Kurt Crandall - Starts on the Stops - YesterYear Records
Kurt Crandall mailed his new CD (I believe his fourth album to me), and after giving it a couple of spins, I checked out his website and discovered he is well-traveled as well as a seasoned performer. Currently living in the Richmond, Virginia area, Crandall has had stops in Kansas City, Washington D.C., Macon Georgia, Chicago, and Seattle. While living in Washington, he played with Jesse James & the Raiders, a band led by the late Jesse James Johnson, who played with Bo Diddley when the music legend lived in Washington.
Crandall has penned five original songs, and three instrumental. He also performs two covers. Two different bands back Crandall's harp and vocals. Guitarist Karl Angerer is on nine of the ten selections. There is a rhythm section of Bill Heid on piano, Aaron Binder on drums, and Rusty Farmer on upright bass on the first five tracks. On the other selections, Reid Doughten plays guitar on four songs with a rhythm section of Johnny Hott on drums, John Sheppard on electric bass, Clark Stern on piano, and Carl Bender on saxophones.
Crandall is a very appealing, unforced vocalist and a gifted harp player who at different times evokes William Clarke, Toots Thielemans, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Junior Wells. Crandall also crafts some very appealing songs filled with honesty and humor as he leads his musicians in a set that might be described as West Coast Swing, a fusion of classic Chicago blues, West Coast Jump Blues with a dash of Memphis blues blasters. Things kick off with the lively "Skedaddle," with some Williams Clarke-styled chromatic harp, swing band drumming from Binder, and a dazzling, jazz-inflected solo from Heid, who mixes the sophistication of a Teddy Wilson with Junior Mance's funky blues. Heid's piano also shines on "Early Bird Special," a humorous tune centered on food specials some restaurants direct at the elderly. Crandall's Toots Thielemans styled chromatic playing is exemplary. There is some splendid diatonic harp on "Razz My Berries," an easy swinging shuffle. Another instrumental, "Beignets and Coffee," sounds like a variation on "La Cucaracha." After Crandall's harp solo, Angerer quotes Ray Charle's "Mary Ann" in his sterling solo.
With his opening harp solo evoking the second Sonny Boy, Crandall does a solid cover of the Little Willie John hit, "Home at Last," on an arrangement based on Junior Wells version (titled "Country Girl"). This track is one of Doughten's guitar features, and he scintillates here. Musically "Go Without Saying" evokes classic Johnny Guitar Watson recordings with some slashing Angerer guitar and some relaxed singing in the manner of a Roy Milton. After evoking "Sloppy Drunk" while singing about his "Bull Headed Woman," Crandall musically reworks John Lee Williamson's "Blue Bird Blues" as well as modifies some of the lyrics changing references to Jackson, Tennessee to Macon, Georgia.
Another well-paced and played instrumental, "Sidecramp," caps an album that will appeal to anyone who has enjoyed the music of William Clarke, Rod Piazza, Mark Hummel, Little Charly Baty, James Harman, and others in the vein. Kurt Crandall certainly has hit a musical grand slam with this outstanding recording.
I received my review copy from Kurt. This review has appeared in the March-April 2022 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 401). I made a correction of Jesse James Johnson's name that was wrongly listed in that review. Here is a very recent video of Kurt Crandall performing.
Originally from Costa Rica, singer-guitarist-songwriter Jose Ramirez has been making a name for himself in the Blues World. While residing in the Washington, DC area, he won the 2019 DC Blues Society's Battle of the Bands. He then competed in the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge, where he finished second overall. Ramirez was poised to start touring in support of his debut album "Here I Come" when the Covid-19 pandemic put a wrench in his plans. He now lives in Florida and makes his Delmark debut with "Major League Blues," which he will be touring in support of.
Of "Here I Come," I wrote that it was "not merely an impressive debut of a promising artist. Anson Funderburgh's top-flight production and a fabulous studio band provide the foundation for Jose Ramirez to showcase his gifted songwriting along with his terrific vocals and guitar playing. It is a superb recording." Much can be said about the present recording, full of solid idiomatic originals and a couple of choice covers. Six songs were recorded in September 2020 with Antonio Reyes on drums, Kenny Watson Jr. on bass, and Andre Reyes Jr on keyboards. Evan Hoffman is on Latin percussion on one track, and Shelly Bonet provides backing vocals on one track. The other four selections were recorded in Chicago in August 2021 with The Delmark All-Star Band of Bob Stroger on bass, Willie 'The Touch' Hayes on drums, Roosevelt Purifoy on Hammond B3, and Billy Flynn on guitar. Jimmy Johnson appears on one track for what was his final studio recording.
The present album is of a similar quality to "Here I Come," opening with the title track on which Ramirez trades licks with Jimmy Johnson. The title song alludes to him reaching the major league of blues by signing with Delmark. The lyric also notes some of his influences, including Johnson and Lurrie Bell. It is followed by the blue lament "I Saw It Coming" with Purifoy taking a chicken fried steak organ solo along with Ramirez's heartfelt singing. The other two tracks with the Delmark All-Star Band are fresh renditions of Eddie Taylor's "Bad Boy" and Magic Sam's "My Love Is Your Love." There is plenty of solid fretwork to go with the tight, complementary backing.
The others songs are similarly entertaining. Ramirez is a skilled songwriter who handles traditional themes of relationships quite well. There is a neat melodic hook to "Whatever She Wants," where his heart, soul, and pride belong to her. In addition to a pleading vocal, Ramirez's solo is striking with his phrasing and development. Also outstanding is the Latin-flavored "Are We Really Different" that might evoke early Santana with a bilingual vocal from his Ramirez. The other selections similarly display why Jose Ramirez has become a Major League Blues artist.
I received a review copy from Delmark Records. It has been a while since I posted new reviews, so happy to get this one up. Jose is currently touring in support of this album which you can check out on his Facebook page. Here is Jose Ramirez in performance.
This one is a totally unexpected release that is likely to be one of my favorite records of 1994. A singer who this reviewer had never heard of prior to this recording, Juanita Williams has been the lead vocalist for the Airmen of Note (U.S. Air Force) for the past 20 years and traveled around the world, as well as regularly singing with her church choir. She grew up listening to Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ruth Brown and sees herself as partly carrying their torch.
The wide-ranging repertoire on her initial release gives an idea of her breadth and power as a singer. She handles tough Stax soul, like Mabel John’s Another Man’s Place with as much authority as T-Bone Walker’s blues-ballad I‘m Still in Love With You. Producers Pete Ragusa, Ed Eastridge, and Mitch Collins took their time recording this over a year and a half, mixing in some of the best Washington, D.C. talents, including Nighthawks’ Mark Wenner and Danny Morris, Jimmy Thackery, and Chuck Underwood in addition to the three producers. Jazz guitar legend Joe Pass is present on the superb reading given to I’m Still in Love With You, which along with the Bobby Bland classic, Two Steps From the Blues, receive warm readings.
There are solid renditions of Little Walter’s Crazy ‘Bout You Baby, which is patterned after the Ike and Tina Turner reworking of this classic, and One More Heartache, which touches up on the Paul Butterfield arrangement (from The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw album). The arrangements on Ms. Williams' renditions of Little Milton’s That Will Never Do, and Chuck Willis’ It’s Too Late (S)he’s Gone, have touches of the King Curtis arrangements for Freddie King.
There’s great playing, and generally great singing. She is a powerful singer, and while there are a few moments when she sounds a bit strident, that is a minor point. And on Two Steps From the Blues and I’m Still in Love With You, she is compelling. Having been introduced to Juanita Williams, this reviewer is awaiting her next recording.
This was a terrific recording, and unfortunately, Juanita Williams has not enjoyed a more prominent musical career although still a riveting performer. I have been a bit slack in posting to the blog, and hope to remedy this. The review I posted today originally appeared in the June 1994 Jazz & Blues Report. I likely ran this review in the DC Blues Society newsletter. I have made minor stylistic and grammatical changes and corrections. I likely received a review copy from Big Mo. Here is a relatively recent performance from Juanita Williams.
James Reese Europe was born on February 22, 1981 in Mobile Alabama. "The Porduct of Our Souls" is one of several books about him that gives an indication of how important he is in American Music History and highly recommended.
Then a recording by Reese and his Orchestra shortly after World War1.
Finally, here is a performance in Reese's honor led by Jason Moran at the Kennedy Center.
Here are four more releases from the reactivated Trix label. The albums by Big Chief Ellis, Honeyboy Edwards and Willie Trice are reissues of the original albums with producer Pete Lowry adding an update to the original liner notes. While these are straight reissues of the vinyl albums, the Trix albums were generous with their playing times. The Big Chief Ellis is close to an hour while Willie Trice’s album is about 53 minutes. Trix has also issued a splendid new Homesick James recording. ( I had reviewed several other Trix reissues in prior issues of Jazz & Blues Report. One might need to check eBay or sellers of out-of-print recordings for availability).
It was releases like the Big Chief Ellis (Trix 3316) album that made Trix such a singular label back in the seventies. Ellis, a strong pianist, played and sang introspectively, so his blues often are reminiscent of Walter Davis. His performances here are all at slow or moderate tempos and marked by a firm, rumbling left-hand bass that creates a somber cast to the performances. Often playing simple accompaniments he sometimes throws in hesitating sounding right-hand runs and fills while delivering the lyrics with a smoky, gritty voice. He eschews playing any showcase boogies here. Playing it as a minor-key slow blues, Chief transforms the well-known Sweet Home Chicago into what sounds like a totally different song. While all the songs are credited to Ellis, several are piano blues classics that suit his pensive approach, including Leroy Carr’s Prison Bound and How Long Blues, and Walter Davis’ Come Back, Baby, (here titled Let’s Talk It Over). Brownie McGhee, who shares the vocal on Come Back, Baby, makes his presence felt on the terrific gambling blues, Dices # 2, a remake of one of Ellis’ few fifties’ recordings. In addition to McGhee, the late Tarheel Slim is heard on guitar on a couple tracks, as is John Cephas (on what may be his first issued recordings) who is present on four selections. Some may be put off by the lack of fast-tempoed piano romps and might find difficulty listening to this in one sitting. However, all of these performances are tasty gems of blues piano, and for discerning listeners make a refreshing change from some of the hyper-kinetic recordings that pass for blues today. (I discovered this blog post from Peter Lowry on this recording, https://peterblowry.com/2015/06/11/trix-3316-big-chief-ellis/).
Blue and Rag’d (Trix 3305) features Willie Trice, a Carolina bluesman who lived all his life near Durham and was associated with such legendary figures as Gary Davis, Floyd Council and Blind Boy Fuller. Like his brother Richard, Willie Trice recorded for Decca in 1937, but whereas Richard moved north and recorded in 1949 as Little Fuller, Willie Trice remained in Durham holding a variety of day jobs and only playing outside the tobacco warehouses occasionally - unlike Fuller and the rest. While he stopped playing by the mid- sixties, after losing his legs to diabetes, he started playing again and Pete Lowry recorded him several times between 1971 and 1973 for the recordings issued here. He also recorded later for Lowry and others. Trice’s music is in the classic mode of Fuller and others. His National steel guitar provides a slightly clipped sound to his playing, but (despite his serious illness) his playing only occasionally sounds rusty. His vocals are also generally robust, although his range is obviously not what it once must have been. Included are original adaptations of songs associated with Blind Blake (New Diddey Wah Diddey) and Blind Boy Fuller (New Careless Love), along with his adaptations of traditional themes. For example, Shine On is a bouncy performance using the Crow Jane/ Red River Blues melody. Fuller’s music is also suggested by a number of other tracks, including the slow Fuller styled blues, You Have Treated Me and I’ve Had Troubled, with moving vocals. I Love You, Sweet Baby sports a bouncy accompaniment, while he adds a recitation behind his good-time fingerpicking on Good Time Boogie. It is too bad that we don’t have more recordings of Willie Trice in his prime. However, even though it was recorded while he was recuperating from a serious hospital illness, Blue and Rag’d provides a generous set of classic Piedmont blues performances and there are few recordings in this vein as good as these being made any more.
David “Honeyboy” Edwards’ disc, I’ve Been Around (Trix 3319), was the first American album by the Mississippi born blues artist who will have turned 80 by the time this review appears. One of the last links to such Mississippi blues greats as Charlie Patton, Big Joe Williams, Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson, Edwards has been of interest to blues fans as much for his recollections of these artists as his music. In the company of Walter Horton (on four tracks) and guitarist Eddie El (on three), Honeyboy sings songs associated with Patton - Pony Blues, and Banty Rooster, Howlin’ Wolf - Ride With Me Tonight, and Tommy Johnson - Big Fat Mama, and Big Road Blues. Also, he renders his own songs Sad & Lonesome and I Feel Good So Today. Playing a rhythmic guitar style reminiscent of his main mentor, Big Joe Williams, Honeyboy displays a unique sense of time. While he sings in a sometimes hesitant, brittle voice, Edwards provides a distinct tint on these musical indigos, although his performances may lack the charisma of those by his mentors. I’ve Been Around stands well up compared his other recent recordings. When featured, Walter Horton adds some strong harp that sympathetically supports Edwards without overpowering him. It is valuable to have this available again, and stacks up against most of Honeyboy’s other albums, although | would recommend the Earwig album containing Honeyboy’s Library of Congress recordings first.
Like Honeyboy Edwards, Homesick James Williamson is noted for an unusual sense of time, but on his fourth new recording in the past few years, he shows that his music possesses plenty of vitality. On Got to Move (Trix 3320) he is given steadfast support by a band that includes guitarist Ron Thompson (formerly with John Lee Hooker and part of Mick Fleetwood’s Blue Whale). Homesick James renders solid versions of songs by his famous cousin, Elmore James (Baby Please Set a Date, Hawaiian Boogie and Got to Move), and by Arthur Crudup (That's All Right), and Bob Geddins’ Tin Pan Alley, along with several originals. His broomdusting and his gravelly vocals are crisply delivered, if not as upfront as the recordings by his famous cousin. There are three solo tracks, including a fresh sounding Dust My Broom, in addition to the solid band performances. While several songs are ones Homesick James has recorded before, he does not give any of them a run of the mill performance making for a collection of particularly vital performances.
This review originally appeared in 1995 in Issue 201 of Jazz & Blues Report. I received review copies from the record label or a distributor. I note that this review appeared in a slightly different form in the May 1995 DC Blues Calendar. In that review I note about the four selections in the Big Chief Ellis album with John Cephas, that they were produced by Joe Wilson and Dick Spottswood and were the best recorded sides on the album. "The interplay between Ellis and Cephas on the closing Blues For Moot is worth noting.
There are certain sounds that characterize the blues, and slide guitar is one of them. particularly in the vein of the legendary Elmore James who made a number of pioneering recordings in the fifties and early sixties including Dust My Broom, The Sky Is Crying, and Shake Your Moneymaker. James’ houserocking style has been emulated by countless blues players including Hound Dog Taylor, J.B. Hutto, and Homesick James. One of the modern masters of this tradition is Lil' Ed Williams, nephew of the late J.B. Hutto, who tears into his blues with the ferocious joy that marked his uncle's music. Williams will bring his houserocking music to this year’s D.C. Blues Festival.
A Chicago native, Ed is 42 years old, and he takes great pride in playing in the vein of his uncle. “My uncle was J.B. Hutto. He taught me basically everything |know. He'd come around and play for the family.”Growing up, Ed remembers listening to a lot of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and a lot of the older guys on records. “My uncle introduced me to his first album, which the one I know of, “Hawk Squat. That really fascinated me. We sat down and we played it over and over and over. He laughed about it.“
He remembered parties in the yard where J.B. and his band would come by and play. "My family, my aunts, my uncles. We had a really big backyard, and they would get out there and Uncle J.B. came over with his band. ° They would barbecue and just have cases of beer, and whiskey, and they'd be out there. It was all dirt yard. And they'd be out there — kicking that dirt up.
... He'd be playing so loud everybody in the neighborhood came aon by. Everybody coming in and we stayed. like our house was this side of big yard. And right by us was a big, they call it a honeymoon building then, but it was a big project, and there was an alley between us. And people would line up in this alley coming up to the fence shaky their bodies. It was so wonderful and you know I was real young then. I think I was about 8 or 9 years old. And I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world. | wish I could do this."
Too young to get into the clubs his uncle played (Wise Fool or Biddy Milligan’s), the he name often would sneak him in. "Paing a mustache on me, put a big wide hat on me , sneak me in." At the time was playing with Lee Jackson on second guitar, J.D, Buckner on drums and Bombay Carter on bass. It was fascinating to see him play, step on a stage with 100 foot chords. ... A lot easier without a child, but the chord is much more because people get involved, make sure you don’t trip."
When 17, Ed played in a soul group, displaying an unusual chording technique he learned from from Hutto. “This one guy used to play a lot of Temptations, Aretha Franklin, stuff like that. | wind up trying to do chords for him, but by me (being) an unorthodox player, my chords for him was not the same as his and he got upset with me. But it was the same chord, but I wouldn't do it the way (he wanted). He told me I was playing right, he couldn’t understand that when I do the chord, it sounded like his but I was doing like him, but doing a different motion.”
Ed started playing blues around 19. “I started forming my own band. I was going with a girl and her brother. I teached him to play drums ‘cause I knew how to play drums. That was my first instrument, was drums." As a drummer he was self-taught. “I did not look to anybody, I just used to listen to J.B.’s drummer when they came over to play. That’s where I got me feel from.”
Ed writes a lot of material but leaves a lot of room for his band members to develop their parts. He may add a bass part “and my brother, he'll take it (and from it). I like them to improvise themselves. I like them to take control of what they want to do and that way it all blends together. When you have to real deal with a person all you have to a special run, then it gets to be more work, but when they can improvise it and play it the way they feel it, then it’s fun.”
He also doesn't spend too much time rehearsing tunes. “The way I do me it, I kinda surprise my guys. I'll come up with something and I'll let them hear it one time and before they know it, I'll lay it on them.”
Ed’s first recording was for an Alligator anthology Roughousin' that came out in the 1980's, but the session led to a release of a full album. He recalled how it happened. "| used to see Bruce (Iglauer) come in. We used to play at BLUES on Halstead. And he used to come in.He just come in and walk out. But I didn't know who this guy was. My old rhythm player, Dave Weld, know who he was. Dave would grab me by the arm, 'There’s Bruce, There’s Bruce from Alligator records.' I said 'So what man. You know just a man.’
One day Bruce came in real late that night. We were finishing off the last song. He came up, walked up to me. "How ya doing?' 'Yeah, how ya doing?' He introduced himself. I shook his hand.He said, 'How do you guys feel about coming down to the studio and do a collection song.' 'Sure.' Dave was having a fit. Dave knew what was going on. We knew we wanted to make a record. We were going to save our money and go into one of those studios and own the collection. That was me Dave was talking about. I had no construction, no idea what this was all about.
So the next morning we had to get up real early that morning. | never forget it. I had to go to work. I was working at the car wash and I had to leave the car wash I think at about 10 or 11 o'clock. Pookie was working the car wash, he had to leave and Dave and our drummer met us at the studio. We walked in with our car wash suits on and Bruce laughed and we said we looked funny and we all laughed.
I was kinda shaky. I was kinda scared. so we got in and we started warming up. Bruce said, 'Well, do something.' I had already been writing songs at that point and I started playing some of the old-time stuff that I learned from B.B., Muddy, all then guys. He said, 'That's good. What about some of your stuff.' And I started playing my stuff and everybody that was in the studio started clapping, having a good time and I got excited ‘cause it was like I was in a club. And I started to doing my club antics walking around, walking on my toes, crawling on my knees ‘cause we were all having fun.
“I had never heard studio sound. That’s what really got to me, ‘cause I never heard it coming from. the headphones sounding so good. Sounded really good. Bruce came out after we did 5 or 6 songs. 'You know it sounds real good. Let’s do an album. OK.' Right then, I freaked out. That was the happiest day of my life. ... We cut 30 songs in 3 hours.”
When I mentioned some acts do 4 songs in 3 hours Ed told me about someone once asked him about artists who do a lot of overdubbing and whatever. “I said well that’s their thing, if that's what they want to do. But to me, for me, Number one, time is money. Number two by me working in the car wash I've got that fecling of getting my job done. “Cause I was buffer. So I had to finish, I had to buff cars in 15 minutes. I had to buff it, and detail it In 30 minutes, So that’s the way I work even in the studio, get it done.” If a take is not right they'll try it again not overdub it. However, if they do it three times and still can't get it right, they drop that song. “Cause you're going to lose it. Not gonna sound no better, it's only gonna get worse. The more you play it, the more you get tired of it.”
Ed has recorded four albums, three for Alligator, and when we spoke in June, was getting ready to do another album for Alligator. Musically he continues to grow. "I'm improvising more, more different lyrics cause I'm listening to everybody. Then I was just listening to Muddy Waters. John Lee Hooker, Elmore James. But I'm a music type of guy and I listen to all types. … I've got some stuff I'm working on in [a reggae] groove. When I do songs like that, put those types of tunes. I want to make my own so I have to really improvise, feel it out, You know I got into Chuck Berry about two months ago and I already came up with a couple songs in his style. I've got into Ruth Brown. I see her on the boat when I was on the boat going to the Bahamas. It amazed to see this woman,'cause I never hear her before. However, my wife know who this was. All I knew was about Etta James, Koko Taylor, Billie Holiday. How did I miss Ruth Brown. She is fantastic. I do one of her songs, 'If you want to live happy, don't listen to your so-called friends.' | do that."
While J.B. Hutto is Ed's biggest influence, he only has recorded Hutto's 20% Alcohol. "What I really want to do is make a tribute album to him, because I know all his songs." J.B. influenced Ed not simply as a guitarist but also as a singer. He mentioned others, "I like Muddy Waters. That's why I hit those deep tones. And stuff like thal.”
Ed got the opportunity to play with J.B. once before his uncle passed at a club Vegetable Biddies in Indiana, "It was so wonderful. he was walking on tables and he gave me a long chord too and he made me jump off the stage. It was just great. I said then. I told him I wanted to play. One thing he told me, ‘You promise me your gonna keep the blues alive then I'll teach you.’ He did. I promised him that and he said 'You keep my tradition going, cause you’re the next one In line' He knew that."
Here is Lil Ed Williams and the Blues Imperials in performance from a Blues Festival in 2008.
Ledisi remembers waking up in New Orleans hearing her mother sing, "…and everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam!" Later she learned it was Nina Simone. While in Oakland in her 20s, she was depressed and hearing Simone sing "Trouble in Mind" over the radio. It woke me up. I was feeling discouraged for being different, for being the oddball that liked every style—blues and jazz and Broadway and hip-hop. I had sung every club in the Bay Area, done every gig. Nina's voice said to me I was not alone. Her voice saved my life and woke me up and taught me to be fearless. I had two pieces of luggage and moved to New York City after that."
In the past eight years, Ledisi has produced and toured popular tribute shows to Simone and performed concerts on television, in major concert halls, and at music festivals, featuring her interpreting Simone's songs and explaining her importance and history. This EP album is the culmination of these projects that reveal the depth of Ledisi's continuing sense of gratitude and debt to Simone. The world-renowned Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley with arrangements by Jochen Neufer and others provides the backing for the majority of the seven songs she brings her voice to. "I'm Going Back Home" features the all-star New Orleans Jazz Orchestra directed by Adonis Rose. "Four Women" is powered by Ledisi in the company of other vocalists of similar stature: Lisa Fisher, Lizz Wright, and Alice Smith. "Wild Is The Wind"—with Spanish guitar, piano, and drums—is the album's sole live recording taken from the 2020 PBS special broadcast Ledisi "Live: A Tribute to Nina Simone."
The other tracks are equally striking, including the closing "I'm Going Back Home," with punchy gospel-infused backing and a second-live groove by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. Like Simone, Ledisi is a singer who defies categories, as is demonstrated throughout this release. The only complaint is that one wishes there was more music here.
I received a download to review from a publicist. Here is Ledisi singing a tribute to Nina Simone at the Apollo Theater in New York City.
Just heard this sad news about Warner Williams. The first time I saw him was when the DC Blues Society and The House of Musical Traditions presented a show featuring Paul Geremia. Warner Wiliams, who I was not familiar with, opened the show and blew us all away. Pretty soon with harmonica player Jay Summerour, they were regulars at jams and shows as Little Bit of Blues.
Prince George Community College regularly presented a show in February called Juke Joint Saturday Night that opened with Warner and Jay and then The Hardway Connection. I remember Nick Spitzer booking Warner and Jay to open for Joe Louis Walker at the Barns of Wolf Trap. Introducing Warner and Jay, Nick mentioned calling Warner to get some info for his introduction and the grandson answered and said that Warner did not want to talk, he did not want to be famous. Well in the DC area among blues lovers Warner was famous. He was brilliant and yet so full of joy as he turned a country honky-tonk tune into a Piedmont blues romp, "Hey Bartender, there's a big bug in my bear."
Warner had a repertoire that spanned old Tin Pan Alley songs, children's songs, honky-tonk country, and Blind Boy Fuller. In the DMV in the 90s, we had Archie Edwards, John Cephas, John Jackson, and Warner Williams. We were so fortunate and with Warner's passing, an era has ended but there are young voices to keep the tradition alive and growing.
Lightnin' Hopkins -Shootin’ Fire - April 11, 1969 - Cicadelic Records
A release of the legendary, and iconic Lightnin’ Hopkins that includes previously unissued studio recordings should be of interest to anyone that calls themselves a blues lover. Cicadelic Records has is- sued “Shootin’ Fire - April 11, 1969” which contains 18 tracks from that date and two recorded in August 1961.
The original recordings were produced by Roy Ames and some selections have been issued with bass and drums mixed too high and the guitar lead too low with excessive reverb to make Lightnin’ sound con- temporary. This release has re-mixed the four track originals without the previous studio misjudgments. Accompanying Hopkins on these recordings are Cedric Hayward on piano, Lawrence Evans on bass and Ben Turner on drums.
The blues is on Lightnin’s mind, as he says before launching into the opening track, “Born In The Bottom,” a semi-autobiographical number as he was born in Warren’s Bottom, Texas, although there are times he wished he was born dead. It is a pretty powerful performance with his spoken interludes and familiar biting guitar. It sets the pace for 77 minutes of deep Texas blues. “Rainy Day in Houston” is a similarly paced performance as Lightning sings that if it keeps on raining, papa can’t make no time. And when he tells this woman who is not paying him no mind, but “A Man Like Me Is Hard To Find.” Lightning can be hard to back with his tempo shifts and occasionally stretching verses beyond 12 bars, but the trio is solid on this moving performance.
One issue for more casual listeners may be the predominance of similarly tempo-ed slow blues, but he does pick up the pace on “Movin’ On Out,” as he will move early, so people won’t see him make his way. The changes of this suggest “What’d I Say,” although the performance is a bit more measured. “Shinin’ Moon” is a theme Hopkins recorded before as he sings about the shining look pretty, shine down through the trees as he can see his baby when she don’t see him with some impressive guitar. “Feel Like Ballin’ The Jack” was originally recorded for Aladdin as “Feel So Bad,” and it is Lightnin’s thinly disguised rendition of BigBill’s classic “I Feel So Good.”
Lightnin’s sense of humor is manifest on ”Stinkin’ Foot,“ as he tells his lady to put her shoes on, while on ”December 7, 1941“ Lightning sings about the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor over a quarter century after the fact. ”My Baby Ain’t Got No Shoes,” set to the ”This Train/My Babe“ melody, deals with the theme of poverty and deprivation as his baby also has no place to go, and is followed by a slow blues with a similar theme ”My Baby Was Crying For Bread,“ as he sings she has taken all his money and threw it all away so, it ain’t right the baby crying. ”My Little Darling“ is Lightnin’s reworking of the Cecil Gant ballad ”I Wonder,“ while a lively instrumental ”Go Ahead“ segues into ”Battle Hymn of the Republic.“ Similarly an alternate (Lightnin’ rehearsing with the bassist) of “Movin’ On Out” segues into “When the Saints Going Marchin’ In.”
The two last musical performances here, “Baby Please Don’t Do Me Wrong” and “Good As Old Time Religion,” are from April, 1961 and are strong performances with good piano and rhythm. The album closes with a brief “I’m Shooting Fire.” where he plays a few riffs but explains why musicians have a tough time playing with him. The liner booklet gives some overview of the music and the circumstances of the recording along with photograph of the recording contract and cancelled checks. Some of the comments on the songs are a bit superficial, and a couple of performance sound not quite finished, but this is certainly a welcome addition to Hopkins’ very extensive discography. Musically, he rarely disappoints and that is the case in this reissue of down-home Texas blues.
I purchased this CD. This review appeared in the July-August 2016 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 367). Here is Lightnin' performing "Stinkin' Foot."
This is Gaye Adegbalola’s most recent “embrace” of the classic blues and the classic blues women, Accompanied by pianist Roddy Barnes, Gaye interprets some well- known, and rescues some more obscure songs from the earliest days of blues recording. In addition, she sings several originals that are presented in the same vein as the early blues foremothers.
From the opening moments of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom to the last notes of Roddy Barnes’ Summer Sky, we are treated to some exquisite performances. There is a fair number of selections associated with Ma Rainey in addition to the opening track that include Yonder Come the Blues, Prove It to Me, and the immortal See See Rider, all of which Gaye delivers wonderfully with Barnes’ complimentary backing. The bawdy The Dirty Dozens receives spirited treatment as does does Lucille Bogan’s BD Woman Blues. Another Bogan song, Sloppy Drunk, is taken at a distinctively slower tempo than Ann Rabson performs the number with Saffire. Gaye’s original, Twisted Woman Blues fits in seamlessly with Sippie Wallace’s Up the Country Blues, while her ballad How Can I Say I Miss You, compliments her rendition of the Duke Ellington-Paul Webster classic, I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good.
A couple of songs from blues history are also refreshed by Gaye here, Perry Bradford’s Crazy Blues, the bluesy Perry Bradford song that Mamie Smith recorded to launch the blues craze, and Alberta Hunter’s Down Hearted Blues that was Bessie Smith’s first recording. In addition to the wonderful performances, Gaye provides short but insightful comments on all the songs. This is simply a marvelous disc of blues performed with so much heart and panache that is unreservedly recommended.
This review appeared originally in the July-August 2004 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 269). I likely received a review copy from a publicist. This still should be available at finer sellers. Here is a video of Gaye and Roddy Barnes performing I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good.
This is a review that I wrote in Fall 2006 and published in the November-December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 288). This is the last review from that group of Sonet Blues reissues reviews.
Robert Pete Williams was discovered by folklorist Harry Oster while recording prisoners at Louisiana’s infamous Angola State Penitentiary. These recordings that originally were issued on the Folk-Lyric label (later acquired by Arhoolie on whom they have been reissued) certainly made some aware of Williams' stark, somber style of performances. These performances drew on Williams' harsh life experiences and were played in a manner reflecting Blind Lemon Jefferson's influence as channeled into the one-chord droning approach similar to that found in the early recordings of John lee Hooker and the recordings of Junior Kimbrough.
His recordings led to his eventual freedom, although not until a probationary period where was almost an indentured servant farmer. Subsequently Williams recorded for Prestige-Bluesville, Ahura Mazda (perhaps reissued on Fat Possum) and this album, originally part of The Legacy of the Blues series. The ten performances here are representative of Williams unique art with his deeply personal lyrics, created out of the hard life he and others shared but distilled through his own experiences as in his re-recording of Angola Penitentiary Blues where he recalls “Locked me down, they tried me for my life; April the 6th, 1956, they sent me to Angola; Not to lie, not to lie, they tried me for my life; Cried, let’s keep the poor boy.” Come Here, Sit on My Knee features his bottleneck style that he learned from his friend, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and the performance sounds derived from Shake ‘Em On Down and other McDowell numbers, while Late Night Boogie, has him in his understated vocal singing about late at night blowing his horn with his unique guitar accompaniment.
Williams music requires the listener’s attention although this disc sounds like it is among his most accessible recordings. Give Robert Pete Williams music some time and its virtues will hopefully become evident to you.
I likely received my review copy from Jazz & Blues Report. Here is Robert Pete Williams performing.
Notes Hot & Blue - This was a column of reviews I wrote for the DC Blues Society's original newsletter, the DC Blues Calendar. This is from April 1988 when it was a two-page flyer. The front-page noted the Blues Society was presenting a concert with Friz Hollway and John Dee Holeman. As noted from my review, Lonnie Brooks was appearing at the Bayou on April 4th.
Lonnie Brooks, in town at the Bayou on the 4th, has a new Alligator album, Live From Chicago- Bayou Lightning Strikes. Brooks has always had strong rock roots, first being part of the Louisiana swamp pop scene before moving to Chicago. This is a pretty tasty set of rocking blues and rhythm & blues which is sure to appeal to those who like blues laced with rock which strikes me as more bouncy than some other recent Alligator albums. As a label on the cover says, this is "Genuine Houserockin’ Music”.
The English Krazy Kat label has been issuing a variety of albums of blues, rhythm'n'blues, and gospel from the Gotham family of labels. A typical album is Big Band Blues (KK814) which includes several swinging selections by the great blues shouter Jimmy Rushing with a band including Bill Doggett and a variety of Basie alumni, a track by J.B. Sumners who sang with Tiny Grimes, three tracks by singer Tiny Tim (Timothy Flair, not the 60s" pop figure), and a jumping band led by trombonist Ernie Fields. Solid swinging and jazzy stuff.
A recent reissue, Alley Special (KK 820) represents Sometime of a coup. This album includes Muddy Waters’ first commercially issued recording, "Mean Red Spider" from 1946 appeared on the 20th Century label as by James ‘Sweet Lucy" Carter. Muddy sings strongly and is backed by an urban blues band which includes strong piano and alto sax but some awful Soprano sax. Other recordings on this include the fine Detroit bluesman, Baby Boy Warren, a previously unissued Eddie Burns track, a track by harmonica player Sonny Boy Johnson (influenced by the 1st Sonny Boy Williamson) and several tracks by Texas bluesman Wright Holmes.
More unissued Eddie Burns along with some excellent John Lee Hooker can be heard on Detroit Blues 1950-1951 (KK 816). The Hooker sides are Strong solo recordings including an early version of “House Rent Boogie". The Burns selections feature some tough harp and a rough down home blues band with John Lee Hooker's quitar evident on a couple tracks. Great Downhome blues.
I likely received a review copy of the Lonnie Brooks from Alligator Records. I likely purchased the three Krazy Kat releases (which were English). The Krazy Kat label no longer operates and I believe its releases are out-of-print although maybe available as CDs from Collectables.
This is a review that I wrote in Fall 2006 and published in the November-December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 288). I will be posting other reviews from this every few days in next couple weeks.
Universal Music on the Verve label has released the second batch of CDs in its series, The Sonet Blues Story.
These sides make available albums from the 1970s that were issued in
Europe on the Sonet label although some were imported in the United
States and some were even issued in the US, as GNP-Crescendo issued The Legacy of the Blues
recordings stateside. This latest batch includes more from that series
along with other albums that Samuel Charters had produced for Sonet. I
will be posting these reviews every few days.
Albert Luandrew, the legendary Chicago pianist known as Sunnyland Slim, is represented by some 1974 solo recordings recorded in Stockholm for The Legacy of the Blues. With his unique touch and his vibrato-laden vocals, Slim is heard hear on ten solid performances that includes such staples of his repertoire as She’s Got a Thing Goin’ On, Bessie Mae and She Used to Love Me.
Slim’s strong two-fisted piano and singing is displayed on the rocking Gonna Be My Baby while he gets down in the alley on Couldn’t Find a Mule singing about “Oh Captain,” and his own recasting of Woman I Ain’t Gonna Drink No More Whiskey” singing about how his woman and whiskey take advantage of him laying down firmly played but spare bass while pounding out some strong right hand lines. The longest track Days of Old recalls his early days where he experienced the harsh conditions of a southern black laborer in the dark segregation days.
Slim remained a foundation of the Chicago blues scene until he died in 1995 at the age of 88 and these recordings are a welcome reminder of his well-documented legacy.
I likely received my review copy from Jazz & Blues Report. Here is Sunnyland Slim performing.
The Manuel Valera Trio Live at Diese Onze AZis Recordings
"Live at Diese Onze" is the first recording made available on AZis Recordings. Publicist Chris DiGirolamo established AZis as a label/facilitator/marketer for live material. Artists provide AZis with a live recording of a past performance for which AZis provides all artwork, marketing, PR, and facilitates digital distribution. The initial relation features the trio of Cuban-born pianist Manuel Valera from April 6, 2019, at Montreal's Diese Onze Jazz Club. Besides Valera, the trio consists of bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Clarence Penn.
While born in Cuba, Valera grew up in South Florida and attended the New School in New York City. Manuel Valera has a prodigious technique, acute rhythmic feel, who can startle listeners with his attack and move them with a more restrained approach as appropriate. Things kick off with his breakneck approach to Monk's "Rhythm-a-ning," which is a virtuoso, stunning performance. However, the performance lacks the angularity and space of Monk's approach to his composition. Much the same can also be said about his mesmerizing take on "Evidence." Penn solos explosively on this selection. In contrast, his approach begins lighter, almost delicate at times, on Benny Golson's "Whisper Not." His solo here is a master class in thematic improvisation as well as the use of dynamics in building up the intensity.
Also of note is the lyricism and romanticism of the performances of Luis Miguel's "Tres Palabras," with Glawischnig and Penn providing impeccable backing. "But Not For Me" begins melodically before transitioning into a whirlwind display of Valera's touch, technique, and ability to craft his improvisation at warp speed. Penn empathically responds to changes of tempo and intensity. The beginning of "Searching" puts the spotlight on bassist Glawischnig before Valera starts with his magic. As Glawischnig anchoring the trio, Penn adds fiery percussion backing of the leader's dynamic piano.
Give the excellence of the Miguel Valera Trio, and one should not be surprised how outstanding "Hans Glawischnig" is. If future AZis releases are half-as-good, listeners have much to look forward to.
I received a download to review from a publicist. Here The Manuel Valera Trio performing "All of Me," with Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums in place of Clarence Penn.
This is a review that I wrote in Fall 2006 and published in the November-December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 288). I will be posting other reviews from this every few days in next couple weeks.
Universal Music on the Verve label has released the second batch of CDs in its series, The Sonet Blues Story. These sides make available albums from the 1970s that were issued in Europe on the Sonet label although some were imported in the United States and some were even issued in the US, as GNP-Crescendo issued The Legacy of the Blues recordings stateside. This latest batch includes more from that series along with other albums that Samuel Charters had produced for Sonet. I will be posting these reviews every few days.
Memphis Slim, real name Peter Chapman, was another Chicago blues giant who became an expatriate, moving to Paris in 1962. Clyde Otis recorded him in New York in 1967 during a US tour with a band that included the great Billy Butler on guitar and Eddie Chamblee on tenor saxophone for a session that would not have been out of place on the Prestige-Bluesville catalog and was in The Legacy of the Blues series.
The set opens with a nice reworking of Everyday I Have the Blues and closes with Sassy Mae, completely reworked from his original which was built upon the Dust My Broom riff. Highlights include the peppy A Long Time Gone, where he sings about it being a long time since his baby called with Chamblee soaring with his solo as Slim plays his rock solid piano under him. I Feel Like Ballin’ the Jack is a retitled version of Big Bill’s Feel So Good, confidently sung. Slim’s considerable prowess on the piano is evident on Broadway Boogie, a storming instrumental with Chamblee and Butler taking crisp solos while Gambler’s Blues has him lament that “Last night I lost the best friend I ever had; I lost all my money, too bad, people how sad.” Sassy Mae which sports a larger (uncredited) horn section completes this welcome reissue.
I likely received my review copy from Jazz & Blues Report. Here is Memphis Slim performing "Slim's Boogie."
Blue Muse is a Jacksonville Florida based band consisting of Jarrett Carter, guitar; Cody Wheaton, bass; Javian Francis, piano; John Medico, drums; Jack Miller, drums; Sarah Lee, tenor sax; Lance Reed, trombone; and Steve Strawley, trumpet & flugelhorn. Blue Muse was formed after saxophonist Sarah Lee left her 20-year career in Information Technology and pursued her passion, jazz. It was while attending Jacksonville University that she brought together the jazz musicians who became Blue Muse. "It Never Entered My Mind" is this group's second album.
This album is a well-played recording in the vein of the classic Blue Note recordings of the sixties, with the influence of Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, and Art Blakey particularly evident. Three of the six tunes are Shorter compositions. The opening track, "One By One," was by Shorter and recorded by Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. It is a driving performance with clean, crisp ensemble portions and engaging solos from Reed, Francis, Lee, Strawley, Carter, and Wheaton. Following is the title track, the only standard on this album. Strawley's muted trumpet opening with a lyrical solo while the other horns provide atmosphere in the background. Carter again impresses with a guitar interlude. A finger-popping rendition of Horace Silver's "Nutville" follows with some hot trumpet before Sarah Lee takes a dynamic, rhythmic solo before Reed's well-burnished trombone solo and Medico's fascinating use of his whole drum kit on his solo.
"Sweet Sour" is another Wayne Shorter composition initially recorded by Art Blakey. Guitar Carter dazzles on this selection, followed by Reed's gravelly trombone and Francis' fluid piano. Also heard are interpretations of Joe Sample's "Freedom Sound" and Shorter's "Ping Pong." Again, there are spirited solos set against a tight, responsive ensemble on more marvelously played, straight-forward hard bop performances. Blue Muse is calling this an EP as it 'only' has 40 minutes of music. In the days of vinyl LPs, this would have been a full LP, and in any case, these six tracks with 40 minutes are solid performances in the hard bop vein.
I received my review copy from a publicist. This review appeared in the July-August 2021 Jazz & Blue Report (Issue 397).Here Blue Muse performs "It Never Entered My Mind."
When David “Guitar Shorty” Kearney performs, one not witnesses an ardent performance of modern blues, but also showmanship and a stage act that stems from his days working with such R&B legends as Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and Guitar Slim. Guitar Shorty’s band, Central Avenue, deftly backed him as he walked the floor of Tornado Alley, serenading the audience at their tables. He delighted the audience with his raspy vocals and his chicken scratching attack which has his guitar echoing his vocals. Later, during his song, “It’s a Hard Road,” he came off the stage to serenade the audience again and then he walked out of the club and strolled a half block from the club without losing a beat on his radio equipped guitar. After his return to the inside of Tornado Alley, Shorty continued to dazzle the audience before executing a flip on the dance floor without a break in his solo. After a few more numbers, including a version of “Hey Joe” (recorded by the half-brother of his first wife, Jimi Hendrix), he returned with more theatrics, reworking Guitar Slim’s “Just Got Into Your Town,”playing with his teeth, and playing behind his head before executing a couple more flips. After two hours of gritty, soulful singing, and scorching guitar solos, he fiinally left the stage, playing “Star Spangled Banner’ and other songs unaccompanied and carefully controlling feedback as his band packed up.
After the set ended, a fan engaged Shorty backstage in a conversation, and told Shorty that it has been about twenty years since he last saw Shorty playing at the Soul’d Out, a club on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. They chatted about the owner of the place, and how it flirted with disco in the eighties, and how the owner should go back to the blues. Shorty’s fan kidded him about not doing a flip off the stage and Shorty replied that he didn’t want to hit the dancers on the floor. We chatted for an hour and a half, although there was a technical glitch for part of the taping. As we chatted, Terence McArdle joined us and contributed a number of insightful questions. A few months later when Shorty played Fleetwood’s in Alexandria, Virginia, I had the chance to talk some more with him, double-check some facts and fill in gaps.
David Kearney was born in Houston, Texas in 1939. He grew up Florida after his parents broke up and both moved to the Sunshine state. His father lived in Orlando and his mother moved to Kissamaree. It was his uncle, Willie Quarterman (now a minister in White Plains, New York, known as Reverend Lane) who started him playing music, and buying him a Sears Silvertone guitar as a youth. “He put the guitar in front of me, sitting on his left knee and took my hand and put them on the strings, and he’d show me how to chord the strings and stuff. He’s strum the guitar and let me see what it sound like.” His uncle also was a major influence on him vocally and recalls how his uncle “Turned the church on.”
Seeing his interest in music. David's grandmother had him receive formal training from a man her remembers as "‘Wash.' I never did get his full name. He was the Wash, a little short guy who was left handed but played the guitar right handed.” Wash had David go through the lessons in Numbers One and Two of the Nick Maloloff (?) guitar instruction books. He would have David go through the material, but David picked up up playing the music quickly. Wash, as a result, told David's grandmother to call whenever David needed any help. Learning to read music and varlous aspects of musical theory served to provide him with a musical grounding and prepared him for the experiences of the ensuing decades.
David remembers hearing blues on the radio, and was a John Lee Hooker fan growing up. One of the first tunes he played was Hooker’s “Boogie Chillum.” David kept practicing and learning guitar and when only 13, he was good enough to gather the attention of band leader, Walter Johnson, and his promoter, Dewey Richardson. Johnson ran a big band and shows in the area with a home base at the Club Royal in Tampa. Johnson and Richardson went to David’s grandmother and received her permission for him to play.
David became part of the band, although initially they had him pretend to play. Gradually, as he got more proficient, he actually played. One weekend, the promoter got up and told the audience that they had a great showman, Guitar Shorty, who would be featured the next weekend. David got anxious that week, and practiced, not wanting to be shown up by the "newcomer. Somewhat nervous because of this Guitar Shorty, David was playing and the promoter announced that Guitar Shorty would be later featured. Finally, when David was playing, Guitar Shorty was announced, and no one came out to the stage. He was still in disbelief when the promoter pointed to him as Guitar Shorty, and it wasn’t until members of the band took him out front that he accepted the fact that it was he who they had been talking about.
Dewey Richardson gave him the name Guitar Shorty. “Dewey was like a father to me, in a way, because he took a liking to me. After he gave me the name he told me, he said, ‘Now it’s gonna be a lot of people gonna ask you to change that name. Lot of producers.. You get record companies gonna want you change. Don’t change the name. You keep it. Plus it will bring you you good luck.’ And I’m not kidding, it had brought me good luck.”
Still a young man, Guitar Shorty went to Chicago in 1957 with his manager Pawn Shop Lewis, and a singer, Clarence Jolly, to record for Cobra/Artistic. Shorty didn’t know anything with his manager, Pawn Shop Lewis. Shorty didn’t know anything said, ‘Make sure you call.’ "Next day, I got up. I kept looking at that card. I really wanted help ‘cause I was trying to learn something. Around 12 o'clock, around noon, I called him. And he said, “OK. I'll tell you what to do. You got any money on you?’ I said, ‘Not too much, but I got some.’ He said, ‘Forget about that Just catch a cab. The address is on that card, have him bring you down there.’ And I went down there. he was outside waiting on me. Paid the cab driver, took me inside. He had one helluva layout. He said, ‘Now, stay with me awhile. I’m gonna straighten you out.’” Following Preston’s advice, Shorty said “I’ve been in the martial arts for about thirty-five years That’s what you see out there. That’s how I got it. Now I don’t hurt myself."
The days of touring with Ray Charles and Guitar Slim provided ed Shorty with valuable experience but the others “were making the money.” At the time he was with them, Guitar Shorty was playing the Silvertone guitar that he had as a kid. He “wasn’t making enough money,” to buy a new one. After Shorty left Guitar Slim in Thibideaux, he hooked up again with Sam Cooke who was travelling through Louisiana and came out to California. At the time, the Pilgrim Travellers were part of the troupe. “I just got to California just when the group broke up.”
Moving gave him another chance to record. “When I finally got there, Bob Tate and his sister Doris, they all moved [to Los Angeles], got some money together. They took that Silvertone I had and that amp; went to a pawn shop and got me a strat and got mea super reverb amp. So they got that for me. That was the first Fender that I ever owned, that they just gave to me. I had a Telecaster for a little while. I didn’t really like it. Then I started working around the area of LA. I worked at Moe’s Swing Club, ... I worked in a place called ‘the Veterans Club. I was working there five nights a week. They had gambling, everything. Man the police come in there. They have the cats in cables instead of chains instead of handcuffs. And walked them down through the audience with them right on out the door. Let everybody see it. But the people never stopped coming. They started packing the place every night. There after I worked there for awhile, and things started getting real bad, obviously I got scared so I quit.
In Hollywood, Shorty worked at the Talespin with a guy named Sid Galloway for about a year and a half which was long enough for Charlie Reynolds to catch him at the Talespin, “Next thing I know, Bob Tate had got to him some kind of way. Talked him into recording me. That's when he had Flash Records. That's where the pull came from. He say, ‘Guitar Shorty. I want to record you.’ That’s where I recorded A Hard Life.”
After he had recorded that song and other sides (with Tate on bass), Shorty joined Big Jim Wynn who previously had led his band behind T-Bone Walker. Wynn was getting ready to go to Vancouver. British Columbia, In Vancouver they played the New Delhi. “We were there for two weeks. Guy that owned it, his name was Leon Baggery, and he really liked the group.” Big Jim had to go back to L.A. for business, so Shorty told Baggery that he’d like to stay.
Baggery took Shorty under his wing. “That guy sure looked after me like I was the family.” Having someone like Baggery around was a great help, particularly since it could be real difficult for an American to get working papers in Canada. “What he did, he got me a month, a month-to-month visa. And I stayed there and I stayed so long, they told me I had to go ‘cross the border and come back. Then I could do it for another three months. That’s how I stayed there: I did that, man, over six years. I stayed there, right in Vancouver.”
During those years, he was playing rock and rhythm and blues. “I was playing hard metal stuff and I was doing a little bit of soul like Otis Redding would do and doing some of T-Bone Walker's stuff. Kept me busy, butI got tired of that too. What happened was, I really started looking at things, it was time to get out.” Shorty recalls Barry Gordy coming out to see Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers. “He saw me, but he actually came to see them. That’s where his mind was focused on. He told me, he said, “Shorty, I’ll be back and listen to you again. ... He never came back. So I got to think about it. I said, it’s time for me to get out of here. That's when I left.”
Shorty left Vancouver for Seattle in 1963 where he stayed until 1970.
He married Jimi Hendrix's stepsister, Marcia, in 1965 after she got
pregnant with their daughter, Tammy. Shorty remembers seeing Hendrix in
L.A. before the Experience years. “Yeah I saw him then, but it never
dawned on me. He didn’t excite me or anything. ‘Cause that time Jimi was
just trying to learn, learn things about his guitar, So when I Went to
Seattle, I played in Seattle and around Vancouver, I didn’t find out
“bout this till after I married Marcia, and then he told me. He used to
go AWOL just to watch me. ‘It really was a blast to watch you. Now since
you in the family, I can tell you I really learned a lot from you
Shorty.” Every time he came to town, Hendrix and Shorty would jam
together in Hendrix's father’s basement.
Asked about his first
impression after he first heard the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Shorty
recalls, “When I heard it, I knew it was him. But there was a lot of
other people didn’t know who it was. That was exactly what they said.
They said, ‘What in the hell is that? Where did he come from?’ And it
was a long time before the blacks would even accept him. By the time
they started accepting him, he’d gone. He went to New York. He turned
New York around. But that’s where he had his bad experience at. He was
‘bout ready to give it up. And the dude took him to England.” He still
remembers the last time he saw Hendrix. “I mean, he was out of it. He
was upset cause his family came in, so his dad went to see him, he
grabbed his dad, put his arms around him and just cried like a baby.
Told him he was sorry, he had a problem and just had to work it out. And
after that we didn’t see Jimi no more alive.”
Guitar Shorty plays to the audience at JVs in 2019.
Shorty left Seattle after Hendrix’s death, arriving in L.A. in early 1971. Staying in Vancouver may have helped him escape from personal problems but it also meant he couldn’t cash in on his new records. “This is a Hard Life took off. No one knew where I was. I didn’t find out anything about ‘till I came back in. I came back in 1970, when I came back I found out about that record.” Other bad luck hit him. He moved into an apartment in a motor home in Anaheim, California. He went to Las Vegas for a weekend and “I got back, all the pictures of me and Jimi, all the places I ever played in my life, the whole history of me, everything, you know. Somebody broke in the place and stole the stuff. ... That’s when I had that strat, my amplifier, all my promotional stuff on me, everything.
“So then I was really uptight cause I had no job, no instruments, nothing. And just lucky I met this guy named Vincent Battista, Italian guy. He had a warehouse, hauled lumber and stuff. He took a likening to me when I was playing, when I was work ing in Orange County at a place called the Wild Goose. That's where I worked. A lot of motorcycle guys used to come out there. So he told me. He called me David. He said, ‘David, I know how things are when the chips are down, boy. I got a job for you man. You can work and get your money together, buy another guitar and amp and stuff. I'll help you.’ If it hadn’t been for that I don’t know what I do. I would probably have gone back where my mom was. But through him sticking by me, like he said he would, that’s how I got back on my feet, working in a warehouse. And after that I started working all over L.A. area and down by Riverside, back in little jobs, back in Vancouver. You know fly in and out ...” He toured throughout Canada, playing Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, back to L.A. and then down to Mississippi.
In 1984 he was run over by a car and one leg was injured. It is still swollen today. After he got to the hospital, the doctor checked him out. “Didn't break my leg or anything but had pulled, pulled the muscles here. I remember wrestling with the car, remember that much and as I was wrestling with the car, all up here, all the way, all the way back up here. I could feel a thing just say popping and the doctor say that was a muscles, ligaments type of thing. I asked him, ‘How long will it be you think before I can really start working again.” He said, ‘You're looking at from 6 months to a year.”
Despite his determination, it would take longer to recover. “I could walk pretty good but I wouldn’t do the flip. I tried it one night at the Holiday Inn in Los Angeles, right across from Knotts Berry Farm, from Disneyland Inn. Hurt me so bad when I got up.I managed to get up and turned and landed on my feet. I couldn't move. I had to stand there and play. So I made my mind right then I not gonna do it more soon.” It wasn’t until 1988 that he got full use of the leg back. “They told me 6 months to a year. It took me till 88. That’s where I started coming back.”
Shorty became friends with Tina and Percy Mayfield. With respect to Percy he recalls, “We got real close. He wrote two songs for me. I never saw them, “cause he died before we got a chance to even work on them. Then I called Tina one day and asked Tina about the songs. She said, ‘Shorty, I'll see what I can do. I don’t know if I can find them or not but I'll do whatever I can, try to find them for you.’ Never found the tunes. So anyway I'm scuffling, still trying to make it, doing everything I could. All kind of odds and ends jobs and stuff. So Lowell Fulson told her of a place I could go overseas. Cause he had been talking to some people over there. Behind (Between?) her and Lowell Fulson is how I managed to get overseas. When I arrived overseas, that’s why I am where I am right now. Because that record I did over there for JSP. Yeah, after that, when I got that W.C. Handy Award, the thing took off.” .
Shorty recorded in England with Otis Grand’s band. He had been touring with Grand at the time. While the album pushed his career, he wasn’t satisfied with it “cause I know we could have done it better. I even talked to JSP about it. I ttold John [Stedman]. Isaid, ‘John. I don’t like doing an album like this, man. It’s not right. We should spend some time on it.’ He was in a hurry to get me out of there. I said ‘Man, you're gonna be sorry.’ He called me up about two months ago [May 1994] and apologized.
Shorty’s record for JSP opened a lot of eyes and ears to him, and led to Black Top’s Hammond Scott locating him. Shorty recalls Hammond Scott telling how he had been looking for Shorty for a long time, but couldn’t get a number on him. “But you know how it is. Lotta of musicians, entertainers, if they find out you're a record producer or you in some kind of limelight, and they ain't gonna to give another artist's number, cause they gonna want to try to get their thing in. So that’s what what was happening.” It was Dan Jacobs, who lives in Long Beach, California, who located Shorty for Scott. “Called me, soon as he hung up from Dan Jacobs and he talked to me like he'd been knowing me all my life. He does that right now. He said, ‘I been trying to catch up with you for the longest Shorty, and I finally caught you. He said, "This is Hammond Scott from BlackTop.'"
Here is a video of Guitar Shorty playing "Hard Life."
Shorty’s Black Top album, “Topsy Turvy” has made him a lot more familiar
to blues fans around the world. His guitar playing shows a variety of
inspirations, notably Guitar Slim and Jimi Hendrix, but the output is
pure Guitar Shorty. Like Hendrix, he uses various tools including a wah
wah pedal, plunger and the delay to create various effects. “You got to
know how to do that though, cause if you don’t, it sounds like a bunch
of noise. You can overplay it. If you overplay, might as well turn it
off. It took me awhile to learn how to handle that.”
One tune on
“Topsy Turvy” he is particularly proud of is his version of “(I Love
You) More Than You'll Ever Know,” which he took from his major vocal
influence as a singer, Donny Hathaway, Other influences include his
uncle, Willie Quarterman, Willie John and B.B. King, “but the cat that I
really like was Donny Hathaway. That was a cat that, that dude could
really sing. You ever heard him? ... That cat could get down. That’s why
I did “More Than You'll Ever Know”, on that CD and I got lot of
compliments on it. They said I was the first one who did it after Blood,
Sweat and Tears.” Hathaway recorded it, and Shorty acknowledges his
impact. “I did it so that had Donny Hathaway been living he would have
liked it the way I play it and I tried to sing it the way he would have
sung it.” Other Hathaway songs that Shorty includes in his repertoire
include “In the Ghetto,” and “I Believe To My Soul” which Hathaway
recast from a RayCharles original. “Donny Hathaway. He’s got it. It’s
not like Ray Charles (hums tune) It’s moving. … The way Donny did, it
was a major and minor thing, the way, the way he did it. Ray Charles was
strictly minor.”
Shorty’s band, Central Avenue, provides him
with solid, tight backing. They open up with some blues and a touch of
funk. Among the members of Central Avenue is guitarist Terry Joseph
DeRouen, a New Orleans native who has played with Etta James, Big Mama
Thornton and Joe Turner, and recently recorded behind Lowell Fulson for
Bullseye Blues. Tony Taylor handles the keyboards, Howard Deere from
Lubbock, Texas is on bass and Paul Michael Lopez is the drummer. DeRouen
and Deere both ” take vocals while warming up an audience. While they
have not been on his albums, Shorty is hoping to be able to use them on
at least some of his next album. “I got a few things that I'm gonna do. I
got one tune called “What is the World Without a Woman.” That's one I
got. And then I' got another one I wrote called “What Are We Gonna Do
Now”, and what else I got. I wrote a tune called “Santa Cruz.” I can’t
think about all the stuff I git written out.” Whatever he records, it
is certain to be an album for blues lovers wait for. Hopefully, we'll
get a taste of Central Avenue in the studio in addition to the Black Top
studio crew.
This article appeared in the Winter 1994 National Capital Blues Quarterly, a short-lived publication of the DC Blues Society.
Here is his recording of “(I Love You) More Than You'll Ever Know.”
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