1943 Robert "Bob" Brunning*
1978 Juke Boy Bonner+
1987 Elizabeth Cotten+
Happy Birthday
Robert "Bob" Brunning *29.06.1943
Robert
"Bob" Brunning (29 June 1943 – 18 October 2011)[1][2] was a British
musician who was, as a small part of a long musical career, the original
bass guitar player with the blues rock band Fleetwood Mac.[3]
Career
Fleetwood Mac
When
Peter Green left the Bluesbreakers in 1967, he decided to form his own
group, naming it Fleetwood Mac after the rhythm section he wanted for
the band – Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Fleetwood joined up straight
away, and slide guitar player Jeremy Spencer was recruited, but McVie
preferred to stay with the Bluesbreakers, where he was earning a regular
wage. In the meantime, Green hired Brunning on a temporary basis,
hoping that McVie would change his mind.
After a few weeks McVie
did change his mind, claiming that Bluesbreakers leader John Mayall was
turning too far in the direction of jazz for his liking. So McVie
joined, and Brunning stood down. Brunning did contribute bass guitar to
one track on Fleetwood Mac's debut album Fleetwood Mac, that song being
"Long Grey Mare".
Savoy Brown and teaching career
After
his stint in Fleetwood Mac, he joined Savoy Brown before embarking on a
career in teaching, training at The College of St. Mark & St. John,
Chelsea.[4] His teaching career lasted 30 years and included
appointments as the headmaster of Clapham Manor Primary School, Lambeth
in the 1980s and Churchill Gardens Primary School, Pimlico in the
1990s.[5] He did not abandon music however, and played in the Brunning
Sunflower Blues Band, Tramp, and later the DeLuxe Blues Band.
In
1972 he played bass guitar on the 22nd Streatham Cub Scouts LP Songs for
Your Enjoyment. The album featured folk songs as well as the Scout
theme song "Kumbaya".[6]
As an author
Brunning also
authored many books, and wrote several about Fleetwood Mac, the British
blues scene, and music in general. His works about his former group
include Behind The Masks, published in 1990, 1998's Fleetwood Mac: The
First 30 Years, and The Fleetwood Mac Story: Rumours and Lies'.
Death
Brunning died on 18 October 2011, aged 68, after suffering a massive heart attack at his home in Colliers Wood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Brunning
I
started playing bass in my teens in Bournemouth on the UK's South
Coast. I played with well known UK DJ Tony Blackburn plus a few garage
bands. I moved to London in 1964, and joined the college band, Fives
Company, whilst I was training to become a teacher. We recorded three
singles for Pye records, and had a thoroughly good time.
When I
quit college I joined Fleetwood Mac for a short time, and then gained
promotion (!!) by moving to Savoy Brown - more money and more gigs!
Listen to Taste And Try, Before You Buy to see what we sounded like! (Be
warned - it may take a little while to download this track.) However,
the lure of teaching was too strong, and I started my 30 years teaching
career in 1969. But I never abandoned my beloved blues music.
I
formed The Brunning Sunflower Blues Band with my ex Savoy Brown chum Bob
Hall (piano). For a quick taste of The Brunning Sunflower Blues Band,
listen to this - If You Let Me Love You, with Peter Green.
We
also recorded a couple of albums with my old Fleetwood Mac mates Mick
Fleetwood and Danny Kirwan under the name Tramp , with Jo-anne and Dave
Kelly. Here is Put a Record On, from the group's first album.
In
subsequent years I played and/or recorded with J.B. Hutto, Johnny Mars,
Eddie Burns, Jimmy Dawkins, Lightnin' Slim, Whisperin' Smith, Homesick
James, Snooky Prior, Eddie Taylor, John Wrencher, Erwin Heffer, Dr.
Ross, Errol Dixon, Jimmy Rodgers, Dave Peabody, Otis Grand, Paul Lamb,
Chuck Berry, Memphis Slim, Jimmy Witherspoon, Eddie Clearwater, Georgie
Fame, Charley Musselwhite, and many more blues artists.
In 1980,
The De Luxe Blues Band featuring Danny Adleer, Bob Hall, Mickey Waller
and myself was formed. Sax player Dick Heckstall Smith would
subsequently join us.
Twenty one yeary and two line ups later, the De Luxes are still recording and playing. Our new CD is available now.
I'm married, with three grown up children, and four grandchildren.
http://www.brunningonline.net/history.html
Brunning Hall Sunflower Blues Band - Bullen Street Blues
R.I.P.
Elizabeth Cotten +29.06.1987
Elizabeth „Libba“ Cotten (* 5. Januar 1895 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; † 29. Juni 1987 in Syracuse, New York) war eine einflussreiche US-amerikanische Folk- und Blues-Musikerin. Einem weiteren Publikum bekannt wurde sie erst im Alter von weit über 60 Jahren. Die Songs der Grammy-Gewinnerin wurden von so bekannten Bands und Musikern, wie Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary und Grateful Dead, aufgenommen. Ihr Stück Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now wurde 1940 von Blind Boy Fuller als Lost Lover Blues eingespielt.
Geburtsjahr und Datum sind umstritten, manche Quellen geben 1892 oder 1893 an oder einen anderen Tag im Januar.[1] Als Kind brachte sich Elizabeth Cotten zunächst das Spielen auf dem Banjo, dann auf der Gitarre selbst bei. Dabei hielt sie als Linkshänderin die Instrumente „verkehrt“ herum. Hieraus resultierte ihre einzigartige Gitarrentechnik, bei der sie beim Fingerpicking die Melodie auf den hohen Saiten mit dem Daumen und den Wechselbass auf den tiefen Saiten mit dem Zeigefinger spielte.
Elizabeth Cotten wird nachgesagt, dass sie Lieder nachspielen konnte, nachdem sie diese einmal gehört hatte. Ihr bekanntestes Stück, Freight Train, soll sie im Alter von 12 Jahren geschrieben haben.
Mit 11 verließ sie die Schule, um als Hausmädchen zu arbeiten. Vom selbstverdienten Geld kaufte sie ihre erste eigene Gitarre. Sie musizierte auf Partys und Festen. Mit 15 heiratete sie Frank Cotten und bekam bald eine Tochter.
Elizabeth Cotten gab die Musik fast vollständig auf. Die Familie zog mehrfach um, u. a. nach New York und Washington, D.C. Die Ehe mit ihrem Mann wurde 1940 geschieden, und sie zog zur Familie ihrer Tochter Lillie.
Mitte der 1940er lernte sie Ruth Crawford Seeger kennen, als sie deren Tochter zurückbrachte, die sich verlaufen hatte. Elizabeth arbeitete schließlich bei den Seegers, einer sehr musikalischen Familie, wo sie sich um die Kinder Mike, Pete und Peggy kümmerte.
Durch Zufall wurde Elizabeths musikalisches Talent entdeckt. 1957 produzierte Mike Seeger ihr erstes Album, Negro Folk Songs and Tunes, das später als Freight Train and other North Carolina Folk Songs neu veröffentlicht wurde. Ab 1960 trat sie vor Publikum auf, meist mit Mike Seeger. Mittlerweile war sie 65 bis 68 Jahre alt, je nach Geburtsjahr.
Elizabeth Cotten profitierte vom Folk- und Blues-Revival der 1960er. 1963 spielte sie auf dem ersten Philadelphia Folk Festival, 1964 auf dem Newport Folk Festival. Sie trat mit Blues-Größen, wie Mississippi John Hurt, John Lee Hooker und Muddy Waters, auf, gab aber auch eigene Konzerte.
1967 erschien ihr zweites Album, Shake Sugaree. 1984 gewann sie einen Grammy für das Album Elizabeth Cotten Live!. Sie wurde auch mit einer National Heritage Fellowship ausgezeichnet. 1989 wurde sie zu den 75 einflussreichsten afroamerikanischen Frauen gezählt, denen die Fotodokumentation „I Dream a World“ gewidmet war.
Inzwischen wohnte Elizabeth Cotten in Syracuse im Bundesstaat New York, wo sie 1987 verstarb, vermutlich 92 Jahre alt. Sie war bis zuletzt aufgetreten.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cotten
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm5-WdB_aVE#t=73
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (née Neville) (January 5, 1895 – June 29, 1987) was an African American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter.
A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar (usually in standard tuning), not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed guitar upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".
Early life
Elizabeth Nevills was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina,[1] to a musical family. Her parents were George Nevill (also spelled Nevills) and Louisa (or Louise) Price Nevill. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. At age seven, Cotten began to play her older brother's banjo. By eight years old, she was playing songs. At the age of 11, after scraping together some money as a domestic helper, she bought her own guitar.[2] The guitar, a Sears and Roebuck brand instrument, cost her $3.75.[2] Although self-taught, she became very good at playing the instrument.[3] By her early teens she was writing her own songs, one of which, Freight Train, became one of her most recognized. Cotten wrote Freight Train in remembrance of the nearby train that she could hear from her childhood home.
Around the age of 13, Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother. On November 7, 1910, at the age of 17, she married Frank Cotten.[4] The couple had a daughter named Lillie, and soon after young Elizabeth gave up guitar playing for family and church. Elizabeth, Frank and their daughter Lillie moved around the eastern United States for a number of years between North Carolina, New York, and Washington, D.C., finally settling in the D.C. area. When Lillie married, Elizabeth divorced Frank and moved in with her daughter and her family.
Re-discovery
Cotten had retired from the guitar for 25 years, except for occasional church performances. She didn't begin performing publicly and recording until she was in her 60s. She was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.
While working briefly in a department store, Cotten helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Penny Seeger, and the mother was composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Soon after this, Elizabeth again began working as a maid, caring for Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger's children, Mike, Peggy, Barbara, and Penny. While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family) she remembered her own guitar playing from 40 years prior and picked up the instrument again to relearn almost from scratch.[2]
Later career and recordings
In the later half of the 1950s, Mike Seeger began making bedroom reel to reel recordings of Cotten's songs in her house.[5] These recordings later became the album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, which was released on Folkways Records. Since that album, her songs, especially her signature track, Freight Train—which she wrote when she was 11—have been covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Devendra Banhart, Laura Gibson, Laura Veirs, His Name Is Alive, Doc Watson, Taj Mahal and Geoff Farina. Shortly after that first album, she began playing concerts with Mike Seeger, the first of which was in 1960 at Swarthmore College.[5]
In the early 1960s, Cotten went on to play concerts with some of the big names in the burgeoning folk revival. Some of these included Mississippi John Hurt, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.
The new-found interest in her work inspired her to write more material to play, and in 1967 she released a record created with her grandchildren, which took its name from one of her songs, Shake Sugaree.
Using profits from her touring, record releases, and from the many awards given to her for her own contributions to the folk arts, Elizabeth was able to move with her daughter and grandchildren from Washington, D.C., and buy a house in Syracuse, New York. She was also able to continue touring and releasing records well into her 80s. In 1984, she won the Grammy Award for "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording" for the album on Arhoolie Records, Elizabeth Cotten Live. When accepting the award in Los Angeles, her comment was, "Thank you. I only wish I had my guitar so I could play a song for you all." In 1989, Cotten was one of 75 influential African-American women included in the photo documentary, I Dream a World.
Elizabeth Cotten died in June 1987, at Crouse-Irving Hospital in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 92.
Unique style
Elizabeth Cotten began writing music while toying around with her older brother's banjo. She was left-handed so she played the banjo in reverse position. Later, when she transferred her songs to the guitar, she formed a unique style, since on the banjo the uppermost string is not a bass string, but a short high pitched string called a drone string. This required her to adopt a unique style for the guitar. She first played with the "all finger down strokes" like a banjo.[2] Later, she evolved her playing into a unique style of finger picking. Her signature, alternating bass style is now known as Cotten picking. Her finger picking techniques influenced many other musicians.
Liner notes
Seeger, Mike. Liner Notes accompanying Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes, by Elizabeth Cotten. Washington, DC : Smithsonian Folkways, 1989 reissue of the 1958 album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar.
A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar (usually in standard tuning), not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed guitar upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".
Early life
Elizabeth Nevills was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina,[1] to a musical family. Her parents were George Nevill (also spelled Nevills) and Louisa (or Louise) Price Nevill. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. At age seven, Cotten began to play her older brother's banjo. By eight years old, she was playing songs. At the age of 11, after scraping together some money as a domestic helper, she bought her own guitar.[2] The guitar, a Sears and Roebuck brand instrument, cost her $3.75.[2] Although self-taught, she became very good at playing the instrument.[3] By her early teens she was writing her own songs, one of which, Freight Train, became one of her most recognized. Cotten wrote Freight Train in remembrance of the nearby train that she could hear from her childhood home.
Around the age of 13, Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother. On November 7, 1910, at the age of 17, she married Frank Cotten.[4] The couple had a daughter named Lillie, and soon after young Elizabeth gave up guitar playing for family and church. Elizabeth, Frank and their daughter Lillie moved around the eastern United States for a number of years between North Carolina, New York, and Washington, D.C., finally settling in the D.C. area. When Lillie married, Elizabeth divorced Frank and moved in with her daughter and her family.
Re-discovery
Cotten had retired from the guitar for 25 years, except for occasional church performances. She didn't begin performing publicly and recording until she was in her 60s. She was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.
While working briefly in a department store, Cotten helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Penny Seeger, and the mother was composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Soon after this, Elizabeth again began working as a maid, caring for Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger's children, Mike, Peggy, Barbara, and Penny. While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family) she remembered her own guitar playing from 40 years prior and picked up the instrument again to relearn almost from scratch.[2]
Later career and recordings
In the later half of the 1950s, Mike Seeger began making bedroom reel to reel recordings of Cotten's songs in her house.[5] These recordings later became the album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, which was released on Folkways Records. Since that album, her songs, especially her signature track, Freight Train—which she wrote when she was 11—have been covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Devendra Banhart, Laura Gibson, Laura Veirs, His Name Is Alive, Doc Watson, Taj Mahal and Geoff Farina. Shortly after that first album, she began playing concerts with Mike Seeger, the first of which was in 1960 at Swarthmore College.[5]
In the early 1960s, Cotten went on to play concerts with some of the big names in the burgeoning folk revival. Some of these included Mississippi John Hurt, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.
The new-found interest in her work inspired her to write more material to play, and in 1967 she released a record created with her grandchildren, which took its name from one of her songs, Shake Sugaree.
Using profits from her touring, record releases, and from the many awards given to her for her own contributions to the folk arts, Elizabeth was able to move with her daughter and grandchildren from Washington, D.C., and buy a house in Syracuse, New York. She was also able to continue touring and releasing records well into her 80s. In 1984, she won the Grammy Award for "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording" for the album on Arhoolie Records, Elizabeth Cotten Live. When accepting the award in Los Angeles, her comment was, "Thank you. I only wish I had my guitar so I could play a song for you all." In 1989, Cotten was one of 75 influential African-American women included in the photo documentary, I Dream a World.
Elizabeth Cotten died in June 1987, at Crouse-Irving Hospital in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 92.
Unique style
Elizabeth Cotten began writing music while toying around with her older brother's banjo. She was left-handed so she played the banjo in reverse position. Later, when she transferred her songs to the guitar, she formed a unique style, since on the banjo the uppermost string is not a bass string, but a short high pitched string called a drone string. This required her to adopt a unique style for the guitar. She first played with the "all finger down strokes" like a banjo.[2] Later, she evolved her playing into a unique style of finger picking. Her signature, alternating bass style is now known as Cotten picking. Her finger picking techniques influenced many other musicians.
Liner notes
Seeger, Mike. Liner Notes accompanying Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes, by Elizabeth Cotten. Washington, DC : Smithsonian Folkways, 1989 reissue of the 1958 album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm5-WdB_aVE#t=73
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