or has mistreated you, you sing the The first was a Four Freshman re son. Sani’s a beuvr blues piano manj blues. cording of Mt, B’s Blues. I like Jimmy as a person, ton.” “The blues come from actual life,” “Hear that minor? There never was Then Red Norvo’s Just a Mood, he insists a blues with a minor before Handy from a recent RCA Victor LP of He started that The record is com Norvo and Matt Dennis tracks. As he sat di inking water from a tin mercial, but nothin to rave about. “Sec that's onr-two-three-four. one- can, I asked him what he felt about Hie voice was croud, but he's not. a two-three-four. You’ll never find a blues singing today. real blues singer.” blues singer who’ll sing it that way. “For me, some of the ones who are Bill jumped to his feet and grabbed You can’t find one who will If you singin’ today — John Lee Hooker, a record from hi« own collection. find me a blues singer who can sing Brownie McGhee, Lightnin’ Hopkins, “This is blues,” he said, playing a the same tune the same way three and Muddy Waters—are on the same recording of Muddy Waters and Lit times. I’ll work for him the rest of beat with me. But too many of them tle Walter “That’s the real blues; he s my life. If these guys play this 20 put in those Nick Lucas chords. I talking about the way he really feels.” times, they’ll play it alike, unless you don’t know what they’re doing You I played the Count Basie-Joe Wil tell them to change* it. know you can’t arrange the blues; liam« Well, All Right, Okay, You Win “There’s nothing really wrong with that’s something else,” he says. track from th«* recent Basie >n Lon the record. It’s good. Like Dizzy. Hit listens to the blues singers and don LP. advanced jazz helps th«* blues; it ex he listens to the bands, too “That’s the boy. Joe Williams. The cites the people. His crazy horn stick* “I can understand some of Basic, music has got punch, but I don't in* up could put feelin' into the bluet Woody Herman, and Bob Crosby. I know what Joe's doing. He’s too far that I’d never get into it. You know, don’t understand what Duke Elling away horn the blues. He hasn’t got his blues. Dizzy’s, get into a lot of ton is doing and Joe Williams' blues that cry. that somethin’ botherin’ him places mine would never get into. I are ou( of my sight. I can't say he's When Muddy sings you know some was playin’ and doin' no good, but wrong. but I just don't know what thin’ is on his mind. When Joe sings, when Basic and Diz came in. they he’s doing. he's as far from the blues as I am did -onje good. You gotta dress it up “Rav Charles is a mess He's got from Bach. for the people.” the blues he’s cryin’ sanctified. He’s “Joe's satisfied. How can you sing Aside from the blues, two things mixin' the blues with the spirituals the blues when you’re satisfied?” were on Bill’s mind this night Hr had I know that's wrong. You shouldn t Next — Jimmy Rushing’s See See received some fan mail from Europe mix them. He’s got a good voice, but Rider. and had read the account of the Little it’s a church voice. He should be “Jimmy. Jimmy Rushing. Is that Rock. Ark., high school integration smgm church. You shouldn t Sam Price on piano? No. Pet«- John- (Continued on Page 38) sing blues with a Christian tone. Ro setta Tharpe is the only one I know who could shout the blues and sing with a church quartet, too. She’s good enough. There’s enough blues to be Big Bill Broonzv was born in Scott, Miss., in 1893. Hr 1« a med songs sung without using Christian tone,” unci« and strollin »oik «inkers W U, n h> was I* Iv In z in plavinx it two way jiicn^^^BHK he feels. (for segregated Negro white audiences). He roamed through the south working and singing. For five years, from 1912 “ ‘I got a gal way at ross town’— 1917 h«- was an itinerant preacher In 1920, he came to Chicago and discarded h that's blues words. ‘Glory, glory, hal one-string fiddle for a guitar In 1926. he began recording, foi the Paramount labd lelujah' isn't. and tinging in the Chicago area. In the ’30s he farmed in Arkansas and commuted to Chicago. In 1938, he pti “Red Foley sings Negro spirituals ticipated in a memorable Carnegie hall concert During the late ’40s, he was a far as well as Negroes do and he sings quent participant in Studs Terkel’s I Come For to Sing club concerts in Chicago his own things, too—even the blues In the early '50s. he made two trips to Europe, winning considerable acclaim. Eaiii that I sing. And when he sings blues in 1957 hr became ill was hospitalized, and underwent a serious operation. On lx Lewis, >t doesn't sound like a spiritual. Thanksgiving benefit conceit, attended by more than 1,500 persons, netted M approximately $2,300 people “1 like Elvis Presley. He’s doing Through the years he has had many jobs—Pullman porter, section gang labor«, And & something I couldn’t do — proving furniture store porter, cook, floor mopper, foundry worker, and janitor—but has cot that the blues is as important as popu tinued to sing. to me Broonzy has recorded lor several labels, including Paramount, Columbia, Mercian lar tunes. They told me you’ll never throug get anywhere cryin' on stage. He’s Riverside. Savoy, Vocalion, and Folkways. Many of his records are no longer avat able, but many excellent recordings of the early 1950s are available on several Folk Hele doing it and he’s got some of the same ways LPs. words. melodies and way of handling them He claims to sing and play guitar Mississippi-style, which, as he says, “is playim that I have,” Bill comments. more for sound or tone than chords We don’t go by notes; we just push our fingers against the strings.” “You know, you hear people talk In the He lives on Chicago’s south side with his wife, Rose, and a black cat uamrt ing about folk songs You hear people Ananais. On one wall of his apartment is a plaque which reads “Have Faith in God, that t< talking about the blues, like it’s some He owns a television set and a high fidelity console, but his knowledge of life in rani seemvt thing else. It’s all folk songs. You America and his mental catalog of country blues predate most of hi* current poswwo» ist No never hear horses sing ’em,” he says, His autobiography, Big Bill Blues, a* told to the Belgian jazz writer, Yannick Bray h It’s 1 brought a few records along the noghe. was published bv Cassell and Co., Ltd., London, in 1955, and has been mutd in America by the Grove Press. you've night I spent with Bill. He listened your n to them, one by one. and commented.
DOWN BEAT