TOP TEN GUITAR ALBUMS THAT AREN’T BY JIMI ...
This is stuff I own on vinyl, it’s not in order of preference and many of them listed here are the first albums I bought by these guys and played to death as a student of guitar trying to absorb their vibes into my own playing ...
1. Freddie King : Texas Cannonball
2. Roy Buchanan : Roy Buchanan (first album)
3. Grateful Dead : Live Dead (for Garcia on Dark Star)
4. Frank Zappa : Hot Rats
5. Santana : Caravanserai
6. Albert King : I’ll Play The Blues For You
7. Harvey Mandel : Baby Batter
8. Albert Collins : Love Can Be Found Anywhere (Even In A Guitar)
9. Larry Coryell : Live at the Village Gate
10. Buddy Guy : 18 Tracks from the film Chicago Blues
Buddy Guy has his own excellent tracks with Junior Wells on this double LP and also appears with Muddy Waters. The film itself was shown on British TV in the early 70s and includes excerpts from these performances. I recorded the audio back then on an old Philips reel to reel recorder. Buddy’s version here of First Time I Met The Blues is in my Top Five Slow Blues That Aren’t Jimi. (It’s only a Top Five cos life’s too damn short for any more slow blues. That aren’t by Jimi ). The full Buddy track from the LP and the complete Chicago Blues film are below …
And much as I love Buddy, one of the most disappointing blues gigs I ever went to was this one …
Also saw Buddy at Glastonbury 20 years later, a much better set but left me wishing he still used that oldschool pure but biting tone rather than fuzzbox type distortion.
Below are Youtube tracks from each of the remaining TOP TEN ....
For Jerry G on Dark Star from Live Dead see "COLD + WET = DEAD" below.
And very honourable mentions for Otis Rush's early stuff, Wes Montgomery's non-easy-listening material, and John McLaughlin for his work with Miles Davis.
SCOUTING for ACOUSTIC BOYS : BADEN POWELL
Me scouting for acoustic players? That’s a search this electricity addict never bothered to make. Then I happened to find an album for £1 in a charity shop, bought it cos it was 30 years old and in immaculate condition, looked like it could therefore be worth more than £1. And so I came to hear Baden Powell. That’s Roberto Baden Powell de Aquino, a sublime Brazilian acoustic guitarist. Here he is in a couple of clips from the 1969 documentary movie Saravah and a performance clip tagged 1970 but I think it's from Germany 1974 ...
The full Saravah documentary is worth watching, it has a great vibe that makes the lack of subtitles on Youtube's full version of the film irrelevant. There’s also plenty more of Baden Powell's music on Youtube and here’s the Guardian’s obituary ...
Baden Powell Brilliant Brazilian guitarist who merged Latin rhythms with American jazz
by Jan Rocha
Mon 16 Oct 2000
The name Baden-Powell is synonymous with scouting, save in musical circles, where it denotes the brilliant, inspired, entirely Brazilian sambas and bossa nova songs of a slight, sensitive guitarist from Rio. Roberto Baden Powell de Aquino, who has died aged 63, was so named by his keen scoutmaster father in honour of the movement's founder, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, but it was the music in his blood that determined Baden's path.
His family was descended from slaves; his father, a shoemaker in Varre-e-Sai, a small town in the interior of Rio state, played the guitar at home and the tuba in the town band. His grandfather organised the first black orchestra in the region, and once, according to Mauro Dias, of O Estado de Sao Paulo, they "walked barefoot, because shoes pinched the feet accustomed to direct contact with the soil, to the capital to play at the municipal theatre, only putting on their shoes at the last minute".
The family moved to Rio while Baden was still a boy, and he grew up surrounded by musicians playing lively sambas and plaintive choros. At the age of six, he began plucking the strings of his aunt's guitar, and his father sent him to study classical music at the Rio conservatory. By the time he was 15, he was playing professionally. Soon he was accompanying some of the best-known singers of the day, playing on radio programmes, in nightclubs and dancehalls, and climbing the hills of the shantytowns to play with some of Rio's legendary sambistas. He began to compose his own music - his first recorded song was Samba Triste (Sad Samba) - and he went on to compose more than 500.
The African rhythms of traditional samba remained one of the fundamental influences in Baden's work, but in the early 1960s he became associated with the new music of the bossa nova, a stylistic version of samba influenced by jazz, and began to compose in partnership with the diplomat and poet Vinicius de Moraes, one of the great names of the bossa nova period. Together, they composed 50 songs, Baden writing the music, Moraes the lyrics. Mauro Dias wrote: "[Baden Powell's] melodies were always marked by a sensitive beauty, and his guitar interpretations were full of nuances, with improvisations that then turned into new masterpieces. But his touch was virile, the chords were always plucked with conviction, the pronunciation was very clear and brilliant." Ruy Castro, a Brazilian writer who knew him personally, said: "Baden was a genius typical of his time, that of the last romantic generation of popular music. There was a time when he was famous: his songs were played on the radio, maids sang Berimbau (one of his best known songs) as they swept the floor, everyone knew his name and he never worried about turning this into money."
The 1964 military coup in Brazil brought this period to an end. As repression and censorship took hold, Baden Powell joined the exodus of Brazilian composers and musicians who took the plane to Europe in search of a more creative atmosphere. For the next 20 years, he lived abroad, first in Paris, then in Baden-Baden in Germany - a joke, because of his name. As a result of playing at jazz clubs and festivals, he became better known in Europe than in his own country, to which he only returned for brief visits. After playing with Thelonious Monk and Stan Getz in Paris, he became a name in the United States, with his unique blend of samba, jazz and classical influences. By now, Baden had married and had two sons, born in Paris, but he was a heavy drinker, and sometimes would disappear for days on drinking bouts. Alcohol, and his total lack of interest in financial gain, meant that he never became wealthy.
"What messed him up were his personal life and a friend named Johnny Walker," said Ruy Castro. In 1997, having returned to live in Brazil, Baden converted to an evangelical Protestant faith, partly in an attempt to stop drinking. Under the influence of this religion, he never again played one of his best known compositions - Samba de Bencao (Samba Of The Blessing, which was used in French director Claude Lelouch's 1966 film, A Man And A Woman) - because the lyrics included the word "Sarava", the greeting of candomble , the afro-religion practised by many Brazilians. For evangelicals, candomble is the work of the devil. Weakened by alcoholism and a diabetic, Baden Powell was taken to hospital in Rio in August with pneumonia. He died of septicaemia. He leaves his wife and two sons, Louis Marcel Powell, a guitarist, and Philippe Baden Powell, a pianist, who played with their famous father at shows and recorded a CD with him before he died.
Roberto Baden Powell de Aquino (Baden Powell), musician, born August 3 1937; died September 26 2000
ROY'S BLUES ...
I first saw Roy Buchanan live at the old Marquee club in Soho in 1973. Up close in a small club, hypnotised by his sound and his complete mastery of the guitar. I’d become aware of Roy through the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test, where they broadcast a clip of Sweet Dreams (maybe from the 1971 PBS film?). At first I thought he was using a slide or a B-bender or something. Then the camera zoomed in it and became clear that his sound, the pure sustaining notes, the swooping string bends, the explosions of clicks and squawks were all in his hands with no apparent effects pedals being operated, just a beat-up (beautiful old) Telecaster with its lead plugged direct into a Fender amp. And this from a guy who looked completely un-hip, more like a geography teacher than a rock musician. I was amazed. I was hooked.
Here’s a video fragment of Sweet Dreams from BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test, this one filmed in the OGWT TV studio during the 1973 tour, a few days after the Marquee gig.
Here’s a LINK to my recording of Roy live at the Dominion Theatre, London 5th March 1985. A reasonable quality audience recording. Roy was supported by the Daintees at this gig, they then returned to the stage as his backing band. The setlist ….
Instrumental
Green Onions
Country Preacher
Peter Gunn
Roy’s Blues
Linda Lou
Walk Dont Run
Sweet Dreams
Instrumental
Hey Joe
Messiah
Roy Buchanan struggled with alcohol problems and died in a police cell in 1988 aged 49, apparently by hanging himself. Some suspect a police involvement in his death (a choke hold on an unruly drunk?). He had been arrested for public intoxication in his home town.
Here’s an in depth article about Roy’s life and professional career …
https://www.vintageguitar.com/2817/roy-buchanan
Roy had something special. I'm very glad I got to see him in action.
LC'S LPS ...
Larry Coryell has a stack of jazz-based LPs and live performances in his catalogue, I’m aiming to point fans of Jimi-style blues-fusion jamming at his early work, in particular live performances, from around 1969 - 1972.
I first became aware of Larry when he unexpectedly appeared onstage towards the end of Eric Clapton’s lame set at the Crystal Palace Garden Party in 1976.
I was only there to see Freddie’s performance earlier that afternoon. A bonus when he and Larry sat in on parts of Clapton’s set just as I started to head for the exit. That turned me around, and Larry jamming some fierce guitar set me searching for information on who this Coryell guy was. His and Freddie’s contributions that day also confirmed (to those of us who were there for Freddie not Eric) what a soul-less and anonymous player EC is most of the time, and certainly was that day. Takes some doing for the guitar hero frontman to be the least interesting thing about his own band. Cool that he invited other serious players to share his stage, but this gig, where he shared that stage with Freddie King, was just one week before Eric’s infamous go-home-coons rant at a Birmingham Odeon gig. What a sad racist dickhead.
Anyway, back in pre-internet days, if you wanted to hear more of a newly discovered artist the options were basically ask your mates if they had any (they didn’t), hope to hear something on the radio (where picking up European stations at night was always a better bet than the lame UK radio options) or ask a record shop to play you an album ahead of purchase. Unfortunately under those circumstances all I got to hear was Larry Coryell’s then current mid-70’s fusion stuff, which was a long way from his left-field rock-blues jamming at the Crystal palace gig. I put those albums back in the racks and it was quite a while before I discovered his earlier work. These days his 1971 LP Live at the Village Gate is in my Top Ten Guitar Albums That Aren’t By Jimi.
Larry Coryell was one of the very first to fuse rock guitar licks and sounds with an understanding of jazz structures and improvisation techniques. I don’t know if as a jazzman he acknowledges Jimi as an influence, but his professional career began around the same time that Jimi broke through in 1967, and I think Jimi’s influence can certainly be heard in his playing at the Village Gate gig, recorded January 1971 just 4 months after Jimi’s death in September 1970. The track below is not the most obviously Jimi-fied on the album, but it’s the standout composition I think …
An unofficial live recording exists sometimes dated Dec 1969 but more likely to have been Feb 1971 shortly after the Village Gate gig. Recorded in Grinnell Iowa, this show has a similar but expanded setlist and sounds like the
same trio. Sound quality is a bit distant but very listenable and the
playing is absolutely excellent. Worth searching the web, it shouldnt be too hard to find.
ELEMENTAL MY DEAR WATSONS ...
I played for a couple of years in a busy (but kinda cheesey) jive-blues band. Best things about that were two years stood next to a good harp player’s 4x10 Fender Bassman combo. And discovering Junior Watson. Turns out my number one jumpin rhythm and blues guitar players are both called Watson … Junior and Johnny Guitar. Nuthin elementary about Junior’s use of chords and his playing is always full of humour and surprise. And there is somethin elemental about his and Johnny Guitar’s tone and attack. Here they both are, jumpin the heck outa the blues, Johnny from back in the 1950’s, Junior 50 years later...
And here’s a LINK to my recording of Junior Watson with John Nemeth and the Rockets at Brighton Komedia in March 2006. Only the first set, I seem to have inexplicably lost the second.
Junior’s latest CD available via his website …
https://juniorwatson.com/store
Few of us can hope to match Junior, and I’m talkin bout beards, baby. But dont worry if you struggle to grow any kind of vaguely impressive facial hair. For only 6 dollars your problem is solved …
KING FREDDIE ...
(Aint No Sunshine from this 1972 show is also available on Youtube.)
There are a lot of Freddie King videos and live recordings out there, these are a couple of my favourites. I first saw him live at the Roundhouse in London 1973 or thereabouts. He came onstage after his band had played a couple of jumpin instrumentals with a kind of magically casual groovability the likes of which this pimply youth had never previously heard in a live band. First time I felt the funk and I was hooked.
So were we ready for Freddie? Damn right we were. He strolls on stage, a huge guy in platform boots and sequinned stage suit, a huge grin, he picks up his guitar, slings it over one shoulder, and hits what is still the best single note I ever heard. A sweet, screamin note, perfectly timed, huge toned, it blew my wannabe guitarplayer mind. That funky band, that concert, that doin-it-with-one-note thing was the most impressive thing I’d ever seen live. I saw more accomplished guitar players back then (Roy Buchanan at the old Marquee club in ’73 top of that list for me) I saw B.B. and Albert too, but Freddie was the man.
Here’s a download LINK to a very obscure and long deleted Freddie album in FLAC format. It's on Keith Tillman's Python label …
(The track listed as ‘Guitar Pickin’ is actually ‘Funky’ from his ‘Freddie KIng is a Blues Master’ 1969 album)
I bought the album in the 70s I think it was at Dobell’s in Charing Cross Rd. Apparently recorded early 1969, possibly at the Toby Jug pub in Tolworth, and with the British blues band Steamhammer as Freddie’s backing band. There was a second album sleeve in the racks, part one of the same show, but they couldnt find the vinyl behind the counter. Damn! If anyone reading this has it, please get in touch!
From Steve Davy, Steamhammer’s bass player on that tour …
“We rehearsed in a London pub,” Steve recalls, “He only gave us 20 minutes then said, ‘That’ll be fine – you’ve got the feeling,’ so we turned up to play gigs without quite knowing what was going to happen. He’d just yell out the key of the number, count it in, and we’d be away. Freddie King a huge man who wore a different-coloured suit every night. He had a bottle of Scotch in his dressing room and each night he’d drink most of it before he’d play. Onstage he was a ball of fire, he’d get every sound out of each note, a tremendous character with huge stage presence, but a warm and friendly man. It was a fantastic experience which also gave us publicity that put our name around.”
Freddie King's late-night, hard-drinkin, hard-tourin bluesman lifestyle cost him dear ... he died in 1976 aged 42.
Here’s a couple of tracks from Freddie's next visit to the UK, posted on Youtube by members of the British band Killing Floor who acted as his backing band on this later 1969 tour …
And here you’ll find some Killing Floor reminiscences about that experience …
https://www.mickclarke.com/freddieking.htm
And finally on the subject of the more obscure end of Freddie’s back catalogue, here’s a Smokey Smothers album featuring a young FK …
COLD + WET = DEAD ...
The Bickershaw Festival May 1972. It was cold and it was wet, but we got to see the Dead.
From a background of traditional acoustic bluegrass, Clarence White embraced electric guitar via the Telecaster and in 1968 joined the Byrds. He was the creator (with Gene
Parsons) of the B-Bender, a mechanical device designed to replicate
pedal-steel type sounds on a regular electric guitar by (you guessed it )
bending the B string. Clarence joined the Byrds after their psychedelic-folk-rock-pop phase as they moved towards (and helped create) country-rock, but to my ears there is something very psychedelic about Clarence’s ultra-fluid guitar work with the Byrds. (There’s also somethin psychedelic about actual pedal-steel sounds, specially if you’re teenage trippin at the Bickershaw Festival in 1972 listening to Buddy Cage on fuzzed-out pedal steel with the New Riders of the Purple Sage, but thats another story.)
Here’s Gatemouth on a 1954 single, sounding very like Johnny Guitar Watson!
And here a too-short piece from The Beat TV show in 1966, swappin licks with Freddie King. Gatemouth’s little solo is ultra-cool …
And Gate Walks To Board back in 1953 ...
Check out Gatemouth’s full story on the web, he was a one-off. And talking colours, he was raised in a town called Orange, Texas. Brown and White jammin in Orange, that woulda been some gig.
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