1901 Kokomo Arnold*
1968 Little Water+
1981 Michael Bloomfield+
1984 Gary Clark, Jr.*
Peter Schmidt*
Dorothy-Jane Mariah Gosper*
Michael Lefty Linke*
1968 Little Water+
1981 Michael Bloomfield+
1984 Gary Clark, Jr.*
Peter Schmidt*
Dorothy-Jane Mariah Gosper*
Michael Lefty Linke*
Happy Birthday
Gary Clark, Jr. *15.02.1984
Gary Clark Jr. (* 15. Februar 1984) ist ein amerikanischer Musiker und Schauspieler, wohnhaft in Austin im US-Bundesstaat Texas.
Nach eigener Aussage durch Blues, Jazz, Soul, Country und Hip Hop beeinflusst, ist der verschwommene Gitarrenklang ein prägendes Merkmal seiner Musik.
Clark begann im Alter von 12 Jahren Gitarre zu spielen. In seiner Jugend gab er kleine Konzerte in seiner Heimatstadt Austin. Dort traf er Clifford Antone - den Eigentümer des Musik-Clubs Antone's, welcher ihn unter anderem mit Jimmie Vaughan bekannt machte. Er und andere Musiker aus der Musikszene Austins begleiteten Clark durch seine Karriere. Erste größere Aufmerksamkeit erlangte Clark, als er 2010 auf dem Crossroads Guitar Festival an der Seite von B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Steve Winwood, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Jeff Beck und ZZ Top spielte. Im Juni 2011 und 2012 trat Clark beim jährlichen Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester in Tennessee auf.
Gary Clark übernahm Gesangparts auf dem ursprünglich von den Jackson 5 stammenden Bonusstück "I Want You Back " auf Sheryl Crows Album 100 Miles from Memphis.[1][2]
Im Februar 2012 trat er bei der Veranstaltung Red, White and Blues im Weißen Haus auf. Am 15. Dezember 2012 hatte Clark einen Gastauftritt beim Schlusskonzert der Rolling-Stones-Jubiläumstour in New Jersey und spielte, mit den Stones und John Mayer, den Song Goin' Down von Freddie King.
Der internationale Durchbruch gelang Clark 2013 mit seinem Album Blak and Blu. Bereits im Oktober 2012 war es sein bis dahin größter Erfolg in den USA gewesen und erreichte Platz 6 der US-Albumcharts und Platz 1 bei den Bluesalben. Im Jahr darauf wurde es weltweit veröffentlicht und kam in vielen weiteren Ländern in die Charts. Besonders erfolgreich war der Song Please Come Home, für den er mit einem Grammy im Bereich traditioneller Blues ausgezeichnet wurde. Mit Ain't Messin' 'Round gehörte er zudem in der Kategorie bester Rocksong zu den Nominierten.
Jambase beschreibt ihn als die Zukunft des Texas Blues.[3]
Der amerikanische Rolling Stone erklärte Clark in seiner Best-of-Rock-Ausgabe im April 2011 zur Best Young Gun
Clark bekam zahlreiche Preise und Auszeichnungen, wie zum Beispiel den Austin Music Award, als bester Blues- und E-Gitarrist. Ebenso wurde der 3. Mai 2001 vom Bürgermeister der Stadt Austin als Gary Clark Jr. Day ausgerufen.
Gary Clark, Jr. (born February 15, 1984) is an American guitarist and actor based in Austin, Texas.[1][2][3] Described as being the future of Texas blues,[4] Clark's résumé has included sharing the stage with various legends of rock and roll.[5] He has stated that he is "influenced by blues, jazz, soul [and] country, as well as hip hop".[6] Clark's musical trademarks are his extremely fuzzy guitar sound and smooth vocal style.
Musical career
Gary Clark Jr. began playing guitar at the age of twelve. Born and raised in Austin, Clark played small gigs throughout his teens, until he met promoter Clifford Antone, proprietor of the Austin music club Antone's. Antone's was the launch pad from which Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan redefined blues at the time.[7] Soon after meeting Clifford, Clark began to play with an array of musical icons, including Jimmie Vaughan. Vaughan and others in the Austin music community helped Clark along his musical path, facilitating his ascent in the Texas rock and roll scene.[8] Clark's music demonstrates how the blues have shaped virtually every medium of music over the past century, from hip-hop to country.[7]
Rolling Stone declared Clark "Best Young Gun" in its April 2011, "Best of Rock" issue.[9]
Clark sang on the bonus track cover of "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5 on Sheryl Crow's album 100 Miles from Memphis.[10][11]
More recently, Clark recorded with Alicia Keys on two different songs in New York, NY.
On August 28, 2012, Alicia Keys revealed via Twitter that Clark's new album and major-label debut called Blak and Blu would be released on October 22, 2012.[12] Later that day, the news appeared on Clark's official website.[13]
Clark worked with the Foo Fighters on the track "What Did I Do? / God as My Witness" on their 2014 album Sonic Highways at KLRU-TV Studio 6A in Austin, TX.
Live appearances
Clark performed at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival alongside B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Steve Winwood, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Jeff Beck, and ZZ Top.[8][14][15] He joined Doyle Bramhall II and Sheryl Crow on stage for their performance with Eric Clapton, and also debuted several original songs.[16][17]
In June 2011, Clark played at the annual Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee,[18] at the Miller Lite On Tap Lounge. On June 10, 2012, Clark again played at Bonnaroo, and his performance was streamed live online via the Bonnaroo MusicFest Channel on YouTube.
In February 2012, Clark performed alongside blues legends at the Red, White and Blues event at the White House. The event, aired on PBS, also included B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck and Buddy Guy, among others. Clark played "Catfish Blues" and "In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)", as well as contributing to performances of "Let the Good Times Roll", "Beat Up Old Guitar", "Five Long Years" and "Sweet Home Chicago".[19][20][21]
In June 2012, Clark guested with the Dave Matthews Band playing "Can't Stop" and "All Along the Watchtower" at dates in Virginia Beach and Indianapolis.
On October 21 and 22, 2012, Clark appeared as the opening act at the Bridge School Benefit Concert, Bridge XXVI.
On December 8, 2012, Clark appeared at The Rolling Stones' first US-gig of their 50th anniversary tour at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, NY to perform the Don Nix song "Going Down" with the band.[22] On December 15, 2012 he joined them onstage again to play the same song, along with John Mayer, during the last date of the Stones' mini-tour at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.[23]
On June 12, 2013, Clark was the guest performer with the Rolling Stones at Boston's TD Garden. Clark joined the Stones in playing the Freddie King tune 'Going Down'.
On June 30, 2013, Clark appeared on the Avalon stage at the Glastonbury Festival. His performance was declared 'the most electric performance of the festival, knocking the legendary appearance of The Rolling Stones (the previous night) well into second place'.
On October 25, 2013, he appeared on long-running British music show Later... with Jools Holland.[24]
On February 9, 2014,Clark performed The Beatles song While My Guitar Gently Weeps, along with Dave Grohl and Joe Walsh for The Beatles: the Night that Changed America.
On February 16, 2014 Clark performed in during the NBA Allstar Game Halftime with Trombone Shorty, Earth Wind and Fire, Doctor John, and Janelle Monáe.
On May 29, 2014, Gary Clark Jr performed solo at Rock In Rio in Lisbon. After yet been invited to participate in one of the songs of the legendary band The Rolling Stones during this festival day.
In popular culture
Clark starred alongside Danny Glover, Stacy Keach, and Charles Dutton in John Sayles' 2007 film, Honeydripper.[25][26]
In 2010, Clark and his band played onscreen in an episode of the acclaimed television series Friday Night Lights (TV series).[27]
The song "Don't Owe You a Thang" is played in the Clint Eastwood movie Trouble with the Curve.
"Bright Lights" can be heard in a 2011 Jack Daniel's commercial as well as in the 2012 videogame Max Payne 3.
"Bright Lights" has also been used in soundtrack of Stand Up Guys, in the final shootout scene.
"Bright Lights" was featured in the USA Network series Suits in the episode "High Noon."
Clark appears with his band performing "Travis County" and "When My Train Pulls In" in the 2014 Jon Favreau film Chef
"Bright Lights" was featured in the Showtime series House of Lies in the episode "Gods of Dangerous Financial Instruments".
Awards and recognitions
Kirk Watson, the Mayor of Austin, proclaimed May 3, 2001 to be Gary Clark Jr. Day. Clark was seventeen years old at the time.[2][5][28] Clark won the Austin Music Award for Best Blues and Electric Guitarist, on three different occasions.[8]
Clark was SPIN magazine's breakout artist for the month of November 2011.[29]
Rolling Stone magazine ranked Clark's Bright Lights EP (named for the title track, an homage to Jimmy Reed and his song of the same name), number 40 on its list of its top 50 albums of 2011.[30]
"Bright Lights" can be heard in the video game Max Payne 3, the premiere episode of House of Lies, as well as in the movie Think Like a Man near the end when the guys are in the bar before reconciling with their respective ladies, and "Don't Owe You a Thang" can be heard in Need for Speed: The Run
Kirk Hammett from Metallica introduced Clark onstage before his performance at the Orion Festival in Atlantic City, NJ.
While playing music festivals such as Coachella, JazzFest, Memphis Beale St., Hangout, High Sierra, Sasquatch, Mountain Jam, Wakarusa, Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, Hard Rock Calling, Newport Folk Festival, Orion Music Festival, Osheaga, Lollapalooza, and ACL Music Festival, Clark was awarded SPIN Magazine's Golden Corndog award for performing in more major North American Music Festivals in 2012 than any other musician on the planet.[31]
Clark swept the 31st annual Austin Music Awards for 2012-2013, collecting eight awards, he earned the following: Band of the Year, Musician of the Year, Song of the Year - "Ain't Messin Round" (from Blak and Blu), Album of the Year - Blak and Blu, Electric Guitarist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Blues/Soul/Funk Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year.
For his song "Ain't Messin Round", Clark was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2013. On January 26, 2014, Clark won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B performance at the 56th annual Grammy Awards Ceremony for his song "Please Come Home."
In 2014, Clark won a Blues Music Award in the 'Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year' category.[32]
Instruments
Clark uses Epiphone Casino, Gibson ES-330 and Fender Telecaster electric guitars and Epiphone Masterbilt and Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitars.[33][34][35]
Clark uses .011-.049 D'Addario Strings EXL 115[36]
Clark uses a Fender Vibro-King amp purchased from Zapata who currently tours with him and plays rhythm guitar[37]
Charity
Clark performed at Alicia Keys' Keep a Child Alive Black Ball benefit, in an effort to raise money for children with AIDS in Africa.[38] The two performed the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as a tribute to George Harrison.[39]
Personal life
On 5 November 2014 it was announced Gary Clark Jr is engaged to his long time girlfriend model Nicole Trunfio and they are currently expecting their first child together.
Musical career
Gary Clark Jr. began playing guitar at the age of twelve. Born and raised in Austin, Clark played small gigs throughout his teens, until he met promoter Clifford Antone, proprietor of the Austin music club Antone's. Antone's was the launch pad from which Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan redefined blues at the time.[7] Soon after meeting Clifford, Clark began to play with an array of musical icons, including Jimmie Vaughan. Vaughan and others in the Austin music community helped Clark along his musical path, facilitating his ascent in the Texas rock and roll scene.[8] Clark's music demonstrates how the blues have shaped virtually every medium of music over the past century, from hip-hop to country.[7]
Rolling Stone declared Clark "Best Young Gun" in its April 2011, "Best of Rock" issue.[9]
Clark sang on the bonus track cover of "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5 on Sheryl Crow's album 100 Miles from Memphis.[10][11]
More recently, Clark recorded with Alicia Keys on two different songs in New York, NY.
On August 28, 2012, Alicia Keys revealed via Twitter that Clark's new album and major-label debut called Blak and Blu would be released on October 22, 2012.[12] Later that day, the news appeared on Clark's official website.[13]
Clark worked with the Foo Fighters on the track "What Did I Do? / God as My Witness" on their 2014 album Sonic Highways at KLRU-TV Studio 6A in Austin, TX.
Live appearances
Clark performed at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival alongside B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Steve Winwood, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Jeff Beck, and ZZ Top.[8][14][15] He joined Doyle Bramhall II and Sheryl Crow on stage for their performance with Eric Clapton, and also debuted several original songs.[16][17]
In June 2011, Clark played at the annual Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee,[18] at the Miller Lite On Tap Lounge. On June 10, 2012, Clark again played at Bonnaroo, and his performance was streamed live online via the Bonnaroo MusicFest Channel on YouTube.
In February 2012, Clark performed alongside blues legends at the Red, White and Blues event at the White House. The event, aired on PBS, also included B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck and Buddy Guy, among others. Clark played "Catfish Blues" and "In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)", as well as contributing to performances of "Let the Good Times Roll", "Beat Up Old Guitar", "Five Long Years" and "Sweet Home Chicago".[19][20][21]
In June 2012, Clark guested with the Dave Matthews Band playing "Can't Stop" and "All Along the Watchtower" at dates in Virginia Beach and Indianapolis.
On October 21 and 22, 2012, Clark appeared as the opening act at the Bridge School Benefit Concert, Bridge XXVI.
On December 8, 2012, Clark appeared at The Rolling Stones' first US-gig of their 50th anniversary tour at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, NY to perform the Don Nix song "Going Down" with the band.[22] On December 15, 2012 he joined them onstage again to play the same song, along with John Mayer, during the last date of the Stones' mini-tour at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.[23]
On June 12, 2013, Clark was the guest performer with the Rolling Stones at Boston's TD Garden. Clark joined the Stones in playing the Freddie King tune 'Going Down'.
On June 30, 2013, Clark appeared on the Avalon stage at the Glastonbury Festival. His performance was declared 'the most electric performance of the festival, knocking the legendary appearance of The Rolling Stones (the previous night) well into second place'.
On October 25, 2013, he appeared on long-running British music show Later... with Jools Holland.[24]
On February 9, 2014,Clark performed The Beatles song While My Guitar Gently Weeps, along with Dave Grohl and Joe Walsh for The Beatles: the Night that Changed America.
On February 16, 2014 Clark performed in during the NBA Allstar Game Halftime with Trombone Shorty, Earth Wind and Fire, Doctor John, and Janelle Monáe.
On May 29, 2014, Gary Clark Jr performed solo at Rock In Rio in Lisbon. After yet been invited to participate in one of the songs of the legendary band The Rolling Stones during this festival day.
In popular culture
Clark starred alongside Danny Glover, Stacy Keach, and Charles Dutton in John Sayles' 2007 film, Honeydripper.[25][26]
In 2010, Clark and his band played onscreen in an episode of the acclaimed television series Friday Night Lights (TV series).[27]
The song "Don't Owe You a Thang" is played in the Clint Eastwood movie Trouble with the Curve.
"Bright Lights" can be heard in a 2011 Jack Daniel's commercial as well as in the 2012 videogame Max Payne 3.
"Bright Lights" has also been used in soundtrack of Stand Up Guys, in the final shootout scene.
"Bright Lights" was featured in the USA Network series Suits in the episode "High Noon."
Clark appears with his band performing "Travis County" and "When My Train Pulls In" in the 2014 Jon Favreau film Chef
"Bright Lights" was featured in the Showtime series House of Lies in the episode "Gods of Dangerous Financial Instruments".
Awards and recognitions
Kirk Watson, the Mayor of Austin, proclaimed May 3, 2001 to be Gary Clark Jr. Day. Clark was seventeen years old at the time.[2][5][28] Clark won the Austin Music Award for Best Blues and Electric Guitarist, on three different occasions.[8]
Clark was SPIN magazine's breakout artist for the month of November 2011.[29]
Rolling Stone magazine ranked Clark's Bright Lights EP (named for the title track, an homage to Jimmy Reed and his song of the same name), number 40 on its list of its top 50 albums of 2011.[30]
"Bright Lights" can be heard in the video game Max Payne 3, the premiere episode of House of Lies, as well as in the movie Think Like a Man near the end when the guys are in the bar before reconciling with their respective ladies, and "Don't Owe You a Thang" can be heard in Need for Speed: The Run
Kirk Hammett from Metallica introduced Clark onstage before his performance at the Orion Festival in Atlantic City, NJ.
While playing music festivals such as Coachella, JazzFest, Memphis Beale St., Hangout, High Sierra, Sasquatch, Mountain Jam, Wakarusa, Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, Hard Rock Calling, Newport Folk Festival, Orion Music Festival, Osheaga, Lollapalooza, and ACL Music Festival, Clark was awarded SPIN Magazine's Golden Corndog award for performing in more major North American Music Festivals in 2012 than any other musician on the planet.[31]
Clark swept the 31st annual Austin Music Awards for 2012-2013, collecting eight awards, he earned the following: Band of the Year, Musician of the Year, Song of the Year - "Ain't Messin Round" (from Blak and Blu), Album of the Year - Blak and Blu, Electric Guitarist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Blues/Soul/Funk Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year.
For his song "Ain't Messin Round", Clark was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2013. On January 26, 2014, Clark won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B performance at the 56th annual Grammy Awards Ceremony for his song "Please Come Home."
In 2014, Clark won a Blues Music Award in the 'Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year' category.[32]
Instruments
Clark uses Epiphone Casino, Gibson ES-330 and Fender Telecaster electric guitars and Epiphone Masterbilt and Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitars.[33][34][35]
Clark uses .011-.049 D'Addario Strings EXL 115[36]
Clark uses a Fender Vibro-King amp purchased from Zapata who currently tours with him and plays rhythm guitar[37]
Charity
Clark performed at Alicia Keys' Keep a Child Alive Black Ball benefit, in an effort to raise money for children with AIDS in Africa.[38] The two performed the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as a tribute to George Harrison.[39]
Personal life
On 5 November 2014 it was announced Gary Clark Jr is engaged to his long time girlfriend model Nicole Trunfio and they are currently expecting their first child together.
Gary Clark Jr. - Don't Owe You A Thing
Kokomo Arnold *15.02.1901
Kokomo Arnold (eigentlich James Arnold; * 15. Februar 1901 in Lovejoys Station, Georgia; † 8. November 1968 in Chicago, Illinois), war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Musiker.
Die Grundlagen des Gitarrenspiels hatte er noch in Georgia von seinem Cousin John Wiggs erlernt. Nach seinem Umzug nach Norden begann er in den 1920ern neben seinen Jobs, z. B. als Farmarbeiter in Buffalo oder als Stahlarbeiter in Pittsburgh, als Unterhaltungsmusiker zu spielen. 1929 ging er nach Chicago, wo er seinen Lebensunterhalt hauptsächlich als ‚Bootlegger‘ (illegales Vertreiben von Alkoholika während der Prohibition) verdiente.
Kokomo Arnold - Milk Cow Blues
Am 17. Mai 1930 entstanden in Memphis unter dem Namen Gitfiddle Jim seine ersten Aufnahmen, Rainy Night Blues und Paddlin' Madeline Blues für RCA-Victor; sein Debüt verkaufte sich jedoch nur schwach. Danach zog er wieder nach Chicago. Nach einer 4 Jahre dauernden Aufnahmepause nahm er zwischen 1934 und 1938 insgesamt 88 Titel für Decca Records auf und war zusammen mit Peetie Wheatstraw und Amos Easton einer der führenden Musiker des Chicago Blues. Hier erhielt er 1934 auch seinen Kosenamen, nachdem er den Song Old Original Kokomo Blues (ursprünglich von Scrapper Blackwell) aufgenommen hatte. Der nach einer Kaffeemarke benannte Titel entstand mit 3 weiteren Titeln am 10. September 1934. Hierunter befand sich auch der inzwischen zum Klassiker gewordene Milkcow Blues, der als A-Seite von Arnolds erster Decca-Single #7026 ausgewählt wurde.
Arnold beeinflusste insbesondere Robert Johnson, der Old Original Kokomo Blues in Sweet Home Chicago umarbeitete, während aus dem Milkcow Blues der Milkcow Blues Boogie wurde, den Elvis Presley am 10. Dezember 1954 aufnahm[1]. Vom berühmtesten Song seines Repertoires, dem Milkcow Blues, spielte Arnold noch 4 weitere nummerierte Versionen ein[2]. Am 18. April 1935 entstand Busy Bootin' / Southern Railroad Blues (Decca #7139), dessen A-Seite später als Vorlage für Little Richards Keep A-Knockin' im September 1957 diente und zu dessen sechstem Millionseller wurde.
Bereits im Jahre 1938 zog sich Kokomo Arnold nach Streitigkeiten mit dem Decca-Produzenten Mayo Williams aus dem Musikgeschäft zurück. Seine letzte Aufnahmesession fand am 12. Mai 1938 statt, wo als letzte Single Going Down In Gallilee / Something's Hot (Decca #7485) entstand. Erst 1962 wurde er wiederentdeckt, konnte sich aber für das Blues-Revival vor weißem Publikum nicht begeistern. Er starb 1968 in Chicago an einem Herzinfarkt und wurde in Alsip, Illinois, beigesetzt.
Arnold war ein (linkshändiger) Meister auf der Slide-Gitarre. Eines der hervorstechendsten Merkmale seines Spiels ist sein für einen Slidegitarristen ungewöhnlich hohes Tempo. Auf einigen Stücken scheint sein - gelegentlich im Falsett ausgeführter - Gesang der Gitarre mit ihrem Stil, der von hohem Wiedererkennungswert geprägt ist, kaum folgen zu können.
Sein berühmtester Song Milkcow Blues wurde 47 mal gecovert. Erste Versionen erschienen bereits am 13. Februar 1935 von Pinewood Tom und am 27. Februar 1935 von Bumble Bee Slim. Die Version, die wohl Elvis Presley inspiriert hatte, stammte von Johnny Lee Wills & His Boys (aufgenommen am 28. April 1941), wonach dessen Bruder Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys (20. Mai 1946) folgte. Neben Elvis Presley stammt eine weitere Rock & Roll-Fassung dieses Blues von Eddie Cochran (5. Januar 1962). Die Version der Kinks vom 10. August 1965 basiert nicht auf Arnolds Song, sondern auf einer völlig anderen Komposition, dem "Milk Cow Blues" von Sleepy John Estes, der am 13. Mai 1930 entstanden war.
Kokomo Arnold (February 15, 1901 – November 8, 1968) was an American blues musician.
Born as James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, he got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana.[1] A left-handed slide guitarist, he had an intense slide style of playing and rapid-fire vocal style that set him apart from his contemporaries.
Career
Having learned the basics of the guitar from his cousin, John Wiggs,[2] Arnold began playing in the early 1920s as a sideline while he worked as a farmhand in Buffalo, New York, and as a steelworker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1929 he moved to Chicago and set up a bootlegging business, an activity he continued throughout Prohibition. In 1930 Arnold moved south briefly, and made his first recordings, "Rainy Night Blues" and "Paddlin' Madeline Blues", under the name Gitfiddle Jim for the Victor label in Memphis.[3] He soon moved back to Chicago, although he was forced to make a living as a musician after Prohibition ended in 1933. Kansas Joe McCoy heard him and introduced him to Mayo Williams who was producing records for Decca.[2]
From his first recording for Decca on September 10, 1934, until his last on May 12, 1938, Arnold made 88 sides, seven of which remain lost. Arnold, Peetie Wheatstraw and Bumble Bee Slim were dominant figures in Chicago blues circles of that time. Peetie Wheatstraw & Arnold in particular were also major influences upon musical contemporary seminal delta blues artist Robert Johnson and thus modern music as a whole. Johnson turned "Old Original Kokomo Blues" into "Sweet Home Chicago", "Milk Cow Blues" into "Milkcow's Calf Blues", while another Arnold song, "Sagefield Woman Blues", introduced the terminology "dust my broom", which Johnson used as a song title himself.
Other notable songs include his 1934 recording of the "Sissy Man Blues"[4] with its openly bisexual lyrics, including the line, "Lord, if you can't send me no woman, please send me some sissy man."[5] This piece went on to also be recorded by other blues musicians of the era including Josh White (Pinewood Tom), George Noble and Connie McLean's Rhythm Kings.
In 1938 Arnold left the music industry and began to work in a Chicago factory.[3] Rediscovered by blues researchers in 1962, he showed no enthusiasm for returning to music to take advantage of the new explosion of interest in the blues among young white audiences.[3]
He died of a heart attack in Chicago, aged 67, in 1968, and was buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.
Born as James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, he got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana.[1] A left-handed slide guitarist, he had an intense slide style of playing and rapid-fire vocal style that set him apart from his contemporaries.
Career
Having learned the basics of the guitar from his cousin, John Wiggs,[2] Arnold began playing in the early 1920s as a sideline while he worked as a farmhand in Buffalo, New York, and as a steelworker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1929 he moved to Chicago and set up a bootlegging business, an activity he continued throughout Prohibition. In 1930 Arnold moved south briefly, and made his first recordings, "Rainy Night Blues" and "Paddlin' Madeline Blues", under the name Gitfiddle Jim for the Victor label in Memphis.[3] He soon moved back to Chicago, although he was forced to make a living as a musician after Prohibition ended in 1933. Kansas Joe McCoy heard him and introduced him to Mayo Williams who was producing records for Decca.[2]
From his first recording for Decca on September 10, 1934, until his last on May 12, 1938, Arnold made 88 sides, seven of which remain lost. Arnold, Peetie Wheatstraw and Bumble Bee Slim were dominant figures in Chicago blues circles of that time. Peetie Wheatstraw & Arnold in particular were also major influences upon musical contemporary seminal delta blues artist Robert Johnson and thus modern music as a whole. Johnson turned "Old Original Kokomo Blues" into "Sweet Home Chicago", "Milk Cow Blues" into "Milkcow's Calf Blues", while another Arnold song, "Sagefield Woman Blues", introduced the terminology "dust my broom", which Johnson used as a song title himself.
Other notable songs include his 1934 recording of the "Sissy Man Blues"[4] with its openly bisexual lyrics, including the line, "Lord, if you can't send me no woman, please send me some sissy man."[5] This piece went on to also be recorded by other blues musicians of the era including Josh White (Pinewood Tom), George Noble and Connie McLean's Rhythm Kings.
In 1938 Arnold left the music industry and began to work in a Chicago factory.[3] Rediscovered by blues researchers in 1962, he showed no enthusiasm for returning to music to take advantage of the new explosion of interest in the blues among young white audiences.[3]
He died of a heart attack in Chicago, aged 67, in 1968, and was buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.
Kokomo Arnold / Milk Cow Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B944jMtu6Qc
siehe auch http://www.eastbluesexperience.de/bio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KShR6vjYG9w
https://www.facebook.com/michaellefty.linke/photos_all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B944jMtu6Qc
Peter Schmidt *15.02.
Der Gitarrist und Sänger Peter Schmidt aus Berlin steht mittlerweile über 4
Jahrzehnte auf der Bühne und arbeitet seit vielen Jahren auch als
Studiomusiker, Arrangeur, Komponist und Produzent.
Mit seiner Band "East Blues Experience" tourte er durch Europa, Asien und
Nordamerika, auch als Begleitband oder als Support für viele Weltstars der
Blues- und Rockszene, wie z.B. Luther Allison, Carey Bell, Jerry Donahue, John
Mayall, Jethro Tull, Procul Harum oder ZZ Top.
Jahrzehnte auf der Bühne und arbeitet seit vielen Jahren auch als
Studiomusiker, Arrangeur, Komponist und Produzent.
Mit seiner Band "East Blues Experience" tourte er durch Europa, Asien und
Nordamerika, auch als Begleitband oder als Support für viele Weltstars der
Blues- und Rockszene, wie z.B. Luther Allison, Carey Bell, Jerry Donahue, John
Mayall, Jethro Tull, Procul Harum oder ZZ Top.
Bluesrudy & Peter Schmidt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KShR6vjYG9w
East Blues Experience - An Old Indian Saying - 2015 - Kulturbastion Torgau
Dorothy-Jane Mariah Gosper *15.02.
Beim Thema Frauen und Harp fällt einem vielleicht spontan Kellie Rucker ein. So ging es zumindest mir. Dann muss man schon überlegen. Moment, tja, äh, öm ... sorry, da fällt mir grad niemand mehr ein. Aber bestimmt gleich. Man kann den Weg durch die Schubladen der Vergangenheit verkürzen, denn dann ist "Blues Harp Women" genau das Richtige für den Bluesfan und dieses Doppelalbum erhöht die Frauenquote in dieser Sparte beträchtlich.
Einunddreißig Künstlerinnen des Blues und dem kleinen Instrument, auch Mississippi Saxofon genannt, versammeln sich auf dem Sampler. Zu jeder Musikerin gibt es im Booklet einen kurzen, informativen Text und außerdem bekommt man zu jedem Song die entsprechenden Credits-Angaben nebst Album-Abstammung.
An dieser Stelle das erste Lob. Es geht an Norman Davis, der die bei den externen Links angegebene Seite Hermonicas ins Leben gerufen hat. Dort findet man eine große Sammlung von Harp-Frauen mit entsprechendem Hintergrundwissen. Sehr gute Arbeit! Kompliment! Das zweite Lob geht an Thomas Ruf, der zusagte »[...] das Projekt zu unterstützen. [...]«
Bei einunddreißig Songs spielen die Fremdkompositionen in gewisser Weise eine Nebenrolle, auch wenn dort unter anderem berühmte Namen wie Robert Johnson ("32-20 Blues") George Gershwin ("Summertime"), Huddie Ledbetter ("Rikers Island") oder Sam Cooke ("Bring It Home (To Me)") auftauchen.
"Blues Harp Women" ist gleichzeitig auch eine Art Zeitreise, denn zumindest mit
Big Mama Thornton ist eine Legende des Blues mit von der Partie. Sie ist hier mit dem Titel "Down Home Shakedown" vertreten. Alleine schon diese Nummer ist ein Magnet für den Hörer. Harp-Intro und dann der Schellenring begleiten den bekannt-emotionalen Gesang der Lady des Blues. Hammer, dieses Highlight!
Da kommt später eine Trina Hamlin daher und bietet vom Arrangement her eine ganz ähnliche Nummer auf, wie Big Mama Thornton. Die Eigenkomposition "Down To The Hollow" ist anregend und geht mit ihren Gefühlen bis in die Tiefe des Hörer-Herzens. Super!
Passend zum Albumtitel eröffnet Paula Rangell mit "Harmonica Girl" den Reigen der anregenden Songs auf dieser Compilation. Mit sympathischer Stimme und bestem Groove ist die Einstimmung auf insgesamt locker über zwei Stunden 'Ladies playing the harp' gelungen.
Die große Anzahl der Protagonistinnen ist so vielfältig wie der Blues mit seinen zahlreichen Verästelungen. Roxy Perry serviert uns in "Roadmaster" den 12-Takter mit Big Band-Charakter und die Stacy Jones Band rockt das Genre in gemäßigtem Tempo. In dieser Rubrik finden wir auch Tracy Ks "Stop! Wait A Minute" und obendrauf noch eine tolle Gitarre! Lynnann Hyde macht mit der Robert Johnson-Nummer "32-20 Blues" nichts anderes, als das Lied in Country-Gefilden zu belassen. Kommt trotzdem gut rüber!
Teresa 'T-Bird' Lynne gibt ihrem Lied "One More Lie" ein Lounge-Jazz-Ambiente, Octavia rockt die Szenerie und Zola Moon legt noch zwei oder drei Schüppen drauf. Dorothy Jane 'DJ' Gosper beendet die erste CD mit einem fast neunminütigen Werk namens "Sadder Than Sad". Die durch die Kanäle kreisende Orgel vermittelt Psychedelic und spielt auch eine Hauptrolle in dieser klasse Nummer. Mehr von der aus Australien stammenden Dorothy Jane 'DJ' Gosper!
Dorothy-Jane is an Australian singer, songwriter and harmonica player. She wrote her first song at age 7 and has continued to write since then.
At school she got into trouble for singing too loudly and too deeply in choir performances, so for a long time she didn’t sing in public.
Although she studied classical and contemporary piano for 11 years she only plays piano at home, using it and guitar, as tools for writing her songs.
She fell helplessly and hopelessly in love with the harmonica 20 years ago. This was the impetus for her to begin performing in public.
From 1995 to 2006 she played with local blues and roots bands for many years, including the Van Veen Band and vocal trio, The Blues Cowgirls and DJ & the KarismaKatz.
Just as her musical career was gaining momentum, Dorothy-Jane was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Whilst recovering from heavy-duty treatment, and still using the band name KarismaKatz, DJ became a full-time musician and settled into a solid musical partnership with guitarist, singer, songwriter, composer, Chris Carlsen. KarismaKatz released 2 independent albums “Spirit on the Rise” in 2008 and “JAZZ” in 2010. “Burn Baby Burn”, one of the 14 original songs on “Spirit on the Rise” was awarded ‘Best Blues Song’ by the Canberra Blues Society.
Chris Carlsen also played in 2009 solo release, “Hot Flush Blues”. This album was recognised with the following Canberra Blues Society awards: ‘Best Blues Album’; ‘Female Blues Vocalist’ and ‘Best Blues song’, Baby Rose (co-written with DJ’s sister, Lynnie Gosper).
In 2011 and fronting a new lineup, Dorothy-Jane and her band released a new album, The Driver’s Seat, and an EP “Stick Around” and toured Australia (and a short stint in Fiji) for 18 months, during which time Dorothy-Jane became a Vocal Finalist in the 2012 Australian Blues Music 'Chain' Awards and Winner 2012 Best Jazz/Blues Artist in the inaugural Music ACT Music Awards "MAMA's".
The Dorothy-Jane Band released their latest album, “Woman on the Run”, in August 2013.
Einunddreißig Künstlerinnen des Blues und dem kleinen Instrument, auch Mississippi Saxofon genannt, versammeln sich auf dem Sampler. Zu jeder Musikerin gibt es im Booklet einen kurzen, informativen Text und außerdem bekommt man zu jedem Song die entsprechenden Credits-Angaben nebst Album-Abstammung.
An dieser Stelle das erste Lob. Es geht an Norman Davis, der die bei den externen Links angegebene Seite Hermonicas ins Leben gerufen hat. Dort findet man eine große Sammlung von Harp-Frauen mit entsprechendem Hintergrundwissen. Sehr gute Arbeit! Kompliment! Das zweite Lob geht an Thomas Ruf, der zusagte »[...] das Projekt zu unterstützen. [...]«
Bei einunddreißig Songs spielen die Fremdkompositionen in gewisser Weise eine Nebenrolle, auch wenn dort unter anderem berühmte Namen wie Robert Johnson ("32-20 Blues") George Gershwin ("Summertime"), Huddie Ledbetter ("Rikers Island") oder Sam Cooke ("Bring It Home (To Me)") auftauchen.
"Blues Harp Women" ist gleichzeitig auch eine Art Zeitreise, denn zumindest mit
Big Mama Thornton ist eine Legende des Blues mit von der Partie. Sie ist hier mit dem Titel "Down Home Shakedown" vertreten. Alleine schon diese Nummer ist ein Magnet für den Hörer. Harp-Intro und dann der Schellenring begleiten den bekannt-emotionalen Gesang der Lady des Blues. Hammer, dieses Highlight!
Da kommt später eine Trina Hamlin daher und bietet vom Arrangement her eine ganz ähnliche Nummer auf, wie Big Mama Thornton. Die Eigenkomposition "Down To The Hollow" ist anregend und geht mit ihren Gefühlen bis in die Tiefe des Hörer-Herzens. Super!
Passend zum Albumtitel eröffnet Paula Rangell mit "Harmonica Girl" den Reigen der anregenden Songs auf dieser Compilation. Mit sympathischer Stimme und bestem Groove ist die Einstimmung auf insgesamt locker über zwei Stunden 'Ladies playing the harp' gelungen.
Die große Anzahl der Protagonistinnen ist so vielfältig wie der Blues mit seinen zahlreichen Verästelungen. Roxy Perry serviert uns in "Roadmaster" den 12-Takter mit Big Band-Charakter und die Stacy Jones Band rockt das Genre in gemäßigtem Tempo. In dieser Rubrik finden wir auch Tracy Ks "Stop! Wait A Minute" und obendrauf noch eine tolle Gitarre! Lynnann Hyde macht mit der Robert Johnson-Nummer "32-20 Blues" nichts anderes, als das Lied in Country-Gefilden zu belassen. Kommt trotzdem gut rüber!
Teresa 'T-Bird' Lynne gibt ihrem Lied "One More Lie" ein Lounge-Jazz-Ambiente, Octavia rockt die Szenerie und Zola Moon legt noch zwei oder drei Schüppen drauf. Dorothy Jane 'DJ' Gosper beendet die erste CD mit einem fast neunminütigen Werk namens "Sadder Than Sad". Die durch die Kanäle kreisende Orgel vermittelt Psychedelic und spielt auch eine Hauptrolle in dieser klasse Nummer. Mehr von der aus Australien stammenden Dorothy Jane 'DJ' Gosper!
Dorothy-Jane is an Australian singer, songwriter and harmonica player. She wrote her first song at age 7 and has continued to write since then.
At school she got into trouble for singing too loudly and too deeply in choir performances, so for a long time she didn’t sing in public.
Although she studied classical and contemporary piano for 11 years she only plays piano at home, using it and guitar, as tools for writing her songs.
She fell helplessly and hopelessly in love with the harmonica 20 years ago. This was the impetus for her to begin performing in public.
From 1995 to 2006 she played with local blues and roots bands for many years, including the Van Veen Band and vocal trio, The Blues Cowgirls and DJ & the KarismaKatz.
Just as her musical career was gaining momentum, Dorothy-Jane was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Whilst recovering from heavy-duty treatment, and still using the band name KarismaKatz, DJ became a full-time musician and settled into a solid musical partnership with guitarist, singer, songwriter, composer, Chris Carlsen. KarismaKatz released 2 independent albums “Spirit on the Rise” in 2008 and “JAZZ” in 2010. “Burn Baby Burn”, one of the 14 original songs on “Spirit on the Rise” was awarded ‘Best Blues Song’ by the Canberra Blues Society.
Chris Carlsen also played in 2009 solo release, “Hot Flush Blues”. This album was recognised with the following Canberra Blues Society awards: ‘Best Blues Album’; ‘Female Blues Vocalist’ and ‘Best Blues song’, Baby Rose (co-written with DJ’s sister, Lynnie Gosper).
In 2011 and fronting a new lineup, Dorothy-Jane and her band released a new album, The Driver’s Seat, and an EP “Stick Around” and toured Australia (and a short stint in Fiji) for 18 months, during which time Dorothy-Jane became a Vocal Finalist in the 2012 Australian Blues Music 'Chain' Awards and Winner 2012 Best Jazz/Blues Artist in the inaugural Music ACT Music Awards "MAMA's".
The Dorothy-Jane Band released their latest album, “Woman on the Run”, in August 2013.
Michael Lefty Linke *15.02.
Gitarrist bei Monokel
Sebastian Baur verließ die Band 1979 und wechselte zur Gruppe "Keks". Auch Borchert und Janik verließen Monokel. Für sie kamen Bernd "Kuhle" Kühnert (Gitarre, Gesang), Rainer Lojewski (Schlagzeug) und Michael "Lefty" Linke (Gitarre, Gesang) bei Monokel ein. Linke war bereits vorher schon für die Band als Techniker tätig und stieg nun zum Musiker von Monokel auf. Bis zur Veröffentlichung ihrer ersten LP "Fünf nette junge Herren, die 1a Kraft-Blues machen" (1986) kam es noch zu weiteren personellen Änderungen innerhalb der Band, so verließ z.B. Frank "Gala" Gahler Monokel in Richtung "NO 55". Rainer Lojewski siedelte in die BRD über.
Monokel ist eine Berliner Bluesrockgruppe. Sie gehörte neben Engerling, Freygang, Jonathan Blues Band und Kerth zum Motor der Blueser- oder Kundenszene, einer DDR-spezifischen Jugendkultur, und ist bis heute aktiv. Verantwortlich für den „Kraftblues“ sind die harten Gitarrenriffs von Michael Linke und Bernd Kühnert.
Monokel Kraftblues in der Wabe 2015 - "Deja Blue" & "Good To Go"
http://www.monokel-kraftblues.de/
Michael "Lefty" Linke (guitar, vocals);
Bernd "Kuhle" Kühnert (guitar);
Michael "Pitti" Pflüger (bass);
Dicki Grimm (drums)
Michael "Lefty" Linke (guitar, vocals);
Bernd "Kuhle" Kühnert (guitar);
Michael "Pitti" Pflüger (bass);
Dicki Grimm (drums)
R.I.P.
Little Walter +01.05.1968
Little Walter (eigentlich Marion Walter Jacobs; * 1. Mai 1930 in Marksville, Louisiana; † 15. Februar 1968 in Chicago, Illinois) war ein US-amerikanischer Bluesmusiker.
Der Einfluss von Little Walter auf die Harmonika im Blues ist mit dem von B. B. King auf der Gitarre zu vergleichen. Kritiker vergleichen Little Walter gar mit Charlie Parker. Dieser Vergleich rührt wahrscheinlich auch daher, dass Little Walter als einer der ersten seine Harmonika über ein Mikrofon und einen Gitarrenverstärker spielte und dabei einen Klang erzielte, der dem eines Saxophons sehr ähnlich war. In ihrer kurzen Biographie Little Walters schreibt Madison Deniro: "Er war der erste Musiker überhaupt, der mit Absicht elektronische Verzerrung benutzte."[1]
Inspiriert von Bluesmusikern wie Sonny Boy Williamson I. und Big Walter Horton kreierte er im Chicago Blues einen neuen Stil, dessen Soli aus originellen Akkordfolgen bestanden und einen sehr „elektrischen“ Sound hatten.
Mitte der Vierziger war Little Walter von Louisiana über Helena, Memphis und St. Louis nach Chicago gekommen. In Helena hatte er Kontakt zu den Gitarristen Houston Stackhouse und Robert Lockwood Jr. gehabt. In Chicago angekommen, hielt sich Walter oft am Maxwell Street Market auf, der Treffpunkt vieler Bluesmusiker aus dem Süden war. Dort traf er auch auf Jimmy Rogers, der viel Zeit mit Muddy Waters verbrachte.
Muddy Waters erkannte das Können des Ausnahmemusikers und nahm den jungen Walter in seine Band auf. So spielten sie in der Besetzung Muddy Waters (git, voc.), Jimmy Rogers (git.), Little Walter (hca.), Ernest „Big“ Crawford (bs) und „Baby Face“ Leroy Foster (dr.), später ersetzt durch Elgin Evans. Aufnahmen entstanden im Mai 1949 für das kurzlebige Label Tempo-Tone.
Die ersten Schallplatten erschienen 1950 auf dem gleichnamigen Label der Brüder Leonard und Phil Chess. Chess sollte in den folgenden Jahren zur marktbeherrschenden Plattenfirma des Blues werden. Ein großer Anteil dieser Marktposition wird den Erfolgen von Muddy Waters und Little Walter zugeschrieben.
Eher einem Zufall ist es zu verdanken, dass Little Walter als Solist von den Chess-Brüdern aufgenommen wurde. Das Instrumental Juke, das am 12. Mai 1952 aufgenommen wurde, sollte als Erkennungsstück für die Band von Muddy Waters dienen. Es wurde zu einem ganz großen kommerziellen Hit und zum Einstieg in eine Solokarriere für Little Walters. Durch den Erfolg der Aufnahme wurde er der erste Bluesmusiker aus Chicago, der im Apollo Theater in New York auftrat. Juke war auch die erste Harmonikainstrumentalnummer, die es in die Billboard R&B Charts schaffte. Dort hielt sich die Aufnahme 20 Wochen lang, darunter acht auf Platz 1.
Bis 1957 erscheint Little Walter noch in den Besetzungslisten bei den Schallplattenaufnahmen der Muddy Waters Band. Dann wurde er ersetzt vom jungen Junior Wells, der Jahre später mit Buddy Guy ein erfolgreiches musikalisches Duo bilden sollte.
Little Walter übernahm im Gegenzug die Band von Junior Wells, die Aces, die er in „Jukes“ umbenannte, in der Besetzung Louis Myers (git.), Dave Myers (bs.) und Fred Below (dr.). Mit der Band hatte Little Walter eine Reihe von Hits wie zum Beispiel Mean old world, Off the wall und Blues with a feeling.
Aber der musikalische Erfolg hatte für Little Walter nicht nur positive Seiten – er war streitsüchtig, arrogant und versuchte andere zu übervorteilen. Little Walter trennte sich von den Myers. Ihren Platz nahm der Gitarrist Robert Lockwood jr. ein, den Walter bereits Jahre zuvor in Helena getroffen hatte. Den Bass übernahm Willie Dixon, eine bekannte Größe im Chicago Blues. Walter kannte Dixon schon aus dem Umfeld von Muddy Waters. Dixon hatte eine Anzahl der Hits geschrieben, die der Grundstein für den Erfolg von Muddy Waters waren. Für Walter schrieb Dixon das Stück My Babe, mit dem er noch einmal die ersten Plätze der Hitparaden errang. Aber für Little Walter war es der Anfang vom Ende.
1959 verließ Robert Lookwood jr. die Band. Wohl auch, weil es selbst für den schweigsamen Gitarristen immer schwieriger wurde, mit Walter klarzukommen. Das allgemeine Interesse für Little Walter ließ rapide nach, und er wird in dieser Zeit als sehr launisch beschrieben. Chess nahm ihn nur noch selten auf, er war zu Beginn der sechziger Jahre kommerziell am Ende.
In den Jahren 1964 und 1967 kam Walter im Rahmen des American Folk Blues Festival nach Europa. Aber das Blues Revival in Europa konnte diesem Könner auf der Blues Harp nicht mehr auf die Beine helfen. Einige Monate nach seiner zweiten Europatour war er in eine Schlägerei geraten, als er in einer Konzertpause auf die Straße in der South Side von Chicago gegangen war. Die relativ geringe Verletzung, die er sich zuzog, zusammen mit früheren Verletzungen aus Gewalttätigkeiten, führten dazu, dass er im Schlaf verstarb. Er hatte sich im Appartement seiner Freundin in der 209 E. 54th Straße zu Bett gelegt. Als offizielle Todesursache steht im Totenschein „Herzthrombose“ (ein Verschluss im Herzbeutel); es wurden keine äußerlichen Verletzungen festgestellt. Er wurde auf dem St. Mary's Friedhof in Evergreen Park, IL am 22. Februar 1968 beerdigt.
Im Jahr 1980 wurde er in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen. Auch sein Song My Babe ist in ihr zu finden (2008). 2008 wurde er in die Rock and Roll Hall of Fame aufgenommen. Im gleichen Jahr erschien auch der Spielfilm Cadillac Records, der zum Teil auch seine Lebensgeschichte erzählt. Columbus Short spielte in diesem Film Little Walter.
Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), was an American blues musician and singer, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix,[2] for innovation and impact on succeeding generations. His virtuosity and musical innovations fundamentally altered many listeners' expectations of what was possible on blues harmonica.[3] Little Walter was inducted to the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 in the "sideman" category[4][5] making him the only artist inducted specifically as a harmonica player.
Biography
Early years
Jacobs was born in 1930 in Marksville, Louisiana and raised in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, (although recently uncovered census data suggests he may have been born earlier, possibly as early as 1925) where he first learned to play the harmonica. After quitting school by the age of 12, Jacobs left rural Louisiana and travelled around working odd jobs and busking on the streets of New Orleans, Memphis, Helena, Arkansas and St. Louis. He honed his musical skills on harmonica and guitar performing with much older bluesmen such as Sonny Boy Williamson number two, Sunnyland Slim, Honeyboy Edwards and others.
Arriving in Chicago in 1945, he occasionally found work as a guitarist but garnered more attention for his already highly developed harmonica work. According to fellow Chicago bluesman Floyd Jones, Little Walter's first recording was an unreleased demo recorded soon after he arrived in Chicago on which Walter played guitar backing Jones.[6] Jacobs reportedly grew frustrated with having his harmonica drowned out by electric guitarists, and adopted a simple, but previously little-used method: He cupped a small microphone in his hands along with his harmonica, and plugged the microphone into a public address system or guitar amplifier. He could thus compete with any guitarist's volume. However, unlike other contemporary blues harp players such as the original Sonny Boy Williamson and Snooky Pryor, who like many other harmonica players had also begun using the newly available amplifier technology around the same time solely for added volume, Little Walter purposely pushed his amplifiers beyond their intended technical limitations, using the amplification to explore and develop radical new timbres and sonic effects previously unheard from a harmonica, or any other instrument.[2] Madison Deniro wrote a small biographical piece on Little Walter stating that "He was the first musician of any kind to purposely use electronic distortion."[7]
Success
Jacobs made his first released recordings in 1947 for Bernard Abrams' tiny Ora-Nelle label, which operated out of the back room of Abrams' Maxwell Radio and Records store in the heart of the Maxwell Street market area in Chicago.[8] These and several other early Little Walter recordings, like many blues harp recordings of the era, owed a strong stylistic debt to pioneering blues harmonica player John Lee Williamson, the original "Sonny Boy". Little Walter joined Muddy Waters' band in 1948, and by 1950, he was playing acoustic (unamplified) harmonica on Muddy's recordings for Chess Records. The first appearance on record of amplified harmonica was Little Walter's performance on Muddy's "Country Boy" (Chess 1452), recorded on July 11, 1951. For years after his departure from Muddy's band in 1952, Chess continued to hire Little Walter to play on Waters' recording sessions, and as a result his harmonica is featured on most of Muddy's classic recordings from the 1950s.[9] As a guitarist, Little Walter recorded three songs for the small Parkway label with Muddy Waters and Baby Face Leroy Foster (reissued on CD as "The Blues World of Little Walter" from Delmark Records in 1993), as well as on a session for Chess backing pianist Eddie Ware; his guitar work was also featured occasionally on early Chess sessions with Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers.[2]
Jacobs had put his career as a bandleader on hold when he joined Muddy's band, but stepped back out front once and for all when he recorded as a bandleader for Chess's subsidiary label Checker Records on May 12, 1952. The first completed take of the first song attempted at his debut session became his first hit, spending eight weeks in the number-one position on the Billboard R&B chart. The song was Juke, and is still the only harmonica instrumental ever to be a number-one hit on the Billboard R&B chart. (Three other harmonica instrumentals by Little Walter also reached the Billboard R&B top 10: Off the Wall reached number eight, Roller Coaster achieved number six, and Sad Hours reached the number-two position while Juke was still on the charts.) Juke was the biggest hit to date for Chess and its affiliated labels, and one of the biggest national R&B hits of 1952, securing Walter's position on the Chess artist roster for the next decade.[2]
Little Walter scored fourteen top-ten hits on the Billboard R&B charts between 1952 and 1958, including two number-one hits (the second being "My Babe"[1] in 1955), a level of commercial success never achieved by his former boss Waters, nor by his fellow Chess blues artists Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson number two. Following the pattern of "Juke", most of Little Walter's single releases in the 1950s featured a vocal performance on one side, and a harmonica instrumental on the other. Many of Walter's vocal numbers were originals that he or Chess A&R man Willie Dixon wrote or adapted and updated from earlier blues themes. In general, his sound was more modern and uptempo than the popular Chicago blues of the day, with a jazzier conception and less rhythmically rigid approach than other contemporary blues harmonica players.[2]
Upon his departure from Muddy Waters' band in 1952, he recruited a young band that was already working steadily in Chicago backing Junior Wells, The Aces, as his new backing band. The Aces consisted of brothers David and Louis Myers on guitars, and drummer Fred Below, and were re-christened "The Jukes" on most of the Little Walter records on which they appeared. By 1955 the members of The Aces/Jukes had each left Little Walter to pursue other opportunities, initially replaced by guitarists Robert "Junior" Lockwood and Luther Tucker, and drummer Odie Payne. Others who worked in Little Walter's recording and touring bands in the '50s included guitarists Jimmie Lee Robinson and Freddie Robinson. Little Walter also occasionally included saxophone players in his touring bands during this period, among them a young Albert Ayler, and even Ray Charles on one early tour. By the late 1950s, Little Walter no longer employed a regular full-time band, instead hiring various players as needed from the large pool of local blues musicians in Chicago.[2]
Jacobs was frequently utilized on records as a harmonica accompanist behind others in the Chess stable of artists, including Jimmy Rogers, John Brim, Rocky Fuller, Memphis Minnie, The Coronets, Johnny Shines, Floyd Jones, Bo Diddley, and Shel Silverstein, and on other record labels backing Otis Rush, Johnny Young, and Robert Nighthawk.[2]
Jacobs suffered from alcoholism and had a notoriously short temper, which in late 1950s led to a series of violent altercations, minor scrapes with the law, and increasingly irresponsible behavior. This led to a decline in his fame and fortunes beginning in the late 1950s, although he did tour Europe twice, in 1964 and 1967. (The long-circulated story that he toured the United Kingdom with The Rolling Stones in 1964 has since been refuted by Keith Richards). The 1967 European tour, as part of the American Folk Blues Festival, resulted in the only film/video footage of Little Walter performing that is known to exist. Footage of Little Walter backing Hound Dog Taylor and Koko Taylor on a television program in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 11, 1967 was released on DVD in 2004. Further video of another recently discovered TV appearance in Germany during this same tour, showing Little Walter performing his songs "My Babe", "Mean Old World", and others were released on DVD in Europe in January 2009, and is the only known footage of Little Walter singing. Other TV appearances in the UK (in 1964) and the Netherlands (in 1967) have been documented, but no footage of these has been uncovered. Jacobs recorded and toured only infrequently in the 1960s, playing mainly in and around Chicago.[2]
In 1967 Chess released a studio album featuring Little Walter with Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters titled Super Blues.[2]
Death
A few months after returning from his second European tour, he was involved in a fight while taking a break from a performance at a nightclub on the South Side of Chicago. The relatively minor injuries sustained in this altercation aggravated and compounded damage he had suffered in previous violent encounters, and he died in his sleep at the apartment of a girlfriend at 209 E. 54th St. in Chicago early the following morning.[2][10] The official cause of death indicated on his death certificate was "coronary thrombosis" (a blood clot in the heart); evidence of external injuries was so insignificant that police reported that his death was of "unknown or natural causes",[10] and there were no external injuries noted on the death certificate.[2] His body was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Evergreen Park, IL on February 22, 1968.[10] His grave remained unmarked until 1991, when fans Scott Dirks and Eomot Rasun had a marker designed and installed.[11]
Legacy
Music journalist Bill Dahl described Little Walter as "king of all post-war blues harpists", who "took the humble mouth organ in dazzling amplified directions that were unimaginable prior to his ascendancy."[3] His legacy has been enormous: he is widely credited by blues historians as the artist primarily responsible for establishing the standard vocabulary for modern blues and blues rock harmonica players.[2][3] His influence can be heard in varying degrees in virtually every modern blues harp player who came along in his wake, from blues greats such as Junior Wells, James Cotton, George "Harmonica" Smith, Carey Bell, and Big Walter Horton, through modern-day masters Sugar Blue, Billy Branch, Kim Wilson, Rod Piazza, William Clarke, and Charlie Musselwhite, in addition to blues-rock crossover artists such as Paul Butterfield and John Popper of the band Blues Traveler.[2] Little Walter was portrayed in the 2008 film, Cadillac Records, by Columbus Short.
Little Walter's daughter, Marion Diaz Reacco, has established the Little Walter Foundation in Chicago, to preserve the legacy and genius of Little Walter. The foundation aims to create programs for the creative arts, including music, animation and video. Stephen King's novel Under the Dome (2009) features a character named Little Walter Bushey, based on Little Walter.
Awards and recognition
1986 – Blues Hall of Fame: "Juke" (Classics of Blues Recordings – Singles or Album Tracks
category)[12]
1991 – Blues Hall of Fame: Best of Little Walter (Classics of Blues Recordings — Albums
category)[12]
1995 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "Juke" (500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll)[13]
2008 – Grammy Awards: "Juke" (Grammy Hall of Fame Award)[14]
2008 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Little Walter inducted (Sideman category)
2008 – Blues Hall of Fame: "My Babe" (Classics of Blues Recordings — Singles or Album Tracks
category)[12]
2009 – Grammy Awards: The Complete Chess Masters: 1950–1967 (Best Historical Album
Winner)
2010 – Rolling Stone: Best of Little Walter (#198 on list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All
Time)
Biography
Early years
Jacobs was born in 1930 in Marksville, Louisiana and raised in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, (although recently uncovered census data suggests he may have been born earlier, possibly as early as 1925) where he first learned to play the harmonica. After quitting school by the age of 12, Jacobs left rural Louisiana and travelled around working odd jobs and busking on the streets of New Orleans, Memphis, Helena, Arkansas and St. Louis. He honed his musical skills on harmonica and guitar performing with much older bluesmen such as Sonny Boy Williamson number two, Sunnyland Slim, Honeyboy Edwards and others.
Arriving in Chicago in 1945, he occasionally found work as a guitarist but garnered more attention for his already highly developed harmonica work. According to fellow Chicago bluesman Floyd Jones, Little Walter's first recording was an unreleased demo recorded soon after he arrived in Chicago on which Walter played guitar backing Jones.[6] Jacobs reportedly grew frustrated with having his harmonica drowned out by electric guitarists, and adopted a simple, but previously little-used method: He cupped a small microphone in his hands along with his harmonica, and plugged the microphone into a public address system or guitar amplifier. He could thus compete with any guitarist's volume. However, unlike other contemporary blues harp players such as the original Sonny Boy Williamson and Snooky Pryor, who like many other harmonica players had also begun using the newly available amplifier technology around the same time solely for added volume, Little Walter purposely pushed his amplifiers beyond their intended technical limitations, using the amplification to explore and develop radical new timbres and sonic effects previously unheard from a harmonica, or any other instrument.[2] Madison Deniro wrote a small biographical piece on Little Walter stating that "He was the first musician of any kind to purposely use electronic distortion."[7]
Success
Jacobs made his first released recordings in 1947 for Bernard Abrams' tiny Ora-Nelle label, which operated out of the back room of Abrams' Maxwell Radio and Records store in the heart of the Maxwell Street market area in Chicago.[8] These and several other early Little Walter recordings, like many blues harp recordings of the era, owed a strong stylistic debt to pioneering blues harmonica player John Lee Williamson, the original "Sonny Boy". Little Walter joined Muddy Waters' band in 1948, and by 1950, he was playing acoustic (unamplified) harmonica on Muddy's recordings for Chess Records. The first appearance on record of amplified harmonica was Little Walter's performance on Muddy's "Country Boy" (Chess 1452), recorded on July 11, 1951. For years after his departure from Muddy's band in 1952, Chess continued to hire Little Walter to play on Waters' recording sessions, and as a result his harmonica is featured on most of Muddy's classic recordings from the 1950s.[9] As a guitarist, Little Walter recorded three songs for the small Parkway label with Muddy Waters and Baby Face Leroy Foster (reissued on CD as "The Blues World of Little Walter" from Delmark Records in 1993), as well as on a session for Chess backing pianist Eddie Ware; his guitar work was also featured occasionally on early Chess sessions with Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers.[2]
Jacobs had put his career as a bandleader on hold when he joined Muddy's band, but stepped back out front once and for all when he recorded as a bandleader for Chess's subsidiary label Checker Records on May 12, 1952. The first completed take of the first song attempted at his debut session became his first hit, spending eight weeks in the number-one position on the Billboard R&B chart. The song was Juke, and is still the only harmonica instrumental ever to be a number-one hit on the Billboard R&B chart. (Three other harmonica instrumentals by Little Walter also reached the Billboard R&B top 10: Off the Wall reached number eight, Roller Coaster achieved number six, and Sad Hours reached the number-two position while Juke was still on the charts.) Juke was the biggest hit to date for Chess and its affiliated labels, and one of the biggest national R&B hits of 1952, securing Walter's position on the Chess artist roster for the next decade.[2]
Little Walter scored fourteen top-ten hits on the Billboard R&B charts between 1952 and 1958, including two number-one hits (the second being "My Babe"[1] in 1955), a level of commercial success never achieved by his former boss Waters, nor by his fellow Chess blues artists Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson number two. Following the pattern of "Juke", most of Little Walter's single releases in the 1950s featured a vocal performance on one side, and a harmonica instrumental on the other. Many of Walter's vocal numbers were originals that he or Chess A&R man Willie Dixon wrote or adapted and updated from earlier blues themes. In general, his sound was more modern and uptempo than the popular Chicago blues of the day, with a jazzier conception and less rhythmically rigid approach than other contemporary blues harmonica players.[2]
Upon his departure from Muddy Waters' band in 1952, he recruited a young band that was already working steadily in Chicago backing Junior Wells, The Aces, as his new backing band. The Aces consisted of brothers David and Louis Myers on guitars, and drummer Fred Below, and were re-christened "The Jukes" on most of the Little Walter records on which they appeared. By 1955 the members of The Aces/Jukes had each left Little Walter to pursue other opportunities, initially replaced by guitarists Robert "Junior" Lockwood and Luther Tucker, and drummer Odie Payne. Others who worked in Little Walter's recording and touring bands in the '50s included guitarists Jimmie Lee Robinson and Freddie Robinson. Little Walter also occasionally included saxophone players in his touring bands during this period, among them a young Albert Ayler, and even Ray Charles on one early tour. By the late 1950s, Little Walter no longer employed a regular full-time band, instead hiring various players as needed from the large pool of local blues musicians in Chicago.[2]
Jacobs was frequently utilized on records as a harmonica accompanist behind others in the Chess stable of artists, including Jimmy Rogers, John Brim, Rocky Fuller, Memphis Minnie, The Coronets, Johnny Shines, Floyd Jones, Bo Diddley, and Shel Silverstein, and on other record labels backing Otis Rush, Johnny Young, and Robert Nighthawk.[2]
Jacobs suffered from alcoholism and had a notoriously short temper, which in late 1950s led to a series of violent altercations, minor scrapes with the law, and increasingly irresponsible behavior. This led to a decline in his fame and fortunes beginning in the late 1950s, although he did tour Europe twice, in 1964 and 1967. (The long-circulated story that he toured the United Kingdom with The Rolling Stones in 1964 has since been refuted by Keith Richards). The 1967 European tour, as part of the American Folk Blues Festival, resulted in the only film/video footage of Little Walter performing that is known to exist. Footage of Little Walter backing Hound Dog Taylor and Koko Taylor on a television program in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 11, 1967 was released on DVD in 2004. Further video of another recently discovered TV appearance in Germany during this same tour, showing Little Walter performing his songs "My Babe", "Mean Old World", and others were released on DVD in Europe in January 2009, and is the only known footage of Little Walter singing. Other TV appearances in the UK (in 1964) and the Netherlands (in 1967) have been documented, but no footage of these has been uncovered. Jacobs recorded and toured only infrequently in the 1960s, playing mainly in and around Chicago.[2]
In 1967 Chess released a studio album featuring Little Walter with Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters titled Super Blues.[2]
Death
A few months after returning from his second European tour, he was involved in a fight while taking a break from a performance at a nightclub on the South Side of Chicago. The relatively minor injuries sustained in this altercation aggravated and compounded damage he had suffered in previous violent encounters, and he died in his sleep at the apartment of a girlfriend at 209 E. 54th St. in Chicago early the following morning.[2][10] The official cause of death indicated on his death certificate was "coronary thrombosis" (a blood clot in the heart); evidence of external injuries was so insignificant that police reported that his death was of "unknown or natural causes",[10] and there were no external injuries noted on the death certificate.[2] His body was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Evergreen Park, IL on February 22, 1968.[10] His grave remained unmarked until 1991, when fans Scott Dirks and Eomot Rasun had a marker designed and installed.[11]
Legacy
Music journalist Bill Dahl described Little Walter as "king of all post-war blues harpists", who "took the humble mouth organ in dazzling amplified directions that were unimaginable prior to his ascendancy."[3] His legacy has been enormous: he is widely credited by blues historians as the artist primarily responsible for establishing the standard vocabulary for modern blues and blues rock harmonica players.[2][3] His influence can be heard in varying degrees in virtually every modern blues harp player who came along in his wake, from blues greats such as Junior Wells, James Cotton, George "Harmonica" Smith, Carey Bell, and Big Walter Horton, through modern-day masters Sugar Blue, Billy Branch, Kim Wilson, Rod Piazza, William Clarke, and Charlie Musselwhite, in addition to blues-rock crossover artists such as Paul Butterfield and John Popper of the band Blues Traveler.[2] Little Walter was portrayed in the 2008 film, Cadillac Records, by Columbus Short.
Little Walter's daughter, Marion Diaz Reacco, has established the Little Walter Foundation in Chicago, to preserve the legacy and genius of Little Walter. The foundation aims to create programs for the creative arts, including music, animation and video. Stephen King's novel Under the Dome (2009) features a character named Little Walter Bushey, based on Little Walter.
Awards and recognition
1986 – Blues Hall of Fame: "Juke" (Classics of Blues Recordings – Singles or Album Tracks
category)[12]
1991 – Blues Hall of Fame: Best of Little Walter (Classics of Blues Recordings — Albums
category)[12]
1995 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "Juke" (500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll)[13]
2008 – Grammy Awards: "Juke" (Grammy Hall of Fame Award)[14]
2008 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Little Walter inducted (Sideman category)
2008 – Blues Hall of Fame: "My Babe" (Classics of Blues Recordings — Singles or Album Tracks
category)[12]
2009 – Grammy Awards: The Complete Chess Masters: 1950–1967 (Best Historical Album
Winner)
2010 – Rolling Stone: Best of Little Walter (#198 on list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All
Time)
Michael Bloomfield +15.02.1981
Michael Bernard „Mike“ Bloomfield (* 28. Juli 1943 in Chicago, Illinois; † 15. Februar 1981 in San Francisco, Kalifornien) war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist.
Geboren in Chicago, war er schon mit 14 ein regelmäßiger Gast in den Blues-Clubs der Chicago South-Side. Hier stieg er regelmäßig in Jam-Sessions mit seinen Idolen wie Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Howlin’ Wolf ein. Dabei lernte er auch gleichgesinnte Weiße wie Nick Gravenites und Charlie Musselwhite kennen, mit denen er bis zu seinem Lebensende immer wieder zusammen spielte.
Mitte der 1960er Jahre spielte er mit der Paul Butterfield Blues Band zusammen und war an dessen gleichnamigen erstem Album beteiligt. Er arbeitete für Bob Dylan auf dessen Highway 61 Revisited Album und trat 1965 mit ihm auf dem Newport Folk Festival auf, wo sich jedoch das Folk-Publikum über die elektrisch verstärkte Rockband aufregte. 1967 war Bloomfield Mitgründer der Gruppe Electric Flag, die allerdings bereits ein Jahr später wieder auseinanderbrach. Mit Al Kooper spielte Bloomfield 1968 eine Seite der Platte Super Session ein, auf der anderen Seite war Stephen Stills neben Al Kooper zu hören. Die Platte erreichte Platz 12 der US-amerikanischen LP-Charts.[1] Ein Jahr später gelangten Bloomfield und Kooper mit The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper bis auf Platz 18. Beide Alben waren damit kommerziell erfolgreicher als die Alben der Butterfield Blues Band und der Electric Flag.
Ende der 1960er zog sich Bloomfield nach San Francisco zurück, wo er unregelmäßig mit seinen alten Kumpels als Bloomfield and Friends auftrat und wenige Platten aufnahm. In dieser Zeit lebte er überwiegend von der Produktion von Soundtracks für Porno-Filme, er lieferte aber 1969 auch den Soundtrack für Haskell Wexlers Medium cool und war 1973 zusammen mit Paul Butterfield und Nick Gravenites an der Musik für den Film Steelyard Blues beteiligt. Mitte der 1970er verlegte er sich auf eher traditionellen akustischen Blues. In den späten 1970er Jahren kämpfte er zunehmend mit gesundheitlichen Problemen und seiner Drogensucht.
Er starb am 15. Februar 1981 in San Francisco an einer Überdosis Heroin.
Bloomfield wurde in die Liste „Rolling Stone's List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time“ des Rolling Stone Magazins auf Platz 22 aufgenommen.
Michael Bernard "Mike" Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981) was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, since he rarely sang before 1969 and 1970. Respected for his fluid guitar playing, Bloomfield knew and played with many of Chicago's blues legends even before he achieved his own fame, and was one of the primary influences on the mid-to-late 1960s revival of classic Chicago and other styles of blues music. In 2003 he was ranked at number 22 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time"[1] and 42nd in 2011 by the same magazine.[2]
Early years
Bloomfield was born into a wealthy Jewish-American family on the North Side of Chicago but preferred music to the family catering equipment business, becoming a blues devotee as a teenager and spending time at Chicago's South Side blues clubs, playing guitar with some black bluesmen (Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachell, Little Brother Montgomery). Bloomfield's family eventually moved to suburban Glencoe, Illinois, where Bloomfield attended New Trier High School for two years before being expelled. He attended Cornwall Academy in Massachusetts for one year before returning to Chicago where he spent his last year at the local YMCA school.[3]
The young guitarist's talent "was instantly obvious to his mentors," wrote Al Kooper, Bloomfield's later collaborator and close friend, in a 2001 article. "They knew this was not just another white boy; this was someone who truly understood what the blues were all about."[4] Among his early supporters were B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and Buddy Guy. Michael used to say, 'It's a natural. Black people suffer externally in this country. Jewish people suffer internally. The suffering's the mutual fulcrum for the blues'."[4]
The Butterfield Band
During those haunts, he met Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop, ran his own small blues club, the Fickle Pickle, and was discovered by legendary Columbia Records producer/scout John Hammond, who signed him to the label at a time when the label had had no recent association with blues.
Bloomfield recorded a few sessions for Columbia in 1964 (which weren't released until after his death), but ended up joining the original Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which included Bishop and Howlin' Wolf rhythm section alumni Sam Lay and Jerome Arnold.
Their exuberant, electric Chicago blues inspired a generation of white bluesmen, with Bloomfield's work on the band's self-titled debut, and the subsequent record East-West, bringing wide acclaim to the young guitarist. Especially popular was "East-West's" thirteen-minute title track, an instrumental combining elements of blues, jazz, psychedelic rock, and the classical Indian raga. Bloomfield's innovative solos were at the forefront of the ground-breaking piece. He had been inspired to create "East-West" after an all-night LSD trip according to one legend, but a subsequent anthology of the Butterfield band included a booklet saying Bloomfield had also been influenced by John Coltrane and other blues-friendly free-style jazz musicians, plus traditional Indian and Eastern music in creating the piece. (The original title for the piece was "The Raga.")
Bloomfield was also a session musician, gaining wide recognition for his work with Bob Dylan during his first explorations into electric music. Bloomfield's sound was a major part of Dylan's change of style, especially on Highway 61 Revisited; his guitar style melded the blues influence with rock and folk. Al Kooper has since revealed – in the booklet accompanying the posthumous Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man: Essential Blues, 1964–1969 – that Dylan had invited Bloomfield to play with him permanently but that Bloomfield rejected the invitation in order to continue playing the blues with the Butterfield band. But Bloomfield and fellow Butterfield members Jerome Arnold and Sam Lay appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, backing Dylan for his controversial first live electric performance.
Rock critic Dave Marsh, in Rock and Roll Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles of All Time, claimed Bloomfield to have been the lead guitarist for Mitch Ryder's hit "Devil With The Blue Dress." However, Marsh's claim is disputed by Bloomfield collaborator Barry Goldberg, who played keyboards on that track. For the online bio, "The Bloomfield Notes" (#6), Barry states that Mike played on the following recording after "Devil", and "Sock it to Me", another track mistakenly credited to Bloomfield.[citation needed]
The Electric Flag
Bloomfield tired of the Butterfield Band's rigorous touring schedule and, relocating to San Francisco, sought to create his own group. Bloomfield left to form the short-lived Electric Flag in 1967 with two longtime Chicago cohorts, organist Barry Goldberg and vocalist Nick Gravenites. The band was intended to feature "American music," a hybrid of blues, soul music, country, rock, and folk, and incorporated an expanded lineup complete with a horn section. The inclusion of drummer Buddy Miles, whom he hired away from Wilson Pickett's touring band, gave Bloomfield license to explore soul and R&B. The Electric Flag debuted at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and issued an album, A Long Time Comin', in April 1968 on Columbia Records. Critics complimented the group's distinctive, intriguing sound but found the record itself somewhat uneven. By that time, however, the band was already disintegrating; rivalries between members, shortsighted management, and heroin abuse all took their toll. Shortly after the release of that album, Bloomfield left his own band, with Gravenites, Goldberg, and bassist Harvey Brooks following.
Work with Al Kooper
Bloomfield also made an impact through his work with Al Kooper, with whom he had played with Stephen Stills, on the album Super Session in 1968. The direct impetus for the record, according to Kooper, was the twosome's having been part of Grape Jam, an improvisational addendum to Moby Grape's Wow earlier in the year.
"Why not do an entire jam album together?" Kooper remembered in 1998, writing the booklet notes for the Bloomfield anthology Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man: Essential Blues, 1964-1969. "At the time, most jazz albums were made using this modus operandi: pick a leader or two co-leaders, hire appropriate sidemen, pick some tunes, make some up and record an entire album on the fly in one or two days. Why not try and legitimize rock by adhering to these standards? In addition, as a fan, I was dissatisfied with Bloomfield's recorded studio output up until then. It seemed that his studio work was inhibited and reined in, compared to his incendiary live performances. Could I put him in a studio setting where he could feel free to just burn like he did in live performances?"
The result was Super Session, a jam album that spotlighted Bloomfield's guitar skills on one side; Bloomfield's chronic insomnia caused him to repair to his San Francisco home, prompting Kooper to invite Stephen Stills to complete the album. It received excellent reviews and became the best-selling album of Bloomfield's career; its success led to a live sequel, The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, recorded over three nights at Fillmore West in September 1968.
Solo work
Bloomfield continued with solo, session and back-up work from 1969 to 1980, releasing his first solo work It's Not Killing Me in 1969. He recorded an album called Try It Before You Buy It which Columbia declined to release a year later. Bloomfield also helped Janis Joplin put her Kozmic Blues Band (for the album of the same name) together in 1969, co-wrote "Work Me, Lord" for the album, and played the guitar solo on Joplin's blues composition "One Good Man." Columbia also released another 1969 album, a live concert jam, Live at Bill Graham's Fillmore West, including former Butterfield bandmate Mark Naftalin, former Electric Flag bandmates Marcus Doubleday and Snooky Flowers, and a guest appearance by Taj Mahal; and, re-uniting with former bandmates Paul Butterfield and Sam Lay for the Chess Records all-star set, Fathers and Sons, featuring Muddy Waters and Otis Spann, also the same year. Bloomfield also composed and recorded the soundtrack for the film, Medium Cool by his cousin, Haskell Wexler set during the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968.
For a time, however, Bloomfield gave up playing because of his heroin addiction:
“ ..and I put the guitar down - didn't touch it.. Shooting junk made everything else unimportant, null and void, nolo contendre. My playing fell apart. I just didn't want to play.[5] ”
During the late 1970s, Bloomfield recorded for several smaller labels, including Takoma Records. Through Guitar Player magazine he also put out an instructional album with a vast array of blues guitar styles, titled If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em as You Please. Bloomfield also performed with John Cale on Cale's soundtrack to the film Caged Heat in 1975.
In 1973, Bloomfield teamed with Dr. John and John Hammond, Jr. for an album called Triumvirate, Bloomfield's final album under his Columbia contract. In 1974 Bloomfield hooked up with a failed supergroup called KGB, from the initials of Ray Kennedy (co-writer of "Sail On, Sailor"), Barry Goldberg on keyboards and Bloomfield on guitar. The band had a rhythm section of Rick Grech on bass and Carmine Appice on drums. Grech and Bloomfield immediately quit after its release, stating they never had faith in the project. The album was not well received, but it did contain the standout track "Sail On, Sailor". Its authorship was credited only to "Wilson-Kennedy", and had a bluesy, darker feel, along with Ray Kennedy's original cocaine related lyrics.[citation needed] Through the 1970s, Bloomfield seemed satisfied to play in local San Francisco Bay Area clubs, sitting in with other bands. During 1979–1981 Bloomfield performed often with the King Perkoff Band, often introducing them as his own "Michael Bloomfield and Friends" outfit. Bloomfield recorded "Hustlin' Queen", written by John Isabeau and Perkoff in 1979. Bloomfield had planned a tour to Sweden to complete an album of his favorites, including "Hustlin' Queen". Aside from a triumphant return to the stage sitting in with Bob Dylan at the Warfield in 1980 his rock star days were behind him. Bloomfield was found dead in the front seat of his 1965 Chevy Impala of an apparent heroin overdose in early 1981.
Death
The exact events and circumstances that led to his death are not clear. What is known is that Bloomfield was found dead of a drug overdose in his car on February 15, 1981.[6] The only details (from unnamed sources) relate that Bloomfield died at a San Francisco party, and was driven to another location in the city by two men who were present at the party. His tombstone is in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, Culver City, near Los Angeles, California.
Style
Bloomfield's musical influences include Scotty Moore, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, B.B. King, Big Joe Williams, Otis Rush, Albert King, Freddie King and Ray Charles.[7]
Bloomfield originally used the Fender Telecaster, though he had also used a Fender Mustang while recording for Columbia following his 1964 signing to the label. During his tenure with the Butterfield Blues Band he switched to a 1954 Gibson Les Paul model, which he used for some of the East-West sessions and which he was said to have found in Boston. In due course, according to biographers Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom, Bloomfield swapped that guitar for a 1959 Les Paul Standard and $100. This was the guitar Bloomfield used as a member of the Electric Flag, and on the Super Session album and concerts. He later veered between the Les Paul and the Telecaster, but Bloomfield's use of the Les Paul—as did Keith Richards' with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton's with John Mayall—influenced many others to use the model, helping prod Gibson to re-introduce the line (which it had discontinued in 1960) by mid-1968. Bloomfield eventually lost the guitar in Canada; Wolkin and Keenom's biography revealed a club owner kept the guitar as partial compensation after Bloomfield cut short a round of appearances. Its location today is unknown.
Unlike contemporaries such as Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, Bloomfield rarely experimented with feedback and distortion, preferring a loud but clean, almost chiming sound with a healthy amount of reverb. One of his amplifiers of choice was a 1965 Fender Twin Reverb. Bloomfield's solos, like most blues guitarists', were based primarily on the minor pentatonic scale and the blues scale. However, his liberal use of chromatic notes within the pentatonic framework, and his periodic lines based on Indian and Eastern modes, allowed a considerable degree of fluidity to his solos. He was also renowned for his use of vibrato.
Gibson has since released a Michael Bloomfield Les Paul—replicating his 1959 Standard—in recognition of his effect on the blues genre, on helping to influence the revived production of the guitar, and on many other guitarists.[8] Because the actual guitar had been unaccounted for so many years, Gibson relied on hundreds of photographs provided by Bloomfield's family to reproduce the guitar. The model comes in two configurations—a clean Vintage Original Specifications (VOS) version with only Bloomfield's mismatched volume and control knobs, missing toggle switch cover, and kidney-shaped tuners replacing the Gibson originals indicating its inspiration; and, a faithful, process-aged reproduction of the guitar as it was when Bloomfield played it last, complete with the finish smudge below the bridge and various nicks and smudges elsewhere around the body.
His influence among contemporary guitarists continues to be widely felt, primarily in the techniques of vibrato, natural sustain, and economy of notes. Guitarists such as: Joe Bonamassa, Arlen Roth, Carlos Santana, Slash, Jimmy Vivino, Chuck Hammer, Eric Johnson, Elliot Easton, Robben Ford, John Scofield, Jimmy Herring, Phil Keaggy, remain essentially influenced by Bloomfield's early recorded work.
Early years
Bloomfield was born into a wealthy Jewish-American family on the North Side of Chicago but preferred music to the family catering equipment business, becoming a blues devotee as a teenager and spending time at Chicago's South Side blues clubs, playing guitar with some black bluesmen (Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachell, Little Brother Montgomery). Bloomfield's family eventually moved to suburban Glencoe, Illinois, where Bloomfield attended New Trier High School for two years before being expelled. He attended Cornwall Academy in Massachusetts for one year before returning to Chicago where he spent his last year at the local YMCA school.[3]
The young guitarist's talent "was instantly obvious to his mentors," wrote Al Kooper, Bloomfield's later collaborator and close friend, in a 2001 article. "They knew this was not just another white boy; this was someone who truly understood what the blues were all about."[4] Among his early supporters were B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and Buddy Guy. Michael used to say, 'It's a natural. Black people suffer externally in this country. Jewish people suffer internally. The suffering's the mutual fulcrum for the blues'."[4]
The Butterfield Band
During those haunts, he met Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop, ran his own small blues club, the Fickle Pickle, and was discovered by legendary Columbia Records producer/scout John Hammond, who signed him to the label at a time when the label had had no recent association with blues.
Bloomfield recorded a few sessions for Columbia in 1964 (which weren't released until after his death), but ended up joining the original Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which included Bishop and Howlin' Wolf rhythm section alumni Sam Lay and Jerome Arnold.
Their exuberant, electric Chicago blues inspired a generation of white bluesmen, with Bloomfield's work on the band's self-titled debut, and the subsequent record East-West, bringing wide acclaim to the young guitarist. Especially popular was "East-West's" thirteen-minute title track, an instrumental combining elements of blues, jazz, psychedelic rock, and the classical Indian raga. Bloomfield's innovative solos were at the forefront of the ground-breaking piece. He had been inspired to create "East-West" after an all-night LSD trip according to one legend, but a subsequent anthology of the Butterfield band included a booklet saying Bloomfield had also been influenced by John Coltrane and other blues-friendly free-style jazz musicians, plus traditional Indian and Eastern music in creating the piece. (The original title for the piece was "The Raga.")
Bloomfield was also a session musician, gaining wide recognition for his work with Bob Dylan during his first explorations into electric music. Bloomfield's sound was a major part of Dylan's change of style, especially on Highway 61 Revisited; his guitar style melded the blues influence with rock and folk. Al Kooper has since revealed – in the booklet accompanying the posthumous Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man: Essential Blues, 1964–1969 – that Dylan had invited Bloomfield to play with him permanently but that Bloomfield rejected the invitation in order to continue playing the blues with the Butterfield band. But Bloomfield and fellow Butterfield members Jerome Arnold and Sam Lay appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, backing Dylan for his controversial first live electric performance.
Rock critic Dave Marsh, in Rock and Roll Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles of All Time, claimed Bloomfield to have been the lead guitarist for Mitch Ryder's hit "Devil With The Blue Dress." However, Marsh's claim is disputed by Bloomfield collaborator Barry Goldberg, who played keyboards on that track. For the online bio, "The Bloomfield Notes" (#6), Barry states that Mike played on the following recording after "Devil", and "Sock it to Me", another track mistakenly credited to Bloomfield.[citation needed]
The Electric Flag
Bloomfield tired of the Butterfield Band's rigorous touring schedule and, relocating to San Francisco, sought to create his own group. Bloomfield left to form the short-lived Electric Flag in 1967 with two longtime Chicago cohorts, organist Barry Goldberg and vocalist Nick Gravenites. The band was intended to feature "American music," a hybrid of blues, soul music, country, rock, and folk, and incorporated an expanded lineup complete with a horn section. The inclusion of drummer Buddy Miles, whom he hired away from Wilson Pickett's touring band, gave Bloomfield license to explore soul and R&B. The Electric Flag debuted at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and issued an album, A Long Time Comin', in April 1968 on Columbia Records. Critics complimented the group's distinctive, intriguing sound but found the record itself somewhat uneven. By that time, however, the band was already disintegrating; rivalries between members, shortsighted management, and heroin abuse all took their toll. Shortly after the release of that album, Bloomfield left his own band, with Gravenites, Goldberg, and bassist Harvey Brooks following.
Work with Al Kooper
Bloomfield also made an impact through his work with Al Kooper, with whom he had played with Stephen Stills, on the album Super Session in 1968. The direct impetus for the record, according to Kooper, was the twosome's having been part of Grape Jam, an improvisational addendum to Moby Grape's Wow earlier in the year.
"Why not do an entire jam album together?" Kooper remembered in 1998, writing the booklet notes for the Bloomfield anthology Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man: Essential Blues, 1964-1969. "At the time, most jazz albums were made using this modus operandi: pick a leader or two co-leaders, hire appropriate sidemen, pick some tunes, make some up and record an entire album on the fly in one or two days. Why not try and legitimize rock by adhering to these standards? In addition, as a fan, I was dissatisfied with Bloomfield's recorded studio output up until then. It seemed that his studio work was inhibited and reined in, compared to his incendiary live performances. Could I put him in a studio setting where he could feel free to just burn like he did in live performances?"
The result was Super Session, a jam album that spotlighted Bloomfield's guitar skills on one side; Bloomfield's chronic insomnia caused him to repair to his San Francisco home, prompting Kooper to invite Stephen Stills to complete the album. It received excellent reviews and became the best-selling album of Bloomfield's career; its success led to a live sequel, The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, recorded over three nights at Fillmore West in September 1968.
Solo work
Bloomfield continued with solo, session and back-up work from 1969 to 1980, releasing his first solo work It's Not Killing Me in 1969. He recorded an album called Try It Before You Buy It which Columbia declined to release a year later. Bloomfield also helped Janis Joplin put her Kozmic Blues Band (for the album of the same name) together in 1969, co-wrote "Work Me, Lord" for the album, and played the guitar solo on Joplin's blues composition "One Good Man." Columbia also released another 1969 album, a live concert jam, Live at Bill Graham's Fillmore West, including former Butterfield bandmate Mark Naftalin, former Electric Flag bandmates Marcus Doubleday and Snooky Flowers, and a guest appearance by Taj Mahal; and, re-uniting with former bandmates Paul Butterfield and Sam Lay for the Chess Records all-star set, Fathers and Sons, featuring Muddy Waters and Otis Spann, also the same year. Bloomfield also composed and recorded the soundtrack for the film, Medium Cool by his cousin, Haskell Wexler set during the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968.
For a time, however, Bloomfield gave up playing because of his heroin addiction:
“ ..and I put the guitar down - didn't touch it.. Shooting junk made everything else unimportant, null and void, nolo contendre. My playing fell apart. I just didn't want to play.[5] ”
During the late 1970s, Bloomfield recorded for several smaller labels, including Takoma Records. Through Guitar Player magazine he also put out an instructional album with a vast array of blues guitar styles, titled If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em as You Please. Bloomfield also performed with John Cale on Cale's soundtrack to the film Caged Heat in 1975.
In 1973, Bloomfield teamed with Dr. John and John Hammond, Jr. for an album called Triumvirate, Bloomfield's final album under his Columbia contract. In 1974 Bloomfield hooked up with a failed supergroup called KGB, from the initials of Ray Kennedy (co-writer of "Sail On, Sailor"), Barry Goldberg on keyboards and Bloomfield on guitar. The band had a rhythm section of Rick Grech on bass and Carmine Appice on drums. Grech and Bloomfield immediately quit after its release, stating they never had faith in the project. The album was not well received, but it did contain the standout track "Sail On, Sailor". Its authorship was credited only to "Wilson-Kennedy", and had a bluesy, darker feel, along with Ray Kennedy's original cocaine related lyrics.[citation needed] Through the 1970s, Bloomfield seemed satisfied to play in local San Francisco Bay Area clubs, sitting in with other bands. During 1979–1981 Bloomfield performed often with the King Perkoff Band, often introducing them as his own "Michael Bloomfield and Friends" outfit. Bloomfield recorded "Hustlin' Queen", written by John Isabeau and Perkoff in 1979. Bloomfield had planned a tour to Sweden to complete an album of his favorites, including "Hustlin' Queen". Aside from a triumphant return to the stage sitting in with Bob Dylan at the Warfield in 1980 his rock star days were behind him. Bloomfield was found dead in the front seat of his 1965 Chevy Impala of an apparent heroin overdose in early 1981.
Death
The exact events and circumstances that led to his death are not clear. What is known is that Bloomfield was found dead of a drug overdose in his car on February 15, 1981.[6] The only details (from unnamed sources) relate that Bloomfield died at a San Francisco party, and was driven to another location in the city by two men who were present at the party. His tombstone is in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, Culver City, near Los Angeles, California.
Style
Bloomfield's musical influences include Scotty Moore, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, B.B. King, Big Joe Williams, Otis Rush, Albert King, Freddie King and Ray Charles.[7]
Bloomfield originally used the Fender Telecaster, though he had also used a Fender Mustang while recording for Columbia following his 1964 signing to the label. During his tenure with the Butterfield Blues Band he switched to a 1954 Gibson Les Paul model, which he used for some of the East-West sessions and which he was said to have found in Boston. In due course, according to biographers Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom, Bloomfield swapped that guitar for a 1959 Les Paul Standard and $100. This was the guitar Bloomfield used as a member of the Electric Flag, and on the Super Session album and concerts. He later veered between the Les Paul and the Telecaster, but Bloomfield's use of the Les Paul—as did Keith Richards' with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton's with John Mayall—influenced many others to use the model, helping prod Gibson to re-introduce the line (which it had discontinued in 1960) by mid-1968. Bloomfield eventually lost the guitar in Canada; Wolkin and Keenom's biography revealed a club owner kept the guitar as partial compensation after Bloomfield cut short a round of appearances. Its location today is unknown.
Unlike contemporaries such as Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, Bloomfield rarely experimented with feedback and distortion, preferring a loud but clean, almost chiming sound with a healthy amount of reverb. One of his amplifiers of choice was a 1965 Fender Twin Reverb. Bloomfield's solos, like most blues guitarists', were based primarily on the minor pentatonic scale and the blues scale. However, his liberal use of chromatic notes within the pentatonic framework, and his periodic lines based on Indian and Eastern modes, allowed a considerable degree of fluidity to his solos. He was also renowned for his use of vibrato.
Gibson has since released a Michael Bloomfield Les Paul—replicating his 1959 Standard—in recognition of his effect on the blues genre, on helping to influence the revived production of the guitar, and on many other guitarists.[8] Because the actual guitar had been unaccounted for so many years, Gibson relied on hundreds of photographs provided by Bloomfield's family to reproduce the guitar. The model comes in two configurations—a clean Vintage Original Specifications (VOS) version with only Bloomfield's mismatched volume and control knobs, missing toggle switch cover, and kidney-shaped tuners replacing the Gibson originals indicating its inspiration; and, a faithful, process-aged reproduction of the guitar as it was when Bloomfield played it last, complete with the finish smudge below the bridge and various nicks and smudges elsewhere around the body.
His influence among contemporary guitarists continues to be widely felt, primarily in the techniques of vibrato, natural sustain, and economy of notes. Guitarists such as: Joe Bonamassa, Arlen Roth, Carlos Santana, Slash, Jimmy Vivino, Chuck Hammer, Eric Johnson, Elliot Easton, Robben Ford, John Scofield, Jimmy Herring, Phil Keaggy, remain essentially influenced by Bloomfield's early recorded work.
Mike Bloomfield: Drinking Wine Live!!
Killer color video of Mike Bloomfield in his heyday and his gorgeous Les Paul!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smRXnyUWktg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smRXnyUWktg
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