Meanwhile, back in Germany…Unlike his co-producers, Horst Lippmann was not concerned about selling enough tickets. He was confident that the Jazz “aficionados” would turn out for the blues; after all, blues are the roots of Jazz. He was wrong.
I mean, yes, blues is at the root of Jazz, but when the American Folk Blues Festival went out, the seats were not filled by Jazz “aficionados”. The asses in most of the seats belonged to young people just starting to get turned on to rock & roll. Some were drawn by the raw energy that streamed from the likes of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and T-Bone Walker. Others tracked the blues down via the more marketable Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly. The target audience Horst had to satisfy was eclectic: Jazz, folk, rock & roll, and of course, the real blues enthusiasts. Good luck Horst.
Horst recruited Willie Dixon to help line up performers. Willie, who was already booking musicians part-time, was a charismatic Bassist and songwriter, and a regular session musician at Chess Records in Chicago. Together with Lippmann, they put a superstar ensemble together that year, 1962: Memphis Slim (piano), T-Bone Walker (guitar), Shakey Jake (harmonica), Duo Sonny Terry (harmonica) & Brownie Maghee (guitar), Jump Jackson (drummer), Helen Humes (vocal), John Lee Hooker (guitar), and of course Willie Dixon (bass).
Willie did more than booking though, he arranged for birth certificates and passports, got everyone to the airport, oversaw rehearsals, organized the show, and generally held it all together. He was featured on show, on guitar and bass, plus filled the bass spot in the backing band for several of the years that the show took place. It’s safe to say it might not have developed into such and institution without him.
Then came the Manchester Free Hall show. No British blues publication existed at the time so fans relied on the local record stores, or the Bush Telegraph for information. One of the phones ringing belonged to a Blues collector in London, Dave Williams. Dave, and next-door neighbors Jimmy Page and Brian Jones, along with friends Keith Richards and Mick Jagger (just having formed the Rolling Stones), chipped in to rent a van to get to the gig. The audience rushed the stage. “It was chaos on the stage afterwards”, says Dave Williams. Being surrounded by fans asking for autographs was new for many of the artists. Supposedly, Mick Jagger played his harmonica for Shakey Jake, who reputedly said, “Hey, you a star, Man” .
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
