| This was
the 34th Chicago Blues Festival but it was the first
occasion for it to be located at Millennium Park having
made the short move from nearby Grant Park. With
temperatures soaring into the low 90s, it was a more
compact location but turned out to be a very good
location with the main stage, The Jay Pritzker Pavilion
being a magnificent setting for the headline acts.
Friday
9th June
Demetria
Taylor opened at The Crossroads stage with a who’s who
of excellent Chicago musicians backing her including
Mike Wheeler on guitar. An energetic singer she powered
through some soulful blues classics including Little Red
Rooster, Rock Steady, Proud Mary and Shake It Baby
delivered from a walkabout amongst the audience.
Snooky
Pryor’s son Rip Lee Pryor has been in poor health
recently but he delivered a great set of blues
accompanying himself on guitar and rack harp at the
Front Porch Stage before a visit was made to The
Mississippi Juke Joint stage to hear a powerful set of
piano blues from Greenville’s Eden Brent, the stand out
track being Memphis Minnie’s Take Me To The ‘Lectric
Chair.
For some
reason Jimmy Burns and his band only performed a short
set at The Front Porch Stage but it was enough to see
why he is one of Chicago’s favourite guitarist
vocalists. He performed tracks from his acclaimed
Delmark CDs including the brilliant Leaving Here Walking
and Stand By Me.
Cedric
Burnside is keeping the traditions of the Mississippi
Hill Country Blues alive as laid down by his grandfather
R L Burnside amongst others and at The Mississippi Juke
Joint Stage on drums and vocals, he was joined by
Trenton Ayers on guitar and between them they hit the
ground running on classics like Junior Kimbrough’s All
Night Long and R L’s Going Down South.
It was wonderful
to see the senior bluesman at the festival 92 year old
Henry Gray still performing so well at The Front Stage
backed by a stellar line-up of Bob Corritore on harp,
Bob Stroger on bass, Billy Flynn on guitar and Kenny
“Beady Eyes” Smith on drums.
Much has
been said about Jarekus Singleton from Jackson
Mississippi on The Mississippi Stage following his
recent excellent release on Alligator and with his
excellent soulful voice and sound guitar playing he
delivered a great set although slightly hampered by
volume and the balance of the sound.
To get a
good position in The Pretzker Pavilion meant much of
Mike Wheeler’s set and all of ex Wllie Kent guitarist
Guy King’s set were missed but veteran of both Muddy
Waters and Magic Slim’s bands, John Primer more than
made up for that with a brilliant set of pure Chicago
joy. Backed by his Real Deal Band with Steve Bell on
harp displaying all of his late father Carey’s skills,
he showed why he is still regarded as one of Chicago’s
top guitarists. A superb version of I’m a Man was
matched by the great closing number of Got My Mojo
Working.
Rhymefest,
real name Che Smith, has obviously made his name in the
world of rap and hip hop and even met David Cameron so
it was going to be intriguing to see what he would
contribute to a blues festival. An hour or so later, he
had contributed a considerable amount. Backed by a five
piece band and three piece female vocalists and a superb
soulful vocalist he mesmerised the audience with his hip
hop lyrics blending in with a mix of soul, blues and
gospel. It was magical stuff which came to a climax when
Billy Branch joined him on harp for the Oscar award
winning song “Glory” from the film Selma which he
co-wrote with rapper Common and singer John Legend. It
was a brilliant ending to a superb set.
Billy
Branch has been gracing the blues scene and blowing
great harp for 40 years and his headlining set
commemorated this great achievement by bringing together
his former band members from The Sons of Blues to join
his current Sons which included Marvin Little on bass,
Sumito Ariyoshi on keys and Dan Carelli on guitar with
Bill McFarland and The Chicago Fire Horns. Mae Koen and
The Lights provided backing vocals.
After a
brief recollection of his days playing with Willie Dixon
and some of his memories of the harp greats he looked up
to like Junior Wells, Carey Bell and James Cotton, he
introduced his first guest, his recently retired ex
drummer of 30 years Mose Rutues who sang Have You Ever
Loved a Woman. He was then followed by Willie Dixon’s
son Freddie on bass who sang his dad’s I Ain’t
Superstitious and guitarist Lurrie Bell who performed
Please Give Yourself More Time.
Next up
was Chicago stalwart on bass J W Williams with Hey Baby,
See What You’ve Done to me and then the fantastic Carl
Weathersby on lead guitar who performed It Will Be
Alright followed by his other main guitarist over the
years Carlos Johnson.
It was a
magnificent session of all that is great about Chicago
blues and a great testimony to Billy Branch.
|
