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Swingin’ the Blues
Good Rockin Tonight
There’s a good reason why so many artists have covered this
tune. It’s pure adrenalin. Elvis Presley had it out on Sun
Records, as did Jerry Lee Lewis. Even Robert Plant did a take-off
on it called ‘Good Rockin At Midnight’ with his Honeydrippers
band featuring Brian Setzer on lead guitar. We recorded a
version on ’Red Hot/True Blue’, the double album for RCA,
a ‘live-in-the-studio’ thing we did as soon as we returned
from our Montreux, Switzerland Jazz Festival gig in the fall
of 1983.
Over the years this arrangement has taken on a life of it’s
own as the horn charts have gradually morphed into what they
are today. Composer Roy Brown first offered the tune to Wynonie
Harris who turned it down until a version that Roy recorded
started taking off. The original Wynonie Harris chart topper
from 1948 that I first heard so long ago is just as infectious
now as it was when recorded. And there’s never any question.
When the band gets in the groove with this one there’s always
‘Good Rockin’ Tonight’.
Further On Up The Road
We were on the road in Ontario in the deep of a winter snowstorm,
February 1982. We had a Tuesday off in Toronto and I heard
that Bobby Blue Bland was appearing that night at the El Mocambo.
I walked to College and Spadina and just as I reached the
front door, an old Greyhound pulled up and the door levered
open. I stood at the entrance to the club and watched as the
guys in the band got off. I noticed more than one pair of
shoes that had holes in them big enough to read the want ads
that had been used to stuff them. I sat in the club and waited
for an hour.
The storm was so bad that nobody came. It was just me at one
table, another guy alone at the back of the room and a young
woman at a table, stage right. The band came on, six horns
strong and played warm up tunes for half an hour and then
the bandleader introduced ‘The Man’. B. B. B. came out in
a plum colored tux with velvet lapels, huge diamonds glittering
from his fingers and stickpin. He smiled at the room, then
at the band and picked up the mic. As he started singing he
strolled over to the young lady, sat down at her table and
sang the entire show directly to her. When I do ‘Further On
Up the Road’ I always remember that night.
Caledonia
I have more Louis Jordan records than anyone I know. He was
a fantastic showman, singer, writer, horn player, bandleader
and arranger. Reputedly he wasn’t such a great businessman.
He was married to Fleecy Moore at the time he wrote this ditty
and listed her as the composer so he wouldn’t get ‘fleeced’
for all the royalties, based on some unfavorable recording
contracts he’d signed. I’ve heard many of Louis’ versions
of this song along with those of a number of other recording
artists. Our version developed its own characteristics from
over 20 years of playing it on stage. Performing it live is
still a swinging good time.
Flip, Flop And Fly
I saw the Donny Walsh’s Downchild Blues Band from Toronto,
perform at the Body Shop in Vancouver around 1975 and their
singer at the time, Tony Flaim, did a great job with ‘Flip’.
They’d already had a nice little Canadian hit with it in 1973.
David Woodward, the soloist on their version was playing sax
with them and I thought to myself, “If I ever put together
a blues band, I’d like that guy in it”.
It was just over two years later that Dave moved to Vancouver
and became one of the first members of the just formed Powder
Blues. In 1981, we were on tour in NYC and after a gig at
the Longhorn Saloon with Junior Walker and The All Stars and
Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, I walked around the corner
and saw Joe Turner on stage in a little tavern, sitting on
a chair and singing ’Flip’ to beat the band. I’ve been doing
the tune ever since. Dave does a great job reprising his solo
of 28 years ago in this new big band type setting.
Boppin With The Blues
I wrote this tune a few months before we recorded our first
album ‘Uncut’ in the late summer of 1979. A year after it
came out we were at the Juno Awards in Toronto and had just
won for ‘Best New Group’. The legendary Rompin’ Ronnie Hawkins
was prowling the backstage area. Someone had told me earlier
in the evening that he was covering ‘Boppin With the Blues’
in his live show. It pleased me no end to have one of my heroes
playing one of my original compositions. I sidled up to him,
introduced myself and told him I’d heard he was performing
‘Boppin’. I distinctly remember the crest fallen feeling I
had when he shot me that cranked up look of his and said offhandedly,
“I do ‘em all son, I do ‘em all.”
He Knows The Rules
I learned this tune from band member Willie Mac Calder who
picked it up off a Jimmy McCracklin record. Will did a nice
version of it back in 1983 on our ‘Red Hot /True Blue’ album.
Since then I’ve heard more Jimmy McCracklin stuff and have
become an even bigger fan. It’s fun to play this tune on stage
and Bill Runge came up with a great new big band horn arrangement
that features ’call and response’ style interplay between
the horn section and the guitar. Being a father of two daughters
myself I can relate to the story line; it’s one that never
seems to go out of date.
Oh Well, Oh Well
In the early ‘70’s there used to be a club in Vancouver’s
‘Gastown’ section called the Anchor. I got to listen to and
play with a bunch of fantastic musicians including Lloyd Glenn,
Sammy Price, Dorothy Donnegan and Jay McShann. One day in
the fall of 1981 they booked in blues legend Lowell Fulson.
He wrote many tunes that are considered blues classics today
including ‘Reconsider Baby’,’ Blue Shadows Falling’ and ‘I
Cried’. We did a bit of playing together and got the idea
of doing a record at my first recording studio in the basement
of the Vancouver Film Exchange Building at 12th and Vine [coincidentally
a corner made famous in the tune ‘Kansas City’].
The band showed up and Lowell came equipped with a cherry
red Gibson guitar, a bottle of whiskey and a voice that told
the story of over four decades of living the blues. We had
a great little session, cutting ten tunes in five hours. The
tapes languished in the Blue Wave vaults until 1996 when Stoney
Plain Records finally released the masters. I learned a tremendous
amount from Lowell including how to sing a major third in
a blues scale and I owe him for the friendship and support
he showed us throughout the years.
Buzzard Luck
Wynonie Harris was probably Big Joe Turner’s biggest competition
in the ‘blues shouters’ arena in the later 50’s. My brother
Jack, who played in the band from 1978 to 1982 and sporadically
thereafter, first introduced me to this tune, which he sang
a version of on our first album, ‘Uncut’. After he left the
band to go out on his own, we still had folks requesting the
tune so I started singing it myself and have been doing it
ever since. Not only does it have some really clever lyrics
and a strong melody, it has something a lot of blues tunes
of this type don’t have - a bridge. Bill’s new horn arrangement
gives the solo section a real shot in the arm.
Lovin, Kissin And Huggin
I wrote this one for our second album, ‘Thirsty Ears’, that
came out on Capitol Records in 1981. I wanted a tune in the
key B flat that the horn players could stretch out on live
and trade solos. In the twenty years since I first recorded
this song my voice has lowered a bit but I forgot to drop
the key a step when we put this new version to tape.
The charts were already written so when I went to sing it
and discovered how ‘up there’ it was, I decided to change
the melody on the spot so I wouldn’t have to sing that really
high note except for once at the end of the last verse. Cutting
it back to one shot gave me a better chance of making it.
I know you’ve heard the saying, “I may not be as good as I
once was, but I’m as good once, as I ever was.” This shortened
version gives three of my favorite, road-seasoned, horn-playing
buddies a chance to blow some great stuff.
Tore Down
So many great blues guitarists have influenced me over the
years; Albert Collins, T-Bone Walker, Gatemouth Brown, Lowell
Fulson, Earl Hooker, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Albert King; there’s
way too many to list here. But if I had to pick one guy that
influenced me more than any other it would have to be Freddie
King. [I know Eric Clapton says the same thing and I’m not
surprised]. I got an album around 1974 that Freddie cut in
the early ‘60s called ‘Freddie King Sings’ on King records
and I played it until it wore out. I just wanted a band that
had that kind of sound and it’s possible Powder Blues would
never have happened if it weren’t for my obsession with Freddie
King.
Rockchopper
Back when the band had just formed, the first club we played
on a six night a week, four set a night basis was the Spinning
Wheel in the old part of Vancouver. It gave us chance to woodshed
and get paid for it and the long hours really tightened things
up. But sometimes we’d run short of material and resort to
jamming the blues. We started playing this tune as an excuse
for everybody in the band to take a long solo. This served
a couple of purposes. It was fun to stretch out and take a
few musical chances, each guy spurring the other on and it
filled the bill for the lack of rehearsed material.
We used a little melodic hook that nobody could quite put
his finger on the origin of at the time. I named it the Rockchopper
and put it on our debut album. After it started selling well,
I got a nice note in the mail with a 45-rpm record from Albert
Collins’ publisher. It said in so many words, “what you guys
are playing under the name ‘The Rockchopper” is basically
“Frosty” by Albert Collins, but because it’s ninety percent
you guys soloing, we only want fifty percent of the publishing.
Just put Albert Collins’ name on as co-writer and send us
the money.”
After hearing the record I realized we had inadvertently appropriated
the main lick and figured we owed Albert so we listed him
as co-writer and sent off the royalties due. It was about
a year later that I was going through some real old 45’s and
I found this thing by Gatemouth Brown that I think was called
‘The Supernatural’. It preceded the release of ‘Frosty’ by
several years and used the same damn lick. I figured both
Albert and us should be paying royalties to Gate.
The Musicians:
Tom Lavin: vocal, guitars
Willie MacCalder: piano
Mike Kalanj: Hammond organ
Billy Hicks: drums
Bill Runge: bass, baritone and alto sax
Paul Baron: trumpet
Vinnie Mai: trumpet
Rod Murray: trombone
Pat Caird: tenor sax
Michael Creber: piano on tracks 4 & 6
David Woodward: tenor solo on track 4
Bill Clark: trumpet solo on track 9
Pat Caird: tenor solo on track 9
Bill Runge: tenor solos on tracks 3 & 5, baritone solo
on track 9
Recorded at: Blue Wave Studios, Vancouver, B.C.
www.bluewaveproductions.com
Recording engineers: Keith Stein and Ken Burke
Mixed by: Ken Burke and Tom Lavin
Mastering: Ken Burke and Tom Lavin
Horn Arrangements: Bill Runge and Tom Lavin
Powder Blues: www.powderblues.net
Tel: 604 873-3388
Recording Notes: This album was recorded on two MCI 24 track
tape recorders using Quantegy GP9 2” tape running at 15ips
with no noise reduction. It was recorded and mixed on an API
console and mixed down to an Ampex ATR 102, using Quantegy
GP9 ¼” tape running at 15ips with no noise reduction. It was
mastered using two API 550b equalizers and converted to digital
format for CD using an Apogee 16 bit A to D converter.
This album is dedicated to my good friend, pianist, Linton
Garner who has shared his music with the world for over eight
decades. His elegant and understated piano style has been
a constant source of musical inspiration for me and countless
of my contemporaries. I’ve had the pleasure of spending enjoyable
evenings listening to him share his experiences with many
of jazz and blues music’s most famous figures including a
number of the artists whose songs we’ve covered on this record.
His recollections never fail to bring the songs and musicians
to life in a way that has always made me feel I was right
there. His thoughtful comments upon hearing rough mixes of
this work while in progress contributed greatly towards its
final outcome. Thanks Linton. You’re the ‘real deal’.
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