National Blues Legends
Professor Longhair
Written by Administrator Monday, 29 June 2009 21:38
December 19, 1918 (Bogalusa, LA) - June 30, 1980 (New Orleans, LA)
Born Henry Roeland Byrd and known affectionately as "Fess" to most New Orleans residents, Professor Longhair began his musical career as a street entertainer in the early 30s. By the late 40s he was playing piano, leading small combos with arcane names such as the Four Hairs Combo and Professor Longhair & his Shuffling Hungarians. He worked as part of Dave Bartholomew's big band in 1949, then began a series of recordings for various labels, including Star Talent, Mercury, and Atlantic. For the next 20 years Professor Longhair continued to record for obscure labels but remained on the fringes of the New Orleans scene, forced to supplement his meager earnings from music with odd day jobs.
In 1971 he re-created the Four Hairs Combo for an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. This inaugurated the comeback phase of his musical career and attracted the interest of a small but dedicated cadre of college students who undertook his rehabilitation as part of a burgeoning roots revival.
As he stated, "I'm a little rowdy with my playing," and the synthesis he developed of calypso and rhumba rhythms, boogie-woogie, and street-parade music became the basis for young groups like the Neville Brothers and the Radiators as they sought to translate their own respective musical visions of the New Orleans "good time" heritage. Despite his often unorthodox approach, Fess remained true to the essence of New Orleans music in never straying too far from the basic maxims of "feeling, freedom, and fun."
At the time of his death in 1980, he was the most popular and revered musician in New Orleans. His passing left a vacuum in the city's longstanding piano traditions, seemingly closing the book on an illustrious musical heritage. ~ Bruce Boyd Raeburn
-- Bruce Boyd Raeburn, All-Music Guide
Chuck Berry
Written by Administrator Monday, 29 June 2009 21:38
By name of CHARLES EDWARD ANDERSON BERRY (b. Oct. 18, 1926, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.), U.S. songwriter and singer, one of the first and best to shape big-beat blues into what came to be called rock and roll and to achieve widespread popularity with white audiences.
In his youth, Berry served a three-year term in reform school for attempted burglary. His early musical interest was in country music. While working at various daytime jobs in the early 1950s, he led a blues trio that played in black nightclubs in the St. Louis area. In 1955, armed with a number of songs he had written, he travelled to Chicago, where a remarkable congregation of outstanding black musicians had made the South Side the legendary blues capital of the world. Berry made his first record, "Maybellene," in that year. It was an immediate sensation among teenagers. As the novelty evolved into a popular genre, took the name rock and roll, and attracted a huge following among the young, Berry remained for some years at the forefront of popularity as a composer and performer with such songs as "Roll Over, Beethoven," "School Days," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Rock and Roll Music," "Johnny B. Goode," and "Memphis," all of which combined the standard heavy beat and melodic patterns with the composer's own singular brand of ironic lyrics. He also appeared in four films.
In 1959 he was convicted under the Mann Act for transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes and served a two-year sentence. Released in 1964, he prospered both as a performer and a recording artist into the 1970s. In 1979 he pled guilty to a charge of income tax evasion and was sentenced to four months imprisonment and 1,000 hours of community service doing benefit concerts.
Copyright (c) 1995 Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Sonny Rhodes
Written by Administrator Monday, 29 June 2009 21:37
Legendary Bluesman Sonny Rhodes, has been a master of the Lap Steel Guitar for many years. He got his first guitar at 8, and has been playing seriously since the age of twelve. He has 9 Albums to his credit, and has appearances on many others. His CD "Blue Diamond" has a "hidden" bonus track, past two minutes of silence after the last song, that is a very nice 20 minute interview with Sonny Rhodes. After 40 years of recording, Sonny is still an active, touring, highly sought-after personality.
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Willie Dixon
Written by Administrator Monday, 29 June 2009 21:37
in full WILLIAM JAMES DIXON (b. July 1, 1915, Vicksburg, Miss., U.S.--d. Jan. 29, 1992, Burbank, Calif.), American blues musician who influenced the emergence of electric blues and rock and roll as the behind-the-scenes creator of blues classics, notably "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man," which was interpreted by such recording stars as Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, and Muddy Waters.
In 1936 Dixon moved to Chicago, won the Illinois Golden Glove amateur heavyweight boxing championship, and began selling some of his songs. He played the double bass with such groups as the Five Breezes and the Four Jumps of Jive before playing blues and harmony with the Big Three Trio (1946-52). When that group dissolved, he began working full-time for Chess Records, serving as a middleman between the artists and the company management. Dixon's upbeat blues compositions, which he sold for as little as $30, helped usher in the Chicago blues sound of the 1950s and were standard numbers for young rock groups in the '60s.
His original songs included "Little Red Rooster," "You Shook Me," "Back Door Man," "I Ain't Superstitious," and "I Just Want to Make Love to You." Among the artists to record his songs were Howlin' Wolf, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, the Yardbirds, and Aerosmith. Dixon later led a band called the Chicago All-Stars and traveled widely throughout the United States and Europe. He was the founder of the Blues Heaven Foundation, a nonprofit organization to benefit older blues performers and provide scholarships to young musicians. His autobiography is entitled I Am the Blues (1989).
Copyright (c) 1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Koko Taylor
Written by Administrator Monday, 29 June 2009 21:37
(Photo by Peter Amft, courtesy of Alligator Records
and American Famous Talent, (312) 440-1900)
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