First, a short note of thanks. On behalf of the North East Ohio Blues Association (NEOBA) and The Sound of Blue, I would like to thank all who attended the 2nd. Annual Blues Picnic. Both of these organizations were started with the stated purpose of “keeping the blues alive”, and we both continue to do so. This is for the benefit of both the fans and the musicians involved and the picnic jam session is for the two groups to interact while enjoying some good food. Again, thanks to all who attended and if you didn’t, WHY NOT?, as it was listed in the Akron Beacon Journal as the #1 place to be.
Some September Blues Births:
· September 3rd.,1919—Charlie Booker
· September 17th.,1906—“Blind” James Campbell
· September 23rd.,1927—Joseph “Mighty Joe” Young
· September 3rd.,1919—Charlie Booker
· September 17th.,1906—“Blind” James Campbell
· September 23rd.,1927—Joseph “Mighty Joe” Young
Answer to the August 2015 Blues Question: The bluesman were looking for was/is Jesse “Lone Cat” Fuller, born March 12th.,1896, in Jonesboro, Georgia. He made his first instrument at age 5, a stringed mouth bow. At age 10 he ran away from home to work outside the music field in Atlanta. At age 22/23 he lived/ worked in Cincinnati, Ohio. At age 26 he moved permanently to California, first in Santa Monica, then to Los Angeles, and finally to Oakland. Although he did perform all over California, he didn’t get fully active in the music field until the early 1950’s. Though he worked mostly outside the music field from 1906 up into the 1960’s at the jobs I mentioned in the August Blues Question, he also worked as a tap dancer, a hot-dog stand attendant, selling cloth-covered wooden snakes he made, and as a shipyard laborer. In the early 1950’s when he started playing/performing more regularly, he did so as a one-man band, playing drums, guitar, harmonica, kazoo, washboard, and hi-hat (a foot-operated cymbal). He would, when lying in bed late at night, try to think of a way to accompany his 12-string guitar work with some sort of variable note bass instrument, other than drums. He came up with an instrument, named by his wife, Gertrude, a foot-diller, later shortened to the fotdella. It was shaped like a box, with a rounded top similar to a double bass, utilizing 6 bass strings, each struck by a felt-covered “hammer”(like a piano), each one operated by a separate pedal, giving him 6 different bass notes. The name given to it by his wife, foot-diller, was adapted from the then-current expression “killer-diller”, which meant that something was “really good”. Anyone remember what rock & roll performer at that time was known as “killer-diller”? As I mentioned in the Blue Question some of Jesse’s songs have become blues standards. Most notable of those is “San Francisco Bay Blues”, which is currently available on the recordings of at least 60 different performers. From the early 1960’s Jesse toured/played all over the U.S.A., Canada, Ireland, England, and Europe, up until 1971. He was mostly inactive in the music field after that, because of different illnesses. He passed away January 26th.,1976, of heart disease. Oh, by the way, he wrote the soundtrack of the movie “The Great White Hope”.
Blues Trivia for September 2015: William Christopher Handy, born November 16th.,1873, in Florence, Alabama, is most often spoken of and recognized as the father of the blues. If you recall last month’s trivia section, Sam Phillips, eventual founder of Sun Records, was also from Florence. Although in his life Mr. Handy learned to play the cornet (for which he is best known), the piano, and the trumpet, his first instrument was a guitar. His father, Charles Barnard Handy, a pastor at a small church in Guntersville, made him return it to the store from which he had purchased it. His father believed that musical instruments were “the tools of the devil”, so with the offensive guitar gone, his father enrolled W,C. in organ lessons. That endeavor was short-lived and the younger Handy learned to play the cornet, practicing whenever he could. To make sure he had a trade in which he could support himself (and later a family), he apprenticed in carpentry, plastering, and as a shoemaker. From 1892 to 1895, he was in different bands and organized others of his own, to play/perform in Alabama, Indiana, Illinois, and other nearby states. In 1896, while playing at a barbeque in Henderson, Kentucky, he met Elizabeth Price, who he married on July 19th.,1896, and eventually they had 6 children. In 1909 he wrote a song called “Mr. Crump”, for the campaign for mayor of Memphis, the city in which the Handy family was currently living. In 1912 the song was re-titled “Memphis Blues” and is credited as being the first blues song published. In 1912 he wrote a song called “Yellow Dog Rag”, the title coming from a railroad spur line of the Southern, named the Yazoo Delta, hence, the Y.D.. In 1919, on the 3rd. recording release of the song, it was re-titled “Yellow Dog Blues”, and was the best-selling of one of his compositions to date. In 1914 he wrote the “St. Louis Blues” and in 1916, the “Beale Street Blues”. In 1917 he moved the family to New York, living in Harlem. In 1937 he and Elizabeth were divorced. In 1943 he was blinded in an accidental fall from a subway platform. In 1954, sometime after the death of Elizabeth, he married his secretary, Irma Louise Logan, who he said, had become his eyes. He passed away on March 28th.,1958, of bronchial pneumonia. Over 25,000 people attended the funeral at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. I could easily write a couple of hundred pages about the man and his achievements but space on this end and time on the reader’s end wouldn’t be conducive to that end. BUT, 2 points of trivia (out of many): his compositions were basically 12 bar verses (what is sometimes called “belly-bumpin’”music), but in his case, these verses were sometimes bridged with an 8 or 16 bar melody, which, at that time, gave his music a unique sound. This combination is credited as the birth of jazz. The 2nd. bit of trivia is that he wrote “Beale Street Blues” as a goodbye to the street, which was to be done away with. The thing is that BEALE AVENUE was the correct name of it at that time. Because of the popularity of the song, it was re-named as Beale Street. It is because of those events that the street still exists as it does today. I’d do a trivia section on it, but there’s just no way. You have to go see, enjoy, and live it to comprehend what it has done for the blues!! Also, by the way, “Yellow Dog Blues”, by Joe Darensbourg, released on a transparent blue 45 in 1957, was #3 on the pop charts at that time.
Some September Blues Passings:
· September 1st.,1977—Ethel Waters
· September 18th.,1966—Will Shade, aka Son Brimmer
· September 20th.,1989—Charlie Booker
· September 1st.,1977—Ethel Waters
· September 18th.,1966—Will Shade, aka Son Brimmer
· September 20th.,1989—Charlie Booker
RSS Feed