Charlie Musselwhite berichtet, dass er zusammen mit Williams in Chicago das Blues-Revival der 1960er auslöste. Mike Bloomfield beschrieb seine Erfahrungen mit Williams in dem Dokument Me and Big Joe. Williams machte auch Aufnahmen mit Bob Dylan. Bekannt ist vor allem sein Spiel auf einer Gitarre mit neun Saiten, so auch im oben abgebildeten „Folk Blues Festival“ in Hamburg.
Big Joe Williams starb 1982 in Macon (Mississippi). 1992 wurde er in die „Blues Hall of Fame“ aufgenommen. Auf seiner Grabstelle in Crawford wurde 1994 ein Grabstein aus Granit errichtet.
Joseph Lee Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982),[2] billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter,[1] notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over four decades, he recorded such songs as "Baby Please Don't Go", "Crawlin' King Snake" and "Peach Orchard Mama" for a variety of record labels, including Bluebird, Delmark, Okeh, Prestige and Vocalion.[3] Williams was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame on October 4, 1992.[4]
Blues historian Barry Lee Pearson (Sounds Good to Me: The Bluesman's Story, Virginia Piedmont Blues) attempted to document the gritty intensity of the Williams persona in this description:
"When I saw him playing at Mike Bloomfield's "blues night" at the Fickle Pickle, Williams was playing an electric nine-string guitar through a small ramshackle amp with a pie plate nailed to it and a beer can dangling against that. When he played, everything rattled but Big Joe himself. The total effect of this incredible apparatus produced the most buzzing, sizzling, African-sounding music I have ever heard".[5]
From busking to Bluebird
Born in Crawford, Mississippi,[6] Williams as a youth began wandering across the United States busking and playing stores, bars, alleys and work camps. In the early 1920s he worked in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels revue and recorded with the Birmingham Jug Band in 1930 for the Okeh label.[4]
In 1934, he was in St. Louis, where he met record producer Lester Melrose who signed him to Bluebird Records in 1935. He stayed with Bluebird for ten years, recording such blues hits as "Baby, Please Don't Go" (1935) and "Crawlin' King Snake" (1941), both songs later covered by many other performers. He also recorded with other blues singers, including Sonny Boy Williamson I, Robert Nighthawk and Peetie Wheatstraw.[4]
Festival fame
Williams remained a noted blues artist in the 1950s and 1960s, with his guitar style and vocals becoming popular with folk-blues fans. He recorded for the Trumpet, Delmark, Prestige and Vocalion labels, among others. He became a regular on the concert and coffeehouse circuits, touring Europe and Japan in the late 1960s and early 1970s and performing at major U.S. music festivals.[4]
Marc Miller described a 1965 performance in Greenwich Village:
"Sandwiched in between the two sets, perhaps as an afterthought, was the bluesman Big Joe Williams (not to be confused with the jazz and rhythm and blues singer Joe Williams who sang with Count Basie). He looked terrible. He had a big bulbous aneuristic protrusion bulging out of his forehead. He was equipped with a beat up old acoustic guitar which I think had nine strings and sundry homemade attachments and a wire hanger contraption around his neck fashioned to hold a kazoo while keeping his hands free to play the guitar. Needless to say, he was a big letdown after the folk rockers. My date and I exchanged pained looks in empathy for what was being done this Delta blues man who was ruefully out of place. After three or four songs the unseen announcer came on the p. a. system and said, "Lets have a big hand for Big Joe Williams, ladies and gentlemen; thank you, Big Joe". But Big Joe wasn't finished. He hadn't given up on the audience, and he ignored the announcer. He continued his set and after each song the announcer came over the p. a. and tried to politely but firmly get Big Joe off the stage. Big Joe was having none of it, and he continued his set with his nine-string acoustic and his kazoo. Long about the sixth or seventh song he got into his groove and started to wail with raggedy slide guitar riffs, powerful voice, as well as intense percussion on the guitar and its various accoutrements. By the end of the set he had that audience of jaded '60s rockers on their feet cheering and applauding vociferously. Our initial pity for him was replaced by wondrous respect. He knew he had it in him to move that audience, and he knew that thousands of watts and hundreds of decibels do not change one iota the basic power of a song".[7]
Williams' guitar playing was in the Delta blues style, and yet was unique. He played driving rhythm and virtuosic lead lines simultaneously and sang over it all. He played with picks both on his thumb and index finger, plus his guitar was heavily modified. Williams added a rudimentary electric pick-up, whose wires coiled all over the top of his guitar. He also added three extra strings, creating unison pairs for the first, second and fourth strings. His guitar was usually tuned to Open G, like such: (D2 G2 D3D3 G3 B3B3 D4D4), with a capo placed on the second fret to set the tuning to the key of A. During the 1920s and 1930s, Williams had gradually added these extra strings in order to keep other guitar players from being able to play his guitar. In his later years, he would also occasionally use a 12-string guitar with all strings tuned in unison to Open G. Williams sometimes tuned a six-string guitar to an interesting modification of Open G. In this modified tuning, the bass D string (D2) was replaced with a .08 gauge string and tuned to G4. The resulting tuning was (G4 G2 D3 G3 B3 D4), with the G4 string being used as a melody string. This tuning was used exclusively for slide playing.[8]
Back to Mississippi
He died December 17, 1982 in Macon, Mississippi.[2][4] Williams was buried in a private cemetery outside Crawford near the Lowndes County line. His headstone was primarily paid for by friends and partially funded by a collection taken up among musicians at Clifford Antone's nightclub in Austin, Texas, organized by California music writer Dan Forte, and erected through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund on October 9, 1994. Harmonica virtuoso and one time touring companion of Williams, Charlie Musselwhite, delivered the eulogy at the unveiling. Williams' headstone epitaph, composed by Forte, proclaims him "King of the 9 String Guitar."[9]
Remaining funds raised for Williams' memorial were donated by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund to the Delta Blues Museum in order to purchase the last nine-string guitar from Williams' sister Mary May. The guitar purchased by the Museum is actually a 12-string guitar that Williams used in his later days. The last nine-string (a 1950s Kay cutaway converted to Williams' nine-string specifications) is missing at this time. Williams' previous nine-string (converted from a 1944 Gibson L-7 presented to him by Wilson Ramsay, aka "Beef Stew," a name given to him by Williams) is in the possession of Williams' road agent and fellow traveler, Blewett Thomas.
One of Williams' nine-string guitars can be found under the counter of the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, which is owned by Bob Koester, the founder of Delmark Records. Williams can be seen playing the nine-string guitar in American Folk-Blues Festival: The British Tours, 1963-1966, a 2007 DVD release.
Blues historian Barry Lee Pearson (Sounds Good to Me: The Bluesman's Story, Virginia Piedmont Blues) attempted to document the gritty intensity of the Williams persona in this description:
"When I saw him playing at Mike Bloomfield's "blues night" at the Fickle Pickle, Williams was playing an electric nine-string guitar through a small ramshackle amp with a pie plate nailed to it and a beer can dangling against that. When he played, everything rattled but Big Joe himself. The total effect of this incredible apparatus produced the most buzzing, sizzling, African-sounding music I have ever heard".[5]
From busking to Bluebird
Born in Crawford, Mississippi,[6] Williams as a youth began wandering across the United States busking and playing stores, bars, alleys and work camps. In the early 1920s he worked in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels revue and recorded with the Birmingham Jug Band in 1930 for the Okeh label.[4]
In 1934, he was in St. Louis, where he met record producer Lester Melrose who signed him to Bluebird Records in 1935. He stayed with Bluebird for ten years, recording such blues hits as "Baby, Please Don't Go" (1935) and "Crawlin' King Snake" (1941), both songs later covered by many other performers. He also recorded with other blues singers, including Sonny Boy Williamson I, Robert Nighthawk and Peetie Wheatstraw.[4]
Festival fame
Williams remained a noted blues artist in the 1950s and 1960s, with his guitar style and vocals becoming popular with folk-blues fans. He recorded for the Trumpet, Delmark, Prestige and Vocalion labels, among others. He became a regular on the concert and coffeehouse circuits, touring Europe and Japan in the late 1960s and early 1970s and performing at major U.S. music festivals.[4]
Marc Miller described a 1965 performance in Greenwich Village:
"Sandwiched in between the two sets, perhaps as an afterthought, was the bluesman Big Joe Williams (not to be confused with the jazz and rhythm and blues singer Joe Williams who sang with Count Basie). He looked terrible. He had a big bulbous aneuristic protrusion bulging out of his forehead. He was equipped with a beat up old acoustic guitar which I think had nine strings and sundry homemade attachments and a wire hanger contraption around his neck fashioned to hold a kazoo while keeping his hands free to play the guitar. Needless to say, he was a big letdown after the folk rockers. My date and I exchanged pained looks in empathy for what was being done this Delta blues man who was ruefully out of place. After three or four songs the unseen announcer came on the p. a. system and said, "Lets have a big hand for Big Joe Williams, ladies and gentlemen; thank you, Big Joe". But Big Joe wasn't finished. He hadn't given up on the audience, and he ignored the announcer. He continued his set and after each song the announcer came over the p. a. and tried to politely but firmly get Big Joe off the stage. Big Joe was having none of it, and he continued his set with his nine-string acoustic and his kazoo. Long about the sixth or seventh song he got into his groove and started to wail with raggedy slide guitar riffs, powerful voice, as well as intense percussion on the guitar and its various accoutrements. By the end of the set he had that audience of jaded '60s rockers on their feet cheering and applauding vociferously. Our initial pity for him was replaced by wondrous respect. He knew he had it in him to move that audience, and he knew that thousands of watts and hundreds of decibels do not change one iota the basic power of a song".[7]
Williams' guitar playing was in the Delta blues style, and yet was unique. He played driving rhythm and virtuosic lead lines simultaneously and sang over it all. He played with picks both on his thumb and index finger, plus his guitar was heavily modified. Williams added a rudimentary electric pick-up, whose wires coiled all over the top of his guitar. He also added three extra strings, creating unison pairs for the first, second and fourth strings. His guitar was usually tuned to Open G, like such: (D2 G2 D3D3 G3 B3B3 D4D4), with a capo placed on the second fret to set the tuning to the key of A. During the 1920s and 1930s, Williams had gradually added these extra strings in order to keep other guitar players from being able to play his guitar. In his later years, he would also occasionally use a 12-string guitar with all strings tuned in unison to Open G. Williams sometimes tuned a six-string guitar to an interesting modification of Open G. In this modified tuning, the bass D string (D2) was replaced with a .08 gauge string and tuned to G4. The resulting tuning was (G4 G2 D3 G3 B3 D4), with the G4 string being used as a melody string. This tuning was used exclusively for slide playing.[8]
Back to Mississippi
He died December 17, 1982 in Macon, Mississippi.[2][4] Williams was buried in a private cemetery outside Crawford near the Lowndes County line. His headstone was primarily paid for by friends and partially funded by a collection taken up among musicians at Clifford Antone's nightclub in Austin, Texas, organized by California music writer Dan Forte, and erected through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund on October 9, 1994. Harmonica virtuoso and one time touring companion of Williams, Charlie Musselwhite, delivered the eulogy at the unveiling. Williams' headstone epitaph, composed by Forte, proclaims him "King of the 9 String Guitar."[9]
Remaining funds raised for Williams' memorial were donated by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund to the Delta Blues Museum in order to purchase the last nine-string guitar from Williams' sister Mary May. The guitar purchased by the Museum is actually a 12-string guitar that Williams used in his later days. The last nine-string (a 1950s Kay cutaway converted to Williams' nine-string specifications) is missing at this time. Williams' previous nine-string (converted from a 1944 Gibson L-7 presented to him by Wilson Ramsay, aka "Beef Stew," a name given to him by Williams) is in the possession of Williams' road agent and fellow traveler, Blewett Thomas.
One of Williams' nine-string guitars can be found under the counter of the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, which is owned by Bob Koester, the founder of Delmark Records. Williams can be seen playing the nine-string guitar in American Folk-Blues Festival: The British Tours, 1963-1966, a 2007 DVD release.
Big Joe Williams-Dirt Road Blues
Dick Heckstall-Smith +17.12.2004
Richard Malden ("Dick") Heckstall-Smith (* 26. September 1934 in Ludlow, Shropshire; † 17. Dezember 2004 in London) war ein einflussreicher britischer Blues-, Rock- und Jazz-Saxophonist.
Im Laufe seiner Karriere arbeitete Heckstall-Smith mit vielen Blues-, Jazz- und Rock-Musikern zusammen. Er übertrug auf dem Saxophon Jazztechniken in die Rockmusik und wurde auch dafür bekannt, ein Tenor- und ein Sopran-Saxophon gleichzeitig zu spielen.
Heckstall-Smith leitete schon als Student ein Jazzorchester, wurde 1957 Profi-Musiker und trat u. a. mit dem Klarinettisten Sandy Brown auf. Alexis Korner brachte ihn 1962 zu Blues Incorporated. Weitere Stationen waren die Graham Bond Organization (mit Jack Bruce und Ginger Baker, den späteren Cream-Gründern) und John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, bevor er 1968 mit dem Schlagzeuger Jon Hiseman die legendäre Jazzrock-Gruppe Colosseum ins Leben rief. Nach dem vorläufigen Ende dieser Formation im Jahr 1971 folgten Solo-Alben (A Story Ended) und eine Reihe weiterer Engagements in Rock-, Jazz-, Blues- und Folk-orientierten Ensembles. 1978 war er mit Alexis Korner im Rockpalast zu sehen (The Party Album, 1978). 1993 trat er in der Band von Jack Bruce anlässlich dessen 50. Geburtstages im E-Werk in Köln auf. Dick Heckstall-Smith, studierter Agrarwissenschaftler, widmete sich jedoch auch einer akademischen Karriere.
Seit 1994 wurde Colosseum von Hiseman und ihm mehrfach reaktiviert (1994: Reunion Concert im "Rockpalast"). In den letzten Jahren vor seinem Tod war Dick Heckstall-Smith mit der Hamburg Blues Band in Deutschland zu sehen.
Er starb am 17. Dezember 2004 an Krebs.
Dick Heckstall-Smith (16 September 1934 – 17 December 2004) was an English jazz and blues saxophonist.[1] He played with some of the most influential English blues rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s.
Early years
Heckstall-Smith was born Richard Malden Heckstall-Smith in the Royal Free Hospital, in Ludlow, England, and attended a York boarding school. However, he refused a second term there, instead enrolling in Gordonstoun, where his father had accepted a job as headmaster of the local Grammar School. Dick Heckstall-Smith was raised in Knighton, Radnorshire. He learned to play piano, clarinet and alto saxophone in childhood.[1]
Heckstall-Smith completed his education at Dartington Hall School before reading agriculture – and co-leading the university jazz band – at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, from 1953. Aged 15, he had taken up the soprano sax while at Dartington, captivated by the sound of Sidney Bechet. Then Lester Young and tenor saxophonist bebop jazzman Wardell Gray proved to be major influences for him.[2][3]
Musical career
Heckstall-Smith was an active member of the London jazz scene from the late 1950s. He joined Blues Incorporated, Alexis Korner's groundbreaking blues group, in 1962, recording the album R&B from the Marquee. The following year, he was a founding member of that band's breakaway unit, The Graham Bond Organization. (The lineup also included two future members of the blues-rock supergroup Cream: bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker.)
In 1967, Heckstall-Smith became a member of guitarist-vocalist John Mayall's blues rock band, Bluesbreakers. That jazz-skewed edition of the band, had also included drummer Jon Hiseman and future Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, released the album Bare Wires in 1968.
From 1968 to 1970, Heckstall-Smith and Hiseman were the key creative members of the pioneering UK jazz-rock band Colosseum. The band afforded Heckstall-Smith an opportunity to showcase his writing and instrumental virtuosity, playing two saxophones simultaneously.[1]
After exiting Colosseum, Heckstall-Smith fronted and played in several other fusion units, including Manchild, Sweet Pain, Big Chief, Tough Tenors, The Famous Bluesblasters, Mainsqueeze, Big Chief and DHSS. Collaborating musicians common to many of these outfits included Victor Brox, Keith Tillman and harp player John O'Leary, a founder member of Savoy Brown. He participated in a 1990s reunion of the original Colosseum lineup and played the hard-working Hamburg Blues Band. In 2001 he recorded the all-star project Blues and Beyond, which reunited him with Mayall, Bruce, Taylor, ex-Mayall and Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green. In the 1980s in his Electric Dream ensemble Heckstall-Smith also worked with the South African percussionist Julian Bahula.
JACK BRUCE - DICK HECKSTALL SMITH "mellow down easy"
Colosseum Live - Walking in the Park (London, 28 February 2015)
Hound Dog Taylor +17.12.1975
Hound Dog Taylor (* 12. April 1915 in Natchez, Mississippi; † 17. Dezember 1975 in Chicago, Illinois) war ein US-amerikanischer Sänger und spielte Piano und Gitarre in den Genres Chicago Blues und Boogie.
Leben
„Hound Dog“ Taylor, eigentlich Theodore Roosevelt Taylor, wurde mit einer Anomalie geboren: Er hatte an jeder Hand einen sechsten, sehr kleinen Finger.[1] Er wuchs um Tchule und Greenwood im Mississippi-Delta[Anm. 1] auf, wie auch etliche andere schwarze Bluesmusiker (B. B. King, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters usw.). Seine ersten musikalischen Erfahrungen machte er beim Klavierspielen. Mit der Gitarre fing er erst mit 21 Jahren ernsthaft an. Sein Musikstil wurde stark vom damals aufsteigenden Elmore James geprägt. In seinen Zwanzigern spielte er im Raum Mississippi, wo er unter anderem auch mit Sonny Boy Williamson in der legendären Radiosendung „King Biscuit Time“ zu hören war. Doch Taylor wurde 1942 vom Ku-Klux-Klan aus Mississippi vertrieben, weil er ein Verhältnis mit einer Weißen hatte.
Bis Ende der Fünfziger Jahre arbeitete er in Chicago als Elektriker und in anderen Teilzeitjobs. Nebenbei trat er in schwülstigen Nachtbars Süd-Chicagos als Gitarrist auf. „Hound Dog“ nannte man ihn, weil er von Frauen so angetan war und ihnen steppenwölfisch hinterherjagte. In dieser Zeit änderte er seinen bisher klassischen E-Tuning- in einen energischen Bottleneck-Stil. 1957 widmete er sich endgültig nur noch seiner Musikkarriere.
1960 traf er auf den Gitarristen Brewer Phillips. Die beiden wurden Freunde und gründeten die Band The HouseRockers. Mit den ersten Singles wie „Baby Is Coming Home“, „Take Five“ und „Christine“ stießen sie außerhalb von Chicago aber auf wenig Interesse. 1965 trat der Schlagzeuger Ted Harvey der Band bei. Mit ihm fanden die HouseRockers ihren typisch lauten, harten Bluesakzent mit Taylors rauer Stimme und seinem Slidespiel (Bottleneck) auf billigen japanischen Gitarren sowie Phillips’ Basslinien, die, auf einer Fender Telecaster gespielt, den fehlenden Bass ersetzten.
Bruce Iglauer, später Manager Taylors, bekam die Band 1969 im Chicagoer „Eddie Shaw’s“ erstmals zu hören. Allerdings wollte Iglauers Chef mit Taylor keinen Plattenvertrag abschließen. So ermöglichte Iglauer mit eigener finanzieller Unterstützung 1971 die Veröffentlichung von Taylors erster Platte unter dem Label Alligator Records. Ohne es zu ahnen, begründete er damit das heute weltbekannte Blueslabel. Das Album wurde mit 9.000 verkauften Platten zum Erfolg. Die Singles „Give Me Back My Wig“ und „It’s Alright“ wurden zu den bekanntesten Songs. 1973 kam die zweite Platte, „Natural Boogie“, auf den Markt.
Taylor war auf der Höhe seiner Karriere. Doch es kam zwischen den eigentlich gut befreundeten Gitarristen Phillips und Taylor 1975 zu einem handgreiflichen Streit. Auslöser war eine abfällige Bemerkung Phillips’ über Taylors Frau Fredda. Taylor schlug Phillips; infolgedessen erlitt dieser Verletzungen. Kurz danach erkrankte Taylor, ein leidenschaftlicher Raucher, an tödlichem Lungenkrebs. Seine letzte Bitte war, Phillips zu sprechen. Er vergab Phillips, dem zweiten Gitarristen seiner Band und seinem langjährigen Freund, seine Tat am Sterbebett. Theodore Roosevelt Taylor starb im Dezember 1975.
Nach seinem Tod wurde 1976 das letzte Alligator-Album Taylors, „Beware of the Dog“, herausgegeben.
1984 wurde er mit einem Eintrag in die Blues Hall of Fame für seine musikalischen Leistungen honoriert.
Andere Blueskünstler wie Eric Clapton oder Albert King ließen sich von Hound Dog Taylor inspirieren (z. B. für „Hideaway“). Er gehört zu den Klassikern des elektrischen Blues. Alligator Records veröffentlichte 2003 „Hound Dog Taylor-A Tribute“ in dem unter anderen Luther Allison, Sonny Landreth, Bob Margolin, Elvin Bishop, George Thorogood und Lil’ Ed and The Blues Imperials Werke Taylors interpretieren.
Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor[3] (April 12, 1915 - December 17, 1975)[4] was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer.[1]
Biography
Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1915 (although some sources say 1917). He originally played piano, but began playing guitar when he was 20. He moved to Chicago in 1942.
He became a full-time musician around 1957 but remained unknown outside of the Chicago area where he played small clubs in the black neighborhoods and also at the open-air Maxwell Street Market. He was known for his electrified slide guitar playing roughly styled after that of Elmore James, his cheap Japanese Teisco guitars, and his raucous boogie beats. He was also famed among guitar players for having six fingers on his left hand.[5] In 1967 Taylor toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival, performing with Little Walter and Koko Taylor.[6]
After hearing Taylor with his band, the HouseRockers (Brewer Phillips on second guitar and Ted Harvey on drums) in 1970 at Florence's Lounge on Chicago's South Side, Bruce Iglauer - at the time a shipping clerk for Delmark Records - tried to get him signed by his employer.[3] Having no success getting Delmark to sign Taylor, Iglauer formed a small record label with a $2500 inheritance and recorded Taylor's debut album, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, on his fledgling Alligator Records in 1971.[3] It was the first release on Alligator, now a major blues label.[4] It was recorded in a studio in just two nights. Iglauer began managing and booking the band, which toured nationwide and performed with Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornton.[citation needed] The band became particularly popular in the Boston area, where Taylor inspired a young protégé named George Thorogood. A live album Live At Joe's Place documented a Boston appearance from 1972.
Their second release, Natural Boogie, was recorded in late 1973, and led to greater acclaim and touring. In 1975, Taylor and his band toured Australia and New Zealand with Freddie King and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. His third Alligator album, Beware of the Dog, was recorded live in 1974 but was only released after his death.[4] More posthumous releases occurred as well, including Genuine Houserocking Music and Release the Hound, on the Alligator label as well as some bootleg live recordings.
Taylor died of lung cancer in 1975, and was buried in Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.[7][8]
Awards and Recognition
Taylor was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984.[citation needed]
George Thorogood dedicated "The Sky Is Crying" (song 9) to "the memory of the late great Hound Dog Taylor" on his Live album (EMI America CDP 7 46329 2).
A scene in the 2011 film The Rum Diary features a loose depiction of Hound Dog Taylor performing at raucous concert in 1950s San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Biography
Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1915 (although some sources say 1917). He originally played piano, but began playing guitar when he was 20. He moved to Chicago in 1942.
He became a full-time musician around 1957 but remained unknown outside of the Chicago area where he played small clubs in the black neighborhoods and also at the open-air Maxwell Street Market. He was known for his electrified slide guitar playing roughly styled after that of Elmore James, his cheap Japanese Teisco guitars, and his raucous boogie beats. He was also famed among guitar players for having six fingers on his left hand.[5] In 1967 Taylor toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival, performing with Little Walter and Koko Taylor.[6]
After hearing Taylor with his band, the HouseRockers (Brewer Phillips on second guitar and Ted Harvey on drums) in 1970 at Florence's Lounge on Chicago's South Side, Bruce Iglauer - at the time a shipping clerk for Delmark Records - tried to get him signed by his employer.[3] Having no success getting Delmark to sign Taylor, Iglauer formed a small record label with a $2500 inheritance and recorded Taylor's debut album, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, on his fledgling Alligator Records in 1971.[3] It was the first release on Alligator, now a major blues label.[4] It was recorded in a studio in just two nights. Iglauer began managing and booking the band, which toured nationwide and performed with Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornton.[citation needed] The band became particularly popular in the Boston area, where Taylor inspired a young protégé named George Thorogood. A live album Live At Joe's Place documented a Boston appearance from 1972.
Their second release, Natural Boogie, was recorded in late 1973, and led to greater acclaim and touring. In 1975, Taylor and his band toured Australia and New Zealand with Freddie King and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. His third Alligator album, Beware of the Dog, was recorded live in 1974 but was only released after his death.[4] More posthumous releases occurred as well, including Genuine Houserocking Music and Release the Hound, on the Alligator label as well as some bootleg live recordings.
Taylor died of lung cancer in 1975, and was buried in Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.[7][8]
Awards and Recognition
Taylor was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984.[citation needed]
George Thorogood dedicated "The Sky Is Crying" (song 9) to "the memory of the late great Hound Dog Taylor" on his Live album (EMI America CDP 7 46329 2).
A scene in the 2011 film The Rum Diary features a loose depiction of Hound Dog Taylor performing at raucous concert in 1950s San Juan, Puerto Rico.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SYLKivSqS0
Robin Rogers LIVE at the National Women in Blues Festival
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