Monday, April 29, 2013

Clifton Chenier - "Ay-Tete Fee"

Clifton Chenier (June 25, 1925 - December 12, 1987), a Creole French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordionand won a Grammy Award in 1983. In 1984 he was honored as a National Heritage Fellow and in 1989 was inducted posthumously into the Blues Hall of Fame.
He was known as the 'King of Zydeco' and also billed as the 'King of the South'.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - "Depression Blues"


Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (April 18, 1924 — September 10, 2005) was an American musician from Louisiana and Texas. He is best known for his work as a blues musician, but embraced other styles of music, having "spent his career fighting purism by synthesizing old blues,countryjazzCajun music and R&B styles" His work also encompasses rock and rollrock musicfolkelectric blues, and Texas blues.
"Depression Blues" was the flip side of the 1951 instrumental "Okie Dokie Stomp".


Thursday, April 11, 2013

Cannonball Adderley Orchestra - "African Waltz"

Dad loved Cannonball Adderly's jazz. This is the title track from his 1961 album, "African Waltz," on Riverside Records.
This song was written by Galt MacDermot and it earned him a Grammy Award. MacDermot is probably best known for his music for the musical, HAIR.
Some of the players on this song include, Percussion – Michael Olatunji
Trombone – Arnett Sparrow, George MatthewsTrumpet – Joe Newman


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Boots Brown And His Blockbusters - "Juicy"

Boots Brown cut this knockoff of Bill Justis' "Raunchy" called "Juicy" in 1958. It's just similar enough to have the hit potential without blatantly plagiarizing the original. The A side is a "Tequila" ripoff called "Cerveza," which I will also post at some point in the future. If you like twangy guitars and sax, then you will dig this.
Reader snakeboy pondered if this might have been Boots Randolph and Chet Atkins. Looking into it, I found that Boots Brown was a pseudonym used by West Coast jazz trumpetist Shorty Rogers. He played with his backing band the Blockbusters which included the likes of Barney Kessel, Bill Pittman and Milton Norman on guitar, Red Callender on bass, Shelly Manne on drums and Larry Bunker on percussion. On this single the band featured Bud Shank, Jimmy Rowles and Mel Lewis. "Cerveza" went to number 23 in the U.S. charts in 1958.