Part IVa: Postwar Blues:
Name Birth Year Death Year
Mose John Allison, Jr. (born November 11, 1927, Tippo, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, United States) is an American jazz blues pianist and singer.
Allison played piano in grammar school and trumpet in high school. He went to college at the University of Mississippi for a while, then enlisted in the U.S. Army for two years. Fresh out of the Army, he enrolled at Louisiana State University, from which he was graduated in 1952 with a BA in English with a minor in Philosophy. It was at that point that he moved to New York City and launched his jazz career performing with artists such as Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, and Phil Woods. His debut album, Back Country Suite was issued on the Prestige label in 1957. He formed his own trio in 1958.
It was not until 1963 that his record label allowed him to release an album entirely of vocals. Titled "Mose Allison Sings", it was an inspired collection of songs that paid tribute to artists of the Mojo Triangle: Sonny Boy Williamson ("Eyesight to the Blind"), Jimmie Rodgers ("That's All Right") and Willie Dixon ("The Seventh Son"). However, it was an original composition in the album that brought him the most attention, "Parchman Farm." For more than two decades, "Parchman Farm" was his most requested song. He dropped it from his playlist in the 1980s because some critics felt it was politically incorrect. Explained Allison to Nine-O-One Network Magazine: "I don't do the cotton sack songs much anymore. You go to the Mississippi Delta and there are no cotton sacks. It's all machines and chemicals.".
His music has influenced many blues and rock artists, including Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Tom Waits, The Yardbirds, John Mayall, J. J. Cale, The Who (who made "Young Man Blues" a staple of their live performances and used it to open their original Live at Leeds album), and Georgie Fame. Blue Cheer also recorded a version of his song "Parchman Farm" on their debut album. The Yardbirds and The Misunderstood both recorded versions of his song "I'm Not Talking".
His song "Look Here" was covered by The Clash on their album Sandinista!. Leon Russell covered Allison's song "Smashed!" on his album Stop All That Jazz. Van Morrison released an album of his songs entitled Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison, and Elvis Costello recorded "Everybody's Cryin' Mercy" on his album Kojak Variety and "Your Mind Is On Vacation" on King of America (Bonus Tracks). Frank Black of the Pixies claims that the song "Allison" off the album Bossanova is about Mose Allison. He also states this at the beginning of the video for the song. His song "Monsters of the Id" was recorded by Stan Ridgway on his 2004 album Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads And Fugitive Songs.
The film The Whole Nine Yards begins with Mose Allison's song "I Don't Worry About A Thing" during the opening credits. Americana singer-songwriter Greg Brown wrote and performed the song "Mose Allison Played Here" on his 1997 album, Slant 6 Mind. Alternative rock band Pixies wrote the song "Allison" as a tribute to Mose Allison. Eve 6 did a cover of "Allison" for Where Is My Mind? A Tribute to the Pixies.
Allison was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
Allison has stated over the past few years that he would not be recording any new albums, but as of March 1, 2010, his website declared that his "new album, 'The Way of the World,' arrives March 23, 2010, marking his return to the recording studio after a 12-year absence."
Mose Allison 1927
Buster Benton (July 19, 1932 – January 20, 1996) was an American blues guitarist and singer, who played guitar in Willie Dixon's Blues All-Stars, and is best known for his solo rendition of the Dixon-penned song "Spider in My Stew." He was tenacious and in the latter part of his lengthy career, despite the amputation of parts of both his legs, Benton never stopped playing his own version of Chicago blues.
Arley “Buster” Benton was born in Texarkana, Arkansas.
Whilst residing in Toledo, Ohio, during the mid 1950s, and having been influenced by Sam Cooke and B.B. King, Benton began playing blues music. By 1959, he was leading his own band in Chicago. During the 1960s, local record labels, such as Melloway, Alteen, Sonic, and Twinight Records released several Benton singles, before in 1971 he joined Willie Dixon. Indeed, a lack of opportunity in the early 1960s meant that Benton gave up playing professionally for several years, and he worked as an auto mechanic. Benton's earlier work was an amalgam of blues and soul, which he confusingly dubbed 'disco blues'. However, according to Music journalist, Bill Dahl, "in the late 1970s, when the popularity of blues music was at low ebb, Benton's recordings, particularly for Ronn Records, were a breath of fresh air."
Benton became a fixture in Dixon's Blues All-Stars for some time. A 1973 album by Dixon's Blues All-Stars, featuring Benton, The All Star Blues World Of Maestro Willie Dixon and his Chicago Blues Band, was issued on Spivey.
Dixon was credited as the songwriter of Benton's best known song, "Spider in My Stew." Released on the Shreveport-based Jewel Records label, it gave Benton a modicum of fame, and his 1974 follow-up, "Money Is the Name of the Game", helped to cement his standing. Benton's 1978 effort for Jewel's Ronn Records subsidiary (also titled Spider in My Stew) became recognised as one of the more engaging Chicago blues albums of its time.
Benton recorded three further albums on the Ichiban label, but in comparison to his work on the Ronn label, they were uncommercial. One such LP offering was 1989's, Money's The Name of The Game, produced by Gary B.B. Coleman. Benton also issued a record on the Blue Phoenix label. Benton's fortitude did not go unnoticed. He suffered from the effects of diabetes and received dialysis for the final years of his life. In addition, in 1993, part of his right leg was amputated due to poor circulation, having already lost a portion of the other some ten years previously. He soldiered on, playing his brand of the blues up to his death. However, as journalist, Tony Russell, stated in his book The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, Benton "never found another money spider".
Benton died in January 1996, in Chicago, from the effects of diabetes, at age 63.
His work has appeared on a number of compilation albums, including Chicago Blues Festival: 1969-1986 (2001).
Buster Benton 1932 1996
Charles Brown (September 13, 1922 – January 21, 1999), born in Texas City, Texas was an American blues singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced the development of blues performance during the 1940s and 1950s. He had several hit recordings, including "Driftin' Blues" and "Merry Christmas Baby".
In the late 1940s a rising demand for blues was driven by an increasing white teenage audience in the South which quickly spread north and west. Blues shouters got the attention, but also greatly influential was what writer Charles Keil dubs "the postwar Texas clean-up movement in blues" led by stylists such as T-Bone Walker, Amos Milburn and Charles Brown. Their singing was lighter, more relaxed and they worked with bands and combos that had saxophone sections and used arrangements
In the 1980s he made a series of appearances at New York's club, Tramps. As a result of these appearances he signed a new recording contract with Blue Side Records and recorded One More for the Road in three days. Blue Side Records closed soon after but distribution was picked up by Alligator Records. Soon after the success of One More for the Road, Bonnie Raitt helped usher in a Charles Brown comeback tour.
He began a recording and performing career again, under the musical direction of guitarist Danny Caron, to greater success than he had achieved since the 1950s. Several records received Grammy Award nominations.
He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received both the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship and the W. C. Handy Award.
Brown died of congestive heart failure in 1999 in Oakland, California, and was interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.
Charles Brown 1922 1999
Roy James Brown (September 10, 1925 — May 25, 1981) was an American R&B singer, songwriter and musician, who had an influence on the early development of rock and roll by changing the direction R&B was headed in. His original song and hit recording "Good Rocking Tonight" was covered by Wynonie Harris, Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, and the rock group Montrose. Brown was the first singer in recording history to sing R&B songs with a gospel-steeped delivery, which was then considered taboo by many churches. In addition, his melismatical pleading, vocal style influenced B.B. King, Bobby Bland, Elvis Presley, Jackie Wilson and Little Richard.
After his popularity peaked, Brown began to experience a lull in his career. Doo-wop and R&B groups were quickly gaining popularity as the standard sound of R&B in the early to mid 1950s. The decline of his fortunes coincided with his successfully winning a lawsuit against King Records for unpaid royalties in 1952, one of the few African American musicians to do so in the 1950s. This has led some, such as author Nick Tosches (in his book Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll, which contained a chapter on Brown) to believe that Brown may have been blacklisted. Brown's other misfortunes included trouble with the IRS. When confronted by the government for back taxes he owed, he approached Elvis Presley to ask for help. Presley wrote him a brown paper check, but it wasn't enough to keep him out of jail. Brown did a little prison time for tax evasion. When his popularity ebbed in the rock and roll era, he tried teen-slanted songs like "School Bell Rock", but had little success and subsequently went into semi-retirement.
Brown had a brief comeback through Imperial Records in 1957. Working with Dave Bartholomew, Brown returned to the charts with the original version of "Let the Four Winds Blow" (co-written by Fats Domino), which would become a hit later for Domino.
He returned to King Records where his popularity ground down to a low by 1959, but he sporadically managed to find work and do some recording through the 1960s, making appearances where ever he was wanted. To supplement his income, Brown sold the rights to "Good Rocking Tonight." He also worked as an encyclopedia salesman.
In 1970, Brown closed The Johnny Otis Show at the Monterey Jazz Festival. As a result of the crowd's positive reaction, he recorded "Love for Sale", which became a hit for Mercury Records.
In the late 1970s a compilation album of his old work brought about a minor revival of interest. In 1978 he had a successful tour in Scandinavia following the releases of Laughing But Crying and Good Rocking Tonight. Shortly before his death he performed at the Whisky A Go-Go in West Hollywood, California and headlined the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1981.
Brown died of a heart attack, at Pacoima Lutheran Memorial Hospital, near his home in the San Fernando Valley on May 25, 1981. He was 55 years old. The Reverend Johnny Otis conducted the funeral. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame the same year.
In 2008, two of his songs, "Butcher Pete Pt. 1" and "Mighty, Mighty Man" were included in the video game, Fallout 3
Roy Brown 1925 1981
George "Mojo" Buford (November 10, 1929 – October 11, 2011) was an American blues harmonica player, best known for his work in Muddy Waters' band.
Buford relocated from Hernando, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee in his youth, where he studied the blues. He relocated to Chicago in 1952, forming the Savage Boys that eventually became known as the Muddy Waters, Jr. Band. They substituted for Muddy Waters at local nightclubs whilst he was touring.
Buford first played in Muddy Waters' backing band in 1959, replacing Little Walter, but in 1962 moved to Minneapolis to front his own band, and record albums. It was in Minneapolis that Buford gained his nickname "Mojo", because of the audiences requesting him to perform his cover version of "Got My Mojo Working." Buford returned to Muddy Waters' combo in 1967 for a year when he replaced James Cotton. He had a longer tenure with Muddy Waters in the early 1970s, and returned for the final time after Jerry Portnoy departed to form The Legendary Blues Band.
He also recorded for the Mr. Blues label (later re-issued on Rooster Blues) and the British JSP label.
Buford died on October 11, 2011, in Minneapolis, after a long hospitalization. He was 81.
George "Mojo" Buford 1929 2011
Carolina Slim (August 22, 1923 – October 22, 1953) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer. His best known tracks were "Black Cat Trail" and "I'll Never Walk in Your Door". He used various pseudonyms during his relatively brief recording career, including Country Paul, Jammin' Jim, Lazy Slim Jim and Paul Howard. In total he recorded 27 songs, but details of his life outside of his music career are scanty, and the exact reasons concerning the usage of differing names are also unclear
Carolina Slim was born Edward P. Hughes in Leasburg, North Carolina, United States. He learned to play the guitar from his father, and was influenced by Lightnin' Hopkins and Blind Boy Fuller. He later found work as an itinerant musician around Durham, North Carolina.
In 1950, he relocated to Newark, New Jersey, and made his recording debut for the Savoy label, billed as Carolina Slim. His first single was "Black Chariot Blues" b/w "Mama's Boogie", recorded on July 24, 1950, and released on Acorn Records (Acorn 3015), a subsidiary of Savoy. In 1951 and 1952, he recorded eight tracks for the King label in New York, this time using the name of Country Paul. Henry Glover met Slim at these recordings, and later commented that Slim was "a very sickly young man at the time". Slim's style blended Piedmont blues, prominent in songs such as "Carolina Boogie" and his cover version of Fuller's "Rag Mama Rag", with the influence of Hopkins meaning that he increasingly veered towards Texas blues. Occasionally, Slim incorporated a washboard as well as his more regular guitar, as if to emphasise his Carolina rootstock.
His recordings were not hugely popular, but sold in sufficient amounts for him to retain his recording contract. In June 1952, Slim recorded four more tracks for Savoy, but these were to be his final offerings.
Carolina Slim died in Newark, New Jersey, from a heart attack suffered whilst undergoing surgery on a back complaint. He was 30 years old.
In 1994, Document released a compilation album, Complete Recorded Works 1950-1952, which incorporated all of his 27 tracks.
Carolina Slim 1923 1953
Good Rockin' Charles (March 4, 1933 – May 17, 1989) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues harmonicist, singer and songwriter. He released one album in his lifetime, and is best known for his work with Johnny "Man" Young, Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers, Arthur "Big Boy" Spires and Jimmy Rogers.
He was born Henry Lee Bester in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, and later known as Charles Edwards. He relocated from his birthplace to Chicago, Illinois in 1949, and was inspired by fellow harmonica players, Sonny Boy Williamson I, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Little Walter. In the following decade, Charles found steady work with local Chicago blues musicians such as Johnny "Man" Young, Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers, and Arthur "Big Boy" Spires. In 1955 he settled on working in the backing band for the blues singer, Jimmy Rogers. Two years later, the short-lived independent record label, Cobra Records, offered Charles the opportunity to record his own work. However, Charles turned it down.
This wariness of working in a recording studio, had earlier seen him replaced at the last minute, as the harmonica player on Jimmy Rogers recording of "Walking by Myself" (1956). The role fell to Big Walter Horton, who greatly enhanced his reputation by playing on the track.
In 1975, Charles was finally convinced to record his own album. His eponymous effort initially appeared on vinyl on Mr. Blues Records in 1976, having been recorded the previous November. It was subsequently re-issued by P-Vine Records. Charles later suffered with ill health and was unable to record any significant further work.
Charles died in Chicago in May 1989, aged 56.
Good Rockin' Charles 1933 1989
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company. Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”
The influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues and barrelhouse, and stride piano styles.
Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"
Charles possessed one of the most recognizable voices in American music. In the words of musicologist Henry Pleasants:
Charles died on June 10, 2004 at 11:35 a.m. of liver disease at his home in Beverly Hills, California, surrounded by family and friends. He was 73 years old. His body was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6777 Hollywood Blvd.
His final album, Genius Loves Company, released two months after his death, consists of duets with various admirers and contemporaries: B.B. King, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, and Johnny Mathis. The album won eight Grammy Awards, including five for Ray Charles for Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "Here We Go Again" with Norah Jones, and Best Gospel Performance for "Heaven Help Us All" with Gladys Knight; he also received nods for his duets with Elton John and B.B. King. The album included a version of Harold Arlen's "Over the Rainbow", sung as a duet by Charles and Johnny Mathis; this record was played at his memorial service
Two more posthumous albums, Genius & Friends (2005) and Ray Sings, Basie Swings (2006), were released. Genius & Friends consisted of duets recorded from 1997 to 2005 with his choice of artists. Ray Sings, Basie Swings consists of archived vocals of Ray Charles from live mid-1970s performances added to new instrumental tracks specially recorded by the contemporary Count Basie Orchestra and other musicians. Charles's vocals recorded from the concert mixing board were added to new accompaniments to create a "fantasy concert" recording.
Ray Charles 1930 2004
Gary B.B. Coleman (January 1, 1947 – February 14, 1994) was an American soul blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer.
Originally a local-musician turned-blues promoter and session musician, Coleman recorded his debut album in 1986, which was re-released on Ichiban Records. Coleman issued several other albums, and produced most of Ichiban's blues catalog up to his death in 1994. On many occasions, Coleman undertook multi-instrumentalist duties in the recording studio. Coleman acknowledged both B.B. King in his "B.B." moniker; and his fellow-Texan, Freddie King.
Born in Paris, Texas, Coleman was working alongside Freddie King by the age of 15. Coleman later supported Lightnin' Hopkins in concert, and went on to form his own group. At this time he started simultaneously booking acts into nightclubs across three states; Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. This dual lifestyle in the Southwest continued for nearly twenty years. In 1985, he created his own independent record label, called Mr. B's Records, and issued both a single, "One Eyed Woman", and his debut album, Nothin' But the Blues, the following year. The album proved to be popular. Ichiban Records signed Coleman to a recording contract, and duly re-released Nothin' But the Blues on their label in 1987.
If You Can Beat Me Rockin' (1988) followed, and in the same year Coleman's duties expanded with Ichiban to include record production for other acts, songwriting, and becoming an A&R scout. He released a further six albums up to 1992, as well as production duties on albums from Blues Boy Willie, Chick Willis, Little Johnny Taylor, and Buster Benton (Money's the Name of the Game, 1989).
He continued to write material for others and sometimes played guitar and keyboards on their records. His own albums featured self-penned material, such as "I Fell in Love on a One Night Stand" and "If You Can Beat Me Rockin' (You Can Have My Chair)".
Coleman successfully continued to combine various roles until his early death in 1994.
Gary B.B. Coleman 1947 1994
Connie Curtis Crayton (December 18, 1914 – June 25, 1985), known as Pee Wee Crayton, was an American R&B and blues guitarist and singer
Born in Rockdale, Texas, United States, there are several stories on how Crayton acquired the name Pee Wee. In a Living Blues article in the 1980s, he stated that friend and singer, Roy Brown, gave him the nickname. This makes sense since Brown had a way of making nicknames for many of his friends. It has also been said that his father gave him the nickname as a tribute to a local Texas piano player.
Crayton began playing guitar seriously after moving to California in 1935, and settling in San Francisco. While there he absorbed the music of T-Bone Walker, but developed his own unique approach. His aggressive playing contrasted with his smooth vocal style, and was copied by many later blues guitarists
In 1948 he signed a recording contract with Modern Records. One of his first recordings was the instrumental, "Blues After Hours", which reached #1 in the Billboard R&B chart late that year. Its B-side, the pop ballad "I'm Still in Love With You", and the quicker "Texas Hop", were good examples of his work, but his style was of its time and Crayton found it difficult to progress.
He went on to record for many other record labels in the 1950s including Imperial in New Orleans, Louisiana, Jamie in Philadelphia and Vee-Jay in Chicago. It is thought he was the first blues guitarist to use a Fender Stratocaster, given to him by Leo Fender. Crayton largely faded from view until Vanguard unleashed his LP, Things I Used to Do, in 1971. After that his profile was raised somewhat; he toured and made a few more albums prior to his death.
A long time resident of Los Angeles, California, Crayton died there of a heart attack in 1985, and was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery
Pee Wee Crayton 1914 1985
This was another very exciting post to assemble. The artists are well known, but I learned an awful lot of new information about these famous blues/jazz artists. The next part in this series is a continuation of this section called IVb: Postwar Blues. As always, I hope you found this post enjoyable.
I hope you’re as anxious to go forward in this research as I am.
Until next time ~ ~ ~
Musician By Night . . .
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