1903 Scrapper Blackwell*
1933 Nina Simone*
1953 Danny Draher*
1961 Rhonda Lynn Rucker*
1969 Corey Harris*
1970 Jefferson Goncalves*
2008 Calvin Owens+
2013 Magic Slim+
Happy Birthday
Corey Harris *21.02.1969
Corey Harris (* 21. Februar 1969 in Denver, Colorado) ist ein US-amerikanischer Blues- und Reggae-Gitarrist, Sänger und Songschreiber.Als Schüler spielte Harris in einer Rock'n'Roll-Band die Gitarre. In Maine erwarb er einen Abschluss in Anthropologie. Anschließend studierte er in Kamerun afrikanische Sprachen und begeisterte sich für die ursprüngliche afrikanische Musik.
Er arbeitete als Sprachlehrer in Louisiana und machte in seiner Freizeit Musik im nahen New Orleans. 1995 erschien sein erstes Album Between Midnight and Day, das begeistert aufgenommen wurde.
1998 arbeitete Harris mit Billy Bragg und Wilco am Album Mermaid Avenue. 2000 begann er, mit dem Pianisten Henry Butler zusammenzuarbeiten – Resultat war das Album Vü Dü Menz.
2003 nahm Harris mit Bobby Rush, Sam Carr sowie Shardé Thomas, der 12-jährigen Enkelin von Othar Turner, und der "Rising Star Fife and Drum Band" das Album Mississippi to Mali auf.
Im Film Feel Like Going Home (2003) von Martin Scorsese besucht Harris den afrikanischen Musiker Ali Farka Touré in Mali – der amerikanische Blues trifft seine afrikanischen Wurzeln.
2007 war er MacArthur Fellow.
Corey Harris (born February 21, 1969; Denver, Colorado) is an American blues and reggae musician, currently residing in Virginia. Along with Keb' Mo' and Alvin Youngblood Hart, he raised the flag of acoustic guitar blues in the mid-1990s.[1] He was featured on the 2003 PBS television mini-series, The Blues, in an episode directed by Martin Scorsese.
Biography
Harris was born and raised near Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine with a Bachelor's degree in 1991, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2007. Harris received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for language studies in Cameroon in his early twenties, before taking a teaching post in Napoleonville, Louisiana under the Teach For America program.[1][2] His debut solo album Between Midnight and Day (1995) included covers of Sleepy John Estes, Fred McDowell, Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, and Booker White.[1]
In 2002, Harris collaborated with Ali Farka Toure on his album Mississippi to Mali, fusing blues and Toure's music from northern Mali. In 2003, he contributed to the Northern Blues release Johnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash.
Harris has lived and traveled widely in West Africa, an influence that has permeated much of his work. Harris has toured extensively throughout Europe, Canada, West Africa, Japan and Australia. He is known for his solo acoustic work as well as his electric band, formerly known as the '5 x 5'. His current band is known as the Rasta Blues Experience.
He helped Billy Bragg and Wilco to write the music for "Hoodoo Voodoo" on Mermaid Avenue, an album consisting entirely of songs for which the lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie. He also appeared as a musician and vocalist on the album and its sequel, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II.
In September 2007 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced that Harris was among 24 people named MacArthur Fellows for 2007. The Fellowship, worth $500,000, is payable over five years.
Biography
Harris was born and raised near Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine with a Bachelor's degree in 1991, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2007. Harris received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for language studies in Cameroon in his early twenties, before taking a teaching post in Napoleonville, Louisiana under the Teach For America program.[1][2] His debut solo album Between Midnight and Day (1995) included covers of Sleepy John Estes, Fred McDowell, Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, and Booker White.[1]
In 2002, Harris collaborated with Ali Farka Toure on his album Mississippi to Mali, fusing blues and Toure's music from northern Mali. In 2003, he contributed to the Northern Blues release Johnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash.
Harris has lived and traveled widely in West Africa, an influence that has permeated much of his work. Harris has toured extensively throughout Europe, Canada, West Africa, Japan and Australia. He is known for his solo acoustic work as well as his electric band, formerly known as the '5 x 5'. His current band is known as the Rasta Blues Experience.
He helped Billy Bragg and Wilco to write the music for "Hoodoo Voodoo" on Mermaid Avenue, an album consisting entirely of songs for which the lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie. He also appeared as a musician and vocalist on the album and its sequel, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II.
In September 2007 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced that Harris was among 24 people named MacArthur Fellows for 2007. The Fellowship, worth $500,000, is payable over five years.
Nina Simone *21.02.1933
Nina Simone (eigentlich Eunice Kathleen Waymon; * 21. Februar 1933 in Tryon (North Carolina), USA; † 21. April 2003 in Carry-le-Rouet, Frankreich) war eine US-amerikanische Jazz- und Bluessängerin, Pianistin und Songschreiberin. Dabei vermied sie den Ausdruck Jazz, sie selbst nannte ihre Musik Black Classical Music. Sie nannte sich mit Nachnamen Simone, da sie ein Fan von Simone Signoret war.Nina Simone war das sechste von acht Kindern einer Methodistenpredigerin und eines Handwerkers. Bereits im Alter von vier Jahren begann sie mit dem Klavierspielen. Nach einem Studium an der renommierten Juilliard School in New York City wollte sie ihre Ausbildung in Philadelphia am Curtis Institute of Music abschließen, wurde jedoch aus vermutlich rassistischen Gründen nicht zugelassen. Über einen Job als Klavierlehrerin kam Nina Simone zum Gesang, wobei sie von Anfang an eigene Stücke improvisierte. Ihr Gesangs- und Klavierstil war von Nellie Lutcher beeinflusst, deren Karriere ungefähr zu der Zeit endete, als Nina Simone bekannt wurde.[1]
1957 veröffentlichte sie in New York ihr erstes Album auf Bethlehem Records, ein Konzert 1959 in der New York City Town Hall machte sie in den USA und in Europa bekannt. Von ihren Fans wurde sie ehrfürchtig als „Hohepriesterin des Soul“ bezeichnet. In den 1960er Jahren engagierte sie sich in der US-amerikanischen Bürgerrechtsbewegung, mit Liedern wie Mississippi Goddam und To Be Young, Gifted, and Black (Liedtext von Weldon Irvine) wurde sie eine ihrer musikalischen Leitfiguren.
Ihr eigenes, privates Leben zerbrach aber Stück um Stück: Sie floh aus ihren Ehen, hatte eine Affäre mit dem Premierminister von Barbados (Errol Barrow), suchte aufgrund einer Empfehlung von Miriam Makeba ihre Bestimmung in Afrika, unternahm Europatourneen, die sie ihrem politischen Kampf in den USA entfremdeten und galt in der Plattenindustrie zunehmend als schwierig. Ihr Album Baltimore (1978) wurde von der Kritik gelobt, verkaufte sich aber zunächst schlecht. In den 1980ern trat sie regelmäßig im Jazzclub von Ronnie Scott in London auf (und nahm dort auch ein Album auf). Ihre Autobiografie I Put a Spell on You erschien 1992, ihr letztes reguläres Album 1993. Im gleichen Jahr zog sie nach Südfrankreich, wo sie zehn Jahre lebte und 2003 nach langem Krebsleiden starb.
Der Titel Ain't Got No / I Got Life von ihrem 1968er Album ’Nuff Said! wurde im Musical Hair verwendet. Einem größeren Publikum bekannt wurde sie vor allem durch ihren Song My Baby Just Cares for Me – dank eines Chanel-Werbespots wurde er 1987, 30 Jahre nach der Aufnahme des Stücks, ein Welthit. An den Verkaufserlösen war sie nur minimal beteiligt. 1993 kam der Film Codename: Nina mit Bridget Fonda in der Hauptrolle in die Kinos – mit einem Soundtrack, der teilweise aus Musik von Nina Simone bestand. In dem 1999er Remake von Thomas Crown ist nicht zu fassen mit Pierce Brosnan und Rene Russo taucht das Intro ihrer Version des Gospels Sinnerman immer wieder auf, um schließlich den Höhepunkt des Films mit ihrem unverwechselbaren Gesang zu unterlegen. [2] 2009 nutzte Pandemic Studios Simones Version des Lieds Feeling Good sowie eine Remix-Version als musikalische Untermalung des im Paris des Zweiten Weltkriegs spielenden Computerspiels Saboteur.
Nina Simone /ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/ (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. She worked in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.The sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist.[1] Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone said she later found out from an insider at Curtis that she was denied entry because she was black.[2] So as to fund her continuing musical education and become a classical pianist, she began playing in a small club in Philadelphia where she was also required to sing. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendering of "I Loves You, Porgy" was a hit in the United States in 1958.[1] Over the length of her career Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958, when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue, and 1974.
Her musical style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music, in particular with influences from her first inspiration, Johann Sebastian Bach,[3] and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic contralto voice. She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to classical.[4] Her intuitive grasp on the audience–performer relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years old.[5]
Biography
Youth (1933–1954)
Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina. The sixth of eight children in a poor family, she began playing piano at age three; the first song she learned was "God Be With You, Till We Meet Again". Demonstrating a talent with the instrument, she performed at her local church, but her concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was twelve. Simone later said that during this performance her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people. Simone said she refused to play until her parents were moved back to the front,[6][7] and that the incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.
Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon, was a Methodist minister and a housemaid. Simone's father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman who at one time owned a dry cleaning business, but also suffered bouts of ill health. Mary Kate's employer, hearing of her daughter's talent, provided funds for piano lessons.[8] Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Simone's continued education. With the help of this scholarship money she was able to attend Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina.
After finishing high school, she studied for an interview with the help of a private tutor to study piano further at the Curtis Institute, but was rejected. Simone believed that this rejection was related directly to her race, although Curtis began accepting black applicants in the 1940s and the first black graduate was George Walker in 1945 who went on to win a Pulitzer.[9] Simone moved to New York City, where she studied at the Juilliard School of Music.
Early success (1954–1959)
To fund her private lessons, she performed at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, whose owner insisted that she sing as well as play the piano. In 1954 she adopted the stage name Nina Simone. "Nina" (from niña, meaning 'little girl' in Spanish) was a nickname a boyfriend had given to her, and "Simone" was taken from the French actress Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the movie Casque d'or.[10] Simone's mixture of jazz, blues, and classical music in her performances at the bar earned her a small, but loyal, fan base.[11]
In 1958 she befriended and married Don Ross, a beatnik who worked as a fairground barker, but quickly regretted their marriage.[12] Playing in small clubs in the same year she recorded George Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), which she learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only Billboard top 20 success in the United States, and her debut album Little Girl Blue soon followed on Bethlehem Records. Simone lost more than $1 million in royalties (notably for the 1980s re-release of My Baby Just Cares for Me) and never benefited financially from the album's sales because she had sold her rights outright for $3,000.[13]
Becoming popular (1959–1964)
After the success of Little Girl Blue, Simone signed a contract with Colpix Records, and recorded a multitude of studio and live albums. Colpix relinquished all creative control to her, including the choice of material that would be recorded, in exchange for her signing the contract with them. By this point, Simone only performed pop music to make money to continue her classical music studies, and was indifferent about having a recording contract. She kept this attitude toward the record industry for most of her career.[14]
Simone married a New York police detective, Andrew Stroud, in 1961; Stroud later became her manager.[15]
Nina Simone in 1969
In 1964, she changed record distributors, from the American Colpix to the Dutch Philips, which also meant a change in the contents of her recordings. Simone had always included songs in her repertoire that drew upon her African-American origins (such as "Brown Baby" and "Zungo" on Nina at the Village Gate in 1962). On her debut album for Philips, Nina Simone in Concert (live recording, 1964), however, Simone for the first time openly addressed the racial inequality that was prevalent in the United States with the song "Mississippi Goddam", her response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four black children. The song was released as a single, and it was boycotted in certain southern states.[16][17] "Old Jim Crow", on the same album, addressed the Jim Crow laws.
From then on, a civil rights message was standard in Simone's recording repertoire, becoming a part of her live performances. Simone performed and spoke at many civil rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches.[18] Simone advocated violent revolution during the civil rights period, rather than Martin Luther King's non-violent approach,[19] and she hoped that African Americans could, by armed combat, form a separate state. Nevertheless, she wrote in her autobiography that she and her family regarded all races as equal.[20]
Simone moved from Philips to RCA Victor during 1967. She sang "Backlash Blues", written by her friend Langston Hughes on her first RCA album, Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967). On Silk & Soul (1967), she recorded Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Turning Point". The album 'Nuff Said! (1968) contains live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair, April 7, 1968, three days after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.. She dedicated the whole performance to him and sang "Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)", a song written by her bass player, Gene Taylor, directly after the news of King's death had reached them.[21] In the summer of 1969 she performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival in Harlem's Mount Morris Park.
Together with Weldon Irvine, Simone turned the late Lorraine Hansberry's unfinished play To Be Young, Gifted and Black into a civil rights song. Hansberry had been a personal friend whom Simone credited with cultivating her social and political consciousness. She performed the song live on the album Black Gold (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and renditions of the song have been recorded by Aretha Franklin (on her 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black) and by Donny Hathaway.[16][20]
Later life (1974–2003)
Simone left the United States in September 1970, flying to Barbados and expecting Stroud to communicate with her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance, and the fact that she had left behind her wedding ring, as an indication of a desire for a divorce. As her manager, Stroud was in charge of Simone's income.
When Simone returned to the United States she learned that a warrant had been issued for her arrest for unpaid taxes (as a protest against her country's involvement with the Vietnam War), causing her to return to Barbados again to evade the authorities and prosecution.[22] Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time and she had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow.[23][24] A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, then persuaded her to go to Liberia. Later, she lived in Switzerland and the Netherlands, before settling in France in 1992.
She recorded her last album for RCA, It Is Finished, during 1974. Simone did not make another record until 1978, when she was persuaded to go into the recording studio by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor. The result was the album Baltimore, which, while not a commercial success, was fairly well received critically and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output.[25] Her choice of material retained its eclecticism, ranging from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl". Four years later Simone recorded Fodder on My Wings on a French label. During the 1980s Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, where she recorded the album Live at Ronnie Scott's in 1984. Although her early on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her audiences sometimes by recounting humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and by soliciting requests. In 1987, the original 1958 recording of "My Baby Just Cares for Me" was used in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume in the United Kingdom. This led to a re-release of the recording, which stormed to number 4 on the UK's NME singles chart, giving her a brief surge in popularity in the UK. Her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, was published in 1992. She recorded her last album, A Single Woman, in 1993.
Illness and death
In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. She had suffered from breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, on April 21, 2003. (In addition, Simone received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in the late 1980s).[26] Her funeral service was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti LaBelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actor Ossie Davis, and hundreds of others. Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. She left behind a daughter, Lisa Celeste Stroud, an actress and singer, who took the stage name Simone, and has appeared on Broadway in Aida.[27]
Reputation
Simone had a reputation for volatility. In 1985, she fired a gun at a record company executive whom she accused of stealing royalties. Simone said she "tried to kill him" but "missed".[28] In 1995, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with an air gun after the boy's laughter disturbed her concentration.[29] According to a biographer, Simone took medication for a condition from the mid-1960s on.[30] All this was only known to a small group of intimates, and kept out of public view for many years, until the biography Break Down and Let It All Out written by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan revealed this in 2004 after her death.
Musical style
Simone standards
Throughout her career, Simone assembled a collection of songs that would later become standards in her repertoire. Some were songs that she wrote herself, while others were new arrangements of other standards, some had been written especially for the singer. Her first hit song in America was her rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy" (1958). It peaked at number 18 in the pop singles chart and number 2 on the black singles chart.[31] During that same period Simone recorded "My Baby Just Cares for Me", which would become her biggest success years later, in 1987, after it was featured in a 1986 Chanel No. 5 perfume commercial.[32] A music video was also created by Aardman Studios.[33] Well known songs from her Philips albums include "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964), "I Put a Spell on You", "Ne me quitte pas" (a rendition of a Jacques Brel song) and "Feeling Good" on I Put a Spell On You (1965), "Lilac Wine" and "Wild Is the Wind" on Wild is the Wind (1966).[34]
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Feeling Good", and "Sinner Man" (Pastel Blues, 1965) have remained popular in terms of cover versions (most notably a version of the former song by The Animals), sample usage, and its use on soundtracks for various movies, TV-series, and video games. "Sinner Man" has been featured in the TV series Scrubs, Person of Interest, The Blacklist, and Sherlock, and on movies such as The Thomas Crown Affair, Miami Vice, and Inland Empire, and sampled by artists such as Talib Kweli and Timbaland. The song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was sampled by Devo Springsteen on "Misunderstood" from Common's 2007 album Finding Forever, and by little-known producers Rodnae and Mousa for the song "Don't Get It" on Lil Wayne's 2008 album Tha Carter III. "See-Line Woman" was sampled by Kanye West for "Bad News" on his album 808s & Heartbreak. The 1965 rendition of "Strange Fruit" originally by Billie Holiday was sampled by Kanye West for "Blood on the Leaves" on his album Yeezus.
Simone's years at RCA-Victor spawned a number of singles and album tracks that were popular, particularly in Europe. In 1968, it was "Ain't Got No, I Got Life", a medley from the musical Hair from the album 'Nuff Said! (1968) that became a surprise hit for Simone, reaching number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and introducing her to a younger audience.[35]
In 2006, it returned to the UK Top 30 in a remixed version by Groovefinder. The following single, the Bee Gees' rendition of "To Love Somebody" also reached the UK Top 10 in 1969. "The House of the Rising Sun" was featured on Nina Simone Sings the Blues in 1967, but Simone had recorded the song in 1961 and it was featured on Nina at the Village Gate (1962), predating the versions by Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan.[36][37] It was later covered by The Animals, for whom it became a signature hit.
Performing style
Simone's bearing and stage presence earned her the title "High Priestess of Soul".[38] She was a piano player, singer and performer, "separately and simultaneously".[15] Onstage, Simone moved from gospel to blues, jazz, and folk, to numbers with European classical styling, and Bach-style fugal counterpoint. She incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical element.[39] She compared it to "mass hypnosis. I use it all the time".[20] Throughout most of her life and recording career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Fleming and guitarist and musical director Al Schackman.[40]
Legacy and influence
Music
Musicians who have cited Simone as important for their own musical upbringing include Emeli Sandé, Antony and the Johnsons, Nick Cave, Van Morrison, Christina Aguilera, Elkie Brooks, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Kanye West, Lena Horne, Bono, John Legend, Elizabeth Fraser, Cat Stevens, Anna Calvi, Lykke Li, Peter Gabriel, Maynard James Keenan, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Mary J. Blige, Fantasia Barrino, Michael Gira, Angela McCluskey, Lauryn Hill, Patrice Babatunde, Alicia Keys, Lana Del Rey, Matt Bellamy, Ian MacKaye, Kerry Brothers, Jr. "Krucial", Amanda Palmer, Steve Adey and Jeff Buckley.[16][41][42][43][44][45] John Lennon cited Simone's version of "I Put a Spell on You" as a source of inspiration for the Beatles song "Michelle".[45]
Simone's music has been featured in soundtracks of various motion pictures and video games, including but not limited to, La Femme Nikita (1990), Point of No Return (1993), The Big Lebowski (1998), Notting Hill (1999), Any Given Sunday (1999), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Six Feet Under (2001), The Dancer Upstairs (2002), Before Sunset (2004), Cellular (2004), Inland Empire (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Sex and the City (2008), The World Unseen (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), Watchmen (2009), The Saboteur (2009), Repo Men (2010). Frequently her music is used in remixes, commercials, and TV series including "Feeling Good" featured prominently in the Season Four Promo of Six Feet Under (2004).
Film
The documentary Nina Simone: La légende (The Legend) was made in the 1990s by French filmmakers,[20] based on her autobiography I Put a Spell on You. It features live footage from different periods of her career, interviews with friends and family, various interviews with Simone then living in the Netherlands, and while on a trip to her birthplace. A portion of footage from The Legend was taken from an earlier 26-minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in 1969 and entitled simply, Nina. Her filmed 1976 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival is available on video courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment and is screened annually in New York City at an event called "The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone: Montreux, 1976" which is curated by Tom Blunt.[46]
Plans for a Simone biographical film were released at the end of 2005, to be based on Simone's autobiography I Put a Spell on You (1992) and to focus on her relationship in later life with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in 2006; Simone's daughter, Simone Kelly, has since refuted the existence of a romantic relationship between Simone and Henderson on account of his sexuality.[47] Cynthia Mort, screenwriter of Will & Grace and Roseanne, has written the screenplay and directed the film, Nina, which stars Zoe Saldana in the title role.[48][49][50] In May 2014, the film was shown to potential distributors at the Cannes film festival, but has, as of August 2014, not been seen by reviewers.[51][52]
A new documentary film about Simone, entitled The Amazing Nina Simone is scheduled for release in 2015. It tells her story from those who knew her best, including close friends, family, band members, fellow activists and musicians, and her close circle of friends in her adopted Europe. The film follows Simone's journey through music and civil rights, attempting to gain a deeper understanding of her intentions and artistry, and the meaning behind many of her iconic songs. The film is written and directed by independent filmmaker Jeff L. Lieberman and features Sam Waymon, Al Schackman, Leopoldo Fleming, Nikki Giovanni, Eric Burdon, Tim Hauser, Roscoe Dellums, and Marie Christine Dunham Pratt.[53][citation needed]
Honors
Simone was the recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 for her interpretation of "I Loves You, Porgy." She has also received fifteen Grammy Award nominations. On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone.[54][55] Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Malcolm X College.[56] She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her.[57]
Two days before her death, Nina Simone was awarded an honorary degree by the Curtis Institute, the music school that had refused to admit her as a student at the beginning of her career.[58]
In 2002, the city of Nijmegen, Netherlands, named a street after her, the Nina Simone straat; she had lived in Nijmegen between 1988 and 1990. On August 29, 2005, the city of Nijmegen, concert hall De Vereeniging, and more than fifty artists (amongst whom Frank Boeijen, Rood Adeo, and Fay Claassen)[59][60] honoured Simone with the tribute concert Greetings From Nijmegen.
Simone was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.[61]
In 2010 a statue in her honor was erected in Trade Street in her native Tryon, North Carolina.
Scrapper Blackwell *21.02.1903
Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell (* 21. Februar 1903 in Syracuse, North Carolina; † 7. Oktober 1962 in Indianapolis) war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist, der vor allem als Partner von Leroy Carr bekannt wurde.
Nach eigenen Angaben hatte Scrapper Blackwell Cherokee-Vorfahren. Als Kind kam er mit seiner Familie nach Indianapolis, wo er die meiste Zeit seines Lebens verbrachte. Er brachte sich das Gitarrespielen selbst bei, beeinflusst von Blues-Aufnahmen vor allem von Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Blackwell war ein Freizeitmusiker, ein ausgezeichneter Gitarrist, der einen eigenen Stil entwickelt hatte. Seinen Lebensunterhalt verdiente er sich hauptsächlich durch Alkoholschmuggel. Der Pianist Leroy Carr hatte einige Mühe, Blackwell 1928 zu gemeinsamen Aufnahmen zu überreden. Unter den ersten Aufnahmen des Duos war How Long How Long Blues, das ein Hit wurde. Bis zu Carrs Tod 1935 folgten viele weitere Aufnahmen des Duos.
Scrapper Blackwell spielte auch mit anderen Partnern, etwa Georgia Tom Dorsey oder Black Bottom McPhail. Daneben machte er Soloaufnahmen. Sein bekanntester Titel dürfte Kokomo Blues sein, das von Kokomo Arnold zu Original Old Kokomo Blues verarbeitet wurde, woraus Robert Johnson schließlich Sweet Home Chicago machte.
Nach Carrs Tod zog sich Blackwell gänzlich aus der Musikszene zurück. Erst 1959 wurde er von Duncan Scheidt wiederentdeckt und zu neuen Aufnahmen überredet. 1962 starb Scrapper Blackwell bei einer Schießerei in Indianapolis.
Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell (February 21, 1903[1] – October 7, 1962[2]) was an American blues guitarist and singer; best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was an acoustic single-note picker in the Chicago blues and Piedmont blues style, with some critics noting that he veered towards jazz.
Biography
Blackwell was born in Syracuse, South Carolina, as one of sixteen children of Payton and Elizabeth Blackwell. Part Cherokee, he grew up and spent most of his life in Indianapolis, Indiana. Blackwell was given the nickname, "Scrapper", by his grandmother, due to his fiery nature.[3] His father played the fiddle, but Blackwell was a self-taught guitarist, building his first guitar out of cigar boxes, wood and wire. He also learned the piano, occasionally playing professionally. By his teens, Blackwell was a part-time musician, traveling as far as Chicago. Known for being withdrawn and hard to work with, Blackwell established a rapport with pianist Leroy Carr, whom he met in Indianapolis in the mid-1920s, creating a productive working relationship. Carr convinced Blackwell to record with him for the Vocalion label in 1928;[4] the result was "How Long, How Long Blues", the biggest blues hit of that year.
Blackwell also made solo recordings for Vocalion, including "Kokomo Blues" which was transformed into "Old Kokomo Blues" by Kokomo Arnold before being redone as "Sweet Home Chicago" by Robert Johnson. Blackwell and Carr toured throughout the American Midwest and South between 1928 and 1935 as stars of the blues scene, recording over 100 sides. "Prison Bound Blues" (1928), "Mean Mistreater Mama" (1934), and "Blues Before Sunrise" (1934) were popular tracks.[4]
Blackwell made several solo excursions; a 1931 visit to Richmond, Indiana to record at Gennett studios is notable. Blackwell, dissatisfied with the lack of credit given his contributions with Carr, was remedied by Vocalion's Mayo Williams after his 1931 breakaway. In all future recordings, Blackwell received equal credit with Carr in terms of recording contracts and songwriting credits. Blackwell's last recording session with Carr was in February 1935 for the Bluebird label. The recording session ended bitterly, as both musicians left the studio mid-session and on bad terms, stemming from payment disputes. Two months later Blackwell received a phone call informing him of Carr's death due to heavy drinking and nephritis. Blackwell soon recorded a tribute to his musical partner of seven years ("My Old Pal Blues") before retiring from the music industry.
Blackwell returned to music in the late 1950s and was first recorded in June 1958 by Colin C. Pomroy (those recordings were released as late as 1967 on the Collector label). Soon afterwards he was recorded by Duncan P. Schiedt for Doug Dobell's 77 Records.
Scrapper Blackwell was then recorded in 1961, in Indianapolis, by a young Art Rosenbaum for the Prestige/Bluesville Records label. The story is recounted by Rosenbaum as starting three years before the recordings were made. While still growing up in his hometown of Indianapolis, an African American woman that Rosenbaum knew said he "had to meet a man that she knew, who played guitar, played blues and christian songs, they'll make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck." Rosenbaum goes into more details of meeting Blackwell; "I met the gentleman across the street from the Methodist hospital in Indianapolis". Scrapper's friend said, "well he hasn't got a guitar", so Art said "well I got a guitar." Scrapper than said that he needed some 'bird food', with Rosenbaum being confused as to what he was referring to, Scrapper continued, "you gotta get some bird food for the bird, before the bird sings... beer!" Rosenbaum said, "I'm too young!" Scrapper and his friend continued, "we'll buy the beer, you just give us some money." Art concludes the meeting, "So we did, and he started playing these beautiful blues. I didn't realize he was Scrapper Blackwell til I mentioned his name to a blues collecting friend." To which then the friend exclaimed, "you met Scrapper Blackwell!?"
He was ready to resume his blues career when he was shot and killed during a mugging in an Indianapolis alley. He was 59 years old. Although the crime remains unsolved, police arrested his neighbour at the time for the murder. Blackwell is buried in New Crown Cemetery, Indianapolis.
Danny Draher *21.02.1953
DANNY DRAHER
Winner of the Connecticut Blues Society
Best Band for 2013
Danny Draher, New York Blues & Jazz Society’s Best Artist Winner- is a guitarist, singer, musical director, consultant and producer. Born in Indianapolis, he heard the fascinating sounds of Wes Montgomery, James Brown, Ray Charles, and Elvis. He started playing piano and bass at a young age, then switched to the guitar and soon moved to Chicago. By age fourteen, Danny was performing at parties with local bands and began his professional life as a guitarist with Otis Rush and Buddy Guy at the Checkerboard Lounge. He recorded his first album with the Bob Reidy Band on Flying Fish Records at the legendary Chess Studios. He left Chicago and toured nationally with many popular, ‘top 40′, rock, rhythm and blues bands.
He moved to New York City and soon became the guitarist, singer and bandleader of choice. Through his reputation, he and his band have been hired by the who’s who of the music industry. He has recorded and toured nationally and internationally with artists such as Dr. John, Etta James, Paul Butterfield and Allen Toussaint.
He performed with Buster Poindexter, Bo Diddley and the Uptown Horns at the Palladium for the Democratic Convention party in New York City with President Clinton on sax. Danny played many jazz and blues festivals including “The Montreaux JazzFestival” and “The North Sea Jazz Festival”. Paul Butterfield and Allen Toussaint. He was the musical director for the 1992 Rhythm and Blues Foundation Awards with some of the award recipients being Aretha Franklin, Bobby Bland, Sam Moore, The Staples Singers, Rufus and Carla Thomas. The Danny Draher Band performed for the Radio America documentary, The Blues Story, An American Art Form, featuring B.B. King, Ruth Brown and Buddy Guy at the Whitney Museum. He and his band were also in the 1994 first annual VH-1 Awards with BonnieRaitt.
He was the producer for Cephas & Wiggin’s CD, Blues Men, on Chesky Records. He also worked with producer John Snyder as a session guitarist for Polygram and Verve Records and has appeared in several recent releases, including Lucky Peterson’s last two gold CD’s.
This journeyman of multi-faceted talent and passion has mesmerized audiences internationally including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Madison Square Garden.Danny also appeared on Delmark Records Fifty Year Anniversary Jazz and Blues Collection CD. He has a great reputation within the industry and he is known for his style and finesse. He’s due for a Grammy of his own. Enjoy this CD! The Danny Draher family thanks you!
Danny Draher, New York Blues & Jazz Society's Best Band Winner 2004 - is a guitarist, singer, musical director, consultant and producer. Born in Indianapolis, he heard the fascinating sounds of Wes Montgomery and Mel Rhyne. He moved to Chicago at a young age and started playing guitar. By age fourteen, Danny performed at parties with local bands and began his professional life as a guitarist with Otis Rush and Buddy Guy at the Checkerboard Lounge. Danny recorded his first album with the Rob Reidy Band on Flying Fish Records at the legendary Chess Studios. Danny left Chicago and toured nationally with many popular "Top 40", rhythm and blues and rock bands. In New York, 'Double D' soon became the guitarist, singer and bandleader of choice. Through reputation, Danny Draher and his band have been hired by the who's who of the music industry for national and international performances and recordings with such artists as Dr. John, Etta James, Paul Butterfield and Allen Toussaint. He was the musical director for the 1992 Rhythm and Blues Foundation Awards with the award recipients, Bobble Bland, Sam Moore, The Staples Singers and Rufus and Carla Thomas. The Danny Draher Band performed for the Radio America documentary, The Blues Story, an American Art Form, featuring B.B. King and Ruth Brown at the Whitney Museum. The Danny Draher Band was also featured with Bonnie Raitt at the 1994 first annual VH-1 Awards.
In 1993, Danny performed with Buster Poindexter and the Uptown Horns at the Palladium for President-elect, Bill Clinton and the Democratic Convention party in New York City. In 1995, Danny played "The Montreaux Jazz Festival" and "The North Sea Jazz Festival".
Danny Draher was the producer for Cephas & Wiggin's CD, "Blues Men", on Chesky Records, released in 1993. He also worked as a session guitarist for Polygram/Verve Records and has appeared in several recent releases, including Lucky Peterson's last two gold CD's.
This journeyman of multifaceted and passionate guitar playing has mesmerized audiences at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, (Lincoln Center) Madison Square Garden. Danny Draher is a musical director, arranger and producer, with abilities to establish working rapport with other professionals. Danny has a great reputation within the industry for his own style.
Rhonda Lynn Rucker *21.02.1961
RHONDA HICKS RUCKER practiced medicine before becoming a full-time musician, author, and storyteller. Rhonda performs with her husband, James “Sparky” Rucker, adding vocals, piano, banjo, blues harmonica, and rhythmic bones to their music. They appeared on the Grammy-nominated CD, Singing Through the Hard Times, in 2009. Rhonda has recorded nine albums with her husband, and their 1991 release, Treasures and Tears, was nominated for the W.C. Handy Award for Best Traditional Recording.
Rhonda grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. She began taking piano lessons at the age of four from Fannie Woods Mansfield, an elderly woman who was both a ragtime composer and an organist at the local Baptist Church. Mrs. Mansfield's influence is evident in Rhonda's barrelhouse piano playing as well as her rocking gospel melodies. Rhonda grew up attending the Methodist Church, learning many of the old hymns and gospel songs and occasionally substituting for the organist. As a teenager, she also taught herself to play guitar, acted in community plays, and sang in the high school chorus.
Rhonda attended University of Louisville for undergraduate studies, then completed her medical degree and internal medicine residency at University of Kentucky in Lexington. During her medical school and residency years, she spent many months in the small towns of eastern Kentucky, absorbing the stories she heard from patients and learning the “art of medicine,” as her mentor Dr. David Asher put it. It was here she grew to appreciate the heritage and culture of Southern Appalachia. She later practiced medicine as a board-certified internist for five years in Maryville, Tennessee.
In 1989, Rhonda began performing on stage with Sparky, playing blues harmonica and adding vocal harmonies. She later added piano, clawhammer banjo, and rhythmic bones to her instrumental repertoire, adding variety to their stage performances.
The Ruckers contributed music to the syndicated television miniseries, The Wild West. Rhonda has taught blues harmonica workshops and classes at music camps and festivals. Her performing credits include NPR’s On Point, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the International Storytelling Center, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and the National Folk Festivals of Australia and Scotland. She has also contributed to educational media projects for Scholastic, the National Geographic Society, Kentucky Educational Television, and the Eastern National Park and Monument Association.
The Ruckers' recording, Treasures & Tears, was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award, and their music is included on the Grammy-nominated anthology, Singing Through the Hard Times. Additional performing credits include the Kerrville Folk Festival, the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the Clearwater Folk Festival, the Vancouver Folk Festival, and the Robert Johnson Memorial Blues Festival.
More recently, Rhonda has addressed difficult topics like global warming, the broken health care system, and post-traumatic stress disorder by creating powerful songs with melodies rooted in the folk and gospel traditions. Sparky and Rhonda have taken their environmental message across the country, performing at Earth Day celebrations, the Clearwater Festival in New York, national parks, and environmental education centers.
Writing has been a longtime passion of Rhonda’s. During childhood, she wrote poetry for fun. She was first published in ninth grade, when her English teacher helped her submit a literary analysis of The Great Gatsby.
With her medical background, it’s no surprise that Rhonda enjoys science writing. While she was practicing medicine, she contributed articles to the patient newsletter. She has also had articles published in The Daily Times (the local newspaper), The Hellbender Press (a regional environmental newspaper), and The Southerner (an online magazine). Her work for Blue Ridge Press, a syndicated column service, has been published in several southeastern newspapers, including the Chattanooga Times Free Press, The Roanoke Times, the Anniston Star, and the Southwest Virginia Enterprise. Rhonda also helped teach an environmental journalism course at the University of Tennessee in 2001.
Rhonda was a contributing author for the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, which was published by the University of Tennessee Press in 2006. She has also co-written a chapter for the book, Team Up! Tell In Tandem!, published by PRESTO & US Storytelling Publications in 2010.
More recently, Rhonda has focused on writing for young readers. Highlights magazine published her article, "Rescuing Miracle," in their February 2013 issue. Her debut novel, Swing Low, Sweet Harriet was published by Motes Books in October 2013.
Jefferson Goncalves *21.02.1970
Jefferson Gançalves, native of Rio de Janeiro, began his musical career in the 1990's, following a common road for many harmonica players: the blues. He right away changed his profession from a banker to a musician, began a band called Based in Blues and an acoustic trio called Blues, Etc., and recording with musicians of different musical genres became known as a consegrated name among Brazilian harmonica players- as well as a Brazilian representative in international harmonica events,like the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of Harmonicas (enconter in Detroit, Michigan in 1998).
However, Jefferson did not limit his musical horizons with American blues. He identified similarities between black american music and Northeastern Brazilian forró music based on rhythms such as baião, xaxada and xote. This perception enlarged his muisical horizons.
He then began a serious study of the representative artists of Northeastern brazilian music. He discovered maracatu and rural samba and incorporated these elements in his first solo CD, “Greia” (2004). This musical mixture was well received by critics and public. “Greia” incorporates in the same “basket” the creativity of Bob Dylan and Luis Gonzagas, and the swing of Jackson do Pandeiro and Ray Charles. It ́s all music, all in all, and of extreme quality. Parallel to this, Jefferson improved his work in art education, centered on the blues, which he has been developing in Rio de Janeiro since 1996. He has released DVD ́s showing the fundamentals of the diatonic harmonica and has established himself as a reference of harmonica instruction in Brazil.
He has taken his playing to diverse audiences, as well as diversifying his area of presentations, broadening his musical and educational horizons. In 2002, 2003, he toured Argentina, performing in some of the best locations in Argentina, like the San Martin Theatre. Also in 2003, he administered the first harmonica workshop in Nova Olinda, located in the Cariri region of the state of Ceara.
For this project, put together in colaboration with an NGO, Fundação Casa Grande- Memorial do Homem Kariri (Main House Foundation- Kariri people memorial), Jefferson used a conceptual basis of his musical mixture. He left a recording also a studio tool, which is a video classroom produced by the very students of the institute.The resutls were extremely positive. Upon returning to Nova Olinda in 2005, one could see the progress of the young ONG musicians, considering the rich possibilities the harmonica offers, a versatil instrument, applicable to different rhythms, of unquestionable portability, and above all, of low cost. Not only this: a support band was created in the city, with which presentations were made in the Cariri region.
Since 2004, in association with SESC- Ce,(social business service), SEBRAE,( Brazilian service support for small business) and the Via de Comunication production group, Jefferson gave many harmonica workshops and formed musical groups, he travelled to the Ceara cities of Sobral,Juazeiro do Norte, Crato, Iguatu, Fortaleza, Guaiuba, Maranguape, Guaramiranga, Piacatuba, Caucáia, São Gonçalo do Amarante, among others. In these cities he chose non-professional musicians and formed a band in every city. He taught musical theory and chose the repetoire of each band, organized the musical arrangements and travelled with these “new” musicians to Guaramiranga, where the bands played during the Jazz and Blues Festival, and today many of these musicians are professionals playing in their respective cities.
In 2005 he challenged himself for his second CD, “Northeast Connection – Greia Live”, recorded July 19, 2005, at the Theatre II of the Central Bank Cultural Center, Rio de Janeiro during the It ́s Bues Time project. Still in 2005, he participated in the first edition of the Brazil Harmonica Forum in Fortaleza, the only Brazilian event focusing on the harmonica which combines musical presentations with workshops, reaching all social classes, giving classes to children and teens of the Raimundo Fagner Foundation.
This same year, he returned to the United States for another series of shows, this time along side the guitarrist Big Gilson and the english singer The Wolf. The musicians performed in musical clubs considered essential for the blues and or jazz, like the Blue Note (New York), Deep Ellum Blues (Texas) and the Bamboo Room (Florida), among others. In 2007, he made his first european tour, sponsered by Hering Harmonicas. His first stop was Frankfurt Germany, at the largest musical instrument convention, the Musikmesse, where he officially released a line Hering Harmonicas with his signature and afterward, continued on to Spain where he performed along side guitarrist Big Gilson, in Madrid and Toledo.
In 2008 the musician performed with his band at the 9th edition of the Jazz and Blues Festival of Guarmiranga- Ceara, in march released his third solo CD: Pure Air (Blues Time Records) and in June he performed together with guitarrist Kleber Diaz at the Senegal Folk Festival, taking place in Dakar at the Verdure Theatre of the Leopold Sedar French Institute, an invitation made by the Brazilian Embassy in Senegal and the Senegal musical group, Les Freres Guisse; besides performing with the group, the duo presented to the Senegal public a mixture of blues and Brazilian northeast rhythms and songs from his Pure Air CD. The great sucess enabled the group to return to Senegal in 2009 and 2010, this time accompanied by the dancer, Juliana Longuinho with the Roots project, and besides the shows in the Hann park and Hann beach, Jefferson gave harmonica workshops for needy children in Dakar.
With all this experience obtained in hundreds of shows, recordings and workshops, Jefferson Gonçalves has been a reference for harmonica playing in Brazil.
http://www.jeffersongoncalves.com/#!english/c203a
Teto Preto - Jefferson Gonçalves e Banda
Jefferson Gonçalves - All Along The Watchtower
R.I.P.
Magic Slim +21.02.2013
Magic Slim (eigentlich Morris Holt; * 7. August 1937 in Torrence, Mississippi; † 21. Februar 2013 in Philadelphia) war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist, Sänger und Songschreiber. Mit seiner Band "The Teardrops" war er – neben Magic Sam – der bekannteste Vertreter des "West Side Chicago Blues".Ursprünglich spielte Magic Slim Klavier. Bei einem Unfall verlor er jedoch einen Finger und war daher dazu nicht mehr in der Lage. 1955 spielte er in Chicago einige Zeit in Robert Perkins Band "Mr. Pitiful & the Teardrops", bevor er nach Mississippi zurückkehrte.
1965 versuchte er es mit seinen Brüdern Nick und Lee Baby erneut in Chicago. Als "Magic Slim & the Teardrops" machten sie einige Aufnahmen und hatten beträchtlichen Erfolg. Der große Durchbruch gelang ihnen 1977 mit dem Album Born Under A Bad Sign.
Magic Slim & the Teardrops wurden 2000 mit dem Living Blues Award und 2003 mit einem Handy Award als Bluesband des Jahres ausgezeichnet. Insgesamt hat Magic Slim im Lauf seiner Karriere sechs Handy Awards gewonnen (Stand: 2006).
Morris Holt (August 7, 1937 – February 21, 2013), known as Magic Slim, was an American blues singer and guitarist.[1][2] Born at Torrance, near Grenada, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers, he followed blues greats such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf to Chicago, developing his own place in the Chicago blues scene.[3]
Biography
Magic Slim was forced to give up playing the piano when he lost his little finger in a cotton gin mishap.[4] He moved first to nearby Grenada.[5] He first came to Chicago in 1955 with his friend and mentor Magic Sam. The elder Magic (Sam) let the younger Magic (Slim) play bass with his band and gave him his nickname.[4]
At first Slim was not rated very highly by his peers.[6] He returned to Mississippi to work and got his younger brother Nick interested in playing bass. By 1965 he was back in Chicago and in 1970 Nick joined him in his group, the Teardrops.[6] They played in the dim, smoke-filled juke joints popular in Chicago in the 1970s on bandstands barely large enough to hold the band.[1]
Slim's recording career began in 1966 with the song "Scufflin'", followed by a number of singles into the mid 1970s. He recorded his first album in 1977, Born Under A Bad Sign, for the French MCM label. During the 1980s, Slim released titles on Alligator, Rooster Blues and Wolf Records and won his first W.C. Handy Award. In 1980 he recorded his cover version of "Mustang Sally".
In 1982, the guitarist John Primer joined the Teardrops and stayed and played for him for 13 years.[6] Releases include Spider in My Stew on Wolf Records, and a 1996 Blind Pig release called Scufflin', which presented the post-Primer line-up with the new addition of the guitarist and singer Jake Dawson.[6]
In 1994, Slim moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where the Zoo Bar had been booking him for years.[6] Slim was frequently accompanied by his son Shawn Holt, an accomplished guitarist and singer.
In 2003, Magic Slim and the Teardrops won the W.C. Handy Award as 'Blues Band Of The Year' for the sixth time. They released a live performance on CD and DVD in August 2005 entitled Anything Can Happen.[7]
Slim died at a hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 21, 2013 at age 75. He had health problems that had worsened while he was on tour several weeks earlier.[8] His manager had stated bleeding ulcers had sent Slim to the hospital, but that he also suffered from heart, lung and kidney problems.[8]
In May 2013, Magic Slim was posthumously awarded a Blues Music Award in the 'Traditional Blues Male Artist' category.
Biography
Magic Slim was forced to give up playing the piano when he lost his little finger in a cotton gin mishap.[4] He moved first to nearby Grenada.[5] He first came to Chicago in 1955 with his friend and mentor Magic Sam. The elder Magic (Sam) let the younger Magic (Slim) play bass with his band and gave him his nickname.[4]
At first Slim was not rated very highly by his peers.[6] He returned to Mississippi to work and got his younger brother Nick interested in playing bass. By 1965 he was back in Chicago and in 1970 Nick joined him in his group, the Teardrops.[6] They played in the dim, smoke-filled juke joints popular in Chicago in the 1970s on bandstands barely large enough to hold the band.[1]
Slim's recording career began in 1966 with the song "Scufflin'", followed by a number of singles into the mid 1970s. He recorded his first album in 1977, Born Under A Bad Sign, for the French MCM label. During the 1980s, Slim released titles on Alligator, Rooster Blues and Wolf Records and won his first W.C. Handy Award. In 1980 he recorded his cover version of "Mustang Sally".
In 1982, the guitarist John Primer joined the Teardrops and stayed and played for him for 13 years.[6] Releases include Spider in My Stew on Wolf Records, and a 1996 Blind Pig release called Scufflin', which presented the post-Primer line-up with the new addition of the guitarist and singer Jake Dawson.[6]
In 1994, Slim moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where the Zoo Bar had been booking him for years.[6] Slim was frequently accompanied by his son Shawn Holt, an accomplished guitarist and singer.
In 2003, Magic Slim and the Teardrops won the W.C. Handy Award as 'Blues Band Of The Year' for the sixth time. They released a live performance on CD and DVD in August 2005 entitled Anything Can Happen.[7]
Slim died at a hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 21, 2013 at age 75. He had health problems that had worsened while he was on tour several weeks earlier.[8] His manager had stated bleeding ulcers had sent Slim to the hospital, but that he also suffered from heart, lung and kidney problems.[8]
In May 2013, Magic Slim was posthumously awarded a Blues Music Award in the 'Traditional Blues Male Artist' category.
Magic Slim & The Teardrops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7ZaFdpTG8g
http://www.chron.com/entertainment/music/article/Legendary-Houston-bluesman-Calvin-Owens-dies-at-78-1760680.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7ZaFdpTG8g
Calvin Owens +21.02.2008
An inventive and creative trumpeter, bandleader, and composer/arranger, Calvin Owens spent many years as musical director with B.B. King's various touring bands. But beginning in the late '90s, he led his own bands and recorded under his own name. Born on April 23, 1929, Owens grew up in Houston's Fifth Ward neighborhood, also known as Sawdust Alley because of a nearby sawmill. He became interested in learning to play the trumpet after hearing his New Orleans-raised mother talk about Louis Armstrong. He worked at a local bowling alley to save enough money to buy his first trumpet. As a 13-year-old, he took his first few trumpet lessons, at 25 cents per lesson, from a local trumpeter, Charles "Papa Charlie" Lewis.
Fortunately, Owens had a conscientious band director in high school, Sammy Harris, who took a bright, ambitious student and suggested to the young Owens that one day he too could be a band director for a high-school band. Harris promoted Owens to student director of the high-school band. After he graduated from Wheatley High School and after several years of playing in Houston's then-lively blues club scene, Owens joined guitarist and bandleader B.B. King on his tour bus in 1953. He stayed on the road with King's orchestra for four years, returning to Houston with the idea that he would finish his college education at Texas Southern University. That didn't happen, and Owens was called back to working in the clubs -- the gigs were there -- and working in the local Maxwell House Coffee factory to support his family. His nights were free, so he could play music in clubs and keep his chops together while earning the income needed at the factory to raise a family. In 1978, Owens rejoined King's band and stayed on the road, 200 nights a year, until 1984.
When Owens began playing trumpet professionally in and around Houston, trumpeters were the soloists, not guitarists. It wasn't until he first joined King's band in 1953 that he played with a guitarist who would solo and became aware of that instrument's possibilities for carrying on solos and helping to lead a band. Aside from Armstrong, Owens frequently cited white trumpet player Harry James as a huge influence during his formative years, even though Owens was raised in Houston's predominantly African-American Fifth Ward. Because of James' prominence in motion pictures and Armstrong's appearances in films from time to time, both musicians offered a model of inspiration for then-teenager Owens. Aside from working with King, at various times throughout his long career Owens played trumpet with T-Bone Walker, Amos Milburn, Big Joe Turner, Junior Parker, Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, and Otis Clay. He also worked with a long line of virtuoso blues-based jazz musicians from Texas, including saxophonists Arnett Cobb and David "Fathead" Newman.
Another Concept
In the 1980s he started his own band and settled in Belgium, the home of his second wife. In 1997 he returned to his native Houston. There, he released his first album under his own name, Another Concept, which fused the blues with everything from jazz to rap music. Owens' recordings for his own Sawdust Alley label include True Blue, That's Your Booty, Another Concept, The Best of Calvin Owens, and The House Is Burning. Of the lot, True Blue is a fine introduction to Owens' vast repository of trumpet-playing ideas. The album includes contributions from King, Copeland, and Newman. "True Blue" was also the nickname that Cobb had given to Owens many years earlier, for his steadfast dedication to and creativity within the realm of blues trumpet. Despite being diagnosed with liver cancer in the mid '2000's, Owens continued to perform and record appearing with saxophonist Evelyn Rubio on her album La Mujer que Canta Blues and releasing his own disc Houston is the Place To Be in 2007. Ultimately, Owens passed away at age 78 from kidney failure in Houston on February 21, 2008.
Fortunately, Owens had a conscientious band director in high school, Sammy Harris, who took a bright, ambitious student and suggested to the young Owens that one day he too could be a band director for a high-school band. Harris promoted Owens to student director of the high-school band. After he graduated from Wheatley High School and after several years of playing in Houston's then-lively blues club scene, Owens joined guitarist and bandleader B.B. King on his tour bus in 1953. He stayed on the road with King's orchestra for four years, returning to Houston with the idea that he would finish his college education at Texas Southern University. That didn't happen, and Owens was called back to working in the clubs -- the gigs were there -- and working in the local Maxwell House Coffee factory to support his family. His nights were free, so he could play music in clubs and keep his chops together while earning the income needed at the factory to raise a family. In 1978, Owens rejoined King's band and stayed on the road, 200 nights a year, until 1984.
When Owens began playing trumpet professionally in and around Houston, trumpeters were the soloists, not guitarists. It wasn't until he first joined King's band in 1953 that he played with a guitarist who would solo and became aware of that instrument's possibilities for carrying on solos and helping to lead a band. Aside from Armstrong, Owens frequently cited white trumpet player Harry James as a huge influence during his formative years, even though Owens was raised in Houston's predominantly African-American Fifth Ward. Because of James' prominence in motion pictures and Armstrong's appearances in films from time to time, both musicians offered a model of inspiration for then-teenager Owens. Aside from working with King, at various times throughout his long career Owens played trumpet with T-Bone Walker, Amos Milburn, Big Joe Turner, Junior Parker, Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, and Otis Clay. He also worked with a long line of virtuoso blues-based jazz musicians from Texas, including saxophonists Arnett Cobb and David "Fathead" Newman.
Another Concept
In the 1980s he started his own band and settled in Belgium, the home of his second wife. In 1997 he returned to his native Houston. There, he released his first album under his own name, Another Concept, which fused the blues with everything from jazz to rap music. Owens' recordings for his own Sawdust Alley label include True Blue, That's Your Booty, Another Concept, The Best of Calvin Owens, and The House Is Burning. Of the lot, True Blue is a fine introduction to Owens' vast repository of trumpet-playing ideas. The album includes contributions from King, Copeland, and Newman. "True Blue" was also the nickname that Cobb had given to Owens many years earlier, for his steadfast dedication to and creativity within the realm of blues trumpet. Despite being diagnosed with liver cancer in the mid '2000's, Owens continued to perform and record appearing with saxophonist Evelyn Rubio on her album La Mujer que Canta Blues and releasing his own disc Houston is the Place To Be in 2007. Ultimately, Owens passed away at age 78 from kidney failure in Houston on February 21, 2008.
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