Key to the Highway KSCU
103.3FM
2019-10-13 7PM to midnight
Otis Rush
Gene Ammons
Albert Ammons
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Another show extended to five hours! I must confess to the fact that I am not as
satisfied with the playlist as I usually feel.
Part of that would be because it was hard to find diversity in the piano
work of Albert Ammons, especially when one of only two sources is a compilation
set with the title Boogie Woogie. Nobody
loves a rollicking Boogie more than me, and each track here is noticeably
different, but even I can hear a monotony when there is no change in tempo, as
occurs after our first grouping, so, in order to alleviate that somewhat, I
broke the second half hour into two fifteen minute sets, the first with Ammons
solo and the next together with Pete Johnson.
There are probably more father / son musicians where
both had long and substantial careers, but the only pair that comes to my mind
is the Ammons family. I believe there
was only one session that they recorded together, in 1946 just three and a half
years before Albert’s passing as they both backed singer Sippie Wallace. Gene’s style of Jazz saxophone, at least in
this period in his career, is not the rowdy Bop style I prefer but, instead, a
much more mellow, perhaps a better word would be subtle, display of his
artistic talents with a warm tone difficult to find elsewhere.
All
we need now is a dominant Blues guitarist, and Otis Rush certainly fits that
requirement without disappointment, so sit back, read the profiles, and make
your own opinions.
*************************
But, before you get too comfortable, I thought I’d
mention a couple of upcoming shows I have in mind. My friend Johnnie Cozmik, who alternated with
me for about fifteen years on my Wednesday afternoon KKUP show, will be
releasing a new CD in time for the Christmas rush and, as he has for as far
back as I can remember, he is giving me the privilege of being the first to air
the new disc.
Johnnie has just gotten back from touring the
southernmost tip of South America and will soon be off to Russia, but we will
find time to get together next month, likely November 10th, and he
will debut a live Argentinian version of his J.C. Smith Band. Now, I’m not a very good interviewer but
Johnnie is such a great crowd pleaser whether it be in front of a live audience
or a radio microphone that I’m sure it will be a fun time unless, of course,
Johnnie tells too many of his jokes.
And something I had in mind from my earliest radio
days was to have live bands in the studio but, without a good sound man, it
just never came off right so I gave up on the idea. I discussed this with Gil de Leon when I
relieved him last week and he is willing to man the mixing board when the
Canadian harmonica master Harpdog Brown has an off day in his tour on December
8th. Most impressive is that
Dog won’t be promoting a show in the area because he skips from Sacramento
right to Santa Barbara this time, he just loves to turn people on to good
music, something I can relate to. More
on the Dog as the day draws nearer.
And
Monday is Thanksgiving Day in Canada so best wishes to my cousin and his family
in Vancouver, who was there a few years back when we met Mr. Brown. Thanksgiving in October, and on a
Monday? How weird are those
Cannucks? Oh yeah, I’m still one! Happy Thanksgiving to my brother and niece,
and you too, Dog!
*************************
Born April 29th 1934 in Philadelphia
Mississippi and migrating to Chicago in 1949, the left handed Otis Rush, along with Magic Sam and
Buddy Guy, was credited with establishing the West Side guitar sound, but his
career did not run a parallel course.
Although he had a #6 hit on the Billboard R&B chart with his first
release, the Willie Dixon penned and produced I Can’t Quit You Baby, his career
stalled soon thereafter despite his continued popularity on the Chicago club
scene. The tune, also the first release
for Eli Toscano’s Cobra Records, was recorded in 1956 while Dixon was between
stints as A&R man for Chess Records, and Otis had seven more well received
releases in his two years at Cobra, including All Your Love (I Miss Loving),
which was apparently written in the car as he was approaching the Cobra studio,
Double Trouble, My Love Will Never Die and my particular favorite, Keep on
Loving Me Baby. But when Cobra went
bankrupt in 1959, Chess Records signed him up in 1960 but only gave him the
opportunity to record eight tracks and released two singles; those four sides
and two more were released in 1969 on Door to Door, an album shared with the
similarly small number of recordings Chess made of another southpaw, Albert
King. Otis went into the Duke Records
studio in 1962, but only the single Homework was released.
Rush had five tracks from 1965 included on the second
volume of Vanguard’s excellent trilogy Chicago / The Blues / Today!, and then
it was not until 1969 that Atlantic’s subsidiary Cotillion recorded his
Mourning in the Morning album produced by Michael Bloomfield and Nick
Gravenites, both at that time with the Electric Flag. Things appeared to be on a brisker pace when
he recorded Right Place, Wrong Time for Capitol in 1971 but the company
declined to release the album. Rush was
finally able to buy the master and rights, releasing it in 1976 on P-Vine
Records but only in Japan before Bullfrog Records put it out in the states.
As Bill Dahl made note for the All Music Guide,
“Nevertheless, his esteemed status as a prime Chicago innovator was eternally
assured by the ringing, vibrato-enhanced guitar work that remained his stock in
trade and a tortured, super-intense vocal delivery that could force the hairs
on the back of your neck upwards in silent salute. If talent alone were the
formula for widespread success, Rush would certainly have been Chicago's
leading Blues artist. But fate, luck, and the guitarist's own
idiosyncrasies conspired to hold him back on several occasions when opportunity
was virtually begging to be accepted.”
Otis’ parents, O.C. Rush and Julia Boyd, were farmers
with seven children. He taught himself
guitar at the age of eight and occasionally sang in local church choirs. Once he moved to Chicago he worked outside
music until his gigs became more than occasional.
In a 1993 interview with Jas Obrecht for Guitar Player
Magazine, Otis was asked if anybody in particular inspired him. “Yes.
That was Muddy Waters. He didn’t
do anything. He just sit there and
play. My sister took me to listen to him
at the Zanzibar, on the West Side here in Chicago. Okay.
I’d just arrived and I didn’t know nothin’ about guitar. I just had one at home. So I’d come here to visit my sister and then
go back to Philadelphia, Mississippi – that’s my home. I came here and said, ‘Whoa. This is for me!’ I heard Muddy, and I said, ‘Give me a
guitar!’ So I went home and started
practicin’.”
Going by the name Little Otis, his first gigs were as
a solo act at the Club Alibi in 1953. He
formed his own group around 1955 and played Chicago’s South and West Side
scenes, again including the Club Alibi along with the Jazzville Club and the
708 Club leading up to his Cobra dates.
They allowed him to tour one-nighters in Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and
Florida. He also was a frequent
performer on the Big Bill Hill show on Oak Park, Illinois’ WOPA radio and an
in-demand session sideman through the end of the decade. In the early 60s he toured with Jimmy Reed’s
band on one-nighters through the south and played with T-Bone Walker when he
played Chicago’s Regal Theater around 1962, then with Little Richard at the
City Opera House circa 1963.
Since the mid-60s Otis’ gigs expanded beyond the
Chicago city limits including Europe, most notably a tour with the American
Folk Blues Festival in 1966. He played
the 1969 University of Wisconsin Blues Festival in Madison and the Ann Arbor
Blues Festival in 1969 and 1970 and again in 1972 and 1973, with some of the
1972 show put out on Atlantic Records.
Rush appeared at New York’s Apollo Theater around 1970 and the Notre
Dame Blues Festival in South Bend, Indiana 1970 and 1971. He toured Iowa, played San Francisco’s
Fillmore West and recorded the long unreleased album at the city’s Capitol
studio, all in 1971. Additional noteworthy
appearances included Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the
Philadelphia Folk Festival held in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, in 1972.
1974 found Otis touring Europe as part of Jimmy
Dawkins’ band, parts released on the Black and Blue’s Screamin’ and Cryin’, and
under his own name in Japan 1974 into 1975, again portions coming out on the
Trio label. Back in the states, he had an active 1975, appearing at Washington
University in St. Louis, Missouri and the Midwest Blues Festival at the University
of Notre Dame in South Bend and recording Cold Day in Hell for Delmark with
the1976 follow-up So Many Roads. In 1977
Rush was back in the Bay Area while touring the coast, playing at San
Francisco’s Coffee House and taking part in Tom Mazzolini’s Blues by the Bay
radio show on KPFA in Berkeley. He was
in Europe again that year with a stop at France’s Nancy Jazz Festival; portions
of a Swedish show can be found on Sonet’s Troubles, Troubles. Rush received a pair of Downbeat Magazine’s
International Critics Awards as an artist deserving wider attention, in 1975 in
the Rock / Pop / Blues group category and 1978 for Soul / R&B artist, but
by decade’s end he ceased performing and recording.
He made his return with a set at the San Francisco
Blues Festival and its related 1985 live album Tops and the ensuing tour but
Otis’ woes, often self-inflicted, were not over. After Rooster Records had spent a lot of
money to set up a session in 1986, which also featured Louis Myers, Lucky
Peterson and Casey Jones, Rush complained that his amp was not sounding right
and walked out, causing the label to dump the project. In 1991 Alligator acquired the American
rights to Sonet’s Troubles, Troubles and overdubbed Lucky Peterson’s keyboards,
cutting out much of Otis’ work on the set released as Lost in the Blues.
Around the same time P-Vine brought out Blues
Interaction – Live in Japan 1986 for its Japanese audience and the European Evidence
Music released Live in Europe, but I believe that one also reached the American
market. All these live albums had kept
Otis’ name somewhat familiar, with most of them solid presentations but with a
sameness of sound.
But in 1994 he was back in the studio after a sixteen
year layoff to record cover tunes except for the title track, Ain’t Enough
Comin’In, With tight backing by the
band, the Mercury album was a winner in critic’s ears. Four years later, the House of Blues label
released Any Place I’m Going which garnished Rush his first Grammy as the Best
Traditional Blues Album of 1998 and gave the new label credibility. Otis’ performing continued until 2003 when he
suffered a debilitating stroke.
In the dozen years since Rush had to quit performing,
five live performances have been released.
I do not have Delmark’s All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at the Wise
Fools Pub Chicago, Blue Express Records released Live … and in Concert from San
Francisco from a 1996 show with DVD video released as Live Part 1, P-Vine’s
Chicago Blues Festival 2001, or Rockbeat Records’ Double Trouble LIVE Cambridge
1973, but I can strongly recommend the Eagle Rock Entertainment CD Live at
Montreux 1986 where Rush and his band do five strong numbers before calling up
Eric Clapton for another pair and Luther Allison joining them all for the
closing number.
. Chicago Mayor
Rahm Emanuel made June 12th Otis Rush Day as Otis made an appearance
at the 2016 Chicago Blues Festival in Grant Park, unable to play but happy to
be honored in his hometown with his family surrounding him. Complications from the stroke took his life
on September 29th 2018 at the age of 83.
Rush
had reached the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984 and Rolling Stone Magazine rated him
#53 among their 100 Greatest Guitarists.
A few months prior to his passing, on April 20th 2018, the
Jazz Foundation of America bestowed upon Otis a Lifetime Achievement Award “for
a lifetime of genius and leaving an indelible mark in the world of Blues and
the universal language of music”.
*************************
Albert Ammons was in the forefront of
the Boogie Woogie piano craze that took hold of the nation from the late 20s
into the 40s and has been a staple to just about every Blues or Jazz pianist
since. He was born March 1st
1907 to parents who both played the piano, learning to play the instrument by
the time he was ten years old. The fact
that his father was also interested in the style made sure it was ever-present
in the family home where Albert’s friend Meade Lux Lewis would come over to
join him in practice. Albert learned his
chords by watching the keyboard on their player piano. By the time he was twelve he was playing the
Blues under the influences of Jimmy Blythe, the brothers Alonzo and Jimmy
Yancey, Hersal Thomas, and Clarence “Pinetop” Smith. Smith would become a direct influence when he
lived in the same house as Ammons and Lewis.
Albert was a percussionist in his teens with a drum and
bugle corps and soon after was playing with Chicago’s club bands. He
worked in the early 20s as a driver for Chicago’s Silver Taxicab Company,
renewing his friendship with Lewis who was also a cabbie, and the two worked
out together on the upright piano in the cab yard, finding after hours gigs,
sometimes individually and sometimes as a piano duo. Albert had his own group, the Rhythm Kings,
and by 1934 they were working at the Club De Lisa, a gig that lasted two
years. They recorded Swanee River Boogie,
which sold over a million platters for Decca Records in 1936, as well as Boogie
Woogie Stomp, described as “the first twelve bar piano based Boogie Woogie”.
Ammons and Meade
Lux Lewis were a tandem at John Hammond’s grandiose Spirituals to Swing concert
held at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 1938.
Among about a dozen stellar acts selected for the show was Blues shouter
Big Joe Turner, backed only by his piano playing partner Pete Johnson. Both acts hit it off with the crowd as well
as each other. Joe and Pete opted not to
return immediately to Kansas City but took up residency at the Café Society
with Ammons and Lewis as the Boogie Woogie Trio with Turner as their front
man. Although Clarence Smith had a hit
in 1929 with an instrumental he titled Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie, giving the style
a name, these three served as a major impetus in propelling Boogie Woogie as a
style incorporated into most of the big bands nationwide, and Benny Goodman is
known to have jammed with Ammons.
After laying down
some more tracks for the Vocalion label in 1938, Ammons again joined with Lewis
on January 9th 1939, two weeks after the Carnegie concert, becoming
the first session for a twenty-nine year old recent refugee from Berlin, Albert
Lion, whose new Blue Note label went on to become probably the most respected
Jazz label for decades to come. From the
session’s nineteen usable masters, twelve cuts were released on 78s, then later
on The First Day CD was released, with only two numbers featuring them together
while Ammons put down nine solo tunes and Lewis seven (actually eight but one
was kept off the CD). Lewis did five
tracks at the session he titled the Blues part one, part two, et cetera, the
first four released on two 12-inch discs packaged together in a cardboard cover
with artwork and some brief liner notes, making it the first Jazz album of a
single artist. Less than a month later,
on February 1st, Albert was pounding the keys in another band called
the Boogie Woogie Trio, this time with trumpeter Harry James, recording Woo Woo
for Brunswick. On April 7th,
he was again in the Blue Note studio with drummer Sid Catlett, bassist Johnny
Williams, guitarist Teddy Bunn and at times one or both of the horn men Frankie
Newton on trumpet and/or trombonist J.C. Higginbotham, collectively identified
as the Port of Harlem Jazzmen.
Ammons cut several
sides with Pete Johnson in 1941 for Victor before being sidelined for a while
after severing a fingertip in a sandwich preparation injury. Albert provided a Boogie Woogie backing to
the 1941 animated film short Boogie Doodle by Norman McLaren and an Ammons and
Lewis duet appeared in the movie Boogie Woogie Dream which starred Lena
Horne. Ammons was in the Commodore
studio in 1944 with a band featuring trumpeter Hot Lips Page and tenor sax man
Don Byas.
He returned to Chicago in 1945 where he held
steady gigs at the Bee Hive and the Tailspin clubs and occasionally backed
singer Sippie Wallace for Mercury recordings, including an April 8th
1946 session which had his son Gene on saxophone. He also teamed up in the studio with
guitarists Lonnie Johnson or Ike Perkins.
His final sessions were with Lionel Hampton for Decca and he made a
special appearance at the White House to perform at Harry Truman’s second
inauguration. Poor health ended his
performing days, but just four days before his passing of natural causes he was
able to play one tune while at Jimmy Yancey’s home as he was recovering from a
temporary paralysis. Albert Ammons died
on December 2nd 1949 at the age of 42.
·
*************************
Albert
Ammons’ son had a career that lasted through parts of four decades with hits in
all of them. Tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons was born in Chicago on
April 14th 1925. He attended
DuSable High School and was under the tutelage of Musical Director “Captain”
Walter Dyett, who had also mentored Nat “King” Cole. The playing of Lester Young inspired him to
take up the saxophone and the other major influence on his early playing was
Coleman Hawkins.
In 1942, at the age of
seventeen, Ammons took to the road with trumpeter King Kolax’ band, then signed
on with vocalist / trumpeter / bandleader Billie Eckstine in 1944. In the three years he was with the band, Gene
was the primarily soloist in an ensemble that, at varying times, included
fellow tenors Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Sonny Stitt and Lucky Thompson; he
participated in a tenor duel with Gordon on Blowin’ the Blues Away. When Eckstine ordered straw hats for the band
to wear, none would fit the shape of Ammons’ head so Billy named him Jug; he
also acquired the moniker The Boss.
After Eckstine dissolved
the group in 1947, Gene assembled one of his own with Stitt and Miles Davis and
came up with his first hit, Red Top, which was his wife Mildred’s
nickname. In May of 1949, Ammons
replaced Stan Getz in Woody Herman’s band known as the Second Herd. In 1950 he was involved in multiple tenor
battles with Stitt and, in addition to Stitt, his bands in the 50s would
include such stellar performers as Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane,
Kenny Burrell, Art Farmer and Duke Jordan.
In the mid-50s his sound was dubbed Soul Jazz.
His bands’ record label
history included Mercury between 1947 and 1948, then Aristocrat from 1948 to
1950. When Aristocrat changed its name
to Chess Records in 1950, the new label released two singles simultaneously:
Gene Ammons’ My Foolish Heart and Muddy Waters’ Rolling Stone. Ammons’ disc made Billboard Magazine’s Black
Pop Chart. He did his first sessions for
Prestige between 1950 and 1952, recorded for Decca in 1952 and for United in
1952 and 1953. During the rest of his
career he was back with Prestige.
Gene’s career took a major
detour when, in 1958, he was convicted on a narcotics charge and was not
released until 1960, then again in 1962 where I have read a speculation that he
might have been framed but, regardless, he did not get out of Joliet prison
until 1969 on this second conviction. Prestige had built up a backlog of
material for release and, once back in the studio, he came out with the
acclaimed The Boss is Back and had sessions with sax men Dexter Gordon and
Cannonball Adderly. But he wasn’t out of
the woods with the law as he was slapped with a parole violation for playing in
a club and jailed for 5 months. Not
unlike his father, Gene Ammons died relatively young on August 6th
1974 from bone cancer at the age of 49..
In Dan Morgenstern’s essay on Ammons in Living with
Jazz: A Reader, the author opines, “Gene Ammons was a big, gentle bear of a man
who played the tenor sax with a sound and feeling synonymous with soul.” … “The
life of this man, who made so many people happy with his music, was scarred
with injustice and misfortune. Yet he
and his music remained whole to the very end.” enjoy
For Your
Information
To listen to KSCU on a computer, use
either iTunes or WinAmp for the media player.
To listen to KSCU on a smart phone use
either the NextRadio or TuneIn apps.
The studio phone number is (408) 554-KSCU or, for the
digitally inclined 554-5728 but, as always, make sure no one is speaking on the
air before you dial.
The
mailing address for sending CDs, et cetera, is:
KSCU
Local Music
500
El Camino Real
Santa
Clara, CA
95053
KSCU radio’s studio is located in the basement of
Benson Hall
KSCU’s Sunday morning Blues rotation has the Jakester,
Mister G, Dave the Blues Dude and the Bluesevangelist between 9AM and 1PM. Sherri Jones does her Blues show between 10:30AM
and 12:30PM on Saturdays. And, of
course, me!
The
best way to reach me is by email at coyledon@yahoo.com
(my computer’s autocorrect adds a letter t, so if that shows up here please
remove it before trying to contact me; apparently, cotyledon is some kind of
botanical term). I do send out my blog
via email so, if you would like to be added to that list, just give me your
address and I’d be happy to do so, otherwise all my writings going back to 2014
are still available at key2highway.blogspot.
I do recommend the direct email to let you know when I will be on,
especially now that I will occasionally waiver from the second and fourth week
of each month format. Thank you all for
your continued support. Feel free to
call me during the show; it gets lonely in the dungeon.
*************************
Tore Up
Right Place, Wrong Time
Easy Go
Three Times a Fool
I Wonder Why
Your Turn to Cry
Lonely Man
Take a Look Behind
Natural Ball
Otis
Rush 36mins
Confirmation
Hittin’ the Jug
Tangerine
Canadian Sunset
Shuffle Twist
Gene
Ammons 29mins
Boogie Woogie Stomp
Chicago in Mind
Suitcase Blues
Boogie Woogie Blues
Untitled Ammons Original
Bass Goin’ Crazy
Changes in Boogie Woogie
Backwater Blues
Albert Ammons
Twos and Fews
Nagasaki
Albert Ammons & Meade Lux Lewis
41mins
Me
You’re Killing My Love
Gambler’s Blues
My Love Will Never Die
Feel So Bad
Reap What You Sew
It Takes Time
Otis
Rush 30mins
The Boogie Woogie
Mister Black Man
Shout for Joy
Mecca Flats Blues
Albert’s Special Boogie Woogie
Albert Ammons 16mins
Lester Leaps In
Twistin’ the Jug
Up Tight
The Breeze and I
Moonglow
The Five O’clock Whistle
Moten Swing
Gene
Ammons 34mins
Cuttin’ the Boogie
Footpedal Boogie
Pine Creek
Movin’ the Boogie
Sixth Avenue Express
Albert
Ammons & Pete Johnson 12mins
Don’t Burn Down the Bridge
That Will Never Do
Somebody Have Mercy
It’s My Own Fault
Homework
Ain’t Enough Comin’ In
My Jug and I
Ain’t That Good News
Otis
Rush 35mins
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