Boom Boom - Mark Naftalin Band with John Lee Hooker

Mark Naftalin (born August 2, 1944) is an American blues keyboardist, composer, and record producer.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, Naftalin is the son of former Minneapolis mayor Arthur Naftalin; he is married to third wife Ellen Naftalin. His son is the San Francisco Bay Area artist, David Normal.
He moved to Chicago in 1961, and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1964, where he performed on piano at campus "twist parties," popular at the time. It was at these parties that Naftalin first played with blues harmonica player Paul Butterfield and guitarist Elvin Bishop, the nucleus of what was to become the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

He is known for his role, from 1965-1968, in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. On certain albums by this group he is credited as "Naffy Markham". In the late 1960s, after the first four Butterfield albums, Naftalin went out on his own, settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. There he put together the Mark Naftalin "Rhythm & Blues Revue" and has been active in blues and rock recording sessions, solo gigs and revue shows, and as a producer of concerts, festivals and radio shows. He also played with Mike Bloomfield as a duo and in a band (most often called Mike Bloomfield & Friends) from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, and hosted Mark Naftalin's Blue Monday Party, a weekly blues show (1979-1983) that featured over 60 blues artists and groups and was the scene of 86 live radio broadcasts and three TV specials.

Naftalin has produced the Marin County Blues Festival (1981-2000), and has been the associate producer of the Monterey Jazz Festival's "Blues Afternoon" (1982-1991). His weekly radio show, Mark Naftalin's Blues Power Hour has been on the air almost continuously since 1979 on San Francisco's radio KALW-FM.

Naftalin co-founded the Blue Monday Foundation and, in 1988, started his own label, Winner Records, which has issued recordings by artists including Paul Butterfield and Percy Mayfield. He continued to perform, both solo and in an ensemble, in the Bay area and elsewhere, often with longtime associate slide guitarist, Ron Thompson.

Naftalin has also recorded with many blues players including John Lee Hooker, Otis Rush, Percy Mayfield, Lowell Fulson, Big Joe Turner, James Cotton, Mike Bloomfield, Jake Walker and Van Morrison, and as a sideman on over 100 albums.
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Great Blues Medley - John Lee Hooker with Muddy's band

Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi on August 22, 1917 to a sharecropping family, John Lee Hooker's earliest musical influence came from his stepfather, Will Moore. By the early 1940's Hooker had moved north to Detroit by way of Memphis and Cincinnati. Hooker found work as a janitor in the auto factories, and at night, like many other transplants from the rural Delta, he entertained friends and neighbors by playing at "house parties". He was "discovered" by record storeowner Elmer Barbee who took him to Bernard Besman, who was a producer, record distributor and owner of Sensation Records, Besman leased some of his early Hooker recordings to Modern Records. Among Hooker's first recordings in 1948, "Boogie Chillen" became a number one jukebox hit for Modern and his first million seller. This was soon followed by an even bigger hit with "I'm In The Mood" and other classic recordings including "Crawling Kingsnake" and "Hobo Blues." Another surge in his career took place with the release of more than 100 songs on Vee Jay Records during the 1950's and 1960's.

When the young bohemian audiences of the 1960's "discovered" Hooker along with other blues originators, he and various he and others made a brief return to folk blues. Young British artist such as the Animals, John Mayall, and the Yardbirds introduced Hooker's sound to the new and eager audiences whose admiration and influence helped build Hooker to superstar status in the mid - 60's England. By 1970 he had moved to California and worked on several projects with rock musicians, notably Van Morrison and Canned Heat. Canned Heat modeled their sound after Hooker's boggie and collaborated with him on several albums and tours.

During the late 1970's and much of the 1980's, Hooker toured the U.S. and Europe steadily but grew disenchanted with recording, through his appearance in the Blues Brothers movie resulted in a heightened profile. Then, in 1989, The Healer was released to critical acclaim and sales in excess of a million copies. Today the "The King Of The Boggie" is enjoying the most successful period of his extensive career. In the past ten years Hooker's influence has contributed to a booming interest in the blues and, notably, its acceptance by the music industry as a commercially viable entity.

Hooker's career has been a series a highlights and special events since the release of The Healer. In addition to recording his on albums Mr. Lucky, Boom Boom, Chill Out, and Don't Look Back for Pointblank / Virgin, he contributed to recordings by B.B. King, Branford Marsalis, Van Morrison, and Big Head Todd and the Monsters and portrayed the title role in Pete Townshend's 1989 epic, The Iron Man.

His influence on younger generations has been documented on television with features on Showtime and a special edition of the BBC's 'Late Show' as well as appearances on "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night With David Letterman" among many others. John Lee was invited to perform The Rolling Stones and guest Eric Clapton for their national television broadcast during The Stones' 1989 Steel Wheels tour. In 1990, many musical greats paid tribute to John Lee Hooker with a performance at Madison Square Garden. Joining him on some or all of these special occasions were artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, Joe Cocker, Huey Newton, Carlos Santana, Robert Clay, Mick Fleetwood, Al Cooper, Johnny Winter, John Hammond, and the late Albert Collins and Willie Dixon.

Hooker's 1991 induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame was fitting for the man who has influenced countless fans and musicians who have in turn influenced many more. Honors continue, with recent inductions into Los Angeles' Rock Walk, The Bammies Walk Of Fame in San Francisco, and, in 1997, a star in the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

John Lee's style has always been unique, even among other performers of the real deep blues, few of whom remain with us today. While retaining that foundation he has simultaneously broken new ground musically and commercially. At the age of 80, John Lee Hooker received his third and fourth Grammy Awards, for Best Traditional Blues Recording (Don't Look Back) and for Best Pop Collaboration for the song "Don't Look Back" which Hooker recorded with his long time friend Van Morrison. This Friendship and others are celebrated on Hooker's newest Pointblank / Virgin album, The Best Of Friends. The album also celebrates a return, exactly 50 years later, to Hooker's first hit, Boogie Chillen and serves as a perfect bookend for Hooker's first fifty years in the business.

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Boogie Man in the Motor City - The John Lee Hooker Story - Part 1

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was a highly influential American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally a unique brand of country blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his blues guitar playing and singing. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948), "I'm in the Mood" (1951) and "Boom Boom" (1962), the first two reaching R&B #1 in the Billboard charts.
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Hines Farm Blues Club

Frank "Sonny" Hines and his wife Sarah bought a house and a farm on 30 acres of land from the Hallet Realty Company in Swanton, Ohio and the Hine's Farm Blues Club was born.

As was common in the area for the late 1940s the Hineses began holding house parties and suppers in their basement. These parties eventually grew to the outside and the Hineses built the still standing Juke Joint in a heavily wood section of their property. This helped to draw even larger crowds and more musicians like Big Jack Reynolds, B. B. King, Freddie King, Jimmy McCracklin, Bobby Blue Bland and John Lee Hooker. When the crowds grew even bigger a large pavilion was built as a joint venture with Mr. Luke onto the back of the main club. With it's large area and raised stage at the back it was more than capable of holding all of the fans who came for the shows. It also doubled as a skating rink during the warm months and became known as "Mr. Luke's Outdoor Pavilion." The pavilion's grand opening was August 12-13, 1961. Count Basie honored the opening with a performance from him and his Orchestra.
 Another wonderful aspect of Hines Farm were the shake dancers. These female dancers would perform erotic dancing as a band or deejay played accompanying music. Along with the female dancers were female impersonators who performed with the shake dancers. Dancers and impersonators from all around would come to Hines Farm to perform and many were just as popular as the musicians.

With 30 acres of property, the events held at Hines Farm were not restricted to music and dancing. Exhibition baseball games, carnival rides, hayrides, horse racing, miniature golf and motorcycle racing were common events held throughout the year. One of the most popular was the motorcycle racing, sponsored by local black motorcycle clubs. Henry Griffin, the current owner reminisces:

Oh man, I just loved those motorcycles out there. There would be hundreds of guys in a bunch of different motorcycles clubs from all over, not only the Toledo area but as far as Mississippi and Alabama. They'd have all their motorcycles out here in this field and it was just a sea of bikes. Hines would send out a flyer that he was having a motorcycle race and he would have people come from all over, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. They'd get on their motorcycles and ride right up here and there would be thousands of them.

What happened next can only be described as man's never satisfied need to grow. In the early 1960s the Toledo Express Airport extended it's runway cutting Route 295 in half. This forced everyone to seek an alternate route to Hines Farm and moved it from just off the beaten path to more of a backwoods country locale. People found it difficult to get to Hines Farm and many got lost either coming or going. Hines Farm was a victim to the Urban Renewal of the late 1960s as was the main music district in the heart of the black community. That area was Dorr Street and was demolished in the name of urban expansion. This spelled the end of Toledo's thriving blues music scene.
 Fast forward to 1978, Frank and Sarah Hines were both in a rest home and their son had boarded up the entire farm. The buildings were in shambles; the club was all boarded up with major damage to the roof and interior. In walks Henry Griffin, who's history with Hines Farm goes back to his childhood when his parents would come up from their home in the south during the summer. Henry had so many fond memories of the place he decided to purchase and renovate the club. With lots of time and money Henry has reopened the old blues club, pavilion and juke joint.
Today, Griffin's Hines Farm Blues Club holds a blues show once a month showcasing blues talent from Toledo and beyond. In the tradition of Frank and Sarah Hines the club opens it's doors to everyone so all can have a good time. With great food, great music, and great atmosphere you are bound to have a great time at Griffin's Hines Farm Blues Club.

* Special thanks to Matthew A. Donahue, PhD.
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What is it with all this keeping the Blues alive BS!!! - Bman's Rant

First off I have to ask what is this all about? Why does this question even exist? It is my understanding that Blues Music started in America around 1900 and that it was a derivative of native African culture. Due to the racial conditions present at the time, field hollers, spiritual music and the like was the basis for the black culture and it's music. Blues music evolved from actual feelings inside of a person rather than catchy melodies and lyrics contrived to get airplay on the radio or to sell records. It was conceived to give comfort to those that sang, played and enjoyed it. At this time it was not at all accepted as a form of entertainment outside of the group of people who had been involved with it.... mostly slaves and workmen. It wasn't until WWI that white audiences began to become exposed to this music through the likes of W.C. Handy and Bessie Smith among others.

As free blacks started to immigrate north to the larger cities in search of work, more and more white audiences were becoming exposed to this terrific music but it was still not broadly accepted. Ok. Now lets look back. It has been around a minimum of 40 years to this point with basically no audience and it survives just fine... this is where my question of "Is The Blues Dying" comes in. It's hogwash!!

It took the likes of John Mayall, Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones and other British rockers to tell America to wake up and smell the coffee. They produced an updated version of the traditional black blues and audiences were listening. It was this introduction that was the beginning of rock music as we know it. Sure there
was Elvis copying Big Mama and JLL but rock music came out of a real love for the blues. Musical sessions with Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann and others caused an awakening of consciousness of this great music.

It didn't hurt that the introduction of the new Blues Music, being a deep rooted feeling music, coincided with the "album rock" explosion that occurred in the early mid sixties. Guitar players went from making 3 minute songs to expanded 8 minutes songs to play longer instrumental interludes... yes...the blues music fostered that. Look at Led Zeppelin I or the Allman Brothers Live at The Fillmore. These albums are as a result of the adaptation of Blues Music. A broad acceptance of music that was actually constructed for people to listen to...to feel...rather than to hear as background music... like "How Much is that Doggie in the Window"... specifically created as a catchy tune for airplay.

Music runs in cycles. Kids don't want to listen to what their parents listen to...that's not at all cool! The 60/70 generation now has grand children. They are discovering music with meaning as they start to grow up.

What is perceived as the "death of the blues" is just hype! Do you hear anyone worrying that hip hop is going to die? No one cares... that's a good start. But my point is, what is "popular" is called pop music. It is designed for 13 year old kids. It was bubblegum... it died...or did it (Lady gaga and Madonna). The music played on the radio is what ever the music industry thinks will sell. The primary buyer is a little kid...so write little kid stuff (nursery rhymes) and sell a bundle... then all you have to figure out what kind of rhythm to put behind it to dance to and you've got it made. But it's all crap!

When the 60's generation got old (got out of college and had kids) album oriented music "died" ...relegated to the "classic rock" station. But then if you've ever heard classic rock... it's really the pop music from the era. It's the worst of the pop rock guys. That's not saying they never play anything good.... but it's mostly the stuff that sold the most albums...which is to say... the pop portion of the market.... "How Much is That Doggie in the Window" but sung by Journey (where's Beavis and Butt-Head when you need them?).

There was a short interlude in the 80's when Blues Music made a huge impact. It took Stevie Ray Vaughn to hit the scene with his take no prisoners attitude and flaming guitar licks to wake people up... and it spread across the generations. People stopped listening to Ozzie (who once had a decent band called Black Sabbath) and said...WTF is this? SRV is great!

There are a lot of really great blues music players out there right now. I am looking for them and trying to expose you to them. The question isn't will the blues die... it isn't when will the blues die. It is, who will be the next great Messiah of blues music who will again awaken the "sheep" to the music we listen to everyday.

Lets face it...if you ask the average person what kind of music they listen to their replay will be blah blah radio. They don't have a clue. You could play anything and tell them it was good and they would listen to it.

The blues music is alive and well!! We can't do anything to change public opinion.
What we can do is support the artists who are trying to do something different. Those artists who spend their time and energy playing music that isn't "Pop" because they love Blues music... and because we love Blues music. I suspect nobody goes into playing blues music because they think they will make a fortune. Look at

Joe Bonamassa. Here is a guy who has as good a chance to be the next blues leader of his generation. He is doing all types of crossover experiments to try to find an audience. Good for him. It's good for the genre. I have people calling me and asking "Hey have you heard of the Joe Bonamassa guy"? When I tell them I saw him in a club with less than 100 people 10 years ago they are astounded. But Joe is finding his way.

Blues music is alive, well and strong. Embrace it, turn your friends on to it. Don't be surprised when they don't get it. I don't get Madonna ... but she's rich beyond all imagination because she knows how to sell. I've seen Jeff Beck and Albert King in clubs so small that you could meet everyone in the place in 10 minutes. Try doing that at a Jeff Beck concert now. Jeff is my main man so I am thrilled for him. Is Jeff better than he used to be? Hell no! People are waking up. He gave people a reason.

Blues music is alive an well. Don't worry that it isn't popular. When it gets popular it becomes watered down and uninteresting... just listen to a few ZZ Top albums from the middle years... but they made money.

No slam on ZZ Top.... but I'm glad they are back doing the real deal!

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

In my mind one of the big five bluesmen of all times!
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his masterful and idiosyncratic blues guitar and singing. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948), "I'm in the Mood" (1951) and "Boom Boom" (1962), the first two reaching R&B #1 in the Billboard charts.
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Tupelo - John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist, born near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his masterful and idiosyncratic blues guitar and singing. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948), "I'm in the Mood" (1951) and "Boom Boom" (1962), the first two reaching R&B #1 in the Billboard charts.
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Down Home Shakedown - Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Big Walter Horton & Dr Ross

Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Shakey Horton & Dr Ross each playing the harmonica
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Hobo Blues - John Lee Hooker - Ry Cooder

First let me say (if yuo already haven't figured it out) am not at all into super matchups and 15 great guitars and every celebrity all playing at once. In fact, I hate it! This is a real nice opportunity to see John Lee playing in his own pure form without someone stepping all over him. I love the work of Ry Cooder and he just stays out of JLH's way and lets him perform.

Serves Me Right To Suffer - John Lee Hooker

The real deal... not a modern cut...you gotta watch this!! This is the real Hooker!!

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist, born near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his masterful and idiosyncratic blues guitar and singing. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948), "I'm in the Mood" (1951) and "Boom Boom" (1962), the first two reaching R&B #1 in the Billboard charts.

Hooker's life experiences were chronicled by several scholars and often read like a classic case study in the racism of the music industry, although he eventually rose to prominence with memorable songs and influence on a generation of musicians.
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Tupelo - The Real Deal!!

I just love the early JL Hooker stuff. Few were close.

It't My Own Falut

This is the real deal... Such a great artist!

Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1917 to a sharecropper family, John Lee Hooker was one of the last links to the blues of the deep South. He moved to Detroit in the early 1940's and by 1948 had scored his first number-one jukebox hit and million-seller, "Boogie Chillun." Other hits soon followed, "I'm In The Mood," "Crawling Kingsnake," and "Boom Boom" among the biggest. During the 1950s and '60s, Vee Jay Records released a remarkable string of more than 100 of John Lee's songs.
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Boom Boom

John Lee Hooker... a blues players blues player.
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Hobo Blues Updated

This is one of the few updated versions of John Lee Hooker that pays respect to his real person. It is performed with Ry Cooder. Must I say more!

Hobo Blues - John Lee Hooker

This is the great John Lee Hooker. Hooker has always been one of my favorite blues singers and guitar players. The main reason is because he sings it with no polish and no pretense. If you watch him try to play with a band, they try to squeeze him into 8 bars or 12 bars. John Lee plays to his own time. The band always has to adapt to his shortening of the "traditional" phasing. His voice is humble and cutting and honest. It's refreshing. It's a shame that he had to be put with so many current day blues players to get his due. I'm glad that he did. But people who saw only that or heard only that style of Hooker, never understood where he was coming from. This is the real deal.

Enjoy

Oh yeah..by the way... don't have to have a fancy guitar to play the blues...looks like a Kay copy he's got there just adding to his persona. He's posing with a Les Paul in the photo... but I really only saw him with thin hollow body guitars.
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