American Folk Blues Festival

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The American Folk Blues Festival was a folk and blues tour series that took place exclusively in Europe and was designed to enable many US blues musicians, who were previously only known locally, to play together on internationally established stages.

The festivals presented by Frankfurt impresarios Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau from 1962 onwards were inspired by the prominent blues session for Südwestfunk in Baden-Baden, organized by jazz critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt in 1960 and sparked the first great blues enthusiasm - especially in Great Britain, where bands such as the Animals and the Yardbirds acted as backing bands for Sonny Boy Williamson II . Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau tried to cover the entire spectrum of the blues, which of course was not always possible. Different regional styles and traditions were taken into account; It was important to them that a blues musician was always introduced and that in addition to the stars, lesser-known musicians also got their chance - the latter was especially true for the later festivals. The organizers achieved a special highlight by getting German television to prepare the shows for a larger audience in the form of live performances or studio concerts (without an audience).

The festival, to which Lippmann and Rau annually brought about ten US blues musicians to Europe, took place every year from 1962 to 1972 and then again from 1980 to 1985. Only in 1971 and 1984 there was no tour.

1962

The first festival tour toured the FRG, Switzerland, Austria, France and Great Britain. The musicians performed in legendary places such as the Olympia in Paris and the Titania Palace in Berlin, while their music was otherwise rather underestimated in the USA. Participating musicians were John Lee Hooker , Memphis Slim , the singer and blues harp player Shakey Jake Harris (1921–1990, an uncle of Magic Sam ); T-Bone Walker , former Count Basie singer Helen Humes (1913–1981), Willie Dixon , drummer Armand "Jump" Jackson , Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry . In the German television production, a white, unspecified studio pianist was involved in some Helen Humes titles.

Review from 1962

The British jazz magazine Jazz Monthly described two appearances in Manchester in its December 1962 issue. The hall was well filled, but by no means sold out. Many pure jazz fans probably preferred to stay at home because blues in Europe at the time was seen more as part of jazz and not as an independent type of music. John Lee Hooker opened both performances solo and played two songs, which was well received by the audience, but felt to be too short. This was followed by Memphis Slim, who was accompanied by the rhythm section Dixon / Jackson. He had been criticized by other jazz critics at the time for the fact that his piano style was based heavily on repetition and that his tempo was not always the safest; the writer of Jazz Monthly defended this style, highlighting Slim's accompaniment of Willie Dixon's Sitting and Crying the Blues , which followed Slim's versions of Going Down Slow and Just a Dream . Memphis Slim's vocals were described as "impressive". In between, Dixon acted again and again as a presenter and comedian during the performance, which was welcomed, but was at the expense of the music due to the tight time frame.

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee played a relatively long set of five and six pieces respectively, which was very well received and cheered. The critic said in the article that since the duo is already very well known and has been seen several times in the past, it could have been cut in favor of other artists. At times he suspected the two of the polished game and thus a lack of "authenticity". A reproach that was made to the duo several times later. Nevertheless, the two knew how to surprise the author with Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues, which he had not expected .

Shakey Jake Harris next played with Slim / Dixon / Jackson as a band. It was described as solid but not very independent, but as "authentic". In addition, the author wanted a somewhat more modern accompaniment than from the aforementioned band.

T-Bone Walker tore the audience not only through his playing and singing (Mean Mistreater Blues and Stormy Monday) , which he used sparingly, but also through his stage show (playing guitar behind the head, doing splits and the like), which the British audience had not seen it since Lionel Hampton (jump on the drum).

The conclusion was formed by Helen Humes with Walker / Dixon / Jackson and an unknown European (?) Pianist. Their style is described as a mix of swing and the classic blues of the twenties. Stylistically, Dixon / Jackson were more used to playing the heavier Chicago beat instead of the lighter Kansas City Swing, which you could hear. Walker didn't make either style a problem. In addition to her late forties hit Million Dollar Secret , Humes sang two blues songs and the jazz piece Baby Won't You Please Come Home . According to the critic, she sometimes had problems with the very high notes, but that shouldn't detract from the overall impression.

1963

Participating musicians: Muddy Waters , Otis Spann , Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Joe Williams and Lonnie Johnson . Also the singer, pianist and record producer Victoria Spivey , the drummer Bill Stepney and the guitarist Matt Murphy , who was a very popular studio musician at the time and who can be heard on some recordings by Chuck Berry for the record label Chess Records .

1964

The tour included appearances in the FRG, GDR, West Berlin ( Sportpalast ), Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Great Britain and France. Participating musicians were: Sonny Boy Williamson, Sunnyland Slim , Hubert Sumlin , Howlin 'Wolf , Lightnin' Hopkins , the blues harp player Hammie Nixon (1908–1984), who performed as a duo with the singer and guitarist Sleepy John Estes (1904–1977); the blues and soul singer Sugar Pie DeSanto , who recorded a duet with her cousin Etta James for the Chess label; drummer Clifton James (born 1936), who was a busy drummer in Chicago and recorded with Bo Diddley , Johnny Shines and Big Walter Horton , among others ; also the country blues guitarist John Henry Barbee (1905-1964), who had to cancel the tour due to illness, a few days later caused a car crash and hit-and-run in Chicago, was taken into custody and suffered a fatal heart attack.

1965

Participating musicians were: Buddy Guy , who played James Brown's papa’s Got a Brand New Bag ; JB Lenoir , the pianist and singer Eddie Boyd (1914-1994) - composer of the blues classic Five Long Years and active in Chicago since the 1930s, which then decided to make Europe his home; Big Mama Thornton , original singer of Ball and Chain and Hound Dog , who were later made famous by Janis Joplin and Elvis Presley respectively; Doctor Ross (1925–1993), a blues harp virtuoso and a "one-man band", who had already recorded in the 1950s for Sun Records , Elvis Presley's first record company; John Lee Hooker, Big Walter Horton , the singer and guitarist Jimmie Lee Robinson (1931-2003), who, as is often the case here, mainly played electric bass, played in the Eddie Taylor band in the 1950s and in the 1990s launched a citizens' initiative against "plating" the area around Maxwell Street in Chicago ; with Fred Below (1926–1988) a style-defining blues drummer was responsible for the rhythm; Fred McDowell (1905–1972), whose You Got To Move also played the Rolling Stones .

1966

Participating musicians at the festival were the two pianists Roosevelt Sykes (1906–1983) and Eurreal “Little Brother” Montgomery (1906–1985), who had made records since the late 1920s and early 1930s, but made the leap to Chicago Blues of the fifties, for example, by accompanying Otis Rush on his Cobra Records recordings, who also took part in the 1966 festival and at 32 years of age, just like Junior Wells, stood for the new generation of black blues that were emerging for the first time European jazz - but above all rock fans. The electric bass player Jack Myers (1937-2011) and the drummer Fred Below , who previously played with Little Walter's original band The Aces , formed the rhythm section. With Robert Pete Williams (1914–1980) the festival was able to come up with a country blues guitarist from Louisiana who was at the height of his creative power after he had already proven it two years earlier at the Newport Folk Festival. He had a style of his own and you couldn't compare him to any other musician. He played country blues, but a new version, both in its originals and covers. This is remarkable, since many of the previous participants in the festivals who played this style were already more than a touch of nostalgia. Singer Big Joe Turner (1911–1985) anticipated rhythm and blues in the late 1930s (with boogie-woogie pianist Pete Johnson (1904–1967)) before it really blossomed after World War II. He later inspired the first rock 'n' rollers like Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, both of whom recorded Shake, Rattle And Roll . He was accompanied at the festival by Otis Rush , the rhythm section and optionally by the two pianists. Sippie Wallace (1898-1986) was assigned to the classic blues, whose best-known representatives Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey had been dead for decades, and rounded off the program. Together with Alberta Hunter and Victoria Spivey, she was one of the last representatives of a musical era.

1967

The 1967 American Folk Blues Festival played Bukka White , Hound Dog Taylor , Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Hound Dog Taylor (who performed "The Sky Is Crying" by Elmore James ), Son House , Little Walter , Koko Taylor and Skip James .

1968

At the American Folk Blues Festival in 1968, with appearances in Kings and London, John Lee Hooker (with Big Walter Horton , Eddie Taylor , T-Bone Walker, Jerome Arnold , JC Lewis), Big Walter Horton (with Eddie Taylor, T- Bone Walker, Jerome Arnold and JC Lewis), T-Bone Walker (with Eddie Taylor, Jerome Arnold, Jessie C. Lewis), Jimmy Reed (with Eddie Taylor, Jerome Arnold, JC Lewis) and Big Joe Williams as soloist with “Cryin 'Shame' and 'Baby Please Don't Go' and Curtis Jones .

1969

Performed at Royal Albert Hall on October 3, 1969: Juke Boy Bonner , Earl Hooker , Carey Bell , John Jackson , Clifton Chenier , Magic Sam and Whistling Alex Moore .

1970

On the 1970 tour, the (unspecified) Chicago Blues All Stars (probably Willie Dixon, Clifton James, Johnny Shines, Big Walter Shakey Horton and Sunnyland Slim) as well as Bukka White, Champion Jack Dupree , Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Lee Jackson played and Lafayette Leake .

1972

At the American Folk Blues Festival 1972 a. a. in Lünen and Munich Bukka White , Big Joe Williams , Robert Pete Williams , Roosevelt Sykes and Memphis Slim .

1980

In the continuation of the American Folk Blues Festival the soloists Louisiana Red and Willie Mabon played , then in various compositions Joseph "Washboard Doc", Cab Lucky, John "Flash" Whitner, Louisiana Red, Eunice Davis, Sunnyland Slim, Hubert Sumlin, Carey Bell , Eddie Taylor, Robert Stroger and Odie Payne .

1981

At concerts and a. in Kamen and in the Siegerlandhalle, Siegen performed: John Cephas & Phil Wiggins, Sunnyland Slim, Louisiana Red, Carey Bell's Blues Harp Band, Margie Evans.

1982

James "Son" Thomas, Archie Edwards, "Bowling Green John" Cephas & "Harmonica Phil" Wiggins, Carey Bell and Margie Evans played at the American Folk Blues Festival '82 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jazz listened and watched - American Folk Blues Festival 1963 ( Memento from September 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c d e American Folk Blues Festival Illustrated Discography
  3. ↑ Jazz Monthly Dec. 1962, accessed on December 11, 2010 (English) ( Memento from October 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 36 kB)
  4. ↑ American Folk Blues Festival '67 at Discogs
  5. ↑ American Folk Blues Festival 1968 at Obcious Blues
  6. ↑ American Folk Blues Festival '69 at Discogs
  7. ↑ American Folk Blues Festival 1970 at Discogs
  8. ↑ American Folk Blues Festival '72 at Discogs
  9. ↑ American Folk Blues Festival '80 at Discogs
  10. ↑ American Folk Blues Festival '81 at Discogs
  11. ↑ American Folk Blues Festival '82 at Discogs