Detroit Blues/Jazz/R&B Legend, Johnnie Bassett dies at 76…

 

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Johnnie Bassett grew up with blues music all around him in his native Florida, then honed his craft in The Motor City…

Check out what he had to say about his “I Can Make That Happen” album…

His unique ability to combine jump blues and Delta stylings, coupled with Motor City grittiness, gives his playing a distinctive sound….

Johnnie was a link to Detroit's musical glory days, during Detroit's vibrant '50s…

having played behind such talents as Little Willie John, John Lee Hooker   

Dinah Washington:

Bassett was also a session guitarist for Detroit's legendary Fortune Records…

He also played on sessions for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles in the late '50s, before Motown was launched….

Bassett was born in Marianna, Fla., on Oct. 9, 1935. The Bassetts moved to Detroit in 1944, and his brother got him his first guitar, a Kay, when he was a student 
at Northwestern High School…

DETROIT'S NORTHWESTERN HIGH SCHOOL--A LOT OF TALENT!!!

.

Bassett took to the guitar, and 
as a teenager started playing at 
talent shows, 
theaters and nightclubs 
around Detroit 
with a friend from school, 
pianist Joe Weaver, 

in a combo they started 
calling Joe Weaver
 & The Blue Notes…

Bassett and the Blue Notes were playing 
hotspots such as Basin Street East 
and the Frolic Showbar before they were 
old enough to drink. 
They'd only been at the Frolic for three weeks 
when they were anointed 
the house band in the mid-'50s.

After Bassett's family moved to Detroit 
in 1944, he made his debut as a guitarist 
with Joe Weaver and the Bluenotes, 
a teenage R&B band. 
The group won local talent contests 
and were hired to back up
 Big Joe Turner

 

Ruth Brown 

and others on their tour stops in Detroit...
As a session guitaris at Fortune Records he 
backed up...

 Nolan Strong and the Diablos, 
   

Andre Williams and the Don Juans:

 and the Five Dollars…

During his Detroit days, he also accompanied 
John Lee Hooker,

 Eddie Burns,

Alberta Adams,  

Lowell Fulson  

AND:

The T.J. Fowler Band

 

In 1994, Bassett received a lifetime achievement award from the Detroit Blues Society. He later recorded an album for the Dutch Black Magic label, I Gave My Life to the Blues (1996)...

Bassett and his band, the Blues Insurgents -- which he'd been fronting since the early 1990s -- have made several U.S., Canadian and European tours in support of LPs including 1997's Bassett Hound

1998's Cadillac Blues…

Johnnie on Detroit Blues in 2008:

Bassett never retired from playing, 
his LIVE musical career only ended with his death,

this morning,   

August 4, 2012…

His genius is recorded and lives on…

“I Can Make That Happen” 

Johnnie’s latest release…

R.I.P. Johnnie 

You ARE a Motor City LEGEND!!!

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Billy Preston in Tropical Jon's Evolution of Rock 'n Roll...

William Everett " Billy" Preston

(September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006)

Billy Preston, sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle", played keyboards on "Get Back" and appeared with them on keyboards during their famous "rooftop concert" in 1969 (John Lennon even suggested at one point inviting Preston to become the fifth Beatle, to which Paul McCartney responded, "We have enough trouble with four")...

 

 

During the 1970s, Preston scored solo No. 1 hits with "Nothing From Nothing"
 and "Will It Go Round in Circles"

But what about prior to his fame with The Beatles and Solo Career?

Check out 11-Year-Old Billy Preston on the Nat King Cole show…

Billy was also a big Stones fan as is demonstrated here on a 1965 Shindig gig…

Check out Billy’s “process” and dance steps—and great musicianship doing “Midnight Hour”  on another Shindig gig…

And he KILLS on Maggie’s Farm on yet another Shindig gig (July 21, 1965)…

Billy got down with Dee Dee Sharpe Mashin’ Some Potatoes and doin’ some SLOW TWISTIN’ too!

Dig how Billy and Dee Dee teach “The Shindogs” (including Bobby Sherman) a bit about Rockin’ Soul…

Check out TV One's documentary on one of the best but underrated keyboardists in the history of music - Mr Billy Preston  

Welcome To Billy Preston.Net

R.I.P. Billy, You Gave More Than You Got, That's For Sure!!!

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Born in Detroit, Michigan on March 11,1945 and raised in Chicago, Harvey Mandel has performed with many blues legends including Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Albert King, and Buddy Guy.

Harvey Mandel in 1968

Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1945 and raised in Chicago, Harvey Mandel developed and mastered sustained and controlled feedback, displaying both extroversion and musical virtuosity.

Harvey Mandel in 1989

He has performed with many blues legends including Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Albert King, and Buddy Guy.

Check out a few of his tunes here, and then read the whole story of the Born in Detroit Legend…

One of Mandel's most significant session credits was his participation on Black and Blue, the 1976 LP from The Rolling Stones. His unique style is evident on the song "Hot Stuff."

PERUVIAN FLAKE, Harvey Mandel

Harvey toured and recorded with Canned Heat for over a year in their heyday with slide guitarist/vocalist Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson, and singer Bob "The Bear" Hite.

Harvey's nickname, "The Snake," given to him years before by keyboardist Barry Goldberg in Chicago (attributed to his cracked leather jacket and snake-like guitar licks), fit perfectly in the Canned Heat line-up.

Check out Harvey Mandel’s full biography...
 

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March 2, 1960: Buddy Guy hits the scene with his first Chess sessions...

Mar 02 1960

                                                                                                                    Buddy Guy undertakes his first recording session for Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. Critically acclaimed, he is a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation. "A key influence on Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy put the Louisiana hurricane in 1960s electric Chicago blues as a member of Muddy Waters' band and as a house guitarist at Chess Records. A native of the Baton Rouge area, he combined a blazing modernism with a fierce grip on his roots, playing frantic leads heavy with swampy funk on Howlin' Wolf's 'Killing Floor'

and Koko Taylor's 'Wang Dang Doodle'

  as well as on his own Chess sides and the fine series of records he made with harp man Junior Wells.

One of the last active connections to the golden age of Chess, Guy still plays with his original fire." (Wikipedia)

Buddy & Carlos Santana at Montreaux in 1974:

Buddy won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album “Damn Right, I’ve Got The Blues”

Buddy Guy / Montreux Jazz Festival 2008 

 (Follow the link, embedding not allowed, but ya GOTTA check this out!)

Guy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14, 2005 by Eric Clapton and B.B. King. Clapton recalled seeing Guy perform in London’s Marquee Club in 1965, impressing him with his technique, his looks and his charismatic showmanship. He remembered seeing Guy pick the guitar with his teeth and play it over his head—two tricks that later influenced Jimi Hendrix. Guy’s acceptance speech was concise: "If you don’t think you have the blues, just keep living."

ROCK ON BUDDY GUY!!!

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William James "Willie" Dixon (July 1, 1915 – January 29, 1992)

 William James "Willie" Dixon
July 1, 1915 ` January 29, 1992

Willie was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1915. Being exposed to a plethora of genres, including , gospel, blues, country & western, he started writing music at a very young age. He migrated to Chicago in 1936…

      Willie Dixon has been called “the poet laureate of the blues” and “the father of modern Chicago blues.”

 To his credit are over 500 songs written over his lifetime; in addition to playing bass, arranging and producing Chess Records

sessions for the likes of  Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson, and others…

      After an abbreviated stint as a boxer, his next fight was with the U.S. Army,--He refused induction on the grounds he was a conscientious objector.

Early on in Chicago he played with  the Five Breezes

The Four Jumps of Jive



The Big Three Trio



All three of those groups were making records.  

But, beginning in 1951, Dixon really established himself at Chess,

working  as a recording artist, session musician, in-house songwriter and staff musician.

That’s where he wrote;  “Hoochie Coochie Man,”  

and “I Just Want to Make Love To You”   for Muddy Waters,  

“Back Door Man,”

 “Spoonful"

  

“I Ain’t Superstitious” and “Wang Dang Doodle” which were hits for Howlin’ Wolf

 and “My Babe” for Little Walter.

It was during those days that he played bass on most of Chuck Berry’s early recordings. 

Although he’s most famous for his work at Chess, he also wrote for and worked with artists on Cobra label

 fostering the careers of Otis Rush

Buddy Guy



Magic Sam



 Dixon really came into his own, beginning in 1959 and into the Sixties,  writing and producing some of his greatest works during that decade.

It was 1959 when he recorded a series of albums in a duet format with Memphis Slim

on the Folkways, Verve and Battles labels,  releasing his first album, “Willie’s Blues,”

but it  would be 1970 before he produced his first solo album  “I Am the Blues.”  In the years that followed, Willie released a string of albums under his own name ,  including “Peace?”

culminating in the 1988 release of

Hidden Charms

“Hidden Charms”  won Dixon a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Recording.

 “The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits. It’s better keeping the roots alive, because it means better fruits from now on. The blues are the roots of all American music. As long as American music survives, so will the blues.”—Willie Dixon

In 1990, Chess Records released Willie Dixon: The Chess Box, a two-disc set that included Dixon’s greatest songs as performed by the artists who’d made them famous – Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, Lowell Fulson – and  Dixon himself...                                                    

Willie passed away on January 29, 1992 ~ R.I.P. WILLIE

Willie Dixon's official website




 

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