June 24, 2015

Development of the British Blues and Rhythm
  --- show 30 ---   6-24-2015

American Folk Blues Festival     1966
John Mayall: USA Union                     1970
American Folk Blues Festival     1967
John Mayall: Jazz Blues Fusion     1972

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With the fourth of July coming up before our next show, it’s time again to play some American Blues artists as they traveled across the pond to make the European tour known as The American Folk Blues Festival.  Having already covered the first four editions, we are now set for the 1966 and 1967 lineups.
The set taken from 1966 starts off with a couple of pianists; Roosevelt Sykes returns after his appearance at the last year’s concerts and the lesser known Eurael “Little Brother” Montgomery and both are backed up by this year’s exceptional rhythm section of drummer Freddie Below and bassist Jack Myers.  They were both part of one of Chicago’s most highly respected combo, the Aces, led by Louis Myers (not in this concert) on either harmonica or guitar, depending on who might be fronting the band.
Most notable where Louis was merely the guitarist was when the group backed a couple of harmonica players.  The Myers brothers originally went by the title the Deuces until they came across he jazz-tinged drummer Below, who would have a long career as one of the city’s most sought-after studio men.  As the trio was playing upstairs at a private party, a passerby went up and asked to sit in; this was the start of their time spent backing Junior Wells, a function they were serving at the time of this concert series.  They were with Junior right up to the time Little Walter received recognition enough to depart Muddy Waters’ gigging band (although he was still Muddy’s first choice in the studio) and the band went with him as Little Walter and his Jukes.  It didn’t work out that badly for Wells either as Muddy kept him working as his club harmonica player.
Although Louis Myers is not here, one of the few guitar players to be a better choice would be Otis Rush.  Along the classic lady singers of the Blues would be Sippie Wallace and the “front porch” style of acoustic Blues are represented by Robert Pete Williams and the vocal duo of guitarist Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell on mandolin.

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This year, instead of mixing in some American artists as they were backed up the local British performers, we will take a listen to a couple of albums where the well known British singer, composer, harmonicist and piano player John Mayall had moved to the States and began using some of this country’s top talent to continue the ever-changing direction of his presentation of the Blues.

When we last saw Mr. Mayall in November, we wound up with his 1968 album, Blues from Laurel Canyon, the first LP where he stopped referring to his band as the Bluesbreakers.  On that disc, he did one song (The Bear) talking about how he had met the southern Californis group Canned Heat, highly relevant to today’s show because two of the players on USA Union came directly from that band. 

Guitarist Harvey Mandel first came to our attention from his appearance on Charlie Musselwhite’s first LP, Stand Back, before he had a few albums under his own name and ultimately wound up with Heat.

For my money, the best Blues bass player is Larry Taylor going back to his days with Canned Heat and through a handful of LPs with Mayall.  The last I heard, “The Mole” was still playing with some of LA’s best Blues bands, most often on standup bass.

We have passed over a couple of albums but will come back to them before the end of this seemingly never-ending project, most notably 1969s Turning Point where Mayall experimented with a drummer-less four piece ensemble.  This is again the model for this album and the interesting choice for the fourth member is violinist Don “Sugarcane” Harris, who had made a minor impact in the R&B world as half of the team Don and Dewey.

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For the 1967 concert selections, this one of those live albums that puts the intro to the next song on the tail end of the last one and for that I apologize; it is truly a pet peeve of mine.

Okay, enough complaining already!  For the core of the electric Blues, we have drummer Odie Payne (Jr.?) whom I know from Magic Sam’s band and, I believe before that, Elmore James’, an unfamiliar name in bassist Dillard Crume, the vocals of both guitarist Hound Dog Taylor and harp man Little Walter as well as the fine singing of Koko Taylor, surely Chicago’s best Blues lady of the time.  And plenty on the acoustic side with the guitars and vocals of Bukka White, Son House and Skip James as well as the duo of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee.  Brownie even throws in kazoo on a couple of the tunes.

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Larry Taylor is back again holding down those heavy bottom notes as Mayall takes on an excellent Jazz front line including Freddie Green on guitar, Blue Mitchell on trumpet and Clifford Solomon manning the saxes.  Ron Selico is behind the drum kit and Mayall never tries to restrict his bass player so this album, Jazz Blues Fusion, is probably my favorite of Taylor’s recordings.

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We have just completed a successful Blues marathon over the weekend but if you didn’t get a chance to acquire one of the B.B. King t-shirts they will be available probably through the weekend.  Of course, I am always happy to take your calls whether you wish to pledge or not.  Jim Thomas has once again outdone himself and this will be among my favorite Blues marathon t-shirts (and I have all but one from the last 24 years), but don’t take my word for it; check it out at our website, KKUP.org.

And so many thanks to all who took part in the marathon this year, from the pledgers to the phone answerers to the DJs to the musicians who played live to the sound man to the many businesses that helped us out one way or another.  And don’t forget Gil de Leon who both opened up and closed down the event; he probably felt like he was here the whole time!

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Running the Blues
   Roosevelt Sykes
I Keep on Drinking
   Little Brother Montgomery
You Shouldn’t Do That
   Yank Rachel and Sleepy John Estes
All Your Love
My Own Fault
   Otis Rush
Checkin’ Up On My Baby
Tribute to Sonny Boy Williamson
   Junior Wells
Suitcase Blues
   Sippie Wallace
Louise
   Robert Pete Williams
Flip Flop and Fly
Roll ‘em Pete
   Big Joe Turner

Nature’s Disappearing
You Must Be Crazy
Night Flyer
Possessive Emotions
Where Did my Legs Go?
Took the Car
Deep Blue Sea
My Pretty Girl
Off The Road
   John Mayall

Aberdeen Blues
   Bukka White
Got a Letter This Morning
   Son House
Hard Luck Child
   Skip James
I’m Gonna Move Across the River
   Brownie McGhee
The Sky is Crying
   Hound Dog Taylor
You Be So Fine
   Little Walter
Wang Dang Doodle
What Kind of Man Is This
   Koko Taylor
Walk On
Rock Island Line
   Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee

Exercise in C Major for Harmonica,
    Bass and Shufflers
Country Road
Mess Around
Dry Throat
*Got to Be This Way (time permitting)
Good Time Boogie
   John Mayall

June 10, 2015


Development of the British Blues and Rhythm
  --- show 29 ---   5-27-2015
Duster Bennett                 1968
Ten Years After               1968

Just some quick, somewhat unorganized notes about today’s show:

We start off today’s show with a recording of a June 28th concert at the Fillmore West by Ten Years After which was provided by one of my listeners and likely unavailable almost anywhere else.  TYA’s first two albums were released in 1968 so this has to be from their first American tour.  We’ll be using Help Me and Spoonful which had appeared in studio form on their 1968 debut LP (simply titled Ten Years After) and on a later set Crossroads, which was recorded during those same sessions but did not appear until Deram released an album of outtakes in 1972.

Sandwiched in between the first two songs is a version of Rock Me Baby, but the vocal is too low in the mix to know how faithfully they followed the original B.B. King version.  If I had the option to not include it in the set I might have gone for that, but the disc I got this from was not divided by title, just one long track of the original concert.  Another fault of the recording is that the bass is too low and only shows up on the three solos Leo Lyons takes, two of which we will hear.  Essentially the guitar is overly dominant but the excesses of Alvin Lee were pretty much what audiences paid to hear, myself included.  I had the pleasure of seeing them twice before the release of their performance at Woodstock, but likely not on this first tour.

The fourth and final song of our opening set is I May Be Wrong, but I Won’t Be Wrong Always, a Count Basie tune (I did not know that until Alvin announced it at the start of the number) which comes from their second release Undead, recorded live at Klook’s Kleek.  Like the Woody Herman tune (Alvin tells us that on the LP) Woodchopper’s Ball,

I opted for the superior musicianship and recording quality of the Undead album.  From that same CD, I’ve chosen Summertime / Shantung Cabbage over the Fillmore version and the Undead original version of I’m Going Home, the tune that kinda made the band famous when they performed it at Woodstock, after which the band went downhill into a pop-rock mode.  So that’s today’s opening and closing sets, but we also have a twenty minute set from their debut studio LP release right in the middle of the show.

I believe there was a lot of criticism of Alvin Lee as just a sped up imitation of Eric Clapton but that was okay by me.  In addition to the outtake Crossroads (which Clapton had done in the studio with the Powerhouse and live with Cream), there were two more songs previously recorded by Eric that appeared on the first lp -- I Want to Know (Powerhouse) and Spoonful (Cream).

I want to thank Mike for providing the Fillmore session and Bobby G for editing it down for me.

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I never really knew anything about Duster Bennett aside from the fact that that he was a harmonica playing buddy of Peter Green and that he was often referred to as a tortured soul who authored one of Peter’s favorite songs, Jumping at Shadows.  I often wanted to look into his sound but always had other priorities for my purchases, until I found this comprehensive 2CD set of his Blue Horizon recordings.  I must admit I had been missing out on an interesting part of the late 60s British Blues scene.

Bennett was the only English one man band that I am aware of.  To back up his vocals, Duster would pick his guitar with a harmonica rack resting on his chest while he kept rhythm with a bass drum and hi-hat, but he also played Blues harp in the familiar handheld style when he performed in band situations.

With four exceptions, our first set has Bennett’s one man setup.  On the songs Times Like These, Shady Little Baby and the Magic Sam tune My Love is Your Love, Duster’s guitar and harmonica essentially front Fleetwood Mac – Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.  For Slim Harpo’s Raining in My Heart he is joined by a couple of Blue Horizon label mates from Chicken Shack, drummer Dave Bidwell and Andy Silvester providing more vocal.

Likewise, the second Bennett set is made up of his one man act except Talk to Me and Bright Lights, Big City, which add the Yardbirds pre-Clapton guitarist Top Topham and vocalist Stella Sutton.  The credits also list both Peter Green and Tony Mills on bass guitar.

Duster fell asleep as he was driving home from a gig and died in the ensuing accident.

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I May Be Wrong but I Won’t Be Wrong Always
Help Me
Rock Me Baby
Spoonful
   Ten Years After

Hard to Resist
It’s a Man Down There
Trying to Paint it in the Sky
Worried Mind
Jumping at Shadows
Forty Minutes from Town
Times Like These
Got a Tongue in Your Head!
My Love Is Your Love
Raining in My Heart
Shady Little Baby
Jumping for Joy
   Duster Bennett

I Want to Know
Adventures of a Young Organ
Love Until I Die
Feel it for Me
Don’t Want You Woman
I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes
Losing the Dogs
   Ten Years After

God Save the Queen / She Lived Her Life
      Too Fast
Just Like a Fish
What a Dream
Just Like I Treat You
Talk to Me
My Babe / She’s My Baby
Honest I Do
Bright Lights, Big City
Fresh Country Jam
   Duster Bennett

Crossroads
Woodchopper’s Ball
Summertime / Shantung Cabbage
I’m Going Home
   Ten Years After