Getting the ball rolling on this to try and tempt Tichteid into action
Bill Doggett
William Ballard Doggett (February 16, 1916 – November 13, 1996)[1] was an American pianist and organist.[2] He began his career playing swing music before transitioning into rhythm and blues.[3] Best known for his instrumental compositions "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", Doggett was a pioneer of rock and roll.[4] He worked with the Ink Spots, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Jordan.[1]
Bill Doggett - Hippy Dippy
and because I can - the first track of his I came across is obviously more during his Jazz phase, but if you like Jazz then this is great:
More than happy to contribute, there'll be long gaps though if left to me
Noble "Thin Man" Watts (February 17, 1926 – August 24, 2004)[1] was an American blues, jump blues[2] and rhythm and blues saxophonist. He primarily played tenor saxophone. The AllMusic journalist, Bill Dahl, considered Watts "one of the most incendiary [...] fire-breathing tenor sax honkers" of the 1950s.[3]
Couldn't agree with slick more, great stuff, and if a couple of you do it is brilliant. I shall not miss a day in here to check who is the day's bluesman!!
Okay, here we go. I don't make any distinction between jazz, blues or soul, from the one chord thump of hill country blues through the sweet tones of Rev. Al Green to John Coltrane's Giant Steps, it's all "The Blues" to me.
This is to run for a year. There will be days when there isn't a Blues Birthday, so that will be a chance to catch up on those who share a birthday with someone else.
From wiki
Irma Thomas (née Lee; born February 18, 1941)is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans".
Thomas is a contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, but never experienced their level of commercial success. In 2007, she won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album for After the Rain, her first Grammy in a career spanning over 50 years
Tichtheid wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 11:19 am
Okay, here we go. I don't make any distinction between jazz, blues or soul, from the one chord thump of hill country blues through the sweet tones of Rev. Al Green to John Coltrane's Giant Steps, it's all "The Blues" to me.
This is to run for a year. There will be days when there isn't a Blues Birthday, so that will be a chance to catch up on those who share a birthday with someone else.
From wiki
Irma Thomas (née Lee; born February 18, 1941)is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans".
Thomas is a contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, but never experienced their level of commercial success. In 2007, she won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album for After the Rain, her first Grammy in a career spanning over 50 years
Funny I always thought of her as a Blues singer, but lines get blurred a bit.
Earl Bell, born Feb 14th 1914 on a plantation near Hernando Mississippi. He missed the boat somehow when Country Blues became popular in the 1960s when the record companies were signing up Bluesmen from all over, plus he had been too young when the early field recordings were being made in the '20s.
This is an incredibly clean recording
I did notice that it is also Smokey Robinson's birthday and spent a bit of time searching through his back catalogue seeing if I could find anything that resembles The Blues - without success.
Jimmy Yancey, born 20th of February 1898. In what will become a recurring theme, there is a little bit of confusion as to the actual year of his birth - birth certificates and records were not always the most accurate, if they existed at all.
Jimmy took to the road with his father and brother, he was a tap dancer whilst his brother played piano. Jimmy took up the piano himself and became a pioneer of what became known as the Boogie-woogie style. Jimmy played professional baseball for Chicago in what was a segregated league, known as the Negro Leagues, before committing to music full time. He married singer Estella Harris, together they were known and Papa and Mama Yancey, their career included an appearance at Carnegie Hall.
Tichtheid wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 7:35 am
Jimmy Yancey, born 20th of February 1898. In what will become a recurring theme, there is a little bit of confusion as to the actual year of his birth - birth certificates and records were not always the most accurate, if they existed at all.
Must admit to not knowing of Jimmy Yancy, but love the Boogie-Woogie piano style. Love the pianists in blues anyway Memphis Slim etc etc. This is great.
Also agree how clean is that recording of Earl Bell?
Tichtheid wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 7:35 am
Jimmy Yancey, born 20th of February 1898. In what will become a recurring theme, there is a little bit of confusion as to the actual year of his birth - birth certificates and records were not always the most accurate, if they existed at all.
Must admit to not knowing of Jimmy Yancy, but love the Boogie-Woogie piano style. Love the pianists in blues anyway Memphis Slim etc etc. This is great.
Also agree how clean is that recording of Earl Bell?
Tomorrow's Blues Birthday is a household name, and they are all great for a reason, they are absolutely wonderful musicians and trailblazers, but I'm particularly interested in the lesser- known artists - that's the fun part of this for me.
Tichtheid wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 7:35 am
Jimmy Yancey, born 20th of February 1898. In what will become a recurring theme, there is a little bit of confusion as to the actual year of his birth - birth certificates and records were not always the most accurate, if they existed at all.
Jimmy took to the road with his father and brother, he was a tap dancer whilst his brother played piano. Jimmy took up the piano himself and became a pioneer of what became known as the Boogie-woogie style. Jimmy played professional baseball for Chicago in what was a segregated league, known as the Negro Leagues, before committing to music full time. He married singer Estella Harris, together they were known and Papa and Mama Yancey, their career included an appearance at Carnegie Hall.
Great call. Despite being into early blues since my teens, I've only become exposed to old piano blues in the last year or two - mainly because I've been trying to get back into playing piano and Yancey's How Long Blues ( - not to be confused with the Leroy Carr song of the same name) is one of the pieces I stuck with long enough to be able to play ok - at least to my own unambitious and uncritical standard. I often get sick of a music piece before I can play it well but I've listened to this piece of seemingly simple almost primitive early piano blues hundreds of times (there are 3 versions Yancey recorded and a number of incredible "modern" renditions as well as my own ham-fisted attempts) and have yet to tire of it and still pick up fresh little subtleties with each listen.
A bit of your biography leaves out is that Yancey ended up leaving music as a profession and ended up working as a baseball groundsman before being "rediscovered" in the late 40s - all the recordings of his playing are from this time (and his appearance in Carnegie Hall was part of this rediscovery) so we have no recordings of this early work in the 1910s and 1920s when his influence was immense.
The likes of Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Perkins, etc. were superstars during the short period when boogie-woogie piano was a popular sensation/phenomena and all were massively influenced by Yancey. By "influenced", I mean they heard and copied his approach.
Admittedly they also evolved the Yancey style - which is far more laid back than the thumping pounding piano style which boogie-woogie was famous for.
One of Yancey's left hand patterns known as the "Yancey bass" or "Yancey left hand" is now a blues cliche. And while boogie-woogie piano lost it's popular appeal relatively quickly, the Yancey bass was picked up by many - notably Fats Domino - and given Fats' key role in the development of rock and roll, I like to think that Yancey's legacy has lived on via rock and roll.
Tichtheid wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 7:35 am
Jimmy Yancey, born 20th of February 1898. In what will become a recurring theme, there is a little bit of confusion as to the actual year of his birth - birth certificates and records were not always the most accurate, if they existed at all.
Must admit to not knowing of Jimmy Yancy, but love the Boogie-Woogie piano style. Love the pianists in blues anyway Memphis Slim etc etc. This is great.
Also agree how clean is that recording of Earl Bell?
Tomorrow's Blues Birthday is a household name, and they are all great for a reason, they are absolutely wonderful musicians and trailblazers, but I'm particularly interested in the lesser- known artists - that's the fun part of this for me.
Yep mate, there are so many of them out there that don't spring to everyone's mind.
Eunice Kathleen Waymon born February 21, 1933, known professionally as Nina Simone - a name she adopted to keep her identity a secret from her church and her family.
She was supposed to be a classical pianist but she didn't gain entry to music school, a decision she was convinced was because of the colour of her skin.
I wouldn't normally do two separate artists one the one day, but this is a goody and I can't wait a year.
Rhiannon Giddens is one of those people with so much talent it almost seems unfair - born 21st February 1977.
This is just to prove that The Blues isn't a museum genre full of old guys from the Mississippi Delta a hundred years ago, it's living, breathing art form
"Ernest Kador Jr. (February 22, 1933 – July 5, 2001),known by the stage name Ernie K-Doe, was an American R&B singer best known for his 1961 hit single "Mother-in-Law", which went to number 1 on the Billboard pop chart in the U.S."
This is a 1960s/70s stand up comic's joke in song form, but it does have a groove.
Tichtheid wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 7:43 am
"Ernest Kador Jr. (February 22, 1933 – July 5, 2001),known by the stage name Ernie K-Doe, was an American R&B singer best known for his 1961 hit single "Mother-in-Law", which went to number 1 on the Billboard pop chart in the U.S."
This is a 1960s/70s stand up comic's joke in song form, but it does have a groove.
Dan54 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 6:59 am
Amazing artist Rhiannon Giddens isn't she, enjoyed and first heard her with Carolina Chocolate Drops.
This is just an aside, normal Blues Birthdays service will be resumed after, but this is just to show Rhiannon Giddens' range. There is a style of mouth music in the Scottish Western Highlands called Puirt à Beul, the rhythm and vocables are more important than the actual words, sometimes the words are nonsense lyrics. It takes a heck of a lot of talent to sing Scottish Gaelic mouth music in Glasgow as a non-native and tear the roof off the place
That's very impressive, especially nailing some of the Gaelic pronunciations that aren't shared with English. Ironically I was hearing elements in her previous track that reminded me a little bit of Irish Trad music, but just put it down to my own projection - less sure of that now.
John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter and record producer. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums, live performances and slide guitar playing from the late 1960s into the early 2000s. He also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
PornDog wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:12 pm
That's very impressive, especially nailing some of the Gaelic pronunciations that aren't shared with English. Ironically I was hearing elements in her previous track that reminded me a little bit of Irish Trad music, but just put it down to my own projection - less sure of that now.
There is a school of thought that says Gospel music traces its lineage back to the Gaelic psalm singing in the Western Isles. I remember a tv documentary about it around d the time of the article I'll link to at the end. There are very strong connections between the traditional music of the Western Isles and Irish trad - that stuff was taken over to Appalachia and became "Old Time" or latterly Bluegrass.
PornDog wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:12 pm
That's very impressive, especially nailing some of the Gaelic pronunciations that aren't shared with English. Ironically I was hearing elements in her previous track that reminded me a little bit of Irish Trad music, but just put it down to my own projection - less sure of that now.
There is a school of thought that says Gospel music traces its lineage back to the Gaelic psalm singing in the Western Isles. I remember a tv documentary about it around d the time of the article I'll link to at the end. There are very strong connections between the traditional music of the Western Isles and Irish trad - that stuff was taken over to Appalachia and became "Old Time" or latterly Bluegrass.
PornDog wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:12 pm
That's very impressive, especially nailing some of the Gaelic pronunciations that aren't shared with English. Ironically I was hearing elements in her previous track that reminded me a little bit of Irish Trad music, but just put it down to my own projection - less sure of that now.
There is a school of thought that says Gospel music traces its lineage back to the Gaelic psalm singing in the Western Isles. I remember a tv documentary about it around d the time of the article I'll link to at the end. There are very strong connections between the traditional music of the Western Isles and Irish trad - that stuff was taken over to Appalachia and became "Old Time" or latterly Bluegrass.
There are lots of different Afro-Gaelic connections in the US. "Can you dig it?" or "you dig?" is thought to come from shared workplaces in the the mid 19th century, where a Gaelic speaker might have showed their new black colleague how to do something and asked them if they understand, or "an tduigeann tú?" (on dtigg-ann too), to which they might have responded with "oh I digg it" or "I'm digging it".
Fred Leroy Robinson (also known as Abu Taib after converting to Islam) February 24, 1939 – October 8, 2009
In a career spanning 50 years, he played with Ray Charles, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and dozens of lesser-known artists in blues and R&B.
Freddie Robinson - At the Drive-In
FREDDIE ROBINSON - Black Fox
Have to say I'm loving exploring all of these blues artists, most of whom I've never heard fo before.
I came here to post a Blues Birthday but you got there ahead of me. I'll do it anyway as I've got the song I like
Elmon "Driftin Slim" Mickle
Blues singer, harmonica and guitar player, born February 24, 1919, in Keo, Arkansas, died September 15, 1977, in Los Angeles, California.
In the mid-1940s he frequently worked with Sonny Boy Williamson in the Little Rock area. He made his first recordings for Modern in North Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1952, moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and made further recordings there, all for smaller companies, 1959-1969.
Ida M. Cox (née Prather; February 26, 1888, (perhaps)) was an American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings. She was billed as "The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues"
Antoine Dominique Domino Jr.(February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.
Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians, which included other greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell. Gordon's height was 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm), so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" and "Sophisticated Giant". His studio and performance career spanned more than 40 years.
This is one of those days we we go back a little to one that was missed due to a double booking.
Bob, "The Bear" Hite, born February 26th 1943, lead singer in Canned Heat.
Canned Heat were named after an old Tommy Johnson song, Canned Heat Blues, about an alcoholic who took to drinking cooking fuel as cheap way to get drunk.
The band were real Blues fans and used their music to promote the original singers and musicians, in fact I've always thought Hite's falsetto singing reminded me of someone like Skip James. Hite came to a terrible end, snorting heroin given to him by a fan, thinking it was cocaine. He was just 38 years old.
Tichtheid wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 8:31 am
This is one of those days we we go back a little to one that was missed due to a double booking.
Bob, "The Bear" Hite, born February 26th 1943, lead singer in Canned Heat.
Canned Heat were named after an old Tommy Johnson song, Canned Heat Blues, about an alcoholic who took to drinking cooking fuel as cheap way to get drunk.
The band were real Blues fans and used their music to promote the original singers and musicians, in fact I've always thought Hite's falsetto singing reminded me of someone like Skip James. Hite came to a terrible end, snorting heroin given to him by a fan, thinking it was cocaine. He was just 38 years old.
This is band I looked forward to seeing a few (6-7) years back. Enjoyed them somewhat, but knew I never needed to see tham again. Regardless of line up changes were still doing same songs they did in 60s/woodstock, with seemingly no feel for the crowd. Got an ex lead singer (James Last)up to do 'Going up the country) and Fito de la Parra, seemed to be upset that crowd enjoyed him, and was a particularly grumpy bastard! Also the Boogie With Canned Heat sign pinned up above the band looked tacky to me.
James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards "I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary People)" and "It's The Dreamer In Me". His other major recordings were "Tailspin", "John Silver", "So Many Times", "Amapola", "Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil)", "Pennies from Heaven" with Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and Frances Langford, "Grand Central Getaway", and "So Rare". He played clarinet on the seminal jazz standards "Singin' the Blues" in 1927 and the original 1930 recording of "Georgia on My Mind", which were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
I don’t know why, but this song made me laugh out loud, I do quite like some of this stuff but it’s just so far removed from the juke joints or bars or even front porches where the music comes from. I remember reading Frank Sinatra describe his own music as “polite jazz”, this could be courteous or gallant jazz
Dan, I'll definitely come back to the big band theme if not only for the reason that I really like it, though perhaps not with so much sugar on it. In fact there is a birthday today that I'll use to fill in on a fallow day, but for now I'm going with -
Walter Davis (born March 1, 1911 or 1912) was an American blues singer, pianist, and songwriter who was one of the most prolific blues recording artists from the early 1930s to the early 1950s. He was unrelated to the jazz pianist Walter Davis, Jr.
Davis had a rich singing voice that was as expressive as the best of the Delta blues vocalists. His best-known recording, a version of the train blues standard "Sunnyland Blues", released in 1931, is more notable for the warmth and poignancy of his singing than for his piano playing. His best-known songs included "Come Back Baby", "Ashes in My Whiskey" and "Blue Blues". Davis was sometimes billed as "Hooker Joe".
His bio is worth a read on Wiki of anyone is interested
Here he is singing and playing piano with Henry Townsend on guitar, "Ashes in my Whiskey", which is never a good thing.
