1907 Tiny Bradshaw*
1907 Albert Ammons*
1921 Joe Hill Louis*
1927 Mighty Joe Young*
1930 Ray Charles*
1934 Little Joe Blue*
1935 Fenton Robinson*
1937 Larry "Big Twist" Nolan*
1939 Roy Buchanan*
1946 Duster Bennett*
1957 Charles Elam*
1968 Bjørn Berge*
1970 Peter Levin*
1972 Calvin Frazier+
1980 Houston Stackhouse+
1995 Booker T. Laury+
2006 Etta Baker+
2007 Gary Primich+
Heinz-Udo Weinert*
1907 Albert Ammons*
1921 Joe Hill Louis*
1927 Mighty Joe Young*
1930 Ray Charles*
1934 Little Joe Blue*
1935 Fenton Robinson*
1937 Larry "Big Twist" Nolan*
1939 Roy Buchanan*
1946 Duster Bennett*
1957 Charles Elam*
1968 Bjørn Berge*
1970 Peter Levin*
1972 Calvin Frazier+
1980 Houston Stackhouse+
1995 Booker T. Laury+
2006 Etta Baker+
2007 Gary Primich+
Heinz-Udo Weinert*
Happy Birthday
Albert Ammons *23.09.1907
Ammons, der Sohn eines Pianistenehepaars, lernte bereits mit zehn Jahren Klavier. Sein Interesse für Blues wurde durch Aufnahmen von Hersal Thomas und Jimmy Yancey geweckt. Ursprünglich Taxifahrer, gründete Ammons nach ersten musikalischen Erfahrungen 1929 bei François Moseley, Anfang der 1930er Jahre in Chicagoer Clubs. 1934 hatte er seine eigene Band, die Rhythm Kings, mit denen er 1936 erste Aufnahmen für das Label Decca vorlegte, an denen der Trompeter Guy Kelly und der Bassist Israel Crosby mitwirkten. Ihre Coverversion des Swanee River Boogie verkaufte sich über eine Million Mal. Aufnahmen entstanden für Decca auch mit dem Sänger Sam Theard als Oscar's Chicago Swingers.
Trotz dieses Erfolges verließ er Chicago und ging nach New York. 1938 trat er zusammen mit den Pianisten Meade Lux Lewis (mit dem er seit seiner Taxifahrerzeit eng befreundet war) und Pete Johnson in der New Yorker Carnegie Hall bei John Hammonds berühmtem Spirituals to Swing-Konzert auf. Regelmäßige Auftritte hatte er im New Yorker Cafe Society. Ammons war am damaligen Boogie-Woogie-Fieber beteiligt, das die drei (Ammons, Johnson, Lewis) zu den bekanntesten Pianisten ihrer Zeit machte.
In den 1940er Jahren lebte er zeitweise in New York, wo er unter anderem mit Benny Goodman und Harry James auftrat, 1949 nahm Ammons mit der Band von Lionel Hampton auf und spielte bei der Amtseinführung von Präsident Harry S. Truman. Mit Israel Crosby entstanden noch letzte Aufnahmen für Mercury Records.
Zusammen mit Meade „Lux“ Lewis gebührt ihm das Verdienst, Musiker der ersten, 1939 entstandenen Schallplatten des jungen Jazzlabels Blue Note Records zu sein. Viele Boogie-Pianisten bezeichnen ihn als ihren größten Einfluss (z. B. Dave Alexander, Dr. John, Hadda Brooks, Johnnie Johnson, Ray Bryant, Erroll Garner, Frank Muschalle, Katie Webster, Axel Zwingenberger). Der deutsche Boogiepianist Jörg Hegemann veröffentlichte 2007, anlässlich des 100. Geburtstags von Ammons das Album A Tribute To Albert Ammons.
Albert Ammons ist der Vater des Tenorsaxophonisten Gene Ammons und Großvater der Sängerin Lila Ammons.
Albert Ammons (September 23, 1907 – December 2, 1949)[1] was an American pianist and player of boogie-woogie, a bluesy jazz style popular from the late 1930s into the mid-1940s.
Life and career
Born Albert C. Ammons in Chicago, Illinois, his parents were pianists, and he had learned to play by the age of ten. His interest in boogie-woogie is attributed to his close friendship with Meade Lux Lewis and also his father's interest in the style. Both Albert and Meade would practice together on the piano in the Ammons household. From the age of ten, Ammons learned about chords by marking the depressed keys on the family pianola (player piano) with a pencil and repeated the process until he had mastered it.[2] He also played percussion in the drum and bugle corps as a teenager and was soon performing with bands on the Chicago club scene. After World War I he became interested in the blues, learning by listening to Chicago pianists Hersal Thomas and the brothers Alonzo and Jimmy Yancey.[3]
In the early to mid-1920s Ammons worked as a cab driver for the Silver Taxicab Company. In 1924 he met back up with boyhood friend and fellow taxi driver Meade Lux Lewis. Soon the two players began working as a team, performing at club parties. Ammons started his own band at the Club DeLisa in 1934 and remained at the club for the next two years.[4] During that time he played with a five piece unit that included Guy Kelly, Dalbert Bright, Jimmy Hoskins, and Israel Crosby. Ammons also recorded as Albert Ammons's Rhythm Kings for Decca Records in 1936. The Rhythm Kings' version of "Swanee River Boogie" sold a million copies.
Ammons moved from Chicago to New York, where he teamed up with another pianist, Pete Johnson.[4] The two performed regularly at the Café Society,[4] occasionally joined by Lewis, and performed with other jazz musicians such as Benny Goodman and Harry James.
In 1938 Ammons appeared at Carnegie Hall with Johnson and Lewis at From Spirituals to Swing, an event that helped launch the boogie-woogie craze.[4] Two weeks later, record producer Alfred Lion, who had attended John H. Hammond's From Spirituals to Swing concert on December 23, 1938, which had introduced Ammons and Lewis, started Blue Note Records, recording nine Ammons solos including "The Blues" and "Boogie Woogie Stomp", eight by Lewis and a pair of duets in a one-day session in a rented studio.[5]
In 1941, Ammons' boogie music was accompanied by drawn-on-film animation in the short film Boogie-Doodle by Norman McLaren.[6] Ammons played himself in the movie Boogie-Woogie Dream (1944), with Lena Horne and Johnson.[7] As a sideman with Sippie Wallace in the 1940s Ammons recorded a session with his son, the tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons.[4] Although the boogie-woogie fad began to die down in 1945, Ammons had no difficulty securing work. He continued to tour as a solo artist, and between 1946 and 1949 recorded his last sides for Mercury Records, with bassist Israel Crosby, and took on the position of staff pianist with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. In 1949 he played at President Harry S. Truman's inauguration.[8] During the last few years of his life Ammons played mainly in Chicago's Beehive Club and the Tailspin Club, and just four days before he died he had been at the Yancey apartment listening to Don Ewell and Jimmy Yancey play. Albert himself could only play one song, having just regained the use of his hands after a temporary paralysis.[9][10] Albert Ammons died on December 2, 1949, in Chicago[1] and was interred at the Lincoln Cemetery, at Kedzie Avenue in Blue Island, Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois.
Legacy
Ammons has had wide influence on countless pianists, such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Dave Alexander, Dr. John, Hadda Brooks, Johnnie Johnson, Ray Bryant, Erroll Garner, Katie Webster, Axel Zwingenberger, Henri Herbert, and the German pianist Joerg Hegemann. The last honoured Ammons, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Ammons's birth in 2007, with his album A Tribute To Albert Ammons.
Ray Charles *23.09.1930
Ray Charles (* 23. September 1930 als Raymond Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia; † 10. Juni 2004 in Beverly Hills, Kalifornien) war ein US-amerikanischer Musiker (Gesang, Piano, E-Piano). Sein Einfluss war stilprägend für die Entwicklung von Rhythm and Blues, Blues, Country und Soul. Insgesamt hat er ca. 90 Millionen Tonträger verkauft.
Leben
Kindheit
Ray Charles Robinson, der zur Zeit der Rassentrennung in Armut aufwuchs, erblindete im Alter von sieben Jahren an einem Glaukom. Neun Monate zuvor hatte er mit ansehen müssen, wie sein Bruder in einem Waschzuber ertrank. In einem Hinterhof in der Nähe seiner Wohnsiedlung erlernte er das Klavierspielen. Er besuchte die St.-Augustine-Schule für Gehörlose und Blinde. Seine Mutter, die ihn alleine großgezogen hatte, starb im Mai 1945, als Ray Charles 14 Jahre alt war.
Karriere
Ray Charles begann als Musiker in Florida und zog 1947 nach Seattle. Dort nahm er im November 1948 als Mitglied des Maxin Trios mit Gosady D. McKee, Gitarre, und Milton S. Garred, Bass, seine ersten Schallplatten auf. Die erste Single Confession Blues / I Love You I Love You erschien im Februar 1949 bei dem kleinen Label Down Beat Records in Los Angeles. Der Titel erzielte mit Platz 2 der Rhythm & Blues-Hitparade einen beachtlichen Erstlingserfolg. Seine frühen Aufnahmen gehörten zum Rhythm & Blues und adaptierten Charles Brown oder Nat King Cole. Im selben Jahr wurde die Band in Ray Charles Trio umbenannt, Mitglieder waren außer ihm (Gesang/Piano) nun Gosady McKee (Gitarre), Mitchell „Tiny“ Webb (Gitarre) und Ralph Hamilton (Bass). Mittlerweile hatte sich Down Beat Records in SwingTime Records umbenannt, wo die Single How Long Blues/Blues Before Sunrise (#178) noch im Jahr 1949 veröffentlicht wurde. Nach insgesamt sechs Singles hatte Charles ein größeres Orchester um sich versammelt, bestehend aus Teddy Buckner (Trompete), Marshall Royal (Altsaxophon), Jack McVea (Tenorsaxophon), Charles Waller (Baritonsaxophon), Louis Speiginer (Gitarre), Billy Hadnott (Bass) und Clifton „Rudy“ Pitts (Schlagzeug). Unter dem Namen Ray Charles Orchestra entstanden am 25. Mai 1950 vier Aufnahmen, die auf zwei SwingTime-Singles verteilt wurden. Bei jenem Label blieb er bis September 1952 und wurde für eine Ablösesumme von $ 5000 vom großen Rhythm & Blues-Label Atlantic Records unter Vertrag genommen.[4]
Erst bei Atlantic Records (1952–1959) wurde seine Musik in mehrfacher Hinsicht (Gesang, Instrumentalstil, Komposition, Arrangement) unverwechselbar, da er Gospel- und Jazzeinflüsse betonte. Mit der Verbindung von Rhythm & Blues und Gospel wurde Charles zu einem der wichtigsten Wegbereiter und Musiker des Soul, unterstützt durch seinen Produzenten Jerry Wexler. Sein erster Erfolg war Mess Around, das auf C. C. Davenports Cow Cow Blues zurückgeht und dessen Text auf dem Boogie-Klassiker Pinetop's Boogie Woogie (1929) von Clarence ‚Pinetop‘ Smith basiert. Es dauerte bis zum 17. Mai 1953, dass aus sieben Titeln dieser Aufnahmesession It Should Have Been Me ausgewählt wurde, das den fünften Rang der R&B-Charts erreichte. Mit seiner sechsten Atlantic-Single I’ve Got a Woman, aufgenommen am 18. November 1954 in Atlanta, gelang ihm sein erster Nummer-eins-Hit in den R&B-Charts. Die Top-Platzierung schaffte er noch dreimal, wobei die am 27. Juni 1959 veröffentlichte Single What’d I Say zu seinem größten Hit bei Atlantic Records wurde. Nach insgesamt 28 Singles, von denen 13 die Top-10 der R&B-Charts erreichten, wechselte Ray Charles am 1. November 1959 zu ABC-Paramount.
Während Charles die Hitparaden stürmte, verfiel er dem Heroin, das seine Karriere mehrmals an einen kritischen Punkt brachte. 1965 wurde er wegen Heroinbesitzes zu fünf Jahren Gefängnis auf Bewährung verurteilt, woraufhin er sich einer Entziehungskur unterzog. Ende der 1970er Jahre begab sich Ray Charles erneut in Behandlung und verbrachte nach deren Abschluss den Rest seines Lebens ohne Drogen.
Beim neuen Label ABC-Paramount feierte er unter dem Produzenten Sid Feller auch kommerzielle Erfolge. Mit Georgia on My Mind (veröffentlicht am 19. August 1960) griff er einen Jazzstandard auf und landete damit den zweiten Millionenseller. Erstmals konnte er sogar die Spitzenposition auch in den Pop-Charts belegen. Die Blues-intensiven Sounds bei Atlantic Records waren bei ABC Records von Geigen untermalten Pop-Arrangements gewichen. Hit the Road, Jack kam am 21. August 1961 auf den Markt und setzte ebenfalls über eine Million Exemplare um. Sein größter Hit erschien am 23. April 1962 mit I Can’t Stop Loving You, einem Country-Klassiker, der über zwei Millionen Mal verkauft wurde.[5] Als Hintergrundchor diente weiterhin die Girlgroup The Raelettes, die seine Karriere bis in die 70er Jahre begleitete.
Der zuletzt genannte Titel stammte aus dem im April 1962 veröffentlichten epochalen, in über 500.000 Exemplaren abgesetzten Album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Aus diesem wurden zudem Born to Lose, You Don't Know Me und Careless Love ausgekoppelt. Danach folgten Hits wie Crying Time, Busted und Take These Chains From My Heart. 1966 produzierte er Lets Go Get Stoned von Ashford & Simpson. Einen weiteren Erfolg hatte er mit seiner Version von America the Beautiful im Juni 1972.
Ray Charles hatte auch zahlreiche Duettpartner. So sang er unter anderem mit George Jones, Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson und Merle Haggard. Auch wenn seine Chart-Erfolge schwanden, war die Begeisterung über seine intensiven Live-Auftritte ungebrochen. Der auch finanziell erfolgreichste schwarze Entertainer seiner Generation wird von zahlreichen Musikern als wichtige Einflussquelle genannt.
Privatleben und Tod
Charles war zweimal verheiratet: zunächst mit Eileen Williams (1951–1952), später mit Della Beatrice Howard (1955–1977), mit der er drei Kinder hatte. Außerdem hatte er einige Beziehungen neben und nach seinen Ehen, aus denen weitere neun Kinder hervorgingen.[6][7] Seine Langzeitfreundin bis zum Zeitpunkt seines Todes war Norma Pinella.
Ray Charles' Kinder:
Evelyn Robinson (* 1950) (Tochter von Louise Mitchell)
Ray Charles Robinson, Jr. (* 1955) (Sohn von Della Robinson)
David Robinson (* 1958) (Sohn von Della Robinson)
Charles Wayne Hendricks (* 1959) (Sohn von Margie Hendrix — eine der Raelettes)
Reverend Robert Robinson (* 1960) (Sohn von Della Robinson)
Raenee Robinson (* 1961) (Tochter von Mae Mosely Lyles)
Sheila Robinson aka Sheila Raye Charles (* 1963) (Tochter von Sandra Jean Betts)
Reatha Butler
Alexandria Bertrand (Tochter von Chantelle Bertrand)
Jean Bettincent Kotchounian (* 1977) (Sohn von Arlette Kotchounian — arbeitete mit ihm als Fotograf am Album Would You Believe)
Robyn Moffett (* 1978) (Tochter von Gloria Moffett)
Ryan Corey Robinson den Bok (* 1987) (Sohn von Mary Anne den Bok)[8]
Ray Charles starb am 10. Juni 2004 im Alter von 73 Jahren an Leberkrebs. Er wurde auf dem Inglewood Park Cemetery im Los Angeles County beigesetzt.[9]
Auszeichnungen
Ray Charles wurde mit zahlreichen Musikpreisen ausgezeichnet, darunter auch zahlreiche Grammy Awards. Den Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance erhielt er fünfmal und ist damit der Künstler, der den Preis am Häufigsten erhalten hat, weitere viermal bekam er den Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
Er zählt zur Rock and Roll Hall of Fame und ist Mitglied der Blues Hall of Fame, der Songwriters Hall of Fame, der Grammy Hall of Fame, der Jazz Hall of Fame, der Georgia Music Hall of Fame und der Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Im Jahr 1993 erhielt er den National Medal of Arts des US-Kongresses. 1998 erhielt er den begehrten Polar Music Prize gemeinsam mit Ravi Shankar. Nach seinem Tod wurde ihm 2005 die Grammy-Award-Show gewidmet. „The Spirit of Christmas“ wurde in die Wireliste The Wire’s “100 Records That Set The World On Fire (While No One Was Listening)” aufgenommen. Das Magazin Rolling Stone wählte ihn auf Platz 2 der 100 besten Sänger aller Zeiten.[10]
Ray Charles in Film, Musik und Fernsehen
Charles hatte Gastauftritte in den Filmen Blues Brothers und Agent 00 – Mit der Lizenz zum Totlachen, in der Kindersendung Sesamstraße,[11] sowie in den US-Sitcoms Wer ist hier der Boss?, Die Nanny, Das Model und der Schnüffler und der Bill Cosby Show. 1965 spielte er die Hauptrolle in dem Film Halt die Tasten heiß, ein Spielfilm, der ausgehend von einer Rahmenhandlung der Freundschaft von Charles mit einem blinden Jungen, Ausschnitte aus seinen Konzerten zeigte.[12]
Charles' erste Lebenshälfte wurde 2004 unter dem Titel Ray verfilmt. Der Film des Regisseurs Taylor Hackford (Drehbuch: James L. White) schildert Teile der Lebensgeschichte von Ray Charles – beginnend mit seiner Reise nach Seattle bis zur Ernennung von Georgia On My Mind zum Staatstitel Georgias und der Aufhebung der Verbannung und mit Rückblenden in seine Kindheit. Der Hauptdarsteller Jamie Foxx erhielt für seine Darstellung von Ray Charles den Oscar als bester Hauptdarsteller.
Alexis Spraic drehte 2010 eine zweistündige Dokumentation, in der David Duchovny Ray Charles’ America präsentiert.[13]
Des Weiteren erschien 2011 die Single „Ray Charles“ der amerikanischen Band Chiddy Bang und ist eine Hommage an den verstorbenen Sänger.
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He pioneered the genre of soul music during the 1950s by combining rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into the music he recorded for Atlantic Records.[4][5][6] He also contributed to the racial integration of country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his two Modern Sounds albums.[7][8][9] While he was with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be granted artistic control by a mainstream record company.[5]
Charles was blind from the age of seven. Charles cited Nat King Cole as a primary influence, but his music was also influenced by jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, and country artists of the day, including Art Tatum, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown and Louis Armstrong.[10] Charles' playing reflected influences from country blues, barrelhouse and stride piano styles. He had strong ties to Quincy Jones, who often cared for him and showed him the ropes of the "music club industry."
Frank Sinatra called him "the only true genius in show business", although Charles downplayed this notion.[11]
In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Charles at number ten on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time",[2] and number two on their November 2008 list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".[12] Billy Joel observed: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley".[13]
Life and career
Early years (1930–45)
Ray Charles Robinson was the son of Aretha (née William) Robinson,[14] a sharecropper, and Bailey Robinson, a railroad repair man, mechanic, and handyman.[15] When Charles was an infant, his family moved from his birthplace in Albany, Georgia back to his mother's hometown of Greenville, Florida.
Charles did not see much of his father growing up, and it is unclear whether his mother and father were ever married. Charles was raised by his biological mother Aretha, as well as his father’s first wife, a woman named Mary Jane. Growing up, he referred to Aretha as "Mama", and Mary Jane as "mother".[10] Aretha was a devout Christian, and the family attended the New Shiloh Baptist Church.[14]
In his early years, Charles showed a curiosity for mechanical objects, and would often watch his neighbors working on their cars and farm machinery. His musical curiosity was sparked at Mr. Wylie Pitman's Red Wing Cafe, when Pitman played boogie woogie on an old upright piano; Pitman subsequently taught Charles how to play piano himself. Charles and his mother were always welcome at the Red Wing Cafe, and even lived there when they were experiencing financial difficulties.[10] Pitman would also care for Ray's brother George, to take the burden off Aretha. George drowned in Aretha's laundry tub when he was four years old, and Ray was five.[10][15] Charles started to lose his sight at the age of four[3] or five,[16] and was completely blind by the age of seven, apparently as a result of glaucoma.[17] Broke, uneducated and still mourning the loss of Charles' brother George, Aretha used her connections in the local community to find a school that would accept blind African American students. Despite his initial protest, Charles would attend school at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine from 1937 to 1945.[18]
Charles began to develop his musical talent at school,[17] and was taught to play the classical piano music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. His teacher Mrs. Lawrence taught him how to read music using braille, a difficult process that requires learning the left hand movements by reading braille with the right hand and learning the right hand movements by reading braille with the left hand, and then synthesizing the two parts. While Charles was happy to play the piano, he was more interested in the jazz and blues music he heard on the family radio than classical music.[18] On Fridays, the South Campus Literary Society held assemblies where Charles would play piano and sing popular songs. On Halloween and Washington's birthday, the black Department of the school had socials where Charles would play. It was here he established "RC Robinson and the Shop Boys" and sang his own arrangement of "Jingle Bell Boogie". During this time, he performed on WFOY radio in St. Augustine.[18]
Aretha died in the spring of 1945, when Charles was 14 years old. Her death came as a shock to Ray, who would later consider the deaths of his brother and mother to be "the two great tragedies" of his life. Charles returned to school after the funeral, but was then expelled in October for playing a prank on his teacher.[18]
Life in Florida, Los Angeles, Seattle and first hits (1945–52)
After leaving school, Charles moved to Jacksonville with a couple who were friends of his mother. He played the piano for bands at the Ritz Theatre in LaVilla for over a year, earning $4 a night. He also joined the musicians’ union in the hope that it would help him get work. He befriended many union members, but others were less kind to him because he would monopolize the union hall’s piano, since he did not have one at home. He started to build a reputation as a talented musician in Jacksonville, but the jobs did not come fast enough for him to construct a strong identity. He decided to leave Jacksonville and move to a bigger city with more opportunities.[19]
At age 16, Charles moved to Orlando, where he lived in borderline poverty and went without food for days. It was an extremely difficult time for musicians to find work, as since World War II had ended there were no “G.I. Joes” left to entertain. Charles eventually started to write arrangements for a pop music band, and in the summer of 1947 he unsuccessfully auditioned to play piano for Lucky Millinder and his sixteen-piece band.[18]
In 1947, Charles moved to Tampa, where he had two jobs: one as a pianist for Charlie Brantley's Honeydippers, a seven-piece band; and another as a member of a white country band called The Florida Playboys (though there is no historical trace of Charles' involvement in The Florida Playboys besides Charles' own testimony). This is where he began his habit of always wearing sunglasses, made by designer Billy Stickles. In his early career, he modeled himself on Nat "King" Cole. His first four recordings—"Wondering and Wondering", "Walking and Talking", "Why Did You Go?" and "I Found My Baby There"—were supposedly made in Tampa, although some discographies also claim he recorded them in Miami in 1951, or Los Angeles in 1952.[18]
Charles had always played piano for other people, but he was keen to have his own band. He decided to leave Florida for a large city, and, considering Chicago and New York City too big, followed his friend Gossie McKee to Seattle, Washington in March 1948, knowing that the biggest radio hits came from northern cities.[17][20] Here he met and befriended, under the tutelage of Robert Blackwell, a 15-year-old Quincy Jones.[21]
He started playing the one-to-five A.M. shift at the Rocking Chair with his band McSon Trio, which featured McKee on guitar and Milton Garrett on bass. Publicity photos of the trio are some of the earliest recorded photographs of Ray Charles. In April 1949, Charles and his band recorded "Confession Blues", which became his first national hit, soaring to the second spot on the Billboard R&B chart.[20] While still working at the Rocking Chair, he also arranged songs for other artists, including Cole Porter's "Ghost of a Chance" and Dizzy Gillespie's "Emanon".[19] After the success of his first two singles, Charles moved to Los Angeles in 1950, and spent the next few years touring with blues artist Lowell Fulson as his musical director.[3]
In 1950, his performance in a Miami hotel would impress Henry Stone, who went on to record a Ray Charles Rockin' record (which never became particularly popular). During his stay in Miami, Charles was required to stay in the segregated but thriving black community of Overtown. Stone later helped Jerry Wexler find Charles in St. Petersburg.[22]
After joining Swing Time Records, he recorded two more R&B hits under the name "Ray Charles": "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" (1951), which reached number five; and "Kissa Me Baby"(1952), which reached number eight. Swing Time folded the following year, and Ahmet Ertegün signed him to Atlantic Records.[17]
Signing with Atlantic Records (1952–59)
Charles' first recording session with Atlantic ("The Midnight Hour"/"Roll With my Baby") took place in September 1952, although his last Swingtime release ("Misery in my Heart"/"The Snow is Falling") would not appear until February 1953. He began recording jump blues and boogie-woogie style recordings as well as slower blues ballads, where he continued to show the vocal influences of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown. "Mess Around" became Charles' first Atlantic hit in 1953; the following year he had hits with "It Should Have Been Me" and "Don't You Know". He also recorded the songs "Midnight Hour" and "Sinner's Prayer". Some elements of his own vocal style were evident in "Sinner's Prayer", "Mess Around" and "Don't You Know".
Late in 1954, Charles recorded his own composition "I Got a Woman"; the song became Charles' first number-one R&B hit in 1955, bringing him to national prominence.[23] "I Got a Woman" included a mixture of gospel, jazz and blues elements that would later prove to be seminal in the development of rock 'n' roll and soul music. He continued through to 1958 with records such as "This Little Girl of Mine", "Drown in My Own Tears", "Lonely Avenue", "A Fool For You" and "The Night Time (Is the Right Time)".
Parallel to his R&B career, Charles also recorded instrumental jazz albums such as 1957's The Great Ray Charles. During this time, Charles also worked with jazz vibraphonist Milt Jackson, releasing Soul Brothers in 1958 and Soul Meeting in 1961. By 1958, Charles was not only headlining black venues such as The Apollo Theater and The Uptown Theater, but also bigger venues such as The Newport Jazz Festival (where he would cut his first live album). In 1956, Charles recruited a young all-female singing group named the Cookies, and reshaped them as The Raelettes. Up to this point, Charles had used his wife and other musicians to back him on recordings such as "This Little Girl of Mine" and "Drown In My Own Tears". The Raelettes' first recording session with Charles was on the bluesy-gospel inflected "Leave My Woman Alone".
Crossover success (1959–67)
Charles reached the pinnacle of his success at Atlantic with the release of "What'd I Say", a complex song that combined gospel, jazz, blues and Latin music, which Charles would later claim he had composed spontaneously as he was performing in clubs and dances with his small band. Despite some radio stations banning the song because of its sexually suggestive lyrics, the song became Charles' first ever crossover top ten pop record.[24] Later in 1959, he released his first country song (a cover of Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On"), as well as recording three more albums for the label: a jazz record (later released in 1961 as The Genius After Hours); a blues record (released in 1961 as The Genius Sings the Blues); and a traditional pop/big band record (The Genius of Ray Charles). The Genius of Ray Charles provided his first top 40 album entry, where it peaked at No. 17, and was later held as a landmark record in Charles' career.
Charles' Atlantic contract expired in the fall of 1959, with several big labels offered him record deals; choosing not to renegotiate his contract with Atlantic, Ray Charles signed with ABC-Paramount Records in November 1959.[25] He obtained a much more liberal contract than other artists had at the time, with ABC offering him a $50,000 annual advance, higher royalties than before and eventual ownership of his masters—a very valuable and lucrative deal at the time.[26] During his Atlantic years, Charles had been heralded for his own inventive compositions, but by the time of the release of the instrumental jazz LP Genius + Soul = Jazz (1960) for ABC's subsidiary label Impulse!, he had virtually given up on writing original material, instead following his eclectic impulses as an interpreter.[24]
With "Georgia on My Mind", his first hit single for ABC-Paramount in 1960, Charles received national acclaim and a Grammy Award. Originally written by composers Stuart Gorrell and Hoagy Carmichael, the song was Charles' first work with Sid Feller, who produced, arranged and conducted the recording.[24][27] Charles earned another Grammy for the follow-up "Hit the Road Jack", written by R&B singer Percy Mayfield.[28]
By late 1961, Charles had expanded his small road ensemble to a full-scale big band, partly as a response to increasing royalties and touring fees, becoming one of the few black artists to crossover into mainstream pop with such a level of creative control.[24][29] This success, however, came to a momentary halt during a concert tour in November 1961, when a police search of Charles' hotel room in Indianapolis, Indiana, led to the discovery of heroin in his medicine cabinet. The case was eventually dropped, as the search lacked a proper warrant by the police, and Charles soon returned to music.[29]
In the early 1960s, whilst on the way from Louisiana to Oklahoma City, Charles faced a near-death experience when the pilot of his plane lost visibility, as snow and his failure to use defroster caused the windshield of the plane to become completely covered in ice. The pilot made a few circles in the air before he was finally able to see through a small part of the windshield and land the plane. Charles placed a spiritual interpretation on the event, claiming that "something or someone which instruments cannot detect" was responsible for creating the small opening in the ice on the windshield which enabled the pilot to land the plane safely.[10]
The 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, and its sequel Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 2, helped to bring country into the musical mainstream. Charles' version of the Don Gibson song I Can't Stop Loving You topped the Pop chart for five weeks, stayed at No. 1 in the R&B chart for ten weeks, and also gave him his only number one record in the UK. In 1962, he founded his own record label, Tangerine Records, which ABC-Paramount promoted and distributed.[30][31] He had major pop hits in 1963 with "Busted" (US No. 4) and Take These Chains From My Heart (US No. 8).
In 1965, Charles' career was halted once more after being arrested for a third time for heroin use. He agreed to go to rehab to avoid jail time, and eventually kicked his habit at a clinic in Los Angeles. After spending a year on parole, Charles reappeared in the charts in 1966 with a series of hits composed with the fledgling team of Ashford & Simpson, including the dance number "I Don't Need No Doctor", and "Let's Go Get Stoned", which became his first No. 1 R&B hit in several years. His cover of country artist Buck Owens' "Crying Time" reached No. 6 on the pop chart and helped Charles win a Grammy Award the following March. In 1967, he had a top twenty hit with another ballad, "Here We Go Again".[32]
Commercial decline (1967–81)
Charles' renewed chart success, however, proved to be short lived, and by the late 1960s his music was rarely played on radio stations. The rise of psychedelic rock and harder forms of rock and R&B music had reduced Charles' radio appeal, as did his choosing to record pop standards and covers of contemporary rock and soul hits, since his earnings from owning his own masters had taken away the motivation to write new material. Charles nonetheless continued to have an active recording career, although most of his recordings between 1968 and 1973 evoked strong reactions: people either liked them a lot, or strongly disliked them.[17] His 1972 album, A Message from the People, included his unique gospel-influenced version of "America the Beautiful", as well as a number of protest songs about poverty and civil rights. Charles was often criticized for his version of "America the Beautiful" because it was very drastically changed from the song's original version. The common argument against this is that the words are scattered and changed, but the music in the background remains beautiful and untouched. Many people believed that this was a perfect representation of the freedom Americans are given, free to do what they want, so long as they follow the laws (music) that we are given.[33]
In 1974, Charles left ABC Records and recorded several albums on his own Crossover Records label. A 1975 recording of Stevie Wonder's hit "Living for the City" later helped Charles win another Grammy. In 1977, he reunited with Ahmet Ertegün and re-signed to Atlantic Records, where he recorded the album True to Life, remaining with his old label until 1980. However, the label had now begun to focus on rock acts, and some of their prominent soul artists such as Aretha Franklin were starting to be neglected. In November 1977 he appeared as the host of NBC's Saturday Night Live.[34] In April 1979, Charles' version of "Georgia On My Mind" was proclaimed the state song of Georgia, and an emotional Charles performed the song on the floor of the state legislature.[17] Although he had notably supported the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s, in 1981 Charles was criticized for performing at South Africa's Sun City resort during an international boycott of its apartheid policy.[17]
Later years (1983–2004)
In 1983, Charles signed a contract with Columbia Records. He recorded a string of country albums, as well as having single hits with duet singers such as George Jones, Chet Atkins, B.J. Thomas, Mickey Gilley, Hank Williams, Jr., Dee Dee Bridgewater ("Precious Thing") and lifelong friend Willie Nelson, with whom he recorded the No. 1 country duet "Seven Spanish Angels".[citation needed]
Prior to the release of his first Warner release, Would You Believe, Charles made a return to the R&B charts with a cover of The Brothers Johnson's "I'll Be Good to You", a duet with his lifelong friend Quincy Jones and singer Chaka Khan which hit number-one on the R&B charts in 1990 and won Charles and Khan a Grammy for their dual work. Prior to this, Charles returned to the pop charts in another duet, with singer Billy Joel on the song "Baby Grand". In 1989, he recorded a cover of the Southern All Stars' "Itoshi no Ellie" for a Japanese TV advert for the Suntory brand, releasing it in Japan as "Ellie My Love" where it reached No. 3 on its Oricon chart.[35]
Charles' 1993 album, My World, became his first album in some time to reach the Billboard 200, whilst his cover of Leon Russell's "A Song for You" would give him a hit on the adult contemporary chart as well as his twelfth and final Grammy. By the beginning of the 1980s, Charles was reaching younger audiences with appearances in various films and TV shows. In 1980, he appeared in the film The Blues Brothers. Charles' version of "Night Time is the Right Time" was played during the popular Cosby Show episode "Happy Anniversary", although he never appeared on the show in person. In 1985, he appeared alongside a slew of other popular musicians in the USA for Africa charity recording "We Are the World". Charles' popularity increased among younger audiences in 1991 after he appeared in a series of Diet Pepsi commercials, where he popularized the catchphrase "You Got the Right One, Baby".
In the late 1980s/early 1990s, he made appearances on the Super Dave Osbourne television show, featuring in a series of vignettes where he was somehow driving a car, often as Super Dave's chauffeur. During the sixth season of Designing Women, Charles himself sang "Georgia on My Mind" in place of the instrumental cover version which had featured in the previous five seasons. He also appeared in 4 episodes of the popular TV comedy The Nanny, playing Sammy in Seasons 4 & 5 during 1997–98. From 2001–02, Charles appeared in commercials for the New Jersey Lottery to promote its "For every dream, there's a jackpot" campaign.
Charles appeared at two separate Presidential inaugurations, performing for Ronald Reagan's second inauguration in 1985, and for Bill Clinton's first in 1993.[36] On October 28, 2001, several weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, Charles appeared during Game 2 of the World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees and performed "America the Beautiful". In 2003, Charles headlined the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, DC, attended by the President, First Lady, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.
Also in 2003, Charles presented one of his greatest admirers, Van Morrison, with his award upon being inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the two sang Morrison's song "Crazy Love" (the performance appears on Morrison's 2007 album The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3). In 2003, Charles performed "Georgia On My Mind" and "America the Beautiful" at a televised annual electronic media journalist banquet held in Washington, D.C. His final public appearance came on April 30, 2004, at the dedication of his music studio as a historic landmark in Los Angeles.[17]
Personal life
Marriages and children
Ray Charles was married twice, and had twelve children with ten different women. Charles' first child Evelyn was born in 1950 to his significant other, Louise Mitchell. Charles' first marriage was to Eileen Williams Robinson and lasted from July 31, 1951 to 1952.
Charles' second marriage to Della Beatrice Howard Robinson (called "B" by Charles) began on April 5, 1955, and lasted 12 or 13 years. Their first child together, Ray Jr., was born in 1955. Charles was not in town for the birth as he was playing a show in Texas; at first, he was afraid to hold his son because he was so small, but he got over his fear after a few months. The couple had two further children, David (1958) and Robert (1960). During their marriage, Charles felt that his heroin addiction took a toll on Della.[10]
Charles had a six-year-long affair with Margie Hendricks, one of the original Raelettes, and in 1959 the pair had a son together, Charles Wayne. His affair with Mae Mosely Lyles resulted in another daughter, Raenee, born in 1961. In 1963, Charles had a daughter, Sheila Jean Robinson, with Sandra Jean Betts. In 1966, Charles' daughter Aretha was born to a woman who remains unidentified, and another daughter, Alexandra, was also born to Chantal Bertrand. Charles divorced from Della Howard in 1977, and later that year Charles had a son, Vincent, with Arlette Kotchounian. A daughter, Robyn, was born a year later to Gloria Moffett. Charles' youngest child, son Ryan Corey den Bok, born in 1987 to Mary Anne den Bok. Charles' long-term girlfriend and partner at the time of his death was Norma Pinella.
Substance abuse and legal issues
Charles first tried drugs when he played in McSon Trio, and was eager to try them as he thought they helped musicians create music and tap into their creativity. He experimented first with marijuana, and later became addicted to heroin, which he struggled with for sixteen years. He was first arrested in the 1950s, when he and his bandmates were caught backstage with loose marijuana and drug paraphernalia, including a burnt spoon, syringe and needle. The arrest did not deter Charles' drug use, which only escalated as he became more successful and made more money.[20]
Charles was arrested again on a narcotics charge on November 14, 1961, whilst waiting in an Indiana hotel room before a performance. The detectives seized heroin, marijuana and other items. Charles, then 31, stated that he had been a drug addict since the age of 16. The case was dismissed because of the manner in which the evidence was obtained,[37] but Charles's situation did not improve until a few years later. Individuals such as Quincy Jones and Reverend Henry Griffin felt that those around Charles were responsible for his drug use.[citation needed]
In 1964, Charles was arrested for possession of marijuana and heroin.[20] Following a self-imposed stay[37] at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood, California, Charles received five years' probation. Charles responded to the saga of his drug use and reform with the songs "I Don't Need No Doctor", "Let's Go Get Stoned", and the release of Crying Time, his first album since having kicked his heroin addiction in 1966.[38][39]
Other interests
Charles liked to play chess, using a special board with raised squares and holes for the pieces.[40] In a 1991 concert, he referred to Willie Nelson as "my chess partner".[41] In 2002, he played and lost to American Grandmaster and former U.S. Champion Larry Evans.[42]
In 2001, Morehouse College honored Charles with the Candle Award for Lifetime Achievement in Arts and Entertainment, and later that same year granted him an honorary doctor of humane letters. Charles and his longtime business manager, Joe Adams, also gave a gift of $1 million to Morehouse, where Charles had approved plans for the building of the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center.[43]
Death
In 2003, Charles had successful hip replacement surgery and was originally planning to go back on tour, until he began suffering from other ailments. Charles died at his home in Beverly Hills, California on June 10, 2004, surrounded by family and friends,[44][45] as a result of acute liver disease.[3] He was 73 years old. His funeral took place on June 18, 2004, at the First AME Church in Los Angeles, with musical peers such as Little Richard in attendance.[46] B.B. King, Glen Campbell, Stevie Wonder and Wynton Marsalis each played a tribute at Charles' funeral.[47] Charles was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6777 Hollywood Blvd
His final album, Genius Loves Company, was released two months after his death, and consists of duets with various admirers and contemporaries: B.B. King, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Norah Jones and Johnny Mathis. The album won eight Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "Here We Go Again" with Norah Jones, and Best Gospel Performance for "Heaven Help Us All" with Gladys Knight; he also received nods for his duets with Elton John and B.B. King. The album included a version of Harold Arlen's "Over the Rainbow" sung as a duet with Johnny Mathis, which was played at Charles' memorial service.[47]
Two more posthumous albums were released: Genius & Friends (2005), a selection of duets recorded from 1997 to 2004 with artists of Charles' choice, including "Big Bad Love" with Diana Ross; and Ray Sings, Basie Swings (2006), which combined archive Ray Charles live vocal performances from the mid-1970s recorded from the concert mixing board with new instrumental tracks specially recorded by the contemporary Count Basie Orchestra and other musicians, to create a "fantasy concert" recording.
Legacy
Charles possessed one of the most recognizable voices in American music. In the words of musicologist Henry Pleasants (music critic):
Sinatra, and Bing Crosby before him, had been masters of words. Ray Charles is a master of sounds. His records disclose an extraordinary assortment of slurs, glides, turns, shrieks, wails, breaks, shouts, screams and hollers, all wonderfully controlled, disciplined by inspired musicianship, and harnessed to ingenious subtleties of harmony, dynamics and rhythm... It is either the singing of a man whose vocabulary is inadequate to express what is in his heart and mind or of one whose feelings are too intense for satisfactory verbal or conventionally melodic articulation. He can’t tell it to you. He can’t even sing it to you. He has to cry out to you, or shout to you, in tones eloquent of despair—or exaltation. The voice alone, with little assistance from the text or the notated music, conveys the message.[48]
His style and success in the genres of rhythm and blues and jazz had an influence on a number of highly successful artists, including Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison and Billy Joel. According to Joe Levy, a music editor for Rolling Stone, "The hit records he made for Atlantic in the mid-50's mapped out everything that would happen to rock 'n' roll and soul music in the years that followed".[49] Charles was also an inspiration to former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters, who told the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet: "I was about 15. In the middle of the night with friends, we were listening to jazz. It was "Georgia on My Mind", Ray Charles's version. Then I thought 'One day, if I make some people feel only one twentieth of what I am feeling now, it will be quite enough for me.'"[50]
Ray, a biopic portraying his life and career between 1930 and 1979, was released in October 2004, starring Jamie Foxx as Charles. Foxx won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor for the role. On December 7, 2007, the Ray Charles Plaza was opened in his hometown of Albany, Georgia, featuring a revolving, lighted bronze sculpture of Charles seated at a piano. The plaza's dedication was attended by his daughter Sheila Raye Charles.
Awards and honors
In 1979, Charles was one of the first musicians born in the state to be inducted into the Georgia State Music Hall of Fame.[51] Charles' version of "Georgia On My Mind" was also made the official state song for Georgia.[52]
In 1981 he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was one of the first inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony in 1986.[53] He also received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986.[54] In 1987, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1991, he was inducted to the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, and was presented with the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement during the 1991 UCLA Spring Sing.[55]
In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.[56] In 1998 he was awarded the Polar Music Prize together with Ravi Shankar in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2004 he was inducted to the National Black Sports & Entertainment Hall of Fame.[57] The Grammy Awards of 2005 were dedicated to Charles.
In 2003, Charles was awarded an honorary degree by Dillard University, and upon his death he endowed a professorship of African-American culinary history at the school, the first such chair in the nation.[58] A $20 million performing arts center at Morehouse College was named after Charles and was dedicated in September 2010.[59]
The United States Postal Service issued a forever stamp honoring Ray Charles as part of it Musical Icons series on September 23, 2013.
Contributions to civil rights movement
On March 15, 1961, shortly after the release of the hit song "Georgia on My Mind" (1960), Charles (who was born in Albany, Georgia) was scheduled to perform at a dance at Bell Auditorium in Augusta, Georgia, but cancelled the show after learning from students of Paine College that the larger auditorium dance floor would be restricted to whites, while blacks would be obligated to sit in the Music Hall balcony. Charles left town immediately after letting the public know why he wouldn't be performing, but the promoter went on to sue Charles for breach of contract, and Charles was fined $757 in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta on June 14, 1962. The following year, Charles did perform at a desegregated Bell Auditorium concert together with his backup group the Raelettes on October 23, 1963,[60][61][62] and was not banned from performing thereafter in Georgia as depicted in the 2004 film, Ray.[63] On December 7, 2007, Ray Charles Plaza was opened in Albany, Georgia, with a revolving, lighted bronze sculpture of Charles seated at a piano.[55]
The Ray Charles Foundation
Founded in 1986, the Ray Charles Foundation maintains the mission statement of financially supporting institutions and organizations in the research of hearing disorders.[64] Originally known as "The Robinson Foundation for Hearing Disorders", it was renamed in 2006, and has since provided financial donations to numerous institutions involved in hearing loss research and education.[65] Specifically, the purpose of the Foundation has been "to administer funds for scientific, educational and charitable purposes; to encourage, promote and educate, through grants to institutions and organizations, as to the causes and cures for diseases and disabilities of the hearing impaired and to assist organizations and institutions in their social educational and academic advancement of programs for the youth, and carry on other charitable and educational activities associated with these goals as allowed by law".[66] The organization's philanthropic views stem from Charles' own views on giving, as the musician often contributed cochlear implant donations to those who could not afford the procedure. Charles was recorded as saying that the reason he has given so much more time and money to the hearing impaired, rather than the visually impaired, was that music saved his life, and he wouldn't know what to do if he couldn't experience it.
Recipients of donations include Benedict College, Morehouse College and numerous other universities.[67] The foundation has previously taken action against donation recipients who do not use funds in accordance to its mission statement, such as the Albany State University which was made to return its $3 Million donation after not using its funds for over a decade.[68] The foundation currently houses its executive offices at the historic RPM International Building, originally the home of Ray Charles Enterprises, Inc, and now also home to the Ray Charles Memorial Library on the first floor, which was founded on September 23, 2010 (what would have been Charles' 80th birthday). The library was founded to "provide an avenue for young children to experience music and art in a way that will inspire their creativity and imagination", and is not open to the public without reservation, as the main goal is to educate mass groups of underprivileged youth and provide art and history to those without access to such documents.
Tiny Bradshaw *23.09.1907
Myron „Tiny“ Bradshaw (* 23. September 1905 in Youngstown, Ohio; † 26. November 1958 in Cincinnati) war ein US-amerikanischer Bandleader, Sänger, Arrangeur und Produzent (sowie Schlagzeuger und Pianist) des Jazz und Rhythm and Blues.
Bradshaw studierte zunächst Psychologie an der Wilberforce University und sang dann mit Horace Hendersons „Collegians“ bei College-Auftritten in Ohio. 1932 zog er nach New York City, wo er Schlagzeuger bei den „Alabamians“ von Marion Hardy, den „Charleston Bearcats“ (später „Savoy Bearcats“) und der „Mills Blue Rhythm Band“ war und 1932 für Luis Russell sang. 1934 gründete er sein eigenes Swing-Orchester, das er nach dem Vorbild von Cab Calloway. Hits waren u. a. „Darktown Strutters Ball“ und „Shout Sister Shout“.
Bekannt wurde er vor allem mit seiner Rhythm-and Blues Band ab 1945, als Fortsetzung einer Band, die er im Zweiten Weltkrieg bei der US-Armee leitete. Hits waren z. B. „Well Oh Well“ (1950, King), mit denen sie auch beim weißen Publikum großen Erfolg hatten, „Breaking up the house“ (1950), „Train-Kept-a-Rollin“ von 1952 (das mit Johnny Burnette 1955 und den Yardbirds 1965 bekannt wurde) und „Soft“ (1952). Sänger der Band war ab 1952 u. a. Tiny Kennedy. 1954 tourte er mit Dinah Washington. In seinen letzten Lebensjahren hatte er zunehmend Gesundheitsprobleme, er erlitt mehrere Schlaganfälle. In seiner Band spielten zeitweise Jimmy Coe, Gigi Gryce, Sonny Stitt, Russell Procope, Red Prysock, Shadow Wilson, Charlie Shavers, Billy Kyle, Shad Collins, Gil Fuller, Charlie Fowlkes, Sil Austin und Billy Ford.
Myron Carlton Bradshaw (September 23, 1907 – November 26, 1958),[4] known as Tiny Bradshaw, was an American jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, singer, composer, pianist, and drummer.[5] His biggest hit was "Well Oh Well" in 1950, and the following year he recorded "The Train Kept A-Rollin'", important to the later development of rock and roll; he co-wrote and sang on both records.
Early years
He was born in Youngstown, Ohio, the son of Cicero P. Bradshaw and his wife Lillian Boggess. Bradshaw graduated from high school in Youngstown.[6] After graduating from Wilberforce University with a degree in psychology, Bradshaw turned to music for a living.[7] In Ohio, he sang and played drums with Horace Henderson's campus oriented Collegians.[7][8] Then, in 1932, Bradshaw relocated to New York City, where he drummed for Marion Hardy's Alabamians, the Charleston Bearcats (later the Savoy Bearcats), and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, and sang for Luis Russell.[5]
Bandleader
In 1934, Bradshaw formed his own swing orchestra, which recorded eight sides in two separate sessions for Decca Records that year in New York City.[6] The band's next recording date was in 1944 for Manor Records,[6] at which point its music was closer to rhythm and blues. He recorded in 1947 for Savoy Records.[6]
The band recorded extensively for the rhythm and blues market with King Records between late 1949 and early 1955,[5][6] and had five hits on the Billboard R&B chart. His most successful record at the time was "Well Oh Well", which reached no.2 on the R&B chart in 1950 and stayed on the chart for 21 weeks. Two follow-ups, "I'm Going To Have Myself A Ball" (no.5, 1950) and "Walkin' The Chalk Line" (no.10, 1951) also made the chart before a break of almost two years.[9]
What is now Bradshaw's best known recording was "The Train Kept A-Rollin'" (1951) — not a chart hit at the time — which passed from rhythm and blues history into rock's legacy.[5] The song was recorded by Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'N' Roll Trio in 1956 and by The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck in 1965. It was covered again by Aerosmith in 1974 and by Motörhead in 1978.
Bradshaw returned to the R&B chart in 1953 with "Soft" (no.3), an instrumental later recorded by Bill Doggett, and "Heavy Juice" (no.9). Both of these 1953 hits featured Red Prysock on tenor saxophone.[9]
Bradshaw's later career was hampered by severe health problems, including two strokes, the first in 1954, that left him partially paralyzed. He made a return to touring in 1958.[8] His last session that year resulted in two recordings, "Short Shorts" and "Bushes" (King 5114),[6] which proved an unsuccessful attempt to reach out to the emerging teenage record market.
Weakened by the successive strokes as well as the rigors of his profession, Bradshaw died in his adopted hometown of Cincinnati from another stroke in 1958.[4] He was either 53 or (more likely) 51 years old.[5]
Legacy
Bradshaw is remembered for a string of rhythm and blues hits. As a bandleader, he was an invaluable mentor to important musicians and arrangers including Sil Austin, Happy Caldwell, Shad Collins, Wild Bill Davis, Talib Dawud, Gil Fuller, Gigi Gryce, George "Big Nick" Nicholas, Russell Procope, Red Prysock, Curly Russell, Calvin "Eagle Eye" Shields, Sonny Stitt, Noble "Thin Man" Watts, and Shadow Wilson.
TINY BRADSHAW ~ I`M GOING TO HAVE MYSELF A BALL ~ 1950 .
Roy Buchanan *23.09.1939
Roy Buchanan (eigentlich Leroy Buchanan, * 22. Oktober 1936 oder 23. September 1939[1] in Ozark, Arkansas; † 14. August 1988 in Fairfax, Virginia), war ein bedeutender Bluesrock-Gitarrist, der zahlreiche namhafte Gitarristen beeinflusst hat.
Als Buchanan zwei Jahre alt war, zog seine Familie nach Pixley in Kalifornien, wo sein Vater Arbeit auf einer Farm gefunden hatte. Mit neun bekam er von seinen Eltern seine erste Gitarre. Trotz mehrerer Jahre Unterricht lernte Buchanan nie, Noten zu lesen, sondern spielte nach Gehör. „Seine“ Gitarre war die Fender Telecaster.Im Alter von zwölf Jahren bekam Buchanan sein erstes Engagement in einer örtlichen Band, den Waw Keen Valley Boys. Mit 16 zog er zu seinen älteren Geschwistern nach Los Angeles, wo er bei den Heartbeats spielte, zusammen mit Spencer Dryden, der später bei Jefferson Airplane und The New Riders of the Purple Sage Schlagzeuger war. Höhepunkt der Heartbeats war der Auftritt in dem Film Rock Pretty Baby. Seine nächste Band war Oklahoma Bandstand in Tulsa, bevor er drei Jahre mit Dale Hawkins spielte, der 1958 mit „My Babe“ einen Hit gehabt hatte.[2]. Danach war er unter anderem für Ronnie Hawkins, The Coasters, Frankie Avalon und Eddie Cochran tätig.
1961 heiratete Buchanan Judy Owens und wohnte mit ihr zunächst in der Nähe von Washington, D.C. In den folgenden Jahren war Buchanan nicht im Musikgeschäft aktiv. Ab 1969 trat er wieder in kleineren Clubs im Großraum Philadelphia/Washington auf. 1970 fand er in verschiedenen Zeitungen und schließlich im Magazin Rolling Stone Erwähnung, nicht zuletzt da er 1969 angeblich als Nachfolgemusiker für den Rolling Stones-Gitarristen Brian Jones gehandelt wurde – ein Angebot, das er allerdings ablehnte. 1971 machte ihn eine Fernsehsendung mit dem Titel „Introducing Roy Buchanan“ einer breiteren Öffentlichkeit bekannt.
In den 1970er Jahren erschien eine Reihe von Alben, die teilweise recht erfolgreich waren, überzeugen konnte er aber nur als Gitarrist, nicht als Sänger. Er galt bei manchen als der „beste unbekannte Bluesgitarrist“. Es folgten zahlreiche Tourneen und Konzerte, bis Buchanan sich in der zweiten Hälfte der 1970er aus dem Plattengeschäft zurückzog. 1981 kam er zurück, auf dem Album My Babe war als Schlagzeuger Danny Brubeck, der Sohn von Dave Brubeck zu hören. Erst 1985 erschien ein neues Album, „When a Guitar Plays the Blues“, das sich 13 Wochen in den Billboard-Charts hielt und für einen Grammy nominiert wurde.
Er kam des Öfteren mit dem Gesetz in Konflikt und hatte Alkoholprobleme. Am 14. August 1988 wurde Roy Buchanan nach einem schweren Streit mit seiner Frau wegen Trunkenheit festgenommen. Später wurde er tot in seiner Zelle aufgefunden – laut offiziellem Bericht mit dem eigenen Hemd erhängt.
Roy Buchanan (September 23, 1939 – August 14, 1988) was an American guitarist and blues musician. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound,[1] Buchanan worked as both a sideman and solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career,[2] and two later solo albums that made it on to the Billboard chart. Despite never having achieved stardom, he is still considered a highly influential guitar player.[3] Guitar Player praised him as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of all Time."[1]
Early career
Leroy Buchanan was born in Ozark, Arkansas and was raised there and in Pixley, California, a farming area near Bakersfield. His father was a sharecropper in Arkansas and a farm laborer in California.[4] Buchanan told interviewers that his father was also a Pentecostal preacher, a note repeated in Guitar Player magazine but refuted by his older brother J.D.[4][5] Buchanan told how his first musical memories were of racially mixed revival meetings he attended with his mother Minnie. "Gospel," he recalled, "that's how I first got into black music." He in fact drew upon many disparate influences while learning to play his instrument (though he later claimed his aptitude derived from being "half-wolf"). He initially showed talent on steel guitar before switching to guitar in the early 50s, and started his professional career at age 15, in Johnny Otis's rhythm and blues revue.[3]
In 1958, Buchanan made his recording debut with Dale Hawkins, including playing the solo on "My Babe" for Chicago's Chess Records.[4] Two years later, during a tour through Toronto, Buchanan left Dale Hawkins to play for his cousin Ronnie Hawkins and tutor Ronnie's guitar player, Robbie Robertson. Buchanan plays bass on the Ronnie Hawkins single, "Who Do You Love?"[citation needed]. Buchanan soon returned to the U.S. and Ronnie Hawkins' group later gained fame as The Band.[6]
In the early '60s, Buchanan performed numerous gigs as a sideman with various rock bands, and played guitar in a number of sessions with Freddy Cannon, Merle Kilgore, and others. At the end of the 1960s, with a growing family, Buchanan left the music industry for a while to learn a trade, and trained as a hairdresser (barber).[4] In the early '70s, Roy Buchanan performed extensively in the Washington D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area with the Danny Denver Band, which had a large following in the area.[citation needed] He was widely appreciated as a solo act in the DC area at this time.
Recording career and death
In 1961 he released 'Mule Train Stomp', his first single for Swan, featuring rich guitar tones years ahead of their time. Buchanan's 1962 recording with drummer Bobby Gregg, nicknamed "Potato Peeler," first introduced the trademark Buchanan "pinch" harmonic. An effort to cash in on the British Invasion caught Buchanan with the British Walkers. In the mid-'60s, Buchanan settled down in the Washington, D.C., area, playing for Danny Denver's band for many years while acquiring a reputation as "...one of the very finest rock guitarists around. Jimi Hendrix would not take up the challenge of a 'pick-off' with Roy."[7] The facts behind that claim are that in March 1968 a photographer friend, John Gossage gave Buchanan tickets to a concert by the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Washington Hilton. "Buchanan was dismayed to find his own trademark sounds, like the wah-wah that he'd painstakingly produced with his hands and his Telecaster, created by electronic pedals. He could never attempt Hendrix's stage show, and this realization refocused him on his own quintessentially American roots-style guitar picking."[8]
Gossage recalls how Roy was very impressed by the Hendrix 1967 debut album Are You Experienced?, which was why he made sure to give Roy a ticket to the early show at the Hilton. Gossage went backstage to take photos and tried to convince Jimi to go and see Roy at the Silver Dollar that night after the show, but Jimi seemed more interested in hanging out with the young lady who was backstage with him. Gossage confirms Hendrix never showed up at the Silver Dollar, but he did talk to Roy about seeing the Hilton show. That same night (as the Hilton show) Roy did several Hendrix numbers and "from that point on, had nothing but good things to say about Hendrix".[9] He later released recordings of the Hendrix composition "If 6 Was 9" and the Hendrix hit "Hey Joe" (written by Billy Roberts).
Buchanan's life changed in 1971, when he gained national notice as the result of an hour-long PBS television documentary. Entitled Introducing Roy Buchanan, and sometimes mistakenly called The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World, it earned a record deal with Polydor Records and praise from John Lennon and Merle Haggard, besides an alleged invitation to join the Rolling Stones (which he turned down and which gave him the nickname "the man who tumbled the stones down").[10] He recorded five albums for Polydor, one of which, Second Album, went gold,[11] and after that another three for Atlantic Records, one of which, 1977's Loading Zone, also went gold.[2][12] Buchanan quit recording in 1981, vowing never to enter a studio again unless he could record his own music his own way.[10] Four years later, Alligator Records coaxed Buchanan back into the studio.[10] His first album for Alligator, When a Guitar Plays the Blues, was released in the spring of 1985. It was the first time he had total artistic freedom in the studio.[13] His second Alligator LP, Dancing on the Edge (with vocals on three tracks by Delbert McClinton), was released in the fall of 1986. He released the twelfth and last album of his career, Hot Wires, in 1987.
According to his agent and others, Buchanan was doing well, having gained control of his drinking habit and playing again, when he was arrested for public intoxication after a domestic dispute.[2][5] He was found hanged from his own shirt in a jail cell on August 14, 1988 in the Fairfax County, Virginia, Jail. According to Jerry Hentman, who was in a cell nearby Buchanan's, the Deputy Sheriff opened the door early in the morning and found Buchanan with the shirt around his neck.[6][12] Buchanan's last show was on August 7, 1988 in Guilford, CT. His cause of death was officially recorded as suicide, a finding disputed by Buchanan's friends and family. One of his friends, Marc Fisher, reported seeing Roy's body with bruises on the head.[6]
After his death, compilation and other albums continue to be released, including in 2004 the never-released first album he recorded for Polydor, The Prophet.
Guitars, tone, and technique
Guitars
Buchanan used a number of guitars in his career, although he was most often associated with a 1953 Fender Telecaster, serial number 2324, nicknamed "Nancy."[14] There are two very different stories explaining how Buchanan got the guitar. He himself said that, while enrolled in 1969 in a school to learn to be a hairdresser, he ran after a guy walking down the street with that guitar, and bought him a purple Telecaster to trade. A friend of Buchanan's, however, said that Buchanan was playing a Gibson Les Paul at the time, and traded it for the '53 Tele.[4] One of Buchanan's Telecasters was later owned by Danny Gatton and Mike Stern, who lost it in a robbery.[15]
Tone
Buchanan achieved his sound through minimum means. He played the Telecaster through a Fender Vibrolux amplifier with the volume and tone "full out," and used the guitar's volume and tone controls to control volume and sound[16] (he achieved a wah wah effect using the tone control).[5][14] To achieve his desired distorted sounds, Buchanan at one point used a razor blade to slit the paper cones of the speakers in his amp, an approach also employed by the Kinks' Dave Davies. Buchanan rarely used effects pedals, though he started using an Echoplex on A Street Called Straight (1976).[5] In his later career he played with a Boss DD-2 delay.[14]
Technique
Buchanan taught himself various playing techniques, including "chicken picking". He sometimes used his thumb nail rather than a plectrum, and also employed it to augment his index finger and pick. Holding the pick between his thumb and forefinger, Buchanan also plucked the string and simultaneously touched it lightly with the lower edge of his thumb at one of the harmonic nodes, thus suppressing lower overtones and emphasising the harmonic, sometimes referred to as pinch harmonics,[14] though Buchanan called it an "overtone."[5] Buchanan could play harmonics at will, and could mute individual strings with free right-hand fingers while picking or pinching others. He was famous as well for his oblique bends.[17]
Having first played lap steel guitar, Buchanan often imitated its effect and bent strings to the required pitch, rather than starting on the desired note.[5][14] This was particularly notable in his approach to using double and triple stops.
Legacy
Buchanan has influenced many guitarists, including Gary Moore,[18] Danny Gatton, and Jeff Beck;[19] Beck dedicated his version of "Cause We've Ended As Lovers" from Blow by Blow to him.[20] His work is said to "stretch the limits of the electric guitar,"[11] and he is praised for "his subtlety of tone and the breadth of his knowledge, from the blackest of blues to moaning R&B and clean, concise, bone-deep rock 'n' roll."[21] In 2004, Guitar Player listed his version of "Sweet Dreams," from his debut album on Polydor, Roy Buchanan, as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of All Time."[1] In the same year, the readers of Guitar Player voted Buchanan #46 in a top 50 readers' poll.[22] Roy is the subject of Freddy Blohm's song "King of a Small Room."
Roy Buchanan is interred at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
roy buchanan - live - blues
Charles Elam Feat. Benson Walker on keys
Fenton Robinson (September 23, 1935 — November 25, 1997[1]) was an American blues singer and exponent of the Chicago blues guitar.
Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, United States, Robinson left his home at the age of 18 to move to Memphis, Tennessee where he recorded his first single "Tennessee Woman" in 1957.[2] He settled in Chicago in 1962.[2] He recorded his signature song, "Somebody Loan Me a Dime", in 1967 on the Palos label, the nationwide distribution of which was aborted by a freak snow storm hitting the Windy City. Covered by Boz Scaggs in 1969, the song was misattributed, resulting in legal battles. It has since become a blues standard, being "part of the repertoire of one out of every two blues artists", according to 1997's Encyclopedia of Blues.[3]
Robinson re-recorded the song for the critically acclaimed album Somebody Loan Me a Dime in 1974, the first of three he would produce under the Alligator Records label.[4][5] Robinson was nominated for a Grammy Award for the second, 1977's I Hear Some Blues Downstairs.[4]
In the 1970s he was arrested and imprisoned for involuntary manslaughter in connection with a car accident. Paroled after nine months, he continued playing in Chicago clubs and later taught guitar.
Robinson died of complications from brain cancer,[1] in Rockford, Illinois.
FENTON ROBINSON / SOMEBODY LOAN ME A DIME
R.I.P.
Etta Baker +23.09.2006
Etta Baker (* 31. März 1913 in Caldwell County, North Carolina; † 23. September 2006 in Fairfax, Virginia), geboren als Etta Lucille Reid, war eine US-amerikanische Blues-Sängerin und Gitarristin.
Sie spielte sowohl sechssaitige Akustikgitarren als auch 12-Saiten-Gitarren und fünfsaitige Banjos.
Baker erhielt verschiedene Auszeichnungen, u. a.
Folk Heritage Award, North Carolina Arts Council (1989)
National Endowment for the Arts, National Heritage Fellowship (1991)
North Carolina Award (2003)
Zusammen mit ihrer Schwester Cora Phillips erhielt sie durch die North Carolina Folklore Society im Jahre 1982 den Brown-Hudson Folklore Award.
Baker lebte zuletzt in Morganton, North Carolina, und starb im Alter von 93 Jahren während des Besuches bei einer Tochter, die einen Schlaganfall erlitten hatte.
Etta Baker (March 31, 1913 – September 23, 2006) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer from North Carolina, United States.
Biography
She was born Etta Lucille Reid in Caldwell County, North Carolina, of African American, Native American, and European American heritage.[1] She played both the 6-string and 12-string forms of the acoustic guitar, as well as the five-string banjo. Baker played the Piedmont Blues for ninety years, starting at the age of three when she could not even hold the guitar properly. She was taught by her father, Boone Reid, who was also a longtime player of the Piedmont Blues on several instruments. Etta Baker was first recorded in the summer of 1956 when she and her father happened across folk singer Paul Clayton while visiting Cone Mansion in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, near their home in Morganton, NC. Baker's father asked Clayton to listen to his daughter playing her signature "One Dime Blues". Clayton was impressed and arrived at the Baker house with his tape recorder the next day, recording several songs.[2]
Over the years, Baker has shared her knowledge with many well known musical artists including Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Baker received the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award from the North Carolina Arts Council in 1989, the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship in 1991, and the North Carolina Award in 2003. Along with her sister, Cora Phillips, Baker received the North Carolina Folklore Society's Brown-Hudson Folklore Award in 1982.[3]
Baker had nine children, one of whom was killed in the Vietnam War in 1967, the same year her husband died. She last lived in Morganton, North Carolina, and died at the age of 93 in Fairfax, Virginia, while visiting a daughter who had suffered a stroke.
Gary Primich +23.09.2007
Gary Primich (* 20. April 1958 in Chicago, Illinois; † 23. September 2007 in Austin, Texas) war ein US-amerikanischer Bluesharmonika- und Gitarrespieler.
Er wurde zwar in Chicago geboren, wuchs aber in Gary, Indiana auf. Mundharmonika lernte er als Teenager auf dem Maxwell Street Market. Er erhielt dort eine erstklassige Bluesausbildung, wie sie nie in einem Klassenzimmer gelehrt werden könnte.[1][2] 1984, nachdem er an der Indiana University graduiert hatte, zog er nach Austin, Texas um. 1987 gründete er mit Jimmy Carl, dem ehemaligen Drummer der Mothers of Invention, eine Band namens The Mannish Boys, die auch ein Album aufnahmen. Nachdem Carl die Band verließ, hielt Primich sie zusammen und nahmen ein zweites Album auf. Beide Alben erregten so viel Aufmerksamkeit, dass er unter eigenem Namen ein Album aufnehmen konnte, dem noch einige andere folgten.
Durch Tourneen konnte Primich seine Fanbasis stetig erweitern. Seine Qualitäten ließen ihn auch als Sessionmusiker begehrt werden. So nahm er mit Omar & The Howlers, Tish Hinojosa, Steve James, Libbi Bosworth, Marcia Ball, Ruthie Foster, Mike Morgan and the Crawl, Nick Curran, Doyle Bramhall und Jimmie Vaughan auf.
1985 veröffentlichte er eine Doppel-CD "Blues Harmonica: The Blues and Beyond", wo er die Grundlagen des Bluesharmonikaspiels unterrichtete.[3]
Gary Primich starb, erst 49-jährig, an Heroinvergiftung in seinem Heim in Austin.
Gary Primich (April 20, 1958 – September 23, 2007)[1] was an American blues harmonica player, singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is best known for his 1995 album, Mr. Freeze.
Biography
Gary Alan Primich was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in nearby Hobart, Indiana, where he attended Hobart High School. In 1984, after he graduated with a Bachelor's degree from Indiana University, Primich relocated to Austin, Texas.[2]
While working at the University of Texas, he started playing along with other musicians in local clubs. In 1987, he met Jimmy Carl Black, and they formed the Mannish Boys. Their debut album, A L'il Dab'll Do Ya was issued on the Amazing Records label, and although Black then left the band, Primich stayed with the Mannish Boys for another album, Satellite Rock. In 1991 Primich released his eponymous solo debut album, and My Pleasure followed the next year. Amazing Records then folded, and Primich was contracted to the Flying Fish Records label releasing Travelin' Mood (1994) and Mr. Freeze (1995).[2] Mr. Freeze was named as one of the twenty best blues albums of the 1990s by the Chicago newspaper, New City.[3]
Constant touring allowed Primich to expand his fan base, and by 2000, he had a recording contract with the Texas Music Group. He issued Dog House Music (2002) and then Ridin' the Darkhorse (2006).[2] Primich also recorded with Steve James, Omar & the Howlers, John "Juke" Logan, Marcia Ball, Ruthie Foster, Mike Morgan and the Crawl, Nick Curran, Doyle Bramhall and Jimmie Vaughan.[1]
In addition to his performance albums, in 1985 Primich released an instructional double CD, Blues Harmonica: The Blues And Beyond.[4] In June 1999, at the Montgomery Theater in San Jose, California, Primich undertook a performance and series of workshops with Howard Levy, Magic Dick, Gary Smith, Lee Oskar, Jerry Portnoy, and Andy Santana.[5] He was inducted in the Austin Music Hall of Fame.[1]
In September 2007, Primich died at his home in Austin, at the age of 49,[2] of acute heroin intoxication.
Houston Stackhouse +23.09.1980
Houston Stackhouse (* 28. September 1910 in Wesson, Mississippi; † 23. September 1980 in Helena, Arkansas) war ein US-amerikanischer Bluesgitarrist und Mundharmonikaspieler. Er hatte nie den großen musikalischen und kommerziellen Erfolg anderer Bluesmusiker aus dem Süden, doch war er eine zentrale Figur der Bluesszene, auch als Mentor vieler später erfolgreicher Künstler.
Houston Stackhouse wurde als Houston Goff in Wesson geboren. Seine Herkunft lernte Stackhouse erst kennen, als er in den 1970er Jahren einen Pass beantragte. Aufgewachsen ist er auf der Randall Ford Plantation, wo er den Namen seines Ziehvaters James Wade Stackhouse annahm. Um 1925 zog die Familie etwas weiter nach Norden nach Crystal Springs, wo seine musikalische Entwicklung begann. Neben lokalen Musikern beeinflussten ihn die Aufnahmen von Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson und Blind Blake. Das erste Instrument, das er erlernte, war die Harmonika.[3]Seine musikalische Karriere begann Mitte der 1930er-Jahre mi Auftritten gemeinsam mit den Mississippi Sheiks,Robert Johnson, Charlie McCoy, Walter Vinson und anderen in Mississippi, Arkansas und Louisiana . Die andauernsten Zusammenarbeiten waren die mit Carey “Ditty” Mason und seinem Cousin Robert McCollum, besser bekannt als Robert Nighthawk, dem er das Gitarrespielen beibrachte.
1946 zog er nach Helena, Arkansas, wo er ein Jahr in Robert Nighthawks Band spielte, der ihm auch das Gitarrespiel beibrachte. Von dieser Zeit an spielte er nur mehr Gitarre[4] Nach ihrer Trennung spielte er gemeinsam mit dem Schlagzeuger James “Peck” Curtis, dem Gitarristen Joe Willie Wilkins und den Pianisten Robert Traylor und Pinetop Perkins. 1948 kam der Mundharmonikaspieler Sonny Boy Williamson II. dazu, die Band trat im ganzen Delta auf. Stackhouse trat auch mit den meisten Bluesmusikern auf, die auf ihren Tourneen durch Helena kamen (z. B. Jimmy Rogers, Sammy Lawhorn-beide unterrichtete er an der Gitarre-, Elmore James, Earl Hooker, Willie Love, Ernest Lane und Roosevelt Sykes). Zwischen 1948 und 1954 arbeitete er tagsüber als Automobilarbeiter im Chrysler-Werk in West-Memphis (Crittenden County).
Im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Musikern blieb Stackhouse im Süden und arbeitete tagsüber und spielte nachts. Die ganzen 1950er und 1960er Jahre trat er immer wieder mit durchreisenden Musikern auf (Boyd Gilmore, Houston Boines, Frank Frost, Baby Face Turner u. a.). 1965 kehrte Sonny Boy Williamson II. nach Helena zurück und nahm Stackhouse in seine Band auf, die in der King Biscuit Time-Radiosendung von KFFA auftrat, im Mai nahm Chris Strachwitz von Arhoolie Records die Gruppe auf und veröffentlichte die Aufnahmen unter Williamson’s Namen als „King Biscuit Time“. 1967 nahmen zwei Fieldrecorder Stackhouse auf, einmal unter dem Namen Blues Rhythm Boys (mit Peck Curtis und Robert Nighthawk) und einmal mit seinem langjährigen Weggefährten Carey “Ditty” Mason. Nach dessen Tod zog er nach Memphis. In den 1970ern wurde er Teil des Bluesrevivals, spielte auf Festivals und tourte mit den King Biscuit Boys. 1976 reiste er sogar nach Wien, wo er für Wolf Records aufnahm. Ende der 1970er Jahre zog er sich aus dem Musikgeschäft zurück und übersiedelte nach Helena zurück. Hier starb er am 23. September 1980 im Helena Hospital.
Um ihn zu ehren ist eine der fünf Bühnen beim Arkansas Blues and Heritagefestival nach ihm benannt (Houston Stackhouse Acoustic Stage).
Houston Stackhouse (September 28, 1910 – September 23, 1980) was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer. He is best known for his association and work with Robert Nighthawk.[1] Although Stackhouse was not especially noted as a guitarist nor singer, Nighthawk showed gratitude to his guitar teacher Stackhouse, by backing him on a number of recordings in the late 1960s. Apart from a tour to Europe, Stackhouse confined his performing around the Mississippi Delta.[1]
Biography
Stackhouse was born Houston Goff, in Wesson, Mississippi, and was the son of Garfield Goff. He was raised by James Wade Stackhouse on the Randall Ford Plantation, and Stackhouse only learned the details of his parentage when he applied for a passport in later life.[2]
Relocating in his teenage years with his family to Crystal Springs, Mississippi, he became inspired listening to records by Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, and by local musicians. By the late 1930s, Stackhouse had played guitar around the Delta states and worked with members of the Mississippi Sheiks, plus Robert Johnson, Charlie McCoy and Walter Vinson.[2] He also teamed up with his distant cousin, Robert Nighthawk,[3] whom he taught how to play guitar.[4] Originally a fan of Tommy Johnson, Stackhouse often covered his songs.[1] In 1946, Stackhouse moved to Helena, Arkansas to live near to Nighthawk, and for a time was a member of Nighthawk’s band, playing on KFFA radio.[2]
He split from Nighthawk in 1947 and alongside the drummer James "Peck" Curtis, appeared on KFFA's "King Biscuit Time" programme, with the guitar player Joe Willie Wilkins plus pianists Pinetop Perkins and Robert Traylor. Sonny Boy Williamson II then rejoined the show, and that combo performed across the Delta, using their radio presence to advertise their concert performances.[2]
Stackhouse tutored both Jimmy Rogers and Sammy Lawhorn on guitar techniques. Between 1948 and 1954, Stackhouse worked during the day at the Chrysler plant in West Helena, Arkansas, and played the blues in his leisure time. He did not move from the South, unlike many of his contemporaries, and continued to perform locally into the 1960s with Frank Frost, Boyd Gilmore and Baby Face Turner. In May 1965, Sonny Boy Williamson II, who was by then back on "King Biscuit Time", utilised Stackhouse when he was recorded in concert by Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records. The recording was issued under Williamson's name, titled King Biscuit Time. Shortly afterwards, Williamson died, but Stackhouse continued briefly on the radio program, back in tandem with Nighthawk.[2]
In 1967, George Mitchell recorded Stackhouse in Dundee, Mississippi. Named the Blues Rhythm Boys, Stackhouse was joined by both Curtis and Nighthawk, although the latter died shortly after the recording was made. Another field researcher, David Evans, recorded Stackhouse in Crystal Springs, but by 1970 following the deaths of both Curtis and Mason, Stackhouse had moved on to Memphis, Tennessee. There he resided with his old friend Joe Willie Wilkins and his wife Carrie. At the height of the blues revival Stackhouse toured with Wilkins, and the Memphis Blues Caravan, and appeared at various music festivals.
Earlier in February 1972, Stackhouse recorded an album titled Cryin' Won't Help You. It was released on CD in 1994.[5] His lone trip overseas saw Stackhouse play in 1976 in Vienna, Austria.[2]
Stackhouse returned to Helena, where he died in September 1980, at the age of 69. A son, Houston Stackhouse Jr., survived him.[2]
The acoustic stage at the annual Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival is named after Stackhouse.
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