Samba Touré – Albala

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Tony

One of the surprises of the week so far is a promo that dropped through the door, of Mali guitarist Samba Touré’s new set ‘Albala’ issued on Glitterbeat. In 2012 we saw the attack on musician’s in northern Mali and the banning of music making in the country enforced by Islamic militants.

This is Samba’s on his third album.  ‘Albala’, means “danger” or “risk”, in the Songhai language. The press blub says: “To call Albala his darkest album is an understatement, but it is not a self-absorbed darkness. The cause of Touré’s worry is the crashing world around him, and more specifically the troubles echoing out from his beloved northern Mali homeland.

The cumulative effect of the events in Mali on Samba’s music have added gravity to his voice and his words, an additional sting to his electric guitar; there are sharper edges and more complex undertones in his musical arrangements.

On one track “Fondora (Leave Our Road)” Samba sings with indignation:
“I say, leave our road/ All killers leave our road/ Thieves leave our road
Looters, leave our road/ Rapists, leave our road/ Betrayers, leave our road”.

And on the haunting “Ago Djamba (Life Betrays Us)” Touré warns: “We do not all have the same opportunities/ Here, nobody is born rich but we all have the same value/ Life betrays us”.

As a band member, and valued collaborator of the late Malian legend Ali Farka Touré, Samba established a significant reputation, and through his first two solo albums ‘Songhai Blues’ and ‘Crocodile Blues’ (World Music Network) his confidence and musical prowess grew proportionately.

Alabala has more power than on previous sets.

Recorded at Studio Mali in Bamako, in the autumn last year, Samba is joined by his regular band members Djimé Sissoko (n’goni ) and Madou Sanogo (congas, djembe) and guests such as the legendary, master of the soku (a one-stringed violin) Zoumana Tereta and the fast-rising Malian neo-traditional singer Aminata Wassidje Traore.

Additionally, Hugo Race (The Bad Seeds, Dirtmusic, Fatalists) contributes an array of subtle atmospherics on guitar and keyboards.

Definately worth checking out.

Posted in Blues, Rare Records, Roots | Leave a comment

Joe Bussard’s Country Classics: Banjo Episode

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Tony

artworks-000045814687-h1lqhn-t200x200Joe Bussard’s excellent weekly vintage country music show this time around is a ‘banjo special’ featuring Taylor’s Kentucky Boys, Ernest Hilton, Dock Boggs, B.F. Shelton, Buell Kazee, John Hammond, W. A. Helton, Dad Crockett, Clarence Ashley, Uncle Dave Macon, Wilmer Watts, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Hobart Smith, Flatt & Scruggs and Carl Story.

Underwritten by Dust-to-Digital since 2004, Joe Bussard’s Country Classics can be heard live every Friday at 5pm on WREK and is also available as a weekly podcast: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jo…s/id357406396

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Billy Vera Interviewed On ‘Crabbeman’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival’

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Tony

Video streaming by Ustream

Posted in 45 rpm, 78rpm, Americana, Blues, Compact Disc, Film -TV, Gospel, Jazz, Rare Records, Rhythm & Blues, Rock & Roll, Roots, Soul, Uncategorized, Website, You Tube | Leave a comment

Ponderosa Stomp To Feature 60’s Women R&B Singers

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Tony

Three of the greatest female vocalists of the 1960s will headline this years Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans.

Justine ‘Baby’ Washington, Chris Clark and Maxine Brown performed during the years in which racial discrimination was prevalent, travel was difficult and performers had to present an image of high glamour at all times, which would grind down any artist. But these women gained strength and resilience, personally and professionally.

The 2013 Ponderosa Stomp Festival will take place October 3rd  – 5th  in New Orleans.

Posted in Blues, Rare Records, Rhythm & Blues, Rock & Roll, Roots, Soul, Website, You Tube | Leave a comment

First Blues Music Reality Show Airs In Autumn

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Tony

The creators of the award-winning documentary videos ‘M For Mississippi’ and ‘We Juke Up in Here’ return later this year with ‘Moonshine & Mojo Hands’ a new weekly web-TV series dedicated to the world of Mississippi blues. The show follows hosts Jeff Konkel and Roger Stolle as they travel the Delta’s back roads in search of juke joints, house parties, barbecue, moonshine and – of course – the men and women who keep blues music alive in the land of its birth.

 The first season of the show will consist of 10 episodes streaming for free online this fall. Each 12-minute episode will take viewers on a wild ride through the Mississippi Delta and Hill Country to meet the region’s most fascinating characters in truly unforgettable settings.

 “There’s truly no place else on Earth quite like Mississippi,” Konkel said. “We can’t wait to introduce viewers to all of the great music, food, culture and characters that the state has to offer.”

The show’s producers are currently raising funds through the Kickstarter website. Marketing sponsorship opportunities also are available for interested individuals and organizations.

“We’ve been really overwhelmed by the excitement and interest that the project has already generated,” Stolle said. “With the support of sponsors and fans, we’re confident we can create a show that will help the world understand what makes Mississippi such a weird and wonderful place.”

‘Moonshine & Mojo Hands’ is a joint production of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art and Broke & Hungry Records in partnership with Tangent Mind, LLC and Lou Bopp.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Jordanaires Gordon Stoker Passes

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Tony

Gordon Stoker, lead tenor of the Jordanaires Elvis Presley’s backing group died on March 27th after a long illness at the age of 88.

His son, Alan, told the Associated Press that he died at his home in Brentwood, TN. He played the organ in his local Baptist church and was originally a piano player, with The Clement Trio, a pre-teen gospel group who went to Nashville where they were heard every morning on Radio WSM.

After being drafted into the Army during World War II, where he spent three years as a teletype operator, Stoker came home and went to Oklahoma Baptist University, but he eventually went back to Nashville where he auditioned for and got the job as the pianist for the Jordanaires.

The Jordanaires were a regular feature on the Red Foley segment of the Grand Ole Opry. In 1952, Stoker stepped up to replace Bill Matthews as the tenor in the group.

The Jordanaires sang gospel music but in 1955, they were working with country singer Eddy Arnold on his new TV show when a young Elvis Presley, who was still recording for Sun Records, asked if they would back him up should he ever make it big. The next year, Chet Atkins of RCA Records called Stoker asking if he would back up Presley with two other RCA artists, Ben and Brock Spears. The trio recorded ‘I Was the One’ and ‘I’m Counting On You’ however, Elvis wasn’t entirely happy. At the next session, he confessed he wanted the Jordanaires – Stoker made arrangements with RCA executives and the group would appear behind Elvis on record for the next 14 years.

Post-Elvis, the group became one of the most requested session singers in Nashville, working with Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, Marty Robbins, Ricky Nelson, Loretta Lynn, George Jones and many more.

One estimate put their output at 30,000 sides for between 2,200 and 2,500 artists. The work was so lucrative that, when Elvis wanted them back for his new contracts in Las Vegas, they had to turn him down. Stoker once explained “Back around the time of our first hit record in 1957, a record producer told us to forget about the hit parade. Stars are here today and gone tomorrow. The industry needed good backup singers. We didn’t think he was telling the truth, but, boy, was he ever. For 23 years we had two to four sessions a day, six days a week.”

Among their many honors are the NARAS Superpickers Award for having performed on more top ten records then any artists in history, the CMA Masters Award and memberships in the Country Music Association, Gospel Music, Vocal Group, Christian Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame. They won Grammys for Jimmy Dean’s ‘Big Bad John’ (Record of the Year), Tennessee Ernie Ford’s ‘Great Gospel Songs’, Elvis Presley’s ‘How Great Thou Art’ and Larry Ford and the Light Crust Doughboys’We Called Him Mr. Gospel Music: The James Blackwood Tribute Album’ and were nominated 15 more times.

As a member of The Jordanaires he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, The Country Music Hall of Fame, The Rockabilly Hall of Fame, The Gospel Music Hall of Fame and The Vocal Group Hall of Fame. 

Posted in 45 rpm, 78rpm, Americana, Compact Disc, Country/Hillbilly, Gospel, Rare Records, Rock & Roll, Roots, Vinyl, Website, You Tube | Leave a comment

Cracking The Cosimo Code

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Tony

B&R 279 Cosimo CodeRed Kelly (‘The Soul Detective’), John Ridley (‘Sir Shambling’), and author John Broken have launched a new website called ‘The Cosmo Code’. 

Discographers David Gordon and Ace Records’ Peter Gibbon also assisted in the project.

In October 1960, Cosimo Matissa introduced a new sequential master tape series starting at 100 with clients allocated individual prefixes. This series ran until the demise of the Cosimo Recording Studios in 1968, and was continued – after a fashion – with the new Jazz City Recording Studios until 1977.

By annotating the series for the first time, we are now able to get a better picture of the recording sessions carried out at the Cosmo studios by artists, labels and producers as New Orleans R&B morphed into Soul. Blues, Gospel, Doo-Wop, Pop and Garage Rock were also recorded and the he Cosimo Code is gradually being unraveled.

In quoting dates for the Billboard and Cash Box trade magazine reviews, the web site assembles reliable dating-guide markers, which are particularly valuable with the smaller independent labels.

There are still many gaps in the listing, caused principally by certain labels such as Imperial and Minit having their own master sequences.

What the Cosimo Code does not show is all the unissued recordings/alternate takes, although Broven, Ridley and Kelly hope to assemble some of this information in the course of time.

Other pages on the site include a note of hit records and interview transcripts with Cosimo Mattassa and assistant Bert Frilot.

The publication of ‘The Cosimo Code’ inevitably raises many questions, which we hope will be answered in the future. For example, which Meters recordings were cut at Cosimo, Jazz City and elsewhere in the late 1960s? Indeed, what is the under-researched story behind Jazz City studios? Which labels from the Gulf Coast patronised Cosimo’s studios? Crucially, what is the whole story behind the collapse of Matassa’s Dover organisation, and what ever became of all the 1960s master tapes when it fell?

You can join the team by examining 45s in collections, discographies, the internet (YouTube and eBay in particular), and participating in the website forum to fill in the gaps in what will hopefully be a prolonged work in progress.

You can access the website by clicking on the graphic or the link in the first paragraph.

Posted in 45 rpm, Americana, Blues, Compact Disc, Country/Hillbilly, Gospel, Rare Records, Rhythm & Blues, Rock & Roll, Roots, Soul, Vinyl, Website, You Tube | Leave a comment

Great Version Of ‘Honey Bee’ By Muddy Waters

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Tony

Fantastic version of Muddy Waters in 1970 playing ‘Honey Bee’ taken from German TV show ‘Beat Club’.

Posted in Blues, Film -TV, Rare Records, Rhythm & Blues, You Tube | Leave a comment

Rock & Roll Pioneer Hardrock Gunter

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Tony

Who made the first rock and roll record? It is a debate that will no doubt never end. However, in their book ‘What Was The First Rock ‘n’ Roll Record?’, Jim Dawson and Steve Propes argue that Hardrock Gunter’s ‘Birmingham Bounce’ released on Bama Records in 1950 was one of the first true rock and roll records.

On Friday, March 15th, Hardrock passed away from complications from pneumonia. He was aged 88.

Hardrock Gunter was not the first artist to use the term rock and roll in a song –it had been a slang term for having sex and certainly found its way into a few songs in that context. But Hardrock was the first ever to use it as referring to music.

Recorded in1950, ‘Birmingham Bounce’ mentions rock and roll in a musical context for the very first time. If that isn’t enough to cement Hardrock’s claim to be an originator of Rock and Roll, his follow-up release, also issued in 1950, was ‘Gonna Rock and Roll) Gonna Dance All Night’. Take a look at these two short interviews with Hardrock and for his full life story click here to read Big Al Turner’s biography of Sidney Louie Gunter.

 

Posted in 78rpm, Americana, Country/Hillbilly, Rare Records, Rock & Roll, You Tube | Leave a comment

Albert King To Be Inducted Into Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Tony

Albert King one of the giants of the post war blues scene will be posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame on April 18th this year.

King came to fame in the early 1960s and later became Stax Records’ most prominent bluesman.

Born in Indianola, Mississippi, King cut his professional teeth in  St. Louis and recorded for labels such as Bobbin, Parrot, Coun-Tree and Vee-Jay.

However, in 1966 he signed for the Stax team of Al Bell, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, and backed up by a songwriting team of Booker T Jones and William Bell and his own distinctive guitar playing Albert King established his place among the front ranks of the top US bluesmen.

Besides touring the US blues circuit, along with his name sakes, Freddie King and B. B. King he also became a firm favourite among young white rock audeicnes in the late 1960s regularly playing Bill Graham’s Filmore venues and rock festivals.

To co-incide with Albert’s long oversue industion into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Concord Music Group are reissuing Albert’s classic ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’ album in their Stax Remasters series as a deluxe edition on April 2nd.

King, heavily influenced by pre-war bluesmen such as Lonnie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson, and post-war artists artists such as T-Bone Walker and Howlin’ Wolf joined Stax by way of Al Bell, a Little Rock native who had met Albert King when he played shows in the area.

King’s first Stax recording ‘Laundromat Blues’ is included on the reissue set. Backed byPrint Booker T. Jones on piano; Duck Dunn, bass; and Al Jackson, Jr., drums; plus the Memphis Horns (Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love) and Raymond Hill (sax player on Jackie Brenston’s ‘Rocket 88), the song had come by way of an unsolicited songwriting demo that Stax co-founder Estelle Axton correctly believed could be a hit for Albert King.

‘Crosscut Saw’ is one of Albert’s best-known recordings as yet which dated back to 1941 when Delta bluesman Tommy McClennan recorded it for Bluebird Records, and Willie Sanders and the Binghamton Boys cut it in 1963. Veteran DJ on the Memphis radio station WDIA A.C. ‘Moohah’ Williams, brought it to King’s attention.

I well remember the song being issued here in the UK on Stax and Albert appearing on the cover of Blues & Soul Magazine complete with slicked down hair and a shiny suit.

Booker T. Jones and William Bell came up with the thundering bass riff that defined the title track ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’.

The song made number 49 on the R&B chart in 1967 and soon became a staple of Cream’s live shows appearing on their classic 1968 ‘Wheels Of Fire’ album.

Another one of the key tacks on the album ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’  was written by WDIA DJ ‘Moohah’ and is supported by Steve Cropper’s rhythm guitar. King also received songwriting help from David Porter, on ‘Personal Manager’ the B-side of ‘Bad Sign’.

The album also includes great covers of Fenton Robinson’s ‘As The Years Go Passing By’ and Ivory Joe Hunter’s ‘I Almost Lost My Mind’.

The killer selling point to blues fans of the reissue will be the inclusion of previously unissued tracks including alternate takes of ‘Bad Sign’, ‘Crosscut Saw’, ‘The Hunter’, “Personal Manager’ and an untitled, never-before-released instrumental.

Track List: 1. Born Under A Bad Sign; 2. Crosscut Saw; 3. Kansas City; 4. Oh, Pretty Woman; 5. Down Don’t Bother Me; 6. The Hunter; 7. I Almost Lost My Mind; 8. Personal Manager; 9. Laundromat Blues; 10. As The Years Go Passing By; 11. The Very Thought Of You; 12. Born Under A Bad Sign (Alternate Take 1); 13. Crosscut Saw (Alternate Take 1); 14. The Hunter (Alternate Take 1); 15. Personal Manager (Alternate Take 15); 16. Untitled Instrumental

 

Posted in 45 rpm, Blues, Compact Disc, Rare Records, Rhythm & Blues, Rock, Vinyl, Website, You Tube | Leave a comment