After Hours - Ernest Lane

Growing up in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Ernest had the right background for a bluesman; his father was a barrelhouse pianist, his boyhood friend was Ike Turner and Pinetop Perkins was a family friend who showed the youngster a thing or two. Ike fell in love with the piano when he peered in at The King Biscuit Boys, featuring boogie pianist Joe Willie Pinetop Perkins, rehearsing in the basement of his buddy Ernest Lanes house. When he was just a teenager, Lane hooked up with legendary slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk. Nighthawk eventually took him to Chicago where his solid piano work graced a number of sides cut for the Chess label in 1948-49. These cuts include the blues classic Sweet Black Angel. After Nighthawk Ernest played with Earl Hooker, Houston Stackhouse and others before heading to the California in 1956. After arriving in California, Lane worked with Jimmy Nolen and George Harmonica Smith before being recruited by old buddy Ike Turner to be a member of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. After leaving Ike, Ernest joined a group called the Goodtimers, who eventually wound up backing the Monkees for about a year on tour. Through the late 1960's through the early 1970's he played and recorded for Canned Heat before giving up music altogether until 1999, when Ernest performed again with Ike Turner's Kings Of Rhythm Band until his Ike's death in 2007.

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FANNY MAE - THE ED EARLEY BAND

EDWARD J. EARLEY, JR. - Ed is the "trombone player's" trombone player. He has played with just about everybody in the blues world from Albert King to John Lee Hooker. In addition to his own band, Ed is currently performing with Elvin Bishop, as well as teaching and writing music. With his charismatic stage presence, he is a true professional...

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Smokestack Lightnin' - Butch Cage/Clarence Edwards

The Old Time Black Southern String Band tradition had rarely been recorded and by the 1960's had almost died out. When, in 1959, folklorist Harry Oster "discovered" Butch Cage (fiddle and vocals) and Willie B. Thomas (vocals and guitar) in Zachary, Louisiana they had been supplying the dance music at house parties and dances as well at church services for their back-country neighbors. This CD represents some of their broad repertoire of old time fiddle tunes, blues, pop and gospel music and is a rare glimpse into a world that has all but vanished from America's musical landscape. 1. Bugle Call Blues 2. Some Day Baby 3. Mean Old Frisco 4. The Piano Blues 5. Hen Cackle 6. The Dirty Dozen 7. Rock Me Mama 8. It Ain't Gonna Rain No More 9. Easy Rider Blues 10. Whoa Mule 11. I Had A Dream Last Night (All I Had Was Gone) 12. Careless Love Blues 13. Sneaky Ways 14. Since I Layed My Burden Down 15. You've Gotta Move “If you haven’t heard this driving, raucous, almost free-form black country dance music, then I envy you for the treat you will experience…It’s not all blues; there’s gospel, ragtime, country dance tunes and popular song, but the blender that Cage and Thomas put these genres through gives them a unique flavor that belongs to the rural community they lived in and served as musicians.” -Paul Vernon, fROOTS

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Mean To Me - Ruby Braff Trio

Reuben "Ruby" Braff (March 16, 1927 – February 9, 2003) was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist. Jack Teagarden was once asked about him on the Gary Moore TV show and described Ruby as "The Ivy League Louis Armstrong." Braff was born in Boston. He was renowned for working in an idiom ultimately derived from the playing of Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke. He began playing in local clubs in the 1940s. In 1949, he was hired to play with the Edmond Hall Orchestra at the Savoy Cafe of Boston. He relocated to New York in 1953 where he was much in demand for band dates and recordings. He died February 10, 2003, in Chatham, Massachusetts.

 If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Everybody's Ought To Change Sometime - Son 'Brownsville' Bond with Sleep John Estes

Son Bonds (March 16, 1909 – August 31, 1947) was an American country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a working associate of both Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon, and was similar in his guitar playing style. According to Allmusic journalist, Jim O'Neal, "the music to one of Bonds's songs, "Back and Side Blues" (1934), became a standard blues melody when Sonny Boy Williamson I from nearby Jackson, Tennessee, used it in his classic "Good Morning, School Girl"." The best known of Bonds's other works are "A Hard Pill To Swallow" and "Come Back Home Born in Brownsville, Tennessee, Bonds was also billed on record as "Brownsville" Son Bonds, and Brother Son Bonds. Sleepy John Estes earlier recorded work had used backing from Yank Rachell (mandolin) or Hammie Nixon (harmonica), but by the late 1930s he was accompanied in the recording studio by either Bonds or Charlie Pickett (guitar). Bonds also backed Estes at a couple of later recording sessions in 1941. In reverse, either Estes or Nixon played on every one of Bonds's own recordings. In the latter stages of his career, Bonds played kazoo as well as the guitar on several of his tracks. According to Nixon's later accounts of the event, Bonds suffered an accidental death in August 1947. While sitting on his own front porch late one evening in Dyersburg, Tennessee, Bonds was shot to death by his short-sighted neighbor, who mistook Bonds for another man with whom his neighbor was having a protracted disagreement  

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Sittin On Top Of The World - Ray Benson

Ray Benson (born March 16, 1951) is the front man of the Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. Ray Benson performing in April 2009 In 1970, Benson, a Jewish native of Philadelphia, formed Asleep at the Wheel with friends Lucky Oceans and Leroy Preston. The group relocated to Austin in 1973 after a suggestion from Willie Nelson . Since then, the group has released more than 20 albums and earned 9 Grammy awards. Though the band's lineup has changed greatly over the years (about 90 people have been part of Asleep at the Wheel at some point), Benson has always remained at the helm as the band's driving force. In addition to his work with Asleep at the Wheel, Benson is also an accomplished producer whose credits include albums by Dale Watson, Suzy Bogguss, Aaron Watson, James Hand and Carolyn Wonderland; also single tracks for Willie Nelson, Aaron Neville, Brad Paisley, Pam Tillis, Trace Adkins, Merle Haggard, and Vince Gill. In 2003, Benson released his first solo album entitled Beyond Time. Benson is also a founding member of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which raises money to help aging R&B artists, and a member of the board of directors of the SIMS Foundation, which provides low-cost mental health services to Austin musicians and their families. He is also a trustee for the Texas chapter of NARAS, a board member of St Davids Community Health Foundation, Board member and founding member of Health alliance for Austin musicians (HAMM). Benson is 6 feet, 7 inches tall with size 16 EEE feet.

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Prisoner of Love - Lester Young and Teddy Wilson

Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and sometime clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike". Famous for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi, and grew up in a musical family. His father, Willis Handy Young, was a respected teacher, his brother Lee Young was a drummer, and several other relatives played music professionally. His family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, when Lester was an infant and later to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Although at a very young age Young did not initially know his father, he learned that his father was a musician. Later Willis taught his son to play the trumpet, violin, and drums in addition to the saxophone. Lester Young played in his family's band, known as the Young Family Band,in both the vaudeville and carnival circuits. He left the family band in 1927 at the age of 18 because he refused to tour in the Southern United States, where Jim Crow laws were in effect and racial segregation was required in public facilities On December 8, 1957, Young appeared with Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, and Gerry Mulligan in the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz, performing Holiday's tunes "Lady Sings The Blues" and "Fine and Mellow". It was a reunion with Holiday, with whom he had lost contact for years. She was also in decline at the end of her career, and they both gave moving performances. Young's solo was brilliant, considered by many jazz musicians an unparalleled marvel of economy, phrasing and extraordinarily moving emotion. But Young seemed gravely ill, and was the only horn player who was seated (except during his solo) during the performance. By this time his alcoholism had cumulative effect. He was eating significantly less, drinking more and more, and suffering from liver disease and malnutrition. Young's sharply diminished physical strength in the final two years of his life yielded some recordings with a frail tone, shortened phrases, and, on rare occasions, a difficulty in getting any sound to come out of his horn at all. Lester Young made his final studio recordings and live performances in Paris in March 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke at the tail end of an abbreviated European tour during which he ate next to nothing and virtually drank himself to death. He died in the early morning hours of March 15, 1959, only hours after arriving back in New York, at the age of 49. He was buried at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. According to jazz critic Leonard Feather, who rode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she said after the services, "I'll be the next one to go." Holiday died four months later at age 44.

  If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out - Clarence " Pinetop" Smith

Clarence Smith, better known as Pinetop Smith or Pine Top Smith (June 11, 1904 – March 15, 1929) was an American boogie-woogie style blues pianist. His hit tune, "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie," featured rhythmic "breaks" that were an essential ingredient of ragtime music. He was a posthumous 1991 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Smith was born in Troy, Alabama and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He received his nickname as a child from his liking for climbing trees. In 1920 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked as an entertainer before touring on the T. O. B. A. vaudeville circuit, performing as a singer and comedian as well as a pianist. For a time he worked as accompanist for blues singer Ma Rainey and Butterbeans and Susie. In the mid 1920s he was recommended by Cow Cow Davenport to J. Mayo Williams at Vocalion Records, and in 1928 he moved, with his wife and young son, to Chicago, Illinois to record. For a time he, Albert Ammons, and Meade Lux Lewis lived in the same rooming house. On 29 December 1928 he recorded his influential "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie," one of the first "boogie woogie" style recordings to make a hit, and which cemented the name for the style. Pine Top talks over the recording, telling how to dance to the number. He said he originated the number at a house-rent party in St. Louis, Missouri. Smith was the first ever to direct "the girl with the red dress on" to "not move a peg" until told to "shake that thing" and "mess around". Similar lyrics are heard in many later songs, including "Mess Around" and "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles. Smith was scheduled to make another recording session for Vocalion in 1929, but died from a gunshot wound in a dance-hall fight in Chicago the day before the session. Sources differ as to whether he was the intended recipient of the bullet. "I saw Pinetop spit blood" was the famous headline in Down Beat magazine. No photographs of Smith are known to exist.
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Everyday People / Dance To The Music - SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE

Sly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco. Active from 1967 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music. Headed by singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and containing several of his family members and friends, the band was the first major American rock band to have an "integrated, multi-gender" lineup. Brothers Sly Stone and singer/guitarist Freddie Stone combined their bands (Sly & the Stoners and Freddie & the Stone Souls) in 1967. Sly and Freddie Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Gregg Erricosaxophonist Jerry Martini, and bassist Larry Graham completed the original lineup; Sly and Freddie's sister, singer/keyboardist Rose Stone, joined within a year. This collective recorded five Billboard Hot 100 hits which reached the top 10, and four ground-breaking albums, which greatly influenced the sound of American pop music, soul, R&B, funk, and hip hop music. In the preface of his 1998 book For the Record: Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral History, Joel Selvin sums up the importance of Sly and the Family Stone's influence on African American music by stating "there are two types of black music: black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone" The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. During the early 1970s, the band switched to a grittier funk sound, which was as influential on the music industry as their earlier workThe band began to fall apart during this period because of drug abuse and ego clashes; consequently, the fortunes and reliability of the band deteriorated, leading to its dissolution in 1975. Sly Stone continued to record albums and tour with a new rotating lineup under the "Sly and the Family Stone" name from 1975 to 1983. In 1987, Sly Stone was arrested and sentenced for cocaine use, after which he went into effective retirement. Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart, March 15, 1944) was a member of a deeply religious middle-class household from Dallas, Texas. K.C. and Alpha Stewart held the family together under the doctrines of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) and encouraged musical expression in the household. After the Stewarts moved to Vallejo, California, the youngest four children (Sylvester, Freddie, Rose, and Vaetta) formed "The Stewart Four", who released a local 78 RPM single, "On the Battlefield of the Lord" backed with "Walking in Jesus' Name", in 1952. While attending high school, Sylvester and Freddie joined student bands. One of Sylvester's high school musical groups was a doo-wop act called The Viscaynes, in which he and a Filipino teenager were the only non-white members. The Viscaynes released a few local singles, and Sylvester recorded several solo singles under the name "Danny Stewart". By 1964, Sylvester had become Sly Stone, a disc jockey for San Francisco R&B radio station KSOL, where he included white performers such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones into his playlists. During the same period, he worked as a record producer for Autumn Records, producing for San Francisco-area bands such as The Beau Brummels and The Mojo Men. One of the Sylvester Stewart-produced Autumn singles, Bobby Freeman's "C'mon and Swim", was a national hit recordStewart recorded unsuccessful solo singles while at Autumn

  If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Cisco Kid - featuring Howard Scott

Howard E. Scott (born March 15, 1946 in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California) is an American funk/rock guitarist and founding member of the successful 1970s funk band War. Scott grew up in Compton, California. He began playing bass at a very young age under the guidance of his cousin, Jack Nelson, and in 1961 began playing guitar. A year later, he formed a group called the Creators with Harold Brown, and together they played at high school dances, car club parties and small night clubs in southern California. Scott was influenced by blues artists TJ Summerville, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Wayne Bennett. He frequented the local blues clubs in South Los Angeles to study professionals such as Lowell Fulson, Johnny Guitar Watson, and T-Bone Walker. Howard graduated from Compton High School in 1964. He toured with The Drifters for a short time, until he was drafted into the United States Army in 1966. Upon his return, he formed his second group, The Night Shift, with Harold Brown. In 1969, the Night Shift was performing at the Rag Doll club in North Hollywood , when Eric Burdon and Lee Oskar stopped in to hear them play. Lee Oskar went to the stage to join in on a jam, and the next day Eric Burdon, Lee Oskar, Charles Miller, Papa Dee Allen, Lonnie Jordan and Peter Rosen joined Scott and Brown to form the band War. Scott contributed lyrics, music, and co-produced some of War’s greatest hits, such as Cisco Kid, Slipping into Darkness and Why Can’t We Be Friends?. He was also the frontman and leader of the group. Scott and other members eventually left the original band in the 1990s, losing the right to use the band's name. Scott now performs regularly with his nephew, B.B. Dickerson, Lee Oskar, and Harold Brown as the Lowrider Band  

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Full Force Music artist Sterling Koch - Let It Slide - New Release Review

I just received the newest release, Let It Slide from slide guitar master Sterling Koch and it's a blast! I really enjoyed Koch's last release but this one literally blows the doors off! Opening with a short interlude on an acoustic hollow body lap steel Koch opens the carps and lets out with the electric onslaught. Shape I'm In, a countrified blues track with a rock beat, is full bore! You like slide...you've come to the right place! Wrong Side Of The Blues has a more traditional blues rhythm led by Gene Babula on bass and John Goba n drums. Koch has a take no prisoners attack on his slide and even has a bit of wah sound added in. Cool track. We've all heard Mercury Blues done by different artists such as Steve Miller and Dave Lindley but Koch takes his own take on it and it isn't by any means a regular cover tune. Koch is really establishing himself as one of the dominant slide players to watch with his performance on this recording. Blow My Mind has a driving bass and drum line and Koch really is developing as a decent singer to match with his slide guitar playing. Blending both conventional electric and lap steel guitars Koch is giving the steel guitar a new face playing Hendrix and James style riffs. A real standout track on this release is It Hurts Me Too and with a different timbre and attack than other slide players who have covered this track, Koch establishes his as one that should be heard rather than an also played. Too Sorry is a cool Texas style blues track by D. Bramhall and Koch delivers a great rendition of it. I Don't Know Why, another of the 8 original tracks on this release is a bit lower key but shows strong rhythm and enthusiasm. Lonely Avenue is a great ballad style track.. almost like a soundtrack/theme song but played on slide. Nicely done. My Baby's Hot is structured like something right out of Elmore James songbook. Koch's slide work shows real control and taste. I Only Want To Be With You takes a solid dirty blues style but the guitar work is more distinctly lap steel in sound. The riffs are hot and the singing is strong. This guitar is just crying to be rubbed! Ending up with Working Man's Blues, a bit more of a rockin' blues Koch leaves you wanting more. Although I liked Koch's earlier release, I must say this may be the surprise recording for me so far this year. If you really love slide guitar, this is a must have!   

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Bust A Move To Buster's In Long Beach : Charles Burton Blues Band In The House This Sunday

                    

                     Hey All You Blues, Swing, And Dance Lovers:

           BUST A MOVE TO BUSTER'S BEACH HOUSE IN LONG BEACH:

                                Charles Burton Blues Band

         IS IN THE HOUSE!  - THIS SUNDAY, MARCH 17 - 4 PM MATINEE SHOW!

   (LONG BEACH) - Charles Burton, the longtime stellar guitarist-vocalist known as "San Diego's Blues Ambassador To The World," comes north for a special 4 p.m. Matinee Show this Sunday, March 17 at Buster's Beach House, 168 N. Marina Drive, in Long Beach. $15-$20 donation requested. Info: (562) 598-9431 or log onto https://www.facebook.com/bustersbeachhouse. Also performing: Coco Montoya and Friends plus the Cadillac Zack Band.

   Watch a live performance of the song "Gangster Of Love" by the Charles Burton Band below.

    Born in Los Angeles in 1958, Charles Burton plays with fire, and when he does, his articulation and phrasing are instantly recognizable. This tall drink of water has been playing Blues, Country, Rock, and Roots music for over forty years. He has played lead guitar in Country bands in Los Angeles (1970's), Honolulu (1980's), Tokyo (1990's), and Fresno, California. He headlined the Fresno Blues Festival playing with the late great Hosea Leavy in 1995. As a blues guitarist and singer, he has released four CDs with the Charles Burton Blues Band, and has toured Europe headlining festivals, culture houses, and clubs twice a year since 2005. In 2007/2008 he toured Scandinavia with Maury "Hooter" Saslaff (Big Jack Johnson and the Oilers), playing over 200 gigs in seven months! In 2009 he won San Diego's International Blues Challenge finals. That same year he took first place in San Diego's King of the Blues competition. Burton's latest CD release "Favorites"  is a collection of.tasty remakes including "Tell Me Why" by Duke Robillard; "Early In The Morning" by Louis Jordan; and Litlle Walter's "Last Night."

  

"Rockabilly styled blues with a swinging backbeat and a solid groove throughout that keeps the whole thing shuffling onward in the most pleasant fashion. The Charles Burton Blues Band is in shape and it shows with a sparseness that fits the genre without bogging it down with so much flash that the beautiful simplicity is lost. It speaks volumes of the bands experience and musical knowledge that they do not need to show off their skills at every turn, but instead they serve the songs while adding their voice at the same time."                                                   THE HAZARD REPORT

    

                                                      www.charlesburton.com 

                      https://www.facebook.com/charles.burton.16?ref=ts

Until The End - Clarence "Candy" Green

GREEN, CLARENCE (1934–1997). Blues guitarist and band leader Clarence Green was born in Mont Belvieu, Texas, in Chambers County, on January 1, 1934. He was a versatile guitarist who should not be confused with the piano-playing blues singer Clarence "Candy" Green (1929–88) from nearby Galveston. Green, the guitar player, was a stalwart of the Houston scene who fronted a number of popular bands, the most famous being the Rhythmaires, between the early 1950s and his death. The oldest son of a Creole mother, he grew up in Houston's Fifth Ward in the neighborhood known as Frenchtownqv. He had first started making music on homemade stringed instruments devised in collaboration with his brother, Cal Green, who later served as lead guitarist for Hank Ballard and the Midnighters and did studio work for Ray Charles and other stars, relocating permanently to California in the process. Clarence, however, opted to stay close to home all his life, choosing the security of full-time employment with Houston Light and Power, where he worked for twenty years. Nevertheless, he found ample opportunity in the Bayou City to exploit his musical talents, both on stage and in recordings. He started out around 1951 or 1952 in a group that called itself Blues For Two. Throughout the next decade the band's personnel changed often; some of the more well-known members, at various times, included fellow guitarists Johnny Copeland and Joe Hughes. Green went on to lead the High Type Five, the Cobras (not to be confused with the mid-1970s Austin-based band of the same name led by Paul Ray), and ultimately his most well-known ensemble, the Rhythmaires, which was a mainstay of the Houston scene for over thirty years. Mixing blues, jazz, and soul music––and playing in all manner of venues, from small clubs in the old wards to grand corporate affairs downtown and in private mansions––the Rhythmaires are remembered not only for Green's precisely swinging performances on electric guitar, but also for the many female vocalists they developed and featured over the years, including Iola Broussard, Gloria Edwards, Luvenia Lewis (who married Cal Green but did not follow him to the West Coast), Trudy Lynn, Faye Robinson, Lavelle White, and others. Starting in the late 1950s and continuing through the 1960s, Green also did regular session work as a guitarist at various studios, the most notable being Duke Records, where he backed artists such as Bobby Bland, Joe Hinton, and Junior Parker and released a few singles, including "Keep On Working," under his own name. In 1958 he had recorded his first single, "Mary My Darling," for the C & P label, which later leased it to Chicago-based Chess Records. In the following years he made numerous records for a variety of other small labels, including Shomar (which released his "Crazy Strings" in 1962), All Boy, Aquarius, Bright Star, Lynn, Pope, and Golden Eagle. His backing personnel on these tracks varied from session to session but occasionally included notable Texas blues musicians such as Henry Hayes, Wilbur McFarland, Teddy Reynolds, Ivory Lee Semien, and Hop Wilsonqv. Green did not always receive proper compensation for his many recordings, especially as they began to reappear on compact disk in the 1990s. In 1994 he became a co-plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed against one of his former producers on behalf of fifteen Houston blues musicians or their descendants. Just days before Green died of natural causes in Houston on March 13, 1997, a federal jury ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. In the final months of his life Green was especially focused on performing gospel music in the context of religious worship, especially at the Frenchtown institution known as Buck Street Memorial Church of God in Christ, where he served as a deacon for many years. Green had a daughter, three sons, and several stepchildren.   

 If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Wahoo - Les Cooper & His Soul Rockers

Les Cooper (b. Mar. 15, 1921, Norfolk, Virginia) was an American doo wop musician, best known for his hit rock instrumental "Wiggle Wobble". Cooper sang in several New York doo wop groups, including The Empires and The Whirlers, and was the manager of the group The Charts. In 1962, he signed to Everlast Records and released the single "Dig Yourself" b/w "Wiggle Wobble", billed with his band as Les Cooper & the Soul Rockers. Both sides were produced by Bobby Robinson. The B-side was an instrumental featuring the saxophone playing of Joe Grier (formerly of The Charts himself); it caught on at radio and became a nationwide hit, peaking at #12 R&B in 1962 and #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 early in 1963. It was his only hit; one of the follow-up singles was the sonically similar "Let's Do the Boston Monkey", recorded for Enjoy Records.   


 If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Great Music?: Check! Head Honchos' Rock The Blues at Checkerboard Lounge in Chicago

      

Great Music? Check!

HEAD HONCHOS'
Rock the Blues At Checkerboard Lounge In Chicago
- Friday, March 22 -

"There's a scene in Ghost World where Steve Buscemi ventures to see an acoustic bluesman at a sports bar, and he brushes off a girl hitting on him because she's more into the headliner, Blues Hammer. Head Honchos are like Blues Hammer: as subtle as an uppercut and making Stevie Ray Vaughan sound like Skip James. The band's self-titled debut cannons chunky guitar riffs and cymbal crashes, and turns train songs into party anthems. Buscemi's Seymour would have cringed at how frontman Rocco Calipari Sr. enunciates The Meters' "Fire On The Bayou," but then again Seymour didn't like to have fun and Head Honchos certainly do."                                    ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER

   

"Anchored by veteran guitarist Rocco Calipari (Howard and the White Boys), Head Honchos' serves up music layered in blues, rock, soul, and funk...Wilson Pickett's "99 1/2 Won't Do" and the Neville's "Fire On The Bayou" mix with fine originals to serve up what you'd hear at any good rocking bar on a Saturday night."     VINTAGE GUITAR   

            
                                        

   (CHICAGO) -  Great music? Check! - in the form of Chicago's Head Honchos', who rock the blues at popular live music niterey the Checkerboard Lounge, 5201 S. Harper, Friday, March 22. 9pm-1 am. $10. Info: (773) 684-1472. The evening is also a birthday celebration for the Checkerboard's longtime owner, LC Thurman.

  Head Honchos' play smokin' Chicago-style blues imbued with elements of rock. The band is also a father/son affair - formed by guitarist Rocco Calipari Sr. (who is also a member of noted longtime Chicago band, Howard and the White Boys) and his son, Rocco Calipari Jr.
  "With their debut release, the Head Honchos' demonstrate a high level of musical maturity and provide a truly enjoyable album from their cover of the Freddie King standard "Going Down"  until the final note on the seventh and last track, "99 1/2 Won't Do," wrote Blues Rock Review in a recent review of the group's eponymous self-titled debut disc.   

   In just over two years together as a working band, Head Honchos' have garnered positive reviews for their self-titled debut release in publications both far (Blues Matters and Metalliville in the U.K.) and near (Blues Source; Vintage Guitar; Chicago Examiner; Bluesrockers; Barrelhouse Blues; Southland Blues; BMans Blues Report; more).  The band are about to record the follow-up to their debut, tentatively titled "Come Strong."     

      

"Wow! From the opening track, "Goin' Down," this disc had our attention! From there however, things only got better, the next song, "Lucky's Train," had us grooving and enjoying the juicy guitar riffs and righteous vocals - and surprise - it's an original. There are no disappointments on this CD. Every track sparkles with electricity, great guitar, stellar engineering and production, and wonderful vocals. In short, it's a home run...out of the park!"                                                     BARRELHOUSE BLUES         

Head Honchos' CD Review (Blues Rock Review)

Head Honchos' (Media Quotes Sheet)
Head Honchos' - CD Review (Illinois Entertainer) 

             Head Honchos' Cd Review (Vintage Guitar)                

  

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My Good Pott - Doc Pomus

Jerome Solon Felder, better known as Doc Pomus (June 27, 1925 - March 14, 1991), was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of non-performer in 1992. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. and the Blues Hall of Fame Born Jerome Solon Felder in 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were Jewish immigrants. Felder became a fan of the blues after hearing a Big Joe Turner record. Having had polio as a boy, he used crutches to walk. Later, due to post-polio syndrome, exacerbated by an accident, Felder eventually relied on a wheelchair. His brother is New York attorney Raoul Felder. Using the stage name "Doc Pomus," Felder began performing as a teenager, becoming a blues singer; his stage name wasn't inspired by anyone in particular, he just thought it sounded better for a blues singer than the name Jerry Felder did. Pomus stated that more often as not, he was the only Caucasian in the clubs, but that as both a Jew and a polio victim, he felt a special "underdog" kinship with African-Americans, while in turn the audiences both respected his courage and were impressed with his talent. Gigging at various clubs in and around New York City, Pomus often performed with the likes of Milt Jackson and King Curtis. Pomus recorded approximately 40 sides as a singer during the '40s and '50s for record companies such as Chess, Apollo and others. In the 1950s, Pomus started writing magazine articles as well as songwriting to make more money to support a family, as he had married (Willi Burke, a Broadway actress). His first big songwriting break came when he chanced upon the Coasters' version of his "Young Blood" on a jukebox while on his honeymoon. Pomus had written the song, then given it to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who radically rewrote it. Still, Doc was given co-credit as an author, and he soon received a royalty check for $1500.00, which convinced him that songwriting was a career direction well worth pursuing. By 1957, Pomus had given up performing in order to devote himself full-time to songwriting. He collaborated with pianist Mort Shuman, whom he had met when Shuman was dating Doc's younger cousin, to write for Hill & Range Music Co./Rumbalero Music at its offices in New York City's Brill Building. Pomus asked Shuman to write with him because Doc didn't know much about rock and roll at the time, whereas Mort was well versed in many of the popular artists of the day. Their songwriting efforts had Pomus write the lyrics and Shuman the melody, although quite often they worked on both. They wrote the hit songs: "A Teenager in Love"; "Save The Last Dance For Me"; "Hushabye"; "This Magic Moment"; "Turn Me Loose"; "Sweets For My Sweet" (a hit for the Drifters and then the Searchers); "Go Jimmy Go", "Little Sister"; "Surrender"; "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame". During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Pomus also wrote several songs with Phil Spector: "Young Boy Blues"; "Ecstasy"; "Here Comes The Night"; "What Am I To Do?"; Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber: "Young Blood" and "She's Not You", and other Brill Building-era writers. Pomus also wrote "Lonely Avenue", which became a 1956 hit for Ray Charles. In the 1970s and 1980s in his eleventh-floor, two-room apartment at the Westover Hotel at 253 West 72nd Street, Pomus wrote songs with Dr. John, Ken Hirsch and Willy DeVille for what he said were "...those people stumbling around in the night out there, uncertain or not always so certain of exactly where they fit in and where they were headed." These later songs ("There Must Be A Better World," "There Is Always One More Time," "That World Outside," "You Just Keep Holding On," and "Something Beautiful Dying" in particular), which were recorded by Willy DeVille, B. B. King, Irma Thomas, Marianne Faithful, Charlie Rich, Ruth Brown, Dr. John, James Booker, and Johnny Adams. These are considered by some, including writer Peter Guralnick, musician and songwriter Dr. John, and producer Joel Dorn to be signatures of his best craft. The documentary film "A.K.A. Doc Pomus" (2012), directed by filmmaker Peter Miller and Will Hechter, edited by Amy Linton and produced by Hechter, Miller and Pomus' daughter Sharyn Felder, details Pomus' life. The film won the grand prize at the Stony Brook Film Festival, the first time a documentary was awarded that honor, and screened at dozens of other film festivals in 2012 and 2013. Pomus died in 1991 from lung cancer, at the age of 65.

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Big Twist &The Mellow Fellows

Larry "Big Twist" Nolan heartily epitomized the image "300 pounds of heavenly joy." Based in Chicago, the huge singer and his trusty R&B band, the Mellow Fellows, were one of the hottest draws on the Midwestern college circuit during the 1980s with a slickly polished sound modeled on the soul-slanted approach of Bobby Bland, Little Milton, and Tyrone Davis. Twist started out singing and playing drums in rough-and-tumble country bars in downstate Illinois during the late '50s and early '60s (chicken wire-enclosed stages were a necessity on this raucous scene). Young saxist Terry Ogolini jammed often with the big man at a joint called Junior's in a Prairie State burg called Colp. Ogolini and guitarist Pete Special spearheaded the nucleus of the first edition of the Mellow Fellows in the college town of Carbondale during the early '70s, with Twist doubling on drums. After taking southern Illinois by storm, the unit relocated en masse to Chicago in 1978. Live from Chicago! Bigger Than Life! Their eponymous 1980 debut album for Flying Fish accurately captured the group's slick sound, while the 1982 follow-up, One Track Mind, attempted to be somewhat more contemporary without losing the band's blues/R&B base. A move to Alligator in 1983 elicited an album co-produced by Gene "Daddy G" Barge, whose sax solos previously enlivened R&B classics by Chuck Willis, Gary (U.S.) Bonds, Little Milton, and countless more. The group's final album with Twist up front was the Live From Chicago! Bigger Than Life!! Street Party Numerous personnel changes over the years failed to scuttle the band, and neither did the death of Twist in 1990 from diabetes and kidney failure. Martin Allbritton, an old singing buddy of Twist's from downstate who had previously gigged around Chicago as frontman for Larry & the Ladykillers, had already been deputizing for the ailing Twist, so it fell to Allbritton to assume the role full-time. Barge shared the singing duties at selected gigs and on the band's 1990 album Street Party. Special left the organization not long after that, taking the name Mellow Fellows with him when he hit the door. That's when the remaining members adopted the handle of the Chicago Rhythm & Blues Kings. With Ogolini and longtime trumpeter Don Tenuto comprising a red-hot horn section, they're still a popular, dance-friendly fixture around the Chicago scene.

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Vizztone artist: Long Tall Deb - Raise Your Hands - New Release review

I just received the debut release, Raise Your Hands, by Long Tall Deb (Deb Landolt). Deb opens the release with What Would a Good Woman Do, a soul strut featuring a vocal duet with Phil Pemberton and guitar work from Sean Carney. Hush Your Mouth gets a funk groove going with backing vocals by Nikki Scott and Melvin Powe sets the stage with some smooth bass lines. Let's Get Lost is a strong radio track and one that should fir well with strong vocals. Married To The Blues, a track talking about independence, features Jimmy Thackery on guitar along with Bart Walker and Matt O'Ree with a R&B style track and featuring vocals by Big Llou. Finally Forgot Your Name, a solid soul track sets up nicely as a blues ballad, with guests the Roomful Of Blues Horns (Mark Earley, Rich Lataille and Doug Woolverton). Raise Your Hands blends gospel, soul and rock for another airplay geared track. There is quite a bit of guitar work on this track courtesy of Sean Carney, Dave Clo and Brent Pennell. Ian Moore's Muddy Jesus has a real funky sound but blues based actually reminding me of Jack the Toad by Savoy Brown. JP Soars and Damon Fowler exchange guitar riffs on this track and Victor Wainwright plays some nice keys on this track. Cool track. To Find His Home opens with some cool slide playing on a resonator guitar. This is actually a really tasty track with Deb showing the depth of her vocal talents sharing the lead with Shaun Booker and Phil Pemberton. John Popovich plays some nice piano on this track and Reese Wynans plays some great organ on this track that turns into a full blown gospel track. Torch blues track by Tom Waits, New Coat Of Paint features Deb and Popovich on piano. Really nice finish.   

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Tracer to release new album "El Pistolero"

Mascot Records (a division of the Mascot Label Group) is pleased to confirm the highly anticipated second album from Australia’s award-winning powerhouse band TRACER.
The new album, "El Pistolero" will be released in the UK and the rest of Europe on Monday 6th May, followed by a UK tour which kicks off at the Sheffield Plug on June 8th.

All who saw Tracer, the hard-rocking young three-piece from Down Under, in 2012 saw the potential. Now with their second full-length album El Pistolero that potential is fulfilled. Produced by Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Silverchair, Cold Chisel) the album is on target to make Tracer the band that everyone will be talking about in 2013.

Having revamped the line-up with new bassist Jett Heysen-Hicks – a long-time friend from back home – founder members Michael Brown (vocals and guitar) and Dre Wise (drums) believe Tracer are perfectly poised to rise to a new level.
Michael: "The songwriting has gone up a peg or two. The songs have taken on a life of their own.  Kevin really got the most out of them. He got us doing things we would never have thought of doing and because of that they've stepped into a new realm. I think this album will really define what Tracer is about, and why we're different to everyone else."

Tracer (L-R) Dre Wise (drums) Michael Brown (guitars/vocals) and Jett Heysen-Hicks (bass) Photo Credit: © www.bjwok.com

The differences are clear throughout El Pistolero; a high-energy mix of stoner anthems, biker attitude and classic power trio rock. Tracer is no retro act: from the title track to Scream In Silence, from There's A Man, through Dirty Little Secret and beyond with Ladykiller this is the sound of a 21st century band making their best album to date. It's a high-energy collection on no-holds-barred rock’n’roll just as it was meant to be: hot, loud and sweaty.
Tracer has come a long way since forming in Adelaide, South Australia just under 10 years ago. They made two independent mini albums (the three-song Into The Night in 2006, and the seven-track L.A.? in 2009), but their debut proper came with "Spaces In Between" released on Mascot Label Group in late 2011. That album was widely praised and three European tours in support of it saw Tracer named the Best New Band at the 2012 Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards.

Photo Credit: © www.bjwok.com

Radio support for Tracer in the UK saw them A-listed on the premiere classic rock radio station, Planet Rock, with a hat-trick of high octane rock singles including Too Much,  Devil Ride and Spaces In Between.
In the past Tracer have been compared with top-drawer outfits Soundgarden, Queens Of The Stone Age, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Kyuss etc. El Pistolero sees them forging more of their own identity – not that the band mind the kind words.

Photo Credit: © www.bjwok.com

Michael: "Those are bands I love so I don't mind, it's obviously a compliment. I mean, if people said we sounded like Justin Bieber I’d be pretty pissed off – but I don’t think that's going to happen!"
Certainly not now that the band and Kevin Shirley have found a way to harness the hurricane of Tracer's much-lauded live show in the studio for the first time.
Dre: "People come to see us live and they get something else. They can notice the hard work we're putting in. We've always had the comment that; 'It's a lot of noise for three people to be making’ and it's no accident."

Photo Credit: © www.bjwok.com

Now, for the first time, "something else" has been captured in the studio. El Pistolero is an awesome statement of raw power made all the stronger for being made super quickly – with the basic tracks recorded in just seven days at Revolver Studios in LA – underlining the band's no-nonsense work ethic.

Some songs on El Pistolero – Michael isn't revealing which ones – were inspired by the Robert Rodriguez film Desperado ("It's a bit like what we do – it's loud and in your face!") but all of them are now ready to be road-tested.

"I tell you what," concludes Michael, "we can't wait to get out there on the stage and play these new songs. They're going to be epic!"

Box Office: 0844 478 0898
www.thegigcartel.com

Saturday 8th June 2013
Sheffield Plug
Tickets: £12.00 / Box Office: 0114 241 3040 / Doors: 7pm
14-16 Matilda Street, Sheffield, S1 4QD
www.the-plug.com

Monday 10th June 2013
London Scala
Tickets: £14.00 / Box Office: 0844 999 999 / Doors: 7:30pm
275-277 Pentonville Road, Kings Cross, London, N1 9NL
www.scala-london.co.uk

Wednesday 12th June 2013
Bristol Tunnels
Tickets: £12.00 / Box Office: 0845 6050255 / Doors: 7pm
Arches 31-32, Lower Station Approach Road, Bristol, BS1 6Q
www.thetunnelsbristol.co.uk

Thursday 13th June 2013
York Fibbers
Tickets: £12.00 / Box Office: 08444 77 1000 / Doors: 7:30pm
Stonebow House, The Stonebow, York YO1 7NP
www.fibbers.co.uk

Friday 14th June 2013
Glasgow o2 ABC
Tickets: £12.00 / Box Office: 0844 477 2000
www.o2abcglasgow.co.uk
300 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JA

Sunday 16th June 2013
Isle of Wight Festival
www.isleofwightfestival.com

Photo Credit: © www.bjwok.com

TRACER - OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY

With a sound reminiscent of 90's grunge/stoner rock mixed with the everlasting bravado of 70s classic rock, Tracer is a driving, sonic sledgehammer of massive guitars, clever hooks and raw uncompromising vocals.
Forming out of the ashes of blues prodigy band The Brown Brothers in 2004, Michael (Vocals and guitar) and Leigh Brown (Vocals and Bass) teamed up with drummer Andre Wise to make Tracer.
With two independent releases, two international tours and now a record contract under their belt, Tracer is a band that takes every little chance, every crazy idea, and commits everything they have to it.
During 2008 and 2009 Tracer took on an extensive touring schedule with multiple trips to Melbourne, a string of successful Adelaide shows including a capacity crowd at the Australian album launch for their second critically acclaimed mini-album "L.A.?"

2009 also saw the band share the stage with Little Red, Children Collide, The John Steel Singers and Cassette Kids among others. In late 2009 Tracer set off and toured Europe for three and a half months taking in Germany, the Netherlands, U.K., Denmark, Switzerland and Czech. Tracer also toured as part of The Great Australian Wave (as a showcase at PopKomm in Germany).
Upon returning from Europe the band got busy writing new songs and developing their live show. Demand from overseas led the band to recording 3 new songs to compliment the release of ‘L.A.?’ in Europe. ‘L.A.?’ was met with countless praising reviews in German magazines and an expression of interest from Mascot Records in the Netherlands.
Due to the success of the 2009 European tour and an increasing demand from overseas, Tracer played Europe once more with a showcase performance at Germany’s new format PopKomm Music Conference in Berlin. From this performance the band set off on a string of dates throughout Germany, Czech, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK.
The band released their debut LP via Mascot’s Cool Green Recordings on October 3rd 2011. Following the release of the album, they toured the UK and Europe as support to Royal Republic.
In 2011, their single "Too Much" was A-listed on Planet Rock Radio in the UK for three months. The band generated over 100,000 views for their Too Much video on YouTube.  In December 2011, Planet Rock A-listed Tracer’s critically acclaimed second single "Devil Ride". By March, Planet Rock A-listed the title track "Spaces In Between".
Due to popular demand, Tracer returned to the UK and Europe for their first headline tour in April 2012. On this tour, Leigh Brown was replaced by new bassist Pat Saracino.
To coincide with the April UK tour, Tracer released their debut mini album "LA?" in the UK for the very first time (the record was originally released in Australia in 2009 to critical acclaim).
In May 2013, the band will release their follow-up album to Spaces In Between. The album, entitle "El Pistolero" will be produced by Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Silverchair, Cold Chisel).
On Tuesday November 13th 2012, Tracer won Best New Band at the Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards. Michael Brown was flown to the UK for the ceremony, which was held at London's historic Roundhouse venue.

Photo Credit: © www.bjwok.com

Robert Pete Williams

Robert Pete Williams (March 14, 1914 – December 31, 1980) was an American Louisiana blues musician. His music characteristically employed unconventional blues tunings and structures, and his songs are often about the time he served in prison. His song "I've Grown So Ugly" has been covered by Captain Beefheart, on his album Safe as Milk (1967), and by The Black Keys, on Rubber Factory (2004) Williams was born in Zachary, Louisiana, to a family of sharecroppers. He had no formal schooling and spent his childhood picking cotton and cutting sugar cane. In 1928, he moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and worked in a lumberyard. At the age of 20, Williams fashioned a crude guitar by attaching five copper strings to a cigar box, and soon after bought a cheap, mass-produced one. Williams was taught by Frank and Robert Metty, and was at first chiefly influenced by Peetie Wheatstraw and Blind Lemon Jefferson. He began to play for small events such as Church gatherings, fish fries, suppers, and dances. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Williams played music and continued to work in the lumberyards of Baton Rouge. He was discovered in Louisiana State Penitentiary, by ethnomusicologists Dr Harry Oster and Richard Allen, where he was serving a life sentence for shooting a man dead in a local club in 1956, an act which he claimed was in self-defense. Oster and Allen recorded Williams performing several of his songs about life in prison, and pleaded for him to be pardoned. Under pressure from Oster, the parole board issued a pardon, and commuted his sentence to 12 years. In December 1958, he was released into 'servitude parole', which required 80 hours of labor per week on a Denham Springs farm without due compensation, and only room and board provided. This parole prevented him from working in music, though he was able to occasionally play with Willie B. Thomas and Butch Cage at Thomas's home in Zachary. By this time, Williams' music had achieved some favorable word-of-mouth reviews, and he played his first concert outside Louisiana at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. By 1965, he was able to tour the country, traveling to Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Chicago and Berkeley, California. In 1966 he also toured Europe. In 1968 he settled in Maringouin, west of Baton Rouge and began to work outside of music. In 1970, Williams began to perform once again, touring blues and folk festivals throughout the United States and Europe. His music has appeared in several films notably, the Roots of American Music; Country and Urban Music (1971); Out of the Blues into the Blacks (1972) and Blues Under the Skin (1972) the last two being French-made films. His most popular recordings included "Prisoner's Talking Blues" and "Pardon Denied Again". Williams has been inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame. Williams had slowed down his work schedule by the late 1970s, largely due to his age and declining health. Williams died in Rosedale, Louisiana on December 31, 1980, at the age of 66   

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Shirley Scott

Shirley Scott (March 14, 1934 – March 10, 2002) was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most well known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, both saxophonists. She was known as 'Queen of the Organ'. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Scott was an admirer of Jimmy Smith, and played piano and trumpet before moving to the Hammond organ, her main instrument, though on occasion she still played piano. In the 1950s she became known for her work (1956–1959) with the saxophone player Eddie Davis, particularly on the song "In the Kitchen". She was married to Stanley Turrentine and played with him from 1960 to 1969. Later, she led her own group, mostly a trio. Saxophonist Harold Vick often played with her. In the 1980s, she became a jazz educator and became a highly known and respected member of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's jazz community. Scott died of heart failure in 2002, which was hastened by the diet drug fen-phen. Scott won an $8 million settlement in February 2000 against American Home Products, the manufacturers of the drug cocktail   

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Shiny Stockings - Sonny Cohn w/ Count Basie

George T. "Sonny" Cohn (March 14, 1925 – November 7, 2006) was an American jazz trumpeter. After working for fifteen years with Red Saunders (1945–1960), he went on to spend another 24 years in Count Basie's trumpet section (1960–1984). Cohn started playing in small groups in Chicago with King Fleming while still a teenager. Cohn joined Red Saunders' group in 1945, while Saunders was out of the Club DeLisa and working with a sextet instead of his usual mid-sized band. Fresh out of military service, he joined the Saunders group at the Capitol Lounge in Chicago; Leon Washington had recommended him. He was featured on Saunders' first recordings as a leader, for Savoy, Sultan, and (behind Big Joe Turner) on National. He was heard on the records that Saunders made for OKeh Records (1951–1953) and for Parrot and Blue Lake (1953–1954). Sonny Cohn survived several downsizings of the Red Saunders band, as well as the closure of the Club DeLisa, but eventually accepted an offer from Count Basie, with whom he worked from 1960 through 1984. After Basie's death, Cohn returned to Chicago, where he remained active as a musician for another two decades. Cohn died in November 2006 in his home town of Chicago, at the age of 81.   

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St. James Infirmary Blues - Danny Barker

Danny Barker (January 13, 1909 – March 13, 1994), born Daniel Moses Barker, was a jazz banjoist, singer, guitarist, songwriter, ukelele player and author from New Orleans, founder of the locally famous Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band. He was a rhythm guitarist for some of the best bands of the day, including Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter throughout the 1930s. On September 4, 1945 he recorded with Ohio's native jazz pianist—Sir Charles Thompson—a date that included saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Charlie Parker. Barker's work with the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band was pivotal in ensuring the longevity of jazz in New Orleans, producing generations of new talent. Brothers Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis both played in the band as youths as well as "The King of Treme" Shannon Powell, Lucien Barbarin, Dr. Michael White and countless others. One of Barker's earliest teachers in New Orleans was fellow banjoist Emanuel Sayles, whom he recorded with. Throughout his career, he played with Jelly Roll Morton, Baby Dodds, James P. Johnson, Sidney Bechet, Mezz Mezzrow, and Red Allen. He also toured and recorded with his wife, singer Blue Lu Barker. Danny Barker was born to a family of musicians in New Orleans in 1909, the grandson of bandleader Isidore Barbarin and nephew of drummers Paul Barbarin and Louis Barbarin; he first took up clarinet and drums before switching to a ukulele that his aunt got him, and then a banjo from his uncle or a trumpeter named Lee Collins. Barker began his career as a musician in his youth with his streetband the Boozan Kings and also toured Mississippi with Little Brother Montgomery. In 1930 he moved to New York City and switched to the guitar. On the day of his arrival in New York, his uncle Paul took him to the Rhythm Club, where he saw an inspiring performance by McKinney's Cotton Pickers. Ironically, that was also their first performance in New York as a band. During his time in New York, he frequently played with West Indian musicians, who often mistook him for one of them due to his Creole style of playing. Barker played with several acts when he initially moved to New York, including Fess Williams, Billy Fowler and the White Brothers. He worked with Buddy Harris in 1933, Albert Nichols in 1935, Lucky Millinder from 1937 to 1938, and Benny Carter in 1938. From 1939 to 1946 he was frequently recording with Cab Calloway, and started his own group featuring his wife Blue Lu Barker after leaving Calloway. In 1947 he was performing again with Lucky Millinder, and also with Bunk Johnson. He returned to working with Al Nichols in 1948 and in 1949 rejoined efforts with his wife in a group. During the 1950s he was primarily a freelance musician, but did work with his uncle Paul Barbarin from 1954 to 1955. In the mid-1950s he went to California to record yet again with Albert Nichols. Sometime in the early 1960s he formed a group he called Cinderella. He performed at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival with Eubie Blake. In 1963 he was working with Cliff Jackson, and then in 1964 appeared at the World Fair leading his own group. In 1965, Barker returned to New Orleans and took up a position as assistant to the curator of the New Orleans Jazz Museum. In 1972 he found and led a church-sponsored brass band for young people—the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band—which became popular. In later years the band became known as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. During that time, he also led the French Market Jazz Band. It was the earnest and general feeling that any Negro who...entered the hell-hole called the state of Mississippi for any reason other than to attend the funeral of a very close relative...was well on the way to losing his mentality, or had already lost it. Danny Barker in reference to touring with Little Brother Montgomery in Mississippi quoted in Escaping the Delta by Elijah Wald The Fairview band also launched the careers of a number of professional musicians who went on to perform in both brass band and mainstream jazz contexts, including Leroy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Kirk Joseph, and Nicholas Payton. As Joe Torregano—another Fairview band alumnus—described it, "That group saved jazz for a generation in New Orleans." Barker played regularly at many New Orleans venues from the late 1960s through the early 1990s, in addition to touring. During the 1994 Mardi Gras season, Barker reigned as King of Krewe du Vieux. He also published an autobiography and many articles on New Orleans and jazz history. Barker also authored and had published two books on jazz from the Oxford University Press. The first was Bourbon Street Black, coauthored with Dr. Jack V. Buerkle, in 1973, which was followed by A Life In Jazz in 1986. He also enjoyed painting and was an amateur landscape artist. Living during a period when segregation was still common practice in the United States, Barker faced many obstacles during his career. Barker suffered from diabetes throughout most of his adult life, and was often in general poor health. He died of cancer in New Orleans on 13 March 1994 at age 85.

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The Sun Is Rising - Poor Bob

source: liner notes of Sunnyland KS 101

Poor Bob Woodfork born March 13, 1925 LAKE VILLAGE, Arkansas died May 3, 1988 in Chicago, Illinois (vcl/gtr), Henry Gray (pno), Buddy Guy (gtr), Mighty Joe Young (gtr), Willie Dixon (bs), Clifton James (dms)

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