23-10-2020 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1959-1968

23-10-2020 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1959-1968 # Al Smith, Snooks Eaglin, Lonnie Donegan, Jack McDuff, Jimmy Witherspoon feat: Ben Webster, Lightnin' Hopkins, Reverend Gary Davis, B.B. King, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, John Lee Hooker,Cream

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1959-1968

 

Albert B. Smith was born in Bolivar County, Mississippi, on November 23, 1923. His family moved to Pace, Mississippi, in 1927. He danced with a jug band on the streets of Rosedale, Mississippi, when he was 7. He learned how to play the string bass in a school band after hearing Big Joe Williams and other Delta bluesmen at his mother's barrelhouse...
Al Smith
Night Time Is The Right Time
Tears in My Eyes
from Hear My Blues 1959
As a rule, people who appreciate the late Jimmy Witherspoon have a very favorable reaction to Al Smith -- that is, if they get a chance to hear him. Neither of the two albums that Smith provided for Bluesville (Hear My Blues in 1959 and Midnight Special in 1960) are well-known. While Witherspoon was a big name in the blues world, Smith was a gospel singer who dabbled in secular music. But when Smith did venture outside the gospel realm, his approach was quite comparable to Witherspoon's -- like Witherspoon, he favored a jazz-influenced approach to blues and R&B...

When they referred to consistently amazing guitarist Snooks Eaglin as a human jukebox in his New Orleans hometown, they weren't dissing him in the slightest. The blind Eaglin was a beloved figure in the Crescent City, not only for his gritty, Ray Charles-inspired vocal delivery and wholly imaginative approach to the guitar, but for the seemingly infinite storehouse of oldies that he was liable to pull out on-stage at any second...
Snooks Eaglin
Looking for a Woman
Careless Love
Let Me Go Home, Whiskey
from New Orleans Street Singer 1959
Folkways Records released New Orleans Street Singer in 1959 and the album set the world of folk and acoustic blues fans on fire. Snooks Eaglin was in the early stages of his long R&B career when folklorist Harry Oster heard him playing solo on the streets of the French Quarter...

The "King of Skiffle" was huge in pre-Beatles England and even managed a hit or two stateside.
Lonnie Donegan
The House of the Rising Sun
Talking Guitar Blues
from Skiffle Folk Music 1960
To look at Lonnie Donegan today, in pictures taken 40 years ago when he was topping the British charts and hitting the Top Ten in America, dressed in a suit, his hair cut short and strumming an acoustic guitar, he looks like a musical non-entity. But in 1954, before anyone (especially anybody in England) knew what rock & roll was, Donegan was cool, and his music was hot. He's relatively little remembered outside of England, but Donegan shares an important professional attribute with Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Sex Pistols -- he invented a style of music, skiffle, that completely altered the pop culture landscape and the youth around him, and for a time, completely ruled popular music through that new form.

Author of one of the funkiest, most soulful, Hammond B-3 styles of all time, with rock-solid basslines and blues-drenched solos.
Jack McDuff
Dink's Blues
Blues and Tonic
from The Honeydripper 1961
The remaster of Jack McDuff's hard swinging 1961 album The Honeydripper was overseen by Rudy Van Gelder himself... The date featured the big tenor Jimmy Forrest, drummer Ben Dixon, and Grant Green on guitar in his recording debut. Green not only held his own with McDuff on the title track, "Dink's Blues," and "Blues and Tonic," ... Green was always more than a sideman as this date attests, and though he was part of the rhythm section, his playing is a standout on this date. McDuff was already in full possession of his voice as an organist, and his hard bop leanings began to subside here as he embraced a more soulful approach, no doubt informed by the effect Jimmy Smith was having on jazz with his crossover. This is an excellent date and should be picked up by anyone interested in McDuff as a great place to start, or for any serious collector because of the gorgeous sound of the remaster itself.

One of the great blues singers of the post-World War II period, Jimmy Witherspoon was also versatile enough to fit comfortably into the jazz world.

Jimmy Witherspoon feat: Ben Webster

I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water

Key to the Highway (Big Bill Broonzy / Charles Segar)

Did You Ever (Jimmy Witherspoon)

from Roots 1962

Jimmy Witherspoon laid out two great records in 1962 on Reprise, Spoon and this one. Roots places the great blues singer and guitarist in the company of saxophonist Ben Webster, trumpeter Gerald Wilson, and a rhythm section consisting of pianist Ernie Freeman and drummer Jim Miller. The mood is laid-back, down-home, and full of emotion and sentiment... 

The last great country blues singer, with an easygoing style that worked well in settings from solo to guitar/piano duets to small rhythm sections.

Lightnin' Hopkins 

Wake Up Old Lady (Lightnin' Hopkins / Sam Hopkins)

Stranger Here (Lightnin' Hopkins / Sam Hopkins)

Little Sister's Boogie (Lightnin' Hopkins / Sam Hopkins)

from Goin' Away 1963

For the 1963 album Goin' Away, Lightnin' Hopkins was backed by a spare rhythm section -- bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Herb Lovelle -- who managed to follow his ramshackle, instinctual sense of rhythm quite dexterously, giving Hopkins' skeletal guitar playing some muscle. Still, the spotlight remains Hopkins, who is in fine form here. There are no real classics here, but everything is solid... making it worth investigation by serious fans of Hopkins' classic material.

One of the most influential bluesmen in terms of the evolution of folk and rock fingerpicking. In his prime of life, which is to say the late '20s, the Reverend Gary Davis was one of the two most renowned practitioners of the East Coast school of ragtime guitar; 35 years later, despite two decades spent playing on the streets of Harlem in New York, he was still one of the giants in his field, playing before thousands of people at a time, and an inspiration to dozens of modern guitarist/singers...

Rev. Gary Davis

Maple Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin)

The Boy Was Kissing the Girl (And Playing the Guitar the Same Time) (Rev. Gary Davis)

The Coon Hunt (Traditional)

from The Guitar And Banjo Of Reverend Gary Davis 1964

Because this is an all-instrumental recording, it's an offbeat entry into the catalog of a performer known both as an important guitarist and as a singer. Some might miss Davis' vocals on this 1964 recording, but on the other hand there are plenty of records with him singing around. This gives listeners a chance to hone in on his dexterous guitar skills, blending ragtime, folk, and blues, usually on guitar (though he plays banjo on a couple of songs, and harmonica on one)...

One of the most important electric guitarists in history, whose bent notes and staccato picking style influenced legions to come. Universally hailed as the king of the blues, the legendary B.B. King was without a doubt the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century. His bent notes and staccato picking style influenced legions of contemporary bluesmen, while his gritty and confident voice -- capable of wringing every nuance from any lyric -- provided a worthy match for his passionate playing.

B.B. King 

Every Day I Have the Blues  (Peter Chatman / Memphis Slim)

Sweet Little Angel  (B.B. King / Jules Taub)

It's My Own Fault (John Lee Hooker / B.B. King / Jules Taub)

How Blue Can You Get? (Jane Feather / Leonard Feather)

from Live at the Regal 1965

B.B. King is not only a timeless singer and guitarist, he's also a natural-born entertainer, and on Live at the Regal the listener is treated to an exhibition of all three of his talents. Over percolating horn hits and rolling shuffles, King treats an enthusiastic audience (at some points, they shriek after he delivers each line) to a collection of some of his greatest hits. The backing band is razor-sharp, picking up the leader's cues with almost telepathic accuracy. King's voice is rarely in this fine of form, shifting effortlessly between his falsetto and his regular range, hitting the microphone hard for gritty emphasis and backing off in moments of almost intimate tenderness. Nowhere is this more evident than at the climax of "How Blue Can You Get," where the Chicago venue threatens to explode at King's prompting. Of course, the master's guitar is all over this record, and his playing here is among the best in his long career. Displaying a jazz sensibility, King's lines are sophisticated without losing their grit. More than anything else, Live at the Regal is a textbook example of how to set up a live performance. Talking to the crowd, setting up the tunes with a vignette, King is the consummate entertainer. Live at the Regal is an absolutely necessary acquisition for fans of B.B. King or blues music in general. A high point, perhaps even the high point, for uptown blues.

With a style honed in the gritty blues bars of Chicago's south side, the Butterfield Blues Band was instrumental in bringing the sound of authentic Chicago blues to a young white audience in the mid-'60s, and although the band wasn't a particularly huge commercial success, its influence has been enduring and pervasive. 

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band 

Walkin' Blues (Robert Johnson)

I Got a Mind to Give Up Living (Traditional)

All These Blues (Public Domain / Traditional)

East-West

from East West 1966

The raw immediacy and tight instrumental attack of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's self-titled debut album were startling and impressive in 1965, but the following year, the group significantly upped the ante with its second LP, East-West. The debut showed that Paul Butterfield and his bandmates could cut tough, authentic blues (not a given for an integrated band during the era in which fans were still debating if a white boy could play the blues) with the energy of rock & roll, but East-West was a far more ambitious set, with the band showing an effective command of jazz, Indian raga, and garagey proto-psychedelia as well as razor-sharp electric blues. Butterfield was the frontman, and his harp work was fierce and potent, but the core of the band was the dueling guitar work of Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, especially Bloomfield's ferocious, acrobatic solos, while Mark Naftalin's keyboards added welcome washes of melodic color, and the rhythm section of bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Billy Davenport were capable of both the rock-solid support of veteran blues players and the more flexible and artful pulse of a jazz combo, rising and relaxing with the dynamics of a performance...

The most elemental of the electric blues giants, one of few to both inspire and draw from rock & roll idols. He was beloved worldwide as the king of the endless boogie, a genuine blues superstar whose droning, hypnotic one-chord grooves were at once both ultra-primitive and timeless. But John Lee Hooker recorded in a great many more styles than that over a career that stretched across more than half a century.

John Lee Hooker 

When My First Wife Left Me (John Lee Hooker)

One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer (John Lee Hooker)

I'll Never Get Out of These Blues Alive (John Lee Hooker)

from Live at Cafe Au-Go-Go 1967

A decent if somewhat low-key electric set, recorded in August of 1966. One of his better live bands, featuring support from Otis Spann and other members of Muddy Waters' group. The eight songs include Hooker standbys like "One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer" and "I'll Never Get out of These Blues Alive."

The first and best power trio, whose brand of highly amplified, free-form playing took blues and rock in new directions. Although Cream were only together for a little more than two years, their influence was immense, both during their late-'60s peak and in the years following their breakup. Cream were the first top group to truly exploit the power trio format, in the process laying the foundation for much blues-rock and hard rock of the 1960s and 1970s. It was with Cream, too, that guitarist Eric Clapton truly became an international superstar...

Cream 

White Room (Pete Brown / Jack Bruce)

Crossroads (Ahmad Jamal / Robert Johnson / Traditional)

Politician (Pete Brown / Jack Bruce)

Born Under a Bad Sign (William Bell / Booker T. Jones)

from Wheels of Fire 1968

If Disraeli Gears was the album where Cream came into their own, its successor, Wheels of Fire, finds the trio in full fight, capturing every side of their multi-faceted personality, even hinting at the internal pressures that soon would tear the band asunder. A dense, unwieldy double album split into an LP of new studio material and an LP of live material, it's sprawling and scattered, at once awesome in its achievement and maddening in how it falls just short of greatness. It misses its goal not because one LP works and the other doesn't, but because both the live and studio sets suffer from strikingly similar flaws, deriving from the constant power struggle between the trio... And in many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream's very best work, since it also captures the fury and invention (and indulgence) of the band at its peak on the stage and in the studio, but as it tries to find a delicate balance between these three titanic egos, it doesn't quite add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. But taken alone, those individual parts are often quite tremendous.