Notre Dame Scholastic, Vol. 113, No. 05
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< 3? ^ Advertisement PRODUCTIONS Representing the "bands of . Luther Allison Buddy Guy J. B. Hutto Magic Sam * Junior Wells Representing the solo artistry of . Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup Son House Mississippi John Hurt * Skip James * Mance Lipscomb Fred McDowell Johnny Shines Robert Pete Williams ^ Listed in memorium Telephone 617 625 7200 november 12, 1971 notre dame Indiana scholastic special blues issue volume 113, no. 5 bob koester 4 home sweet Chicago richard bizot 8 caught in the act biographies 10 the artists 11 mississippi fred mcdowejl 12 homesicl< james carey bell eddie taylor 13 howlin' wolf Shirley griffith 14 little brother montgomery Otis rush 15 muddy waters mance lipscomb 16 buddy guy & junior wells 18 johnny littlejohn & jimmy casey pocius 21 london howlin' wolf sessions richard bizot 22 digging blues ricfiard a. waterman 24 blues collections micfiael francis 26 blues in east texas kevin cassidy cherri weismantel 28 coming distractions phii & marie glotzbacii 30 movie reviews special blues editor: mike mccabe editors-in-ciiief: joe hotz, mary ellen stoltz / managing editor: greg chinchar / art director: rick fitzgerald / editors: mike mooney, greg stidham, jim fanto, mike mccabe, tom macken copy editor: jim palenchar / sports editor: don kennedy / assistant managing editor: joe runde / business: howie sutton / circulation: cliff zmick / faculty advisor: frank o'malley staff: george block, ed bower, John banks-brooks, kevin cassidy, john flannigan, marie glotzbach, phil glotzbach, mike givler, robert hamilton, marty head, bruce hooper, jim jendryk, dave jones, jerry koshinski, john linsky, mat mccarthy, fred monsour, john moore, John moran, mark o'connel, dan o'donnel, jim pearce, pete peterson, peggy perkinson, bob rizzuti, jim sitzman, pat smith, mimi v/heeler, cheri weismantel, jeff wyszkowski business and circulation: joe leahy, ron hein, jack reschauer, marty zone / art and photography: jim hunt, michael lonier, bob mcmahon, joe raymond, pam seifert. blues staff: perry aberii, pat geary, tom sherwood, john rafert, karin aberii The opinions expressed in the - SCHOLASTIC are those of the authors and editors of the SCHOLASTIC and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Notre Dame, its administration, faculty or student body. Second class postage paid at Notre Dame, Ind. 46556. The magazine is represented for national advertising by National Educational Advertising Services, 360 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10017. Pub lished fortnightly during the school year except during vacation and examination periods, the SCHOLASTIC is printed at AVE MARIA PRESS, Notre Dame, Ind. 46556. The subscription rate is $5.00 a year (including all issues and the FOOTBALL. REVIEW). Please address all manuscripts to the SCHOLASTIC. Notre Dame, Indiana 46556. All unsolicited material becomes the property of the SCHOLASTIC. sweet It is a popular artifice of writers and rock musi During these early years, the bluesmen literally cians who haven't been on the Chicago blues scene "put it in the alley" •— played on the streets and in the in five or ten years, if at all, to depict the Chicago alleys for tips — or worked at house rent parties and blues as a dying idiom. But those who have spent whiskey flats (prohibition, remember, wasn't repealed any appreciable time in the more than 30 blues bars until 1932). A walk through residential neighbor on the South and West Sides that still present the hoods on a weekend night provided ample evidence of music every weekend night know better. They dis- house parties in progress. Sometimes it was a full-time cc'^er Junior WeUs and Detroit Junior at Pepper's; business: the selling of alcohol and water, gambling and Otis Rush at the Alex Club; Luther Allison at the vice to the accompaniment of the rolling bass that L & A Lounge; Buddy Guy, Andrew Odem, and the found its way to the city from the rural South. Myers Brothers at Theresa's; J. B. Hutto at Rose and Most of the itinerant musicians were blues singers Kelly's; Carey Bell and Jimmy Dawkins at Duke's who learned their songs down home but found a Place; Johnny Littlejohn at the Riveria; Hound Dog more generous audience in South-Side flats. Some had Taylor at Florence's; Sunnyland Slim at the J & P originally played the guitar, but, with a piano in Lounge; Mighty Joe Young at the Brass Rail; or every building on the South Side capable of a louder 23-year-old Young Blood (Alvin Nichols) at the Sports volume of sound, the stringed instrument was dis man's. carded. A few.Chicago pianists who didn't sing devel No, the blues is not dying in Chicago. The vital oped the instrumental possibilities of the idiom. Meade influence of Gospel music and the better soul singers, Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and Jimmy Blythe were the cultural interchanges with jazz, the oppressive really jazz musicians — and could perhaps be termed partnership of the political machine, the crime syndi the first "soul" jazzmen because of their close associa cate, and the racist system must all disappear before tion with blues at its most magnificently primitive level. the Chicago blues will be spoken of in the past tense. The development of a recognizable Chicago blues How did Chicago become a major center for blues idiom can be seen in the evolution of Big Bill activity? Of course, there are no phonograph records Broonzy's recordings, beginning with his country blues to give us any insight into the musical environment of on Paramount and Champion thru the gradually more Chicago in the earliest years of black migration to urbanized approach on his later Bluebird and Vocal- the city. (Since Chicago was founded by a black man, lion (later Okeh and Columbia) sessions. Some of we should speak of white migration.) But very early the credit belongs to Lester Melrose, a white music in the history of so-called race recording, Chicago publisher who eventually supervised two-thirds of became important. The venerable Paramount label Chicago blues sides during the late 30's and 40's. He hired a sportswriter named J. Mayo Wilhams in combined bluesmen often literally off the farm with 1923 to produce its series of blues, jazz, and vaude jazz musicians from New Orleans, who were influencing ville sessions beamed to the black community. He Chicago's music scene in a way that was unheard of crossed the street from his oflSce and hired Ma Rainey, in the early 20's. Lovie Austin and Ida Cox at the Monogram Theatre, Thus, trumpeters Lee Collins and Punch Miller, and later went afield to give us the first sides by Blind clarinetist Arnett Nelson, bassist Ransom Knowling, Lemon Jefferson. Since recording apparatus was drummer Jump Jackson and many others are featured quite bulky, the artists were brought to the Chicago on numerous Melrose dates of the period and are area. When the records sold well, many of them also known in the world of traditional jazz. Pianists stayed. "Black Bob" Robinson and Thomas A. Dorsey had Chicago was firmly established as THE "race" re careers in black vaudeville and jazz, which brought cording center by 1926 when Okeh and Vocallion some sophistication to their blues accompaniments centralized their blues activity here. Gradually a body with Big Bill and Tampa Red. Eventually the piano of resident bluesmen devdoped from this recording became an integral part of Chicago-made blues re activity and from the increasing movement to the cordings ; and a few pianists such as Joshua Altheimer, city by blacks trying to escape the more naked oppres Blind John Davis, Roosevelt- Sykes and even sion of the South. onetime guitarist Peetie Wheatstraw made literally THE SCHOLASTIC home cliicago hundreds of sides with various bluesmen. Now, it must be remembered that Chicago had feeder cities, primarily Indianapolis (Champion Jack Dupree and, before him, LeRoy Carr) and St. Louis (Sykes, Wheatstraw, Walter Davis, Speckled Red, Robert Lee "Nighthawk" McCoy) and more recently Memphis (Wells, Cotton, Big Walter and the BB King school). Also, new talent was constantly coming in from the rural South — all this still keeps the pot melting and the music close to its roots. By 1938, when blues recording was organized by the black musicians. Union local, electric guitars be gan appearing on records. In the 40's, the pianists began to overtake the guitarists in popularity with Roosevelt Sykes, Jack Dupree, Memphis Slim and, later, Sunnyland Slim broadening the appeal of the blues to middle-class blacks who chose to forget the unpleasantness of their Southern birthplaces and the music connected with it. Wartime prosperity brought with it increased wages for workers who brought a love for the blues with them from the Southern rootland. Blues bands started appearing in the taverns of the West and South Sides. Big Bill Broonzy played at Sylvio's, Sonny Boy Wil liamson sometimes in the band with him. Sykes. more debonair, worked steadily between North Side syndi cate joints and 47th Street's then swanky spots. And Memphis Minnie, Curtis Jones, Tampa Red and other really popular blues artists no longer had to depend on cop-dodging on the South Side and Maxwell Street Sunday afternoons for income from their music. But Melrose, who now had a virtual monopoly (since Mayo Williams Decca operations were moved to New York after 1938's recording ban in Chicago and never returned) on Chicago recording, did not record the bands that appeared in the taverns. His sessions were polished but lacked the robustness of the blues joints. Before getting into the modern Chicago scene, sev eral extremely important artists of the early 40's should be mentioned. First, guitarists Baby Doo and Willie James Lacey — who must have influenced greatly the way even T-Bone Walker (who worked Chicago regularly at that time) played the blues.