JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN, a novelist and essayist, is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
VAL WILMER, the noted writer and photographer, is the author of Jazz People, As Serious as Your Life, The Face of Black Music, and Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This, an autobiography. Her photographs and writing have appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers worldwide.
PETER WOLF joined his first band, The Hallucinations, while attending the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston. The band appeared with many of the great blues artists, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and John Lee Hooker. In 1967 Wolf formed the J. Geils Band, which combined blues and R&B styles with a rock & roll flair. They remained together for seventeen years, and since their breakup Wolf has released a series of critically acclaimed solo albums.
Photo Credits
Charles Sawyer (back endpaper B.B. King, 1970); Ernest Withers/copyright © Ernest C. Withers/courtesy Panopticon Gallery, Waltham, MA (1, 37, 149, 151, 152, 278); David Gahr (Big Joe Williams’s hands 2-3, 48, 49, 51, 89, 171, 183, 209, 240, 262); Peter Amft (front casing, back casing, 6, 7, 53, 153, 162, 166, 177, 217, 218, 220, 221, 275, 282); Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress (9); Chicago Historical Society (12-13); Marion Post Wolcott, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress (16-17); Courtesy Columbia/Legacy (19, 58, 62); Michael Ochs Archives/Venice, CA (20, 45, 115, 236); Frank Driggs Collection (22, 101, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122, 127, 140, 159, 199, 203, 215); FDR/Michael Ochs Archives (21, 109); Courtesy Yazoo Records/Shanachie (23); Sebastian Danchin Collection (26); Dixon Rohr (31); Don Bronstein/Chansley Entertainment Archives (36); Ray Flerage/Chansley Entertainment Archives (39); Joe Ciardiello (42, 181, 288); Jan Perrson (50); Chansley Entertainment Archives (52); Stephanie Chernikowski (55); Ken Settle (56, 254, 279); Feel Like Going Home (Otha Turner 60—61, Mali 64-65, 65, 66); Jim Marshall (68, 179, 193, 247, 261, 264); Courtesy Alan Lomax Archives (77); Dorothea Lange, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress (80); Courtesy Jim Dickinson (left, 87); Ken Franckling (right, 87); Ebet Roberts (91, 94, 255); Warming by the Devil’s Fire (98-99, 102, 103); Wayne Knight Collection/Chansley Entertainment Archives (112); Sylvia Pitcher Photo Library (124); James Fraher/Chansley Entertainment Archives (132); Val Wilmer (133, 244); The Road to Memphis (136-137), Zack Kenner (138, 139); Courtesy Yazoo/Shanachie/Eclipse Enterprises (144—145, 167); Damion Lawyer (150); The Soul of a Man (Chris Thomas King as Blind Willie Johnson 154, 268; Keith Brown as Skip James 155; top, 163; bottom, 163); Kenji Oda (164); Godfathers and Sons (184-185, 187); Gina Barge (186); Courtesy Peter Wolf (189); Mark Pokempner (190, 204, 207, front endpaper: Saturday night at Teresa’s, Chicago, 1981); Terry Coyer (205); Courtesy Paul Oscher (227); Red, White and Blues/Jeremy Fletcher/Redferns/Retna Ltd. (Zoot Money with Andy Summers, second from right 228-229); Red, White and Blues (233); © Brian Smith/Chansley Entertainment Archives (246); Adam Traum (250-251, 252); Paul Brissman (270, 281); Courtesy ABKCO (272)
Acknowledgments
An extraordinary team composed of numerous chefs hailing from various culinary backgrounds created this feast of ideas entitled Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: A Musical Journey. And what a journey the making of this book has been! It was nearly two years ago when, in July 2001, Alex Gibney, Bob Santelli, and I had our first phone meeting (connecting New York, Seattle, and Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina) regarding the notion of an illustrated book to accompany a forthcoming documentary series on the blues. Since that day, two entire films were added to the original concept; our “notion” translated into a book deal with the prestigious publisher HarperCollins; and several other important people became contributors to dozens of brainstorming sessions. There were energizing discourses on literature and music and impassioned debates about which gardens our vegetables should come from, which bakeries our bread, whether to serve red, or white, or both… In the end we were in agreement that our seven-course meal required, above all else, variety and the finest of ingredients. We’re sure there’s something here to suit every palate.
Throughout the process our chefs had one thing in common: We’d all been “gobsmacked” by the blues (to paraphrase Eric Clapton). Our love for the music and our wanting to do it justice through the written word fueled the passions that went into the making of this book. I’d like to personally thank my fellow editors, from whom I learned so much: Bob Santelli, Peter Guralnick, and Christopher John Farley. The exchange of ideas and their masterful abilities to put them into words were truly gratifying to me as an editor. Our fearless leader, Alex Gibney, kept us all running around and looking for exotic new (and old) spices to add to our stew, and he, of course, provided plenty of his own. Ellen Nygaard Ford, Dan Conaway, Mikaela Beardsley, Nina Pearlman, Margaret Bodde, Shawn Dahl, and Moira Haney are the uncredited editors of this book; their amazing ideas, unflagging creativity, and tireless dedication to our project made it what it is today. Others who helped tremendously in this regard include Andrea Odintz, Dan Luskin, Agnes Chu, Salimah El-Amin, Susan Motamed, Richard Hutton, Bonnie Benjamin-Phariss, Jill Schwartzman, John Jusino, Betty Lew, Rockelle Henderson, Dianne Pinkowitz, Nita Friedman, Brigitte Engler, Andrew Simon. Robin Aigner, and Ruthie Epstein. Our gratitude also goes to literary agents Sarah Lazin and Luke Janklow for their publishing expertise and counsel.
In addition, the following folks helped in various ways to make this book happen: Inah Lee, Bruce Ricker, Anya Sacharow, Robert Legault, Amy Blankstein, Michele Garner Brown, Andrea Rotondo. Ann Abel, Tom Di Nome, Ashley Kahn, Laura Draper, Rachel X. Weissman, Heather Tierney, Richard Skanse, David Gahr, Jim Marshall, Peter Amft, Frank Driggs, David Ritz, Andrew Bottomley, Kent Jones, Don Fleming, David Tedeschi, Charles Sawyer, Tony Decaneas, Jonathan Hyams, Helen Ashford, Geary Chansley, John Sutton-Smith, Michael Singh, Mikal Gilmore, Susannah McCormick Nix, Michael Hall, Clifford Antone, Mark Jordan, Alexandra Guralnick, the staff at the Carnegie Public Library, Robert Birdsong of Travel House in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Jim Dickinson, Joel Dorn, Leslie Rondin, Andy Schwartz, Hannah Palmer, Jeff Scheftel, James Austin, Kandia Crazy Horse, Richard Meltzer, Mark Lipkin, Jeff and Ben Cohen, Robert Gordon, Banning Eyre, Jeff Peisch, Steve Weitzman, Howard Mandel, Mitch Myers, Bernard Furnival, Aliza Rabinoff, John Swenson, Elvis Costello, Michael Ochs, and Walter Leaphart. I’m also grateful to all the writers and musicians (and their staffs) for their contributions to this book.
Just like Muddy had his Hoochie Coochie Boys to rock the party, I had my Bitchin’ Bay Ridge Blues Babes who gave their all through those many endless nights and days in the editorial trenches. Without them—and our incredibly patient, supportive, and techie-expert love objects, Robert Warren, Jack Warren, and Joe Ford—you would not be reading page 282 right now.
So enough givin’ props: Put on Memphis Minnie, Robert Johnson, or Howlin’ Wolf, turn back to this book, and let the blues take hold of you.
Holly George-Warren
New York City, May 2003
Copyright
EDITOR: Holly George-Warren
CREATIVE DIRECTOR & DESIGNER: Ellen Nygaard Ford
MANAGING EDITOR; Nina Pearlman
EDITORIAL/PROOUCTION CONSULTANT: Shawn Dahl
PHOTO RESEARCHER: Moira Haney
EDITORIAL RESEARCHERS: Andrea Odintz-Cohen, Robin Aigner, Andrew Simon, Michele Garner Brown
The Editors would like to acknowledge the following for their contributions both to this book and to the larger project that inspired it:
Dan Conaway, Executive Editor, HarperCollins Publishers
Alex Gibney, Series Producer, The Blues
Margaret Bodde, Producer, Cappa Productions & The Blues
Mikaela Beardsley, Supervising Producer, The Blues
Susan Motamed, Coordinating Producer, The Blues
Paul G. Allen, Executive Producer, The Blues, and Chairman, Vulcan Productions
Jody Patton, Executive Producer, The Blues, and President, Vulcan Productions
Robert
Santelli, Executive Director, Experience Music Project
Richard Hutton, Co-Producer, Vulcan Productions
Bonnie Benjamin-Phariss, Director, Documentary Programming, Vulcan Productions
HarperCollins/Amistad: Jill Schwartzman, Dawn Davis, Carie Freimuth, Laurie Rippon, Rockelle Henderson, John Jusino, Betty Lew, Dianne Pinkowitz, Lara Allen, Tara Brown, Laura Blost
The Blues Inc.: Dan Luskin, Agnes Chu, Salimah El-Amin, Susan Motamed
A companion book to the PBS documentary series
Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey
A Presentation of Vulcan Productions and Road Movies Columbia
Universal Music Group
WCBH Boston
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2003 by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
MARTIN SCORSFSF PRESENTS THE BLUES. Copyright © 2003 by Vulcan Productions Inc. and Road Movies Filmproduktion GmbH.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-02908-9
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available upon request.
ISBN-13 978-0-06-052545-3
ISBN-10 0-06-052545-2
08 09 /PE 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
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