Some April Blues Births:
- April 4th.,1913-- Cecil Gant
- April 12th.,1945-- Ann Rabson (of Saffire,The Uppity Blueswomen fame)
- April 30th.,1917-- Frankie Lee Sims
Answer to the March 2018 Blues Question: The bluesman we were looking for is/was "Little" George "Mojo" Buford, born George Carter Buford Jr., in Hernando, Mississippi, on November 10th.,1929. His grandfather was a preacher and his father was a harmonica player. By the time he was nine years old, he was singing in a church choir and also with local gospel groups. In 1944 he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he worked outside the music field, but did watch and learn more about it. In 1953 he moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he formed his first band, The Savage Boys, and, later formed another, the Muddy Waters Jr. Band, to work in some of the bars, clubs, and lounges. From 1956 into the early '60's he worked in the actual Muddy Waters band. In 1962 he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he worked with Jo Jo Williams and others in local bars and clubs. During the 1960's, while performing in bands, he also worked outside the music field, at the University of Chicago. He got the "Mojo" nickname because, during that time period, he often filled in for Muddy when Muddy was on tour. One of the songs Buford performed was "I Got My Mojo Working", and was the one most often requested of him by the audience. Do you remember the original recording of that belongs to Ann Cole and the Suburbans? In the '60's and 1971, Buford recorded on six different small labels. Off and on, for over 20 years, he traveled and performed with the Muddy Waters band at venues and festivals around the U.S.A. and Europe. His final gig was at a place called Yoshi's, in San Francisco, California, with his old bandmates Hubert Sumlin and James "Superharp" Cotton. The following day he returned to Minneapolis. He went into St. John's Hospital in Maplewood, the town that's the home of the 3M company (a suburb about 10 miles north of St. Paul), for heart surgery, from which he never recovered. He passed away on October 11th.,2011, of heart failure.
Blues Question for April 2018: This blues singer was born in Bedford, Ohio. This artist is shown to only have recorded for four years, but had a considerable output, on at least five labels, with a few done under the birth name, but most done under "stage names", and, again, this is not a well-known person. Any idea on who this one can be ??
Blues Song(s) and Artist(s) for April 2018: The song is "Texas Flood" (originally titled "Storm In Texas), and the artist is Moses "Whispering" Smith (also features Lightnin' Slim )
Blues Trivia for April 2018: If you follow the blues at all, you're familiar with names like Sam Phillips, Leonard and Phil Chess, Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic), Sol Rabinowitz (Baton), Ernie Young (Excello), Bob Koester (Delmar, later, Delmark), and many others who started their recording end of the music business in the 1940's and '50's. Let's add another name to that with which you're probably not familiar-- Cosimo Matassa, born April 13th.,1926, in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1944 he was studying to be a chemistry major at Tulane University. After 5 semesters he left school and founded/started the J & M Recording Studio, in the rear of his parents' grocery store, which was located in the French Quarter. He became known and recognized as a prominent figure in the development of the "New Orleans Sound" style of music, which showed up in Rhythm & Blues, Rock & Roll, Soul, Blues, and some Pop of the '50's and '60's. Some of those he made recordings of or for were Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Bobby Vinton, Tommy Ridgely, Smiley Lewis, Joe Tex, Babe Stovall, Albert King, Professor Longhair, Dr.John, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, and many others. The one performer he managed was Jimmy Clanton. Those J & M sessions were done for labels such as Columbia, Imperial, Specialty, ACE Records, R C A Victor, Verve, Atlantic, and many smaller labels. He retired from the music field in the 1980's to manage the family's food store, known as Matassa's Market. He was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, first. He was then inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum, as a "non-performer". In 2013 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. He passed away on September 11th.,2014, in New Orleans.
Some April Blues Passings:
- April 2nd.,1996--Roosevelt Melvin "Booba" Barnes
- April 18th.,1974-- John Oliver "Johnny" Young
- April 27th.,1984-- Arzell J. Hill. better- known as Z.Z. Hill (you have to have heard his song "Down Home Blues")
RSS Feed