Dear John, Mr. Brown's birthday is Thursday. I never got to see him live but he left quite a legacy before his passing.
The skinny columns on this side drive me nuts. I don't know how to change the size but the Out & About section sure has plenty of room.
Our annual Memorial Day fundraiser is May 26 and we've got Big Daddy D & The DynamitesInnocent Joe & The Hostile Witnesses, Cadillac Assembly Line,Dennis HerreraEric Ramsey and Smokestack Lightning on tap for an afternoon of fun and games. These guys are not in order of appearance here but I'm working on that. Doors at NOON until 6 p.m.. We may be able to squeeze a few extra minutes but Bob has an evening show on the bill.You'll notice the Sedona gig. That should be a fun one as well. NAZBA does a good job of keeping those guys up north busy.As you can see, plenty of cool events coming up. Keep me posted with your gigs so I can post them. The more the merrier.And hug somebody this week. It'll make both of you feel good.
Sincerely, Jim Crawford - PBS
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Gate
by Thomson Gale
Clarence Gatemouth Brown bucked musical traditions and stereotypes for nearly 60 years. Playing guitar, fiddle, drums, harmonica, viola, and mandolin, and accompanied by everything from small ensembles to large multi-piece bands, Brown recorded 30 albums that defied neat genre labels. He blended rhythm and blues, big band swing, Cajun, jazz, rock 'n' roll, and country, among other styles into what he called his music. As Brown often put it: "My music is American music-Texas style." "I'm so unorthodox, a lot of people can't handle it," Brown said in a 2001 interview according to an Associated Press story published on CBS News. Despite the variety in his music, Brown was often slotted into categories by reviewers, much to his frustration. Blues became the dominant label. Brown conceded that his early music did lean heavily on the blues. "I had to sound like that because I was just starting out," he explained in an interview with Guitar Player magazine that was quoted in the New York Times. "Seeing as how I was a newcomer, I obliged. But after a while, I thought, 'Why do I have to be one of these old cryin' and moanin' guitar players always talking bad about women?' So I just stopped." To create his original sound Brown once said: "I start with the harmonies of people crying together, and I put happiness in it," according to the Beaumont Enterprise. Musical critics had a hard time knowing how to categorize such unique music and many continued to label him a bluesman. Brown figured that "Folks call me a bluesman because I'm black and because I play guitar," according to Houston Chronicle reporter Andrew Dansby. Brown wasn't just labeled a bluesman; he was honored as one. He won the first Grammy awarded for traditional blues, was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, won the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award, and collected numerous W.C. Handy Awards, which honor blues musicians. Although he was also labeled as a big band and a country musician, among other things, the blues label especially vexed Brown because he disliked the negativity in blues music. When reviewers did try to describe the breadth in Brown's music, however, they offered sweeping praise. For example, Rockzillaworld magazine reviewer Danté Dominick wrote "if we needed one person who lives and breathes all things American music and can present it in all its varied glory, Clarence Gatemouth Brown is that person." Clarence Brown was born on April 18, 1924, in Vinton, Louisiana, and was raised in Orange, Texas. The Brown family had at least three sons, but few documents include much detail about Brown's early life. His father worked on the railroad, and on the weekends he played fiddle and banjo, and sang in Cajun bands at house parties. Brown felt inspired by his father's talent and would later count his father as the person who most influenced his music. By the time he was five, Brown had begun strumming along on a guitar with his father's band. "If I can make my guitar sound like his fiddle, then I know I've got it right," the Associated Press noted Brown remembering. As he taught himself to play instruments, Brown also sang. He had a distinctive voice: in high school he earned the nickname "Gatemouth" because his deep baritone voice sounded like a gate to one high school instructor. As youths Brown and two of his brothers, Bobby and James, played street concerts using their dad's advice: "Tune your instrument, don't overplay and play some of everything so you don't get stuck in one bag," as the Washington Post quoted Brown explaining. That advice would serve Brown his entire career. At age 16, Brown began his musical journey, leaving home to play the Chitlin' Circuit of black music venues concentrated in the southern and eastern United States. Brown spent 1945 in the U.S. Army, during which time he played the drums in various bands. After an honorable discharge, Brown moved to Houston, Texas, and began searching for ways to make money playing music. He was a drummer in such bands as Howard Spencer and his Gay Swingers and W.M. Benbo and his Brown Skin Models. His big break came in 1947 at the Bronze Peacock in Houston. When an upset stomach forced T. Bone Walker to leave the stage during a session, Brown stepped to center stage and slung Walker's guitar over his shoulder. Then, as he described it to Neal Spitzer of National Public Radio, he "invented a tune." "Words were coming out of nowhere" as he improvised what came to be known as the "Gatemouth Boogie." Legend has it that Brown made $600 in tips during those fifteen minutes on stage. Club owner Don Robey was so impressed that he immediately offered to manage Brown's career. Brown accepted and Robey created the Peacock label to promote and record his newly signed artist. Brown toured with a 23-piece big band in clubs throughout the Gulf Coast for the next decade and recorded on the Peacock label. This early music, while grounded in the blues, was described by the New York Times as "a hair's breadth away from rock 'n' roll." Brown's guitar playing distinguished his music most. He played with an unusual finger-picking style by dragging his fingers over the strings, creating intricate riffs over driving percussive beats and horn accompaniments. John Nova Lomax wrote in the Houston Press that "Gate's hornlike guitar solos were raising the game for everybody. And then there was his funky fiddle ramble 'Just Before Dawn'-one of the happiest little instrumentals you'll ever hear." His inventiveness became the backbone for the developing Texas blues sound after World War II, influencing the likes of later guitar playing greats Albert Collins and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Brown's guitar solos during this decade would mark a turning point in blues music. His "Okie Dokie Stomp," recorded in 1954 for Peacock, became "a benchmark for Mr. Brown, and for Texas blues," according to the New York Times. But Brown's influence was among musicians more than listeners; of his dozens of recordings during the late 1940s and 1950s, only his double-sided 1949 "Mary Is Fine"/"My Time Is Expensive" record reached into the R&B Top Ten. Brown left the Peacock label by the early 1960s. He moved briefly in Nashville. Despite enjoying a country hit in 1965 with "May The Bird of Paradise Flew Up Your Nose" and leading the house band in 1966 for the Bill "Hoss" Allen hosted syndicated R&B television program, The!!!!Beat, Brown had a hard time finding his niche in the music industry during this time. He did find his style though: cowboy boots and hat, and embroidered Western shirts made up his unique look. In addition Brown had an ever-present small pipe, either clenched in his teeth or tucked into a special on-stage holder when he sang. Brown knew his look surprised people, and doing so amused him. "What's the matter? Ain't you never seen a cowboy before?" Brown proclaimed, according to the Washington Post. After finding odd jobs in Colorado and New Mexico, including serving briefly as a sheriff's deputy-his badge and holstered pistol would later add to the aura of his cowboy costume-Brown found more success with his music. In the 1970s, Brown toured Europe, where he landed a recording deal and developed a strong fan base. Brown composed a song called "Gate's Express," and he liked the name so well that he assembled a band under the same name in 1971. Brown became an ambassador of American music for the U.S. State Department and toured Europe, East Africa, and the Soviet Union with Gate's Express during the 1970s. His return to popularity in the U.S. music market was helped by guest appearances on the popular television shows Hee Haw and Austin City Limits, as well as a collaboration with country star Roy Clark on a 1979 country-and-blues album entitled Makin' Music, including tunes they co-wrote as well as covers of such songs as Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington's "Take the 'A' Train" and Fleecie Moore's "Caldonia." Though at an age well past when most people retire, and suffering from a heart condition and emphysema, Brown kept a steady schedule of concerts, booking between 100 and 300 each year. He also kept smoking, calling his pipe his "security blanket," to Spitzer. When diagnosed with lung cancer in 2004, Brown still refused to give up smoking or his music. Foregoing medical treatment, he decided to rely on his music, his optimism, and the support of his fans to sustain him. His 2004 High Tone album, Timeless, would be his last; called "an album of a lifetime" by Rolling Stone and a "timeless mix" by National Public Radio, it didn't sound like the work of a musician with much still to offer. In the Washington Post Brown commented about his plans to feature more of his fiddle playing on his next album, and he continued to tour, toting his oxygen with him on stage but singing as if he didn't need it. Brown's last appearance in front of a big crowd came on April 28, 2005, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He hadn't planned it as a farewell, however. He had continued to play at numerous smaller venues before Hurricane Katrina forced him to evacuate his home on the bayou in Slidell, Louisiana, in August 2005. Brown left his home on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans, on August 28, 2005, the weekend Hurricane Katrina washed over his home, destroying it and his beloved instruments and memorabilia from his career. News of his ruined home devastated Brown, who had taken refuge at his brother's house in Orange, Texas. Less than two weeks later, he had to be hospitalized in Port Arthur, Texas. Though advised to remain in the hospital after undergoing an angioplasty, Brown insisted on returning to Orange, where he died on September 10, 2005. To the end he remained true to his firmly held belief that, as quoted by the Washington Post, "Music is the best medicine in the world, man." What Brown knew was that "I could create something beautiful that would build love within the people who came out to hear it." He surely did. Gate & Roy...!!
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| OUT & ABOUT Tuesday, April 16 Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Dirty Blonde, Chandler Wednesday, April 17 Paris James, 7 p.m., AZ BBQ Shack, Scottsdale Hans Olson, 7 p.m., Time Out Lounge, Tempe Chuck Hall, 6 p.m., Corrado's, Carefree Thursday, April 18 Paris James, 7 p.m., El Dorado, Scottsdale Carvin Jones, 6 p.m., Old Ellsworth Brewing Co., Queen Creek 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, April 19 Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 7 p.m., Desert Ridge Marketplace, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Blues Review Band, 6:30 p.m., Stone & Barrel, Sun Lakes Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., Murphy's Law, Chandler Nina Curri, 7 p.m., The Monroe, Downtown Phoenix Paris James, 6:30 p.m., Scratch Pub, Mesa Saturday, April 20 Soul Power Band, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 7 p.m., American Italian Club, Phoenix Big Daddy D & The Dynamites, 8 p.m., Lucky Strikes, Apache Junction Pop Top, 1 p.m., Yucca Tap Room, Tempe Eric Ramsey/Robby Roberson, 8 p.m., XTreme Bean, Scottsdale Hoodoo Casters, NOON, Cajun Festival, Chandler Park, Chandler Blues Review Band, 1:30 p.m., Cajun Festival, Chandler Park, Chandler Blues Review Band, 7 p.m., Speakeasy, Sun City BluZone, 1 p.m., Crown King Saloon, Crown King Carvin Jones, 6 p.m., Scorpion Bay, Morristown Mother road Trio, 5 p.m., Holiday Courtyard, Whiskey Row, Prescott Sunday, April 21 Hoodoo Casters, 2 p.m., Spirit Room, Jerome Mother Road Trio, 10 a.m., Oakmont Country Club, Flagstaff Mike Eldred, 3 p.m., The Vig, Scottsdale True Flavor Blues, NOON , Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, April 22
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Weekly Jams
Sunday
Rocket 88s JAM, 4 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
Sir Harrison, 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
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler
JAM Hosted by The Scott O'Neal Band. Every other Thursday, Windsock, Prescott
Friday
Saturday Bumpin' Bud's JAM 2nd & 4th Saturdays JAM, 6 p.m., Marc's Sports Grill |
| 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 |
| 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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