Development of the British Blues and Rhythm

  --- show 51 ---   8-10-2016

Dick Heckstall-Smith and Friends       2001

Dave Kelly & Paul Jones                     2004
Johnny Almond                                    2009

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For today’s airing we will feature the only two British saxophone players who are prominent in my memories and, coincidentally, both initially came to my attention through their time spent with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.  Dick Heckstall-Smith appeared on Mayall’s fourth US album, Bare Wires, as the Bluesbreakers employed a full time horn section.  This was shortly after DHS’s long stay with both Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated and The Graham Bond ORGANization.

For this 2001 album, Blues and Beyond, DHS brings together past collaborators and contemporaries in a setting under his control.  The opening tune is the only one to include drummer Jon Hiseman who was with the Bond ensemble during DHS’ last months with the band and later appeared on Mayall’s Bare Wires just before he and DHS put together Colosseum.  Also making his only appearance on this tune, Rollin’ and Tumblin’, is Paul Jones.  I can’t recall him playing with DHS previously, but his harmonica and vocals are very prominent in two other sets today.  Bass player David Hadley plays throughout the album, likewise drummer Gary Husband with two exceptions mentioned here.  For our second tune, Martin Wilde is sitting behind the drum kit and is joined on piano by John Mayall.  Guitarist Clem Clemson was a member of Colosseum and appears on all our tracks except the opener including Cruel Contradictions, which features Peter Green on lead guitar and vocal as well as harmonica.  Keyboardist Dave Moore makes his first appearance on this set closer as he does on the last three tunes of set two.  Rab McCullough is the vocalist on Millenium Blues and later plays slide guitar on set two’s closer Swamp while Eddie Martin gave us the slide guitar we heard on Rollin’ and Tumblin’.

That first set was pretty much standard Blues fare but the second DHS set takes on a little bit different mood.  To open up, we chose one of Cyril Davies favorite compositions, Spooky but Nice, from the two-plus months in the second half of 1962 when Davies and DHS were together in Blues Incorporated.  Mick Taylor pairs his slide guitar with Clemson on the number and Paul Williams guests on vocal for Twilight Shuffle.  Williams was the bass player on much of the Zoot Money stuff we heard a couple of years back.  Jack Bruce was with DHS from the Blues Incorporated days and The Bond group until he left with Baker to form Cream and he adds the vocal, but not bass, to Hidden Agenda.  In addition to playing all the saxophones throughout the album, DHS can be heard on the vocal (if you can call it that) of Swamp which also has Pete Brown adding percussion.

NOTE: At the last minute, I added Watching Your Every Move as the fourth song in the second set, making it a five song set.  The track does not include Clempson on guitar with that instrument and vocals being provided by McCullough.

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The Blues Band figured prominently in our three most recent shows and we aren’t quite done with them yet.  Today we hear from the two vocalists in the band, Paul Jones and Dave Kelly, in a couple of sets as a duet with Kelly providing acoustical guitar and Jones adding his harmonica, taken from the first of two CDs recorded under the title Live at the Ram Jam Club.  I have mentioned before that I used to consider Kelly only an acoustic guitarist and this session will let you know just how he excels at that side of the Blues.  You should know by now that if I didn’t consider this top-notch I would have found some reason to play more full-band music.

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The Johnny Almond set, our second saxophonist, is way mellower than I would normally include but, due in part to the fact that this is from a concert unavailable except to a few “insiders” and in another part because Johnny was a fixture on the British Jazz and Blues scenes since the mid-60s, we are hearing it in what I must presume to be its first radio airing yet.

Being a person who pays attention to the back of album covers, I first came across Johnny’s name as saxophonist on a couple of tunes on John Mayall’s first American LP, 1966’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, where Clapton is reading a Beano comic book on the front and, later much more prominently, on the 1969 USA Union LP.  After the USA Union album he and its guitarist, Jon Mark, put together the longstanding Mark-Almond Band.  Prior to all of this, Almond had joined Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band in 1964 and from there had gone on to The Alan Price Set.  He was often to be found jamming with Jimi Hendrix at the time Jimi was overwhelming London. 

When the Rolling Stones inquired about someone to arrange the horns for their single Honky Tonk Woman, it was Almond whom they chose.  Johnny recalled, "I was booked 12 hours a day for four days in the studio, and they didn't all show up together until the last day.  Writing the horn parts took about 20 minutes, and when we finally recorded, it was done in about one take. They supplied the food and drink, so there was a lot of partying and drinking involved when they weren't there."

Eventually Johnny moved to Los Angeles until 1987, when he and wife Ginny relocated to the Bay Area.  "I went for six months with very little work.  I ran around sitting in at clubs until word got around that I was here."  Johnny played in the San Jose Funk band Touch and Go for a while and then he met The Garage Band.  He had his horn with him one evening and asked if he could sit in.  Somewhat reluctantly, the band allowed it and was pleasantly surprised.  "He gets up and rips this blazing solo," drummer Sid Thompson recalls. "We all looked at each other like, where did this guy come from? After that, when our regular horn player couldn't make it, we'd call him up for gigs."  Thompson continued, "It's impossible not to have heard him. He played the solo on Billy Joel's 'New York State of Mind.' He played on Fleetwood Mac's 'Then Play On,' and more than a dozen albums with John Mayall. A lot of sax players have heard of him, but the average person wouldn't have a clue. He's an unknown legend."

What we hear today is a July 16^th 2009 concert performed at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz.  As Johnny put it, "It all stems from the fact that I got diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.  The chemo seems to be working right now, and I seem to be doing OK, though I have a little trouble playing for a whole evening. This is a big bash to go out with a bang."  The players, I believe billed as the Garage Band, include the former keyboardist from Mark-Almond Mark Ross, drummer Greg Errico who had played with Sly and the Family Stone, longtime guitarist with Gregg Allman Robert Berry, and heading it all up, Danny Hull sharing saxophone duties as well as playing harmonica and best known for having played with the Doobie Brothers,

I must thank my friend Jim McKee, who did the sound for the show, for turning me on to a copy direct from his mixing board, but made it perfectly clear I could do nothing with it unless I got permission from Johnny’s widow Ginny and gave me her contact info.  Quite a few months back, I spent an evening with her as she turned me on to Johnny’s music which I ripped to my laptop and just generally discussed music, Johnny’s in particular.  It was originally my intention to invite her to the station when I aired this, but as time went on and I realized the whole point of this blog was to avoid a lot of chatter and fit as much music into each show as possible (I know you guys don’t tune in to hear me yammer unless it is to laugh when I make mistakes) and so I rethought that plan.  Too bad, because it would have been fun to replicate that evening.  Ginny, I wish you all the best.

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Next show, it’s one and done after a full deck of 52 shows.  It took over two and a half years to complete what equals one show for every week of a year.  I’m sure I’ll have a feeling of accomplishment and a gratitude for being able to move on and maybe no longer feeling compelled to spend so much time on these blogs.  I hope you guys have enjoyed what you’ve heard and I think you will like the live recordings we hear next.  A bit of a spoiler: three of the artists you heard today will be among the many you will hear then.

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Since it is still relatively new, I thought I’d mention that KKUP is now streaming on the internet and, while it is still in a developing stage, we have been putting out the word.  I’m not all of that good with high-tech stuff, but it seems pretty easy to access.  If you go to our website at KKUP.org you will see on the home page a strip of options immediately above the pictures of the musicians the next to the last option being LISTEN ONLINE.  By clicking this, it brings up a choice of desktop or mobile.  I can only speak for the desktop but after maybe a minute I was receiving a crystal clear feed.  As already mentioned, this is still a work in progress and we are currently limited to a finite number of listeners at any one time.  I mention this so you will be aware to turn off the application when you are not actually listening.  (I put the player in my favorites bar for the easiest of access.)  Now we can reach our listeners in Los Gatos and Palo Alto, even my family in Canada.  Let your friends elsewhere know they can now listen to your favorite station, and while they have the home page open they can check out our schedule.

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Rollin’ and Tumblin’
If You Know You Don’t Love Me
   Why in the World Don’t You Leave Me Be
Millenium Blues
Cruel Conditions
   Dick Heckstall-Smith and Friends

Statesboro Blues

Drop Down Mama
Come On In My Kitchen
Room and Board
Please See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
Stranger Blues
When the Levee Breaks
   Dave Kelly & Paul Jones

Sunflower

Cross Cut Saw
Simple Song
Pequeno Nova
Eight Miles High
What is Hip
New York State of Mind
   Johnny Almond and the Garage Band   60min

Spooky But Nice

Twilight Shuffle
Hidden Agenda
Watching Your Every Move
(Dix WWW) Stomp
   Dick Heckstall-Smith and Friends   54min total

Dust My Blues
You’re Wrong
When You’ve Got a Good Friend
Tuxedo Junction
Key to the Highway
   Dave Kelly & Paul Jones