Portrait : Willie Kent (1936-2006)

A giant's journey

Willie Kent was a burly man, a stainless bassist, a real blues singer and a talented songwriter, but never an icon of the Chicago blues though he did play with almost all the Windy City renowned bluesmen. Among the best talented sidemen that contributed to make Chicago blues a legend, he deserves to be put up back where he belongs : on the front line.
Familiar to the blues aficionados but much less to the average community of blues listeners, Kent has a special asset though : he recorded a dozen albums under his name, most of them with his long time band The Gents.

Love at first note : Linwood Taylor

Blues on the rock

There's a bluesman that I want to tell you about though he's not really well-known outside the blues specialists circles.  “He has a white blues sound”, “he plays like a white”… are the first thoughts that will come up your mind. Not contemptuous thoughts, blues has only one color : blue. But the fact is that when you hear him on guitar, you think more to Jimmy Thackery than to B.B. King. Only when he starts to sing you realize this guy is an Afro-American. Not from Mississippi, not from Louisiana, not either from Chicago or Texas, but from the D.C. area. His name ? I'm tempted to let you guess… Just joking ! The man is Linwood Taylor.

Portrait : John “Juke” Logan (1946-2013)

Rockin' the blues

Three albums and a live with Doug MacLeod, that's about it, but enough to get a hell of a foot-stomping time. Three albums that rock, swing, boogie by a jack of all blues trades who unravels and revamps the blues with a rockin' heart, injecting different styles he feels like. But make it clear, it's not blues-rock.
This brilliant chameleon from South California (1) who was a real and respected blues connoisseur could put a J.J. Cale touch here, a Zydeco or New Orleans carnival beat there, a Latin feel a la Los Lobos (he was a good friend of David Hidalgo) or a bit of soul, always with a sharp sense of tasty exciting arrangements and generally a good dose of humor in his songwriting.

Portrait : Johnny B. Moore

 

From Clarksdale to Chicago

Johnny Belle Moore is an authentic son of the Delta : he was born in 1950 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, one of the iconic birthplaces of the blues. He first learned how to play guitar at age seven from his Baptist minister father Floyd Moore, and quite naturally played and sang gospel in his dad's church. In 1964, like so many elder blues musicians, he moved up to Chicago with his family after his mother died.
In the Windy City, Letha Jones, the widow of pianist Little Johnny Jones, took him under her wings and introduced him to the blues, playing lots of records to him. The young man was caught by the blues fever and got further guidance from Jimmy Reed that he had already met back in Clarksdale during his childhood.

Portrait : Blues Boy Willie

The man from Memphis… Texas

There's a town in Texas about 130 km south east of Amarillo, in the middle of endless cotton fields, named... Memphis. It's in this “Texas Delta” that one William Daniel McFalls better known as Blues Boy Willie was born in 1946. His father was then a tent show musician known as West Texas Slim that once accompanied Ma Rainey. He was blowing the harmonica and the young Willie wanted to do the same. When his father was out at work he used to sneak in and snatch one of his dad's harps to practice. Later, his father left the “devil's music” to become a preacher, and the young Willie would sing gospel in his dad's church.

Portrait : Sven Zetterberg (1952-2016)

→ Special thanks to L.C. for introducing me to this exciting bluesman from Sweden

Soul of the blues

It took him just a short year to master guitar perfectly when he was already 24. So perfectly that he was able to back the great Muddy Waters at a 1976 show in Stockholm. Since then he could compete with the best US blues guitarists. But his discovery of the blues goes back way before that when by the age of 12 he used to listen to blues on his small radio. After hearing Walter Horton, he started playing harmonica, and later started to sing, soon becoming a skilled blues singer.
His first band, Telge Blues, active from 1972 to 1976, released a unique album in 1975. He was singing and playing harmonica. It is when the band split that he decided to practice guitar intensively.

Portrait : Big George Jackson (1949-2021)

 Nothing Like the Rest (1994), Beggin' Ain't For Me (1998), Big Shot (2001), Southern In My Soul (2003)

Nothing but the groove

George Albert Jackson, dubbed “Big George” when he reached 6,5 feet, certainly was the best kept secret of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St Paul) where he was born in 1949. The release of his first opus Nothing Like the Rest in 1994 on the small local label Cold Wind Records rightly caught the attention of the Dutch label Black and Tan that published his next three albums (Beggin’ Ain’t For Me in 1998, Big Shot in 2001, and Southern In My Soul in 2003) and opened him the doors of concert halls and festivals on the Old Continent from 1999.

A momentary lapse of inspiration

 On sabbatical leave. Will be back soon.

Meantime, I invite you to explore Onurblues through the Archives or the Tags.

Take all care of yourselves in this instable world.

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter XVI : The Piano “Professors” (Jelly Roll Morton, “Tuts” Washington, Champion Jack Dupree, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Eddie Bo, Ellis Marsalis, Huey "Piano" Smith, Allen Toussaint, James Booker, Dr John, Henry Butler, David Torkanowsky, Tom McDermott, Jon Cleary, Davell Crawford)

A century in ivory
Among the sacred instruments of New Orleans music, piano comes next to the iconic brass instruments. The Crescent City counts numerous influential pianists who brought an essential contribution to the unique New Orleans sound for a century.

Blues 'N' Trouble : highlands boogie & loch blues Not swamp blues but loch blues, not Mississippi Hill Country style but Highlands boogie, not moonshine fueled but soaked in old whiskey, here are...

The volcanic bluesboys from Scotland

Boogie, jump, stomp, shuffle, honky-tonk, ragtime, rock'n'roll..., Blues 'N' Trouble is the most exciting blues band I've heard in a long time. This deserved making a pause in the Journey To Nawlins series (that will continue very soon indeed).

B.B. King who was backed by Blues 'N' Trouble on several occasions in his UK tours complimented them as “the best white blues band in the world”. The album "Lazy Lester Rides Again" (1987) on which they backed the Louisiana bluesman was crowned with a WC Handy award. Still, Blues 'N' Trouble remains largely unknown to many blues fans though it gained a cult status among sharp connoisseurs and local supporters along his touring path.

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter XV : Wild Injuns Down In New Orleans* (The Wild Tchoupitoulas, Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolias, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Donald Harrison Jr & Congo Square Nation, Chief Adjuah & the Xodokan Nation of Maroons, And Many More...)

Flamboyant Black Masked Indians

Mardi Gras Indians are probably the most exotic and picturesque element of New Orleans unique cultural traditions. Actually the term “Mardi Gras Indians” is not used by those it designates. They rather call themselves “Black Indians” or “Masked Indians” or “Black Masked Indians”/”Black Masking Indians”, “masking” meaning dressed in personally hand-crafted costume.

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter XIV : Mem Shannon (complete discography)

The man from Phunkville

Mem Shannon is a bluesman. But a bluesman from New Orleans, which means that he plays his own local recipe of blues ― I called it Shannon's blue gumbo groove ―, a typical New Orleans mix of swamp rock & blues, R'n'B, soul…, all in a thick funk gravy, with a very attractive jazz underlining, and always a saxophone around. Appealing, exciting, spellbinding !

Born in New Orleans just before Christmas 1959, Shannon started to play guitar in his mid-teens, and got serious about it after seeing B.B. King in concert. King's economical playing style was a major influence for Shannon who always cover a few King's songs during his gigs, a fact largely confirmed through the videos selected below.

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter XIII : Brass Bands & Second Line (Dirty Dozen Brass Band, New Orleans - Rebirth Brass Band, New Orleans - The Hot 8 Brass Band, New Orleans - Milton Batiste & Alton Carson with the Magnificent Sevenths, New Orleans - Mardi Brass Band, France - Funky Butt Brass Band, St Louis)

Social Clubs, Brass bands, Jazz Funerals and Second line

Early New Orleans brass band

Before going any further, in order to get a basic insight into the New Orleans brass bands ecosystem, it seems necessary to me to remind a few facts through this introduction, actually a remixed version of a text from Chapter III.

The tradition of brass bands in New Orleans appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a fusion between European military bands and African traditional music (especially from the Yoruba culture of Nigeria) brought by enslaved West Africans. New Orleans Brass bands played a significant role in the development of early jazz.

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter XII : Dr. John (Television, 1994 - Anutha Zone, 1998 - Creole Moon, 2001)

 → Thanks also to the late Blue DeVille...

New Orleans' voodoo wizard

Dr. John, who departed this world in June 2019 😢, was a fascinating character ! Not only was he a great pianist, but he was also a fantastic composer, arranger and producer, and he had the most incredible and inimitable voice you could find. The words were rolling around in his mouth as if he was swallowing a gumbo or munching an oyster "po' boy" while singing ! Just listen to the way he pronounces the word "limbo" on track three ! His kind of squeaking voice should normally be hard to bear. Not with the Doc. Instead it's highly captivating.

Self baptized the Nite Tripper and famous for his voodoo witch looks  —  fancy feathered hats, mojo necklaces, sculpted canes, skull on his piano —, he personified New Orleans through his mix of swinging Nola R'n'B and swamp funk soaked in damp Creole voodoo mystery. Not many could do that

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter XI : Kermit Ruffins (Discography 1992-2017)

Is Satch back ?

If New Orleans' tutelary figure Louis Armstrong ever had a spiritual son, Kermit Ruffins must be the one. Even more than trombonist Glen David Andrews. He has the trumpet, he has the growling voice, he has the rejoicing kind and warm friendliness, he has the exuberant showmanship.

Oddly enough, though he started playing trumpet at 13, he didn't get really interested in jazz before discovering Armstrong at the age of 17, which is amazing considering that he is a full New Orleanian, raised in Tremé and in a very musical family (1).

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter X : Tremé : The Music, The Neighborhood, The Seriesb (About The Soundtrack From The HBO Original Series, Seasons 1 & 2)

Is music stronger than hurricanes ?

Before going any further, I must strongly encourage those who didn't or couldn't watch yet this fascinating series to do so by any mean (downloading, streaming * or... buying the DVDs separately or the complete box set). This is not compulsory to appreciate this great 2-CD soundtrack but it will put things in perspective.

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter IX – Troy Andrews a.k.a. Trombone Shorty

Trombone slinger

Jazz ? Not in the way you imagine. R&B ? Yes, but not as you'd think. So what ? So, it's New Orleans, the Big Easy, the city where all musics mingle together, where all styles nourish each other, where horn instruments are sacred, where all people of all colors brotherly dance on Mardi Gras, where musicians are laid to their grave in music…

The old French city where slaves were entitled to sing, play percussion and dance on Congo Square on Sundays… The city where jazz is born, where rock'n'roll was born, where rhythm'n'blues was born, where funk was born… The city where unclassifiable musician Troy Andrews aka Trombone Shorty was born in 1986...

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter VIII - Various Artists & Albums

 All from Nawlins
(except one...  guess who)

 

 

 

► Snooks Eaglin - New Orleans Street Singer (1959/2005) : https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/02/snooks-eaglin-new-orleans-street-singer.html

 

 ► Johnny Sansone - The Lord Is Waiting And The Devil Is Too (2011) : https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/11/johnny-sansone-lord-is-waiting-and.html

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter VII : Irma Thomas

→ Thanks also to the late Blue DeVille

The Soul Queen of New Orleans

The soul voice of Irma Lee, aka Irma Thomas, born in 1941 in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, has been heard on airwaves, jukeboxes and in concert halls by several generations since her debut nearly 65 years ago. Her early career wasn't easy and she had to be thoroughly tenacious to become one of New Orleans icons. But she had a treasure : her voice.

Journey To Nawlins, Chapter VI - The Rough Guide To The Music of New Orleans (2-CD Special Edition, 2012)

→ Thanks also to the late Blue DeVille

The city where music never stops

In a recent review, I wrote : “New Orleans and her Mardi-Gras and Carnival, New Orleans and her old dixie jazz, New Orleans and her jazz funerals and second line parades, New Orleans and her tribal rhythms, New Orleans and her swamp blues and bayou R'n'B, New Orleans and her Zydeco and Cajun music, New Orleans and her French creole culture, New Orleans the unique, New Orleans the Big Easy where music is a way of life, New Orleans the Big Funky…” These few lines would fit perfectly this 2-CD Rough Guide.