1924 Bob Gaddy*
1925 Ernie Williams*
1951 Cecil Gant+
1954 Curtis Salgado*
1955 Inetta Visor*
1956 Klaus Stachuletz*
1971 Ian Siegal*
1975 Louis Jordan+
Jay Jesse Johnson*
Happy Birthday
Curtis Salgado *04.02.1954
Curtis Salgado (* 4. Februar 1954 in Everett, Washington) ist ein US-amerikanischer Blues-, Rhythm-&-Blues- und Soulsänger. Er spielt in seiner eigenen Band Mundharmonika und ist deren Leadsänger.
Salgados Interesse an der Musik begann in seiner Jugend, als er Jazzplatten hörte und ebenso Blues und Soul von Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding und O. V. Wright. Der Einfluss dieser Sänger ist noch heute in seinem Gesang bemerkbar. Als seine Schwester eine Platte von Little Walter nach Hause brachte, begann er mit dem Mundharmonikaspiel.[1] Ein weiterer Anstoß für seine Musikerkarriere war ein Konzert von Count Basie, das er im Alter von zwölf Jahren besuchte. Im Laufe der Zeit wurde Curtis Salgado ein Teil der sich ausbreitenden Bluesszene im Nordwesten.[2]
Schließlich gründete er 1972 eine eigene Band namens Three-Fingered Jack. Im Anschluss daran wurde er für sechs Jahre Mitglied in der Band des aufstrebenden Bluesmusikers Robert Cray, mit dem er das Album "Who´s Been Talking" aufnahm. In dieser Zeit spielte er auch mit Bluesgrößen wie Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan und Bonnie Raitt.[3] Neben seinen Fähigkeiten als Sänger ist der Künstler auch ein hervorragender Mundharmonikaspieler. Bei einem Dreh in Eugene, dem Heimatort Salgados, lernte John Belushi ihn kennen und lernte von ihm Blues- und Rhythm & Blues-Geschichte. Aus diesen Kenntnissen heraus entwickelte Belushi die Figuren von Jake und Elwood Blues, den Hauptfiguren im Film "Blues Brothers". Das erste Album der Blues Brothers ist Curtis Salgado gewidmet und der Charakter, der von Cab Calloway dargestellt wird, trägt im Film den Namen Curtis.[4]
Er verließ die Robert Cray Band, bevor sie zu ihrem nationalen Durchbruch kam, und wurde von 1984 bis 1986 Sänger von Roomful of Blues. Ab den 1990er-Jahren widmete er sich seiner eigenen Karriere. 1990 nahm er auch gemeinsam mit Carlos Santana auf. Seine Alben veröffentlichte er hauptsächlich für das Shanachie-Label.
2004 wurde bei ihm Leberkrebs diagnostiziert. Ihm wurden noch acht Monate Lebenszeit gegeben, doch mit der Hilfe seiner Musikerfreunde konnte das Geld für eine Lebertranspantation aufgebracht werden. So veranstalteten Steve Miller, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, The Phantom Blues Band, Everclear and Little Charlie & the Nightcats Benefizveranstaltungen. 2008 war er wieder gesund und konnte seine musikalische Karriere fortsetzen.
Zu den Höhepunkten gehören auch Soloauftritten mit verschiedenen anderen Harmonikaspielern wie Mark Hummel, Rick Estrin, Rusty Zinn, Jerry Portnoy, Charlie Musselwhite, Lee Oskar, Johnny Dyer und John Mayall.
2010 wurde er als bester Soul/Blues-Künstler des Jahres für den Blues Music Award nominiert.
Curtis Salgado (born February 4, 1954 in Everett, Washington, United States) is an American, Portland, Oregon, based blues, R&B, and soul singer-songwriter. He plays harmonica and fronts his own band as lead vocalist.
Career
Salgado began his career leading The Nighthawks, based in Eugene, Oregon. He then joined forces with Robert Cray and sang and played harmonica in The Robert Cray Band for six years, including singing on Cray's debut album, released in 1980. Salgado and Cray parted ways in 1982. Salgado went on to front Roomful of Blues, singing and touring with them from 1984 through 1986. Returning to Oregon, he formed Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos in 1991 on the JRS label. The band opened for The Steve Miller Band during the summer of 1992. In 1995, Curtis spent a short stint as the lead singer with the band Santana. In 1997, he toured with Miller again and performed with Miller on the NBC television show Late Night With Conan O'Brien. He signed with Shanachie Records in 1999 and released four albums on that label, before signing with Chicago's Alligator Records in 2012.[1]
Salgado was the inspiration behind John Belushi's creation of the Blues Brothers characters in the late 1970s.[1] They met and became friends while Belushi was in Eugene, Oregon filming the movie Animal House. The Blues Brother's debut album Briefcase Full of Blues is dedicated to Salgado and Cab Calloway's character in The Blues Brothers film is named after Curtis.
Salgado was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2005, and underwent a successful liver transplant in 2006. He continues to record and perform his music. On June 13, 2006 a benefit concert was held in his honor in Portland to raise funds for his medical treatment. Among those who performed were Little Charlie & the Nightcats, Everclear, Taj Mahal, The Robert Cray Band, and Steve Miller. Also in attendance was the widow of John Belushi who spoke of Salgado's part in the development of The Blues Brothers. On April 29, 2007 another benefit was held in Curtis' honor, bringing Steve Miller and Little Charlie and the boys back, and adding Jimmie Vaughan, and harp players Charlie Musselwhite and Kim Wilson.
Salgado was nominated for four of the Blues Foundation's 2009 Blues Music Awards, including Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year and Soul Blues Album of the year for his album, Clean Getaway. In 2010, Salgado won the Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year award, which he won again in 2012.[2] In 2013, he won the Blues Music Award for the B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year, Soul Blues Male Artist and Soul Shot won Soul Blues Album Of The Year.[3]
In 2013, Salgado was nominated for a Blues Music Award in four separate categories.
Career
Salgado began his career leading The Nighthawks, based in Eugene, Oregon. He then joined forces with Robert Cray and sang and played harmonica in The Robert Cray Band for six years, including singing on Cray's debut album, released in 1980. Salgado and Cray parted ways in 1982. Salgado went on to front Roomful of Blues, singing and touring with them from 1984 through 1986. Returning to Oregon, he formed Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos in 1991 on the JRS label. The band opened for The Steve Miller Band during the summer of 1992. In 1995, Curtis spent a short stint as the lead singer with the band Santana. In 1997, he toured with Miller again and performed with Miller on the NBC television show Late Night With Conan O'Brien. He signed with Shanachie Records in 1999 and released four albums on that label, before signing with Chicago's Alligator Records in 2012.[1]
Salgado was the inspiration behind John Belushi's creation of the Blues Brothers characters in the late 1970s.[1] They met and became friends while Belushi was in Eugene, Oregon filming the movie Animal House. The Blues Brother's debut album Briefcase Full of Blues is dedicated to Salgado and Cab Calloway's character in The Blues Brothers film is named after Curtis.
Salgado was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2005, and underwent a successful liver transplant in 2006. He continues to record and perform his music. On June 13, 2006 a benefit concert was held in his honor in Portland to raise funds for his medical treatment. Among those who performed were Little Charlie & the Nightcats, Everclear, Taj Mahal, The Robert Cray Band, and Steve Miller. Also in attendance was the widow of John Belushi who spoke of Salgado's part in the development of The Blues Brothers. On April 29, 2007 another benefit was held in Curtis' honor, bringing Steve Miller and Little Charlie and the boys back, and adding Jimmie Vaughan, and harp players Charlie Musselwhite and Kim Wilson.
Salgado was nominated for four of the Blues Foundation's 2009 Blues Music Awards, including Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year and Soul Blues Album of the year for his album, Clean Getaway. In 2010, Salgado won the Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year award, which he won again in 2012.[2] In 2013, he won the Blues Music Award for the B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year, Soul Blues Male Artist and Soul Shot won Soul Blues Album Of The Year.[3]
In 2013, Salgado was nominated for a Blues Music Award in four separate categories.
Inetta Visor *04.02.1955
Inetta was born February 4,1955 on the South Side of Chicago. She graduated from Simeon Vocational High School in 1972, and studied electronics at the Omega Institute, and worked as a radio engineer for then Chicago Alderman Roman Pucinski from 1975 to 1983.
Ever since a child, Inetta had always had a passion for singing. It was a rare moment when she was found not singing or humming a song to herself. Her favorites at the time were Rock ‘N Roll tunes by such bands as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. One day she decided to try out for an audition she heard announced by a WVON radio DJ for Rock ‘N Roll choir DUBBER RUCKlE.
Apparently Inetta was a natural, and she was selected to sing with this choir. She sang her first professional gig with them in 1971, and continued to hone her singing skills on and off the stage whenever she could, as she continued to work as a radio engineer to pay the bills. In 1979 she began to sing with a Rhythm and Blues choir TWT (THE WHOLE TRUTH) founded by a former Dubber Ruckie member.
With TWT Inetta sang throughout the week at various clubs with this 12-piece or more band. Even though some nights she only came back with very little (as low as $15.00!), she gathered great experience on stage.
In 1984, Inetta left TWT and put together her own choir (SISTERS WITH VOICES). Not soon after putting out an ad for her choir, she received a phone call from a man named Marc Pulido interested in her services. Pulido told her he was with a band by the name of SKYLINE, and many of their gigs were on the North Side of Chicago. He offered them to work with him. Every one in Inetta’s group (but herself) refused to participate due to the racial implications of playing on the North Side. Inetta optimistically took this offer and sang back-up until this band disbanded in 1986 (due to difficulties in obtaining a record deal).
Inetta eventually began working at a South Side daycare center, after she left her radio engineer job in 1983. Her goal was to eventually work as a recording engineer, to better pay the bills. But at that time it was difficult for a female to get this type of position. However, out of the blue she got a phone call in 1993 from her former band member acquaintance Marc Pulido. After seven years he had not forgotten her voice. Pulido was now with a band named TAINTED BLUE. She joined that band as a back-up singer, and a few months later was their lead singer. Pulido eventually left TAINTED BLUE to found his own group World Class Noise, a 12 piece group, which Inetta did back-up vocals for as well (she is on 6 of their CDs). She sang with TAINTED BLUE until they broke up in 1997.
Inetta then took work with the Illinois Student Assistance Program (State of Illinois) in 1989 for more stability as she continued to press her musical career. In 2000 she was recommended by longtime acquaintance Theresa Davis to well-established (since 1991) Chicago Blues band MISSISSIPPI HEAT, who already had several CDs out, their most recent being Handyman (2000) winning Best Blues CD of the Year by Real Blues Magazine. Theresa Davis, who had sung for the Emotions, had recommended Inetta, as she herself did not see blues as her musical form, and therefore did not see the Heat as an ideal match for her. MISSISSIPPI HEAT at this point were looking for a replacement for their then singer Katherine Davis leaving the band to promote her new Jazz CD. Inetta auditioned for them at Koko Taylor’s club on Wabash. As it turned out Katherine Davis stayed a while longer than anticipated.
In 2001 Inetta decided to give Michel Lacocque (Pierre’s brother and band manager) a call to offer her services to MISSISSIPPI HEAT once again. Just as she was about to pick up the phone, while looking at the business card, she received a call from no one other than Michel himself! The rest is history.
Since she joined the band, they have recorded three albums and a DVD with Inetta, all of which have received awards. Inetta also won the Best Blues Singer competition at the House Of Blues (Chicago) on July 10, 2003.
Pierre Lacocque - harmonica and Inetta Visor
Mississippi Heat - Live - Muddys Club Weinheim 21.03.2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7wBTRyBJSw
http://www.erniewilliamsband.com/content/view/22/34/
Ernie Williams *04.02.1925
Ernie played his first guitar in the 30's; he was 13 and living in a shack on a Virginia Plantation. He spent his days picking tobacco and his nights bending the blues on a beat up six-string. By the 40's, he earned the right to play with the local bluesmen at the Saturday night Fish Fries in Halifax County, Virginia. At the age of 19, he bought a one-way ticket to Harlem, NY with the $9.00 it took him a year to save - he was moving north to go after his dream.
In the 50's, he played as many as 7 nights a week. From amateur nights at the famed Apollo Theater to juke joints in the dark corners of the city, he was making his mark as a young showman. In the 60's, life demands brought him north to Albany, NY. He worked odd jobs day and night to support his family. His dream was put on hold.
In the 70's when the blues scene was waning, he formed a new band, playing gigs in local bars and hosting blues jams whenever he could slip away from his minimum wage jobs. Over the next two decades, he maintained his post as a fixture of Albany's blues community, a scene hidden away in the dingy rooms of the city's toughest neighborhoods.
In 1992, he formed yet another band and, 53 years after he played his first note, Ernie Williams was about to realize his dream.
Although the band members have changed through the years, Ernie has remained one of the most beloved performers in the region. From the House of Blues in Boston to Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago; from festivals to opening slots for major recording acts, Ernie has been a force to be reckoned with. Ernie and his band represented the East Coast in KLON's National Blues Talent Search and walked away with a prize for first runner up; on two occasions they received a Critic's Choice column in the "Chicago Reader". To date, Ernie has released six CD's.
In addition to his musical performances, Ernie's charisma has landed him both magazine and TV spots. He was selected by Canon for their ad campaign for their new line of copiers called "Canon Blues". He also appeared on a TV commercial for "Grapes and Grains", a Capital District upscale wine establishment.
At 80+ years young, Ernie continues to say "this is just the beginning". Knowing his spirit and motivation, that's entirely possible!
In the 50's, he played as many as 7 nights a week. From amateur nights at the famed Apollo Theater to juke joints in the dark corners of the city, he was making his mark as a young showman. In the 60's, life demands brought him north to Albany, NY. He worked odd jobs day and night to support his family. His dream was put on hold.
In the 70's when the blues scene was waning, he formed a new band, playing gigs in local bars and hosting blues jams whenever he could slip away from his minimum wage jobs. Over the next two decades, he maintained his post as a fixture of Albany's blues community, a scene hidden away in the dingy rooms of the city's toughest neighborhoods.
In 1992, he formed yet another band and, 53 years after he played his first note, Ernie Williams was about to realize his dream.
Although the band members have changed through the years, Ernie has remained one of the most beloved performers in the region. From the House of Blues in Boston to Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago; from festivals to opening slots for major recording acts, Ernie has been a force to be reckoned with. Ernie and his band represented the East Coast in KLON's National Blues Talent Search and walked away with a prize for first runner up; on two occasions they received a Critic's Choice column in the "Chicago Reader". To date, Ernie has released six CD's.
In addition to his musical performances, Ernie's charisma has landed him both magazine and TV spots. He was selected by Canon for their ad campaign for their new line of copiers called "Canon Blues". He also appeared on a TV commercial for "Grapes and Grains", a Capital District upscale wine establishment.
At 80+ years young, Ernie continues to say "this is just the beginning". Knowing his spirit and motivation, that's entirely possible!
Albany’s
Ambassador of the Blues, the seemingly ageless Ernie Williams passed
away today (Wednesday, March 21) after suffering a massive heart attack
in his Cohoes home. He died at Albany Medical Center. He was 87 years
old.
The master bluesman – who mixed plenty of gospel in with his
brand of the blues – fittingly played his last gig in a church on Sunday
(March 18), the Northville Methodist Church.
Williams seemed to
approach each gig with the same enthusiasm, whether he was standing on
the spotlight at the Palace Theatre opening a sold-out concert for B.B.
King or playing late into the night at some dark, dingy neighborhood
bar. He did more than his fair share of touring throughout the years,
playing everywhere from the House of Blues in Boston to Buddy Guy’s
Legends in Chicago.
He began playing guitar at the age of 13, when he
was living in a shack on a Virginia tobacco plantation. After a stint
in NYC, he headed to Albany in the 1960s. But it wasn’t until the ’90s
that Williams finally began to receive the attention and respect that
his musical talents deserved.
He always surrounded himself with
excellent musicians. Guitarist Mark Emanatian (currently of Folding Sky)
led the earliest incarnation of Ernie Williams & the Wildcats, the
band that put Williams in the spotlight on the Nippertown music scene.
The
final Ernie Williams Band line-up was somewhat flexible but usually
featured such A-list players as musical director-saxman Charlie
Vatalaro, longtime Williams drummer Rocky Petrocelli, Woodstock
guitarslinger David Malachowski and keyboardist Mike Kelley (also of
Blotto and Circle of Willis).
Ernie and the band were also slated to
be joined by veteran guitarist and longtime Williams bandmate Joe Mele
for their featured performance at the J.B. Scott’s Reunion bash at
Michael’s Banquet House in Latham on Saturday, May 5.
Williams was a
tireless performer, and every year when his annual birthday bash would
roll around, he would laugh off any thoughts of retirement, simply
saying, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because
we stop playing.”
Williams’ annual birthday bashes were always an
early-February musical highlight on the Nippertown music scene, and over
the past decade or so he spread the wealth around, hosting his birthday
shows at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, the Palace Theatre in Albany,
Chaucer’s in Clifton Park, Revolution Hall in Troy, The Egg in Albany,
and in recent years, The Linda in Albany, where the celebration was in
high gear just last month.
Indeed, it seemed as though Ernie Williams
would always be around, pumping out his beloved blues, smiling and
declaring, “Yes, yes, yes…”
But now Ernie Williams is gone. And the Albany music scene (and the world) is a sadder place today.
Klaus Stachuletz *04.02.1956
Klaus Stachuletz, Erfinder und Namensgeber des Duos "Dr. Mojo", beginnt seine musikalische Karriere bereits in 1976 als Gründungsmitglied der Armstrong Siddeley Skiffle Group. Dann folgt ein ca. zehnjähriges musikalisches Intermezzo im Bereich der Country-Musik, wo er mit der "Armstrong Siddeley Country Band" auf allen großen und kleinen Bühnen in NRW Erfolge feiert.
Im Jahr 2001 geht es dann wieder "back to the roots" als Mitbegründer der "Midnighttrain Skiffle Band".
Seit Jahren gehört seine große musikalische Liebe der Bluesharp, die er nicht nur akustisch oder verstärkt, sondern auch ausgezeichnet im "Rack" spielt.
Mit Gesang, Gitarre, Bluesharp im Rack, Hi-Hat und Stompin' Bass – oft gleichzeitig gespielt – zählt Klaus Stachuletz zu den besten Musikern dieser Art. Mit fesselnder Bühnenpräsenz und ausdrucksstarker Stimme fühlt er sich auf jedem Parkett wohl und führt dabei unterhaltsam und souverän durch das Programm
Er spielte u.a. schon mit dem Trio Maharaj (IN), Big Daddy Wilson (USA), Joe Filisko & Eric Noden (USA), Abi Wallenstein & Blues Culture (UK/D), Spirit of the blues (Abi Wallenstein featuring Georg Schroeter & Marc Breitfelder), Spencer Bohren (USA), Ben Waters (UK), Eddie Martin (UK), Stefan George (USA), Tam White (UK), Kris Dollimore (UK), Rag Mama Rag ( FR), Colin Earl und Dave Peabody (UK), The Tremors (USA), The Slum (CH), Klaus "Major" Heuser", Jens Filser und Henrik Freischlader
St. James Infirmary Blues : Dr. Mojo am 18.01.2012 im Maschinchen Buntes,
Klaus Stachuletz alias Dr Mojo im Green Dog Part 3
Bob Gaddy *04.02.1924
Biography
Gaddy was born in Vivian, West Virginia, a small town based around coal mining.[1][3] He learned to play the piano at a young age, both playing and singing in his local church. In 1943 he was conscripted and served in the Navy, being stationed in California. He progressed from learning the blues and, using his gospel background, graduated towards the boogie-woogie playing style.[3]
He played in blues clubs in Oakland and San Francisco, but after World War II finished he relocated to New York in 1946. Gaddy later commented "I came to New York just to visit, because I was on my way to the West Coast. Somehow or other, I just got hooked on it. New York got into my system and I've been stuck here ever since."[3]
He found work as a blues pianist, and in the late 1940s Gaddy provided accompaniment to both Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. He later backed Larry Dale, and befriended Champion Jack Dupree. Dupree penned "Operator" for Gaddy, one of his best selling numbers.[3] Gaddy recorded firstly for Jackson Records with his debut single being "Bicycle Boogie" in 1952. Gaddy later spent time with the Jax, Dot and Harlem record labels, before joining Hy Weiss' Old Town Records in 1956. It was here that Gaddy had his most commercially successful period, particularly with "I Love My Baby," "Paper Lady," and "Rip and Run." His earlier recordings often had McGhee in the recording studio with Gaddy, although his Old Town recordings utilised the guitarists Jimmy Spruill and Joe Ruffin, plus saxophonist Jimmy Wright.[1]
Gaddy ceased his recording activities around 1960. However, along with his long time friend Larry Dale, Gaddy remained a mainstay of the ongoing New York blues scene.[1]
In April 1988, Gaddy, Dale and Spruill reunited to play at the Tramps nightclub in New York.[3]
Bob Gaddy died of lung cancer in the Bronx, New York in July 1997, at the age of 73.
BOB GADDY - SLOW DOWN BABY - HARLEM
Ian Siegal *04.02.1971
Ian Siegal (* 1971 in England) ist ein britischer Blues-Musiker und Sänger.
Siegal entdeckte mit der Musik von Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis und Chuck Berry seine Liebe zum Blues. Mit 16 arbeitete er als Roadie für die Band seines Cousins. Dort bekam er auch zufällig die Gelegenheit vor Publikum zu singen, mit überraschendem Erfolg. Mit 18 brachte er sich Gitarre bei. Mit 20 brach er sein Kunstudium ab und ging nach Berlin. Dort perfektionierte er seine Gitarrentechnik und beschloss als er zurück nach England ging eine Musikkarriere zu starten. Er blieb für fünf Jahre in Nottingham wo er und eine neu gegründete Band ein fixer Bestandteil der lokalen Musikszene wurden. Später ging er nach London um seine Musikkarriere auszubauen und gründete dort eine neue, seine aktuelle Band.
Einflüsse
Stark beeinflusst wurde Ian Siegal von den Werken von britischen Blues-Rock der 1960er und 1970er Jahre.
Band
Ian Siegal - Gesang, Gitarre
Andy Graham - Bass
Nikolaj Bjerre - Schlagzeug
Matt Schofield - Gitarre
Jonny Henderson - Orgel
Ian Siegal - Gesang, Gitarre
Andy Graham - Bass
Nikolaj Bjerre - Schlagzeug
Matt Schofield - Gitarre
Jonny Henderson - Orgel
Ian Siegal is a British singer and guitarist,
Biography
Ian Siegal is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader and recording artist whose music encompasses Blues and Americana. Born near Portsmouth in England, he dropped out of art college in the late 1980s and went busking in Germany.[1] He has toured in the UK and Europe, . In 2005 he released the first of several albums on the Nugene label. "Meat & Potatoes" was recorded with Nikolaj Bjerre (drums), Andy Graham (bass), Jonny Henderson (organ) and with guitar contributions by Matt Schofield, who also acted as producer. The album includes several songs written by Siegal or co-written with Keith Harrison, that have since become readily identified with Siegal's sound and style. The album is listed in the Penguin Book of Blues Recordings. Two further albums with the same line up follows: in 2007 "Swagger" and in 2009 "Broadside" - the latter picked by MOJO magazine as blues album of the year. A year earlier, he released his first solo acoustic album, 2008's "The Dust".
The inaugural British Blues Awards in 2010 saw Siegal pick up the Best Band award. In the following 3 years he collected awards in various categories including Best Male Vocalist, Best Solo Artist, Best Album and Best Song. He was one the early inductees to the British Blues Awards Hall of Fame.
His 2011 release, The Skinny, was recorded in North Mississippi when Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars was hired as record producer and he also played on the album. Other American musicians collecting paychecks were Robert Kimbrough, on guitar, Garry Burnside on bass, and on drums Rod Bland. Also guesting were Alvin Youngblood Hart and Duwayne Burnside. This album was nominated in the Blues Foundation's 2012 Blues Music Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
A return visit to the Dickinson's Zebra Ranch studio in Coldwater MS resulted in the 2012 album, Candy Store Kid , credited to Ian Siegal & The Mississippi Mudbloods. This album was also nominated for a Blues Music Award in the 'Contemporary Blues Album' category.[2] This album was also produced by Cody Dickinson. Other hired hands included Garry Burnside, Luther Dickinson, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Lightnin' Malcolm and a trio of backing singers Stefanie Bolton, Sharisse Norman and Shontelle Norman.
in 2012 Ian Siegal & The Mississippi Mudbloods performed at the Manchester Bluesfest recorded by the BBC, which resulted in a 30-minute broadcast. Later he was he guest interviewee of the Paul Jones on the latter's BBC Radio 2 show. An appearance at the London Bluesfest in 2013 resulted in an album release (April 2014) entitled "Man & Guitar" recorded by the BBC and released by Nugene Records.
In a twist to his career, Ian played for several years with France’s Orchestre National de Jazz in a program of Billie Holiday songs entitled “Broadway in Satin.” Backed by a 12-piece orchestra of young hand-picked musicians and accompanied by the French singer Karen Lanaud, Siegal performed "Broadway in Satin" at major festivals across France and as far afield as South America and East Africa.
R.I.P.
Cecil Gant +04.02.1951
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Cecil Gant (* 4. April 1913 in Nashville, Tennessee; † 4. Februar 1951 in Nashville, Tennessee) war ein US-amerikanischer Bluessänger und Pianist.
In den 1930er Jahren bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg und seiner Einberufung zur US Army machte Gant in den Clubs seiner Heimat Musik, meist von einer Rhythmusgruppe begleitet. Noch in Uniform veröffentlichte er 1944 die Single I Wonder unter dem Namen "Pvt. Gant" ("Pvt." steht für "Private", d. h. Gefreiter). Das Stück wurde ein überwältigender Erfolg, Nummer 1 der "Harlem Hit Parade", den damaligen Charts für schwarze ("race") Musik, dem Rhythm and Blues.
Gant ging als "The G.I. Sing-sation" auf Tour. Er war eine Live-Attraktion, konnte aber den kommerziellen Erfolg von I Wonder nicht mehr wiederholen. Er gilt als der Großvater des Rock'n'Roll, war jedoch seiner Zeit voraus. Vielfach wird sein Song Rock Little Baby von 1951 als das erste Rock'n'Roll-Stück angesehen. Weitere bekannte Stücke von Gant waren Shot Gun Boogie, Train Time, Owl Stew, Ninth Street Jive, Special Delivery Blues, Cindy Lou, Someday You'll Be Sorry, My House Fell Down und I'm All Alone Now.
Gant starb 1951 in Nashville an den Folgen einer Lungenentzündung.
Cecil Gant (April 4, 1913 - February 4, 1951[1]) was an American blues singer and pianist.
Biography
Gant was born in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked as a musician from the mid-1930s until he joined the army at the start of World War II.[2] After performing at a War Bond rally in Los Angeles, California, he signed with the Gilt Edge record label. His recording of "I Wonder" (1944) was released under the name "Pvt. Cecil Gant."[2]
"I Wonder" sold well, and reached number one on the Billboard Harlem Hit Parade (the former name of the R&B chart). Gant toured as "The G.I. Sing-sation".[2] Gant also released material for King Records (1947), Bullet Records (1948–49), Downbeat/Swingtime (1949), and Imperial Records (1950).[1]
Gant died from pneumonia[3] in Nashville in 1951, at the age of 37. He is buried in Highland Park Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.
Biography
Gant was born in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked as a musician from the mid-1930s until he joined the army at the start of World War II.[2] After performing at a War Bond rally in Los Angeles, California, he signed with the Gilt Edge record label. His recording of "I Wonder" (1944) was released under the name "Pvt. Cecil Gant."[2]
"I Wonder" sold well, and reached number one on the Billboard Harlem Hit Parade (the former name of the R&B chart). Gant toured as "The G.I. Sing-sation".[2] Gant also released material for King Records (1947), Bullet Records (1948–49), Downbeat/Swingtime (1949), and Imperial Records (1950).[1]
Gant died from pneumonia[3] in Nashville in 1951, at the age of 37. He is buried in Highland Park Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.
Cecil Gant I'm A Good Man But A Poor Man
Louis Jordan +04.02.1975
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Louis Jordan (* 8. Juli 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas; † 4. Februar 1975 in Los Angeles) war ein afroamerikanischer Jazz- und Rhythm-and-Blues-Musiker. Er wird auch der Vater des Rhythm and Blues und Großvater des Rock and Roll genannt. Von ihm kamen 54 Songs in die Rhythm and Blues Charts, ein Großteil von ihnen erreichte die Spitzenposition
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Jordan begann im Alter von sieben Jahren Saxophon zu spielen und hatte acht Jahre später seinen ersten professionellen Auftritt mit Ruby Williams. Nach wechselnden Engagements, unter anderem bei Chick Webb, gründete Jordan 1938 seine Band „The Tympany Five“. Das Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges läutete den Niedergang der großen Big Bands und des Swing ein. Das Publikum hatte nach den Entbehrungen und Schrecken des Krieges einen unstillbaren Hunger nach leichter Unterhaltung. Für Louis Jordan war dies der Start seiner Karriere. Schon während seiner Zeit bei Chick Webb musste er als Ansager für den als Showmann wenig geeigneten Bandleader – Chick Webb war kleinwüchsig und durch einen Buckel behindert – einspringen.Louis Jordans erfolgreichste Zeit waren die Jahre zwischen 1942 und 1950 bei Decca Records mit Milt Gabler als Produzenten. In diesen acht Jahren erreichte er achtzehn Mal Platz 1 der R&B-Charts. Insgesamt konnten sich seine Titel in diesen Jahren 113 Wochen auf dem Thron der R&B-Hitparade halten. Hits wie Caldonia (in Van Morrisons Interpretation Caledonia geschrieben), Let the Good Times Roll (von Sam Theard) oder Choo Choo Ch'Boogie sind heute Evergreens des traditionellen R&B und zählen zu den Standards in der Blues- und Rock-Musik. Zu seinen Duettpartnern gehörten Bing Crosby ("My Baby Said Yes"), Ella Fitzgerald ("Stone Cold Dead in the Market", Petootie Pie","Baby, It's Cold Outside", "I'll Never Be Free" ) und Martha Davis ("Daddy-O").
Untrennbar mit dem Song Caldonia verbunden ist der Name von Louis Jordans dritter Ehefrau, Fleecie Moore, die er 1942 heiratete. In dem Song besingt Jordan die Liebe zu einem Mädchen mit Namen Caldonia. Die Eltern, die gegen diese Liebe sind, versuchen Caldonia in ein möglichst schlechtes Licht zu rücken. Den gesprochenen Mittelteil des Songs scheint Louis Jordan ausgiebig für seine textlichen Improvisationen genutzt zu haben. In unterschiedlichen humoristischen Variationen erzählt er dem Publikum, warum Caldonia nach Ansicht seiner Eltern ein schlechtes Mädchen sei. Sie habe es auf sein Geld abgesehen, esse am Tag 24 Donuts, 4 Pfund Hamburger und trinke alleine eine Kiste Bier. Der Song wurde 2009 in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
Fleecie Moore wurde offiziell als Komponistin dieses Songs angegeben, was aber nach Aussage von Jordan nicht richtig war: "Fleecie Moores Name steht davor, aber sie hatte nicht das Geringste damit zu tun. Sie war damals mit mir verheiratet und wir veröffentlichten es in ihrem Namen. Sie hatte überhaupt keine Ahnung von Musik. Ihr Name wurde mal für das eine oder andere Lied verwendet und sie erhält dafür immer noch Geld."
Der Anekdote nach soll Fleecie Moore einige der Textimprovisationen auf ihre Person bezogen haben und daraufhin ihrem Ehemann ein Messer in den Rücken gerammt haben. Trotz dieses unangenehmen Zwischenfalls verlor Jordan nie die Liebe zum anderen Geschlecht. Er heiratete insgesamt fünf Mal.
Am 4. Februar 1975 starb Louis Jordan an den Folgen eines Herzinfarktes in Los Angeles. Er liegt in St. Louis, Missouri begraben. 1983 wurde er in die Hall of Fame des Blues aufgenommen und 1987 in die Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Die Musik von Louis Jordan wurde 1990 in einem Musical (5 Guys named Moe; Buch:Clarke Peters ) verwendet. Das Musical lief von 1992 bis 1993 am New Yorker Broadway und brachte es auf 445 Aufführungen. Seine Musik wurde in unzähligen Coverversionen weiterverwendet.(B. B. King, Pinetop Perkins, Muddy Waters, Johnny Copeland, Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall, Dr. John und viele andere) B. B. King nahm ein Tributealbum auf(Let the Good Times Roll: The Music of Louis Jordan), ebenso Joe Jackson und Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.
Louis Thomas Jordan[1] (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975)[2] was a pioneering American musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", he was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him no. 59 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[3]
Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine's chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts, and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve a significant "crossover" in popularity into the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful African-American bandleader of his day.
Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his day, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality—he appeared in dozens of "soundies" (promotional film clips), made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who played all forms of the saxophone, but specialized in the alto, in addition to playing piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, he wrote or co-wrote many songs that became influential classics of 20th-century popular music.
Although Jordan began his career in big-band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of "jump blues", a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan's band also pioneered the use of electric organ.
With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock'n'roll genres with a series of hugely influential 78 rpm discs for the Decca label. These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music in the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and exerted a huge influence on many leading performers in these genres. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan's recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including "Rock Around The Clock".
Early life and musical career
Jordan was born on July 8, 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas, where his father, James Aaron Jordan, was a local music teacher and bandleader for the Brinkley Brass Band and for the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. His mother, Adell, died when Louis was young.
Jordan studied music under his father, and started out on clarinet. In his youth he played in his father's bands instead of doing farm work when school closed. He also played piano professionally early in his career, but alto saxophone became his main instrument. However, he became even better known as a songwriter, entertainer and vocalist.
Jordan briefly attended Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, Arkansas, and majored in music. After a period with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, with one of his band colleagues having been Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker,[4] and with local bands including Bob Alexander's Harmony Kings,[5] he went north to Philadelphia and then New York. In 1932, Jordan began performing with the band of Clarence Williams, and when in Philadelphia played clarinet in the Charlie Gaines band.
In late 1936 he was invited to join the influential Savoy Ballroom orchestra led by drummer Chick Webb. Based at New York's Savoy Ballroom, Webb's orchestra was renowned as one of the very best big bands of its day and they regularly beat all comers at the Savoy's legendary "cutting contests". Jordan worked with Webb until 1938, and it proved a vital stepping stone in his career—Webb (who was physically disabled) was a fine musician but not a great showman. The ebullient Jordan often introduced songs as he began singing lead; he later recalled that many in the audience took him to be the band's leader, which undoubtedly boosted his confidence further. This was the same period when the young Ella Fitzgerald was coming to prominence as the Webb band's lead female vocalist; she and Jordan often duetted on stage and they would later reprise the partnership on several records, by which time both artists were major stars.
In 1938, Jordan was fired by Webb for trying to convince Fitzgerald and others to join his new band. By this time Webb was already seriously ill with tuberculosis of the spine. He died at only 34 years old after a spinal operation on June 16, 1939. Following his death, Ella Fitzgerald took over the band.
Early solo career
Jordan's first band, drawn mainly from members of the Jesse Stone band, was originally a nine-piece, but he soon scaled it down to a sextet after landing a residency at the Elks Rendezvous club at 464 Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The original lineup of the sextet was Jordan (saxes, vocals), Courtney Williams (trumpet), Lem Johnson (tenor sax), Clarence Johnson (piano), Charlie Drayton (bass) and Walter Martin (drums). In his first billing, as "Louie Jordan's Elks Rendez-vous Band", his name was spelled as "Louie" so people would know not to pronounce it "Lewis".[6]
The new band's first recording date for Decca Records (on December 20, 1938) produced three sides on which they backed an obscure vocalist called Rodney Sturgess, and two novelty sides of their own, "Honey in the Bee Ball" and "Barnacle Bill The Sailor". Though these were credited to "The Elks Rendezvous Band", Jordan subsequently changed the name to the "Tympany Five" due to the fact that Martin often used tympany drums in performance. (The word "tympany" is also an old-fashioned colloquial term meaning "swollen, inflated, puffed-up", etymologically related to "timpani", or "kettle drum," but historically separate.)
The various lineups of the Tympany Five (which often featured two or three extra players) included Bill Jennings and Carl Hogan on guitar, renowned pianist-arrangers Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett, "Shadow" Wilson and Chris Columbus on drums and Dallas Bartley on bass. Jordan played alto, tenor and baritone saxophone and sang the lead vocal on most numbers.
Their next recording date in March 1939 produced five sides including "Keep A-Knockin'" (originally recorded in the 1920s and later covered famously by Little Richard), "Sam Jones Done Snagged His Britches" and "Doug the Jitterbug". Lem Johnson subsequently left the group, and was replaced by Stafford Simon. Sessions in December 1939 and January 1940 produced two more early Jordan classics, "You're My Meat" and "You Run Your Mouth and I'll Run My Business". Other members who passed through the band during 1940 and 1941 included tenorist Kenneth Hollon (who recorded with Billie Holiday); trumpeter Freddie Webster (from Earl Hines' band) was part of the nascent bebop scene at Minton's Playhouse and he influenced Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis.
Early 1940s
Jordan in 1946
In 1941 Jordan signed with the General Artists Corporation agency, who appointed Berle Adams as Jordan's agent. Adams secured an engagement at Chicago's Capitol Lounge, supporting The Mills Brothers, and this proved to be an important breakthrough for Jordan and the band.
The Capitol Lounge residency also provides a remarkable yardstick of the scale of Jordan's success. During this engagement, the group was paid the standard union scale of US$70 per week – $35 per week for Jordan and $35 split between the rest of the band. Just seven years later, when Jordan played his record-breaking season at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco during 1948, he reportedly grossed over US$70,000 in just two weeks.
During this period bassist Henry Turner was sacked and replaced by Dallas Bartley. This was followed by another important engagement at the Fox Head Tavern in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Working in the looser environment of Cedar Rapids, away from the main centers, the band was able to develop the novelty aspect of their repertoire and performance. Jordan later identified his stint at the Fox Head Tavern as the turning point in his career, and it was also while there that he found several songs that became early hits including "If It's Love You Want, Baby", "Ration Blues" and "Inflation Blues".
In April 1941 Decca launched the Sepia Series, a 35-cent line that featured artists who were considered to have the "crossover potential" to sell in both the black and white markets, and Jordan's band was transferred from Decca's "race" label to the Sepia Series, alongside The Delta Rhythm Boys, the Nat King Cole Trio, Buddy Johnson and the Jay McShann Band.
By the time the group returned to New York in late 1941, the lineup had changed to Jordan, Bartley, Martin, trumpeter Eddie Roane and pianist Arnold Thomas. Recording dates in November 1941 produced another early Jordan classic, "Knock Me A Kiss", which became a significant jukebox seller, although it did not make the charts. However Roy Eldridge subsequently recorded a version, backed by the Gene Krupa band, which became a hit in June 1942, almost a year after the Jordan recording came out; it was also covered by Jimmie Lunceford.
These sessions also produced Jordan's first big-selling record, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", originally recorded by Casey Bill Weldon in 1936, although again it did not make the charts. It too was covered by Lunceford, in 1942, whose version reached No. 12 on the pop charts, and it was also covered by Big Bill Broonzy and Jimmy Rushing.
Sessions in July 1942 produced nine prime sides, allowing Decca to stockpile Jordan's recordings as a hedge against the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban, which was declared the same month. The ban—imposed in order to secure royalty payments for union musicians for each record sold—led to Jordan's enforced absence from the studio for the next year, and it also prevented many seminal bebop performers from recording during one of the most crucial years of the genre's history.
"I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town" was an "answer record" to Jordan's earlier "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", but it became Jordan's first major chart hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard's Harlem Hit Parade. His next side, "What's the Use of Getting Sober" (When You're Gonna Get Drunk Again)", became Jordan's first No. 1 hit, reaching the top of the Harlem Hit Parade in December 1942. A subsequent side, "The Chicks I Pick Are Slender, Tender and Fine", reached No. 10 in January 1943. Their next major side, the comical call-and response number "Five Guys Named Moe", was one of the first recordings to solidify the fast-paced, swinging R&B style that became the Jordan trademark and it struck a chord with audiences, reaching No. 3 on the race charts in September 1943. The song was later taken as the title of a long-running stage show that paid tribute to Jordan and his music. The more conventional "That'll Just About Knock Me Out" also fared well, reaching No. 8 on the race charts and giving Jordan his fifth hit from the December 1942 sessions.
In late 1942, Jordan and his band relocated to Los Angeles, working at major venues there and in San Diego. While in L.A., Jordan began making "soundies", the earliest precursors of the modern music video genre, and he also appeared on many Jubilee radio shows and a series of programs made for the Armed Forces Radio for distribution to American troops overseas. Unlike many musicians, Jordan's career was uninterrupted by the draft, except for a 4-week Army camp tour. Due to a "hernia condition" he was classified 4F.[7]
Decca was one of the first labels to reach an agreement with the Musicians' Union and Jordan returned to recording in October 1943. At this session Jordan and his band recorded "Ration Blues", which dated from their Fox Head Tavern days but had a new timeliness with the imposition of wartime rationing. It became Jordan's first crossover hit, charting on both the white and black pop charts. It was also a huge hit on the Harlem Hit Parade, where it spent six weeks at No. 1 and stayed in the Top Ten for a remarkable 21 weeks, and it reached No. 11 in the general "best-sellers" chart.
Within a year of his breakthrough, the Tympany Five's appearance fee rose from $350 to $2,000 per night. But the breadth of Jordan's success and the size of his combo had larger implications for the music industry. Blues singer Gatemouth Moore said, "He was playing... with five pieces. That ruined the big bands... He could play just as good and just as loud with five as seventeen. And it was cheaper."[8] Jordan's position as his band's lead vocalist was also uncommon, and proved influential. The artistic innovations and economic advantages were symbiotic, and helped pave the way for black pop's shift from big band swing music to rock 'n roll. The word "rock," originally black slang for coitus, began to be popularly used in its musical sense in the early 1940s. Following Jordan, many other small bands began achieving success including Joe Liggins and the Honeydrippers and Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, while single acts such as Big Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, T-Bone Walker and Wynonie Harris travelled the circuit without bands.
Commercial success
In the 1940s, Jordan released dozens of hit songs, including the swinging "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (one of the earliest and most powerful contenders for the title of "First rock and roll record"), "Blue Light Boogie", the comic classic "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Buzz Me," "Ain't That Just Like a Woman (They'll Do It Every Time)", and the multi-million seller "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie".
One of his biggest hits was "Caldonia", with its energetic screaming punchline, banged out by the whole band, "Caldonia! Caldonia! What makes your big head so hard?" After Jordan's success with it, the song was also recorded by Woody Herman in a famous modern arrangement, including a unison chorus by five trumpets. Muddy Waters also cut a version. However, many of Jordan's biggest R&B hits were inimitable enough that there were no hit cover versions, a rarity in an era when poppish "black" records were rerecorded by white artists, and many popular songs were released in multiple competing versions.
Jordan's raucous recordings were also notable for their use of fantastical narrative. This is perhaps best exemplified on the freewheeling party adventure "Saturday Night Fish Fry", a two-part 1950 hit that was split across both sides of a 78. It is arguably one of the earliest American recordings to include all the basic elements of the classic rock'n'roll genre (obviously exerting a direct influence on the subsequent work of Bill Haley) and it is certainly one of the first widely popular songs to use the word "rocking" in the chorus and to prominently feature a distorted electric guitar.[9]
Its distinctive comical adventure narrative is strikingly similar to the style later used by Bob Dylan in his classic "story" songs like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" and "Tombstone Blues".[citation needed] "Saturday Night Fish Fry" is also notable for the fact that it dispenses with the customary instrumental chorus introduction, but its most prominent feature is Jordan's rapid-fire, semi-spoken vocal. His delivery, clearly influenced by his experience as a saxophone soloist, de-emphasizes the vocal melody in favor of highly syncopated phrasing and the percussive effects of alliteration and assonance, and it is arguably one of the earliest examples in American popular music of the vocal stylings that eventually evolved into rap.
Jordan's original songs joyously celebrated the ups and downs of African-American urban life and were infused with cheeky good humor and a driving musical energy that had a massive influence on the development of rock and roll. His music was popular with both blacks and whites, but lyrically, most of his songs were emphatically and uncompromisingly "black" in their content and delivery.
Loaded with wry social commentary and coded references, they are also a treasury of 1930s/40s black hipster slang, and through his records Jordan was probably one of the main popularizers of the slang term "chick" (woman). Sexual themes often featured strongly and some sides—notably the saucy double entendre of "Show Me How To Milk The Cow"—were so risqué that it seems remarkable that they were issued at all.
"King of the Jukebox"
The prime of Louis Jordan's recording career, 1942–1950, was a period of segregation on the radio. Despite this he was able to score the crossover No. 1 single "G.I. Jive"/"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in 1944, thanks in large part to his performance with his orchestra of the song in the Universal 1944, all-star wartime musical Follow the Boys. Two years later, MGM had its cartoon cat Tom sing "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in the 1946 Tom and Jerry cartoon short "Solid Serenade".[4] He appeared in the 1946 Monogram Pictures movie Swing Parade of 1946 and starred in the 1947 all-black, full-length Astor Pictures film Reet, Petite and Gone.
During this period Jordan again placed more than a dozen songs on the national charts. However, Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five dominated the 1940s R&B charts, or as they were known at the time, the "race" charts. In this period Jordan scored a staggering eighteen No. 1 singles and fifty-four Top Ten placings. To this day Louis Jordan still ranks as the top black recording artist of all time in terms of the total number of weeks at #1—his records scored an incredible total of 113 weeks in the No. 1 position (the runner-up being Stevie Wonder with 70 weeks). From July 1946 through May 1947, Jordan scored five consecutive No. 1 songs, holding the top slot for 44 consecutive weeks.
Jordan's popularity was boosted not only by his hit Decca sides, but also by his prolific recordings for Armed Forces Radio and the V-Disc transcription program, which helped to make him as popular with whites as with blacks. He also starred in a series of short musical films, as well as making numerous "soundies" for his hit songs.[10] The ancestor of the modern music video, "soundies" were short film clips designed for use in audio-visual jukeboxes. These were in addition to guesting in Follow the Boys.
Decline of popularity
In 1951, Jordan put together a short-lived big band that included musicians such as Pee Wee Moore and others, at a time when big bands were on their way out; this is considered the beginning of his commercial decline, even though he reverted to the Tympany Five format within a year. By the mid-1950s, Jordan's records were not selling as well as they used to and he ended up leaving Decca Records.
The next label to sign Jordan was Aladdin Records, with whom Jordan recorded 21 songs in early 1954; nine singles were released from these sessions, with three of the songs remaining unreleased.[11] In 1955, Jordan recorded with RCA "independent" subsidiary "X" Records, who changed their name to Vik Records while Jordan was with them.[12] Three singles were released under the "X" imprint and one under the Vik imprint; four of the tracks went unreleased.[11] It was in these sessions that Jordan intensified his sound to compete with rock 'n roll.[11]
In 1956, Mercury Records signed Jordan, releasing two LP's and a handful of singles.[11] Jordan's first LP with Mercury, Somebody Up There Digs Me (1956), showcased updated rock n' roll versions of previous hits such as "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Caldonia", "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie", "Salt Pork, West Virginia", and "Beware!"; its follow-up, Man, We're Wailin' (1957), featured a more laid back "late night" sound.[11] Although Mercury intended this to be a comeback for Jordan, it did not turn out to be a success, and the label let Jordan go in 1958.[11] Jordan would record sporadically in the 1960s with Warwick (1960), Black Lion (1962), Tangerine (1962–1965), Pzazz (1968), and again in the early 1970s with Black and Blue (1973), Blues Spectrum (1973), and JSP (1974).[13]
In 1962 he appeared on the album Louis Jordan Sings by British trumpeter and bandleader Chris Barber. Speaking in 2012, Barber recalled seeing Jordan in the early 1960s at The Apollo in New York, with the intention of bringing him to record in the UK for the first time. Barber said:
".. playing with him was just frightening. It's a bit like an amateur guitar player from a back street who has just bought a Spanish guitar, working with Segovia. He didn't make you feel small, but he was just so perfect in what he did. ... I still remember watching him singing, but he would accompany himself on the alto, and you were convinced he was playing the alto while he was singing... the breath hadn't gone from his last word before he was playing his alto and it seemed to be simultaneous... He got a very raw deal from history... In the Chick Webb band there were two regular singers – Ella (Fitzgerald) and Louis Jordan. And yet really history has consigned him to just being a comedy vocal thing with a bit of rock and roll, and the first alto... but he was such a consumately good singer that it's sad that he wasn't known more for it."[14]
Jordan died in Los Angeles, from a heart attack on February 4, 1975.[15] He is buried at Mt. Olive Cemetery in his wife Martha's hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.
During an interview late in life, Jordan made the controversial remark that rock and roll music was simply rhythm and blues music played by white performers.
Although Jordan wrote (or co-wrote) a large proportion of the songs he performed, he did not benefit financially from many of them. Many of his self-penned biggest hits, including "Caldonia", were credited to Jordan's then wife Fleecie Moore as a means of avoiding an existing publishing arrangement. Their marriage was acrimonious and short-lived. On two occasions, Moore stabbed Jordan after domestic disputes, almost killing him the second time—and after their divorce Fleecie retained ownership of the songs. However, Jordan may have taken credit for some songs written by others—he is credited as the co-writer of "Saturday Night Fish Fry", but Tympany Five pianist Bill Doggett later claimed that in fact he had written the song.[16]
Films
As well as singing in many films, and appearing in mainstream films such as Meet Miss Bobby Sox (1944) and Follow the Boys (1944), Jordan starred in several race films: Beware! (1946), and Reet, Petite, and Gone (1947), and Look Out Sister (1947), when the craze for race films ended.
His prolific use of film as a promotional vehicle broke new ground, garnering admiration from the trade press, including Billboard, which gushed, "The movies have helped the one-nighters, which have also been helped by recordings, which have also helped the movies, which in turn have become more profitable. It's a delicious circle, and other bands are now exploring the possibilities..."[17]
Private life
Jordan is believed to have been married five times. His first wife was named Julia or Julie, but by 1932 he was married to Texas singer and dancer Ida Fields. He and Fields divorced, and in 1942 he married childhood sweetheart Fleecie Moore. After their divorce, he married dancer Vicky Hayes in 1951, and separated from her in 1960. Finally, he married singer and dancer Martha Weaver in 1966.
Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine's chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts, and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve a significant "crossover" in popularity into the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful African-American bandleader of his day.
Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his day, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality—he appeared in dozens of "soundies" (promotional film clips), made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who played all forms of the saxophone, but specialized in the alto, in addition to playing piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, he wrote or co-wrote many songs that became influential classics of 20th-century popular music.
Although Jordan began his career in big-band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of "jump blues", a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan's band also pioneered the use of electric organ.
With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock'n'roll genres with a series of hugely influential 78 rpm discs for the Decca label. These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music in the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and exerted a huge influence on many leading performers in these genres. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan's recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including "Rock Around The Clock".
Early life and musical career
Jordan was born on July 8, 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas, where his father, James Aaron Jordan, was a local music teacher and bandleader for the Brinkley Brass Band and for the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. His mother, Adell, died when Louis was young.
Jordan studied music under his father, and started out on clarinet. In his youth he played in his father's bands instead of doing farm work when school closed. He also played piano professionally early in his career, but alto saxophone became his main instrument. However, he became even better known as a songwriter, entertainer and vocalist.
Jordan briefly attended Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, Arkansas, and majored in music. After a period with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, with one of his band colleagues having been Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker,[4] and with local bands including Bob Alexander's Harmony Kings,[5] he went north to Philadelphia and then New York. In 1932, Jordan began performing with the band of Clarence Williams, and when in Philadelphia played clarinet in the Charlie Gaines band.
In late 1936 he was invited to join the influential Savoy Ballroom orchestra led by drummer Chick Webb. Based at New York's Savoy Ballroom, Webb's orchestra was renowned as one of the very best big bands of its day and they regularly beat all comers at the Savoy's legendary "cutting contests". Jordan worked with Webb until 1938, and it proved a vital stepping stone in his career—Webb (who was physically disabled) was a fine musician but not a great showman. The ebullient Jordan often introduced songs as he began singing lead; he later recalled that many in the audience took him to be the band's leader, which undoubtedly boosted his confidence further. This was the same period when the young Ella Fitzgerald was coming to prominence as the Webb band's lead female vocalist; she and Jordan often duetted on stage and they would later reprise the partnership on several records, by which time both artists were major stars.
In 1938, Jordan was fired by Webb for trying to convince Fitzgerald and others to join his new band. By this time Webb was already seriously ill with tuberculosis of the spine. He died at only 34 years old after a spinal operation on June 16, 1939. Following his death, Ella Fitzgerald took over the band.
Early solo career
Jordan's first band, drawn mainly from members of the Jesse Stone band, was originally a nine-piece, but he soon scaled it down to a sextet after landing a residency at the Elks Rendezvous club at 464 Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The original lineup of the sextet was Jordan (saxes, vocals), Courtney Williams (trumpet), Lem Johnson (tenor sax), Clarence Johnson (piano), Charlie Drayton (bass) and Walter Martin (drums). In his first billing, as "Louie Jordan's Elks Rendez-vous Band", his name was spelled as "Louie" so people would know not to pronounce it "Lewis".[6]
The new band's first recording date for Decca Records (on December 20, 1938) produced three sides on which they backed an obscure vocalist called Rodney Sturgess, and two novelty sides of their own, "Honey in the Bee Ball" and "Barnacle Bill The Sailor". Though these were credited to "The Elks Rendezvous Band", Jordan subsequently changed the name to the "Tympany Five" due to the fact that Martin often used tympany drums in performance. (The word "tympany" is also an old-fashioned colloquial term meaning "swollen, inflated, puffed-up", etymologically related to "timpani", or "kettle drum," but historically separate.)
The various lineups of the Tympany Five (which often featured two or three extra players) included Bill Jennings and Carl Hogan on guitar, renowned pianist-arrangers Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett, "Shadow" Wilson and Chris Columbus on drums and Dallas Bartley on bass. Jordan played alto, tenor and baritone saxophone and sang the lead vocal on most numbers.
Their next recording date in March 1939 produced five sides including "Keep A-Knockin'" (originally recorded in the 1920s and later covered famously by Little Richard), "Sam Jones Done Snagged His Britches" and "Doug the Jitterbug". Lem Johnson subsequently left the group, and was replaced by Stafford Simon. Sessions in December 1939 and January 1940 produced two more early Jordan classics, "You're My Meat" and "You Run Your Mouth and I'll Run My Business". Other members who passed through the band during 1940 and 1941 included tenorist Kenneth Hollon (who recorded with Billie Holiday); trumpeter Freddie Webster (from Earl Hines' band) was part of the nascent bebop scene at Minton's Playhouse and he influenced Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis.
Early 1940s
Jordan in 1946
In 1941 Jordan signed with the General Artists Corporation agency, who appointed Berle Adams as Jordan's agent. Adams secured an engagement at Chicago's Capitol Lounge, supporting The Mills Brothers, and this proved to be an important breakthrough for Jordan and the band.
The Capitol Lounge residency also provides a remarkable yardstick of the scale of Jordan's success. During this engagement, the group was paid the standard union scale of US$70 per week – $35 per week for Jordan and $35 split between the rest of the band. Just seven years later, when Jordan played his record-breaking season at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco during 1948, he reportedly grossed over US$70,000 in just two weeks.
During this period bassist Henry Turner was sacked and replaced by Dallas Bartley. This was followed by another important engagement at the Fox Head Tavern in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Working in the looser environment of Cedar Rapids, away from the main centers, the band was able to develop the novelty aspect of their repertoire and performance. Jordan later identified his stint at the Fox Head Tavern as the turning point in his career, and it was also while there that he found several songs that became early hits including "If It's Love You Want, Baby", "Ration Blues" and "Inflation Blues".
In April 1941 Decca launched the Sepia Series, a 35-cent line that featured artists who were considered to have the "crossover potential" to sell in both the black and white markets, and Jordan's band was transferred from Decca's "race" label to the Sepia Series, alongside The Delta Rhythm Boys, the Nat King Cole Trio, Buddy Johnson and the Jay McShann Band.
By the time the group returned to New York in late 1941, the lineup had changed to Jordan, Bartley, Martin, trumpeter Eddie Roane and pianist Arnold Thomas. Recording dates in November 1941 produced another early Jordan classic, "Knock Me A Kiss", which became a significant jukebox seller, although it did not make the charts. However Roy Eldridge subsequently recorded a version, backed by the Gene Krupa band, which became a hit in June 1942, almost a year after the Jordan recording came out; it was also covered by Jimmie Lunceford.
These sessions also produced Jordan's first big-selling record, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", originally recorded by Casey Bill Weldon in 1936, although again it did not make the charts. It too was covered by Lunceford, in 1942, whose version reached No. 12 on the pop charts, and it was also covered by Big Bill Broonzy and Jimmy Rushing.
Sessions in July 1942 produced nine prime sides, allowing Decca to stockpile Jordan's recordings as a hedge against the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban, which was declared the same month. The ban—imposed in order to secure royalty payments for union musicians for each record sold—led to Jordan's enforced absence from the studio for the next year, and it also prevented many seminal bebop performers from recording during one of the most crucial years of the genre's history.
"I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town" was an "answer record" to Jordan's earlier "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", but it became Jordan's first major chart hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard's Harlem Hit Parade. His next side, "What's the Use of Getting Sober" (When You're Gonna Get Drunk Again)", became Jordan's first No. 1 hit, reaching the top of the Harlem Hit Parade in December 1942. A subsequent side, "The Chicks I Pick Are Slender, Tender and Fine", reached No. 10 in January 1943. Their next major side, the comical call-and response number "Five Guys Named Moe", was one of the first recordings to solidify the fast-paced, swinging R&B style that became the Jordan trademark and it struck a chord with audiences, reaching No. 3 on the race charts in September 1943. The song was later taken as the title of a long-running stage show that paid tribute to Jordan and his music. The more conventional "That'll Just About Knock Me Out" also fared well, reaching No. 8 on the race charts and giving Jordan his fifth hit from the December 1942 sessions.
In late 1942, Jordan and his band relocated to Los Angeles, working at major venues there and in San Diego. While in L.A., Jordan began making "soundies", the earliest precursors of the modern music video genre, and he also appeared on many Jubilee radio shows and a series of programs made for the Armed Forces Radio for distribution to American troops overseas. Unlike many musicians, Jordan's career was uninterrupted by the draft, except for a 4-week Army camp tour. Due to a "hernia condition" he was classified 4F.[7]
Decca was one of the first labels to reach an agreement with the Musicians' Union and Jordan returned to recording in October 1943. At this session Jordan and his band recorded "Ration Blues", which dated from their Fox Head Tavern days but had a new timeliness with the imposition of wartime rationing. It became Jordan's first crossover hit, charting on both the white and black pop charts. It was also a huge hit on the Harlem Hit Parade, where it spent six weeks at No. 1 and stayed in the Top Ten for a remarkable 21 weeks, and it reached No. 11 in the general "best-sellers" chart.
Within a year of his breakthrough, the Tympany Five's appearance fee rose from $350 to $2,000 per night. But the breadth of Jordan's success and the size of his combo had larger implications for the music industry. Blues singer Gatemouth Moore said, "He was playing... with five pieces. That ruined the big bands... He could play just as good and just as loud with five as seventeen. And it was cheaper."[8] Jordan's position as his band's lead vocalist was also uncommon, and proved influential. The artistic innovations and economic advantages were symbiotic, and helped pave the way for black pop's shift from big band swing music to rock 'n roll. The word "rock," originally black slang for coitus, began to be popularly used in its musical sense in the early 1940s. Following Jordan, many other small bands began achieving success including Joe Liggins and the Honeydrippers and Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, while single acts such as Big Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, T-Bone Walker and Wynonie Harris travelled the circuit without bands.
Commercial success
In the 1940s, Jordan released dozens of hit songs, including the swinging "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (one of the earliest and most powerful contenders for the title of "First rock and roll record"), "Blue Light Boogie", the comic classic "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Buzz Me," "Ain't That Just Like a Woman (They'll Do It Every Time)", and the multi-million seller "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie".
One of his biggest hits was "Caldonia", with its energetic screaming punchline, banged out by the whole band, "Caldonia! Caldonia! What makes your big head so hard?" After Jordan's success with it, the song was also recorded by Woody Herman in a famous modern arrangement, including a unison chorus by five trumpets. Muddy Waters also cut a version. However, many of Jordan's biggest R&B hits were inimitable enough that there were no hit cover versions, a rarity in an era when poppish "black" records were rerecorded by white artists, and many popular songs were released in multiple competing versions.
Jordan's raucous recordings were also notable for their use of fantastical narrative. This is perhaps best exemplified on the freewheeling party adventure "Saturday Night Fish Fry", a two-part 1950 hit that was split across both sides of a 78. It is arguably one of the earliest American recordings to include all the basic elements of the classic rock'n'roll genre (obviously exerting a direct influence on the subsequent work of Bill Haley) and it is certainly one of the first widely popular songs to use the word "rocking" in the chorus and to prominently feature a distorted electric guitar.[9]
Its distinctive comical adventure narrative is strikingly similar to the style later used by Bob Dylan in his classic "story" songs like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" and "Tombstone Blues".[citation needed] "Saturday Night Fish Fry" is also notable for the fact that it dispenses with the customary instrumental chorus introduction, but its most prominent feature is Jordan's rapid-fire, semi-spoken vocal. His delivery, clearly influenced by his experience as a saxophone soloist, de-emphasizes the vocal melody in favor of highly syncopated phrasing and the percussive effects of alliteration and assonance, and it is arguably one of the earliest examples in American popular music of the vocal stylings that eventually evolved into rap.
Jordan's original songs joyously celebrated the ups and downs of African-American urban life and were infused with cheeky good humor and a driving musical energy that had a massive influence on the development of rock and roll. His music was popular with both blacks and whites, but lyrically, most of his songs were emphatically and uncompromisingly "black" in their content and delivery.
Loaded with wry social commentary and coded references, they are also a treasury of 1930s/40s black hipster slang, and through his records Jordan was probably one of the main popularizers of the slang term "chick" (woman). Sexual themes often featured strongly and some sides—notably the saucy double entendre of "Show Me How To Milk The Cow"—were so risqué that it seems remarkable that they were issued at all.
"King of the Jukebox"
The prime of Louis Jordan's recording career, 1942–1950, was a period of segregation on the radio. Despite this he was able to score the crossover No. 1 single "G.I. Jive"/"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in 1944, thanks in large part to his performance with his orchestra of the song in the Universal 1944, all-star wartime musical Follow the Boys. Two years later, MGM had its cartoon cat Tom sing "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in the 1946 Tom and Jerry cartoon short "Solid Serenade".[4] He appeared in the 1946 Monogram Pictures movie Swing Parade of 1946 and starred in the 1947 all-black, full-length Astor Pictures film Reet, Petite and Gone.
During this period Jordan again placed more than a dozen songs on the national charts. However, Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five dominated the 1940s R&B charts, or as they were known at the time, the "race" charts. In this period Jordan scored a staggering eighteen No. 1 singles and fifty-four Top Ten placings. To this day Louis Jordan still ranks as the top black recording artist of all time in terms of the total number of weeks at #1—his records scored an incredible total of 113 weeks in the No. 1 position (the runner-up being Stevie Wonder with 70 weeks). From July 1946 through May 1947, Jordan scored five consecutive No. 1 songs, holding the top slot for 44 consecutive weeks.
Jordan's popularity was boosted not only by his hit Decca sides, but also by his prolific recordings for Armed Forces Radio and the V-Disc transcription program, which helped to make him as popular with whites as with blacks. He also starred in a series of short musical films, as well as making numerous "soundies" for his hit songs.[10] The ancestor of the modern music video, "soundies" were short film clips designed for use in audio-visual jukeboxes. These were in addition to guesting in Follow the Boys.
Decline of popularity
In 1951, Jordan put together a short-lived big band that included musicians such as Pee Wee Moore and others, at a time when big bands were on their way out; this is considered the beginning of his commercial decline, even though he reverted to the Tympany Five format within a year. By the mid-1950s, Jordan's records were not selling as well as they used to and he ended up leaving Decca Records.
The next label to sign Jordan was Aladdin Records, with whom Jordan recorded 21 songs in early 1954; nine singles were released from these sessions, with three of the songs remaining unreleased.[11] In 1955, Jordan recorded with RCA "independent" subsidiary "X" Records, who changed their name to Vik Records while Jordan was with them.[12] Three singles were released under the "X" imprint and one under the Vik imprint; four of the tracks went unreleased.[11] It was in these sessions that Jordan intensified his sound to compete with rock 'n roll.[11]
In 1956, Mercury Records signed Jordan, releasing two LP's and a handful of singles.[11] Jordan's first LP with Mercury, Somebody Up There Digs Me (1956), showcased updated rock n' roll versions of previous hits such as "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Caldonia", "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie", "Salt Pork, West Virginia", and "Beware!"; its follow-up, Man, We're Wailin' (1957), featured a more laid back "late night" sound.[11] Although Mercury intended this to be a comeback for Jordan, it did not turn out to be a success, and the label let Jordan go in 1958.[11] Jordan would record sporadically in the 1960s with Warwick (1960), Black Lion (1962), Tangerine (1962–1965), Pzazz (1968), and again in the early 1970s with Black and Blue (1973), Blues Spectrum (1973), and JSP (1974).[13]
In 1962 he appeared on the album Louis Jordan Sings by British trumpeter and bandleader Chris Barber. Speaking in 2012, Barber recalled seeing Jordan in the early 1960s at The Apollo in New York, with the intention of bringing him to record in the UK for the first time. Barber said:
".. playing with him was just frightening. It's a bit like an amateur guitar player from a back street who has just bought a Spanish guitar, working with Segovia. He didn't make you feel small, but he was just so perfect in what he did. ... I still remember watching him singing, but he would accompany himself on the alto, and you were convinced he was playing the alto while he was singing... the breath hadn't gone from his last word before he was playing his alto and it seemed to be simultaneous... He got a very raw deal from history... In the Chick Webb band there were two regular singers – Ella (Fitzgerald) and Louis Jordan. And yet really history has consigned him to just being a comedy vocal thing with a bit of rock and roll, and the first alto... but he was such a consumately good singer that it's sad that he wasn't known more for it."[14]
Jordan died in Los Angeles, from a heart attack on February 4, 1975.[15] He is buried at Mt. Olive Cemetery in his wife Martha's hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.
During an interview late in life, Jordan made the controversial remark that rock and roll music was simply rhythm and blues music played by white performers.
Although Jordan wrote (or co-wrote) a large proportion of the songs he performed, he did not benefit financially from many of them. Many of his self-penned biggest hits, including "Caldonia", were credited to Jordan's then wife Fleecie Moore as a means of avoiding an existing publishing arrangement. Their marriage was acrimonious and short-lived. On two occasions, Moore stabbed Jordan after domestic disputes, almost killing him the second time—and after their divorce Fleecie retained ownership of the songs. However, Jordan may have taken credit for some songs written by others—he is credited as the co-writer of "Saturday Night Fish Fry", but Tympany Five pianist Bill Doggett later claimed that in fact he had written the song.[16]
Films
As well as singing in many films, and appearing in mainstream films such as Meet Miss Bobby Sox (1944) and Follow the Boys (1944), Jordan starred in several race films: Beware! (1946), and Reet, Petite, and Gone (1947), and Look Out Sister (1947), when the craze for race films ended.
His prolific use of film as a promotional vehicle broke new ground, garnering admiration from the trade press, including Billboard, which gushed, "The movies have helped the one-nighters, which have also been helped by recordings, which have also helped the movies, which in turn have become more profitable. It's a delicious circle, and other bands are now exploring the possibilities..."[17]
Private life
Jordan is believed to have been married five times. His first wife was named Julia or Julie, but by 1932 he was married to Texas singer and dancer Ida Fields. He and Fields divorced, and in 1942 he married childhood sweetheart Fleecie Moore. After their divorce, he married dancer Vicky Hayes in 1951, and separated from her in 1960. Finally, he married singer and dancer Martha Weaver in 1966.
The Original Snakeboy +04.02.2008
"The Original Snakeboy" (April 25, 1950 - February 4, 2008)
Described by his contemporaries as...'Blues guitarist extraordinaire, a true acoustic Slide Master.'
The Original Snakeboy grew up in New Orleans, steeped in the Delta Blues tradition.
He had a classic New Orleans drawl, and was known for his regular response of : "Yeah, U Rite!"
Snakeboy was a founding member of several award winning Texas bands:
Coupe de Ville, The Nomads, and The Asylum Street Spankers.
He only released one CD in his entire career..."Playing With Fire" in 2002.
Described by his contemporaries as...'Blues guitarist extraordinaire, a true acoustic Slide Master.'
The Original Snakeboy grew up in New Orleans, steeped in the Delta Blues tradition.
He had a classic New Orleans drawl, and was known for his regular response of : "Yeah, U Rite!"
Snakeboy was a founding member of several award winning Texas bands:
Coupe de Ville, The Nomads, and The Asylum Street Spankers.
He only released one CD in his entire career..."Playing With Fire" in 2002.
The Original Snakeboy, blues guitarist extraordinaire, has left this world for the next.
Founding member of the Asylum Street Spankers, The Original Snakeboy (aka Bill Thompson) was an exceptional performer who brought his New Orleans' roots to Portland, via Austin, Texas, and numerous wanderings in between.
His passing came as a surprise to many as news quickly made its way around the globe via the various online communities of blues fans and aficionados.
Sadly, like too many before him, The Original Snakeboy's passing was at his own hands, and friends who knew him are positively devastated.
Founding member of the Asylum Street Spankers, The Original Snakeboy (aka Bill Thompson) was an exceptional performer who brought his New Orleans' roots to Portland, via Austin, Texas, and numerous wanderings in between.
His passing came as a surprise to many as news quickly made its way around the globe via the various online communities of blues fans and aficionados.
Sadly, like too many before him, The Original Snakeboy's passing was at his own hands, and friends who knew him are positively devastated.
The Original Snakeboy Live 2005 - Highway 61
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