10/17/2014 Blues Friday< Tall Cotton Productions , Voice of Memphis Music , Cotton Row Music & Records> The Real Deal BIG MAMA THORNTON Blues Friday coming strong with Big Mama Thornton “Little Red Rooster” one of those great Blues tunes that helped take The Rolling Stones all the way to the Bank on the back of the worlds greatest blues artist.... )O( Tall Cotton Productions Voice of Memphis Music ..Cotton Row Music & Records... Rock & Roll Back Story inc. (501-c-3) it is worth you hearing this great version and the fantastic guitar work,, Big Mama Thornton, Thornton was born in Ariton, Alabama. Her introduction to music started in a Baptist church, where her father was a minister and her mother a church singer. She and her six siblings began to sing at very early ages. Thornton left Montgomery at age 14 in 1941, following her mothers death. She joined Sammy Greens Georgia-based Hot Harlem Revue. Her seven-year tenure with them, which included touring the South, gave her valuable singing and stage experience. In 1948, she settled in Houston, Texas, where she hoped to further her career as a singer. She was also a self-taught drummer and harmonica player, and frequently played each instrument onstage. In Houston, her career began to take off. She signed a recording contract with Peacock Records in 1951 and performed at the Apollo Theater in 1952. Also in 1952, she recorded Hound Dog while working with another Peacock artist, Johnny Otis. Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stollerwere present at the recording, with Leiber singing the song in the style they had envisioned.The record was produced by Otis, and went to number one on the R&B chart. Although the record made her a star, she saw little of the profits.In 1954, Thornton was one of the eyewitnesses to the accidental self-inflicted handgun death of blues singer Johnny Ace.She continued to record for Peacock until 1957 and performed with R&B package tours with Junior Parker and Esther Phillips. As her career began to fade in the late 1950s and early 1960s, she left Houston and relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she mostly played local blues clubs and began an association with Berkeley-based Arhoolie Records. In 1965, she toured with the American Folk Blues Festival package in Europe.While in England that year, she recorded her first album for Arhoolie, titled Big Mama Thornton — In Europe. It featured backing by blues veterans Buddy Guy (guitar), Fred Below (drums), Eddie Boyd (keyboards), Jimmy Lee Robinson (bass), and Walter Shakey Horton (harmonica), except for three songs on which Fred McDowell provided acoustic slide guitar. In 1966, Thornton recorded her second album for Arhoolie titled Big Mama Thornton with the Muddy Waters Blues Band – 1966, with Muddy Waters(guitar), Sammy Lawhorn (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Otis Spann (piano), Luther Johnson (bass guitar), and Francis Clay (drums). She performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 and 1968. Her last album for Arhoolie, Ball n Chain, was released in 1968. It was made up of tracks from her two previous albums, plus her composition Ball and Chain and the standard Wade in the Water. A small combo including her frequent guitarist Edward Bee Houston provided backup for the two songs. Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Companys performance of Ball n Chain at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and release of the song on their number one album Cheap Thrills renewed interest in Thorntons career. By 1969, she signed with Mercury Records, who released her most successful album Stronger Than Dirt, which reached number 198 in the Billboard Top 200 record chart. In the 1970s years of heavy drinking began to hurt Thorntons health. She was in a serious auto accident, but recovered to perform at the 1973 Newport Jazz Festival with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, a recording of which is called The Blues — A Real Summit Meeting released by Buddha Records. One of Thorntons last albums was Jail for Vanguard Records in 1975. It captured her performances during mid-1970s concerts at two Northwestern U.S. prisons. She was backed by a blues ensemble that featured sustained jams fromGeorge Harmonica Smith, as well as guitarists Doug Macleod, Bee Houston and Steve Wachsman, drummer Todd Nelson, saxophonist Bill Potter, bassist Bruce Sieverson, and pianist J. D. Nicholson. In 1979, she performed at the San Francisco Blues Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival in 1980. Thornton continued to work the blues festival circuit until her death of a heart attack in Los Angeles on July 25, 1984, at age 57. During her career, she was nominated for the Blues Music Awards six times. In 1984, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In addition to Ball n Chain and They Call Me Big Mama, Thornton wrote twenty other blues songs. Her Ball n Chain is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Researched by br toad.. goggle, wikipedia,discography & Barry Shankman-Tall Cotton Productions , Voice of Memphis Music..Cotton Row Music & Records..Rock & Roll Backstory Inc. (501-c-3) youtu.be/NDNKjfwIt_E
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 20:20:31 +0000