It’s an old story. A great jazz spot goes out of business and the magic goes silent often with nothing more than a sign on the door. Except in New Orleans where they know how to give people and places … Continue reading
Larry Carlton is unsurpassed in playing complicated chord changes while making them sound smooth and connected to even the musically untrained ear. Larry Carlton was born in Torrance, California. He started learning to play guitar when he was six years … Continue reading
Little Milton and host of The !!!! Beat Bill Hoss Allen announce Clarence Gatemouth Brown for a jumpin’ on air performance of his instrumental Okie Dokie Stomp. Gatemouth Brown plays the Okie Dokie Stomp on a Rickenbacker guitar for the 1966 television show The !!!! Beat. At the time he was … Continue reading
Decades following his beginnings as an R&B singer, Little Milton performs the blues number Feel So Bad with a large backing band for the closing credits of the live Sunday night TV show Night Music. He may not be a household name, but die-hard blues … Continue reading
Outspoken blues legend Howlin’ Wolf sings a powerful original during his appearance at the 1970 Washington D. C. Blues Festival. Wolf first recorded this song about being mistreated by a woman (one of his favored topics) for Chess Records on December 18th 1951. This live performance filmed … Continue reading
Saxophonist and composer Eddie Harris was born on October 20, 1934 in Chicago, Illinois. Harris, along with Nat King Cole, Bo Diddley, Dinah Washington, and other classic Chicago artists, studied under Walter Dyett at DuSable High School. Harris consistently recorded throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, including the … Continue reading
Billy Strayhorn and William “Duke” Ellington got the writing credit on this one. When it became a hit as an instrumental, Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics, though it’s unclear if perhaps Strayhorn alone wrote it. Some time after its instrumental version became a hit, … Continue reading
Muddy Waters sings of longing, long distance love, and that all important phone call at the 1968 Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Today’s Copenhagen Jazz Festival was not officially established until 1979, but Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest amusement park in the … Continue reading
Lightnin’ Hopkins is captured on film performing his song “Mr. Charlie” for children in an excerpt from the 1968 Les Blank documentary “The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins.” Before singing this, he tells the story of a boy who stutters … Continue reading
Brilliant funk. Doing Their Own Thing. Recorded and released after a mutiny by most of James Brown’s late-’60s band, Doing Their Own Thing contains 12 slabs of superb early-’70s style funk. Mostly instrumental, radio play for the album and subsequent … Continue reading