[Harp-L] Junior Wells Live from '75 coming soon on Delmark!

[Kevin Johnson <bluesjazz@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just wanted to let all you Blues harp lovers know about this Junior Wells
release! 
> JUNIOR WELLS - LIVE at THERESAS LOUNGE, CHICAGO in 1975 !!!!!! - Delmark
> Records, coming mid October, 2006
> 
>  
>         JUNIOR WELLS, Live at Theresa's Lounge, from 1975!! Yeah, you read
> that right, and it's coming soon from Delmark!  The "Hoodoo Man," the
> "Godfather of the Blues" captured live in 1975, struttin' his baad stuff at
> his long time home turf on the South side of Chicago, Theresa's Lounge.
> Junior, along with guitarists Phil Guy, Byther Smith, and Sammy Lawhorn, take
> you back to the pinnacle of raw, funky, and gritty '70's Chicago Blues.
> Junior's larger than life personality and charisma, along with his distinctive
> and soulful singing/harp playing are all in full force on this Chicago winter
> night down at "Theresa's Hole."  To top it off,  his in-between song banter
> with his devoted crowd is hilariously entertaining.  This is another WXRT
> "Un-Concert" gem from the vaults recorded in 1975 by audiophile Ken Rasek,
> following the fall of 2005 historic blues recording of the year from Otis
> Rush, Live at the Wise Fools Pub, Chicago from 1976 on Delmark.  Are you as
> excited about this eagerly anticipated release from Junior as I am?!  You
> better "Snatch It Back and Hold It!"  Junior Wells is the Blues. (Amos "Junior
> Wells" Blakemore 1934-1998)
>  
> 
> --
> Kevin Johnson
> Director of Promotion
> Delmark Records
> 4121 North Rockwell
> Chicago, Illinois  60618
> www.delmark.com
> (773) 539-5001
> 
> Can I Do it Like I Want To?
> 
> Bob Koester remembers Junior Wells, from a past Rhythm & News
> 
>  
> I first heard Junior  Wells on the States 78's of "Hoodoo Man",* etc. during
> my days in St.  Louis. I later heard the Muddy Waters band on a trip to
> Chicago, at the Club Zanzibar c.1957 and was perturbed that Little Walter had
> left and a new guy had taken his place but when I requested Key To The Highway
> and Muddy said, "I think Junior Wells does that better than I do," Junior
> certainly cut Walter in the vocal department.
>  
> The University of Chicago's Folk Festival was always a few years ahead of the
> folk movement and had already presented Muddy and Memphis Slim before I moved
> to Chicago in 1958 so it was probably `59 when Junior performed at one of
> their excellent  festivals.  Junior did a great show that wasn't down-home
> enough for some of the crowd put off by the maroon band uniforms.
>  
> When Charlie Musselwhite came to work for Jazz Record Mart in 1962 we got
> better information about the blues clubs on the South and West sides.  He
> deserves credit for finding J.B.Hutto at Turner's but it was Don Kent (JRM guy
> now with Yazoo) who first urged me to go hear Junior at Theresa's.  Sunnyland
> Slim was subbing the first night but, at Blue Monday a few nights later, not
> only was Junior there, but Little Walter was a regular sit-in and I fell in
> love with the club.
>  
> The bartender, Carl Jones, owned  CJ Records,  which produced the first
> recordings of Hound Dog Taylor and Betty Everett among others.  He had sung
> with the Carolina Cotton Pickers and recorded six sides for Mercury in 1946 as
> Karl Jones, with Lonnie Johnson sharing the vocal chores and excellent New
> Orleans-style musicians filling out a band led by Richard M. Jones.  With all
> this going on and, at the time, no door charge on Monday nights and sometimes
> a great free lunch, it was a heady atmosphere.
>  
> Delmark had had some very modest success with the Big Joe Williams and Sleepy
> John Estes albums (though most of the LP blues market seemed to require
> caucasian interpreters), I had really gotten my head into the Chicago sounds
> but was nervous about the folk-blues audiences tastes and the additional costs
> of extra sidemen and studio time needed to properly deal with the newer
> idiom. (We were really scuffling in those days and any recording session
> screwed up the JRM budget for months.)  I finally decided that the music was
> just too damn good not to record!
>  
> I told Junior he could pick his repertoire, sidemen and did not have to limit
> himself to two or three minutes per song.  Junior used Buddy Guy for the
> session. During the session Buddy had a problem with his amplifier and, while
> engineer Stu Black repaired it in the control room, he wired Buddy through the
> Leslie system of the Hammond B-3 in the studio. I've always been amazed at how
> rarely reviewers commented on the guitar-organ tracks.
>  
> Buddy asked me to check with Leonard Chess to make sure there was no conflict
> with his situation there.  Chess's reply was "OK, go ahead but he doesn't sing
> and you don't use his name!" Years later we realized that Chess didn't sign
> contracts with his artists and Phil Chess OK'd the use of Buddy's name.
>  
> The resulting album, Hoodoo Man Blues (#612) was released in November of 1965
> and was our best-seller to date, shipping 1700 copies vs. c.700 for the Big
> Joe's and c.1300 for the Estes.  (We lost a few sales due to a delay caused by
> a decision to reprint the jackets 2-up with a Louis Armstrong Blues reissue
> from 1920's Paramount recordings -- the deal to buy Paramount fell through.)
>  
> Somewhere in the ether is about 15 minutes of releasable music (including a
> Guy-Wells duet) from that session.  It disappeared from the JRM basement
> (along with a few hundred LP's) -- my unwilling "contribution" to a white harp
> player's career.  (No, not anyone you've heard of.)  I learned years later
> that they probably thought it was blank tape and used it to record a
> rehearsal. 
>  
> The pseudonym for Buddy Guy, Friendly Chap, was suggested by another JRM
> employee, Peter Brown, who later had the Down With The Game label in the UK.
> Pete was our Brit-del-año: each summer a different English blues fan became
> part of a cultural exchange program.  (One of the later guys was pianist Pete
> Wingfield.) "A buddy is a friend, a guy is a chap."
>  
> Junior didn't want to sign an exclusive contract with little Delmark so he was
> free to do "Up In Here" which was his biggest R&B single and got him his
> three-year deal with Mercury.
>  
> Sam Charters says that Hoodoo Man Blues was a factor in his suggesting to
> Vanguard that they record the excellent 3-LP series, Chicago-The Blues-Today!
> which put the seal-of-approval on Chicago blues for the folkies. An option
> quickly picked up by that label kept Junior visible during a time when Delmark
> couldn't do a follow-up album and Mercury pitched Junior to the chitlin'
> circuit. 
>  
> I met my wife, Sue, due in part to Junior. She'd come into the store with a
> copy of Hoodoo Man and wanted to know what to get next. A few months later we
> were married. 
>  
> Shortly after the Mercury signing, Junior, following the success of Up In
> Here, was playing as many as four clubs a night (and sock-hops in area
> schools), touring the city in a limo.  One night we did the deal for a second
> album (to be cut as soon as he was free to do so,) in a limo ride between
> Peppers and the Blue Flame.
>  
> Years later Junior summoned me to T's to plan the album.  I figured he had
> probably forgotten all about the price agreed-upon but when I opened the
> subject of money I got "No dummy -- we agreed to $XXXX back then!"  Junior was
> always a man of his word.  The session came off with no problems worth
> mentioning but I was pleasantly surprised  (after leaving Junior the night
> before at 2 AM) to find that Otis Spann had been added to the personnel.
> Southside Blues Jam (#628)  picked up where Hoodoo Man left off and I believe
> this was Spann's last recorded performance before he passed.
>  
> I think it was about this time that, one night at Pepper's, Junior handed me a
> wad of cash. "Hold this for me while I do my set."  He didn't want an
> unsightly bulge in his clothes.   I later found out I had been entrusted with
> much more money that I had paid Junior for BOTH albums!
>  
> I always referred to Junior's impressive apparel as "plumage".  He later was
> more comfortable in denims, but in those days it was anything startling up to
> and including a zoot suit!  He couldn't possibly have purchased it all! But he
> was always "sharp as a dog's dick" as Speckled Red would say.  One night Chuck
> Nessa (yet another JRM employee at the time) and his wife were threatened by
> someone while Junior was on the stand at Pepper's.  Junior jumped off the
> stand, landed with a pistol in his hand, and Chuck still wonders where the
> heck he had stashed the piece in his tight fitting suit.
>  
> We rarely got hassled in blues bars but on a rare night at T's I got "Hey
> whitey, what are you doing here.  I can't come to your neighborhood!"  I told
> the guy, "as a matter of fact I live on the North side and you can" and
> dismissed the matter.   A few hours later we left the club, were followed by
> the two surly guys  -- followed by Junior, Theresa, CJ and about ten or
> fifteen T-regulars.
>  
> Toward the end of its existence, Peppers' musicians were hassled by a gang
> that extracted a ransom for each instrument and amp carried into the club.  I
> guess Lefty Dizz didn't want to pay when he was Junior's guitarist.  They
> attacked him right on the bandstand during one of Junior's sets. The gangster
> and Junior exited the club through a plate-glass window and the word was out
> that Junior better not come back to 43rd  Street for his next gig.  A few
> nights later Junior stepped out of his car with a shotgun, fired in the air,
> and 43rd Street was as safe as if the legendary Two-Gun Pete was on the job.
>  
> About this time Junior started using horns on the job and we followed suit
> with Junior Wells On Tap (#635) after his Atlantic contract expired. Asked
> about sidemen, he mentioned that he wanted "Sammy Lawhorn for flavor" and
> flavor we got!  It is, in fact, my favorite Wells album though far from a
> best-seller. I'm sorry we couldn't get the wonderful vocal duets Junior did
> with Byther Smith, Junior's other guitarist of that period (sometimes Phil Guy
> would make up a third!) Junior and Delmark had a verbal agreement to record a
> fourth album but I had to beg off the deal so I could expand JRM from 600
> square feet at 7 West Grand to 3000 sq. feet at 11 West Grand. By the time,
> years later, when I returned from a virtual bankruptcy caused by a thieving
> employee, Junior told mutual friends that the deal was still on, but by then
> he was really out of our financial league.
>  
> On and off the stand, Junior Wells was a prince .... irreplaceable as
> vocalist, harpist, band leader and great human being.