 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2018) |
Spivey Records was a specialist blues record label founded by blues singer Victoria Spivey and jazz historian Len Kunstadt in 1961. Spivey Records released a series of blues and jazz albums between 1961 and 1985.
The label recorded a wide variety of blues musicians who were friends of Spivey and Kunstadt, including Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Big Joe Williams, Lonnie Johnson, Memphis Slim, and Louis Armstrong. Kunstadt had a rough and ready approach to recording; he was known to walk through the session and shout "More mistakes!" [1]
On March 2, 1962, Bob Dylan contributed harmonica and backing vocals to a recording session featuring Big Joe Williams. These tracks appeared on Spivey LP 1004, Three Kings And The Queen. [2] However, this was not Dylan's first recording session. He had already recorded his debut album Bob Dylan for Columbia Records, which was released on March 19, 1962.
In recognition of her entrepreneurial achievements with Spivey Records, Spivey was awarded the "BMI Commendation of Excellence" in 1970. [3]
Victoria Spivey died in 1976. The label became dormant after the death of Len Kunstadt in 1996.
In 2007, Len Kunstadt's niece, Lisa Weiner, announced the revival of the label on the Spivey Records website. It was announced that audio engineer Doug Pomeroy had remastered the original tapes recorded between 1961 and 1986, and that Spivey LP1001 through Spivey LP1016 would be reissued on CD in 2008. Queries on the notice board of Spivey Records website indicate that as of October 2011, no reissued CDs are currently available. [4]
 | This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Formatting, non-use of wikitable(s), laundry list appearance, unreferenced.(October 2018) |
Buddy Tate Band; Hannah Sylvester; Lucille Hegamin; Victoria Spivey
Victoria Spivey
Big Willie Dixon; Sunnyland Slim; John Henry Barbee; Homesick James; St Louis Jimmy; Washboard Sam; Cocoa (Aka "Koko") Taylor; Evans Spencer
Roosevelt Sykes; Lonnie Johnson; Big Joe Williams (with Bob Dylan); Victoria Spivey
Big Joe Williams
Victoria Spivey; Memphis Slim; Little Brother Montgomery; Lonnie Johnson
Louis Metcalf; Sonny White; Jerome Patterson; Al Matthews; Struttin' Sam; Victoria Spivey
Otis Spann; George Smith; Luther Johnson; Sammy Lawhorn; Francis Clay
Muddy Waters Bluesmen; Harvey Hill; Koko Taylor; Memphis Slim; Babe Stovall; Big Joe Williams; Oliver Brown; J. B. Lenoir; Washboard Sam's Band; Victoria Spivey; Willie Dixon; John Hammond; John Henry Barbee; Viola Wells; Homesick James; Roosevelt Sykes
Otis Spann; Lucille Spann; Luther Johnson; Sammy Lawhorn; Little Sonny Wimberley; S.P. Leary; Paul Oscher; Pee Wee Madison; Willie Smith
Roosevelt Sykes; John Hammond; Victoria Spivey; Smokey Hogg; Washboard Doc; Smokey Hogg; Willie Dixon; Sunnyland Slim; Marie Dixon; Johnny Shines
Spivey's Blues Paraders: Bill Dicey, John Hammond, Bob Malenky, Roosevelt Sykes & Washboard Doc: Benny Jefferson; Pat Blackman; Sugar Blue & His Harmonica; Sippie Wallace; Billie Mitchell; Walter "Shakey" Horton, Sunnyland Slim & Johnny Shines; Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson, Little Brother Montgomery & Sonny Greer; Carolina Rose; Sonny Boy Williamson; Nita Washington; Washboard Bill; Little Sonny Parker; Delsey Maccay, Horton & Sunnyland Slim; Papa Comb & His Ukulele Mama; Lonnie Johnson
Otis Spann; Johnny Young; Luther Johnson; Peter Malick; S.P. Leary
Memphis Slim; Lonnie Johnson; Roosevelt Sykes; Victoria Spivey, Big Joe Williams and Bob Dylan; Big Joe Williams; Roosevelt Sykes and John Hammond; Victoria Spivey and Bob Dylan.
Bill Dicey's High Street Blues Band; Larry Johnson; Brooklyn Blues Busters; Danny Russo; Washboard Bill; Ted Stilles; Homesick James; Mark Ross & John Brenner; John Hammond; Johnny Shines, Big Walter Horton and Sunshine Slim; Bukka White; Bill Dicey and Sugar Blue; Ralph Rush; Harvey Hill; Ted Stilles; Louisiana Red; Victoria Spivey.
Willie Dixon Band; Buster Benton; Lafayette Leake; Larry Johnson; Carey Bell; Larry Johnson; Victoria Spivey.
Big Joe Turner Lloyd Glenn, Brenda Bell, Robert Ross, Bill Dicey, Washboard Doc
Victoria Spivey, Paul Oscher, Sugar Blue, Washboard Doc, Charles "Honeyboy" Otis, Smokey Hogg, The Dicey Ross Band featuring Bill Dicey and Robert Ross
Eunice Davis and the Spivey Low-Down Blues Privacy Invaders with Bill Dicey, Robert Ross, Jonathan Dreschler, Georges Morales, Andy Story, Washboard Doc
Victoria Spivey with Danny Russo plus Lefty Dizz and Larry Johnson
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)Robert Ross is an American blues singer, songwriter, acoustic and electric guitarist, slide guitarist, and harmonica player. He is the leader of the Robert Ross Band and The Jazz-Manian Devils. He also performs as a solo artist.
Robert Lockwood Jr. was an American Delta blues guitarist, who recorded for Chess Records and other Chicago labels in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the only guitarist to have learned to play directly from Robert Johnson. Robert Lockwood was one of the first professional black entertainers to appear on radio in the South, on the King Biscuit Time radio show. Lockwood is known for his longtime collaboration with Sonny Boy Williamson II and for his work in the mid-1950s with Little Walter.
Joseph Lee "Big Joe" Williams was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over five decades, he recorded the songs "Baby Please Don't Go", "Crawlin' King Snake" and "Peach Orchard Mama", among many others, for various record labels, including Bluebird, Delmark, Okeh, Prestige and Vocalion. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame on October 4, 1992.
The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June, that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and always occurs in early June. Until 2017, the event always took place at and around Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park, adjacent to the Lake Michigan waterfront east of the Loop in Chicago. In 2017, the festival was moved to the nearby Millennium Park.
Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer, guitarist, violinist and songwriter. He was a pioneer of jazz guitar and jazz violin and is recognized as the first to play an electrically amplified violin.
James Burke "St. Louis Jimmy" Oden was an American blues singer and songwriter.
Victoria Regina Spivey, sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer and songwriter. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, she worked with Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Luis Russell, Lonnie Johnson, and Bob Dylan. She also performed in vaudeville and clubs, sometimes with her sister Addie "Sweet Peas" Spivey, also known as the Za Zu Girl. Among her compositions are "Black Snake Blues" (1926), "Dope Head Blues" (1927), and "Organ Grinder Blues" (1928). In 1962 she co-founded Spivey Records.
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.
Ace Records Ltd. is a British record label founded in 1978. Initially the company only gained permission from the similarly named label based in Mississippi to use the name in the UK, but eventually also acquired the rights to publish their recordings. When Chiswick Records' pop side was licensed to EMI in 1984, Ace switched to more licensing and reissuing work. In the 1980s it also gained the licensing for Modern Records, and its follow-up company Kent Records, whilst in the 1990s, the company bought the labels including all original master tapes.
Blues Jam in Chicago is a recording by the British rock band Fleetwood Mac, originally released in two single-LP volumes by Blue Horizon in December 1969. It was the result of a recording session in early 1969 at Chess Records in Chicago with Fleetwood Mac, then a young British blues band, and a number of famous Chicago blues artists from whom they drew inspiration. The album has also been released, with slightly different track listings, under the titles Blues Jam at Chess Volumes One and Two and Fleetwood Mac in Chicago, the latter by Sire Records in 1976.
The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, United States, was established in full in 1980, and was one of the largest blues festivals and was the second oldest on the West Coast. It was held on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. For many years it was held on the athletic field on the California State University, Long Beach campus. The 2009 festival, the 30th annual, was held at Rainbow Lagoon in downtown Long Beach. The Festival went on hiatus in 2010, and has not been held since.
James Wesley "Red" Holloway was an American jazz saxophonist.
Debuting in 1973, the San Francisco Blues Festival was one of the longest running blues festival in the United States. Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the blues festival to educate the public about the history and evolution of the blues. Many of the performers at the early concerts were the pioneers and originators of the West Coast blues sound.
Leonard Gaskin was an American jazz bassist born in New York City.
Black & Blue Records was a record company and label founded in France in 1968 that specialized in blues and jazz.
"Don't Start Me Talkin'" is a blues song written and performed by Sonny Boy Williamson II. It was Williamson's first single recorded for Checker Records, and reached number three in the US Billboard R&B chart in 1955.
Ransom Knowling was an American rhythm and blues musician, best known for playing bass on many blues recordings made in Chicago between the 1930s and 1950s, including those of Arthur Crudup and Little Brother Montgomery.
Warren George Harding Lee, known professionally as Lee Jackson, was an American Chicago blues guitarist, bass guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although he did release a number of recordings in his own name, such as Lonely Girl (1974), he is most known for his work on recordings with other blues musicians such as Johnny Shines, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, J. B. Hutto, Sunnyland Slim, Lacy Gibson, and Little Walter. AllMusic noted that "the playing style of Jackson is vastly influential".
Joseph Doctor, known as Washboard Doc, was an American New York blues musician, who specialised in playing the washboard. He recorded with Victoria Spivey, Alec Seward, Paul Oscher, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Big Joe Turner among others.