AIRW\VES
A Service of Continuing Education and Extension - University of Minnesota, Duluth october In this issue: MARATHON FOR WDTH RADIO OCT.18-21
INTERVIEW WITH BROWNIE MCGHEE
CALENDAR AND PROGRAMING GUIDE .
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
------l5il UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA------'---- ouLUTH lnfervie\,\/: with Brownie McGhee
Amidst an outstanding group have to do is stay out of the play guitar. you must pick of performers at the 6th hospital and the graveyard.." it".He stopped me from Annual Winnipeg Folk Festi- strumming, I know that. And val 1979, one man stood out This is Brownie McGhee's story my writing ability .•. I come as something special, his in his own words from the to put stories together be- name was Walter Brown McGhee Winnipeg Folk Festival July cause my father sang about one of. the giants of the 8th, 1979: his daily life. His work, blues. his hard.ships, his persecu- tions and being young. I As a singer, songwriter, and JZ: I'm talking with a man didn't know very well, but guitar playing blues legend, who, I hope you don't mind if as I grew older, I realized Brownie McGhee together with I call you a legend in your what he was singing about. harmonica player Sonny Terry own time. have become household words JZ: You have fond remember- among fans of the blues. BM: If you want to. ances of your father, I They have performed for the think, one time, you said his last four decades all over JZ: I want to. His name is hands were like a steam this country as well as Brownie McGhee, and I've en- shovel, reaching many remote parts joyed you at a workshop and of the globe. the Friday evening concert. BM: Yeah, they were. He played guitar with all his Stricken with polio while BM: Thank you. fingers and said something still a boy in Tennessee, should be happening all the Brownie overcame this handi- JZ: And can we go back a time on a guitar, not one cap and all others presented little bit, take a trip down string at a time, you're sup- him to become a leading memory lane? posed to play them all. spokesman for the blues. He performed in Washington,D,C. BM: If you want to. JZ: And I think you started on a bill headed by Paul Rob- before you had a guitar, eson, Brownie considers this JZ: Back to 1915 and Knox- playing on a Prince Albert his professional debut but it ville, Tennessee when a little can with rubber bands. was only the beginning as he package came to the McGhee's. moved North to New York where You said you learned from BM: Well I did (laughs) and he lived and played with your father George McGhee who he bought me a make-believe Leadbelly, Josh White, Pete was a big influence. -thing, but I liked the Prince Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Albert can better. many of the legendary fig- BM: Not only was he a big ures of the 40 1 s and 50's. influence, he was •.• JZ: And them came I guess His recording career began piano and guitar. I didn't with talent scout J.B. Long JZ: I guess you said all you know you played, for Okeh Records in the early know he taught you. 40's and continues until this BM: Well, piano is the first day. He continues to play BM: Well, I don't say all instrument that I played, My concerts, clubs and festivals I know he taught me, but what father played the guitar and and as he says " ••• if there I learned was my picking I played the piano and he were more months in the year style from my father, which didn't know I played piano. I'd work more months ••• all I he said, "If you're gonna People back in those days thought girls should have BM: Oh yes, he was older than my guitar in there, and those art, but boys could work for me and I said I got the guitar guys ••• kept 'em cheered up it. My daddy had that kind because I didn't have one, and all the time, and I got to of idea. Boys can make it, I was just borrowing people's where I'd go steal stuff from but the girls need music. So guitars, and they'd come and the diet kitchen. They'd he bought a piano and import- get it just at the time I'd want milk and stuff and I'd ed a teacher 50 miles, and my want to play it; they needed get in a wheelchair and take sister, damn, never did learn it. He said, "I've got a off and get it. So when I a thing, so he give it to me guitar for $1. 50, " and I gave come out I run into a lot of and my brother and we learned him 50¢ down on it, and he guitar players, but my big- to play it; I learned to said, "You can have it," but gest after my father was play the piano. I thought I kept it a long time. Lonnie Johnson. That was the about me having a handicap man that bears upon my mind. with polio. I was a little JZ: You remember those I ain't met nobody year or embarrassed to put the guitar learning days .•• heard nobody yet that could on my back cuz it bumped play any more guitar than against my crutch and cane, BM: Well ••• Lonnie Johnson. so I only played the guitar at home. And so when I found JZ: He played a lot of nice a piano wherever I'd go, I duets with Ed.die Lang, didn't . played the piano; and people "... all I Have to do is he? only knew me by playing the piano because they never heard Stay Out of the Hospi- BM: He did guitar playing me play the guitar. tal and .the·Graveyard." with anybody. He was absolu--he's the greatest JZ: Is that right? That that ever did it. I mean first guitar you got, it's when Brownie McGhee says a classic story. You were that, that's coming from way something like years pay- 3 JZ: Who might you have been back there and I've listened ing the cat across the street to everybody today and I hear for a $1.25 guitar, I think listening to other than your father? Lonnie Johnson. Everybody you got him 50¢. plays guitar. I hear him BM: Well, I didn't really . 'cuz there's nothing they're BM: Well, I gave him 50¢ doing that he didn't do and down on it, but I was going listen to anybody until after I got up after my operation. that's why I say .•. because to school then and I really if they's doing something just didn't have no money See, I went to a hospital with this guitar. I took that's happening that Lonnie cuz my room was costing me didn't do. I've got every a dollar and a quarter a week, this guitar to the hospital with me. And for 9 months, -record he ever made. But five dollars a month. By the I was in the hospital, I had ain't nothin' that modern time I hustled a $1.25 a week guitar players, what I call for my rent and I was eating my operation, was under the March of Dimes when Roosevelt modern electric guitars, at the school (laugh) I become President. So I got acoustic guitar players doing didn't have no surplus money this operation to rid myself that Lonnie couldn't do, or to give him, but I ducked him of that crutch and cane. So didn't do. I admire him most of the time. He said I was a state patient so they because he was just good in "Give me a quarter at a time'; put me in a room, not in a everything, singing ..• I but a quarter was such a •.• ward, so I could lay there liked his singin'; I liked you know, that was a lot of and play my guitar all I his phrasin'; and I liked his money to me. I'd give him my wanted to; but I got lonely playin'. quarter, I ain't got no in there. So I made them put money; but I had my guitar, me in a ward where all the JZ: You've never let any so I eventually paid him for other people were. kind of handicap be any kind the guitar. of handicap. At one point JZ: He threatened to take it JZ: Other cats who played or Brownie McGhee went out on the back a whole lot of times. other people to listen? the road hitchhiking for about 6 years. BM: I'll tell you who he BM: No, they wanted to was; he was my oldest listen, and I wanted to see BM: That's how I got started sisters' husband's uncle. whether I was good enough for in the record business. I them to listen to, so I got was walkin' when the man saw JZ: He was older than you in and cheered them up, I me. I didn't know what re- then. did a lot of damn things with cords was. It was 1939. CONTINUED 11:ClU Country Joe and The and folk-style melodies Moon" by Morton Subotnick was Fish "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' throughout, we present the one of the first electronic . To Die" complete ·score in a brilliant works ever commissioned by recording by Pierre Boulez and created specifically for OCTOBER 16, 1979 conducting the New York a record company. Nonesuch Philharmonic. records has since provided 5:00 Something a bit lighter electromic music fans with AIRWAVES on tonight's "Harmony" as we 7:00 The International other important works, but present Volume II of Joshua Hotel: For over 15 years, none more fascinating than Rifkin's wonderful renditions tenants of the International this work, created mostly on Calendar of Events of "Piano Rags" by Scott Hotel struggled to defend the modular electronic music Joplin. Among the selections themselves against eviction. system by Donald Bushla. you'll hear: "Elite Syncopa- This tape presents a history ··--·-- . . . ·--~------~ tions", "Leola", and "Paragon of their struggle and high- 7:00 Rude Awakening (Part 1): OCTOBER 9, 1979 8: 00 Ed.die CondP,~-:i~-d ' ll100 The Allman Brothers ~". lights of their eviction. In 1975 the country awoke to of jazz". Recordings from ~"!3eginnings". Some. of" find its intelligence commu- 5:00 Tchaikovsky's "Manfred the late 1920's and 1930's the finest moments of Duane, 7:00 The Homosexual (Part 2) 8:00 The Tony Williams Life- nity was ca;rrying out domestic Symphony, Op. 58" is per- with Frank Trumbauer, Bud Greg, Dickie and the rest time Emergency! With Williams surveillanc~ on a massive formed by the Vienna Phil- Freeman, Gene Krupa and many of the band. Highlights 8:00 Buddy Tate/Humphrey on drums, John McLaughlin on scale, and was ordering assa- harmonic Orchestra conducted more. include "I Just Ain't My Lyttleton. Tenor saxophonist guitar, and the late Larry ssinations of foreign heads of by Lorin Maazel. Based on Cross To Bear" and "Eliza- Tate together with trumpeter Young on organ, this LP ex- state. This program looks at the poetic drama of the same 11:00 Jeff Beck "Rough and beth Reed". Lyttleton performing original amines one edition of the the basis of the intelli- name by BTTon, the work is Ready". tunes by Buck Clayton. "T.W. Lifetime". gence operations, and their highly programmatic and, in OCTOBER 15, 1979 extent in the post-Vietnam its broodingly melancholic OCTOBER 11, 1979 11:00 Tim Buckley "Goodbye 11:00 Fleetwood Mac. The era. hero, perfectly suits Tchai- 5:00 Eugene Ormandy con- and Hello" early days of this group may kovsky's own temperament. 5:00 One of tne most splen- ducts the Philharmonic have been their finest music- 8:00 Leroy Jenkins "Space did of all French symphonies , Orchestra in Hector Berlioz' OCTOBER 17, 1979 al moments, here with Peter Minds, New Worlds". A 7:00 The Free Speech "Symphonie Fantastique, Green on guitar. member of the Association the so-called "Organ 11 Movement Symphony" of Saint-Saens, is Op. 14 , with its five pro- 5:00 Today's feature work for the Advancement of heard tonight in a recent grammatic movements depict- comes from the Contemporary OCTOBER 19, 1979 Creative Musicians; A Per- 8:00 Art Blakey "Thermo". Columbia recording with ing, in Berlioz' words, "A Composers Series. The West- . former on record with A living legend, drummer Leonard Raver, organist, and young musici~n of morbid wood String Quartet will be 5:00 RCA has been reissuing Anthony Braxton, Muhal Art Blakey and his group Leonard Bernstein conducting sensibility and ardent imag-· heard playing Ernst Toch's many of the older mono re- Richard Abrams and many with Curtis Fuller, Freddie the New York Philharmonic. ination who poisons himself "Quartet in D Flat Major". cordings of Vladimir Horowitz others; here Jenkins per- Hubbard, and Wayne Shorter. with opium in a fit of --welcome additions to the forms with Andrew Cyrille, 7:00 Jazz Through The Eyes amorous despair. The narco- 7:00 She Also Ran: Victoria catalogue of this ever fasci- George Lewis and others. 11:00 Buffalo Springfield and Ears of Black Musicians tic dose, too weak to cause Woodhull became the first nating, and sometimes frus- "Again". Neil Young, Steve death, plunges him into a woman to run for president trating, pianist. Tonight we 11:00 Jesse Ed Davis "Keep Stills, and Richie Furay heavy sleep accompanied by in 1872, present Horowitz' recoroing , Me Comin'" doing "Bluebird", "Mr. Soul", 8:00 The Art Tatum Solo the strangest visions during of Franz Schubert's greatest and "Broken Arrow". Masterpieces Vol. 4. Re- which his sensations, senti- 8:00 Ella & Louis. Two sonata, the "Op. Posth. OCTOBER 2J, 1979 corded in 1953, this perfor- ments and recollections are legends combine with a B-Flat Sonata". OCTOBER 10, 1979 mance features "Stardust", transformed in his sick rhythum section of Oscar 5:00 Pianist Ruth Laredo, "Ill Wind,,, and "The Man I brain into musical thoughts Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray 7:00 Local Insight a specialist in Russian 5:00 John Cage: "I believe Love". and images. The beloved Brown, and Buddy Rich to piano music, has recorded that the use of noise to one herself has become a produce a fantastic record- 8:00 Stuff Smith "Black all of Scriabin's sonatas make music will continue and lll.QQ. Spirit "12 Dreams of melody, a fixed idea, which ing of jazz classics and old Violin". Hezekiah Leroy for the Connoisseur Society, increase until we reach a Dr. Sardonicus" haunts him everywhere". standard tunes •. Gordon Smith from a session and is nearly finished with music produced through the recorded shortly ~efore his all Rachmaninoff's solo aid of electrical instruments OCTOBER 12, 1979 7:00 The Homosexual in Our 11:00 Kingfish. Led by Bob death on September 25, 1967 piano works recorded for that will make available for Society (Part 1): Elsa Weir, with Matthew Kelly on in Munich. Columbia. From the latter musical purposes any and all 5:00 Beethoven's "Piano Knight Thompson interviews harp, this group combines series, we present tonight sounds that can be heard." Concerto No. 3" will be psychologists and politi- the best of rock, blues and 11:00 Roy Buchanan "Live the set of nine etudes Ca:ge made that statement in featured tonight, with Glenn cians about homosexuality, country influences. Stock". From November 27, 1974 entitled "Etudes Tableaux, 1937, and tonight you can Gould as the soloist. showing that there might not at Town Hall in New York, Roy Op. 39". hear one of his many reali- be anything wrong with such OCTOBER 18, 1979 Buchanan and Billy Price sail zations of that philosophy 7:00 Local "Insight" "deviant behavior". through "Roy's Bluz", as David Tudor performs 5:00 Bela Bartok's "The "Further On Up The Road" and 7: 00 Rude Awakening (Part 2) Cage's "Variations II" for 8:00 Sam Rivers "Waves". A 8:00 Miles Davis "Tune Up". Wooden Prince" is one of his more. amplified piano. brand new release by saxo- - A classic session from 1953- most ambitious early works. 8:00 Airto "Free". Together phonist Rivers with David 19.54 with J.J. Johnson, The- A ballet which combines OCTOBER 22, 1979 with Keith Jarrett, Chick 7:00 Vietnam Veterams Holland, Joe Daley, and lonious Monk, Art Blakey, fairy tales with human ele- Corea, George Benson and The Native American Program Thurman Barker. Max Roach and many others. ments and which uses folk 5:00 "Silver Apples of the Hubert Laws 11:00 Humble Pie. One of Richard Davis, and Tony Lord" are the opening words thevery early recordings of Williams: Dolphy on also sax, of Contata No. 109 by Johann this group. flute and bass clarinet per- Sebastian Bach. Tonight we forms all Dolphy originals. present a recording of this ~ek At A Glance OCTOBER 24, 1979 work with the Bach Collegium 11:00 Cream "Fresh Cream". of Stuttgart under the direc- 1 5:00 George Gershwin still Clapton, Bruce and Baker. tion of Helmuth Rilling, 6: 00 A;,,,a
Marathon 1979: improve, increasing your providing training and assis- listening pleasure, Make tance in production as a part October 18-21 are the dates an investment in WJJ.I'H; and of our Senior Citize~s Radio for the first marathon in join us for our fall mara- Project, which is funded by the history of WJJ.I'H. The thon, October 18-2lst. a grant from the Higher Edu- we·ekend of the marathon will cation Coordinating Board. consist of special program- New Format for Guide: 'Jean lives in Clover Valley, ming of music, interviews, is a graduate of the Uni- and live guests. Stay This is the first issue of versity of Minnesota, with a tuned for more details, and our new expanded program degree in Film, Television, help ensure the success of guide, "Airwaves". What do and Radio. She had pro- the marathon by subscribing you think? Contact Doug duced several programs as a now! (See subscription Nesheim or myself with your volunteer for WJJ.I'H, and she form elsewhere in the guide) suggestions and offers of had been quite active in the Funds we receive before the help. Thanks to Doug, Dan community. marathon takes place will Beedy, Keith Methven, and allow us to make the mara- everyone else who put in North Woods Builders: thon itself even more ex- the long hours necessary citing. Remember that good to make the guide possible. Thanks again this month to radio is not cheap. Equip- North Woods Builders for ment is expensive - we just Jean Johnson Hired as Co- their continuing support of spent $1300 for a tape deck ordinator of Senior Citi- the "Native American Pro- that was in the medium zens Project: gram" from Migizi Communica- range for broadcasting mach- tions. What can you do for ines, Our electrical bill I'd like to welcome the WDTH? will be nearly $10,000 this newest member of the WDTH year, and you know that staff, Jean Johnson. Jean Keep listening, won't get any cheaper. Your will be contacting members Tom Livingston donation will allow us to of the senior community, and Station Manager
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