American Folk Blues Festival

Last updated
American Folk Blues Festival
Genre Blues, folk music
Location(s)Germany, UK (Manchester, London), France (Paris)
Years active1962–70, 1972, 1980–83, 1985
Founded by Horst Lippmann, Fritz Rau

The American Folk Blues Festival was a music festival that toured Europe as an annual event for several years beginning in 1962. It introduced audiences in Europe, including the UK, to leading blues performers of the day such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson, most of whom had never previously performed outside the US. The tours attracted substantial media coverage, including TV shows, and contributed to the growth of the audience for blues music in Europe.

Contents

Background

German jazz publicist Joachim-Ernst Berendt first had the idea of bringing original African-American blues performers to Europe. Jazz and rock and roll had become very popular, and both genres drew influences directly back to the blues. Berendt thought that European audiences would flock to concert halls to see them in person.

Promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau brought this idea to reality. By contacting Willie Dixon, an influential blues composer and bassist from Chicago, they were given access to the blues culture of the southern United States. The first festival was held in 1962, and they continued almost annually until 1972, after an eight-year hiatus reviving the festival in 1980 until its final performance in 1985.

Performances and audiences

The concerts featured some of the leading blues artists of the 1960s, such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson, some playing in unique combinations such as T-Bone Walker playing guitar for pianist Memphis Slim, Otis Rush with Junior Wells, and Sonny Boy Williamson with Muddy Waters. The Festival DVDs include the only known footage of Little Walter, and rare recordings of Hooker playing harmonica instead of his customary guitar.

T-Bone Walker at a later iteration of AFBF, 1972 T-Bone Walker 1972.jpg
T-Bone Walker at a later iteration of AFBF, 1972

The audience at Manchester in 1962, the first venue for the festival in Britain, included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Jimmy Page. [1] Subsequent attendees at the first London festivals are believed to have also included such influential musicians as Eric Burdon, Eric Clapton, and Steve Winwood.[ citation needed ] Collectively, these were the primary movers in the blues explosion that would lead to the British Invasion.

Sonny Boy Williamson's visit to London with the 1963 festival led to him spending a year in Europe including recording the Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds album, [2] (first released on Star-Club Records in 1965), and recording with the Animals.

Performers

Blues musicians who performed on the American Folk Blues Festival tours included Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker, Sippie Wallace, T-Bone Walker, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Memphis Slim, Otis Rush, Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Boyd, Big Walter Horton, Junior Wells, Big Joe Williams, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Willie Dixon, Otis Spann, Big Mama Thornton, Bukka White, Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf (with a band made up of Sunnyland Slim, Hubert Sumlin, Willie Dixon and drummer Clifton James), Champion Jack Dupree, Son House, Armand "Jump" Jackson, Skip James, Sleepy John Estes, Little Brother Montgomery, Victoria Spivey, J. B. Lenoir, Little Walter, Carey Bell, Louisiana Red, Lightnin' Hopkins, Joe Turner, Buddy Guy, Magic Sam, Lee Jackson, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Roosevelt Sykes, Doctor Ross, Koko Taylor, Hound Dog Taylor, Archie Edwards, [3] Helen Humes and Sugar Pie DeSanto.

Discography

Many of the concerts were released on a long-running annual series of records, which was collated again for release in the 1990s.

Official:

Available on DVD:

Bootleg:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willie Dixon</span> American blues musician (1915–1992)

William James Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muddy Waters</span> American blues musician (1913–1983)

McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howlin' Wolf</span> American blues musician (1910–1976)

Chester Arthur Burnett, better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He was at the forefront of transforming acoustic Delta blues into electric Chicago blues, and over a four-decade career, recorded blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and psychedelic rock. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time.

Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but is performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of African Americans of the first half of the twentieth century. Key features that distinguish Chicago blues from the earlier traditions, such as Delta blues, is the prominent use of electrified instruments, especially the electric guitar, and especially the use of electronic effects such as distortion and overdrive.

Electric blues is blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930s and John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters in the 1940s. Their styles developed into West Coast blues, Detroit blues, and post-World War II Chicago blues, which differed from earlier, predominantly acoustic-style blues. By the early 1950s, Little Walter was a featured soloist on blues harmonica using a small hand-held microphone fed into a guitar amplifier. Although it took a little longer, the electric bass guitar gradually replaced the stand-up bass by the early 1960s. Electric organs and especially keyboards later became widely used in electric blues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonny Boy Williamson II</span> American blues musician (1912–1965)

Alex or Aleck Miller, known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp stylist who recorded successfully in the 1950s and 1960s. Miller used various names, including Rice Miller and Little Boy Blue, before calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson, which was also the name of a popular Chicago blues singer and harmonica player. To distinguish the two, Miller has been referred to as Sonny Boy Williamson II.

The Real Folk Blues is a series of blues albums released between 1965 and 1967 by Chess Records, later reissued MCA Records. Each album in the series highlighted the music of one major Chess artist, including John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Sonny Boy Williamson II. The series, overseen by Marshall Chess, was a reaction to the increasing audience for the blues following the British Invasion. Companion discs, titled More Real Folk Blues, were released for many of the artists. Hooker's companion disc was not released until 1991. Beginning in 1999 the albums were re-released as single-disc compilations.

<i>At Newport 1960</i> 1960 live album by Muddy Waters

At Newport 1960 is a live album by Muddy Waters recorded during his performance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 3, 1960. With his longtime backup band, Muddy Waters plays a mix of his older popular tunes and some newer compositions. Chess Records released the album in the United States on November 15, 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoochie Coochie Man</span> Blues standard written by Willie Dixon

"Hoochie Coochie Man" is a blues standard written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954. The song makes reference to hoodoo folk magic elements and makes novel use of a stop-time musical arrangement. It became one of Waters' most popular and identifiable songs and helped secure Dixon's role as Chess Records' chief songwriter.

<i>I Am the Blues</i> 1970 studio album by Willie Dixon

I Am the Blues is the sixth studio Chicago blues album released in 1970 by the well-known bluesman Willie Dixon. It is also the title of Dixon's autobiography, edited by Don Snowden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luther Tucker</span> American blues guitarist

Luther Tucker was an American blues guitarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horst Lippmann</span>

Horst Lippmann was a German jazz musician, concert promoter, writer and television director, best known as promoter of the influential American Folk Blues Festival tours of Europe during and after the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lafayette Leake</span> American musician

Lafayette Leake was an American blues and jazz pianist, organist, vocalist and composer who played for Chess Records as a session musician, and as a member of the Big Three Trio, during the formative years of Chicago blues. He played piano on many of Chuck Berry's recordings.

"I'm Ready" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954. It was a hit, spending nine weeks on the Billboard R&B chart where it reached number four. The song became a blues standard and has been compared to "Hoochie Coochie Man", the standard also written by Dixon that Waters recorded earlier in 1954.

Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers was a Chicago blues guitarist and singer. He was a member of Howlin' Wolf's backing band and worked with Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Bo Diddley, Ike Turner, J. T. Brown, Freddie King, Little Johnny Jones, Little Walter, and Willie Dixon. His younger brother, Abe, was the bluesman Little Smokey Smothers, with whom he is sometimes confused.

"Chicago" Bob Nelson was an American blues musician.

Sammy David Lawhorn was an American Chicago blues guitarist, best known as a member of Muddy Waters's band. He also accompanied many other blues musicians, including Otis Spann, Willie Cobbs, Eddie Boyd, Roy Brown, Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, James Cotton and Junior Wells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz Rau</span>

Fritz Rau was a German music promoter, who was influential in the development of the appreciation of jazz and blues music in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, and has since been a leading promoter of rock and pop music. He was nominated to the Blues Hall of Fame in 2012, together with his former business partner Horst Lippmann.

Johnny "Big Moose" Walker was an American Chicago blues and electric blues pianist and organist. He worked with many blues musicians, including Ike Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Lowell Fulson, Choker Campbell, Elmore James, Earl Hooker, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Dawkins and Son Seals.

Joe Bennie Pugh, known as Forrest City Joe or Forest City Joe, was an American blues musician who is mainly remembered for his ability as a harmonica player. He performed with other major blues acts of the period; he was the harmonica player in Muddy Waters's first band and regularly performed in the Chicago area. Despite his meager recording career, Joe was considered one of the top harmonica players of the era.

References

  1. "American Folk Blues Festival Live In Manchester 1962". Manchester: Piccadilly Records. 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
  2. Sonny Boy Williamson discography at Discogs
  3. "Archie Edwards biography by Linda Seida". Allmusic.com. Retrieved September 15, 2011.

Bibliography