Johnny Guitar Watson At Uncle Pö's Carnegie Hall, Hamburg 1976

Johnny Guitar Watson
At Uncle Pö's Carnegie Hall, Hamburg 1976
Jazzline

This is a live 1976 German radio broadcast of Johnny 'Guitar' Watson from Hamburg that has just been made available on CD and download. Watson is backed by his Watsonian Institute comprised of Peter Martin, trumpet; Tommy Robertson - trombone; Paul Dunmall - sax; Gil Noble - piano, synthesizer; Bobby Howard - bass and Emry Thomas - drums, and the recording was made around the time of the "Ain't That A Bitch" album but the songs here range beyond the dance funk blues of that recording.

I have several videos and recordings of a number of Watson's live performances, but these are mostly later and the repertoire is somewhat different here. It opens with a cover of the Grover Washington hit "Mister Magic" on which Watson unleashes some pretty solid guitar, followed by the title track of one of his underrated Fantasy albums, "I Don't Want To Be a Lone Ranger," with more electrifying guitar on this song where he sings no one wants to be a lonely one, but Johnny wants to be the lady's only one. In addition to his seductive singing, one should note the horn arrangements as well as the jazzy guitar runs. It's follow wed by a terrific slow rendition of "Stormy Monday" in which he incorporates a bit of the lyrics of Jimmy Reed as well as some spectacular blues guitar. A strong funky "Superman Lover," is followed by the bravado of "Gangster of Love," the funky, topical trying to make ends meet of "Ain't That a Bitch," and then his rock and roll ballad "Cuttin' In." Watson was in first-rate form this evening and his band provides tight, crisp support.

A jam on the sensuous "I Need It," allows him to introduce and showcase his band members before a short closing instrumental closes nearly an hour of exceptional Johnny 'Guitar' Watson. I purchased this as a bargain priced download with digital booklet on iTunes for about $5 and believe the hard copy is bargain priced (although not that cheap). This would be highly recommended even if it was not so inexpensive, and at that price, any JGW fan needs this.

I purchased this as a download. Here is a live performance of Johnny doing "Gangster of Love."

Shawn Pittman Takes His Blues and Roots to Edge of the World

Shawn Pittman certainly has come a long way since growing up in a small Oklahoma town listening to Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry on the radio and a grandmother, Juanita James, playing stride piano. He got hooked on the blues listening to records by the likes of Jimmy reed, Elmore James and Albert King and in his relatively short life has become a significant part of the Texas blues scene. For example, a CD he recorded with the Moeller Brothers was strongly praised by Living Blues.

Pittman's newest recording, Edge of the World (Delta Groove) is my first exposure to his recordings. Through overdubbing he plays all the instruments except for the saxophones added by Jonathan Doyle and upon repeated listening this listener is impressed by the overall sound. He lays down a solid rhythm and plays some blistering guitar that continues in the vein Texas legends like Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Albert Collins, Cal and Clarence Green, sand Little Joe Washington with his twisting guitar lines and switch-blade guitar tone.

With a semi-retired criminal defense attorney, Pittman has crafted a number of solid blues tunes although he opens with Howlin' Wolf's Sugar, transformed into a Houston 5th Ward shuffle. His vocal diction may be slightly muffled, but his lyrics are readily understood and his fervent delivery impresses. Slim Harpo perhaps inspired the delivery on Leanin' Load, with a nice swamp blues rhythm and a terrific solo that would have made Johnny Copeland smile. A nice Texas Shuffle, Scents of Yours Benjamins has a cautionary lyric about gold digging ladies who are making their withdrawals as Doyle adds some horns in the backing.

Almost Good combines Texas blues guitar with a New Orleans rock and roll groove with riffing saxophones, while the title track (co-written with Braken Hale) mixes Pittman's Texas guitar with a Howlin' Wolf groove. Pittman’s lead guitar comes across as mixing Hubert Sumlin unpredictable lines mixed with Ike Turner's tone while he sings about his woman leaving him standing at the edge of the world.  That's the Thing sounds like how Guitar Slim (or Earl King) might have reworked Elmore James' recording of It Hurts Me Too. Its an apt example how Pittman has, in his evolution, taken a variety of influences in developing his own approach and crafting his original blues songs. I've Had Enough has some nasty, distorted slide guitar as he tells his woman, its time for things to change.

In his notes to this release, Pittman notes that his favorite records are from the 50s and 60s, recorded with minimal technology and achieved a warm sound that he and others miss in recordings today. "There was more of a live sound and certain soul that reverberated through those records." Despite his overdubbing, this writer salutes him for capturing the sound and feel of those records here. Edge of the World has a soulfulness that captures the spirit of those classic recordings making for an exceptional blues recording.


My review copy was provided by a publicist for the release.

Johnny 'Guitar' Watson's North Sea Funk-Blues Romp

Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson was one of the most versatile, innovative performers of the past five decades. A multi-instrumentalist who first recorded as a rollicking Amos Milburn styled pianist before picking up from the late Guitar Slim to become a highly influential guitarist and showman whose impact was evident on the likes of Jimi Hendrix and even Etta James (listen to some of her vocals and Watson’s vocal on his single, “Cuttin’ In.’). Besides hard blues classics like “Three Hours Past Midnight,” and “Too Hot,” he recorded jazz piano for Chess, duets with Larry Williams for Okeh, and then his proto-type rap and funk records that got labeled Disco-blues in the seventies and inspired and got sampled by many hip hop artists. His last studio album “Bow Wow” was even nominated for a Grammy, and at last he had started performing in venues like the House of Blues. 


He had been touring overseas in Europe through the good times and bad, and was died while performing in Japan. Shout Factory’s relatively recent reissue of his DJM recordings fortunately has led to a recognition of the fact that continued to stay contemporary.

There have previously been a couple of fine DVDs of his European performances (from TV shows) available. The British Charly Films has just issued “ Live in Concert -1993,” centered on his North Sea Jazz Festival performance. Its a performance not that different from the other DVDs I have seen by him. This is Watson the funkster whose blues roots are always evident. The ban kicks off with a funk number “Booty Ooty” before bringing him up for “Strike on Computers,” mistitled here as “Jam,” with his complaints how computers are replacing human beings even in the musical realm. 


I suspect that those expecting to see him rip things up on guitar will be disappointed, as he only plays guitar at length on a couple numbers as well as on keyboards, focusing on his singing and interacting with the audience. The songs included are typical including “I Need It,” “Superman Lover,” “Ain’t It a Bitch,” and the long extended “A Real Mother For Ya.” His funky version of “Gangster of Love,” displays how his music evolved from the original recordings which adapted the “Hootchie Kootchie Man”/ “I’m a Man” melody, whereas “Three Hours Past Midnight” is his longest exploration in the blues here, with his playing focusing as much on musical textures as on blistering guitar runs. And he plays the band like he plays guitar, evoking sounds from them, bringing up his saxophone player to wail or play some harp and letting his keyboard players loose.

What sets this apart from the other Watson DVDs are the included extras. These include three numbers from a 1996 German blues festival including a marvelous blues “ Wrong Doing Woman” which incorporates “Three Hours Past Midnight”; a 14 odd minute memoriam from German TV that includes interviews with Watson a clip of him performing “Bow Wow,” as well clips of the video he did to promote that song; a radio interview from 1987; footage of a young Watson on British TV including a snippet of his wild guitar, a piano boogie and playing rhythm guitar behind Bo Diddley; another video performance, this time from 1980 and a biography and discography.

Bill Dahl provides a concise overview of his life in the booklet that accompanies this which includes a listing of his recordings and recordings he appeared on including those with Larry Williams, George Duke, Frank Zappa, Frankie Lee and Herb Albert. These extras are as valuable as the North Sea Jazz Festival performance and make this clearly the Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson DVD to pick up.


This DVD was originally reviewed in the October 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 309) at page 24.

I likely received a review copy of the DVD from Jazz & Blues Report.

King of the Queen City is Important Label History

King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records
Jon Hartley Fox
University of Illinois Press
(280 pages, 23 photographs)

This writer have long been a fan of many of rhythm’n’blues artists that recorded for the King family of labels. These include Roy Brown, Wyonnie Harris, Ivory Joe Hunter, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Freddie King, Little Willie John, Esther Phillips, The Five Royales, Billy Ward & the Dominoes and James Brown, to name a small part of the musical legacy of Syd Nathan’s Cincinnati based group of labels that included Queen and Federal. King was a pioneering label in more ways than one as this very welcome history of the label and overview of the extensive recordings that were made for it makes clear.

“King of the Queen City” expands upon a public radio series of the same title that Fox did in 1986 and is a history of the label that Syd Nathan launched in 1943, which became a company that Fox observes was “one of the most, important successful and influential record companies in history. During the almost twenty-five years Nathan was at the helm, King recorded — and introduced to the American public — a stunning array of musical giants, from country stars Merle Travis and Grandpa Jones and bluegrass greats Don Reno and Red Smiley to blues guitarist Freddie King and R&B and soul stars Hank Ballard and James Brown.” Furthermore, while one of hundreds of independent labels to emerge during the forties, none of these matched “King for variety, innovation, depth of catalog and sheer moxie.” It changed not only how music was recorded but also the music itself and whereas almost all other independent labels concentrated on one type of music, King was active in virtually all genres of American vernacular music and did not simply dabble in these styles but had many top stars and some of the biggest records in these styles. It was music and records for “the little man,” as Nathan often put it.

King did more than simply pioneer in the music it recorded and issued. King Records under Syd Nathan pioneered in other ways. It was a record company that had an integrated staff, in what really was a southern city at the time. Nathan started the record company during the middle of World War II when there was a shellac shortage and during the first Petrillo recording ban, may not have been what one might have been instructed in business school. Despite these circumstances Syd Nathan developed King into pioneering record company. He recorded his artists in his studios, manufactured his records (which entailed learning how to master and manufacture records) and using a national promotion force under his control. Other companies may have had their own studio, or perhaps manufacturing plant, but they would not also have their own promotion staff, rather relying on regionally based independent promotion staff. And one cannot emphasize enough his pioneering in hiring individuals on merit, not on the basis of race or other matters.

King also pioneered in having his R&B acts record songs penned by his country stars and vice versa (such as Wyonnie Harris “Bloodshot Eyes”), therefore enabling the exploitation of the songs in the music catalog the label cultivated and owned in addition to the recordings. Overseeing many of the sessions (whether country and R&B) was Henry Glover, Nathan’s first Artist & Repertoire Director. Glover was probably only the second black man to hold an executive position with a United States record label and helped produce some of the label’s early hits like those by Bull Moose Jackson and Harris. Fox, in telling the story of King Records, notes the unheralded and pioneering role that Glover, and also Ralph Bass played in the development of American music of the past 65 years, and notes how few of these have received the recognition they deserve.

Nathan had a strong personality and could get into intense arguments with his staff. The book recounts the legendary story of Nathan’s reaction to James Brown & the Famous Flames’ “Please, Please, Please,” that Ralph Bass recorded, spewing “This is the worse piece of shit I’ve ever heard in my life. …” The earliest acts on King were country acts like Grandpa Jones, the Delmore Brothers and Merle Travis and King would build a distinguished country catalog that included Hawksaw Hawkins, Hank Penny and the great rocking honky tonk piano pioneer, Moon Mullican and then rockabilly sessions with such pioneers as Charlie Feathers. And there would be the countless blues and vocal groups as well as gospel sessions held under the eyes of Glover, Bass and others. Lets not forget such important popular instrumental performers as Earl Bostic and Bill Doggett. Is there anyone reading this who has never heard “Honky Tonk?” The recordings story along with that of Doggett, saxophonist Clifford Scott and guitarist Billy Butler is among those recounted here. This is just to give a small flavor of what the King Catalog represented. King Records passed along with Syd Nathan when he died. The label’s catalog was purchased as was the music publishing. and Fox discusses the various reissues of King recordings and other matters that have happened over the four decades since Syd Nathan passed away.

Fox weaves the label’s history around a discussion of the many performers and musical styles the label touched on and even one familiar with a number of the artists will discover much new. This is not to say there are not omissions in discussing artists, especially after they left King. For example, the discussion of Esther Phillips sort of dismisses her post-King years, ignoring the fact that the Beatles invited her to England because of her recording “And I Love Him,” and one year Aretha handed Esther Phillips a Grammy one year when Aretha won over Esther’s classic album “From a Whisper to a Scream. Its his superficial summary discussion of her and Johnny “Guitar’ Watson, that have me wondering what has he missed on performers who I am less familiar with. This does seem a minor point as his achievement is compiling so much information on the King Records story and artists and recordings of King and associated labels. The label’s story is perhaps not as integrated with the narrative of the performers, but that is a function of what he has attempted here. 


If not a perfect book, it is a remarkable achievement and Fox makes the case for the recognition to folks like Henry Glover, Ralph Bass and Syd Nathan himself by popular music historians. Their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should have been secured years ago, and hopefully this volume will lead to that belated recognition. To the extent these folks are not in The Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame, that oversight should be immediately addressed. Jon Hartley Fox is to be thanked for his impressive addition to the popular music literature. “King of the Queen City” is highly recommended for anyone seriously interested in American vernacular music.

To comply with FTC regulations that may or may not be applicable, I obtained a review copy of this book from either the publisher or someone doing publicity for the publisher.