The American Folk and Blues Festival was the absolute best of American Blues artists, all of whom traveled throughout Europe in the fall from 1962 -1969. The names of the players involved in this series of concerts rings like a "man-wish-I coulda-been-there!" list for us now; and included such greats as Howlin Wolf, Willie Dixon, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Memphis Slim, Big Mama Thornton and many more. 


The first video gives you the background of this phenomenal annual gathering. The rest of the vids are pure blues.... and there's more, so much more. (Three volumes to this series [below].) If you love blues like I do, then this is a MUST HAVE for your collection. And even if you don't love the Blues, you still have to respect the fact that these were the names being talked about by the likes of Eric Clapton, Paul Jones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as this first video will tell you. 


For this little NOLA girl, these artists are still fresh in my memory; their music still wafting down the street to Glamp's house on those humid NOLA nights before they left for Europe...




















  

The Carolina Chocolate Drops  kicked up an absolute storm on The Stormy Monday Show so I thought I'd put together a blog post about them and let you see, and hear, a bit more from this fantastic group.







  

Some will surely say her voice is an acquired taste. I am very glad that I acquired it. Blossom had a girlish voice that was distinctive and yet her mix of be bop jazz gave her that "I'm always performing in a smokey jazz club with cool people " feel. Definitely hip and definitely someone you want to add into your repertoire of great jazz performers.

If you want to know more about Blossom, then check out this re-aired interview with Blossom by the infamous Marian McPartland on NPR's Piano Jazz

UPDATE: I was informed this morning of Big Sol's death in Amsterdam. He was truly an amazing and inspirational artist and will be greatly missed. Say a prayer for the loss of this legend and for all of us that are mourning for him.

Solomon Burke is a brilliant soulful entertainer, still keeping it true. He came out of retirement recently and is now touring in Japan at age 70. (I can only hope I'm able to perform like this man has at that age!) Recently a friend asked me to blog about a few artists whom I hadn't heard in some time, but who's music needed to be heard by the next generation of Blues, Jazz and Soul fans. I started this project with Otis Spann and, as you can see, Big Sol was to be my next great, but all of a sudden he's everywhere! On NPR, in Japan, got a new CD out ("Nothing's Impossible") and he's been jamming with some of the legendary greats like the late Willie Mitchell.

But that's the thing about great musicians; just when you think they're done, they're right back at ya, knocking down the house with music you knew just had to be made. That's what Big Sol does, and has always done, put music in your head that you'll never forget.

Let me introduce you to someone that's not particularly a household name. But if you know a little about the Blues, then the dots are instantly connected when you're reminded that Otis Spann laid it out for Muddy Waters on piano during his most prolific years. "Got My Mojo Working", "Blow Wind Blow", "Hootchie Cootchie Man"; that was Otis Spann on the ivories for those classic Chess waxings. Spann gave up the piano seat to Pinetop Perkins in 1969 to set out on a solo career. He released the Fleetwood Mac produced "Hungry Country Girl" , and shortly after, died of cancer in 1970.

We had a few technical issues right at the beginning of this week's Jazz and Blues show and though frustrated, it made me think of the old juke joints in New Orleans where "technical issues" meant having the bouncer toss someone out the back door while the blues man nudged the glass off the stage and grabbed his other guitar. A quick sip from his glass and in under a minute the whole place was grooving like it never happened.

This show was just that kind of night. We heard from greats like Irene Reid, Michele Holland, Kurt Elling, and Joni Mitchell. Mix in some upcoming names like myself, Barry Brogan and Michel Navedo and we've got a another night to remember.



As always I've put a few of the featured videos below, but you can find all the videos of the artists featured on The Stormy Monday Show by visiting my Stormy Monday Youtube Channel








Podcast produce in conjunction with The Practical Cafe which handles all of Sybil's Practical Social Media Solutions.

Sidney Bechet was born in New Orleans in May 1897 and started pioneering Jazz early on with his great solos. Best remembered for being the first great soprano saxophonist, he was discovered at the age of six, became huge in Europe and yet never forgot his Creole roots.


Bechet died in Paris in 1959 on his 62nd birthday, seven years after returning to France and shortly after completing his autobiography  Treat It Gentle.


There's a wide variety of his music still out there, and the active Sidney Bechet Society still promotes his music to the growing fans of Jazz. If you haven't heard him before, let me introduce you to one of the great soloist that made Jazz what it is today.

It was another sweet Soul Music night on The Stormy Monday Show and while Sybil was away that old raspy rascal Austin Church slipped into her seat spinning sweet grooves and fine tunes that it seems most of the world has forgotten. We heard from greats like Diana Ross, The Tams, Ray Charles, Al Green, Gene Chandler, Marcia Ball and many more. So we invite you to sit back, pull your head phones out and fall back to a time in music when the need to get the latest 45s still ruled our young lives.

And as an added bonus you may want to check out Sybil's latest blog post Vieux Carre Rouge , about how Arron Neville dropped by the house with an unreleased 45 and turned her into a Soul fanatic.

We've put a few of the featured videos below but you can find all the videos of the artists featured on The Stormy Monday Show by visiting Sybil's Stormy Monday Youtube Channel










Podcast produce in conjunction with The Practical Cafe which handles all of Sybil's Practical Social Media Solutions.

I am a little homesick today; nostalgic for the New Orleans I knew as a girl.

I remember I was a budding boogie woogie hound back in old New Orleans. I tracked music down and sniffed it out like it was some rare coin forgotten in the street by revelers too drunk to understand what they had lost. But, the New Orleans I grew up in was nothing like today; there was music everywhere, on every corner, in every club. All the names that are familiar to you now were local cats pumping their hearts out for that big break back then. You could feel the pulse of it as soon as you walked out the door; like some hidden timbre thumping deep within your heart; something which you didn’t quite understand but needed to remedy immediately.

If you couldn't be there, well….

Aaron Neville was a friend of my grandfather's and I remember one night he came knocking on our door with a new 45, asking Glamp to give it a twirl. My grandfather wasn't much into music, probably because of the way they carried on at the bar just two doors down from our house, but he played it as I sat and became enthralled. I fell in love with every incarnation of the Neville Brothers from that moment on; I was hooked on Soul in the worst way. The song was "Tell It Like It Is".



My next memory of Aaron brings me to a hot night club in New Orleans with plenty of room to dance. The Neville Brothers were playing stuff I’d never heard, and yet couldn't live without, like “Vieux Carre Rouge” and “If It Takes All Night.” Everybody was grabbing somebody to dance, and it kept happening night after night after night….

The mixture of the rhythm, the smell of beer and cigarettes, the sweat pouring off Aaron in his signature muscle-adoring tank top, made me a believer. I bought a purple Neville Brother's T shirt off a guy's back that very night ‘cause there were no more and I had to have it to that day. It has a yellow crown atop the Neville name with " Mardi Gras to the World " on the back, and I still have it.

It was a different world back then, my old NOLA; the clubs were small and the Nevilles were very approachable. They would talk to you before returning to the stage to begin another set; stirring that brown rue into their gumbo of seduction for us young lasses.

Do you remember these NOLA nights like I do?

I can tell you this, from that time on, Glamp and " Ma" had a hard time keeping this little puppy on the porch.