Yesterday was Bo Diddley's birthday. He left an indelible mark on the Blues and rock n roll. Impossible to forget that Bo Diddley beat.
We have officially changed the name of Blues Blast to PHOENIX BLUES BREWS & BBQ FESTIVAL. After 30 years we thought it was time for a change. It'll take place on March 21 at Hance Park. I'll post the lineup as soon as it's finalized. Stay tuned.
Dr. Johnston is getting ready for her annual HART Fund fundraiser on Valentine's weekend. Always a huge show. Steve Cropper is gonna be there once again. And a lot of other folks who we'll post ASAP.
PBS would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Be safe and hug somebody. You have an excuse tonight.
See you next year!!
Sincerely,
Jim Crawford - PBS
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 Bo Knows Blues
by Adam Sweeting
Bo Diddley, who died at age 79, was belatedly acknowledged as one of the most widely-copied pioneers of rock'n'roll music, but he didn't bother to hide his disgust about the decades he'd spent struggling for the recognition he felt was his due. He had been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland in 1987, and was added to the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 1989. In 1996, he was given a lifetime achievement award at the Rhythm & Blues Foundation pioneer awards, and another lifetime award from the Grammys in 1998. But, as Bo pointed out, "it didn't put no figures in my chequebook. It just told people they thought enough of Bo Diddley for me to be honoured by putting my name on something, which was really great. But it didn't put no bucks in my kitty." Diddley was born Otha Ellas Bates in McComb, Mississippi, though his surname changed to McDaniel during his infancy when he was adopted by his mother's cousin, Gussie McDaniel. He moved to Chicago when he was eight, and the fateful name change to "Bo Diddley" occurred during his teens, when he was training as a golden gloves boxer, though Diddley himself was never certain how the name came about. "I don't know where they got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name," he remembered. He became involved in music while still at school, singing on street corners, learning guitar and performing with the Hipsters and the Langley Avenue Jive Cats. He had even begun studying classical violin, but it was when he heard bluesman John Lee Hooker that he was inspired to move towards blues and R&B. However, he was to spend several years playing in clubs and bars around Chicago before he managed to catch the attention of the record industry. It was not until 1955 that Diddley earned himself a recording deal with Chicago's Checker label, a subsidiary of Marshall Chess's famous Chess Records. The company had been impressed with his demo recordings of "I'm A Man," "You Don't Love Me," and his theme tune, Bo Diddley, and duly released the latter as his first single. It went to number two on the US R&B charts, boosted by having the sizzling
"I'm A Man" for its b-side. With his very first release, Diddley had imprinted his trademark style on the world. The records with which he would regularly blitz the charts throughout the 1950s were piledriving performances packed with grinding guitar riffs, bluesy harmonica and his familiar paint-stripping vocals, all roped together around the spine-rattling rhythms which have remained his most distinctive characteristic. Until 1962, the hits kept on coming, from Who Do You Love and Crackin' Up to Road Runner and You Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover. Despite his long streak of success, Diddley was nonetheless heard mostly on the R&B charts, with only the jokey Say Man in 1959 crossing over to the pop charts, where it climbed to number 20. Subsequently, Diddley would claim that for all his hits, he was never paid royalties throughout these years. "I am owed," he commented darkly. "I've never got paid. A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun." Racial segregation was still a fact of American life, and Diddley was less than amused when he saw the way in which white artists were able to exploit aspects of his style to achieve major crossover pop success. Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away was built on his version of the classic Bo Diddley beat. In Britain, any number of artists, including the Yardbirds, the Animals, the Pretty Things and the Rolling Stones, revered Diddley and either covered his songs or wrote their own Diddleyised material. When Bo toured Britain in 1963, the Stones were on the same bill, and dropped all Diddley songs from their set as a mark of respect to the man himself. With new artists emerging during the pop boom of the 1960s, Diddley slipped from the musical forefront. He always maintained a vigorous touring schedule, but new Diddley recordings arrived only intermittently after the mid-Sixties, and his material never matched the force of his original classics. The fact that he served for two years in the early Seventies as Deputy Sheriff in Los Lunas, New Mexico perhaps indicates his disillusionment with the music industry. However, even if Diddley felt he'd never been paid what he was owed, successive generations of musicians continued to be aware of his primordial influence on rock'n'roll. In 1973, he recorded The London Bo Diddley Sessions with several British musicians including Roy Wood of Wizzard, and the same year film-goers saw Bo in Let The Good Times Roll, alongside such contemporaries as Bill Haley and Little Richard. He also featured in Donn Pennebaker's documentary, Keep On Rockin'. In 1976, RCA released 20th Anniversary Of Rock'n'Roll, a tribute to Diddley featuring a stellar roll-call including Alvin Lee, Joe Cocker, Keith Moon, Billy Joel and Roger McGuinn. Diddley's reputation gained a further boost when The Clash invited him to open for them on their 1979 American tour, and he made a cameo appearance in the Dan Aykroyd/Eddie Murphy comedy Trading Places in 1980. In 1989, Bo performed at the "Celebration For Young Americans" at George Bush's Presidential inauguration, and made a TV commercial for Nike shoes in which he co-starred with baseball player Bo Jackson. "I never could figure out what it had to do with shoes, but it worked," commented Diddley. "I got into a lot of new front rooms on the tube. I thank Nike and Bo Jackson for doing it." Money problems continued to dog him, but he gained some relief in 1994, when a Los Angeles judge awarded him $400,000 from the estate of his dead manager, Martin Otelsberg. Though Bo once lamented that "me and Chuck Berry are the ones that opened the doors and broke the ice, but everybody does not understand what we contributed to this thing called rock'n'roll", the music world did its best to make amends in the new millennium. Diddley was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, the North Florida Music Association's Hall of Fame and the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame. But he he had no desire to become a mere museum piece, and celebrated his half-century as a musician in 2005 by touring Europe, Australia and the USA. The following year, he headlined a fundraising concert in the Florida Keys to benefit Ocean Springs, Mississippi, a town devastated by Hurricane Katrina (the event's original 2005 date had to be postponed when the Keys themselves were pummelled by Hurricane Wilma). In May 2007, he suffered a stroke after playing a gig in Council Bluffs, Iowa, but within a month had recovered sufficiently to be discharged from a hospital near his home in Archer, Florida, where he lived with his fourth wife, Sylvia Paiz. He is survived by Sylvia and four children from previous marriages.
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| Out & About
Tuesday, December 31 Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 9 p.m., Spirit Room, Jerome Dry Heat Blues Band, 8 p.m., CJ's Talley's Pub, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 7:30 p.m., Sound Bites, Sedona Wednesday, January 1 Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., Good Time Charli's, Chandler Hans Olson, 7 p.m., Time Out Lounge, Tempe Chuck Hall, 6 p.m., Corrado's, Carefree Thursday, January 2 JC & The Rockers, 7 p.m., Fuego Bistro, Phoenix Blues Review Band, 4 p.m., Sun Flower RV Resort, Surprise Carvin Jones, 7:30 p.m., Fibber Magee's, Chandler Mike Eldred (acoustic), 6 p.m., Mountain Shadows Resort, Paradise Valley Eric Ramsey Hosts OPEN MIC, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Hans Olson EVERY THURSDAY, 6 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Arizona Blues Project, 8 p.m., Harold's, Cave Creek Friday, January 3 Smokestack Lightning, 6:30 p.m., West Alley BBQ, Chandler Sugar Thieves, 7:30 p.m., Janey's, Cave Creek Hoodoo Casters, 6 p.m., Motorcycles on Main, Mesa Joe Kopicki & Tres Amigos, 7 p.m., Peaks & Valleys Restaurant, Phoenix Blues Review Band, 8 p.m., All American, Fountain Hills Carvin Jones, 9 p.m., Murphy's Law, Chandler Paris James, 6:30 p.m., August Ranch, Mesa Tommy Dukes/Roger Smith, 6 p.m., Charly's, Flagstaff Saturday, January 4 Rhythm Room House Rent Party (see poster), 6:30 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 6 p.m., Rip's, Phoenix Big Daddy D & Te Dynamites, 7 p.m., The Raven, Prescott Hoodoo Casters, 2 p.m., Spirit Room, Jerome Blues Review Band, 8 p.m., Jersey D's Tavern, Chandler Nina Curri, 6 p.m., Voodoo Daddy's, Tempe Leon J, 12:30 p.m., DA Ranch, Cornville Carvin Jones, 9 p.m., CK's Tavern, Phoenix Outback Blues Band, 5 p.m., Gold Fever Resort, Salome Sunday, January 5 Elvis's Birthday Bash, 6 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix AZ Blues Hall of Fame Northern Induction w/Sweet Baby Ray, 1 p.m., Widnsock, Prescott True Flavor Blues, NOON , Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, January 6 Johnny Burgin (formerly Rockin' Johnny), 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 6 p.m., Western Skies Golf Club, Gilbert
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| Jams
Rocket 88s JAM, 4 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
The Scott O'Neal Band JAM every other Sunday, The Windsock, Prescott MONDAY
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Weatherford Hotel JAM, 6:30 p.m., Flagstaff
TUESDAY
OPEN JAM Hosted by Jilly Bean & The Flipside Blues Band, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix
JAM Sir Harrison, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe
Tailgaters JAM, 7 p.m., Glendale
WEDNESDAY Rocket 88s, JAM, 6 p.m., The Last Stop (Old Hideaway West), Phoenix
Tool Shed JAM Party, 6 p.m. Gabby's, Mesa
JAM @ The Bench, Hosted by BluZone, 7 p.m., The Bench, Tempe
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler
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| GOT BLUES? If you are a Blues musician, a group, or a club that features Blues music, and would like to be listed, please send your info to info@phoenixblues.org and we'll be happy to list your event in our weekly Out & About section of the newsletter
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Moved? Changed email addresses? Please let us know of any changes in your address, email, or phone number so we can keep you informed about the Blues community in Arizona. Email us at: info@phoenixblues.org or write to: Phoenix Blues Society P.O. Box 36874 Phoenix, Arizona 85067 |
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