[Harp-L] "Race, Gender & the Blues"

[Mick Zaklan <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx>]

   Great, insightful comments by everybody.  This trend of Caucasians
outnumbering African-American performers in the Blues genre probably
started decades ago when AA bandleaders began having trouble finding young
AA sidemen interested in playing the music.  All of a sudden you had White
back-up bands with an AA front man.  There were advantages to having an
integrated band.  I'll give you an interesting example of what some might
call "racism".  In the early 70's, I drove my vision-impaired brother to an
audition with Chicago harpist Little Mac Simmons.  He (my brother) had
recently switched over from drums to guitar and had acquired a lot of chops
in a short amount of time.  The directions were confusing but eventually we
found ourselves in a basement with a 3-legged dog, a female  "secretary"
who was built like a Lil' Abner cartoon character, and suspiciously huge
amount of musical and video equipment.  A poster hung prominently on the
wall proclaiming, "I AM THE WORLD'S GREATEST HARMONICA PLAYER" Little Mac
Simmons.  The poster was an advertisement for "Pimp Oil", a car deodorant
that Mac endorsed for his humongous motor home.  Clearly, this cat had a
huge income from somewhere.  We were in an impoverished neighborhood with
tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff in this basement.
   Anyway, to cut to the chase, my brother played and I don't even think
Mac was around yet.  The band's other guitarist was Lonnie Brooks, who
hadn't embarked on his solo career yet.  I suspect that Lonnie probably did
the auditioning.  At some point a young AA kid with a guitar showed up
named "Deadeye" and clearly outplayed my brother.  He wanted the job, too.
My brother got the gig, it was felt that a White kid in the band would help
or allow Mac to get gigs in White clubs on Chicago's northside.  That's how
it was explained later.

Mick Zaklan