THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS USED UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF "FAIR USE" IN TITLE 17 & 107 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE. SUCH MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY. NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED…
T-Bone Walker was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound and the first musician recorded playing blues with the electric guitar…
In 1929, Walker made his recording debut with a single for Columbia Records, "Wichita Falls Blues"/"Trinity River Blues," billed as Oak Cliff T-Bone. Oak Cliff, a section od Dallas, TX, was the community he lived in at the time and T-Bone a corruption of his middle name (Thibeaux).
Arguably the first musician to employ an electric guitar, T-Bone Walker is without doubt the one who laid the foundation for what is known as modern urban blues AND, in addition to that, he was the FIRST guy to play behind his back and with his teeth!!!
On April 6, 1950 T-Bone recorded:
The Hustle Is On
AND…
Evil Hearted Woman
These recordings were made in Los Angeles, California, USA, for Imperial Records.
BONUS TRACK:
"T-Bone Shuffle" recorded 5-13-1949 Black & White recording by T-Bone Walker:
By 1974, persistent stomach woes and a 1974 stroke slowed Walker's career down to a crawl. He died of bronchial pneumonia following another stroke in March 1975, at the age of 64.
Walker was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California
In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked him at #47 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time"
R.I.P. T-BONE WALKER
THANKS FOR GETTIN’ THIS THING STARTED…
THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS USED UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF "FAIR USE" IN TITLE 17 & 107 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE. SUCH MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY. NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED
Bo Diddley and Screamin' Jay Hawkins play the second of 7 nights at The Apollo Theater, Harlem, New York City, USA. That’s how it was done in those days...
-- SEVEN nights of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Bo Diddley! Check it out…
Screamin’ Jay most likely opened the show doin’ his 1956 smash hit, “I Put A Spell On You”
(Note: Soon after the release of "I Put a Spell on You", radio disc jockey Alan Freed offered Hawkins $300 to emerge from a coffin onstage. Hawkins accepted and soon created an outlandish stage persona in which performances began with the coffin and included "gold and leopard skin costumes and notable voodoo stage props, such as his smoking skull on a stick – named Henry – and rubber snakes--A lot like this)
But the show wasn’t all about weird theatrics—Well, not all about that anyway... —Screamin’ Jay was at the Apollo in support of his newly released single, “FRENZY”
And also his new and “interesting” release of the Judy Garland hit “You Made Me Love You”
That wonderfully strange act leaves the stage and it’s time for the Bo Diddley Show!!!
--And Bo tore the place up with his latest single “Hey Bo Diddley”
And followed up with “Say Boss Man”
(Another 1957 release which remained in Bo’s shows for years to come)
Reminded everybody of the 1956 release “Pretty Thing”
And certainly blew the crowd away with “Diddy Wah Diddy” —This 1955 release came out of astar-studded recording session: With Willie Dixon on bass, the Moonglows doing the backup vocals, Little Willie Smith on harmonica, and Jody Williams along with Bo on guitar(s)…
Check out the studio version of this one!
Not a bad week at The Apollo!!!
THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS USED UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF "FAIR USE" IN TITLE 17 & 107 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE. SUCH MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY. NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED
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 ofChuck 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.
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?”
“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
THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS USED UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF "FAIR USE" IN TITLE 17 & 107 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE. SUCH MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY. NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED
