1929 Earl Hooker*
1941 Captain Beefheart (Don Glen Van Vliet (geboren als Donald Vliet))*
1948 Ronnie Van Zant*
1968 Martin Schmitt*
1970 Joan Pau Cumellas*
1980 Christoffer Andersen*
1998 Junior Wells+
1941 Captain Beefheart (Don Glen Van Vliet (geboren als Donald Vliet))*
1948 Ronnie Van Zant*
1968 Martin Schmitt*
1970 Joan Pau Cumellas*
1980 Christoffer Andersen*
1998 Junior Wells+
Happy Birthday
Captain Beefheart (Don Glen Van Vliet (geboren als Donald Vliet)) *15.01.1941
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.Werk
Erste Schritte
Van Vliet zog mit seiner Familie 1954 nach Lancaster in die Mojave-Wüste, wo er an der High School den jungen Frank Zappa kennenlernte. Im Winter 1958/59 nahm er mit diesem erste Stücke auf, von denen das Stück Lost in a Whirlpool auf dem 1996 erschienenen Zappa-Album The Lost Episodes herauskam. Dieses enthält unter anderem neben drei gemeinsamen Aufnahmen aus den Jahren 1968/69 außerdem das Lied Tiger Roach, welches Zappa und Beefheart 1962 oder 1963 mit den Musikern Janschi (Bass) und Vic Mortenson (Schlagzeug) aufgenommen hatten. 1964 gründete er die Magic Band und debütierte mit ihr 1965 bei der Hollywood Teenage Fair.
Frühwerk
Bereits im folgenden Jahr veröffentlichte die Gruppe ihre erste Single, Diddy Wah Diddy, kurz darauf gefolgt von Moonchild, einfache, direkte Rhythm-and-Blues-Stücke, die aber anfangs nicht auf Anklang in der Musikindustrie stießen. Die Band versuchte einen Plattenvertrag zu bekommen und Beefheart unterschrieb verschiedene Verträge, die ihm angeboten wurden, was ihm später noch rechtliche Probleme und anstrengende Gerichtsprozesse bescherte. Trotzdem konnte die Band 1967 ihr erstes Album Safe as Milk bei Buddah Records veröffentlichen. Hier spielte Ry Cooder auf mehreren Stücken Gitarre, setzte aber auch nachträgliche Änderungen durch.
Das Folgewerk Strictly Personal von 1968 wurde durch den Produzenten Bob Krasnow in „psychedelischer“ Manier unabgesprochen neu abgemischt. Krasnow veränderte es dadurch so sehr, dass Van Vliet sich später davon distanzierte. Nur das Angebot Frank Zappas, mit vollständiger kreativer Kontrolle zu seinem neu gegründeten Label Straight Records zu wechseln, hielt Beefheart davon ab, sich zurückzuziehen.
Strictly Personal zeichnet sich bereits als ungewöhnliche und komplexe Kombination aus Delta Blues und Avantgarde-Rock mit gelegentlichen Free-Jazz-Einflüssen aus. 1992 erschienen einige von Krasnow unbearbeitete Takes der Aufnahmesessions auf I May Be Hungry But I Sure Ain’t Weird, ansonsten gelten die Masterbänder des Albums als verschollen.
Erst 1971 erschien dann Mirror Man, das eigentlich zweite Album der Band, das bereits 1967/1968 aufgenommen worden war. Es besteht aus nur vier langen Stücken, von denen Kandy Korn sich in einer anderen Version auch auf Strictly Personal findet. Das Album ist deutlich das fehlende Glied („missing link“) im Frühwerk der Band, wird doch hier die beginnende Wandlung der Band von einer zwar eigenwilligen, aber letztlich noch konventionellen Bluesrockband hin zu einem experimentellen Format erstmals deutlich.
Trout Mask Replica
Im Jahr 1969 erschien das von Frank Zappa produzierte Album Trout Mask Replica (deutsch: „Forellenmasken-Nachbildung“) als eine der ersten Veröffentlichungen des Labels Straight Records. Das Doppelalbum enthält achtundzwanzig Musikstücke, die über die Dauer eines Jahres eingespielt wurden. Gemeinsam mit dem Nachfolger Lick My Decals Off, Baby gilt Trout Mask Replica vielen Kritikern als ein Meilenstein der Rockgeschichte und als das beste Album von Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band. Auf diesen musikalisch radikalen Alben ist der Einfluss von Free Jazz und moderner Klassik stärker als auf den Vorgängern. Beefheart selbst erklärte immer, überhaupt keine Einflüsse zu haben.
Die meisten Kompositionen auf dem Album sind von Polyrhythmen und atonaler Harmonik gekennzeichnet und verschmelzen Einflüsse aus Free Jazz und Delta Blues. Der charakteristische, roh wirkende Klang entstand durch die Besetzung aus zwei Leadgitarren, Bassklarinette, mehreren Saxophonen sowie Beefhearts rauem Gesang, der sich nur vage am Takt der Musik orientiert. Die Aufnahmen zum Album entstanden in langen Sessions, während derer die Magic Band im selben Haus zusammenlebte, in dem das Album auch aufgenommen wurde. Beefheart bestand darauf, seine Gesangsparts ohne Monitor-Kopfhörer aufzunehmen, hörte also die Musik nicht, während er sang.[2]
Bekannt wurde auch die von Grafiker Cal Schenkel gestaltete Albumhülle von Trout Mask Replica: Das Foto auf der Vorderseite zeigt eine Person vor leuchtend rotem Hintergrund, die sich den präparierten Kopf eines Karpfens als Maske vor das Gesicht hält, wie zum Gruß die rechte Hand erhebt und auf dem Kopf einen kegelförmigen Hut mit einem Federball obenauf trägt.
Auf der 2003 erstmals veröffentlichten Liste des US-Musikmagazins Rolling Stone, “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” (deutsch: „Die 500 großartigsten Alben aller Zeiten“) steht das Album Trout Mask Replica auf Platz 58.[3]
Die „Tragic Band“
Captain Beefheart bei einem Konzert in der Convocation Hall, Toronto, 1974
Captain Beefheart (links) mit Frank Zappa bei einem Konzert in New Heaven, CT
Die Ansprüche, die Beefheart in diesen komplexen Werken mit seiner rauen, etwas an den Blues-Sänger Howlin’ Wolf erinnernden Stimme, deren Umfang über viereinhalb Oktaven reichte, und seiner surrealen Lyrik an den Hörer stellte, überforderten die breite Hörerschaft und ein kommerzieller Erfolg blieb aus. Auf den beiden 1972 veröffentlichten Alben The Spotlight Kid und Clear Spot milderte er die konzeptionelle Strenge der Vorgänger zugunsten eines verspielteren, gelegentlich fast konventionellen Stils. Nachdem auch diese Platten nicht den erhofften Erfolg hatten, zerbrach die Magic Band und Beefheart verlor seinen Plattenvertrag.
Beefheart ging nun für zwei Jahre nach Großbritannien und veröffentlichte dort mit einer neuen, unter Fans teils als „Tragic Band“ bezeichneten Magic Band die Alben Unconditionally Guaranteed (1973) und Bluejeans And Moonbeams (1974). Viele Kritiker sahen darin seine schlechtesten Arbeiten, da er seinen unverkennbaren Stil zu kraftlosem Popblues verwässere. Captain Beefheart kehrte in die USA zurück. Er traf wieder auf seinen alten Freund Frank Zappa, und auf der Tournee 1975 entstand das gemeinsame Live-Album Bongo Fury. Sein Auftritt hier passt zum ironisch-zynischen Stil und zur expressiven Spielfreude Zappas.
Spätwerk
1976 produzierte er Bat Chain Puller, das als Album anfangs unveröffentlicht blieb. Nachdem er 1978 einen neuen Vertrag bei Virgin Records bekam, erschienen einige der Stücke auf Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). Stilistisch war das Werk wieder eine Rückkehr zu seinen Wurzeln, einer exzentrischen Melange aus Bluesrock und Avantgarde.
Das 1980 erschienene Doc at Radar Station bringt die Grundelemente seines Werks – den Blues, eine expressiv-absurde Lyrik, komplexe Gitarren- und Rhythmus-Arrangements und fremdartige, fast atonale Kompositionen – noch einmal in der Beefheart-typischen Weise zusammen.
1982 erschien mit Ice Cream For Crow sein letztes Album, das wieder mehr konventionelle Arrangements aufweist und als spätes Bekenntnis zum Blues gedeutet wurde. Das vorletzte Stück The Thousandth And Tenth Day Of The Human Totem Pole wird als ein erster und letzter, pessimistischer Kommentar des Captain zur menschlichen Zivilisation interpretiert. 1984 gab es weitere Aufnahmen, die jedoch nicht veröffentlicht wurden. Danach wurde keine neue Musik von Captain Beefheart mehr veröffentlicht und er trat nicht mehr als Musiker auf.
Das allgemeine Erkennen des Potentials seiner Musik setzte erst mit der Beendigung seiner Musikkarriere ein. Insbesondere junge Punk- und New-Wave-Bands wie Devo, Pere Ubu, The Fall, Public Image Ltd. und viele andere ließen sich von ihm inspirieren. Mit den Jahren wuchs diese Anerkennung weiter, im Rückblick wird er als einer der wichtigsten Musiker der Rockgeschichte gesehen, einer der Ersten, die den Rock an seine musikalische Grenze brachten.
Karriereende, Neubeginn und Rückzug
Don Van Vliet zog aus dieser letzten Enttäuschung die endgültige Konsequenz und beendete 1985 seine Karriere als Musiker. Er zog sich gemeinsam mit seiner Frau in die Mojavewüste zurück und machte die Malerei zu seinem Beruf. Aufgrund seiner zeichnerischen Fähigkeiten hatte er in seiner Kindheit als Wunderkind gegolten und Anfang der 1950er Jahre sogar ein Stipendium in Europa angeboten bekommen, das seine Eltern jedoch ausschlugen.
Für Van Vliet hatte sich diese Entscheidung bewährt, da er als Maler von seinen Arbeiten, die zuweilen an die COBRA-Gruppe und andere an „primitiver“ Kunst interessierte 50er-Jahre-Malerei erinnern, besser leben konnte als von seiner Arbeit als Musiker. Einige seiner Bilder erzielten Preise von über 100.000 US-Dollar.[4] Seit den 1990er Jahren hatte sich Don Van Vliet vollständig aus der Öffentlichkeit zurückgezogen. Es wurde trotz gegenteiliger Behauptungen vermutet, dass dies auf eine Erkrankung mit Multipler Sklerose zurückzuführen sei. 2004 wohnte er in Trinidad, Kalifornien.[5] Vliet verstarb am 17. Dezember 2010 in Nordkalifornien nach einer Komplikation infolge von Multipler Sklerose.[6]
Bandmitglieder
1964: Gitarre: Alex St. Clair und Doug Moon. Bass: Jerry Handley. Schlagzeug: Paul Blakely.
1967: Gitarre: Alex St. Clair und Antennae Jimmy Semens (geboren Jeff Cotton). Bass: Jerry Handley. Schlagzeug: John „Drumbo“ French. Einige Stücke begleitet Ry Cooder auf dem Album Safe as Milk.
1969: Gitarre: Antennae Jimmy Semens (geboren Jeff Cotton), Zoot Horn Rollo (geboren Bill Harkleroad). Bass: Rockette Morton (Mark Boston). Schlagzeug: John „Drumbo“ French. Bassklarinette: The Mascara Snake (Victor Hayden).
1970: Gitarre: Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad), andere Quellen („Captain Beefheart Electricity“) nennen auch Doog Moon und Jeff Cotton. Bass: Rockette Morton (Mark Boston). Bassklarinette: The Mascara Snake. Schlagzeug: John French und Art Tripp (als Ed Marimba), der auch Percussion spielte.
1972: Gitarre: Zoot Horn Rollo und Winged Eel Fingerling (Elliott Ingber). Bass: Rockette Morton und Oréjon (Roy Estrada). Schlagzeug: John French, Art Tripp (als Ted Cactus und Ed Marimba), Rhys Clark.
1978: Gitarre: Jeff Morris Tepper, Richard Redus. Keyboards: Eric Drew Feldmann. Posaune: Bruce Fowler. Schlagzeug: Robert Williams. Percussion: Art Tripp (Ed Marimba).
1980: Gitarre: Jeff Morris Tepper, Gary Lucas, John French, Keyboards: Eric Drew Feldmann, Posaune: Bruce Fowler. Schlagzeug: Robert Williams, John French. Bass: John French.
1982: Gitarre: Jeff Morris Tepper, Gary Lucas. Keyboards: Eric Drew Feldmann. Bass und Marimba: Richard Midnight Hatsize Snyder. Schlagzeug: Cliff Martinez.
Bedeutung und Zitate
„Wenn Beefheart Pop machte, hörte es sich an wie Avantgarde, wenn er Avantgarde machte,
wie ein Hörspiel, wenn er Hörspiel machte, war es ein Song.“ (Carl Ludwig Reichert)[7]
“If anyone in the world of rock music really deserves to be labeled as a genius, I think that he
could be it.” (John Peel)
(deutsch: „Wenn irgendjemand in der Welt der Rockmusik es wirklich verdient hat, als
Genie bezeichnet zu werden, dann, so denke ich, könnte er es sein“)
“Captain Beefheart is the most important musician to rise in the Sixties, far more significant
and far-reaching than the Beatles; as important for all music as Ornette Coleman was for jazz,
as Leadbelly was for the blues.” (Lester Bangs)
(deutsch: „Captain Beefheart ist der wichtigste Musiker, den die Sechziger Jahre
hervorgebracht haben, weitaus bedeutender und weitreichender als die Beatles; so
bedeutend für jegliche Musik wie Ornette Coleman es für den Jazz war und Leadbelly für den
Blues.“)
The White Stripes haben drei Songs von ihm gecovert, Party of Special Things to Do, China Pig
sowie Ashtray Heart und im Jahr 2000 als Single bei dem bekannten Indielabel Sub Pop
veröffentlicht.
The Kills schließen ihre Live-Shows fast immer mit einer Coverversion von Captain Beefhearts
Drop Out Boogie.
„Bat Chain Puller“ wurde in die legendäre Wireliste The Wire's "100 Records That Set The
World On Fire (While No One Was Listening)" aufgenommen.
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.
Captain Beefheart - Same Old Blues
Earl Hooker *15.1.1929
Earl Hooker (* 15. Januar 1929 oder 1930 in Clarksdale, Mississippi; † 21. April 1970 in Chicago, Illinois), mit vollem Namen Earl Zebedee Hooker, war ein US-amerikanischer Bluesmusiker und ein Cousin der Blues-Legende John Lee Hooker.[1]Mit 10 begann er Gitarre zu spielen und ging 1941 in Chicago in die Lyon and Healy School of Music. Mitte der 40er nahm er bei Robert Nighthawk Gitarrenunterricht. Im Oktober 1969 kam er im Rahmen einer Tour mit dem American Folk Blues Festival nach Europa. Jedoch schien diese Tournee ihn körperlich überanstrengt zu haben, da Hooker nach einigen Auftritten im November und Dezember 1969 in Chicago ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert wurde, wo er dann aufgrund von Komplikationen seiner Tuberkuloseerkrankung verstarb.[2] Er ist in Chicago begraben.
Earl Hooker (January 15, 1929 – April 21, 1970) was an American Chicago blues guitarist, perhaps best known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician",[1] Hooker performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker (a cousin) as well as fronting his own bands. An early player of the electric guitar, Hooker was influenced by the modern urban styles of T-Bone Walker and Robert Nighthawk. As a band leader, he recorded several singles and albums, in addition to recording with well-known artists. His "Blue Guitar", a popular Chicago area slide-guitar instrumental single, was later overdubbed with vocals by Muddy Waters and became the popular "You Shook Me".
In the late 1960s, Hooker began performing on the college and concert circuit and had several recording contracts. Just as his career was on an upswing, Earl Hooker died in 1970 at age 41 after a lifelong struggle with tuberculosis. His guitar playing has been acknowledged by many of his peers, including B.B. King, who commented: "to me he is the best of modern guitarists. Period. With the slide he was the best. It was nobody else like him, he was just one of a kind".[2]
Early life
Earl Zebedee Hooker was born in 1929 in rural Quitman County, Mississippi, outside of Clarksdale. In 1930, when he was one year old, his parents moved to Chicago. His family was musically inclined (John Lee Hooker was a cousin) and Earl was exposed to music at home at a very early age. About age ten, he started playing guitar. Hooker was self-taught and picked up what he could from those around him. Although Hooker was gaining proficiency on guitar, he did not show an interest in singing. This has been explained by a speech impediment, i.e., pronounced stuttering, which afflicted him all his life.[3] Hooker also contracted tuberculosis when he was young. Although his condition did not become critical until the mid-1950s, it required periodic hospital visits beginning at an early age.
By 1942, Hooker was performing on Chicago street corners with childhood friends including Bo Diddley. From the beginning, the blues were Hooker's favorites, but this was when the more country-influenced blues was giving way to swing-influenced and jump-blues styles, which often featured the electric guitar. T-Bone Walker was popular and in 1942 began a three-month club stint at the Rhumboogie Club in Chicago. He had a considerable impact on Hooker, with both his playing and showmanship.[4] Walker's swing-influenced blues guitar, including "the jazzy way he would sometimes run the blues scales"[3] and intricate chord work, appealed to Hooker. Walker's stage dynamics, which included playing the guitar behind his neck and with his teeth, influenced Hooker's own later stage act.
Also around this time, he developed a friendship with Robert Nighthawk, one of the first guitarists in Chicago to switch to electric guitar. Nighthawk taught Hooker slide-guitar techniques, including various tunings and his highly articulated approach; Nighthawk had a lasting influence on Hooker's playing. Junior Wells, another important figure in Hooker's career, entered his life at this time. The two were frequent street performers and sometimes to avoid foul weather (or truancy officers), they played in streetcars, riding one line to another across Chicago.
Early career and recordings
Around 1946, Earl Hooker traveled to Helena, Arkansas where he performed with Robert Nighthawk. While not booked with Nighthawk, Hooker performed with Sonny Boy Williamson II, including on his popular Helena KFFA radio program King Biscuit Time.[5] Hooker then toured the South as a member of Nighthawk's band for the next couple of years. This was his introduction to life as an itinerant blues musician (although he had earlier run away from home and spent time in the Mississippi Delta). In 1949, Hooker tried to establish himself in the Memphis, Tennessee music scene, but was soon back on the road fronting his own band. By the early 1950s he returned to Chicago and performed regularly in the local clubs. This set the pattern that he repeated for most of his life: extensive touring with various musicians interspersed with establishing himself in various cities before returning to the Chicago club scene.[5] During this time, he formed a band with blues drummer and vocalist, Kansas City Red.[6]
In 1952, Earl Hooker began recording for several independent record companies. His early singles were often credited to the vocalist he recorded with, although some instrumentals (and his occasional vocal) were issued in Hooker's name. Songs by Hooker and with blues and R&B artists, including Johnny O'Neal, Little Sam Davis, Boyd Gilmore, Pinetop Perkins, The Dells, Arbee Stidham, Lorenzo Smith, and Harold Tidwell were recorded by such labels as King, Rockin', Sun, Argo, Veejay, States, United, and C.J. (several of these recordings, including all of the Sun material, were unissued at the time). The harmonica player, Little Arthur Duncan, often accompanied Hooker over this period.[7]
Among these early singles was Hooker's first recorded vocal performance on an interpretation of the blues classic "Black Angel Blues". Although his vocals were more than adequate, they lacked the power usually associated with blues singers.[8] Hooker's "Sweet Angel" (1953 Rockin' 513) was based on Robert Nighthawk's 1949 "Black Angel Blues" and showed that "Hooker had by now transcended his teacher".[9] (B.B. King later had a hit in 1956 with his interpretation, "Sweet Little Angel".) One of Hooker's most successful singles during this period was "Frog Hop", recorded in 1956 (Argo 5265). The song, an upbeat instrumental, showed some of his T-Bone Walker swing-blues and chording influences, as well as his own style.[10]
Chief/Profile/Age recordings
Despite a major tuberculosis attack in 1956 that required hospitalization, Earl Hooker returned to performing in Chicago clubs and touring the South. By late 1959, Junior Wells brought Hooker to the Chief/Profile/Age group of labels, where he began one of the most fruitful periods of his recording career. Their first recording together, "Little by Little" (Profile 4011), was a hit the following year when it reached number 23 in the Billboard Hot R&B Sides chart.[11] With this success and his rapport with Chief owner and producer Mel London, Hooker became Chief's house guitarist. From 1959 to 1963, he appeared on about forty Chief recordings, including singles for Wells, Lillian Offitt, Magic Sam, A.C. Reed, Ricky Allen, Reggie "Guitar" Boyd, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, and Jackie Brenston, as well as Hooker being the featured artist. He appeared on nearly all of Wells' releases, including "Come on in This House", "Messin' with the Kid", and "It Hurts Me Too", which remained in Wells' repertoire throughout his career. Hooker regularly performed with Wells for the rest of 1960 and most of 1961.
For the Chief labels, Hooker released several instrumentals, including the slow blues "Calling All Blues" (1960 Chief 7020) which featured Hooker's slide guitar and "Blues in D Natural" (1960 Chief 7016), where he switched between fretted and slide guitar. However, it was a chance taping before a recording session that captured perhaps Hooker's best known song (although by a different title). During the warm-up that preceded a May 1961 scheduled session, Hooker and his band played an impromptu slow blues which featured Hooker's slide guitar. The song was played once and Hooker was apparently not aware that it was being recorded.[12] Producer Mel London saved the tape and when looking for material to release the following spring, issued it as "Blue Guitar" (Age 29106). "Earl's song sold unusually well for an instrumental blues side"[13] and Chicago-area bluesmen were including it in their sets.
Sensing greater commercial potential for Hooker's "Blue Guitar", Leonard Chess approached Mel London about using it for Muddy Waters' next record. An agreement was reached and in July 1962, Waters overdubbed a vocal (with lyrics by Willie Dixon) on Hooker's single and it was renamed "You Shook Me". The song was successful and Chess hired Hooker to record three more instrumentals for Muddy Waters to overdub. One of the songs, again with Dixon-supplied lyrics, titled "You Need Love", was also a success and "sold better than Muddy's early sixties recordings".[14] Later, rock bands such as Led Zeppelin would achieve greater success with their adaptations of Earl Hooker's and Muddy Waters' "You Shook Me" and "You Need Love".
During his time with Chief, Hooker also recorded singles as a sideman for Bobby Saxton and Betty Everett as well as in his own name for the Bea & Baby, C.J., and Checker record labels. By 1964, the last of the Chief labels went out of business and ended his longest association with a record label; for some, his recordings for Chief/Profile/Age represent Hooker's best work.[15]
Cuca and Arhoolie recordings
Hooker continued touring and began recording for Cuca Records, Jim-Ko, C.J., Duplex, and Globe. Several songs recorded for Cuca between 1964 and 1967 were released on his first album The Genius of Earl Hooker. The album was composed of instrumentals, including the slow blues "The End of the Blues" and some songs which incorporated recent popular music trends, such as the early funk-influenced "Two Bugs in a Rug" (an allusion to his tuberculosis or "TB"). Hooker experienced a major tuberculosis attack in late summer 1967 and was hospitalized for nearly a year.
When Hooker was released from the hospital in 1968, he assembled a new band and began performing in the Chicago clubs and touring, against his doctor's advice. The band, with pianist Pinetop Perkins, harmonica player Carey Bell, bassist Geno Skaggs, vocalist Andrew Odom, and steel-guitar player Freddie Roulette, was "widely acclaimed" and "considered [as] one of the best Earl had ever carried with him".[16] Based on a recommendation by Buddy Guy, Arhoolie Records recorded an album by Hooker and his new band.[1] Two Bugs and a Roach was released in spring 1969 and included a mix of instrumentals and vocals by Odom, Bell, and Hooker. For one of his vocals, Hooker chose "Anna Lee", a song based on Robert Nighthawk's 1949 "Annie Lee Blues". As he had done earlier with "Sweet Angel", Hooker acknowledged his mentor's influence, but extended beyond Nighthawk's version to create his own interpretation. The "brilliant bebop[-influenced]" instrumental "Off the Hook" showed his jazzier leanings.[17] Two Bugs and a Roach was "extremely well-received by critics and the public"[1] and "stands today as [part of] Hooker's finest musical legacy."[18]
Blue Thumb and Bluesway recordings
The year 1969 was an important one in Earl Hooker's career. He again teamed up with Junior Wells and they performed at higher-paying college dates and concerts, including Chicago's Kinetic Playground. This pairing did not last long and in May 1969, and after assembling new players, Hooker recorded material that was later released as Funk. Last of the Late Great Earl Hooker. Also in May, after being recommended by Ike Turner (with whom he first toured in 1952), he went to Los Angeles to record the album Sweet Black Angel for Blue Thumb Records with arrangements and piano by Turner.[19] It included Hooker's interpretations of several blues standards, such as "Sweet Home Chicago" (with Hooker on vocal), "Drivin' Wheel", "Cross Cut Saw", "Catfish Blues", and the title track. While in Los Angeles, Hooker visited the clubs and sat in with Albert Collins at the Ash Grove several times and jammed with others, including Jimi Hendrix.[20]
After the Blue Thumb recording session, Earl Hooker and his band backed his cousin John Lee Hooker on a series of club dates in California; afterwards John Lee used them for his Bluesway Records recording session. The resulting album, John Lee Hooker Featuring Earl Hooker – If You Miss 'Im ... I Got 'Im, was Earl Hooker's introduction to the Bluesway label, an ABC subsidiary and home to B.B. King. This led to recording six more Earl Hooker-involved albums for Bluesway in 1969: Earl Hooker's Don't Have to Worry and albums by Andrew Odom, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, Charles Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.[19]
Hooker's Don't Have to Worry included vocal performances by Walker, Odom, and Hooker as well as instrumental selections. The session had a "coherence and consistency" that help make the album another part of Hooker's "finest musical legacy".[18] Touring with his band in California took Hooker to the San Francisco Bay area in July 1969, where he played club and college dates as well as rock venues, such as The Matrix and the Fillmore West. In Berkeley, he and his band, billed as "Earl Hooker and His Chicago Blues Band", performed at Mandrake's, a local club, for two weeks as he recorded a second album for Arhoolie. Titled Hooker and Steve, the album was recorded with Louis Myers on harmonica, blues keyboard player Steve Miller, Geno Skaggs on bass, and Bobby Robinson on drums. Hooker shared the vocals with Miller and Skaggs.[21]
Last performances
After his California sojourn, Hooker returned to Chicago and performed regularly around the city, including the first Chicago Blues Festival on August 30, 1969, which attracted about 10,000 people. In October 1969, Hooker toured Europe as part of the American Folk Blues Festival, where he played twenty concerts in twenty-three days in nine countries. There his sets were well received and garnered favorable reviews.[22][23] "The journey overseas was a sort of apotheosis for Hooker, who regarded it, along with his recording trips to California, as the climax of his career."[24] The tour exhausted him and "his friends noticed a severe deterioration of his health upon his return."[24] Hooker played a few dates around Chicago (including some with Junior Wells) from November to early December 1969, whereafter he was hospitalized. On April 21, 1970 at age 41, he died from complications due to tuberculosis. He is interred in the Restvale Cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip.[25]
Playing style and recognition
Unlike his contemporaries Elmore James and Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker used standard tuning on his guitar for slide playing. He also used a short steel slide. This allowed him to switch between slide and fretted playing during a song with greater ease. Part of his slide sound has been attributed to his light touch, a technique he learned from Robert Nighthawk. "Instead of using full-chord glissando effects, he preferred the more subtle single-note runs inherited from others who played slide in standard tuning, [such as] Tampa Red, Houston Stackhouse, and his mentor Robert Nighthawk."[26] In addition to his mastery of slide guitar, Hooker was also a highly developed standard-guitar soloist and rhythm player.[27] At a time when many blues guitarists were emulating B.B. King, Hooker maintained his own course.[28] Although he was a bluesman at heart, Hooker was adept at several musical styles, which he incorporated into his playing as it suited him. Depending on his mood and audience reaction, a Hooker performance could include blues, boogie-woogie, R&B/soul, be-bop, pop, and even a country & western favorite.[29]
Earl Hooker was a flamboyant showman in the style of T-Bone Walker and predated Guitar Slim and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. He wore flashy clothes and would pick the guitar with his teeth or his feet or play it behind his neck or between his legs.[30] He also played a double neck guitar, at first a six-string guitar and four-string bass combination and later a twelve- and six-string guitar combination. After his 1967 tuberculosis attack left him weakened, he sometimes played while seated and using a lighter single-neck guitar. In a genre that typically shunned gadgetry, Earl Hooker was an exception. He experimented with amplification and used echo and tape delay, including "double-tracking his playing during a song, [so] he could pick simultaneously two solos in harmony".[31] In 1968, he began using a wah-wah pedal to add a vocal-like quality to some of his solos.[16]
Although Hooker did not receive the public recognition to the extent as some of his contemporaries, he was highly regarded by his fellow musicians. Many consider Earl Hooker to be one of the greatest modern blues guitarists, including:[19][32] Wayne Bennett, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Albert Collins, Willie Dixon, Ronnie Earl, Tinsley Ellis, Guitar Shorty, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, B.B. King, Little Milton, Louis Myers, Lucky Peterson, Otis Rush, Joe Louis Walker, and Junior Wells. In 2013, Hooker was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame, which noted that "Earl Hooker was the 'blues guitarists' guitarist,' the most respected six-string wizard in Chicago blues musicians' circles during the 1950s and '60s."
In the late 1960s, Hooker began performing on the college and concert circuit and had several recording contracts. Just as his career was on an upswing, Earl Hooker died in 1970 at age 41 after a lifelong struggle with tuberculosis. His guitar playing has been acknowledged by many of his peers, including B.B. King, who commented: "to me he is the best of modern guitarists. Period. With the slide he was the best. It was nobody else like him, he was just one of a kind".[2]
Early life
Earl Zebedee Hooker was born in 1929 in rural Quitman County, Mississippi, outside of Clarksdale. In 1930, when he was one year old, his parents moved to Chicago. His family was musically inclined (John Lee Hooker was a cousin) and Earl was exposed to music at home at a very early age. About age ten, he started playing guitar. Hooker was self-taught and picked up what he could from those around him. Although Hooker was gaining proficiency on guitar, he did not show an interest in singing. This has been explained by a speech impediment, i.e., pronounced stuttering, which afflicted him all his life.[3] Hooker also contracted tuberculosis when he was young. Although his condition did not become critical until the mid-1950s, it required periodic hospital visits beginning at an early age.
By 1942, Hooker was performing on Chicago street corners with childhood friends including Bo Diddley. From the beginning, the blues were Hooker's favorites, but this was when the more country-influenced blues was giving way to swing-influenced and jump-blues styles, which often featured the electric guitar. T-Bone Walker was popular and in 1942 began a three-month club stint at the Rhumboogie Club in Chicago. He had a considerable impact on Hooker, with both his playing and showmanship.[4] Walker's swing-influenced blues guitar, including "the jazzy way he would sometimes run the blues scales"[3] and intricate chord work, appealed to Hooker. Walker's stage dynamics, which included playing the guitar behind his neck and with his teeth, influenced Hooker's own later stage act.
Also around this time, he developed a friendship with Robert Nighthawk, one of the first guitarists in Chicago to switch to electric guitar. Nighthawk taught Hooker slide-guitar techniques, including various tunings and his highly articulated approach; Nighthawk had a lasting influence on Hooker's playing. Junior Wells, another important figure in Hooker's career, entered his life at this time. The two were frequent street performers and sometimes to avoid foul weather (or truancy officers), they played in streetcars, riding one line to another across Chicago.
Early career and recordings
Around 1946, Earl Hooker traveled to Helena, Arkansas where he performed with Robert Nighthawk. While not booked with Nighthawk, Hooker performed with Sonny Boy Williamson II, including on his popular Helena KFFA radio program King Biscuit Time.[5] Hooker then toured the South as a member of Nighthawk's band for the next couple of years. This was his introduction to life as an itinerant blues musician (although he had earlier run away from home and spent time in the Mississippi Delta). In 1949, Hooker tried to establish himself in the Memphis, Tennessee music scene, but was soon back on the road fronting his own band. By the early 1950s he returned to Chicago and performed regularly in the local clubs. This set the pattern that he repeated for most of his life: extensive touring with various musicians interspersed with establishing himself in various cities before returning to the Chicago club scene.[5] During this time, he formed a band with blues drummer and vocalist, Kansas City Red.[6]
In 1952, Earl Hooker began recording for several independent record companies. His early singles were often credited to the vocalist he recorded with, although some instrumentals (and his occasional vocal) were issued in Hooker's name. Songs by Hooker and with blues and R&B artists, including Johnny O'Neal, Little Sam Davis, Boyd Gilmore, Pinetop Perkins, The Dells, Arbee Stidham, Lorenzo Smith, and Harold Tidwell were recorded by such labels as King, Rockin', Sun, Argo, Veejay, States, United, and C.J. (several of these recordings, including all of the Sun material, were unissued at the time). The harmonica player, Little Arthur Duncan, often accompanied Hooker over this period.[7]
Among these early singles was Hooker's first recorded vocal performance on an interpretation of the blues classic "Black Angel Blues". Although his vocals were more than adequate, they lacked the power usually associated with blues singers.[8] Hooker's "Sweet Angel" (1953 Rockin' 513) was based on Robert Nighthawk's 1949 "Black Angel Blues" and showed that "Hooker had by now transcended his teacher".[9] (B.B. King later had a hit in 1956 with his interpretation, "Sweet Little Angel".) One of Hooker's most successful singles during this period was "Frog Hop", recorded in 1956 (Argo 5265). The song, an upbeat instrumental, showed some of his T-Bone Walker swing-blues and chording influences, as well as his own style.[10]
Chief/Profile/Age recordings
Despite a major tuberculosis attack in 1956 that required hospitalization, Earl Hooker returned to performing in Chicago clubs and touring the South. By late 1959, Junior Wells brought Hooker to the Chief/Profile/Age group of labels, where he began one of the most fruitful periods of his recording career. Their first recording together, "Little by Little" (Profile 4011), was a hit the following year when it reached number 23 in the Billboard Hot R&B Sides chart.[11] With this success and his rapport with Chief owner and producer Mel London, Hooker became Chief's house guitarist. From 1959 to 1963, he appeared on about forty Chief recordings, including singles for Wells, Lillian Offitt, Magic Sam, A.C. Reed, Ricky Allen, Reggie "Guitar" Boyd, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, and Jackie Brenston, as well as Hooker being the featured artist. He appeared on nearly all of Wells' releases, including "Come on in This House", "Messin' with the Kid", and "It Hurts Me Too", which remained in Wells' repertoire throughout his career. Hooker regularly performed with Wells for the rest of 1960 and most of 1961.
For the Chief labels, Hooker released several instrumentals, including the slow blues "Calling All Blues" (1960 Chief 7020) which featured Hooker's slide guitar and "Blues in D Natural" (1960 Chief 7016), where he switched between fretted and slide guitar. However, it was a chance taping before a recording session that captured perhaps Hooker's best known song (although by a different title). During the warm-up that preceded a May 1961 scheduled session, Hooker and his band played an impromptu slow blues which featured Hooker's slide guitar. The song was played once and Hooker was apparently not aware that it was being recorded.[12] Producer Mel London saved the tape and when looking for material to release the following spring, issued it as "Blue Guitar" (Age 29106). "Earl's song sold unusually well for an instrumental blues side"[13] and Chicago-area bluesmen were including it in their sets.
Sensing greater commercial potential for Hooker's "Blue Guitar", Leonard Chess approached Mel London about using it for Muddy Waters' next record. An agreement was reached and in July 1962, Waters overdubbed a vocal (with lyrics by Willie Dixon) on Hooker's single and it was renamed "You Shook Me". The song was successful and Chess hired Hooker to record three more instrumentals for Muddy Waters to overdub. One of the songs, again with Dixon-supplied lyrics, titled "You Need Love", was also a success and "sold better than Muddy's early sixties recordings".[14] Later, rock bands such as Led Zeppelin would achieve greater success with their adaptations of Earl Hooker's and Muddy Waters' "You Shook Me" and "You Need Love".
During his time with Chief, Hooker also recorded singles as a sideman for Bobby Saxton and Betty Everett as well as in his own name for the Bea & Baby, C.J., and Checker record labels. By 1964, the last of the Chief labels went out of business and ended his longest association with a record label; for some, his recordings for Chief/Profile/Age represent Hooker's best work.[15]
Cuca and Arhoolie recordings
Hooker continued touring and began recording for Cuca Records, Jim-Ko, C.J., Duplex, and Globe. Several songs recorded for Cuca between 1964 and 1967 were released on his first album The Genius of Earl Hooker. The album was composed of instrumentals, including the slow blues "The End of the Blues" and some songs which incorporated recent popular music trends, such as the early funk-influenced "Two Bugs in a Rug" (an allusion to his tuberculosis or "TB"). Hooker experienced a major tuberculosis attack in late summer 1967 and was hospitalized for nearly a year.
When Hooker was released from the hospital in 1968, he assembled a new band and began performing in the Chicago clubs and touring, against his doctor's advice. The band, with pianist Pinetop Perkins, harmonica player Carey Bell, bassist Geno Skaggs, vocalist Andrew Odom, and steel-guitar player Freddie Roulette, was "widely acclaimed" and "considered [as] one of the best Earl had ever carried with him".[16] Based on a recommendation by Buddy Guy, Arhoolie Records recorded an album by Hooker and his new band.[1] Two Bugs and a Roach was released in spring 1969 and included a mix of instrumentals and vocals by Odom, Bell, and Hooker. For one of his vocals, Hooker chose "Anna Lee", a song based on Robert Nighthawk's 1949 "Annie Lee Blues". As he had done earlier with "Sweet Angel", Hooker acknowledged his mentor's influence, but extended beyond Nighthawk's version to create his own interpretation. The "brilliant bebop[-influenced]" instrumental "Off the Hook" showed his jazzier leanings.[17] Two Bugs and a Roach was "extremely well-received by critics and the public"[1] and "stands today as [part of] Hooker's finest musical legacy."[18]
Blue Thumb and Bluesway recordings
The year 1969 was an important one in Earl Hooker's career. He again teamed up with Junior Wells and they performed at higher-paying college dates and concerts, including Chicago's Kinetic Playground. This pairing did not last long and in May 1969, and after assembling new players, Hooker recorded material that was later released as Funk. Last of the Late Great Earl Hooker. Also in May, after being recommended by Ike Turner (with whom he first toured in 1952), he went to Los Angeles to record the album Sweet Black Angel for Blue Thumb Records with arrangements and piano by Turner.[19] It included Hooker's interpretations of several blues standards, such as "Sweet Home Chicago" (with Hooker on vocal), "Drivin' Wheel", "Cross Cut Saw", "Catfish Blues", and the title track. While in Los Angeles, Hooker visited the clubs and sat in with Albert Collins at the Ash Grove several times and jammed with others, including Jimi Hendrix.[20]
After the Blue Thumb recording session, Earl Hooker and his band backed his cousin John Lee Hooker on a series of club dates in California; afterwards John Lee used them for his Bluesway Records recording session. The resulting album, John Lee Hooker Featuring Earl Hooker – If You Miss 'Im ... I Got 'Im, was Earl Hooker's introduction to the Bluesway label, an ABC subsidiary and home to B.B. King. This led to recording six more Earl Hooker-involved albums for Bluesway in 1969: Earl Hooker's Don't Have to Worry and albums by Andrew Odom, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, Charles Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.[19]
Hooker's Don't Have to Worry included vocal performances by Walker, Odom, and Hooker as well as instrumental selections. The session had a "coherence and consistency" that help make the album another part of Hooker's "finest musical legacy".[18] Touring with his band in California took Hooker to the San Francisco Bay area in July 1969, where he played club and college dates as well as rock venues, such as The Matrix and the Fillmore West. In Berkeley, he and his band, billed as "Earl Hooker and His Chicago Blues Band", performed at Mandrake's, a local club, for two weeks as he recorded a second album for Arhoolie. Titled Hooker and Steve, the album was recorded with Louis Myers on harmonica, blues keyboard player Steve Miller, Geno Skaggs on bass, and Bobby Robinson on drums. Hooker shared the vocals with Miller and Skaggs.[21]
Last performances
After his California sojourn, Hooker returned to Chicago and performed regularly around the city, including the first Chicago Blues Festival on August 30, 1969, which attracted about 10,000 people. In October 1969, Hooker toured Europe as part of the American Folk Blues Festival, where he played twenty concerts in twenty-three days in nine countries. There his sets were well received and garnered favorable reviews.[22][23] "The journey overseas was a sort of apotheosis for Hooker, who regarded it, along with his recording trips to California, as the climax of his career."[24] The tour exhausted him and "his friends noticed a severe deterioration of his health upon his return."[24] Hooker played a few dates around Chicago (including some with Junior Wells) from November to early December 1969, whereafter he was hospitalized. On April 21, 1970 at age 41, he died from complications due to tuberculosis. He is interred in the Restvale Cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip.[25]
Playing style and recognition
Unlike his contemporaries Elmore James and Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker used standard tuning on his guitar for slide playing. He also used a short steel slide. This allowed him to switch between slide and fretted playing during a song with greater ease. Part of his slide sound has been attributed to his light touch, a technique he learned from Robert Nighthawk. "Instead of using full-chord glissando effects, he preferred the more subtle single-note runs inherited from others who played slide in standard tuning, [such as] Tampa Red, Houston Stackhouse, and his mentor Robert Nighthawk."[26] In addition to his mastery of slide guitar, Hooker was also a highly developed standard-guitar soloist and rhythm player.[27] At a time when many blues guitarists were emulating B.B. King, Hooker maintained his own course.[28] Although he was a bluesman at heart, Hooker was adept at several musical styles, which he incorporated into his playing as it suited him. Depending on his mood and audience reaction, a Hooker performance could include blues, boogie-woogie, R&B/soul, be-bop, pop, and even a country & western favorite.[29]
Earl Hooker was a flamboyant showman in the style of T-Bone Walker and predated Guitar Slim and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. He wore flashy clothes and would pick the guitar with his teeth or his feet or play it behind his neck or between his legs.[30] He also played a double neck guitar, at first a six-string guitar and four-string bass combination and later a twelve- and six-string guitar combination. After his 1967 tuberculosis attack left him weakened, he sometimes played while seated and using a lighter single-neck guitar. In a genre that typically shunned gadgetry, Earl Hooker was an exception. He experimented with amplification and used echo and tape delay, including "double-tracking his playing during a song, [so] he could pick simultaneously two solos in harmony".[31] In 1968, he began using a wah-wah pedal to add a vocal-like quality to some of his solos.[16]
Although Hooker did not receive the public recognition to the extent as some of his contemporaries, he was highly regarded by his fellow musicians. Many consider Earl Hooker to be one of the greatest modern blues guitarists, including:[19][32] Wayne Bennett, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Albert Collins, Willie Dixon, Ronnie Earl, Tinsley Ellis, Guitar Shorty, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, B.B. King, Little Milton, Louis Myers, Lucky Peterson, Otis Rush, Joe Louis Walker, and Junior Wells. In 2013, Hooker was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame, which noted that "Earl Hooker was the 'blues guitarists' guitarist,' the most respected six-string wizard in Chicago blues musicians' circles during the 1950s and '60s."
Earl Hooker - Two Bugs and a Roach
Christoffer Andersen *15.01.1980
Woran es liegt, dass ein ziemlich großer Teil der relevanten europäschen Bluesmusik ihren Ursprung im eher kühlen Norden hat, darüber wurde im Freundeskreis schon viel spekuliert. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass die Menschen im dunklen Winter nichts zu tun hätten, wenn sie keine Gitarre in die Hand nähmen. Vielleicht ist es auch ein bisschen unterschwellige Rebellion gegen Carl XVI. Gustaf, Harald V. , umherwanderende Elche und tief eingeschneite Häuser. Wer weiß das schon? Vielleicht fand Chris “Kid” Andersen, ein junger, norwegischer Bluesgitarrist, dass er im hohen Norden dann doch etwas außerhalb des Flutlichtes der Bluesmusik steht?
Obwohl er in der Hausband des Muddy Waters Bluesclub in Oslo spielte? Jedenfalls siedelte er im Jahre 2001 um in die Vereinigten Staaten und spielte dort (unter anderem) in der Band des großartigen Blues-Harp-Spielers Charlie Musselwhite . Aus San Jose hat Herr Andersen dann auch seine Solokarriere gestartet. Das war eine gute Idee, finde ich und empfehle hier mit Nachdruck sein Album “The Dreamer .“ In etwas mehr als einer Stunde unternimmt Kid Anderson mit seinen Mitstreitern darauf eine detailverliebte, teils schön nostalgische und immer geschmackssichere Reise zu den Wurzeln der Rockmusik hin, die jeden daran erinnert, dass die Gitarre das Instrument des Blues ist.
Manchmal geht Kid Andersen dabei den direkten Weg. Geradeaus und über Stock und Stein, in einer Mischung aus Westcoast Jump und Chicago Blues, stampfen und rollen Songs wie “Dig the Pain” oder das famos hibbelige “Twist of the Century” in etwa Richtung Blues-Walhalla. Es geht allerdings auch subtiler. Zum Beispiel bei dem Titelsong „The Dreamer“, bei dem Charlie Musselwhite mit seiner Harp gänsehauterzeugend in die Gehörgänge schleicht, oder nehmen wir mal „Serve me Right To Suffer“, die versierte Interpretation des Jimmy Dawkins-Songs, die zugleich eine Hommage an klassischen West Side Chicago-Blues ist.
Das nicht-so-ganz-akustische Stück „Better Day `s“, sowie das versumpfte “My Baby Lee“, mit Rick Estrin an der Mundharmonika, packen den Delta-Blues bei den Wurzeln. Viel weiter kann man nicht zurück in der Geschichte der Rockmusik, wenn man den Verstärker angeschaltet lassen möchte. (Rosie)
Christoffer "Kid" Andersen (born January 15, 1980) is a Norwegian blues guitarist.
Andersen moved to the United States as a 21 year old in 2001, and became a figure on the West Coast blues scene. He played in Charlie Musselwhites band and got a Blues Music Award (formerly W.C. Handy Award) for best contemporary blues album for Charlie Musselwhite's Delta Hardware.[1] When Little Charlie Baty retired from touring, Andersen took his place as guitarist in the Nightcats, and the new name of Rick Estrin & the Nightcats was formed. Andersen also has done extensive touring with Elvin Bishop on the Red Dog Speaks Tour.
In 2013, Andersen was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the 'Gibson Guitar' category.[2] In 2014, he was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the 'Best Instrumentalist – Guitar' category.
Christoffer "Kid" Andersen med Rick Estrin and the Nightcats på Gregers Hamar Norway 3. Sept 2013
Ronnie Van Zant *15.01.1948
Ronald Wayne "Ronnie" Van Zant (January 15, 1948[1] – October 20, 1977) was an American lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and a founding member of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He was the older brother of current lead vocalist Johnny Van Zant and of the founder and vocalist of 38 Special, Donnie Van Zant. He is the father of singer Tammy Van Zant and cousin of musician Jimmie Van Zant.
Early life
He was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, to Lacy (1915–2004) and Marion (1929–2000) Van Zant. Van Zant aspired to be many things before finding his love for music. Notably, Ronnie was interested in becoming a boxer (as Muhammad Ali was one of his idols) and in playing professional baseball. Ronnie also tossed around the idea of becoming a stock car racer. He would say that he was going to be the most famous person to come out of Jacksonville since stock car racer Lee Roy Yarbrough.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The band went through several names before deciding on the name Lynyrd Skynyrd. Van Zant formed Skynyrd (then called My Backyard at the time, their earliest name)[2] late in the summer of 1964 with friends and schoolmates Allen Collins (guitar), Gary Rossington (guitar), Larry Junstrom (bass), and Bob Burns (drums). Lynyrd Skynyrd's name is a mock tribute to a gym teacher that three of the members (Allen Collins had gone to a different high school, Nathan B. Forrest High School) had in high school, Leonard Skinner, who disapproved of male students with long hair.[3]
The band's national exposure began in 1973 with the release of their debut album, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), which has a string of hits and fan favorites including: "I Ain't the One", "Tuesday's Gone", "Gimme Three Steps", "Simple Man," and their signature song, "Free Bird", which he later dedicated to the late Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band.
Lynyrd Skynyrd's biggest hit single was "Sweet Home Alabama" from the album Second Helping. "Sweet Home Alabama" was an answer song to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man." Young's song "Powderfinger" on the 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps was reportedly written for Skynyrd, and Van Zant is pictured on the cover of Street Survivors wearing a T-shirt of Young's Tonight's the Night.[4]
Personal life
Van Zant married Nadine Inscoe on January 2, 1967. The couple had a daughter, Tammy (born 1967), before divorcing in 1969; Tammy would later go on to become a musician in her own right. He married Judy Seymour in 1972 after meeting her at The Comic Book Club through Gary Rossington in 1969[2] (The club closed in 1975 and is now a parking garage).[5] They remained married up until his death in 1977 and Judy remarrying to Jim Jenness and founding The Freebird Foundation up until its dissolution in 2001. They had one daughter, Melody, born in 1976.
Van Zant loved to fish. He enjoyed baseball, and was a fan of the White Sox, Atlanta Braves and the Texas Rangers. As a child he played American Legion baseball and aspired for AA league baseball, as he recalled in an interview in 1975.[2]
Van Zant had several run-ins with the law, especially in 1975, when he was arrested for hurling a table out of a second-story hotel room.[6][7]
Death
On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-300 carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, crashed outside Gillsburg, Mississippi. The passengers had been informed about problems with one of the plane's engines and told to brace for impact.[8] Van Zant died on impact from head injuries suffered after the aircraft struck a tree. Bandmates Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines, along with assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray were also killed. Remaining band members survived, although all were seriously injured.[9]
According to former bandmate Artimus Pyle and family members, Van Zant frequently discussed his mortality. Pyle recalls a moment when Lynyrd Skynyrd was in Japan: "Ronnie and I were in Tokyo, Japan, and Ronnie told me that he would never live to see thirty and that he would go out with his boots on, in other words, on the road. I said, 'Ronnie, don't talk like that,' but the man knew his destiny."[10] Van Zant's father, Lacy, said, "He said to me many times, 'Daddy, I'll never be 30 years old.' I said, 'Why are you talking this junk?' and he said, 'Daddy, that's my limit.'" Van Zant's father later noted that, "God was a jealous god. Taking him for reasons I don't know."[10] Van Zant was 29 years old at the time of his death.
Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, took over as the new lead singer when the band reunited in 1987.
Van Zant was buried in Orange Park, Florida, in 1977, but was relocated after vandals broke into bandmate Steve Gaines' and Ronnie's tombs on June 29, 2000. Van Zant's casket was pulled out and dropped on the ground. The bag containing Gaines' ashes was torn open and some scattered onto the grass.[11] Their mausoleums at Orange Park remain as memorials for fans to visit.
According to the cemetery listing website Find-a-Grave, Van Zant was reburied at Riverside Memorial Park in Jacksonville, near the grave of his father Lacy and mother Marion. Both his current resting place and the empty mausoleum in Orange Park are listed. The following statement was made on the Find-a-Grave entry of his current resting place in Jacksonville: "Due to the June 29th, 2000 vandalization of his original grave site, his casket was moved to this new location and buried in a massive underground concrete burial vault. To open the vault would require a tractor with a lift capacity of several tons. It is also patrolled by security."[12]
A memorial park funded by fans and family of the band was built in honor of Van Zant. The Ronnie Van Zant Memorial Park is located on Sandridge Road in Lake Asbury, Florida, nearby his hometown of Jacksonville.
Several members of his family have immortalized him in their music. Johnny, prior joining Lynyrd Skynyrd, memorialized Ronnie in the 1990 title track "Brickyard Road" (co-written along with brother Donnie Van Zant and family friend Robert White Johnson, who had also produced the album) and in the music video with the reformed band for the posthumously-released track "What's Your Name" in which a white hat similar to Ronnie's sits atop a microphone at the end of the video. Tammy, who was only 10 years old when he died, dedicated the title track, "Freebird Child" as well as the music video to Ronnie. Jimmie Van Zant recorded the tribute track "Ronnie's Song" on the album Southern Comfort.
Alt country band Drive-By Truckers also paid tribute to Ronnie and members of the original band on their Southern Rock Opera album.
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Tuesday's Gone - 3/7/1976 - Winterland (Official)
Personnel:
Ronnie Van Zant - vocals
Gary Rossington - guitar
Allen Collins - guitar
Billy Powell - keyboards
Leon Wilkinson - bass
Artimus Pyle - drums
JoJo Billingsley - backing vocals
Cassie Gaines - backing vocals
Leslie Hawkins - backing vocals
Ronnie Van Zant - vocals
Gary Rossington - guitar
Allen Collins - guitar
Billy Powell - keyboards
Leon Wilkinson - bass
Artimus Pyle - drums
JoJo Billingsley - backing vocals
Cassie Gaines - backing vocals
Leslie Hawkins - backing vocals
Martin Schmitt *15.01.1968
Martin Schmitt(re) und Paul Carrack
Leben und Karriere
Schmitt begann im Alter von 13 Jahren mit dem Gesang und dem Klavier- und Tubaspielen. Danach trat er in der Münchner Szene als Blues und Boogie Woogie Pianist auf und hatte Auftritte auf Festivals. Er spielt eine Mischung aus Soul, Jazz und Blues. Schmitt trat vorwiegend als Interpret von Titeln von Ray Charles, Billy Joel oder Randy Newman auf. Komik ist ein Bestandteil seines Programms. Er war zudem als künstlerischer Leiter von Piano-Festivals tätig und ist unter anderem Preisträger des Tassilo-Preises der Süddeutschen Zeitung. Er war gemeinsam mit Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Stefan Gwildis, Paul Carrack, Helge Schneider, Monika Gruber, Axel Zwingenberger, Victoria Tolstoy, Vince Weber, auf der Bühne. Schmitt komponierte zwei Titel für den ARD-Thriller „Im Visier des Bösen“ mit Klaus-Maria Brandauer. Weitere Titel wurden im „Martin Schmitt Songbuch“ veröffentlicht.
In 20 Bühnenjahren veröffentlichte er CDs sowie eine DVD-Dokumentation seines Repertoires, aufgenommen im Mai 2006 in der Münchner Philharmonie. Schmitt präsentierte 2007 ein Programm mit eigenen deutschsprachigen Titeln', die ihre Wurzeln in den Genres Singer/Songwriter, Soul, Jazz und Rhythm and Blues haben. Die Show wurde vom Bayerischen Fernsehen, SWR, 3sat, BR-alpha und NDR Fernsehen gesendet. Im Mai 2008 produzierte der BR die Fernsehsendung „Die Verleihung des 10. Bayerischen Kabarettpreises“, bei der Schmitt unter anderem im Duett mit Monika Gruber auftrat.
Martin Schmitt puts on a successful mix of his own Bavarian songs, blues, boogie woogie and poems in the form of a lyrical „lubricant“ between the main programme items. His piano playing, singing and cabaret skills melt into a perfect blend that provides unique entertainment. A show that links and combines. Groove and mind. Rhyme and swing. Or quite simply: from head to blues!
An intimate and exclusive concert in Lech, just before the successful entertainer celebrates his 30th anniversary of being on stage at the Munich Philharmonic with guest performers such as the Spider Murphy Gang, Claudia Koreck and Joja Wendt.
An intimate and exclusive concert in Lech, just before the successful entertainer celebrates his 30th anniversary of being on stage at the Munich Philharmonic with guest performers such as the Spider Murphy Gang, Claudia Koreck and Joja Wendt.
Martin Schmitt Highlights
Too Fat to Boogie
Joan Pau Cumellas *15.01.1970
Joan Pau is one of the leading exponents in Spain of the diatonic harmonica which he loves to push to the limits exploring its possibilities in different musical context.
He is currently one of the main members of the Barcelona Bluegrass Band and plays blues withMiguel Talavera as a duo. He also performs with the songwriter Quico Pi de la Serra and the jazz manuche guitaristValentí Moya.
Whether he is playing bluegrass, blues or swing manuche he takes the instrument up to surprising level. His versatility, has also allowed him to play with a diverse range of artists on the rock-pop, country and gospel Spanish stage and his harmonica music can be heard in more than 40 cds.
Joan Pau plays at numerous festivals in Spain and is known in countries like France, England, Ireland, Poland, Switzerland and Netherlands for it's participation in Blues and Bluegrass events.
He does harmonica jingles recordings for advertising announcements and musical sessions for radio, television and cinema.
He also is harmonica teacher in Barcelona, does workshops in different festivals, and makes harmonica sessions for children at schools.
Joan Pau has taught harmonica since 2000 and makes harmonica workshops for various festivals or independent musical organisations. Since 2003, in collaboration with the harmonica player from Paris Greg Zlap, he organises every summer the one week International Harmonica Workshop in Roses (Spain).
He is currently one of the main members of the Barcelona Bluegrass Band and plays blues withMiguel Talavera as a duo. He also performs with the songwriter Quico Pi de la Serra and the jazz manuche guitaristValentí Moya.
Whether he is playing bluegrass, blues or swing manuche he takes the instrument up to surprising level. His versatility, has also allowed him to play with a diverse range of artists on the rock-pop, country and gospel Spanish stage and his harmonica music can be heard in more than 40 cds.
Joan Pau plays at numerous festivals in Spain and is known in countries like France, England, Ireland, Poland, Switzerland and Netherlands for it's participation in Blues and Bluegrass events.
He does harmonica jingles recordings for advertising announcements and musical sessions for radio, television and cinema.
He also is harmonica teacher in Barcelona, does workshops in different festivals, and makes harmonica sessions for children at schools.
Joan Pau has taught harmonica since 2000 and makes harmonica workshops for various festivals or independent musical organisations. Since 2003, in collaboration with the harmonica player from Paris Greg Zlap, he organises every summer the one week International Harmonica Workshop in Roses (Spain).
'Zapallo' Joan Pau Cumellas & Miguel Talavera Band (1)
Joan P. Cumellas - M. Talavera (Tolosandblues 2012)
R.I.P.
Junior Wells +15.01.1998
Biografie
Geboren in Memphis, wuchs Wells in Arkansas auf. Bereits im Alter von sieben Jahren spielte er Mundharmonika, die ihm von seinem Cousin Junior Parker und Sonny Boy Williamson beigebracht wurde.[1] 1948 ging er nach Chicago. Mit 18 Jahren spielte er in der Band von Muddy Waters, mit der er auch seine ersten Plattenaufnahmen machte. In den 1960ern arbeitete er vor allem mit Buddy Guy.
Die bekanntesten Songs von Junior Wells sind Messin’ With the Kid und Little By Little, sein bekanntestes Album ist Hoodoo Man Blues von 1965.
Einen Auftritt hatte er im Film Blues Brothers 2000, der kurz nach seinem Tod in die Kinos kam. Junior Wells starb 1998 an einem Herzinfarkt, während er sich in Krebsbehandlung befand. Er wurde auf dem Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago beigesetzt. Bei seinem Begräbnis spielten Billy Branch, Sugar Blue und Harmonica Hinds einen Trauermarsch.
Junior Wells (December 9, 1934 – January 15, 1998), born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr.,[1] was an American Chicago blues vocalist, harmonica player, and recording artist. Wells, who was best known for his performances and recordings with Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker, and Buddy Guy, also performed with Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones, and Van Morrison.[1]
5 External links
Life and career
Junior Wells was possibly born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States,[1] and raised in West Memphis, Arkansas, though other sources report that his birth was in West Memphis, Arkansas.[2] Initially taught by his cousin, Junior Parker, and Sonny Boy Williamson II, Wells learned how to play the harmonica by the age of seven with surprising skill. He moved to Chicago in 1948 with his mother after her divorce and began sitting in with local musicians at house parties and taverns.[3] Wild and rebellious but needing an outlet for his talents, he began performing with The Aces (guitarist brothers Dave and Louis Myers and drummer Fred Below) and developed a more modern amplified harmonica style influenced by Little Walter.[3] In 1952, he made his first recordings, when he replaced Little Walter in Muddy Waters' band and appeared on one of Muddy's sessions for Chess Records in 1952.[3] His first recordings as a band leader were made in the following year for States Records.[4] In the later 1950s and early 1960s he also recorded singles for Chief Records and its Profile Records subsidiary, including "Messin' with the Kid", "Come on in This House", and "It Hurts Me Too", which would remain in his repertoire throughout his career. His 1960 Profile single "Little by Little" (written by Chief owner and producer Mel London) reached #23 in the Billboard R&B chart, making it the first of two Wells' singles to enter the chart.[5]
Wells' album Hoodoo Man Blues (1965) on Delmark Records featured Buddy Guy on guitar.[3][6] The two worked with the Rolling Stones on several occasions in the 1970s.[6] His album South Side Blues Jam came out in 1971) and On Tap in 1975.[6] His 1996 release Come On in This House includes slide guitarists, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Derek Trucks, and others.[6] Wells made an appearance in the film Blues Brothers 2000, the sequel to The Blues Brothers, which was released in 1998.[3]
Junior Wells in Urbana, IL in 1983
From Wells' "Hoodoo Man Blues" album cover Junior gives this story: "I went to this pawnshop downtown and the man had a harmonica prices at $2.00. I got a job on a soda truck... played hookey from school ... worked all week and on Saturday the man gave me a dollar and a half. A dollar and a half! For a whole week of work. I went to the pawnshop and the man said the price was two dollars. I told him I had to have that harp. He walked away from the counter -- left the harp there. So I laid my dollar-and-a-half on the counter and picked up the harp. When my trial came up, the judge asked my why I did it. I told him I had to have that harp. The judge asked me to play it and when I did he gave the man the 50 cents and hollered "Case dismissed!" (1948)
Wells began to have serious health problems, including cancer and a heart attack, in 1997.[3] He died in Chicago on January 15, 1998, and was interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago.[1][7]
Wells was mentioned in the Steppenwolf song, "Tighten Up Your Wig", in which the lyrics explicitly state that they copied the music from Junior Wells' tune, "Messing with the Kid".
5 External links
Life and career
Junior Wells was possibly born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States,[1] and raised in West Memphis, Arkansas, though other sources report that his birth was in West Memphis, Arkansas.[2] Initially taught by his cousin, Junior Parker, and Sonny Boy Williamson II, Wells learned how to play the harmonica by the age of seven with surprising skill. He moved to Chicago in 1948 with his mother after her divorce and began sitting in with local musicians at house parties and taverns.[3] Wild and rebellious but needing an outlet for his talents, he began performing with The Aces (guitarist brothers Dave and Louis Myers and drummer Fred Below) and developed a more modern amplified harmonica style influenced by Little Walter.[3] In 1952, he made his first recordings, when he replaced Little Walter in Muddy Waters' band and appeared on one of Muddy's sessions for Chess Records in 1952.[3] His first recordings as a band leader were made in the following year for States Records.[4] In the later 1950s and early 1960s he also recorded singles for Chief Records and its Profile Records subsidiary, including "Messin' with the Kid", "Come on in This House", and "It Hurts Me Too", which would remain in his repertoire throughout his career. His 1960 Profile single "Little by Little" (written by Chief owner and producer Mel London) reached #23 in the Billboard R&B chart, making it the first of two Wells' singles to enter the chart.[5]
Wells' album Hoodoo Man Blues (1965) on Delmark Records featured Buddy Guy on guitar.[3][6] The two worked with the Rolling Stones on several occasions in the 1970s.[6] His album South Side Blues Jam came out in 1971) and On Tap in 1975.[6] His 1996 release Come On in This House includes slide guitarists, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Derek Trucks, and others.[6] Wells made an appearance in the film Blues Brothers 2000, the sequel to The Blues Brothers, which was released in 1998.[3]
Junior Wells in Urbana, IL in 1983
From Wells' "Hoodoo Man Blues" album cover Junior gives this story: "I went to this pawnshop downtown and the man had a harmonica prices at $2.00. I got a job on a soda truck... played hookey from school ... worked all week and on Saturday the man gave me a dollar and a half. A dollar and a half! For a whole week of work. I went to the pawnshop and the man said the price was two dollars. I told him I had to have that harp. He walked away from the counter -- left the harp there. So I laid my dollar-and-a-half on the counter and picked up the harp. When my trial came up, the judge asked my why I did it. I told him I had to have that harp. The judge asked me to play it and when I did he gave the man the 50 cents and hollered "Case dismissed!" (1948)
Wells began to have serious health problems, including cancer and a heart attack, in 1997.[3] He died in Chicago on January 15, 1998, and was interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago.[1][7]
Wells was mentioned in the Steppenwolf song, "Tighten Up Your Wig", in which the lyrics explicitly state that they copied the music from Junior Wells' tune, "Messing with the Kid".
Junior Wells - Little Red Rooster
BUDDY GUY & JUNIOR WELLS -Drinkin' Tnt 'N' Smokin' Dynamite(FULL ALBUM)
Buddy Guy & Junior Wells With Bill Wyman, Pinetop Perkins, Terry
Taylor & Dallas Taylor – Drinkin' Tnt 'N' Smokin' Dynamite(1982)
SIDE A
00:00 Introduction
00:57 Ah'w Baby/Everything Gonna Be Alright
04:58 How Can One Woman Be So Mean
11:22 Checking On My Baby
16:20 When You See The Tears From My Eyes
SIDE B
22:36 Introduction
23:46 Ten Years Ago
32:39 Messing With The Kid
36:18 Hoodoo Man Blues
42:00 My Younger Days
SIDE A
00:00 Introduction
00:57 Ah'w Baby/Everything Gonna Be Alright
04:58 How Can One Woman Be So Mean
11:22 Checking On My Baby
16:20 When You See The Tears From My Eyes
SIDE B
22:36 Introduction
23:46 Ten Years Ago
32:39 Messing With The Kid
36:18 Hoodoo Man Blues
42:00 My Younger Days
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