Eddie Taylor (musician)

Edward "Eddie" Taylor (born January 29, 1923 in Benoit , Mississippi , † December 25, 1985 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American blues guitarist .

Childhood and youth

As a child, Eddie Taylor taught himself to play the guitar. Memphis Minnie , who was a former classmate of his mother's and occasionally stepped in as a babysitter for his girlfriend, introduced young Eddie to the guitar for the first time. At first he played an instrument he had made himself until his mother ordered him a guitar from Sears & Roebuck for twelve dollars in 1936.

Early musical influences

At this point he had seen such great musicians as Charley Patton , Son House , Robert Johnson and Big Joe Williams live. These musicians recorded records and are therefore still known today. In an interview from the early 1970s, Eddie Taylor also mentioned musicians like Popcorn, Nedass and Tango who also had an influence on him but never put out records. Popcorn also showed him some pieces on the guitar when the teenage boy sneaked into the bars and house parties once again. But he was also shaped by the medium of record and radio: While the radio mainly played “cowboy songs”, he listened to the Seeburgs , the jukeboxes of the time, Little Brother Montgomery , Tommy McClennan and Peetie Wheatstraw .

From amateur to semi-professional - from Mississippi to Memphis

Eddie Taylor now lived in Stringtown, Mississippi, with his two younger siblings and mother, and worked in agriculture. At a young age, he performed mostly Saturday nights in the Leland , Mississippi area , on street corners or in downtown squares. His program at the time consisted of songs by Charley Patton , Arthur Crudup and Peetie Wheatstraw, as well as a mix of these pieces when the repertoire was exhausted. If there was a white audience, Taylor also played songs by Roy Acuff . According to Taylor, he made between $ 25 and $ 30 a night. In 1943 he moved to the blues metropolis of Memphis. There he worked as a truck driver for a company that had a special contract with the Army, so Taylor was lucky enough not to be drafted. He met the slightly older guitarists Johnny Shines and Robert Lockwood Jr. , who were already well known locally, in contrast to BB King , who - like Eddie Taylor - earned his first spurs on Wednesday nights at the weekly talent shows on Beale Street. At that time, all guitarists still played acoustic instruments because an amplifier and an electric guitar at Sears & Roebuck were too high at $ 120. Eddie Taylor made the investment anyway and formed a band with Joe Hill Louis and Eddie's brother Milton on drums. That happened in 1947.

Chicago - Rise to guitar stylist in the 50s

Two years later, Taylor moved to Chicago with his style deeply rooted in Delta Blues and immediately played for tips on the very popular Maxwell Street. Of course there were very many, very good and very well-known blues musicians in Chicago at that time; therefore Eddie Taylor played with his brother Milton and Jimmie Lee Robinson in the "Alibi Club" for the not very high total fee of 15 dollars a night. For this reason, he worked in various jobs outside of the music scene to ensure his basic needs.

Fortunately, he met his friend Jimmy Reed in Chicago , who had lived here since his discharge from the Navy. Taylor and Reed had known each other since they were teenagers, and Eddie, who was a little older, gave his friend guitar lessons. Jimmy Reed joined the other band musicians after Eddie Taylor told him to focus on vocals and blues harp and leave the more complex guitar lines to him. Actually, Jimmy Reed played in Eddie Taylor's band and not the other way around when they both made their record debut in 1953 with “Chance” and a short time later with “Veejay”, but Jimmy Reed was the more successful, so Jimmy Reed released more records achieved much higher sales; however, Eddie Taylor was still the band leader and arranger, Jimmy the frontman and songwriter. Eddie Taylor played several singles on "Veejay", including the tracks "Bad Boy", "Big Town Playboy" (his most commercially successful), "Find My Baby", "Looking for Trouble".

Although he never reached the fame of some of his colleagues, he became an integral part of the Chicago blues scene. In 1953 he played with the Muddy Waters Band at the “Zansibar Club” in Chicago, and in 1956 with Elmore James at “Silvio's”, Howlin 'Wolf's preferred blues club . But he was best known as the companion of Jimmy Reed , with whom he toured across the United States to Mexico from 1955 until the 1960s, and through his collaboration with John Lee Hooker , with whom he went to the studio between 1954 and 1957 and toured the US. In addition to his work with Jimmy Reed, he found enough time to play with both the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Floyd Jones in 1963/64 .

The time after Veejay

After the label "Veejay" had declared bankruptcy, Jimmy Reed switched to the label "Bluesway", where he released several singles and albums between 1966 and 1968 with Eddie Taylor as band leader. But Taylor was not only a sought-after guitarist in the studios, but also in demand as an electric bass player. An example of this is the Homesick James album "Blues from the Southside" on "Prestige Records" from 1964. In 1966 Taylor recorded an album under his own name for the label "Testament" in Chicago. In 1968/69 he toured Europe often with John Lee Hooker and the AFBF in 1968. In 1969, together with Pinetop Perkins , Jimmy Dawkins and others , he accompanied the blues harp player and singer Carey Bell on his record debut as frontman "Carey Bell's Bluesharp" on "Delmark Records" . This record - recorded in Chicago - was a bit rough and sounded more like a session, but still had some music worth listening to.

The solo artist and sideman since the 1970s

His best record, however, was the excellent LP "I Feel So Bad", released in 1972 on the 'Advent' label (recorded in Hollywood). Apart from Eddie Taylor, no Chicago bluesmen played here, but rather West Coast blues musicians like George Smith and the Louisiana guitarist Phillip Walker or the swing pianist Jimmy Jones (1918–82), who had played with the singers Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald . But it probably inspired Taylor to get involved in a different style or to suggest other ways himself. Eight of the twelve tracks were original compositions, including the funky soul blues "There'll Be a Day", the acoustic solo "Stroll Out West", which Taylor had already recorded for Veejay in 1957 and " Catfish Blues " by Robert Petway as a model had, but hadn't been released at the time, and the mid-tempo blues “Sitting Here Thinking”. In the cover versions, Eddie Taylor pays tribute to Jimmy Reed with “Going Upside Your Head”, Robert Johnson with “ Stop Breaking Down ”, Robert Nighthawk with “Jackson Town” and Charley Patton with “Bullcow Blues”. The teamwork of the band - especially the two varied guitarists - really like it.

In the early 1970s, Taylor played from time to time for live gigs with the band of blues drummer Sam Lay . In 1973 he was a guest at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival and visited Europe again with the Chicago Blues Festival. In April 1974 he toured Europe again - this time with the American Blues Legends - and recorded for the English record company " Big Bear Records ". On these recording sessions he was accompanied by, among others, Pete York and pianist Bob Hall , who was a very early member of Savoy Brown and the Groundhogs . Those sessions produced good versions of Drifting Slim's “My Little Machine” and a jazzy version of “Ready for Eddie”.

In the "Savoy Club" of San Francisco, the year Jimmy Reed died (1976) there was another collaboration between the two blues legends. The following year, Taylor played again in Europe and even in Japan: He played with the Aces ( Odie Payne , Louis and Dave Myers ), who were originally supposed to accompany Fenton Robinson , but who had been refused entry due to visa problems. A CD of this tour has been released on the “Blind Pig” label.

In 1980 he recorded an LP for "L + R Records" ( Lippmann and Rau ), a. a. with Hubert Sumlin , Sunnyland Slim , Carey Bell in Chicago. In the same year he toured Europe as part of the American Folk Blues Festival and played club gigs and festival appearances in Chicago, but also very often in New York City, almost until his death.

Guitar style

Eddie Taylor was a thumb pick player. He plays both electric guitar and acoustic steel string guitar. Usually the guitar is tuned normally, but especially for acoustic pieces, the instrument is often tuned to an open chord.

Others

Eddie Taylor died in 1985. He was buried in Alsip , Illinois . His son Eddie Taylor Junior, (1966–2019), was active as a blues guitarist in Chicago and played in the style of his father, albeit without great commercial success.

swell

• Liner notes of the LP I Feel so Bad
• Sheldon Harris: Blues Who Is Who