J
Melvin 'Lil' Son
Jackson
b: 8-16-1915, Tyler,
TX - d: 5-30-1976, Dallas, TX
Lil' Son Jackson was a stylistic throwback from the moment
he first turned during the immediate postwar era. He was a Texas country
bluesman of the highest order, who's rustic approach appealed wholeheartedly to
the early 50's blues marketplace.
Melvin Jackson's
dad loved blues, while his mother played gospel guitar. Their son's
initial experience came with a spiritual aggregation called the Blue Eagle
Four. A mechanic by trade, he served in the Army during WWII before giving
the idea of becoming a professional blues musician a
shot.
In 1946, he shipped off a demo to Bill Quinn,
who owned a Houston diskery called Gold Star Records. Quinn was suitably
impressed, linking Jackson and enjoying a national R&B hit, "Freedom Train
Blues", in 1948 for his modest investment. It would prove Jackson's only
national hit, although his 1950-1954 output for Imperial Records must have sold
consistently, judging from how many sides the LA firm issued by the Texas
guitarist.
Jackson's best Imperial work was
recorded solo. Later attempts to squeeze his style into a small band
format tended to emphasize his timing eccentricities. His "Rockin' and
Rollin'", cut in December of 1950, became better-known through a raft of
subsequent covers as "Rock Me Baby". He gave up the blues during the
mid-50' after an auto wreck, resuming work as a mechanic. Arhoolie
Records boss Chris Strachwitz convinced Jackson to cut an album in 1960, but his
comeback proved fleeting.
Blind Lemon
Jefferson
b:
7-11-1897,Couchman,TX d: Dec.1929, Chicago
One of the first blues-guitar stars,
Blind Lemon Jefferson became the most famous bluesman of the Roaring Twenties.
His 78's shattered racial barriers, becoming popular from coast to coast and
influencing a generation of musicians. His best songs forged original, imagistic
themes with inventive arrangements and brilliantly improvised solos. He was a
serious showman, balancing a driving, unpredictable guitar style with a booming,
two-octave voice. His guitar became a second voice that complimented rather than
repeated his lyrics. He often halted rhythm at the end of vocal lines to launch
into elaborate solo flourishes, and he could play in unusual meters with a great
deal of drive and flash. A man well acquainted with booze, gambling, and
heavy-hipped mama's, Blind Lemon lived the rough-and-tumble themes that dominate
his songs. Portraits of Afro-American life during the early 1900's, his lyric's
create a unique body of poetry - humorous and harrowing, jivey and risqué', a
stunning view of society from the look of someone at the bottom. To this day, he
ranks among the most gifted and individualistic artists in blues
history.
Eric
Johnson
Born -1954
"Revolutionary",
"multifaceted", "on the edge", "evolving", these words have all been used in
attempts to define Eric Johnson. They touch on that part of his talent that
makes him so valuable to us as an artist; the consistent self-inventing aspect
of his nature that makes each and every one of his albums so eagerly anticipated
by musicians and the public alike. Johnson can always be counted on to push the
cutting-edge of contemporary musicianship deeper into the cosmos.
It is this
challenge that brings him to his most current project, Vortexan Session, which
finds Johnson teaming up with world renowned drummer Jerry Marotta and
bassist/touch guitarist Trey Gunn. Gunn, who has been a member of King Crimson
since 1994, also plays in his own Trey Gunn Band and has recorded with John Paul
Jones, California Guitar Trio, and Toni Childs, among others. Marotta, who is
also a producer, has recorded and toured with Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney,
Elvis Costello, The Indigo Girls, Tears For Fears, Hall and Oates, and Joan
Armatrading, to name only a few. This expansion of Johnson's musical horizon is
a consistent pattern in his history: "I like to see the future not from what the
past looked like, but from what I see ahead of me."
It was in the 70's,
in Austin, Texas, that a young Eric Johnson was revealed. He was guitar player
in a band called Mariani and his unusual, ardent talent immediately caught the
attention of other musicians. "When I heard Eric," Johnny Winter recalls, "he
was only 16, and I remember wishing that I could have played like that at that
age." At 21, he was a member of the legendary Electromagnets. Their intense
instrumental jams and explosive live shows earned them a rabid cult following
and set Johnson's place in the constellation of great guitarists. "Eric Johnson
is amazing," recounted Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, "this might sound silly, but if Jimi
Hendrix had gone on to study with Howard Roberts for about eight years, you'd
have what this kid strikes me as."
Post-Electromagnets, Johnson began to
expand on his talents as a songwriter and singer within the Eric Johnson Group
and much later, Avenue. It was during this time that he recorded his first
album, Seven Worlds, which finally saw the light of day when it was released
1999. He also stretched out on the road with Carole King, and recorded with Cat
Stevens and on Christopher Cross' popular debut album.
All the while
Johnson's underground reputation as one of the most intuitive and technically
brilliant guitarists in the world continued to grow. Austin City Limits
showcased his performance in 1985, the first of three appearances. Guitar stores
were known to have "EJ" shrines. But being a fan was still like membership in a
mystic society, his name a special password among the select few. His peers,
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Morse, and Pat Metheny (who, along with Johnson, were
all born within the same four-month period), were already realizing world wide
exposure through recording contracts. But Johnson remained a darling of the
underground, expanding his eclectic style and perfecting that violin tone in
tightly packed clubs. His first Guitar Player cover story came out just before
his debut album was released. It was appropriately titled "Who Is Eric Johnson
And Why Is He On Our Cover?"
When Johnson's first album, the
Grammy-nominated Tones, came out in 1986, serious recognition arrived. Then
success kicked the door down in 1990, when the certified gold, Grammy-winning Ah
Via Musicom was released. "Ah Via Musicom is an artistic triumph," enthused
Guitar Player, "as powerful a statement for Eric Johnson as Electric Ladyland
was for Jimi Hendrix." This record gave Johnson the unique honor of becoming the
first artist to have three instrumentals from the same album chart in the Top 10
in any format. "Cliffs of Dover", Grammy winner for Best Rock Instrumental, also
became the first instrumental to break into the Top Five on Radio & Records
"AOR Tracks" and Billboard's "Rock Tracks" since those charts were created.
Johnson's promise had arrived. He nabbed the "Best Overall" guitarist
award from Guitar Player for four years straight; the fifth year he was inducted
into their "Gallery of Greats". Musician Magazine listed him among the "100
Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century"; and again and again readers of
entertainment weekly the Austin Chronicle voted Johnson the city's "Best
Electric Guitarist" and "Best Acoustic Guitarist" in the yearly poll. Their year
2000 poll named him "Electric Guitarist of the Decade" and one of the top five
"Musicians of the Decade".
Nearly three years of touring followed Ah Via
Musicom. Johnson then set to work on his next studio recording, Venus Isle, but
also took time off for side projects. He toured with one of his childhood
heroes, B.B. King; guested on recordings by Chet Atkins and Dweezil Zappa, and
gigged around Austin as a member of Alien Love Child, a blues project that he
began with former Electromagnet's drummer Bill Maddox and bassist Chris Maresh.
Created as an outlet to blow off steam during the Venus Isle recording sessions,
the band is still going strong and expects to release their first album this
year.
Johnson's latest studio recording Venus Isle, with the popular
single "S.R.V.", a tribute to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, was released in 1996.
Evenly split between vocal and instrumental songs, it demonstrates the
refinement of Johnson's vocal style. His developing virtuosity as a keyboardist
and producer is also evident in this collection. He described the album as "kind
of spiritual, kind of romantic. I was trying to have fewer arrows pointing at me
in the performance and more pointing at some intangible emotive feelings."
Not long after the release of Venus Isle, Johnson proved he could shred
with the best of them when he went on the road and recorded with guitar gurus
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai for the hugely successful G3 Tour. He also
contributed the song "The First Nowell" to Steve Vai's project Merry Axemas: A
Guitar Christmas Album.
Now, as Johnson moves into the new millenium,
the ever-evolving musician is expanding his creative options even more. Not only
does this year find him on the road with the Vortexan Session, but he is also on
the verge of releasing two new albums. The first will be a live recording
compiled from Alien Love Child club dates. The second is a new studio recording
he says is "a few songs away" from completion. When the albums are released, you
can be sure of one thing: whatever direction the music is coming from, whatever
kind of ethereal current Johnson has sent swirling through his songs, they will
all be moving forward.
Blind Willie
Johnson
b: Feb, 1, Temple
TX d: 1947
A guitar-playing evangelist with a scary, emotion-charged voice, Blind
Willie Johnson played some of the most exquisite slide guitar ever heard.
Void of frivolity or uncertainty, his 78's were clearly the work of a pained
believer seeking street-corner redemption with a guitar and a tin cup. He
was gifted with an incomparable sense of timing and tone, using his pocket knife
slide to duplicate his vocal inflections or to produce an unforgettable phrase
from a single strike of a string. With its wide, rough vibrato, his voice
was as fierce as Charlie Patton's or Son House's, but much easier to
understand.
Little is known about his background,
but thanks largely to the research of author Samuel Charters, who interviewed
Johnson's widow and second wife Angeline Johnson, and an old Texas preacher,
Adam Booker, during the late 50's, some sketchy facts were unearthed. He
was born around 1902 on the outskirts of Temple, Texas. While still an
infant, he and his father, George Johnson, moved to Marlin, where the elder
probably worked as a sharecropper. When Willie was about five, he told his
father he wanted to become a preacher and made his first guitar out of a cigar
box. Following the death of his mother, Johnson's father remarried.
One day, George Johnson caught her with another man and beat her up. She
retaliated by throwing lye into the face of a 7 year old Willie to deliberately
blind him. Later, when his father got a job in Hearne, a town about 35
miles from Marlin, he would take young Johnson to town, where hw would sing
religious songs and play his guitar every Saturday with a tin cup around his
neck for tips.
As a young man, he lived in
Marlin, where he married Willie B. Harris in the mid-20's and attended services
at the Marlin Church of God in Christ on Commerce Street, where he often
performed. Their marriage apparently dissolved in the early 30's. In
1927, Johnson became one of the first gospel guitarist on 78. Among his 30
recorded songs is s landmark instrumental "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the
Ground", described in Ry Cooder as "the most transcendent piece in all American
music". Johnson spent most of his life singing for the Baptist church or
playing for tips on the streets of Beaumont, Texas. He died of pneumonia
in the late 40's after his wife made him sleep on wet bedding following a house
fire. Decades later, his music echoed in the styles of Mississippi Fred
McDowell and Mance Lipscomb. Still he remains a slide guitarist without
parallel, a player so perfect he's impossible to adequately
imitate.
Curtis
Jones
b: August 18, 1906
Naples, Texas
d: September 11, 1971 Munich, Germany
The original of the blues
standards "Tin Pan Alley" can be traced directly back to pianist Curtis Jones
who also enjoyed considerable success in 1937 with his "Lonesome Bedroom Blues"
for Vocalion (a song inspired by a breakup with his
wife).
Jones started out on guitar but
switched to the 88's after moving to Dallas. He arrived in Chicago in 1936
and recorded for Vocalion, Bluebird, and OKeh from 1937 to 1941. But the
are ended his recording career until 1953, when powerful deejay Al Benson issued
a one-off single by Jones, "Wrong Blues"/"Cool Playing Blues", on his Parrot
label with L.C. McKinley on guitar. In 1960, Jones recorded his debut
album, Trouble Blues, for Prestige's Bluesville subsidiary with a
classy crew of New York session aces and Chicagoan Johnny "Big Moose" Walker on
guitar. By then, his audience was shifting drastically, as he became a
fixture on the Chicago folk circuit. His next LP Lonesome Bedroom
Blues, was a 1962 solo affair for Delmark offering definitive renditions of
the title cut and "Tin Pin Alley". Jones left Chicago permanently in
January of 1962, settling in Europe and extensively touring the continent until
his 1971 death.
Tutu Jones
b:
Sep.9,1967, Dallas, TX
The son of Dallas-based guitarist John Jones, Tutu Jones
was truly a product of his environment - growing up in a house frequently
populated by guests including Freddie King, Little Joe Blue, and Ernie Johnson,
his own future as a bluesman was never in doubt. Born John Jones Jr., on
September 9, 1967, he became a professional drummer while still a teen, backing
his uncle's Curly "Barefoot" Miller and R.L. Burnside. At the same time,
however, Jones was also honing his guitar and songwriting skills, and eventually
began fronting bands of his own. He cut his solo debut I'm For Real in
1994, followed by Blue Texas Soul in 1996. Two years later he released
Staying Power.
Janis
Joplin
b:1-19-43, Port
Arthur, TX
d: 10-4-70, Los Angeles, CA
The greatest White female rock singer
of the 60's, Janis Joplin was also a great blues singer, making her material her
own with her wailing, raspy, supercharged emotional delivery. First rising to
stardom as the frontwoman for San Francisco's psychedelic band Big Brother and
the Holding Company, she left the group in the late 60's for a brief and uneven
(though commercially successful) career as a solo artist. Although she wasn't
always supplied with the best material or most sympathetic musicians, her best
recordings, both with Big Brother, and on her own, are some of the most exciting
performances of her era. She also did much to redefine the role of the women in
rock with her assertive, sexually forthright persona and raunchy, electrifying
onstage presence.
Joplin was raised in the small
town of Port Arthur, Texas, and much of her subsequent personal difficulties and
unhappiness has been attributed to her inability to fit in with the expectations
of the conservative community. She'd been singing blues and folk music since her
teens, playing on occasion in the mid 60's with future Jefferson Airplane
guitarist Jorma Kaukomen. There are a few pre-Big Brother recordings (not issued
until after her death) reflecting the inspiration of early blues singers like
Bessie Smith, that demonstrate she was well on her way to developing a personal
style before hooking up with the band. She had already been to California before
moving there permanently in 1966, when she joined a struggling early San
Francisco group, Big Brother and the Holding
Company.
Big Brother's story is told more in detail
in their own entry. Although their loose, occasional sloppy brand of bluesy
psychedelia had some charm, there can be no doubt that Joplin - who initially
even sing lead on all the material - was primarily responsible for lifting them
out of the ranks of the ordinary. She made them a hit at the 1967 Monterey Pop
Festival, with her stunning version of "Ball and Chain" (perhaps her very best
performance) was captured on film. After a debut on the Mainstream label, Big
Brother signed a management deal with Albert Grossman, and moved on to Columbia.
Their second album, Cheap Thrills, topped the charts in 1968, but Joplin
left the band shortly afterwards, enticed by the prospects of stardom as a solo
act.
Joplin's first album, I Got Them Ol' Kozmic
Blues Again Mama, was released with the Kozmic Blues Band, a unit that
included horns, and retained just one of the musicians that had played with her
in Big Brother (guitarist Sam Andrew). Although it was a hit, it wasn't her best
work. The new band, though more polished, were not as nearly as sympathetic as
Big Brother, purveying a soul-rock groove that could sound forced. That's not to
say it was totally unsuccessful, boasting one of her signature tunes in "Try"
Just a Little Bit Harder).
For years. Joplin's life
had been a roller coaster of drug addiction, alcoholism, and volatile personal
relationships, documented in several biographies. Musically, however,
things were on the upswing shortly before her death, as she assembled a better,
more versatile backing outfit, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, for her final album,
Pearl (ably produced by Paul Rothchild). Joplin was sometimes
criticized for screeching at the expense of subtlety but Pearl was solid
evidence of her growth as a mature, diverse stylist who could handle blues,
soul, and folk-rock. "Mercedes Benz", "Get It While You Can", and
Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" are some of her very best
tracks. Tragically, she died before the album's release, overdosing on
heroin in a Hollywood hotel in October 1970. "Me and Bobby McGee" became a
posthumous number one single in 1971, and thus the song with which she is most
frequently identified.