Mittwoch, 4. Mai 2016

04.05. Erik Trauner, Steven Troch * Neal Pattman, Paul Butterfield +








1958 Erik Trauner*
1974 Steven Troch*
1987 Paul Butterfield+
2005 Neal Pattman+





Happy Birthday

 

Erik Trauner  *04.05.1958



1976 begann Erik Trauner mit dem Pianisten Joachim Palden mit Auftritten in Wiener Clubs. 1977 erfolgte der erste Auftritt als Mojo Blues Band im Wiener Jazzland. Im gleichen Jahr gewannen sie bei einem Boogie-Woogie-Contest in Zürich einen Plattenvertrag und kamen so zu ihrer ersten Studioaufnahme. Als damals einzige Bluesband in Wien wurden sie immer wieder als Begleitband für US-Künstler verpflichtet, die in Österreich auf Tour waren, und kamen so in Kontakt zu denjenigen, die diese Musik geschaffen hatten. Im Wiener Jazzland trat die Band in den letzten Jahrzehnten mit den legendären US-Musikern Johnny Shines, J. B. Hutto, Charlie Musselwhite, Louisiana Red, Sunnyland Slim, Champion Jack Dupree, Homesick James, David Honeyboy Edwards, Leon Thomas, Katie Webster, Hal Singer, Jan Harrington und Eddie Clearwater auf. Die häufige Zusammenarbeit mit dem Hamburger Boogie Woogie-Spezialisten Axel Zwingenberger ist auf einigen CDs dokumentiert.
1980 stieß die später als Popsängerin erfolgreiche Dana Gillespie zur Mojo Blues Band, die sich damals stilistisch in Richtung R&B und Rock ’n’ Roll bewegte. Anfang der 90er wurde Alligator Walk (zur späteren Überraschung für die Band) zu einem der beliebtesten Songs der US-Shag-Szene, was 1998 zu einer erfolgreichen Tournee durch North- und South Carolina führte.
1989 unternahmen die Bandmitglieder einen "Betriebsausflug" nach Chicago. Dort spielten sie mit verschiedenen Musikern und brachten Material aus einer 16-stündigen Aufnahmesession mit. Aus diesem Material entstand das Album "The Wild Taste of Chicago". 1993 verließ Christian Dozzler die Mojo Blues Band, um seine eigene Band zu gründen. Da der Mundharmonikaspieler fehlte, nahm Erik Trauner bei Christian Sandera Stunden und übernahm den Part des Harpplayers.
1999 erhielt Erik Trauner das Goldene Verdienstzeichen der Republik Österreich, was etwas erstaunen mag, wenn man die durch Hochkultur geprägte österreichische Kunstlandschaft ansieht. Zwar wurde Ende 2001 die Auflösung der Mojo Blues Band (in der Besetzung: Erik Trauner, (voc, guit, slideguit, harp), Daniel Gugolz (bass), Markus Toyfl (guit), Peter Müller (drums), Thomas Horneck (piano)) verkündet. In dieser Besetzung gaben sie am 19. Dezember 2001 ihr Abschiedskonzert. Doch versammelte Erik Trauner bald darauf wieder Musiker um sich, und seit 2002 tritt seine Band, verstärkt mit Siggi Fassl, wieder auf.


vocals, guitar, slideguitar, harp
geboren 1958 in Wien,Autodidakt. Gründete 1977 die Mojo Bluesband. Intensive Beschäftigung mit der Bluesmusik, Tourneen durch ganz Europa und den USA und schließlich die Zusammenarbeit mit zahllosen internationalen Stars formten sein musikalisches Können.
Durch den überzeugenden gefühlsbetonten und mitunter sehr launigen Vortrag sowohl traditioneller als auch selbstgeschriebener Bluesstücke vermag er das Publikum stets in seinen Bann zu ziehen.
Als am 16. Dezember 1999 in den ehrwürdigen Räumlichkeiten der Kunstsektion des Bundeskanzleramtes das Goldene Verdienstzeichen der Republik Österreich an Erik Nikolai Trauner verliehen wurde, war dies alles andere als eine Selbstverständlichkeit. Dass ausgerechnet in einer von "Hochkultur" - was immer das auch sein mag - geprägten Republik wie der Österreichischen ein Künstler des Blues zu staatlich inszenierten Ehren gelangt, mag zunächst nämlich verwundern.Dieses Erstaunen legt sich aber bald, erfährt etwas mehr über den Geehrten.
Erik Nikolai Trauner ist nämlich prädestiniert dafür, als unermüdlicher Wanderprediger des Blues - zwischen Europa und den USA - auch "weltliche" Anerkennung zu erlangen.
Vielseitigkeit als Markenzeichen
Geboren am 4. Mai 1958 in der Wiener Josefstadt - der er bis heute treu geblieben ist - ist sein Weg zum Ausnahmemusiker keineswegs vorgezeichnet. Im Gegenteil: Ein Vierer "mit Mahnung" in Musik läßt kaum die künftige Karriere erahnen. Vom Vater, einem Maler und Graphiker, nimmt er das Interesse an Graphik und Modellbau mit und greift erst mit 16 Jahren zur Gitarre. Mit der ihm eigenen Konsequenz und Bestimmtheit eignet er sich autodidaktisch jene Fähigkeiten an, die ihn schließlich drei Jahre später gemeinsam mit Joachim Palden zur Gründung der legendären Mojo Blues Band bewegen. Zu dieser Zeit greifen im verschlafenen Wien neben Erik Trauner nur noch Al Cook und Hansi Dujimic zur bluesgefärbten Slidegitarre. Der hochsensible Musiker gibt sich dabei nie mit Erreichtem zufrieden, entwickelt sich auch aus seiner ständigen Selbstkritik stets weiter. Ein Markenzeichen wirklicher Kreativität. Bezeichnenderweise lebt Trauner diese Kreativität nicht "nur" in der Musik aus, denn er ist als akribischer Schöpfer wunderbarer Dioramen ebenso tätig wie als Grafiker, Fotograf, Cartoonist und launiger Geschichtenerzähler (letzteres ist wiederum eine der Eigenarten des Blues).
Begegnungen
Als Musiker hat Erik Trauner sowohl solo als auch im Rahmen der Mojo Blues Band mit einer Unmenge an Künstlern zusammengearbeitet, die ihresgleichen sucht. Es gibt wohl kaum eine zweite Bluesband, die mit einer derartigen Vielzahl an Musikern auf der Bühne und im Studio stand. Namen wie Dana Gillespie, Axel Zwingenberger, Katie Webster, Johnny Shines, Joe Carter, J.B. Hutto, Eddy Clearwater, Charlie Musselwhite, Big Jay McNeely, Little Willie Littlefield, Champion Jack Dupree, A.C. Reed, Willie Kent, "Big Mojo" Elem, Timothy Taylor, Taildragger, Red Holloway, Louisiana Red, Jimmy Anderson, Johnnie Allan, Floyd McDaniel, Big Wheeler, Doug Jay, Larry Dale oder Bob Gaddy sprechen eine mehr als deutliche Sprache. Besonders geschätzt wird Erik Trauner von diesen Musikern für sein Einfühlungsvermögen und sein hohes Können. Angesprochen auf Erik Trauner und die Mojo Blues Band meinte Red Holloway zum Beispiel: "Wenn sie nicht spielen könnten, würde ich mit ihnen nicht auftreten. Sie sind wirklich gute Musiker! Sie haben einen guten "down home" Mississippi-Arkansas-Stil. Ich habe viele europäische Bluesmusiker getroffen, die versucht haben, wie die alten Vorbilder zu klingen, und denen es nicht gelungen ist. Erik Trauner hingegen klingt absolut authentisch."
Essenz des Blues
Trauner ist im Chicagoblues ebenso Zuhause wie in der zydeco- und cajungeschwängerten Tradition Louisianas, wer erinnert sich nicht an den Megahit "Rosa Lee". Aber auch in der Country- und Western-Musik fühlt er sich wohl, etwa mit den von ihm 1997 gegründeten Honky Tonk Playboys. Schließlich darf es auch Gospel sein, zum Beispiel mit Sister Shirley. An Intensität ist Trauner vor allem auch solo nicht zu überbieten. Zahllose Liveauftritte in Clubs und auf Festivals lassen die ZuhörerInnen regelmäßig mit (vor Staunen) offenem Mund zurück (nachzuhören auch auf der Solo-CD "Up Slide Down"). Dabei geht es ihm nicht darum, möglichst detailgetreu die Altmeister des Countryblues zu imitieren, sondern er hat längst seinen eigenen Stil und Platz gefunden. Konsequenterweise stammt mehr als die Hälfte seines Repertoires aus eigener - mitunter recht spitzer - Feder. In guter Tradition der Songster verbindet Erik Trauner seine Soloauftritte mit humorvollen Ansagen und Geschichten, bietet damit über die Songs hinaus kurzweiliges Entertainment. Somit ist er einer jener Handvoll an Bluesmen, die auch den Spaß an und mit dieser wunderbaren Musik nicht zu kurz kommen lassen. Im Vordergrund steht nicht die Sterilität der technischen Perfektion sondern die Emotionalität des Reduzierens und Weglassens, schlicht: die tiefere Essenz des Blues.
( Dietmar Hoscher )
http://www.mojobluesband.com/new/index.php?id=30 

About me
I was born in 1958 in Vienna, Austria. I have been a professional musician for over 35 years and I’m the leader & founder of the Mojo Blues Band.
At the age of 10 my father, a great model ship builder himself, couraged me to collect and paint little Airfix figurines. Then I started to convert them and created my first dioramas.  My hobby soon developed into a burning passion that lingers on until today.  Now looking back on over 40 years of modelling experience, I focused almost entirely on the scale 1/72. The favorite subjects for my dioramas are military historical scenes (not necessarily battles) as well as the realizations of ethnological subjects. 
My intense historical interests are reaching from ancient time until WWI and my effort is to create picturesque compositions telling stories and history. Although the figurines have static character, I'm  trying to inhale them charisma & life.  A friend once described my dioramas as 3-dimensional paintings, which is exactly what I'm trying to achieve.
Please be aware, that most of these shown dioramas were built many,many years ago. My level of figurine painting was not so exciting then.....

Dust My Broom - Mojo Blues Band (Erik Trauner) 
Robert Johnson Bluesclassic, Erik Trauner, Herfried Knapp, Charlie Furthner, Didi Mattersberger, Siggi Fassl, Mojo Blues Band (Vienna, Austria) 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bmC5OBuM5w



Mojo Blues Band, Staudacher Musikbühne 2014, Teil 8 
Sie waren wieder am 24., und 25.10.2014, in dem Gasthof Mühlwinkl in Staudach Egerndach, die legendäre Mojo Blues Band aus Wien. Was 1977 im Jazzland begann, ist längst zur internationalen Marke des Blues geworden. Eine stolze Leistung. Zum zweiten die Qualität der Gruppe, die jeweils beste Besetzung, ist die jeweils aktuelle: Siggi Fassl (vocals, guitar), Charlie Furthner (piano), Herfried Knapp (bass) und Didi Mattersberger (drums) sowie Bandleader Erik Trauner, Harmonikaspieler, Gitarrist und Sänger, der mit Wiener Schmäh durch das Programm führte. Der Versuch, Chicago Blues und R&B mit Country-Blues zu mischen, hat zu einem Stil geführt, der der Mojo Blues Band eine Sonderstellung im internationalen Blues Zirkus einräumt. Historisch authentisch, dennoch unverkennbar eigenständig und charismatisch dazu. Dies ist auch auf ihre neuen CD „Walk The Bridge“ zu hören.









Steven Troch  *04.05.1974





Steven Troch ist ein belgischer Sänger und Harpspieler, bekannt geworden durch die Band "FRIED BOURBON".

Inspiriert wurde sein Spiel von den großen Mundharmonikameistern wie Big Walter Horton   Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II and  Gary Primich, William Clarke, Steve Baker & Joe Filisko.

Steven versteht es auf einzigartige Weise, den unverwechselbaren Chicago Bluessound mit verschiedenen Einflüssen zu kombinieren und dem Ganzen jedesmal eine persönliche Note zu geben. 2012 gewann er David Barrett’s “King of Swing Contest”und hatte die Ehre, sich die Bühne - während “Mark Hummel’s Harmonica Blowout” in Yoshi’s Jazzclub in Oakland,  USA -  mit Mark Hummel, Charly Musslewhite, Billy Boy Arnold, Sugar Ray Norcia, Curtis Salgado und David Barrett zu teilen.


Hohner endorser Steven Troch is  a singer, harp player and songwriter. He draws inspiration from harpmasters like Big Walter Horton   Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II and players like Gary Primich, William Clarke, Steve Baker & Joe Filisko. Steven embraces the exciting bluessound of Chicago  and combines that with different influences, always adding his own personal touch.
He has amazed critics and audiences alike with his straight-ahead blues music and he's been noted for his own interpretations of blues material. Steven has played in Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Germany and has backed up several international bluesartists : Gene Taylor, Bill Sheffield, Rene Trossman, Roland Van Campenhout, Ina Forsman, Little Victor. He was one of the driving forces behind Fried Bourbon & Dirty Dogs.
Steven has recorded for national television and radio, and you can hear his harmonica on recordings by others.
He has shared the stage or worked with :  James Harman, The Slackers, Gene Taylor, Bill Sheffield, Bill Abel, Tim Lothar, John Primer, Mark Hummel, Joe Buddy, Doug Deming & The Jewel Tones,  Hugh Pool, Kathleen Vandenhoudt, David Hillyard & the Rocksteady 7, Little Charly, Joe Filisko, Eric Noden,  Roland Van Campenhout, Mandy Gaines, Ina Forsman,  P. Vansant & band, Vic Ruggiero, Rene Trossman and many other great players from the Belgian and Dutch bluesscene.


HARMONICA RUMBLE : Steven Troch & Fried Bourbon - Diggin' a Hole 







R.I.P.

 

Neal Pattman   +04.05.2005

Big Daddy Pattman 

 



Neal Pattman (January 10, 1926 – May 4, 2005)[2] was an American electric blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.[1] Sometimes billed as Big Daddy Pattman, he is best known for his self-penned tracks, "Prison Blues" and "Goin' Back To Georgia". In the latter, and most notable stages of his long career, Pattman worked with Cootie Stark, Taj Mahal, Dave Peabody, Jimmy Rip, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Guitar Gabriel, and Lee Konitz.
Pattman was born in Madison County, Georgia, United States, one of fourteen children.[1][2] He learned harmonica playing from his father, after an accident involving a wagon wheel at the age of nine left him with only his left arm.[4] Inspired by Sonny Terry's playing and distinctive whoops and hollers, Pattman played on the street corners of nearby Athens, Georgia. He found regular employment in the University of Georgia's kitchens, and gained further experience and local adoration for his regular live performances at various clubs and festivals.[5] However, his more general renown was minimal until 1989, when he performed at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.[1][3]
A meeting in 1991 with Tim Duffy, of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, led to Pattman playing with Cootie Stark, supporting Taj Mahal, on a nationwide Blues Revival Tour.[1] Playing with the British blues guitarist, Dave Peabody,[3] led to Pattman releasing three albums between 1995 and 2001. He also contributed to Kenny Wayne Shepherd's album and DVD, 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads (2007).[1]
However, Pattman had already died of bone cancer in May 2005, in Athens, Georgia, aged 79.







Paul Butterfield   +04.05.1987

 

With Rick Danko (left) on bass guitar at Woodstock Reunion 1979

Paul Butterfield (* 17. Dezember 1942 in Chicago, Illinois; † 4. Mai 1987 in Hollywood) war ein US-amerikanischer Bluesmusiker. Er gilt als einer der besten und einflussreichsten weißen Mundharmonikaspieler.
Butterfield spielte Blues Harp und arbeitete zusammen mit den schwarzen Bluesgrößen Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter und James Cotton.
Mit der von ihm 1965 gegründeten Butterfield Blues Band, der u. a. Mike Bloomfield angehörte, wurde er zum führenden Interpreten des weißen Chicago-Blues. Mit der Verwendung elektrischer Instrumente sorgte die Band im gleichen Jahr auf dem Newport Folk Festival für einen Skandal und schockte die Anhänger des traditionellen Folk. Teile der Butterfield Blues Band spielten auch als Begleitband beim Auftritt Bob Dylans auf dem Newport Folk Festival, da Bloomfield Dylan auch bei den Aufnahmen zu "Like a Rolling Stone" unterstützt hatte.
Die Butterfield Bluesband nahm unter anderem 1967 am Monterey Pop Festival und 1969 am Woodstock-Festival teil.
Butterfield spielte nicht mehr nur den klassischen Blues, er verwendete auch Elemente anderer Musikrichtungen, wie Jazz oder asiatische Klänge. 1972 benannte sich die Butterfield Blues Band, die längst nicht mehr nur Blues spielte, in Better Days um.
Butterfield, der nun in Woodstock lebte, fand sich zusammen mit Mike Bloomfield und Musikern der Woodstocker Szene unter dem Namen Fathers And Sons zu einem Projekt einer gemeinsamen Plattenaufnahme zusammen.
Nach der Auflösung der Better Days verfiel Butterfield immer mehr dem Alkohol.
1976 spielte er auf dem Abschiedskonzert The Last Waltz von The Band.
Am 15./16. September 1978 spielte er mit seiner Band in der 3. Rockpalast-Nacht des WDR in der Grugahalle Essen. Das Konzert wurde europaweit live parallel in Radio und Fernsehen übertragen.
1986 zog er nach Los Angeles um. Drei Wochen nach seinem letzten Auftritt mit B. B. King, Albert King und Eric Clapton in Los Angeles verstarb der alkohol- und drogenabhängige Musiker am 4. Mai 1987.
2006 wurde Paul Butterfield in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Butterfield 

Paul Vaughn Butterfield (December 17, 1942 – May 4, 1987) was an American blues singer and harmonica player. After early training as a classical flautist, Butterfield developed an interest in blues harmonica. He explored the blues scene in his native Chicago, where he was able to meet Muddy Waters and other blues greats who provided encouragement and a chance to join in the jam sessions. Soon, Butterfield began performing with fellow blues enthusiasts Nick Gravenites and Elvin Bishop.
In 1963, he formed the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who recorded several successful albums and were a popular fixture on the late-1960s concert and festival circuit, with performances at the Fillmores, Monterey Pop Festival, and Woodstock. They became known for combining electric Chicago blues with a rock urgency as well as their pioneering jazz fusion performances and recordings. After the breakup of the group in 1971, Butterfield continued to tour and record in a variety of settings, including with Paul Butterfield's Better Days, his mentor Muddy Waters, and members of the roots-rock group the Band.
While still recording and performing, Butterfield died in 1987 at age 44 of a heroin overdose. Music critics have acknowledged his development of an original approach that places him among the best-known blues harp players. In 2006, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015. Both panels noted his harmonica skills as well as his contributions to bringing blues-style music to a younger and broader audience.
Career
Paul Butterfield was born in Chicago and raised in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood. The son of a lawyer and a painter, he attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private school associated with the University of Chicago. Exposed to music at an early age, he studied classical flute with Walfrid Kujala of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.[3] Butterfield was also athletic and was offered a track scholarship to Brown University.[3] However, a knee injury and a growing interest in blues music sent him in a different direction. He developed a love for blues harmonica and a friendship with Nick Gravenites, who shared an interest in authentic blues music.[4] By the late 1950s, they started visiting some of Chicago's blues clubs and met musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Otis Rush, who encouraged them and occasionally let them sit in on jam sessions. The pair were soon performing as "Nick and Paul" in college-area coffee houses.[5]
In the early 1960s, Butterfield attended the University of Chicago, where he met aspiring blues guitarist Elvin Bishop.[6][7] Both began devoting more time to music than studies and soon became full-time musicians.[5] Eventually, Butterfield, who sang and played harmonica, and Bishop, accompanying him on guitar, were offered a regular gig at Big John's, an important folk club in the Old Town district on Chicago's north side.[8] With this prospect, they were able to entice bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay (both from Howlin' Wolf's touring band) into forming a group in 1963. Their engagement at the club was highly successful and brought the group to the attention of record producer Paul A. Rothchild.[9]
Butterfield Blues Band with Bloomfield
During their engagement at Big John's, Butterfield met and occasionally sat in with guitarist Mike Bloomfield, who was also playing at the club.[6] By chance, producer Rothchild witnessed one of their performances and impressed by the obvious chemistry between the two. He convinced Butterfield to bring Bloomfield into the band and they were signed to Elektra Records.[9] Their first attempt to record an album in December 1964 did not meet Rothchild's expectations, although an early version of "Born in Chicago", written by Nick Gravenites, was included on the 1965 Elektra sampler Folksong '65 and created interest in the band (additional early recordings were later released on the 1966 Elektra compilation, What's Shakin' and The Original Lost Elektra Sessions in 1995). In order to better capture their sound, Rothchild convinced Elektra president Jac Holzman to record a live album.[10] In the spring of 1965, the Butterfield Blues Band was recorded at New York's Cafe Au Go Go. These recordings also failed to satisfy Rothchild, but their appearances at the club brought the group to the attention of the East Coast music community.[6] Rothchild was able to get Holzman to agree to a third attempt at recording an album.[a]
During the recording sessions, Paul Rothchild had assumed the role of group manager and used his folk contacts to secure the band more and more engagements outside of Chicago.[12] At the last minute, Butterfield and band were booked to perform at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965.[6] They were scheduled as the opening act the first night when the gates opened and again the next afternoon in an urban blues workshop at the festival.[12] Despite limited exposure during their first night and a dismissive introduction the following day by folklorist/blues researcher Alan Lomax,[13][b] the band was able to attract an unusually large audience for a workshop performance. Maria Muldaur, with her husband Geoff, who later toured and recorded with Butterfield, recalled the group's performance as stunning – it was the first time the many of the mostly folk-music fans had experienced a high-powered electric blues combo.[12] Among those who took notice was festival regular Bob Dylan, who invited the band to back him for his first live electric performance. With little rehearsal, Dylan performed a short, four-song set the next day with Bloomfield, Arnold, and Lay (along with Al Kooper and Barry Goldberg).[13][14] It was not received well by some of the folk music establishment and generated a lot of controversy;[3] however, it was a watershed event and brought the band to the attention of a much larger audience.[12]
After adding keyboardist Mark Naftalin, the band's debut album was finally successfully recorded in mid-1965. Simply titled The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, it was released later in 1965. The opening song, a newer recording of the previously released "Born in Chicago", is an upbeat blues rocker and set the tone for the album, which included a mix of blues standards, such as "Shake Your Moneymaker", "Blues with a Feeling", and "Look Over Yonders Wall" and band compositions. The album, described as a "hard-driving blues album that, in a word, rocked",[8] reached number 123 in the Billboard 200 album chart in 1966,[15] although its influence was felt beyond its sales figures.[9]
When Sam Lay became ill, jazz drummer Billy Davenport was invited to replace him.[9] In July 1966, the sextet recorded their second album East-West, which was released a month later. The album consists of more varied material, with the band's interpretations of blues (Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues"), rock (Michael Nesmith's "Mary, Mary"), R&B (Allen Toussaint's "Get Out of My Life, Woman"), and jazz selections (Nat Adderley's "Work Song"). East-West reached number 65 in the album chart.[15]
The thirteen-minute instrumental title track "East-West" incorporates Indian raga influences and features some of the earliest jazz-fusion/blues rock excursions, with extended solos by Butterfield and guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop.[7] It has been identified as "the first of its kind and marks the root from which the acid rock tradition emerged".[16] Live versions of the song could last nearly an hour and performances at the San Francisco Fillmore Auditorium "were a huge influence on the city's jam bands".[17] Bishop recalled, "Quicksilver, Big Brother, and the Dead – those guys were just chopping chords. They had been folk musicians and weren't particularly proficient playing electric guitar – [Bloomfield] could play all these scales and arpeggios and fast time-signatures ... He just destroyed them".[17] Several live versions of "East-West" from this period were later released on East-West Live in 1996.

While in England in November 1966, Paul Butterfield recorded several songs with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, who had recently finished their A Hard Road album.[18] Both Butterfield and Mayall contribute vocals, with Butterfield's Chicago-style blues harp being featured. Four songs were released in the UK on a 45 rpm EP in January 1967, titled John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Paul Butterfield.[c]
Later Butterfield Blues Band
In spite of their success, the Butterfield Blues Band lineup soon changed; Arnold and Davenport left the band, and Bloomfield went on to form his own group, Electric Flag.[9] With Bishop and Naftalin remaining on guitar and keyboards, they added bassist Bugsy Maugh, drummer Phillip Wilson, and saxophonists David Sanborn and Gene Dinwiddie. Together, they recorded the band's third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, in 1967. The album cut back on the extended instrumental jams and went in a more rhythm and blues-influenced horn-driven direction with songs such as Charles Brown's "Driftin' Blues" (retitled "Driftin' and Driftin'"), Otis Rush's "Double Trouble", and Junior Parker's "Driving Wheel".[19] The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw was Butterfield's highest charting album, reaching number 52 on the album chart.[15] On June 17, 1967, most of this lineup performed at the seminal Monterey Pop Festival.[d][20]
Their next album in 1968, In My Own Dream, saw the band continuing to move away from their hard Chicago-blues roots towards a more soul-influenced horn-based sound. With Butterfield only singing three songs, the album featured more band contributions[21] and reached number 79 in the Billboard album chart.[15] By the end of 1968, both Bishop and Naftalin had left the band.[9] In April 1969, Butterfield took part in a concert at Chicago's Auditorium Theater and a subsequent recording session organized by record producer Norman Dayron, featuring Muddy Waters and backed by Otis Spann, Mike Bloomfield, Sam Lay, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Buddy Miles. Such Muddy Waters' warhorses as "Forty Days and Forty Nights", "I'm Ready", "Baby, Please Don't Go", and "Got My Mojo Working" were recorded and later released on his Fathers and Sons album. Muddy Waters commented "We did a lot of the things over we did with Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers and Elgin [Evans] on drums [Waters' original band] ... It's about as close as I've been [to that feel] since I first recorded it".[22] To one reviewer, these recordings represent Paul Butterfield's best performances.[23]
Butterfield was invited to perform at the Woodstock Festival on August 18, 1969. There they performed seven songs, and although their performance did not appear in the resulting Woodstock film, one song, "Love March", was included on the Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More album released in 1970. In 2009, Butterfield was included in the expanded 40th Anniversary Edition Woodstock video and an additional two songs appeared on the Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm box-set album. With only Butterfield remaining from the original lineup, 1969's Keep On Moving album was produced by veteran R&B producer/songwriter Jerry Ragovoy, reportedly brought in by Elektra to turn out a "breakout commercial hit".[3] The album was not embraced by critics or long-time fans;[24] however, it reached number 102 in the Billboard album chart.[15]
A live double album by the Butterfield Blues Band, simply titled Live, was recorded March 21–22, 1970 at the The Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. By this time, the band included a four-piece horn section in what has been described as a "big-band Chicago blues with a jazz base"; Live provides perhaps the best showcase for this unique "blues-jazz-rock-R&B hybrid sound ".[25] After the release of another soul-influenced album, Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin' in 1971, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band disbanded.[9] In 1972, a retrospective or their career, Golden Butter: The Best of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was released by Elektra.
Better Days and solo
After his Blues Band's breakup and no longer with Elektra, Butterfield retreated to the community of Woodstock, New York where he eventually formed his next band.[12] Named "Paul Butterfield's Better Days", the new group included drummer Chris Parker, guitarist Amos Garrett, singer Geoff Muldaur, pianist Ronnie Barron and bassist Billy Rich. In 1972–1973, the group released the self-titled Paul Butterfield's Better Days and It All Comes Back on Albert Grossman's Bearsville Records. The albums reflected the influence of the participants and explored more roots- and folk-based styles.[26] Although without an easily defined commercial style, both reached the album chart.[15] Paul Butterfield's Better Days, however, did not last to record a third studio album, although their Live at Winterland Ballroom, recorded in 1973, was released in 1999.[27].
After the breakup of Better Days, Butterfield pursued a solo career and appeared as a sideman in several different musical settings.[8] In 1975, he again joined Muddy Waters to record Waters' last album for Chess Records, The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album.[28] The album was recorded at Levon Helm's Woodstock studio with Garth Hudson and members of Muddy Waters' touring band. In 1976, Butterfield performed at The Band's final concert, The Last Waltz. Together with the Band, he performed the song "Mystery Train" and backed Muddy Waters on "Mannish Boy".[29] Butterfield kept up his association with former members of the Band, touring and recording with Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars in 1977.[7] In 1979, Butterfield toured with Rick Danko and in 1984 a live performance with Danko and Richard Manuel was recorded and released as Live at the Lonestar in 2011.[30]
As a solo act with backing musicians, Butterfield continued to tour and recorded the misguided and overproduced Put It in Your Ear in 1976 and North South in 1981, with strings, synthesizers, and pale funk arrangements.[3] In 1986, Butterfield released his final studio album, The Legendary Paul Butterfield Rides Again, which again was a poor attempt at a comeback with an updated rock sound. In 1987, he participated in B.B. King & Friends, a concert that included Eric Clapton, Etta James, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and others.[31]
Legacy
Aside from "rank[ing] among the most influential harp players in the Blues",[32] Paul Butterfield has also been seen as pointing blues-based music in new, innovative directions.[33] AllMusic critic Steve Huey commented
    It's impossible to overestimate the importance of the doors Butterfield opened: before he came to prominence, white American musicians treated the blues with cautious respect, afraid of coming off as inauthentic. Not only did Butterfield clear the way for white musicians to build upon blues tradition (instead of merely replicating it), but his storming sound was a major catalyst in bringing electric Chicago blues to white audiences who'd previously considered acoustic Delta blues the only really genuine article.[3]
In 2006, Paul Butterfield was inducted into the Blues Foundation Blues Hall of Fame, which noted that "the albums released by the Butterfield Blues Band brought Chicago Blues to a generation of Rock fans during the 1960s and paved the way for late 1960s electric groups like Cream".[32] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015.[34] In the induction biography, they commented "the Butterfield Band converted the country-blues purists and turned on the Fillmore generation to the pleasures of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Willie Dixon and Elmore James".[14]
Harmonica style
As with many Chicago blues-harp players, Paul Butterfield approached the instrument like a horn, preferring single notes to chords, and used it for soloing.[8] His style has been described as "always intense, understated, concise, and serious"[33] and he is "known for purity and intensity of his tone, his sustained breath control, and his unique ability to bend notes to his will".[35] Although his choice of notes has been compared to Big Walter Horton's, he was never seen as an imitator of any particular harp player.[6][8][e] Rather, he developed "a style original and powerful enough to place him in the pantheon of true blues greats".[3]
Butterfield played Hohner harmonicas, and later endorsed them, and preferred the diatonic ten-hole Marine Band model.[36] Although not published until 1997, Butterfield authored a harmonica instruction book, Paul Butterfield Teaches Blues Harmonica Master Class[37] a few years before his death. In it, he explains various techniques, demonstrated on an accompanying CD.[35] Butterfield played mainly in the cross harp or second position, although he occasionally used a chromatic harmonica.[8] Reportedly left-handed, he held the harmonica opposite to a right-handed player, i.e., in his right hand upside-down (with the low notes to the right), using his left hand for muting effects.[f]
Also similar to other electric Chicago-blues harp players, Butterfield frequently used amplification to achieve his sound.[8] Producer Rothchild noted that Butterfield favored an Altec harp microphone run through an early model Fender tweed amplifier.[38] Beginning with The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw album, he began using an acoustic-harmonica style, following his shift to a more R&B-based approach.[6]
Personal life
By all accounts, Paul Butterfield was absorbed in his music. According to his brother Peter
    He listened to records and went places, but he also spent an awful lot of time, by himself, playing [harmonica]. He'd play outdoors. There's a place called The Point in Hyde Park [Chicago], a promentory of land that sticks out into Lake Michigan, and I can remember him out there for hours playing. He was just playing all the time ... It was a very solitary effort. It was all internal, like he had a particular sound he wanted to get and he just worked to get it.[8]
Producer Norman Dayron recalled the young Butterfield as "very quiet and defensive and hard-edged. He was this tough Irish Catholic, kind of a hard guy. He would walk around in black shirts and sunglasses, dark shades and dark jackets ... Paul was hard to be friends with."[4] Although they later became close, Michael Bloomfield commented on his first impressions of Butterfield: "He was a bad guy. He carried pistols. He was down there on the South Side, holding his own. I was scared to death of that cat".[39] Writer and AllMusic founder Michael Erlewine, who knew Butterfield during his early recording career, described him as "always intense, somewhat remote, and even, on occasion, downright unfriendly".[8] He remembered Butterfield as "not much interested in other people".[8]
By 1971, Butterfield had purchased his first house in rural Woodstock, New York and began enjoying family life with his wife Kathy and infant son Lee. According to Maria Muldaur, she and her husband were frequent dinner guests, which usually also involved sitting around a piano and singing songs.[12] Although she doubted her abilities, "it was Butter that first encouraged me to let loose and just sing the blues [and] not to worry about singing pretty or hitting all the right notes ... He loosened all the levels of self-consciousness and doubt out of me ... And he'll forever live in my heart for that and for respecting me as a fellow musician.[12]
Death
Beginning in 1980, Paul Butterfield underwent several surgical procedures to relieve his peritonitis, a serious and painful inflammation of the intestines often experienced as a result of chronic alcoholism.[7] Although he had been opposed to hard drugs as a bandleader, he began using painkillers, including heroin, which led to an addiction. These problems and the drug-related death of his friend and one-time musical partner Mike Bloomfield weighed heavily on him.[3] On May 4, 1987 at age 44, Paul Butterfield died at his apartment in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles. An autopsy by the county coroner concluded that he was the victim of an accidental drug overdose, with "significant levels of morphine (heroin)".[2]
By the time of his death, Paul Butterfield was out of the commercial mainstream. Although for some, he was very much the bluesman. Maria Muldaur commented "he had the whole sensibility and musicality and approach down pat ... He just went for it and took it all in, and he embodied the essence of what the blues was all about. Unfortunately, he lived that way a little too much".



Paul Butterfield - Blues Band (Walking Blues - Live 1978 ) 




PAUL BUTTERFIELD Live at Woodstock 1969 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ek57X5e9Qk 


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