This outstanding half-hour 1962 episode of Ralph J. Gleason's Jazz Casual features blues shouter Jimmy Witherspoon and long-time Duke Ellington tenor sax man Ben Webster. They are accompanied by the Vince Guaraldi Trio--Guaraldi on piano, Monte Budwig on bass and Colin Bailey on drums. Here's the program:
Times' Gettin' Tougher
Ain't Nobody's Business
Cotton Tail
Chelsea Bridge
I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town
Roll 'Em, Pete
Jimmy Witherspoon sing the first two and last two songs. The middle two are Webster instrumentals. Between the first two songs, Gleason does a surprisingly rapid-fire interview of Witherspoon. Webster closes with an instrumental blues I can't identify.
The West Coast TV show Frankly Jazz, with Frank Evans, seems to have existed mainly to promote Pacific Jazz Records. Here is Texas tenor sax man Curtis Amy playing "Katanga," the title tune of his 1963 Pacific Jazz album. The song was written by his mysterious legendary trumpeter Dupree Bolton. Also featured are Ray Crawford, guitar; Doyle Coker, piano; Victor Gaskin, bass and Ronnie Sellico (sp?), drums. The song ends about 5 minutes into the video. The rest is awkward chatting by the host.
There is more where that came from. The Curtis Amy Sextet also plays "Blues For Amy" and "Summertime," and Amy sits out while Dupree Bolton and the rhythm section play "Laura." All the videos are shorter than they appear, since they have the same opening and closing remarks by Frank Evans.
Josh White was a popularizer of the blues. He recorded authentic country blues in the 1930s. After World War II, he developed a smoother style, billed himself as a folk singer, and played concert halls and coffee houses to primarily white audiences.
I recently saw a movie on TV with Josh White in a supporting role. The Walking Hills (1949) is a Western in a contemporary setting directed by John Sturges and starring Randolph Scott. It's a story of greed, similar to 1948's successful The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but not as good. Josh White sings parts of three other songs, but gets to sing "The Riddle (I Gave My Love a Cherry)" all the way through. You may recognize cast members John Ireland, Edgar Buchanan, Ella Raines and William Bishop.
The other song fragments can be found here and here.
Here is the Charles Lloyd Quartet appearing on Ralph J. Gleason's Jazz Casual in 1968. Charles Lloyd plays tenor sax and flute; Keith Jarrett, piano; Ron McClure, bass; and Jack DeJohnette, drums. The 29-min program includes "Love Ship," "Tagore," "Passin' Through," and "Forest Flower."
Willie Dixon is known as a bassist, songwriter and record producer. Here he is in 1964 singing "Weak Brain, Narrow Mind," accompanying himself on guitar. The introduction is by Sunnyland Slim.
Johnny Winter, a second generation
Texas bluesman who briefly flirted with pop music stardom in the late
'60s and early '70s, died on July 16 in his hotel room in Zurich,
Switzerland, where he was on tour. Announcement of the cause of
death is pending. He was 70.
John Dawson Winter III was born on
February 23, 1944, and raised in Beaumont, TX. He began playing with
his younger brother Edgar, who played alto saxophone, before they
were teens. They spent the '60s playing in Texas clubs, often
backing older bluesmen, and recording for small, local labels. His
first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment
(1968) on Sonobeat, set the pattern. Although he recorded some
original songs, he mostly covered hits by great bluesmen of the '30s
through the '60s.
His
reputation as a slide guitarist grew, and following a Rolling
Stone article and an appearance
at Fillmore East, he was signed by Columbia Records. His first
release, Johnny Winter
(1969), featured Willie Dixon on bass and Big Walter Horton on
harmonica.
It was followed by Second Winter
in 1970. His record sales peaked with Live Johnny Winter
And (1971) and Still
Alive and Well (1973). But his
career was hampered by drug and alcohol addiction, and by his
insistence on playing the blues, rather than switching to more
mainstream pop material.
He
made three well-received albums for Alligator from 1984 to 1986. He
also recorded for MCA and Pointblank/Virgin. He was inducted into
the Blues Hall of Fame in 1988, and was named one of the 100 greatest
guitarists in a Rolling Stone
poll. In his obituaty, colleague Tracy Nelson stated, “He did not
overplay, like a lot of white blues guitarists.”
In he
described as “the highlight of my life,” he produced his idol,
Muddy Waters' best album in many years, Hard Again,
for Blue Sky Records in 1976. (The title came from Muddy's reaction
to the sessions.) Winter played all the guitar solos and James
Cotton played harp. It earned a Grammy for Waters, as did two of
three followup albums also produced by Winter. A live album
featuring Waters, Cotton and Winter was released in 2007.
His
most recent album was Roots,
on the Magaforce label. Step Back
is scheduled for release in September.
Earlier this year, Columbia
released a four-CD career retrospective, True to the Blues.
A documentary film, Johnny Winter—Down and Dirty,
is currently in circulation.
