News & Updates — blues

The great Kaw/Creek saxophonist Jim Pepper was born today in 1941. His career covered jazz, pop, R&B, psychedelic rock and indigenous music and he is best known to '60s pop music fans as the composer of "Witchi-Tai-To". He also played clarinet, flute, sang and tap-danced. Pepper grew up in Portland OR and his first band of note was the Free Spirits, a mid-'60s NYC-based group that was one of the very earliest to explicitly fuse rock and jazz. The group also had Larry Coryell, Bob Moses & Chris Hills as members. They made a killer album in 1967 for ABC...

While he was much more than a two-trick pony, Junior Walker nevertheless can be immediately recognizable as a distinct saxophonist for the tunes "Shotgun" by his Jr Walker & the All-Stars and his guest appearance with his iconic solo on Foreigner's "Urgent". He got his professional start playing jazz & R&B in his hometown of South Bend, IN before moving onto to Battle Creek, MI. His group signed with Harvey Fuqua as a producer in '61, with the group now being called Junior Walker & the All-Stars, before being bought out by Motown in '64. With members of the Funk...

An OG proto-punk, Chester Burnett aka "Howlin' Wolf" was born on this day in 1910. In my opinion, one of the meanest sounds to ever grace records was his distinctively nasty growling voice and his raging tunes. "Smokestack Lightnin", "Moanin' At Midnight", "Evil", "Spoonful", "Killin Floor"...dosn't get any sicker! He came from Mississippi and learned guitar from Charley Patton, learned harmonica from Sonny Boy Williamson II and his vocal style was influenced by Jimmie Rodgers. In '51 he recorded for Sam Phillips in Memphis and moved to Chicago the next year to record for Chess. In the '50s he learned...

I first heard Johnny Ace in key scenes in flicks by Abel Ferrara and Martin Scorsese, that lamenting ballad "Pledging My Love" that underscores the wastes of life depicted for Harvey Keitel's character in Bad Lieutenant. It was the Memphis singer's biggest hit AFTER a game of Russian Roulette found a victim before his Christmas day show, dead at 25. He was a Beale Streeter with BB King and Bobby "Blue" Bland and signed to Duke in '52. By 1954 he was one of the best-selling artists in the country, with a string of hits like "The Clock", "My Song",...

One of the great icons, Skip James was one of the dark princes of the blues and his songs and guitar style was a huge influence on Robert Johnson. He came from the Mississippi Delta and recorded several sides for Paramount in '31 but they sold poorly during the Depression, yet upon discovery by a newer generation of blues fans leading up to the early '60s he became a legend. John Fahey, Henry Vestine and Bill Barth found James in a Mississippi hospital in '64. That same year he played the Newport Folk Festival which helped kick off the blues...