Except his original “Hungry & Horny”, with a really funny introduction, most of his repertoire on this Live is made of efficient less explicit covers specially designed to make the cruisers dance.
→ Thanks to my unique partners...
Big boss man
Born in 1967, in Williamstown (Massachusetts), 56 today, Albert Cummings was raised in a musical family (his dad played guitar and fiddle in local bands). At 12, unable to wrap his hand around a guitar's neck, he took up the banjo and would have become at best a talented bluegrass player, but life has some funny tricks in stock.
When SRV died in the crash of his helicopter in August 1990, the boy, born in 1979, had celebrated his 11th birthday two months earlier and was already honing his skills at local blues jams in his native Boston. Yes, Boston… though when you hear his guitar you'd rather think of Dallas or Austin ! At these blues jams he had the lucky opportunity to play and learn from such experienced elders as Ronnie Earl, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Matt Murphy or Paul Rishell.
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| The Carolina Chocolate Drops : l. to r., Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson |
Half Afro-American, half of Mexican descent, Flemons was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He studied English at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, where he met Súle Greg Wilson, a local percussionist, banjo player and folklorist who became a mentor to him.
In the end of 2005, Flemons and Wilson, with Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson formed the old-time string band, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, based in Durham, North Carolina. While active in the band, Flemons was leading a parallel solo career, but in the end of 2013 he left the group to pursue his "Prospect Hill" project.
Not surprising, because Mark Lavon Helm (1940-2012) was one of the singers and the drummer of the Canadian group whose very first name was… Levon and The Hawks ! He was also the only American in the group and, as most of his Band mates, a multi-instrumentalist who could also play harmonica, mandolin, guitar and bass.
The miracles of “God”
The other King of Zydeco
Away from the urban environment of New Orleans, he was playing with his band The Magic Sounds (or sometimes Majic), a down-home style primarily intended to entertain rural people of the Southern Louisiana back-country . No keyboard, no horns either, just a bass, one and later two guitars, rubboard and drums, and himself on accordion. A small combo, a lot of songs in Creole French, a music to be danced.
→ Thanks to my unique partners...
Kansas City, here I've come !
Gregory "D.C." Bellamy, born in 1949 in Chicago and grown up on the West Side, is a younger half-brother of the late Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999). Of his different influences, Rhythm'n'Blues had the greatest impact on his style.