1922 Roy Dunn*
1943 Floyd Miles*
1944 Jack Casady*
1945 Lowell George*
1961 Roland Laschinger alias Doc Knotz *
1966 Marc Ford*
2005 Johnnie Johnson+
Gary Small*
1943 Floyd Miles*
1944 Jack Casady*
1945 Lowell George*
1961 Roland Laschinger alias Doc Knotz *
1966 Marc Ford*
2005 Johnnie Johnson+
Gary Small*
Happy Birthday
Jack Casady *13.04.1944
Jack Casady (* 13. April 1944 in Washington, D.C. als John William Casady) ist ein US-amerikanischer Blues- und Rockmusiker, Bassist der Bands Jefferson Airplane und Hot Tuna. Gelegentlich spielte er auch mit Grateful Dead oder Jimi Hendrix. Mit Hendrix kam es nicht nur zu gemeinsamen Konzertauftritten, Casady nahm auch an den Aufnahmesessions zu Electric Ladyland teil und ist dort auf dem bekannten Lied Voodoo Chile am Bass zu hören.[1] Casady gilt als einer der einflussreichsten Bassisten der Rockmusikgeschichte.
14-jährig lernte Casady Jorma Kaukonen kennen, mit dem er die Band The Triumphs gründete. Mit 16 Jahren spielte er zunächst als Gitarrist mit verschiedenen Bands in den Clubs rund um Washington. Im September 1965 lud ihn Kaukonen, der mittlerweile in Kalifornien studierte, ein, bei Jefferson Airplane den Bass zu spielen. Dort entwickelte er einen fließenden, melodiösen Stil des Bassspiels. Er galt als der beste Instrumentalist der Gruppe.
Im Jahr 1970 gründeten Casady und Kaukonen die Band Hot Tuna, mit der sie auch nach über 30 Jahren immer noch auf Tour sind. Außerdem war er an verschiedenen Bandprojekten von ehemaligen Jefferson Airplane-Musikern, wie Jefferson Starship oder der KBC Band beteiligt.[2]
2003 erschien unter dem Titel Dream Factor Casadys bislang einziges Soloalbum, auf dem bekannte Musiker wie Matt Abts, Doyle Bramhall II, Steve Gorman, Warren Haynes und Jorma Kaukonen mitwirkten.[3]
Jack Casady Signature Bass
Aufgrund seiner Bekanntheit schuf die Instrumentenbaufirma Epiphone ein eigenes Signature-Modell.[4] Es weist in der Bauart den von Casady bevorzugten Halbresonanzkörper auf.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Casady
John William "Jack" Casady (born April 13, 1944) is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C. area rhythm and blues band "The Triumphs", he switched to bass during his high school years and while still underage (and with a forged I.D.), played the Washington D.C club scene, backing artists such as Little Anthony and the Imperials and Ray Charles. He became the bass player for Jefferson Airplane when lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, a high school friend and former Triumphs rhythm guitarist, invited him to join in late September 1965. Jefferson Airplane became the first successful exponent of the San Francisco Sound. Their singles, including "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit," had a more polished style and successfully charted in 1967 and 1968. Casady, along with the other members of Jefferson Airplane, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
Early life
Casady was born in Washington D.C., the son of Mary Virginia (née Quimby) and William Robert Casady.[1] His father was of half Irish Protestant and half Polish Jewish ancestry.[2] His mother was a relative of aviator Harriet Quimby; some of her family had been in the U.S. since the 1600s.[3]
Jefferson Airplane years 1965–1972
Casady replaced original Jefferson Airplane bassist Bob Harvey in October 1965. Casady stepped beyond the conventional rhythmic and chord-supporting role of rock & roll, in order to explore other possible melodic ideas offered by the rhythm and chord progressions. His impact is immediately evident on Airplane debut album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966) on tracks such as "Let Me In" and "Run Around." The "Takes Off" LP quotes Marty Balin as saying "He carries it. He's been with James Brown and other groups and he knows." The live Airplane album Bless Its Pointed Little Head, recorded in 1968, demonstrates Casady's unique walking line style to the fullest, as his Guild Starfire bass signal was delivered through a Versatone amplifier which gave his instrument a distinctive growling sound when played in the higher register. The Fred Neil track "The Other Side of This Life" remains the quintessential example of his style. On later Airplane albums, such as Bark, Long John Silver and the live Thirty Seconds Over Winterland, Casady switched over to a $4,000 custom-made Alembic bass (#001, the first made by the company) dubbed "Mission Control." The extraordinarily grand sound Casady produced during his 1968-71 heyday—nowhere better heard than in his multi-tracked playing on "Sunrise," a song from Paul Kantner's 1970 solo album Blows Against the Empire—inspired fans to assign him the affectionate nickname of "God."
Other noteworthy Casady performances on Jefferson Airplane recordings include the seminal Top 10 hit "White Rabbit" (on the album Surrealistic Pillow, 1967), "Rejoyce" and "Watch Her Ride" (After Bathing at Baxter's, 1967), "Crown of Creation", "If You Feel" and "The House at Pooneil Corners" (Crown of Creation, 1968), and "Crazy Miranda" and "War Movie" (Bark, 1971). Several of these tracks are remarkable for their groundbreaking infusions of jazz and raga bass lines into the rock format. For years in live performance with the Airplane, Casady's showcase was the Paul Kantner composition "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," which gave the bassist the opportunity to improvise an open-ended solo that was different every night and often astonishing. The Fly Jefferson Airplane DVD includes one such performance videotaped at The Family Dog, where Casady pulls off a ragingly inventive solo that visibly impresses fellow band member Grace Slick. He was likewise adept at complementing the musicianship of his fellow players; the live version of "Volunteers" on the Woodstock album is a notable example of cooperating bass and keyboard rhythm with session pianist Nicky Hopkins.
Casady's appetite for playing led him to do extensive moonlighting during his Airplane tenure. Not only did he perform live on stage with Jimi Hendrix during 1968, he also played bass on the Jimi Hendrix song "Voodoo Chile", from the Electric Ladyland album released in the same year (some copies of album misspell his name as Cassidy). He also occasionally played with other key San Francisco bands Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish and James and the Good Brothers. Furthermore, he was a member of two short-lived splinter groups, Mickey and the Heartbeats (with Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart) and Jack Casady and the Degenerates, featuring friend from teen years Danny Gatton, as well as Jorma. Neither of these groups ever recorded, though live tapes are in circulation. Later, Casady was to appear on David Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember my Name" (1971), Roky Erickson's album "Don't Slander Me" (1982) and Warren Zevon's "Transverse City" (1989). He also produced Jorma Kaukonen's first solo album, the critically acclaimed "Quah", in 1975.
Hot Tuna
Casady and Kaukonen formed Hot Tuna in 1969, and they still perform to the present day. The group has morphed over the years from an acoustic blues unit to an electric boogie band to a rampaging metal act and back again. Casady is equally comfortable accompanying an acoustic Kaukonen ("Mann's Fate", 1970) or electric jamming ("John's Other", 1971). Casady's solo on "Candy Man" (Hot Tuna's First Pull Up, Then Pull Down, 1971) also shows his ability at carrying the melody rather than just playing rhythmic scales, a key characteristic of his bass solo work. Some exquisitely intricate playing is evident on the 1972 album Burgers, particularly the sparkling instrumental track "Water Song," which Casady has described as featuring "lead bass." Another Burgers track, " Sunny Day Strut", has Casady's bass dueling with Kaukonen's lead guitar. When Tuna became a power trio in the mid 70's, Casady's Guild Flying V custom bass became his trademark. Later works, especially Live in Japan (1997), still testify to his creativity as evidenced by the continually evolving bass solos on "Candy Man", "Good Shepherd" and "99 Year Blues".
SVT and The Yanks
In the late 1970s, Casady and Kaukonen found that they needed some creative time apart and Hot Tuna disbanded for several years. During this time, Casady helped found a modern rock band, SVT, with Brian Marnell, a promising songwriter and frontman, keyboardist Nick Buck, and drummer Bill Gibson, later replaced by Paul Zahl. Again, Casady's versatility was demonstrated as this band played in a convincing New Wave style, totally removed from Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane. During his SVT tenure, Casady actually taped his fingers together to force himself to simplify his highly articulated playing style. He and Zahl formed an exemplary rhythm section, as evidenced on the LP No Regrets (1981). After Marnell's death from a drug overdose Casady and Zahl continued the basic SVT sound with guitarist Jack Johnson and singer/songwriter/guitarist Owen Masterson in a band called The Yanks. Also during the 1980s, Casady joined former Airplane members Paul Kantner and Marty Balin in the KBC Band.
Jefferson Starship
In 1992, he joined Paul Kantner's recreated Jefferson Starship, and appeared on the albums Deep Space / Virgin Sky and Windows of Heaven. In 2000, Kantner used the name Jefferson Airplane against the terms of his 1985 settlement with Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, Bill Thompson, and Casady. Casady left Jefferson Starship after this incident. Casady appears with Kantner again on the 2008 Jefferson Starship release, Jefferson's Tree of Liberty from a track previously recorded for the German release of Windows of Heaven.[4]
Dream Factor
Not a singer and never a prolific songwriter, it was not until June 2003 that Casady released his first solo album, Dream Factor, produced by Greg Hampton and Casady. Like other Airplane-related solo works it featured substantial support from other players such as Warren Haynes, Doyle Bramhall II, Jorma Kaukonen, Fee Waybill, Ivan Neville, the group Box Set, and many other musician friends.
Currently, as well as performing with Hot Tuna, Casady teaches bass workshops at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch in Ohio.
Casady helped design, in conjunction with Epiphone, the "Jack Casady Signature Bass", a 34-inch scale hollow-body electric bass with single low-impedance humbucker pickup and a floating bridge. The instrument is based on Casady's mid-70s Gibson Les Paul Signature bass which he bought in the 1980s.
Moonalice
In 2007, Casady joined a new band, Moonalice, whose members include former Jefferson Starship bassist and Hot Tuna keyboardist Pete Sears, along with G. E. Smith, Barry Sless, Ann McNamee, Roger McNamee, and Jimmy Sanchez. The first Moonalice studio album was released in April 2009.
Early life
Casady was born in Washington D.C., the son of Mary Virginia (née Quimby) and William Robert Casady.[1] His father was of half Irish Protestant and half Polish Jewish ancestry.[2] His mother was a relative of aviator Harriet Quimby; some of her family had been in the U.S. since the 1600s.[3]
Jefferson Airplane years 1965–1972
Casady replaced original Jefferson Airplane bassist Bob Harvey in October 1965. Casady stepped beyond the conventional rhythmic and chord-supporting role of rock & roll, in order to explore other possible melodic ideas offered by the rhythm and chord progressions. His impact is immediately evident on Airplane debut album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966) on tracks such as "Let Me In" and "Run Around." The "Takes Off" LP quotes Marty Balin as saying "He carries it. He's been with James Brown and other groups and he knows." The live Airplane album Bless Its Pointed Little Head, recorded in 1968, demonstrates Casady's unique walking line style to the fullest, as his Guild Starfire bass signal was delivered through a Versatone amplifier which gave his instrument a distinctive growling sound when played in the higher register. The Fred Neil track "The Other Side of This Life" remains the quintessential example of his style. On later Airplane albums, such as Bark, Long John Silver and the live Thirty Seconds Over Winterland, Casady switched over to a $4,000 custom-made Alembic bass (#001, the first made by the company) dubbed "Mission Control." The extraordinarily grand sound Casady produced during his 1968-71 heyday—nowhere better heard than in his multi-tracked playing on "Sunrise," a song from Paul Kantner's 1970 solo album Blows Against the Empire—inspired fans to assign him the affectionate nickname of "God."
Other noteworthy Casady performances on Jefferson Airplane recordings include the seminal Top 10 hit "White Rabbit" (on the album Surrealistic Pillow, 1967), "Rejoyce" and "Watch Her Ride" (After Bathing at Baxter's, 1967), "Crown of Creation", "If You Feel" and "The House at Pooneil Corners" (Crown of Creation, 1968), and "Crazy Miranda" and "War Movie" (Bark, 1971). Several of these tracks are remarkable for their groundbreaking infusions of jazz and raga bass lines into the rock format. For years in live performance with the Airplane, Casady's showcase was the Paul Kantner composition "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," which gave the bassist the opportunity to improvise an open-ended solo that was different every night and often astonishing. The Fly Jefferson Airplane DVD includes one such performance videotaped at The Family Dog, where Casady pulls off a ragingly inventive solo that visibly impresses fellow band member Grace Slick. He was likewise adept at complementing the musicianship of his fellow players; the live version of "Volunteers" on the Woodstock album is a notable example of cooperating bass and keyboard rhythm with session pianist Nicky Hopkins.
Casady's appetite for playing led him to do extensive moonlighting during his Airplane tenure. Not only did he perform live on stage with Jimi Hendrix during 1968, he also played bass on the Jimi Hendrix song "Voodoo Chile", from the Electric Ladyland album released in the same year (some copies of album misspell his name as Cassidy). He also occasionally played with other key San Francisco bands Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish and James and the Good Brothers. Furthermore, he was a member of two short-lived splinter groups, Mickey and the Heartbeats (with Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart) and Jack Casady and the Degenerates, featuring friend from teen years Danny Gatton, as well as Jorma. Neither of these groups ever recorded, though live tapes are in circulation. Later, Casady was to appear on David Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember my Name" (1971), Roky Erickson's album "Don't Slander Me" (1982) and Warren Zevon's "Transverse City" (1989). He also produced Jorma Kaukonen's first solo album, the critically acclaimed "Quah", in 1975.
Hot Tuna
Casady and Kaukonen formed Hot Tuna in 1969, and they still perform to the present day. The group has morphed over the years from an acoustic blues unit to an electric boogie band to a rampaging metal act and back again. Casady is equally comfortable accompanying an acoustic Kaukonen ("Mann's Fate", 1970) or electric jamming ("John's Other", 1971). Casady's solo on "Candy Man" (Hot Tuna's First Pull Up, Then Pull Down, 1971) also shows his ability at carrying the melody rather than just playing rhythmic scales, a key characteristic of his bass solo work. Some exquisitely intricate playing is evident on the 1972 album Burgers, particularly the sparkling instrumental track "Water Song," which Casady has described as featuring "lead bass." Another Burgers track, " Sunny Day Strut", has Casady's bass dueling with Kaukonen's lead guitar. When Tuna became a power trio in the mid 70's, Casady's Guild Flying V custom bass became his trademark. Later works, especially Live in Japan (1997), still testify to his creativity as evidenced by the continually evolving bass solos on "Candy Man", "Good Shepherd" and "99 Year Blues".
SVT and The Yanks
In the late 1970s, Casady and Kaukonen found that they needed some creative time apart and Hot Tuna disbanded for several years. During this time, Casady helped found a modern rock band, SVT, with Brian Marnell, a promising songwriter and frontman, keyboardist Nick Buck, and drummer Bill Gibson, later replaced by Paul Zahl. Again, Casady's versatility was demonstrated as this band played in a convincing New Wave style, totally removed from Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane. During his SVT tenure, Casady actually taped his fingers together to force himself to simplify his highly articulated playing style. He and Zahl formed an exemplary rhythm section, as evidenced on the LP No Regrets (1981). After Marnell's death from a drug overdose Casady and Zahl continued the basic SVT sound with guitarist Jack Johnson and singer/songwriter/guitarist Owen Masterson in a band called The Yanks. Also during the 1980s, Casady joined former Airplane members Paul Kantner and Marty Balin in the KBC Band.
Jefferson Starship
In 1992, he joined Paul Kantner's recreated Jefferson Starship, and appeared on the albums Deep Space / Virgin Sky and Windows of Heaven. In 2000, Kantner used the name Jefferson Airplane against the terms of his 1985 settlement with Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, Bill Thompson, and Casady. Casady left Jefferson Starship after this incident. Casady appears with Kantner again on the 2008 Jefferson Starship release, Jefferson's Tree of Liberty from a track previously recorded for the German release of Windows of Heaven.[4]
Dream Factor
Not a singer and never a prolific songwriter, it was not until June 2003 that Casady released his first solo album, Dream Factor, produced by Greg Hampton and Casady. Like other Airplane-related solo works it featured substantial support from other players such as Warren Haynes, Doyle Bramhall II, Jorma Kaukonen, Fee Waybill, Ivan Neville, the group Box Set, and many other musician friends.
Currently, as well as performing with Hot Tuna, Casady teaches bass workshops at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch in Ohio.
Casady helped design, in conjunction with Epiphone, the "Jack Casady Signature Bass", a 34-inch scale hollow-body electric bass with single low-impedance humbucker pickup and a floating bridge. The instrument is based on Casady's mid-70s Gibson Les Paul Signature bass which he bought in the 1980s.
Moonalice
In 2007, Casady joined a new band, Moonalice, whose members include former Jefferson Starship bassist and Hot Tuna keyboardist Pete Sears, along with G. E. Smith, Barry Sless, Ann McNamee, Roger McNamee, and Jimmy Sanchez. The first Moonalice studio album was released in April 2009.
Gary Small *13.04.
Gary Small is an accomplished guitarist and vocalist, raised in the wilds of Montana and Wyoming now residing in Portland, OR. Small is a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe whose reservation resides in remote Southeast Montana to the east of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, (Remember the story of General Custer? The Cheyenne were the home team.). Small takes great pride in his heritage and talks of his roots proudly and with confidence.
Like renowned guitarists, Carlos Santana and B.B.King, Smalls guitar is the forefront to one of the most incredible percussion sections in the area. One need only look behind the wall of percussion to see the likes of former 12-year Santana drummer, Graham Lear, or how about former Joe Cocker conguero, Bobby Torres. Small's band is always loaded with heavy weight musicians and the sound definitely reflects it.
Few guitarists attempt the sultry guitar ballads of Carlos Santana yet Small displays the same emotion and drama of his famous mentor whether it be a Santana classic or one his own well-composed pieces. His roots rock and reggae material is thoroughly seeped in Bob Marley with Carlos sitting in on guitar. His blues tracks: B.B. King with the Fabulous Thunderbirds in the rhythm section. A Portlander is hard pressed to find room in any venue where Small's veteran musicians perform. A recent weekend at Portland's premier blues club, the Candlelight Lounge, was no exception for this incredibly solid group led by this long black-haired Indian man.
Small has aimed his interests as a solo artist with his first "Native Americana" cd release (not surprisingly) entitled "Wild Indians". Released in July of 2001, "Wild Indians" won the prestigious Nammy "Songwriter of the Year" award and nominated for : "Best Songwriter", "Best Male Performer", and "Best Blues/Jazz Recording" by the 2002 Native American Music Association.
Gary Small at MHBS Jam at Ziggies in Denver, Feb 23, 2014
Gary Small at the jam. Gary is a Native American blues artist from Sheridan, Wyoming. Excellent.
Roland Laschinger alias Doc Knotz *13.04.1961
Born in southern Germany at the 13th of 1961 he grew up in a small village close to Nuernberg. When hereached the age of eleven, his best friends gift was the first album of Bob Dylan “Studio” which he produced in 1965. Doc asked his father for allowness to use his “Plattenspieler” , it was a DUAL with speaker in the cover, a saphir-needle, and three bodies for volume, treble and bass. He handed the holy-record to his father, he put it on the turntable and started it to play. Doc was sitting in front of the speaker and listend to every tone comming out like god would send a personal message to him. Afterwards he said to his father:”Daddy, that`s what Iwant to do”.
One year later he bought his first guitar for about 20 deutschmark, it was a used Lindberg, and a little book with cords and started to play, without even knowing how to tune the instrument. From now on he was infected to play and sing everyday.
He grew up, and got into the spirit of blues, listened to Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins, Dave van Ronk, Memphis Slim and all the other guys of the szene and met up on christmas 1986 with “Thommy” Thomas Kasseckert, who was a very creative metal-lead-guitar player, and Matthias Hertlein, journalist for rock music at te regonal newspaper. At that evening Thommy and Doc had a blues-session together and while they been playing Matthias said the following words:”This has to be shown on stage!”. Two months later “Thommy & Knotz” had their first gig in an overfilled pub.
In 1989 they founded the band “ Okay Babe “ with Peter Heid on bass, Trevor Sidney at the piano, the drummer Wolfgang Heckel, on sax Georg Strauss and for the technic Barny Kreupl. They stand for powerful, creative bluesrock an produced one CD in 1989 “ practice of rehearsal”. The formation ended in 1991. After a lot of concerts the spirit of the band was gone and it was about time to set up a new way.
The new way was to proof himself as a solo artist, the platform for that experience was the street and small pubs. With his carrismatic and powerful voice added on the sound of a grooving rhythmguitar he was able to set a sign at the listening people, which stands for authentic blues out of his soul. After that time of finding himself and his place in music he said” You have to be on the street and show up what you are to know who you are and what it is all about.”
In 1998 he opened up the “Blues Haus” in Schwabach, it was an old house in a backyard of schwabach, the mainroom was about 36 squaremeters an 3.60 meters high and sounded sensational with its wooden floor. This place was made for being permanent creative and rised immediatly up to the hot spot of the regional music-scene. Workshops and sessions, practice and experiments had a place to develop, which ended in a new band “Doc Knotz 5”. The debut of the band was the cd “Kappadocia-Session” with Patrick Wirschnitzer on drums, Thomas Schönweiss on trompet,Christian Klos on bass and Jochen Pfister on piano. The following production was the cd “Soulkiss” in this formation with one change instead of the piano the Doc interdruced the famous lead guitar player Peter Ermer. This project was recorded on a beautiful place in the woods and is in its sound influenced by the spirit of this very magic place. The next project of “Doc Knotz 5” was not under a good star, during the recording the band split and very sad things happened during this three days. So far all the songs for this cd been written by the doc it was quiet important for him to get that thing on the road. It was the thick blood between the drummer Patrick Wirschnitzer and the doctor, which finally founded in the cd “freemind flavoured”, in a duo version, on drum/percussion Patrick and the doc guitar /vocals.
In 2005 he met up with Keili Keilhofer, who is an sologitarist with an experience of more than 40 years, he plays a very individual psychodelic bluesguitar style. He played the last ten years leadguitar on the side of Kevin Coyne, was on tour with Jack Bruce and member of the NC Brown Bluesband. Patrick, Doc and Keili were ready to creat a new form, a new sound of blues what they are doing is avantgarde with muscles and also untouched like a virgin. This works now since 9 years and get more and more exciting by inviting guests like Robert Stefan akkordeon, Achim Goettert Sax or Budde Thiem on piano.
If you want to get into that feeling watch the movie “B-flat” by Ina and Fabian Spang.
Doc Knotz - Blues vom Allerfeinsten
Doc Knotz (Gesang und Gitarre), Keili Keilhofer (Elektrische Gitarre)
und Udo Schwendler (Akkordeon, Bass, Blasinstrumente) am 6.7.2011 in
Göbelsbach bei Pfaffenhofen/Ilm
Floyd Miles *13.04.1943
Floyd Miles (born April 13, 1943) is an American electric blues and soul blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has released four solo albums since 1992.
Miles was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States.[2] He was the youngest of eleven children, and left home at the age of 15.[3]
His musical career really started when playing with the Universals, a soul band who were locally popular in the early 1960s.[1] At the time Miles was a singing drummer for the band, and he befriended both Gregg and Duane Allman who lived nearby and jammed with the band.[2][4]
After playing drums and singing with several other local outfits, Miles founded his own group who worked backing musicians such as Arthur Conley, Erma Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Eddie Floyd and Percy Sledge. Through his friendship of the Allman's, Miles moved on to supply guitar backing to Clarence Carter.[1][3] He later performed with the London Symphony Orchestra.[3]
His debut solo album was Crazy Man (1992), which included musical assistance from Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts.[5] Goin' Back to Daytona was released in 1994. Miles gained a higher national prominence when he played with the Gregg Allman & Friends ensemble on tour.[1]
His third album, Mountain to Climb (1999), was released by Beloved Records, and Miles' latest recording, Another Man Will, appeared in 2002.[1] The latter was produced by Roy Roberts.[6] Miles has performed at the Boundary Waters Blues Festival, and in both 1996 and 2009 at the Sarasota Blues Fest.
Marc Ford *13.04.1966
Marc Ford (* 13. April 1966 in Los Angeles, Kalifornien) ist ein US-amerikanischer Gitarrist, Sänger, Songschreiber und Produzent, der vor allem als Lead-Gitarrist der Black Crowes bekannt wurde.
Bandkarriere
Burning Tree
In den späten 1980er Jahren gründete Ford mit Mark „Muddy“ Dutton (Bass) und Doni Gray (Schlagzeug) das Blues-Rock Power Trio Burning Tree. Nachdem ihr Debüt-Album 1990 erschienen war, tourte die Band durch Amerika und war unter anderem Vorgruppe für die Black Crowes, deren ebenfalls 1990 veröffentlichtes Debüt $hake Your Money Maker den kommerziellen Erfolg erlangte, der Burning Tree versagt blieb.
The Black Crowes
Gelegentlich kam Marc Ford während der Konzerte der Black Crowes für ein bis zwei Lieder als Gastmusiker auf die Bühne. Als Jeff Cease, der bisherige Lead-Gitarrist der Black Crowes, die Band verließ, nahm Marc Ford das Angebot an, den vakanten Posten zu besetzen.
Nachdem Marc Ford seit 1992 als festes Bandmitglied auf zahlreichen Konzerten, drei regulären Studio-Alben sowie auf zwei später als The Lost Crowes veröffentlichten Sessions den Sound der Band entscheidend mitgeprägt hatte, wurde er 1997 gefeuert, angeblich weil sein Drogenkonsum die Auftritte der Band gefährdete. Fords Gegendarstellung, er wäre nicht der Einzige in der Band mit einem Drogenproblem, änderte an seinem Ausschluss nichts.
Verschiedene Engagements 1997 – 2003
Nachdem Ausstieg bei den Black Crowes gründete er seine eigene Band namens Marc Ford and the Uninvited, spielte Gastauftritte bei Gov’t Mule und schloss sich 1998 der Chris Stills Band an, die er im selben Jahr wieder verließ um mit Luther Russell die Band Federale zu gründen. Ein Plattenvertrag scheiterte daran, dass das interessierte Label Interscope Records von Universal gekauft wurde und Federale von diesem Majorlabel nicht weiter unterstützt wurde.
Im Jahr 2000 schloss er sich Blue Floyd, einer am Blues orientierten Pink-Floyd-Coverband, an, die aus den Gov’t-Mule-Mitgliedern Allen Woody (Bass, Gitarre) und Matt Abts (Schlagzeug) sowie Johnny Neel (Keyboard) und Berry Oakley Jr. (Bass) bestand.
Nach erfolgreichen Tourneen mit Blue Floyd beschloss Ford Ende 2001, sich wieder einer Solokarriere zu widmen. Er trat häufig mit seiner Band, zu der u. a. weiterhin Oakley Jr. gehörte, im Malibu Inn in Malibu nahe seiner Heimatstadt Los Angeles auf. Im Januar 2002 begrüßte er dort Chris Robinson, den Sänger der seit Ende 2001 getrennten Black Crowes, auf der Bühne, um mit ihm ein Akustikkonzert mit verschiedenen Coverstücken zu spielen.[1] Dieser Gig markierte die erste musikalische Zusammenarbeit mit Robinson seit Ford die Black Crowes verlassen musste. Zwei Wochen später kam es an gleicher Stelle zu einem ähnlichen Konzert.[2] Ford war außerdem Co-Autor des Liedes Sunday Sound, das auf Robinsons erstem Solo-Album New Earth Mud erschien, später trat er gelegentlich als Gastmusiker bei Robinsons neuer Band auf.
Unter dem Titel Marc Ford and The Sinners ging er wieder auf Tour, nahm zwischenzeitlich Titel für ein Soloalbum auf und spielte im Vorprogramm der Countrysängerin Lucinda Williams, die sich vergeblich bemühte, Fords Band einen Plattenvertrag zu vermitteln. Ford veröffentlichte schließlich sein erstes Soloalbum It’s About Time ohne Unterstützung einer großen Plattenfirma.
Ben Harper
Marc Ford nahm 2003 die Einladung an, sich Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals als Lead-Gitarrist anzuschließen, mit denen er bis Ende 2004 auf Tour ging. Dieses Engagement ist auf der EP Live at the Hollywood Bowl zu hören. Außerdem spielte Ford als Mitglied der Innocent Criminals mit Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama das Album There Will Be a Light ein und ist auf der Live-DVD/CD Live at the Apollo zu hören. Zugunsten einer anderen Band verließ Ford die Innocent Criminals Ende 2004, spielte jedoch erneut auf Harpers 2006 erschienenen Album Both Sides Of The Gun Gitarre.
TBC pt. II
Anfang 2005 verdichteten sich Gerüchte, dass sich die Black Crowes, die sich Ende 2001 auf unbestimmte Zeit getrennt (aber nicht aufgelöst) hatten, wieder vereinen würden. Zur großen Freude der Fans gehörte Marc Ford wieder zum Line-Up der Band, die sich im März 2005 mit fünf ausverkauften Shows im New Yorker Hammerstein Ballroom zurückmeldete. Bis August 2006 war die Band fast ununterbrochen auf Tour. Am 5. September 2006, zwei Tage vor Beginn ihrer Herbsttournee, erreichte die Band ein Fax von Fords Anwalt, in dem mitgeteilt wurde, dass Marc Ford nicht länger mit den Black Crowes spielen würde, weil er seine lange umkämpfte Nüchternheit nicht aufs Spiel setzen wollte.[3] Wenige Tage zuvor hatte bereits der Keyboarder Eddie Hawrysch die Black Crowes aufgrund von gesundheitlichen Problemen verlassen. Ford und Hawrysch wurden kurzfristig durch Paul Stacey und Rob Clores ersetzt.
Solokarriere und weitere Engagements
Marc Ford widmete sich nach dem Ausstieg aus den Black Crowes erneut einer Solokarriere, produzierte die Aufnahmen befreundeter Musiker und reformierte mit seinen alten Freunden Mark "Muddy" Dutton und Doni Gray die Band Burning Tree für drei Konzerte in einem Club in Hollywood. Mit den beiden Musikern und seinem Sohn Elijah als Gastgitarrist nahm Ford schließlich sein zweites Soloalbum Weary and Wired auf, das 2007 auch in Deutschland veröffentlicht wurde. In der Folge ging Ford mit seinem Sohn, Muddy und dem Schlagzeuger Dennis Morehouse auf Tour und spielte auch außerhalb der USA in Spanien, Deutschland, Holland und Russland.
2008 formierte Marc Ford mit Mike Malone als Keyboarder, Anthony Arvisu am Schlagzeug, Bill Barrett an der Mundharmonika und dem Bassisten John Bazz eine neue Band, mit der er im September das Album Marc Ford and the Neptune Blues Club veröffentlichte.
Im Frühling/Sommer 2009 gehörte Marc Ford zur Live-Band des Organisten Booker T. Jones.[4][5]
Ende November 2010 veröffentlichte Marc Ford das Album Fuzz Machine, das bereits 2007 nach der Tour mit Dutton, Morehouse und Fords Sohn Eliah eingespielt, aber zugunsten des Neptune Blues Club zunächst nicht veröffentlicht wurde.[6]
Marc Ford begann ab Mitte der 2000er Jahre zusätzlich zu seiner aktiven musikalischen Karriere immer mehr Aufnahmen verschiedener Bands aus dem Bereich Americana Rock als Produzent zu begleiten. Dabei spielte er auch immer wieder einzelne Gitarrenparts mit ein.[7]
Hierzu zählt auch die Produktion des 2012 erschienenen Albums The Pines der britischen Country-Soul-Band Phantom Limb.[8] Diese Gruppe fungierte auch als Backing Band für Fords nächstes Soloalbum Holy Ghost.[9] Im Rahmen einer Europatournee im Frühjahr 2014 kam Ford auch für zwei Konzerte nach Deutschland.[10]
Wissenswertes
Der Amerikanische Verstärkerhersteller Roccaforte hat ein Marc-Ford-Signature-Modell im Programm,[11] das Ford auf Konzerten benutzt. Bei dem Verstärker handelt es sich um ein modifiziertes Custom 80 Watt Modell, das mit EL34-Röhren in der Endstufe bestückt ist und laut Hersteller den "klassischen Ton" von britischen Verstärkern der 60er Jahre erzeugt. Die damit implizierte Nähe zu den frühen Modellen der Firma Marshall ist auch optisch erkennbar.[12]
Es ist inzwischen auch ein Marc Ford Signatur Model der Gitarrenfirma Bill Asher Guitars erschienen, das nach Fords eigener Aussage das beste einer Fender Stratocaster und einer Gibson Les Paul Junior vereinigen soll. Dabei verbindet diese Gitarre typische Stratocaster Eigenschaften, wie Ahornhals, Korpusform, Pickupwahlschalter und Tremolohebel mit typischen Les Paul Junior Attributen, wie Mahagoni als Korpusholz, P-90 Pickups und Kopfplattenform.[13]
Marc Ford ist nicht mit dem Bruder des Gitarristen Robben Ford zu verwechseln, der Mark heißt; er ist nicht mit den beiden Brüdern verwandt.
Marc Ford (born April 13, 1966), is an American blues-rock guitarist. He's a former lead guitarist of the rock and roll jam band The Black Crowes and the leader of his own bands: Burning Tree, Marc Ford & The Neptune Blues Club, Jefferson Steelflex, Fuzz Machine, Marc Ford & The Sinners.
History
Early life
Ford was born in Long Beach, California, United States.
Burning Tree
Ford began his career with the blues-rock outfit Burning Tree in the late 1980s. A power trio featuring Ford on guitars and vocals, Mark Dutton on bass and Doni Gray on drums, Burning Tree released their self-titled debut album on Epic Records in 1990. A commercial failure but a critical success, Burning Tree allowed Ford and Co. to tour extensively throughout most of 1990 and 1991. The band's career was cut short when Ford left to join The Black Crowes, whom Burning Tree had opened for on its first (and only) tour.[1]
The Black Crowes
In mid-1991, Marc Ford sat in a couple of times with The Black Crowes in-concert, performing The Allman Brothers Band's classic hit, "Dreams".[2][3] When The Black Crowes severed their relationship with their original guitarist Jeff Cease, Ford was asked to fill the vacancy, stepping into the lineup just in time for the band to record their 1992 sophomore album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. The album would go on to reach Number 1 on the Billboard charts and earn a double platinum certificate for sales. Ford would go on to perform on the next two Black Crowes releases, Amorica (1994) and Three Snakes and One Charm (1996) and is also credited for tracks from the band's two unreleased albums (1993's Tall and 1997's Band; later released together as The Lost Crowes). His addition to the Black Crowes sound, which consisted primarily of slide guitar and southern twang, helped define the band at the time. Ford's ability to adapt to core songwriter, Rich Robinson's music and crunchy rhythm guitar sound, solidified him and Robinson, as arguably, the preeminent guitar duo of the 1990s.[4]
Ford was dismissed from the Black Crowes in the Fall of 1997, following the band's stint on the summer-long Furthur Festival tour, leaving fans wondering what direction the Crowes might be headed. Black Crowes leaders Chris and Rich Robinson cited Ford's excessive drug use as the reason for his firing, a reason that was confirmed by the guitarist entering a rehab facility soon after his dismissal.[5]
Solo and collaborations
After his departure from The Black Crowes, Ford formed a solo band, Marc Ford and the Uninvited, and continued to make live appearances in the United States for the rest of the year. In 1998, Ford sat in numerous times with renowned jam band Gov't Mule before joining the Chris Stills Band for a summer tour. Upon the conclusion of that tour, Ford quit the Chris Stills Band to form Federale, a joint venture between himself and Luther Russell (who were eventually joined by drummer Jimi Bott and bassist Freddy Trujillo). The band gained attention from major label Interscope Records, and a record deal was almost immediately in the works. Federale toured briefly, opening for acts like Gov't Mule, but disbanded after Interscope Records was bought out by Universal Music Group and their commercial viability was called into question.
During 2000, Ford joined the Pink Floyd/blues jam/tribute band Blue Floyd, which originally featured Allen Woody (guitar, bass), Matt Abts (drums), Johnny Neel (keyboards) and Berry Oakley Jr. (bass). Providing their own bluesy take on Pink Floyd standards, Blue Floyd was a great success and allowed Ford to remain the public eye while he contemplated his next move.
Ford left Blue Floyd at the close of 2001, opting to again to go solo. In January 2002, during one of his many regular appearances at the Malibu Inn in Malibu, CA, Ford welcomed Chris Robinson to the stage for a set of obscure-yet-memorable covers. This performance marked the first time Ford and Robinson had performed with one another since Ford's dismissal from The Black Crowes nearly five years prior. Robinson again joined Ford at the Malibu Inn two weeks later, confirming that they had made amends. Ford even co-wrote "Sunday Sound," a track featured on Robinson's solo debut, New Earth Mud.[6]
Following his acoustic-based stint at the Malibu Inn, Ford decided to form a full-fledged electric band. Featuring fellow Blue Floyd member Berry Oakley Jr. (bass) and newcomers Gootch (drums) and Chris Joyner (keys), Marc Ford and The Sinners hit the road in early 2002. During the tour, Ford would often take time out (with and without The Sinners) to record tracks for his highly anticipated debut effort entitled ' It's About Time', which was released on Anko Records in the fall of 2002. In 2003, Marc Ford and The Sinners gained some helpful attention from country rock singer Lucinda Williams, who became somewhat of an ambassador for the group. She secured the band a deal with Lost Highway Records and Ford began finalizing his material for the sessions.
The Lost Highway deal did not come to be, however, as the band's representative at the label was fired and things subsequently fell through. The Sinners still had an opening slot on Lucinda Williams' ongoing tour, a slot that was fairly open-ended. Without a label backing them up, however, it was almost financially impossible for The Sinners to hit the road. Instead, Ford accepted an invitation to join Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, relegating The Sinners to an indefinite hiatus.
Ford toured with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals for the majority of 2003, from which their live EP Live at the Hollywood Bowl was drawn. Ford continued his association with Ben Harper and his band through the close of 2004, featuring on Harper's collaboration with The Blind Boys of Alabama, There Will Be a Light, when he was called to rejoin The Black Crowes for their "All Join Hands" reunion run.
Black Crowes reunion
After a three-year hiatus, the Robinson brothers reformed the Black Crowes in early 2005 for a series of gigs and (later) a new album. In March 2005, it was announced that Marc Ford would be returning to the lead guitar spot. Ford never severed his ties with Harper, however, appearing on his 2006 album Both Sides of the Gun and performing a handful of shows in support while an active member of The Black Crowes.
Ford toured with The Black Crowes through the Summer of 2006 and despite some new songs being debuted during live performances, no new studio material was released. On September 5, 2006, two days before he was due to hit the road for the fall leg of the ongoing Black Crowes reunion tour, Ford's lawyer notified the Black Crowes management via fax that, effective immediately, the guitarist would no longer be a member of the band.[7] The following day, Ford put out a press release announcing that he had left the Crowes in order to protect his hard-fought sobriety, and that he had recently produced albums for emerging artists The Pawnshop Kings and Ryan Bingham.
Ford confirmed in a November 2006 interview with Hittin' the Note magazine that he is contractually prohibited from discussing his time in the Black Crowes during the period of 2005-2006. In a later interview with the magazine, Ford revealed that this contractual limitation was "in perpetuity."
Solo again
Shortly after his sudden departure from The Black Crowes, Ford reunited with his Burning Tree bandmates for three gigs at The King King in Hollywood, CA. Following the impromptu dates, Ford enlisted Doni Gray to be his bandmate, along with Muddy and his son Elijah Ford, for a new studio album he had begun preproduction on. Touted by the guitarist as a more guitar-based recording, Weary and Wired was released March 13, 2007 on Shrapnel Records subdivision Blues Bureau. Coinciding with the release of Weary and Wired was Ford's feature interview on the cover of jam-band oriented music magazine Hittin' the Note (Issue #52).
Throughout 2007 Marc Ford hit the road in support of his new album, with bandmates Mark "Muddy" Dutton, Elijah Ford and new drummer Dennis Morehouse in tow. The tour found the band performing across the United States, as well as select dates in Spain, Germany, Russia and at a handful of European festivals. During later dates on the tour, Ford unveiled as many as six new songs, hinting at another album on the way. The tour continued through the end of 2007, upon which Ford took a short break.
Early in 2008, Ford played sporadic shows on the West Coast, some with his Fuzz Machine band and some with a new venture, Jefferson Steelflex. In addition, Ford and son Elijah joined Ryan Bingham for several dates on his tour, performing songs from the Ford-produced album Mescalito. Ford played slide guitar on Bingham's appearances on The Tonight Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the Summer, 2008.
Ford produced The Steepwater Band's next studio effort, an LP tentatively titled "Grace & Melody" released in November 2008, at Compound Studios in Signal Hill, CA (recording began the first week of May 2008).[8][9] Marc first met the Chicago-based power trio when their bands shared a festival bill in Bilbao, Spain (summer 2007). Ford joined the band on stage to jam on a pair of songs including a cover of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer", following a sit-in by his bandmate/son Elijah. The Steepwater Band's subsequently provided support for Ford's headlining gig at the Double Door in Chicago on July 26, 2007; this time Jeff Massey and Tod Bowers (of The Steepwater Band's) joined Ford's band for their encore. Soon after Ford approached the trio about producing their next effort.
In early August 2008, it was announced (via his record label) that Ford's new record would be available online and in stores on September 23, 2008.[10] Entitled Marc Ford and the Neptune Blues Club, the record features entirely new material performed by the newest incarnation of Ford's band The Neptune Blues Club (himself on guitars and vocals, Mike Malone on keyboards and vocals, Anthony Arvizu on drums, Bill Barrett on harmonica and John Bazz on upright bass). This latest version of his band is a slight reconfiguration of the Jefferson Steelflex band, which performed earlier in the year prior to Ford's short stint with Ryan Bingham.
During the latter part of 2008, Marc Ford took up playing lead guitar at the Vineyard Community Church in Laguna Niguel, California. Via that gig, He produced and contributed guitar work to Vineyard Music artist Chris Lizotte's album, "Signal Hill Revival." The album saw release in early 2009. Ford's association with both the church and Lizotte continues to the present day.
In early 2009, it was rumored that The Neptune Blues Club was working on its second record at Compound Studios. However, Ford's deal with Shrapnel Records' subsidiary Blues Bureau had expired after 2008's Neptune Blues Club and by mid-2009 it seemed that The Neptune Blues Club had expired with it. One sole track from the sessions, "Shalomar Dreams,"[11] was released via online distributor BandCamp.com and it remains the only material released from the second album sessions to date.
In May 2009, it was revealed that Ford would be joining the touring band for blues artist Booker T. Jones (of Booker T. & the MG's fame). Ford has been confirmed as the guitarist for June through September 2009.[12]
In the Fall of 2009, Ford launched a download site to showcase and facilitate the sale of his archive of soundboard recordings from his solo work. The shows released thus far focus entirely on The Neptune Blues Club. It is unclear if the site will cover other eras of Ford's solo career.
In February 2010, Ford released his fourth studio album, Fuzz Machine, featuring material recorded while on a touring break in the Fall of 2007 with the band of the same name. The album's release coincided with Ford's mini-tour of Spain, on which he utilized The Steepwater Band as his backing band. The tour prompted the launch of a new website for Ford, the central theme of which is based around the Fuzz Machine recording. The album was exclusively available at all of Ford's performances on the mini-tour, followed by an online distribution in November.
Recent
After producing Phantom Limb's The Pines album, he asked the band to return the favour by backing for his own next solo project. Ford has now sided with the Naim record label in the UK to release his next album, Holy Ghost on 14 April 2014. Ford recently announced the new album in Country Music magazine, where he discussed his story towards the new album.
History
Early life
Ford was born in Long Beach, California, United States.
Burning Tree
Ford began his career with the blues-rock outfit Burning Tree in the late 1980s. A power trio featuring Ford on guitars and vocals, Mark Dutton on bass and Doni Gray on drums, Burning Tree released their self-titled debut album on Epic Records in 1990. A commercial failure but a critical success, Burning Tree allowed Ford and Co. to tour extensively throughout most of 1990 and 1991. The band's career was cut short when Ford left to join The Black Crowes, whom Burning Tree had opened for on its first (and only) tour.[1]
The Black Crowes
In mid-1991, Marc Ford sat in a couple of times with The Black Crowes in-concert, performing The Allman Brothers Band's classic hit, "Dreams".[2][3] When The Black Crowes severed their relationship with their original guitarist Jeff Cease, Ford was asked to fill the vacancy, stepping into the lineup just in time for the band to record their 1992 sophomore album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. The album would go on to reach Number 1 on the Billboard charts and earn a double platinum certificate for sales. Ford would go on to perform on the next two Black Crowes releases, Amorica (1994) and Three Snakes and One Charm (1996) and is also credited for tracks from the band's two unreleased albums (1993's Tall and 1997's Band; later released together as The Lost Crowes). His addition to the Black Crowes sound, which consisted primarily of slide guitar and southern twang, helped define the band at the time. Ford's ability to adapt to core songwriter, Rich Robinson's music and crunchy rhythm guitar sound, solidified him and Robinson, as arguably, the preeminent guitar duo of the 1990s.[4]
Ford was dismissed from the Black Crowes in the Fall of 1997, following the band's stint on the summer-long Furthur Festival tour, leaving fans wondering what direction the Crowes might be headed. Black Crowes leaders Chris and Rich Robinson cited Ford's excessive drug use as the reason for his firing, a reason that was confirmed by the guitarist entering a rehab facility soon after his dismissal.[5]
Solo and collaborations
After his departure from The Black Crowes, Ford formed a solo band, Marc Ford and the Uninvited, and continued to make live appearances in the United States for the rest of the year. In 1998, Ford sat in numerous times with renowned jam band Gov't Mule before joining the Chris Stills Band for a summer tour. Upon the conclusion of that tour, Ford quit the Chris Stills Band to form Federale, a joint venture between himself and Luther Russell (who were eventually joined by drummer Jimi Bott and bassist Freddy Trujillo). The band gained attention from major label Interscope Records, and a record deal was almost immediately in the works. Federale toured briefly, opening for acts like Gov't Mule, but disbanded after Interscope Records was bought out by Universal Music Group and their commercial viability was called into question.
During 2000, Ford joined the Pink Floyd/blues jam/tribute band Blue Floyd, which originally featured Allen Woody (guitar, bass), Matt Abts (drums), Johnny Neel (keyboards) and Berry Oakley Jr. (bass). Providing their own bluesy take on Pink Floyd standards, Blue Floyd was a great success and allowed Ford to remain the public eye while he contemplated his next move.
Ford left Blue Floyd at the close of 2001, opting to again to go solo. In January 2002, during one of his many regular appearances at the Malibu Inn in Malibu, CA, Ford welcomed Chris Robinson to the stage for a set of obscure-yet-memorable covers. This performance marked the first time Ford and Robinson had performed with one another since Ford's dismissal from The Black Crowes nearly five years prior. Robinson again joined Ford at the Malibu Inn two weeks later, confirming that they had made amends. Ford even co-wrote "Sunday Sound," a track featured on Robinson's solo debut, New Earth Mud.[6]
Following his acoustic-based stint at the Malibu Inn, Ford decided to form a full-fledged electric band. Featuring fellow Blue Floyd member Berry Oakley Jr. (bass) and newcomers Gootch (drums) and Chris Joyner (keys), Marc Ford and The Sinners hit the road in early 2002. During the tour, Ford would often take time out (with and without The Sinners) to record tracks for his highly anticipated debut effort entitled ' It's About Time', which was released on Anko Records in the fall of 2002. In 2003, Marc Ford and The Sinners gained some helpful attention from country rock singer Lucinda Williams, who became somewhat of an ambassador for the group. She secured the band a deal with Lost Highway Records and Ford began finalizing his material for the sessions.
The Lost Highway deal did not come to be, however, as the band's representative at the label was fired and things subsequently fell through. The Sinners still had an opening slot on Lucinda Williams' ongoing tour, a slot that was fairly open-ended. Without a label backing them up, however, it was almost financially impossible for The Sinners to hit the road. Instead, Ford accepted an invitation to join Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, relegating The Sinners to an indefinite hiatus.
Ford toured with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals for the majority of 2003, from which their live EP Live at the Hollywood Bowl was drawn. Ford continued his association with Ben Harper and his band through the close of 2004, featuring on Harper's collaboration with The Blind Boys of Alabama, There Will Be a Light, when he was called to rejoin The Black Crowes for their "All Join Hands" reunion run.
Black Crowes reunion
After a three-year hiatus, the Robinson brothers reformed the Black Crowes in early 2005 for a series of gigs and (later) a new album. In March 2005, it was announced that Marc Ford would be returning to the lead guitar spot. Ford never severed his ties with Harper, however, appearing on his 2006 album Both Sides of the Gun and performing a handful of shows in support while an active member of The Black Crowes.
Ford toured with The Black Crowes through the Summer of 2006 and despite some new songs being debuted during live performances, no new studio material was released. On September 5, 2006, two days before he was due to hit the road for the fall leg of the ongoing Black Crowes reunion tour, Ford's lawyer notified the Black Crowes management via fax that, effective immediately, the guitarist would no longer be a member of the band.[7] The following day, Ford put out a press release announcing that he had left the Crowes in order to protect his hard-fought sobriety, and that he had recently produced albums for emerging artists The Pawnshop Kings and Ryan Bingham.
Ford confirmed in a November 2006 interview with Hittin' the Note magazine that he is contractually prohibited from discussing his time in the Black Crowes during the period of 2005-2006. In a later interview with the magazine, Ford revealed that this contractual limitation was "in perpetuity."
Solo again
Shortly after his sudden departure from The Black Crowes, Ford reunited with his Burning Tree bandmates for three gigs at The King King in Hollywood, CA. Following the impromptu dates, Ford enlisted Doni Gray to be his bandmate, along with Muddy and his son Elijah Ford, for a new studio album he had begun preproduction on. Touted by the guitarist as a more guitar-based recording, Weary and Wired was released March 13, 2007 on Shrapnel Records subdivision Blues Bureau. Coinciding with the release of Weary and Wired was Ford's feature interview on the cover of jam-band oriented music magazine Hittin' the Note (Issue #52).
Throughout 2007 Marc Ford hit the road in support of his new album, with bandmates Mark "Muddy" Dutton, Elijah Ford and new drummer Dennis Morehouse in tow. The tour found the band performing across the United States, as well as select dates in Spain, Germany, Russia and at a handful of European festivals. During later dates on the tour, Ford unveiled as many as six new songs, hinting at another album on the way. The tour continued through the end of 2007, upon which Ford took a short break.
Early in 2008, Ford played sporadic shows on the West Coast, some with his Fuzz Machine band and some with a new venture, Jefferson Steelflex. In addition, Ford and son Elijah joined Ryan Bingham for several dates on his tour, performing songs from the Ford-produced album Mescalito. Ford played slide guitar on Bingham's appearances on The Tonight Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the Summer, 2008.
Ford produced The Steepwater Band's next studio effort, an LP tentatively titled "Grace & Melody" released in November 2008, at Compound Studios in Signal Hill, CA (recording began the first week of May 2008).[8][9] Marc first met the Chicago-based power trio when their bands shared a festival bill in Bilbao, Spain (summer 2007). Ford joined the band on stage to jam on a pair of songs including a cover of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer", following a sit-in by his bandmate/son Elijah. The Steepwater Band's subsequently provided support for Ford's headlining gig at the Double Door in Chicago on July 26, 2007; this time Jeff Massey and Tod Bowers (of The Steepwater Band's) joined Ford's band for their encore. Soon after Ford approached the trio about producing their next effort.
In early August 2008, it was announced (via his record label) that Ford's new record would be available online and in stores on September 23, 2008.[10] Entitled Marc Ford and the Neptune Blues Club, the record features entirely new material performed by the newest incarnation of Ford's band The Neptune Blues Club (himself on guitars and vocals, Mike Malone on keyboards and vocals, Anthony Arvizu on drums, Bill Barrett on harmonica and John Bazz on upright bass). This latest version of his band is a slight reconfiguration of the Jefferson Steelflex band, which performed earlier in the year prior to Ford's short stint with Ryan Bingham.
During the latter part of 2008, Marc Ford took up playing lead guitar at the Vineyard Community Church in Laguna Niguel, California. Via that gig, He produced and contributed guitar work to Vineyard Music artist Chris Lizotte's album, "Signal Hill Revival." The album saw release in early 2009. Ford's association with both the church and Lizotte continues to the present day.
In early 2009, it was rumored that The Neptune Blues Club was working on its second record at Compound Studios. However, Ford's deal with Shrapnel Records' subsidiary Blues Bureau had expired after 2008's Neptune Blues Club and by mid-2009 it seemed that The Neptune Blues Club had expired with it. One sole track from the sessions, "Shalomar Dreams,"[11] was released via online distributor BandCamp.com and it remains the only material released from the second album sessions to date.
In May 2009, it was revealed that Ford would be joining the touring band for blues artist Booker T. Jones (of Booker T. & the MG's fame). Ford has been confirmed as the guitarist for June through September 2009.[12]
In the Fall of 2009, Ford launched a download site to showcase and facilitate the sale of his archive of soundboard recordings from his solo work. The shows released thus far focus entirely on The Neptune Blues Club. It is unclear if the site will cover other eras of Ford's solo career.
In February 2010, Ford released his fourth studio album, Fuzz Machine, featuring material recorded while on a touring break in the Fall of 2007 with the band of the same name. The album's release coincided with Ford's mini-tour of Spain, on which he utilized The Steepwater Band as his backing band. The tour prompted the launch of a new website for Ford, the central theme of which is based around the Fuzz Machine recording. The album was exclusively available at all of Ford's performances on the mini-tour, followed by an online distribution in November.
Recent
After producing Phantom Limb's The Pines album, he asked the band to return the favour by backing for his own next solo project. Ford has now sided with the Naim record label in the UK to release his next album, Holy Ghost on 14 April 2014. Ford recently announced the new album in Country Music magazine, where he discussed his story towards the new album.
Marc Ford Band
Marc Ford Family & Friends - The Wayfarer 12-17-15
Lowell George *13.04.1945
Lowell George (* 13. April 1945 in Los Angeles, Kalifornien; † 29. Juni 1979 in Arlington, Virginia) war ein amerikanischer Musiker (Gesang, Gitarre, Mundharmonika, Flöte, Shakuhachi).
1966 spielte er bei der Folk-Rock-Band The Factory, mit der er das von Frank Zappa produzierte Demo Lightning Rod Man aufnahm, das erst 1993 veröffentlicht wurde.[1] Aus The Factory entwickelte sich die Gruppe The Fraternity of Man, bei der George nie festes Mitglied war, mit der er jedoch zusammenspielte. Zwei Monate war er Leadsänger der Standells.
1968 schloss er sich den Mothers of Invention als Ersatz für Ray Collins an, zunächst als Sänger, später spielte er zunehmend Rhythmusgitarre.[2] Er ist beispielsweise auf Hot Rats zu hören.[3] In dieser Zeit schrieb er viele Songs. Truck Stop Girl, ein Song aus dieser Zeit, wurde unter anderem von den Byrds gecovert. Dadurch bekam er einen Plattenvertrag bei Warner Brothers. 1969 entstand seine Band Little Feat, benannt nach einer Bemerkung von Jimmy Carl Black über Georges Fußgröße.[4] Die Band war in den 1970er Jahren sehr populär und bekam sehr gute Kritiken, vor allem auch dank Georges Gesang und Slide-Gitarren-Spiel. Zwischendurch betätigte sich George als Studiomusiker, zum Beispiel für Maria Muldaur, Robert Palmer, Linda Ronstadt, John Sebastian, Bonnie Raitt, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman, Jackson Browne und James Taylor. 1977 musste er sich einer Entziehungskur unterziehen, um von seiner Kokainsucht loszukommen.
1978 war George Produzent des Albums Shakedown Street von Grateful Dead. 1979 kehrte er Little Feat den Rücken, um sich einer Solo-Karriere zu widmen. Noch im gleichen Jahr erschien sein einziges Solo-Werk Thanks I’ll Eat It Here, mit dem er noch auf Tournee ging.
Am 29. Juni 1979 starb der an Hepatitis und starkem Übergewicht leidende Lowell George in Arlington, Virginia an einem Herzinfarkt. Seine Asche wurde ins Meer gestreut.
1997 erschien das Lowell George Tribute Album Rock and Roll Doctor, auf dem unter anderem Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, Taj Mahal, Randy Newman und Jackson Browne spielen.
Lowell Thomas George (April 13, 1945 – June 29, 1979) was an American songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, who was the primary guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the rock band Little Feat.[1]
Biography
Lowell George was born in Hollywood, California, the son of Willard H. George, a furrier who raised chinchillas and supplied furs to the movie studios.
George's first instrument was the harmonica. At the age of six he appeared on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour performing a duet with his older brother, Hampton. As a student at Hollywood High School (where he befriended Paul Barrere and future wife Elizabeth), he took up the flute in the school marching band and orchestra. He had already started to play Hampton's acoustic guitar at age 11, progressed to the electric guitar by his high school years, and later learned to play the saxophone, shakuhachi and sitar. During this period, George viewed the teen idol-oriented rock and roll of the era with contempt, instead favoring West Coast jazz and the soul jazz of Les McCann & Mose Allison. Following graduation in 1963, he briefly worked at a gas station (an experience that inspired such later songs as "Willin'") to support himself while studying art and art history at Los Angeles Valley College for two years.
He married Elizabeth George, with whom he had a daughter, Inara George, who is half of the musical duo The Bird and the Bee. George died just before Inara's fifth birthday.
Musical career
Initially funded by the sale of his grandfather's stock, George's first band The Factory formed in 1965 and released at least one single on the Uni Records label, "Smile, Let Your Life Begin" (co-written by George). Members included future Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward (who replaced Dallas Taylor in September 1966), Martin Kibbee (a.k.a. Fred Martin) who would later co-write several Little Feat songs with George (including "Dixie Chicken" and "Rock and Roll Doctor"), and Warren Klein on guitar. Frank Zappa produced two tracks for the band, but they were not released until 1993 on the album Lightning-Rod Man, credited to Lowell George and The Factory.[2] The band made an appearance on the 1960s sitcom F Troop as "The Bed Bugs". They were also featured in an episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., "Lost, the Colonel's Daughter" (season 3, episode 27). They appeared in the scene inside the A-Go-Go club, with their music heard playing loudly. They received credits at the end of the episode as "'The Factory' Lowell-Warren-Martin-Rich, Courtesy of Universal Records".
Following the disbanding of The Factory, George briefly joined The Standells. In November 1968, George joined Zappa's Mothers of Invention as rhythm guitarist and nominal lead vocalist; he can be heard on both Weasels Ripped My Flesh and the first disc of You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5. During this period, he absorbed Zappa's autocratic leadership style and avant garde-influenced conceptual/procedural-oriented compositional methods. He earned his first production credit (in conjunction with Zappa and Russ Titelman) on Permanent Damage, an album recorded by "groupie group" The GTOs. George later asserted that "he performed no real function in the band" and left the group in May 1969 under nebulous circumstances. GTOs member Pamela Des Barres has claimed that George was fired by the abstemious Zappa for smoking marijuana, while he claimed at a 1975 Little Feat concert that he was fired because he "wrote a song ["Willin'"] about dope."[3] On the contrary, biographer Mark Brend asserts that Zappa "liked the song" but "thought there was no place for it in the Mothers' set"; George himself alternatively claimed that "it was decided that I should leave and form a band" by mutual agreement.
George's electric slide guitar skills are also featured on Bonnie Raitt's Takin' My Time (Warner Bros. 1973) album on tracks, "I Feel the Same" and "Guilty".
Little Feat
After leaving the Mothers of Invention, George invited fellow musicians to form a new band, which they named Little Feat. George usually (but not always) played lead guitar and focused on slide guitar. Ry Cooder played the slide on the debut Little Feat album after George badly injured his hand while working on a powered model airplane, although George re-recorded some of his material. Mark Brend wrote that George's "use of compression defined his sound and gave him the means to play his extended melodic lines."[4]
When not working with Little Feat, George lent his talents as a session player. George played guitar on John Cale's 1973 album Paris 1919, Harry Nilsson's Son of Schmilsson album (Take 54) and (uncredited but verified by Leo Nocentelli[citation needed]) the Meters' Just Kissed My Baby in 1974, and on John Sebastian's Tarzana Kid. In 1976 he played on Jackson Browne's The Pretender. Also with the Meters, George's slide work features prominently on Robert Palmer's first solo studio album, Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley recorded in New Orleans in 1974. Palmers's follow up record, 1975's "Pressure Drop" was produced by Steve Smith, with Lowell, and Little Feat as the core band on the sessions. The previous information displayed here, that Robert Palmer kept the producer's credit because of a dispute between his label, Island, and Warners, is totally incorrect. This reporter personally asked Lowell George who produced "Pressure Drop" in November 1975 and he replied it was Steve Smith. So any later information that calls into question this fact, i.e: "Later CDs list Steve Smith as producer (Joe Smith was chairman of WB)" are simply incorrect after the fact. Upon the record's release, the band and Palmer embarked on the tour that resulted in the recordings that made Feat famous. While, however great the Pressure Drop LP is, Palmer's career languished. By the spring of 1976, Little Feat were touring North America opening for The Who.[5]
In the 1970s, Little Feat released a stream of studio albums: Little Feat, Sailin' Shoes, Dixie Chicken, Feats Don't Fail Me Now, The Last Record Album, and Time Loves a Hero. The group's 1978 live album Waiting for Columbus became their best-selling album.
Tensions within the group, especially between George and Payne and, to a lesser extent, Barrère, regarding musical direction and leadership led to Payne and Barrère's departure from the group in 1979 and the group's subsequent disbandment. In an interview with Bill Flanagan conducted eleven days before his death, George stated that he was keen to re-form Little Feat without Payne and Barrère in order to reassert his full control over the group.[6]
George was also a producer, and produced the Grateful Dead's 1978 album Shakedown Street, as well as Little Feat's records and his own 1979 solo album Thanks, I'll Eat It Here; he also co-produced a couple of tracks on Valerie Carter's 1977 release Just A Stone's Throw Away.
Death
On June 15, 1979, George began a tour in support of his solo album. On June 29, 1979, the morning after an appearance at Washington, D.C.'s Lisner Auditorium where the bulk of Waiting for Columbus had been recorded, George collapsed and died of a heroin overdose in his Arlington, Virginia, hotel room at the Twin Bridges Marriott. George's body was cremated in Washington, D.C., on August 2. His ashes were flown back to Los Angeles, where they were scattered from his fishing boat into the Pacific Ocean.[7][8][9]
Posthumous tributes and cover songs
- A benefit concert for George's family was held shortly after his death at the Forum in Los
Angeles on August 4, 1979, featuring Little Feat, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou
Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Nicolette Larson and others.[10]
- The song "Ride Like the Wind" on the 1980 self-titled album by Christopher Cross was
dedicated to Lowell George.
- Jackson Browne memorialized George in his song "Of Missing Persons",[11] on his 1980
Hold Out album. The song was dedicated to George's daughter, Inara George who is part of
the musical duo The Bird and the Bee. Browne famously described George as "the Orson
Welles of rock".[12]
- In 1983 the British poet Sean O'Brien included a poem "For Lowell George" in his collection,
The Indoor Park.
- In 1988 American rock band Van Halen covered "A Apolitical Blues" as the closing track for
their album OU812.
- In 1997 the CD Rock-n-Roll Doctor – A Tribute To Lowell George was released featuring
various artists performing versions of George's songs, including Jackson Browne, J. D.
Souther, Bonnie Raitt, Eddie Money, Randy Newman, Keisuke Kuwata, and Inara George.
- Chris and Rich Robinson covered "Roll Um Easy" on their 2007 album Brothers of a Feather:
Live at the Roxy.
Biography
Lowell George was born in Hollywood, California, the son of Willard H. George, a furrier who raised chinchillas and supplied furs to the movie studios.
George's first instrument was the harmonica. At the age of six he appeared on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour performing a duet with his older brother, Hampton. As a student at Hollywood High School (where he befriended Paul Barrere and future wife Elizabeth), he took up the flute in the school marching band and orchestra. He had already started to play Hampton's acoustic guitar at age 11, progressed to the electric guitar by his high school years, and later learned to play the saxophone, shakuhachi and sitar. During this period, George viewed the teen idol-oriented rock and roll of the era with contempt, instead favoring West Coast jazz and the soul jazz of Les McCann & Mose Allison. Following graduation in 1963, he briefly worked at a gas station (an experience that inspired such later songs as "Willin'") to support himself while studying art and art history at Los Angeles Valley College for two years.
He married Elizabeth George, with whom he had a daughter, Inara George, who is half of the musical duo The Bird and the Bee. George died just before Inara's fifth birthday.
Musical career
Initially funded by the sale of his grandfather's stock, George's first band The Factory formed in 1965 and released at least one single on the Uni Records label, "Smile, Let Your Life Begin" (co-written by George). Members included future Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward (who replaced Dallas Taylor in September 1966), Martin Kibbee (a.k.a. Fred Martin) who would later co-write several Little Feat songs with George (including "Dixie Chicken" and "Rock and Roll Doctor"), and Warren Klein on guitar. Frank Zappa produced two tracks for the band, but they were not released until 1993 on the album Lightning-Rod Man, credited to Lowell George and The Factory.[2] The band made an appearance on the 1960s sitcom F Troop as "The Bed Bugs". They were also featured in an episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., "Lost, the Colonel's Daughter" (season 3, episode 27). They appeared in the scene inside the A-Go-Go club, with their music heard playing loudly. They received credits at the end of the episode as "'The Factory' Lowell-Warren-Martin-Rich, Courtesy of Universal Records".
Following the disbanding of The Factory, George briefly joined The Standells. In November 1968, George joined Zappa's Mothers of Invention as rhythm guitarist and nominal lead vocalist; he can be heard on both Weasels Ripped My Flesh and the first disc of You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5. During this period, he absorbed Zappa's autocratic leadership style and avant garde-influenced conceptual/procedural-oriented compositional methods. He earned his first production credit (in conjunction with Zappa and Russ Titelman) on Permanent Damage, an album recorded by "groupie group" The GTOs. George later asserted that "he performed no real function in the band" and left the group in May 1969 under nebulous circumstances. GTOs member Pamela Des Barres has claimed that George was fired by the abstemious Zappa for smoking marijuana, while he claimed at a 1975 Little Feat concert that he was fired because he "wrote a song ["Willin'"] about dope."[3] On the contrary, biographer Mark Brend asserts that Zappa "liked the song" but "thought there was no place for it in the Mothers' set"; George himself alternatively claimed that "it was decided that I should leave and form a band" by mutual agreement.
George's electric slide guitar skills are also featured on Bonnie Raitt's Takin' My Time (Warner Bros. 1973) album on tracks, "I Feel the Same" and "Guilty".
Little Feat
After leaving the Mothers of Invention, George invited fellow musicians to form a new band, which they named Little Feat. George usually (but not always) played lead guitar and focused on slide guitar. Ry Cooder played the slide on the debut Little Feat album after George badly injured his hand while working on a powered model airplane, although George re-recorded some of his material. Mark Brend wrote that George's "use of compression defined his sound and gave him the means to play his extended melodic lines."[4]
When not working with Little Feat, George lent his talents as a session player. George played guitar on John Cale's 1973 album Paris 1919, Harry Nilsson's Son of Schmilsson album (Take 54) and (uncredited but verified by Leo Nocentelli[citation needed]) the Meters' Just Kissed My Baby in 1974, and on John Sebastian's Tarzana Kid. In 1976 he played on Jackson Browne's The Pretender. Also with the Meters, George's slide work features prominently on Robert Palmer's first solo studio album, Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley recorded in New Orleans in 1974. Palmers's follow up record, 1975's "Pressure Drop" was produced by Steve Smith, with Lowell, and Little Feat as the core band on the sessions. The previous information displayed here, that Robert Palmer kept the producer's credit because of a dispute between his label, Island, and Warners, is totally incorrect. This reporter personally asked Lowell George who produced "Pressure Drop" in November 1975 and he replied it was Steve Smith. So any later information that calls into question this fact, i.e: "Later CDs list Steve Smith as producer (Joe Smith was chairman of WB)" are simply incorrect after the fact. Upon the record's release, the band and Palmer embarked on the tour that resulted in the recordings that made Feat famous. While, however great the Pressure Drop LP is, Palmer's career languished. By the spring of 1976, Little Feat were touring North America opening for The Who.[5]
In the 1970s, Little Feat released a stream of studio albums: Little Feat, Sailin' Shoes, Dixie Chicken, Feats Don't Fail Me Now, The Last Record Album, and Time Loves a Hero. The group's 1978 live album Waiting for Columbus became their best-selling album.
Tensions within the group, especially between George and Payne and, to a lesser extent, Barrère, regarding musical direction and leadership led to Payne and Barrère's departure from the group in 1979 and the group's subsequent disbandment. In an interview with Bill Flanagan conducted eleven days before his death, George stated that he was keen to re-form Little Feat without Payne and Barrère in order to reassert his full control over the group.[6]
George was also a producer, and produced the Grateful Dead's 1978 album Shakedown Street, as well as Little Feat's records and his own 1979 solo album Thanks, I'll Eat It Here; he also co-produced a couple of tracks on Valerie Carter's 1977 release Just A Stone's Throw Away.
Death
On June 15, 1979, George began a tour in support of his solo album. On June 29, 1979, the morning after an appearance at Washington, D.C.'s Lisner Auditorium where the bulk of Waiting for Columbus had been recorded, George collapsed and died of a heroin overdose in his Arlington, Virginia, hotel room at the Twin Bridges Marriott. George's body was cremated in Washington, D.C., on August 2. His ashes were flown back to Los Angeles, where they were scattered from his fishing boat into the Pacific Ocean.[7][8][9]
Posthumous tributes and cover songs
- A benefit concert for George's family was held shortly after his death at the Forum in Los
Angeles on August 4, 1979, featuring Little Feat, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou
Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Nicolette Larson and others.[10]
- The song "Ride Like the Wind" on the 1980 self-titled album by Christopher Cross was
dedicated to Lowell George.
- Jackson Browne memorialized George in his song "Of Missing Persons",[11] on his 1980
Hold Out album. The song was dedicated to George's daughter, Inara George who is part of
the musical duo The Bird and the Bee. Browne famously described George as "the Orson
Welles of rock".[12]
- In 1983 the British poet Sean O'Brien included a poem "For Lowell George" in his collection,
The Indoor Park.
- In 1988 American rock band Van Halen covered "A Apolitical Blues" as the closing track for
their album OU812.
- In 1997 the CD Rock-n-Roll Doctor – A Tribute To Lowell George was released featuring
various artists performing versions of George's songs, including Jackson Browne, J. D.
Souther, Bonnie Raitt, Eddie Money, Randy Newman, Keisuke Kuwata, and Inara George.
- Chris and Rich Robinson covered "Roll Um Easy" on their 2007 album Brothers of a Feather:
Live at the Roxy.
- American jam band Phish played all the songs from Little Feat's double album Waiting for
Columbus during their annual and traditional Halloween "Musical Costume" on October 31,
2010 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Columbus during their annual and traditional Halloween "Musical Costume" on October 31,
2010 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_George
Can't Find My Way Home - Bonnie Raitt & Lowell George & John Hammond Jr & Freebo
Bonnie Raitt, Lowell George, John Hammond and Freebo 10/17/72 Ultrasonic Studios (audio only)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GALqVg3biE
R.I.P.
Johnnie Johnson +13.04.2005
JohnnieJohnson1996.jpg by Carl Lender
Johnnie Johnson (* 8. Juli 1924 in Fairmont, West Virginia; † 13. April 2005 in St. Louis, Missouri) war ein US-amerikanischer Musiker, Komponist und Pianist, der auch als einer der Väter des Rock 'n' Roll bezeichnet wird.
Johnson erlernte schon in früher Kindheit das Klavierspiel und tingelte Ende der 1940er Jahre in Chicago durch Clubs und Bars. In den 1950er Jahren entstand in St. Louis seine erste Band unter dem Namen Johnnie Johnson Trio. Sein Erfolg begann am 1. Januar 1952, als Chuck Berry ersatzweise zur Band stieß.
Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen beiden dauerte 20 Jahre an und es entstanden Klassiker wie Roll Over Beethoven. Johnson komponierte am Klavier und Berry textete und passte die Melodie seiner Gitarre an. Berry setzte mit seinem Lied Johnny B. Goode Johnnie Johnson ein Denkmal.
Nach etwa 50 gemeinsamen Titeln gingen beide getrennte Wege und Johnson stand später mit Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker sowie Bo Diddley auf der Konzertbühne.
Johnson, der auf seine Urheberrechte an den gemeinsamen Stücken mit Berry verzichtet hatte, stellte Ende der 1990er Jahre Tantiemenforderungen an Chuck Berry und verklagte ihn im Jahre 2000 erfolglos.
Am 19. März 2001 fand er als Sideman Aufnahme in die Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Bei der Neuaufnahme des Songs Blue Collar Man 2004 zum Album Big Bang Theory (2005) von Styx saß Johnson als special guest am Piano.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Johnson
Johnnie Johnson (July 8, 1924 – April 13, 2005)[1] was an American pianist and blues musician. His work with Chuck Berry led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Career
He was born Johnnie Clyde Johnson[2] in Fairmont, West Virginia[1] and began playing piano in 1928. He joined the United States Marine Corps during World War II where he was a member of Bobby Troup's all serviceman jazz orchestra, The Barracudas. After his return, he moved to Detroit, Illinois and then Chicago, where he sat in with many notable artists, including Muddy Waters and Little Walter.
He moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1952 and immediately put together a jazz and blues group, The Sir John Trio with drummer Ebby Hardy and saxophonist, Alvin Bennett. The three scored a regular gig at the Cosmopolitan Club in East St. Louis. On New Year's Eve 1952, Alvin Bennett had a stroke and could not perform. Johnson, searching for a last minute replacement, called a young man named Chuck Berry, the only musician Johnson knew who because of his inexperience, would likely not be playing on New Year's Eve. Although then a limited guitarist, Chuck Berry added vocals and showmanship to the group. As Bennett would not be able to play again because of his stroke, Johnson hired Berry as a permanent member of the trio.
They would remain the Sir John's Trio until Berry took one of their tunes, a reworking of Bob Wills' version of "Ida Red" to Chess Records. The Chess brothers liked the tune and soon the trio were in Chicago recording "Maybellene" and "Wee Wee Hours" – a song Johnson had been playing as an instrumental for years for which Berry quickly penned some lyrics. By the time the trio left Chicago, Berry had been signed as a solo act and Johnson and Hardy became part of Berry's band. Said Johnson, "I figured we could get better jobs with Chuck running the band. He had a car and rubber wheels beat rubber heels any day."
Over the next 20 years, the two collaborated in the arrangements of many of Berry's songs including "School Days", "Carol", and "Nadine". The song "Johnny B. Goode" was reportedly a tribute to Johnson, with the title reflecting Johnson's usual behavior when he was drinking. The pianist on the "Johnny B. Goode" session was Lafayette Leake, one of the two main session pianists for Chess (the other being Otis Spann). Leake also played on "Oh Baby Doll", "Rock & Roll Music", "Reelin' and Rockin'", and "Sweet Little Sixteen".
Berry and Johnson played and toured together until 1973. Although never on his payroll after 1973, Johnson played occasionally with Berry until Johnson's death in 2005.
Johnson was known to have a serious drinking problem. In Chuck Berry's autobiography, Berry tells of how he declared there would be no drinking in the car, while on the road. Johnson and bandmates complied with the request by putting their heads out the window. Johnson denied the story but said he did drink on the road. Johnson quit drinking entirely in 1991, after nearly suffering a stroke on stage with Eric Clapton.
Johnson received little recognition until the Chuck Berry concert documentary, Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll in 1987. That attention helped Johnson, who was supporting himself as a bus driver in St. Louis at the time, return to music. He recorded his first solo album, Blue Hand Johnnie, that same year. He later performed with Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley and George Thorogood on Thorogood's 1995 live album Live: Let's Work Together. In 1996 and 1997, Johnson toured with Bob Weir's band, Ratdog, playing 67 shows.[3] In 1987, Johnson, Raymond Cantrell, and Stevie Lee Dodge made up the St.Charles Blues Trio.
In 1998, Johnson told Doug Donnelly of Monroenews.com that "Johnny B. Goode" was a tribute to him. "I played no part in nothing of Johnny B. Goode," Johnson said. "On other songs, Chuck and I worked together, but not that one. We were playing one night, I think it was Chicago, and he played it. Afterward, he told me it was a tribute to me. He did it on his own. I didn't know nothing about it. It was never discussed."
In 1999, Johnson's biography was released, Father of Rock and Roll: The Story of Johnnie B. Goode Johnson by 23-year-old Travis Fitzpatrick. The book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by Congressman John Conyers, and garnered Johnson more recognition.
In 2000, Johnson was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
In late 2004, Johnson recorded his final project, Johnnie Be Eighty. And Still Bad! It was recorded in St.Louis, and all the songs were originals (written with the producer, Jeff Alexander); this was a first for Johnson. the project was released the same week he died in April 2005.
In 2005, he played piano on Styx's Big Bang Theory on the re-recording of "Blue Collar Man", entitled "Blue Collar Man @ 2120." It was recorded at the Chess Studios at 2120 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, on the 46th anniversary of the recording of "Johnnie B. Goode", at that same studio.[4]
Legacy
In November 2000, Johnson sued Berry, alleging he deserved co-composer credits (and royalties) for dozens of songs, including "No Particular Place To Go", "Sweet Little Sixteen", and "Roll Over Beethoven", that credit Berry alone. The case was dismissed in less than a year because too many years had passed since the songs in dispute were written.
In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after a campaign by businessman George Turek, author Travis Fitzpatrick and Rolling Stones' guitarist, Keith Richards.
He also has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[5] His last band still performs today as The Johnnie Johnson Band.
Johnson was the subject of a Homespun Tapes piano instructional video entitled The Blues/Rock Piano of Johnnie Johnson – Sessions with a Keyboard Legend. Originally released in 1999 (DVD version in 2005), the video is hosted by David Bennett Cohen, along with Johnson's band featuring guitarist Jimmy Vivino.
Johnson died in St. Louis, Missouri on April 13, 2005.[1] He was interred in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.
The Johnnie Johnson Blues & Jazz Festival is held annually in Fairmont West Virginia, only a few blocks from where Johnson was born.
Career
He was born Johnnie Clyde Johnson[2] in Fairmont, West Virginia[1] and began playing piano in 1928. He joined the United States Marine Corps during World War II where he was a member of Bobby Troup's all serviceman jazz orchestra, The Barracudas. After his return, he moved to Detroit, Illinois and then Chicago, where he sat in with many notable artists, including Muddy Waters and Little Walter.
He moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1952 and immediately put together a jazz and blues group, The Sir John Trio with drummer Ebby Hardy and saxophonist, Alvin Bennett. The three scored a regular gig at the Cosmopolitan Club in East St. Louis. On New Year's Eve 1952, Alvin Bennett had a stroke and could not perform. Johnson, searching for a last minute replacement, called a young man named Chuck Berry, the only musician Johnson knew who because of his inexperience, would likely not be playing on New Year's Eve. Although then a limited guitarist, Chuck Berry added vocals and showmanship to the group. As Bennett would not be able to play again because of his stroke, Johnson hired Berry as a permanent member of the trio.
They would remain the Sir John's Trio until Berry took one of their tunes, a reworking of Bob Wills' version of "Ida Red" to Chess Records. The Chess brothers liked the tune and soon the trio were in Chicago recording "Maybellene" and "Wee Wee Hours" – a song Johnson had been playing as an instrumental for years for which Berry quickly penned some lyrics. By the time the trio left Chicago, Berry had been signed as a solo act and Johnson and Hardy became part of Berry's band. Said Johnson, "I figured we could get better jobs with Chuck running the band. He had a car and rubber wheels beat rubber heels any day."
Over the next 20 years, the two collaborated in the arrangements of many of Berry's songs including "School Days", "Carol", and "Nadine". The song "Johnny B. Goode" was reportedly a tribute to Johnson, with the title reflecting Johnson's usual behavior when he was drinking. The pianist on the "Johnny B. Goode" session was Lafayette Leake, one of the two main session pianists for Chess (the other being Otis Spann). Leake also played on "Oh Baby Doll", "Rock & Roll Music", "Reelin' and Rockin'", and "Sweet Little Sixteen".
Berry and Johnson played and toured together until 1973. Although never on his payroll after 1973, Johnson played occasionally with Berry until Johnson's death in 2005.
Johnson was known to have a serious drinking problem. In Chuck Berry's autobiography, Berry tells of how he declared there would be no drinking in the car, while on the road. Johnson and bandmates complied with the request by putting their heads out the window. Johnson denied the story but said he did drink on the road. Johnson quit drinking entirely in 1991, after nearly suffering a stroke on stage with Eric Clapton.
Johnson received little recognition until the Chuck Berry concert documentary, Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll in 1987. That attention helped Johnson, who was supporting himself as a bus driver in St. Louis at the time, return to music. He recorded his first solo album, Blue Hand Johnnie, that same year. He later performed with Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley and George Thorogood on Thorogood's 1995 live album Live: Let's Work Together. In 1996 and 1997, Johnson toured with Bob Weir's band, Ratdog, playing 67 shows.[3] In 1987, Johnson, Raymond Cantrell, and Stevie Lee Dodge made up the St.Charles Blues Trio.
In 1998, Johnson told Doug Donnelly of Monroenews.com that "Johnny B. Goode" was a tribute to him. "I played no part in nothing of Johnny B. Goode," Johnson said. "On other songs, Chuck and I worked together, but not that one. We were playing one night, I think it was Chicago, and he played it. Afterward, he told me it was a tribute to me. He did it on his own. I didn't know nothing about it. It was never discussed."
In 1999, Johnson's biography was released, Father of Rock and Roll: The Story of Johnnie B. Goode Johnson by 23-year-old Travis Fitzpatrick. The book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by Congressman John Conyers, and garnered Johnson more recognition.
In 2000, Johnson was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
In late 2004, Johnson recorded his final project, Johnnie Be Eighty. And Still Bad! It was recorded in St.Louis, and all the songs were originals (written with the producer, Jeff Alexander); this was a first for Johnson. the project was released the same week he died in April 2005.
In 2005, he played piano on Styx's Big Bang Theory on the re-recording of "Blue Collar Man", entitled "Blue Collar Man @ 2120." It was recorded at the Chess Studios at 2120 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, on the 46th anniversary of the recording of "Johnnie B. Goode", at that same studio.[4]
Legacy
In November 2000, Johnson sued Berry, alleging he deserved co-composer credits (and royalties) for dozens of songs, including "No Particular Place To Go", "Sweet Little Sixteen", and "Roll Over Beethoven", that credit Berry alone. The case was dismissed in less than a year because too many years had passed since the songs in dispute were written.
In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after a campaign by businessman George Turek, author Travis Fitzpatrick and Rolling Stones' guitarist, Keith Richards.
He also has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[5] His last band still performs today as The Johnnie Johnson Band.
Johnson was the subject of a Homespun Tapes piano instructional video entitled The Blues/Rock Piano of Johnnie Johnson – Sessions with a Keyboard Legend. Originally released in 1999 (DVD version in 2005), the video is hosted by David Bennett Cohen, along with Johnson's band featuring guitarist Jimmy Vivino.
Johnson died in St. Louis, Missouri on April 13, 2005.[1] He was interred in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.
The Johnnie Johnson Blues & Jazz Festival is held annually in Fairmont West Virginia, only a few blocks from where Johnson was born.
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