2018-02-28 2-5pm
Eddie Shaw with:
Magic SamJimmy Dawkins
Howlin’ Wolf
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I intended to air this show two weeks ago but ran into
last minute technical difficulties (essentially, my computer crashed). For that show, I pulled out the discs from my
2016 Mardi Gras show and basically rebroadcast the music and I will likely take
similar action when I don’t have time to write a blog, especially now with
baseball season looming. I love MLB.com,
but three hours a day can eat up a lot of my free time!
I
apologize if at times this essay seems more about me, but it is a story with a
lot of personal context.
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The last of my heroes is gone. I am ashamed that I did not get around to
writing this before he passed away so Johnnie Cozmik could get it to him in
order to make sure he knew how much he was appreciated (probably more for my
benefit than his), but I was afraid I would not do him justice and just kept
pushing it down the road. Tenor sax man,
occasional harmonica man, singer, songwriter, bandleader, night club owner . .
. There was not much in the world of
Blues that Eddie Shaw could not do.
Eddie was born March 20th 1937 in Benoit,
Mississippi but grew up in nearby Greenville, attending Coleman High School,
where he became friends with fellow horn player Oliver Sain. The pair played the schools and dances as
well as the night club scene, eventually moving around the Delta in bands like
Ike Turner’s and Guitar Slim’s. They
also played with Sain’s guitar playing step-father Willie Love, and guitarists Little
Milton and Charles Booker.
It was in 1957 in Itta Bena that Eddie sat in with
Muddy Waters, who immediately hired him and took him to Chicago. He had been mostly playing in Jump Blues
groups with multiple horns (Eddie had played clarinet and trombone in high
school before taking on tenor saxophone), but Chicago was forging a new style
of amplified Blues where he was usually the sole horn man in the band. He would spend a few months with Muddy, then
a few with Howlin’ Wolf before a stay back in Greenville, but it wasn’t long
before he was back in Chicago for good.
Back in the Windy City, he returned to Wolf’s band (or
Muddy’s according to a second source) for a couple of years, then to the group
of Otis Rush. During the 60s, he could
most often be found on the West Side with Magic Sam, but he had no problem
finding bands in need of a sax man whenever Sam’s schedule had gaps. He also occasionally fronted a band on his
own and even went in to the studio, making discs specifically for local jukebox
play. One such recording, the
instrumental Blues for the West Side, was received well in the area when it was
released on the Colt label, later to appear on Delmark’s Sweet Home Chicago LP
and on today’s show. He also recorded in
sessions for Sam, Freddie King (I wish I had access to that date) and Jimmy
“Fast Fingers” Dawkins, wrote songs, and provided arrangements for Muddy and
Wolf.
Eddie also ran various businesses; an air conditioning
and refrigeration service, a laundromat, and a barbecue joint. But his biggest thing was Eddie’s Place
(formerly the 1815 Club) where you could find acts like Wolf, Otis Rush, Luther
Allison, James Cotton, Jimmy Reed, etc., and his Monday night jam sessions
became well respected around Chicago.
Eddie rejoined Howlin’ Wolf in 1972, eventually
becoming his trusted bandleader. Although
he remained until Wolf passed away, he really didn’t record much with him. The best example is the 1972 LP Live and
Cookin’ at Alice’s Revisited. Before
Wolf died in 1976, he let Eddie know he wanted him to carry on the legacy of
the Wolfgang, which Eddie maintained for a few decades, particularly keeping
Wolf’s longtime guitarist Hubert Sumlin.
In 1977, the first Wolfgang album led by Eddie was
Have Blues, Will Travel for the Simmons label.
The next year, the band was chosen by Alligator Records as one of eighteen
nationally unknown groups to represent Chicago on their 4CD Living Chicago
Blues series.
1982 saw the release of Movin’ and Groovin’ Man on the
European Evidence label followed by two Rooster Blues LPs, 1986’s King of the
Road and 1992’s In the Land of the Crossroads, one of which was a re-issue of
the debut Simmons session. Beginning in
1994 Eddie and the Wolfgang put out an album a year for Wolf -- Trail of Tears,
Home Alone, and The Blues is Nothing But Good News. A year later, in 1997, came a triumphant
return to Delmark with Can’t Stop Now, then winding up with a fourth disc for
the Austrian Wolf label, 1999’s Too Many Highways. 2005 saw Give Me Time come out on Wolf and in
2012 he released Still Riding High.
Eddie won the 2013 and 2014 Blues Music Awards for
best horn player, and May 3rd has been declared Eddie Shaw Day in
Chicago.
I also bought a couple of his CDs that Eddie put out
presumably to enhance his live appearances as well as one by his son Eddie Vaan
Shaw. It was Magic Sam who first got
Vaan interested in guitar with further exposure from his father’s Blues giant
friends, the cream of the Chicago crop.
He would play rhythm guitar at Eddie’s Place behind performances by
Hound Dog Taylor, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Jimmy Reed or his long time lead
guitarist Eddie Taylor, Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor and Albert Collins, to name a
few.
Vaan has toured with Son Seals, Junior Wells and
Hubert Sumlin as he played much of North America, Europe and around the
Mediterranean. In addition to his
appearance on twelve of his father’s CDs, he has also recorded with Booba
Barnes, Pinetop Perkins and on a tribute disc to Magic Sam which, I believe,
also featured Eddie on five tracks. Vaan
appeared on at least one of Eddie’s Bay Area tours and also has two CDs
released by Wolf. When you see him play,
likely the strongest visual effect would be the three necked guitar he built
himself.
Johnnie booked his J.C. Smith Band with Eddie and his
Chicago Blues All Stars into the Villa Montalvo Carriage House at least three
times, including one time with Hubert Sumlin, and one year set me up with an
interview in Eddie’s hotel room before the gig.
It was great! Eddie gave me his
full career rundown and a bunch of interesting sidelights, but the tiny tape
recorder I got specifically for the occasion failed to take, though I do
remember he mentioned his other son, Stan, was working on a musical documentary
of him at the time. I never did hear how
that turned out.
Before turning to acting, Stan was a black belt
instructor in Karate, Judo and Jujutsu.
He began on stage in Chicago and later made it to Broadway, but appears
to have had his most work acting on the big screen. A long list of his movies and roles can be
found on his Wikipedia entry, but most noteworthy to me (not a big cinema fan)
would be his 1976 role as Esquire Joe Calloway in The Bingo Long Travelling
All-Stars & Motor Kings (I am a big baseball fan), as Dipper in the first
Rocky film the same year and his 1979 characterization of Will Palmer, Alex
Haley’s grandfather in Roots: The Next Generation, with the list continuing
through 2017. He has appeared in several
television show episodes and was a regular in the 1983 series The Mississippi
as well as playing Isaac in the Civil War miniseries North and South. Needless to say, Eddie was very proud of both
his sons and all of his many children.
I was extremely fortunate to have met the man on
several occasions, the first time being in 1971 when Guitar Player Magazine
asked me to do an interview with Howlin’ Wolf at Berkeley’s Greek Theater, a
billing he shared with, of all people, Alice Cooper. I was barely 21 and nowhere near being a
journalist, but I had been jamming with Jim Crockett (who was pretty much in
charge of the publication and would be for decades) and staff writer Michael
Brooks back when the magazine was located in Los Gatos and they thought I was
up to the task. Nothing ventured,
nothing gained type of thing, I guess.
I remember on the ride up there, my friend had just
gotten an eight-track of the Layla album, and listening to it reminded me that
Eric Clapton had performed on Wolf’s most recent release, London Sessions,
along with Stevie Winwood, Rolling Stones Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, and
Americans Lafayette Leake and Wolf’s longtime guitarist Hubert Sumlin, and
wouldn’t it be cool if that could be the lineup backing Wolf on this occasion. Of course I knew this was not going to happen
but, when I discovered that Eddie Shaw was leading Wolf’s backup ensemble,
there was no disappointment whatsoever.
I was so in awe of the Wolf, reportedly 6’6” but
seemingly even taller as he stood a full head above me at 5’11”, and the
creator of so much of my favorite music, that it was no wonder I was
intimidated after a few moments with him.
There is so much that is laughable now, like that I didn’t know how
things worked and had left the reel to reel tape recorder (back then, they were
about the size of a small suitcase and very heavy) in the car. When I returned backstage with the machine,
Wolf was a little standoffish but Mister Shaw kindly took me over to a corner
and we had a wonderful time chatting the Blues.
I like to think he enjoyed it almost as much as I did because, despite
my youth, I was clearly aware of his work as a sideman recording with Magic Sam
and Jimmy Dawkins.
Fast forward a couple of decades and I’m on my way to
the Oakland airport with Johnnie Cozmik to pick up Eddie and John Primer. Primer was just as much a gentleman as Eddie,
even saying he remembered me from before.
I had seen him once at the Mountain View JJ’s when he was with Magic
Slim and the Teardrops but I’d like to think that rather than being confused he
was just being polite. We went over to
San Francisco for lunch and I am thinking we went back to San Jose before
heading back to the city and Biscuits and Blues.
It was with Johnnie and Eddie that I got my only taste
of the working musician’s road trip.
Johnnie had set up a Friday night gig for two shows at Biscuits and
Blues in San Francisco. I was their
guest and I hung out in the dressing room with them between shows while taking
a seat at the bar to catch the act. A
nice start. Then we packed up the gear
and hit the road for Merced. As a night cab driver, I was the natural choice to
drive one of the cars and as my reward Eddie was my shotgun passenger. A great time talking for a few hours, but
when we got into town at some hellacious hour the rooms at the motel booked for
our stay would not be vacated until 10AM or noon, something like that, so
Johnnie had to scramble to find a way for us all to crash for a handful of
hours.
A place with about a half dozen rooms was procured and
I was paired up with Johnnie’s roadie, Benny Mendez, which was cool with me
because Benny was also my best friend until he passed away. It seemed like I had just gotten to sleep
when it was time to get up and move to the other motel, and it wasn’t long
after that we had to wake up and head to the fairgrounds for an afternoon
performance at the Merced Blues Festival.
Benny and I rode over with bass player Jake Sampson
and, as I recall, the J.C. Smith Band for that weekend also consisted of pianist
Steve Dore, saxman Abraham Vasquez and Dennis Dove on drums. They opened up with a set and then became
part of Eddie Shaw’s Chicago Blues All Stars.
Johnnie stepped back from center stage and let Chicago guitarist Mike
Wheeler and, of course, Eddie get their licks in. The show was great but what I will always
recall was, before they started, Eddie was holding court at a picnic table
behind the stage with all the guys paying rapt attention as Mr. Shaw regaled
them with tales about the greats from Chicago’s Blues heyday. Man, I wish I could have recorded that!
After another pack up, it was off to a night club in
town for a third gig in about thirty hours.
Now, my normal sleeping hours were afternoons, but in spite of the
broken sleep that morning I was able to survive pretty well at the festival,
then it all hit me once I was able to sit down at the club. There was almost a separate little room
between the band and the back door so Benny stepped outside a couple of times
to smoke a joint, then came back in and laughed at me just zombieing out. I don’t think I went out front to watch the
band all night. I hope this wasn’t a
typical road trip, though I might try it again under the right circumstances,
but it sure felt good to get home.
I am not big on having my music autographed; sure,
when a band would turn me on to a CD, it was nice of them to sign it
(particularly a John Lee Hooker scribble on a disc by Michael Osborn to which
he contributed), but I only have one LP with an autograph and that is Magic
Sam’s second Delmark release, Black Magic from 1968, to me an improvement over
his first which won album of the year honors (Delmark’s second consecutive
award after Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues) because it added the sax of Eddie
Shaw and Lafayette Leake’s piano. To
this day, I cannot think of any album I prefer to it and one of my two vinyl
issues (of course, I have it on CD as well) is enhanced by a simple “Eddie
Shaw” inscribed on the front cover. We
open up today’s show with much of the album.
Johnnie is one of those people it is almost impossible
to not like, and he and Eddie became good friends, so it was with heavy heart
that I laid down the phone after his call to let me know of Eddie’s passing on
Monday, January 29th.
About the
music: It was a bit difficult making the selections
from Eddie’s sideman recordings with the goal of showing his talents to the
maximum because, as should be expected, his role in the recordings should never
overshadow that of the titled artist and is somewhat buried in the tracks. We had already presented Magic Sam’s Black
Magic and Jimmy Dawkins’ Fast Fingers albums in earlier airings so the lead
artists were not what would make the choices, instead the tracks where Eddie
was given the most room, while still formulating the sets as normal.
We open with two 1966 instrumentals from Delmark’s Sweet
Home Chicago anthology album, which credit Eddie as leader of the group which
also featured Sam’s guitar work and the rhythm section of Bob Ritchie on drums
and Mack Thompson playing bass. The rest
of the first set comes from Sam’s Black Magic, released in the month before his
death on December 1st 1969, with the exceptions of I Feel So Good
and Lookin’ Good, which were first done for the 1967 West Side Soul album but
rerecorded with Eddie’s saxophone and presented on the posthumous Magic Sam Legacy
album.
Eddie is heard front and center on Can’t Stop Now,
another Delmark disc, recorded in December 1996 and showcasing Eddie’s vocals
backed by drummer Tim Taylor, son of the great guitarist Eddie Taylor who was
best known for his work behind almost all of Jimmy Reed’s recordings, bassist
Lafayette “Shorty” Gilbert, and Detroit Junior on piano. By this time, Vaan had taken a firm hold on the
guitar duties.
Keeping the first half of the show culled from Delmark
releases, our third set comes from Dawkins’ debut 1969 Fast Fingers LP. Like Black Magic, it includes Shaw, pianist
Lafayette Leake and Sam’s second guitarist Mighty Joe Young, and these three
are the reason I took a chance on the LP unheard so long ago. Odie Payne, Jr. and Mack Thompson played drums
and bass respectively on Sam’s LP, but I do not have the info handy on Dawkins’
rhythm section.
We move along to Papa Told Me, the live 2001 album
which still features Vaan, Taylor and Gilbert as the Wolfgang ensemble. We wind up this set with Eddie playing
harmonica on Sonny Boy Williamson II’s classic Don’t Start Me Talking before
hearing Wolf play the instrument (which he learned to play from the same Sonny
Boy) throughout our next set from the 1972 Chess album Live and Cookin’ at
Alice’s Revisited. Besides Eddie backing
up Wolf’s vocals are a pair of members of the Aces, drummer Fred Below and bass
player Dave Myers, Sunnyland Slim on piano, and guitarists Hubert Sumlin and
L.V. Williams.
Sumlin
remained with the Wolfgang a couple of years after Eddie fronted the band for the
fine Alligator series Living Chicago Blues set, which also included drummer
Chico Chism, bass player Lafayette “Shorty” Gilbert, and keyboardist Johnny “Big
Moose” Walker on the short set that closes out today’s program. It is all good music but, today, please pay
special attention to the saxophone and the man behind it. enjoy
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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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Riding HighBlues for the West Side
I Just Want a Little Bit
I Feel So Good
You Don’t Love Me, Baby
Keep Loving Me Baby
Lookin’ Good
Magic Sam 21mins
Greedy Man
Can’t Stop NowPlaying with the Blues
Howlin’ for My Darlin’
We’re Gonna Make It
I Gotta Tell Somebody
Rockin’ with Eddie
Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang 28mins
It Serves Me Right to Suffer
Breaking DownI Wonder Why
Triple Trebles
Little Angel Child
You Got to Keep Trying
Night Rock
Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins 23mins
For You My Love
OperatorMister West Side
Stranded on the Highway
Hurts Me Too
Don’t Start Me Talking
Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang 28mins
Mister Airplane Man
I Didn’t KnowMean Mistreater
I Had a Dream
Don’t Laugh at Me
Just Passing By
Howlin’ Wolf 35mins
It’s Alright
Out of Bad LuckStoop Down Baby
Sitting On Top of the World
My Baby’s So Ugly
Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang 17mins
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