Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, longtime bass player of the Muddy Waters Blues Band, passed away August 9 of complications from lung cancer. He was 84.
Best known for touring as part of Muddy Waters’ band in the 1970s and ’80s, his bandmates at the time included Bob Margolin, Pinetop Perkins, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, James Cotton, and others. Jones also played with Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter.
Guitarist Phelps "Catfish" Collins died August 6 after a long battle with cancer. He was 66.
Collins grew up in Cincinnati with his brother and bandmate Bootsy Collins. In 1968, the brothers played together in the Pacemakers until James Brown hired them to join his band in 1969. Collins played a role in the recording of songs including "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine," "Soul Power," and "Super Bad."
After playing with Brown, the brothers joined Parliament-Funkadelic. Collins played on the band’s <em>America Eats Its Young</em> and was a member of Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Collins left P-Funk in 1983, and more recently contributed the soundtrack for the film <em>Superbad</em>.
This month, the Smithsonian Channel will broadcast "Electrified: The Guitar Revolution." Airing August 15, this 60 minute high-wattage history lesson salutes the inventors, pioneers and gods of the electric guitar. The electric guitar was invented to be heard among the brass instruments of the big band era, but it soon took on a sound and life of its own. How did this assemblage of wood, wire and metal go on to ignite a new era of music, transform background musicians into guitar heroes and become a symbol of freedom and rebellion? From the early days of the Model U and the Frying Pan to the guitar wars of Fender and Gibson, experience its evolution through vintage footage, interviews with rock historians and rousing live performances. Virtuosos like G.E. Smith of the "Saturday Night Live Band" go through the decades of sound innovations of the electric guitar.
Smithsonian Channel will also debut a series called "Inside the Music," a series of specials that tell stories about the music and musicians that have had an enormous impact on some of the most listened to sounds spanning generations. From the creative genius who designed the album cover of The Beatles’ "Revolver," to a history lesson on the instrument that changed the look, sound and volume of music forever, "Inside the Music" has something that everyone can listen to.
The featured "Inside the Music, premiere, "All You Need is Klaus," airing August 22 at 8pm ET/PT, is a journey into the incredible life of Klaus Voormann. Voormann is best known for his association with the most popular and most influential band in rock ‘n roll history, The Beatles. "All You Need is Klaus" also features Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Carly Simon, and Randy Newman, Joe Walsh and Simon are also interviewed in the 90 minute film with Simon recounting Voormann’s influence on her biggest hit, "You’re So Vain."
In 1960, Klaus Voormann met The Beatles, who at the time were completely unknown, in Hamburg, Germany, where he was an art student. Three years later, when Klaus moved to London and lived with George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their apartment, The Beatles had already become the embodiment of a new youth culture. In 1965, Voormann, who was working as a graphic designer at the time, was asked by John Lennon to create the album cover for their latest album. The highly influential piece of cover art for "Revolver," earned Klaus a Grammy Award. That same year, he became the bassist for the Manfred Mann Band and, in 1969 for John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band. Klaus Voormann was on the frontlines of the pop era’s meteoric rise and played on all the Beatles’ solo albums. Learn more at smithsonianchannel.com.
Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper will reunite for The Halloween Hootenanny Tour featuring the Gruesome Twosome with special guests (and Zombie labelmates) Murderdolls. The tour kicks off in Los Angeles at the Gibson Amphitheatre on Thursday, September 30 (please see below for tour dates). The pair recently shared the stage for a highly-successful, sold-out limited North American run earlier this year and have long been fans of one another, as well as good friends. The Billings Gazette declared, "Thousands of fans got the show of a lifetime…With elaborate multimedia stage shows and classic fist-pumping anthems, both artists brought much more to the stage than their music… the multi-sensory experience of the show will likely not be forgotten." Charlotte’s Creative Loafing stated, "Zombie was a wildman – running around stage, flipping his hair in every way and stomping away to rev the crowd into a frenzy…Two fantastic performances…" Drummer Joey Jordison will be doing double-duty on the dates, playing drums with Rob Zombie, as well as playing guitar with his own band, special guests Murderdolls.
Tour dates include;
SEPTEMBER
30 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
OCTOBER
1 San Diego, CA Harrah’s Rincon
2 Tucson, AZ Anselmo Valencia Amphitheater
4 Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheatre
6 Kansas City, MO Independence Event Center
7 St. Charles, MO The Family Arena
8 Bloomington, IL U.S. Cellular Coliseum
12 Binghamton, NY Broome County Arena
14 Portland, ME Cumberland County Civic Center
15 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun
16 Worcester, MA DCU Center
19 Roanoke, VA Roanoke Performing Arts Theater
20 Nashville, TN Nashville Municipal Auditorium
The second wave of releases in the 2010 Jimi Hendrix Catalog Project will be available October 19. Legacy’s next round of titles from the artist <em>Rolling Stone</em> magazine called the greatest guitarist of all time will include deluxe editions of <em>Jimi Hendrix Experience: BBC Sessions</em> and <em>Jimi Hendrix: Blues</em>, his legendary <em>Live At Woodstock</em> performance, and <em>Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year</em>, the highly collectible Jimi Hendrix Christmas EP.
Originally released in 1994, the <em>Jimi Hendrix: Blues</em> album features 11 blues performances recorded by Hendrix between 1966 and 1970 showcasing the guitarist’s mastery of the 12-bar form. The new deluxe Legacy edition comes packaged in a six-panel digipak with an expanded, 36 page booklet and includes a bonus DVD featuring an expanded, 30 minute version of "Jimi Hendrix and the Blues" from the Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues series. Directed and Produced by Alex Gibney, Janie Hendrix and John McDermott, the film features interviews and live performances not seen in the original PBS television broadcast. A double-disc 12" vinyl LP audiophile edition of Jimi Hendrix: Blues will also be available.
The Legacy edition of <em>Jimi Hendrix Experience: BBC Sessions</em> brings together recordings from Hendrix’s appearances on a variety of BBC radio and television broadcasts from 1967 through 1969. The two CD Jimi Hendrix Experience: BBC Sessions comes packaged in a six-panel digipak and includes a never before released 30 minute bonus DVD documentary. The film features the group’s famed January 1969 appearance on "Happening For Lulu" which featured Hendrix interrupting the live broadcast to perform a ferocious rendition of Cream’s "Sunshine Of Your Love" together with interviews with Jimi Hendrix Experience bandmates Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding as well as BBC staff producers Jeff Griffin and Bernie Andrews detailing the legendary sessions. The acclaimed two-CD set includes Hendrix’s unique interpretations of such classics as Bob Dylan’s "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?," Muddy Waters "Hoochie Coochie Man" [with noted British blues enthusiast Alexis Korner on slide guitar], the Beatles "Day Tripper" as well as two songs featuring the dream pairing of Stevie Wonder with Hendrix. A single CD "best-of" the BBC Sessions as well as a three-disc 12" audiophile vinyl LP edition of the album will also be available. Both the 2 CD and 3 LP BBC sets feature a previoulsy unreleased version of "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp" sourced from the August 24, 1967, of the Jimi Hendrix Experience on "Top of The Tops."
The watershed <em>Live At Woodstock</em> album, the artist’s most popular live performance, will be reissued in a two-CD set, available in both digipak and brilliant box configurations as well as an audiophile, three-disc 12" vinyl LP edition.
"Merry Christmas & Happy New Year," the Jimi Hendrix seasonal single, features the celebrated 1969 medley of "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night," and "Auld Lang Syne" backed with "Three Little Bears." Merry Christmas & Happy New Year will be reissued as a CD as well as on 7" vinyl in a picture sleeve.
John Mellencamp and his band are set to embark on the first leg of the No Better Than This Tour in late October following the August 17 release of his Rounder Records debut album, <em>No Better Than This</em>. The tour, designed as a uniquely formatted "evening with," brings Mellencamp’s music to theater-sized venues, a rare opportunity to experience one of America’s most iconic songwriters and performers in an intimate setting, highlighting all phases of his artistry.
The tour, anticipated to continue through the spring of 2011, will kick off on October 29 in Bloomington, Indiana, where Mellencamp and his family make their home. It continues for four weeks bringing Mellencamp, his band and music to audiences in Nashville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh and three additional Indiana markets of South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis with further tour dates pending.
The tour will feature classic Mellencamp material associated with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee over the course of his 35 year long career as well as the new music from No Better Than This. The new album was produced by T Bone Burnett and recorded in three historic locations in the American South: Savannah’s First African Baptist Church, Sun Studio in Memphis and Room 414 of San Antonio’s Gunter Hotel where Robert Johnson recorded in 1936. The sessions were documented on a 55-year-old mono tape recorder using just one vintage microphone at each location. Rolling Stone’s review of the album noted, "Mellencamp has never sounded looser or easier on a record," suggesting the artist was "channeling spirits and stepping into period styles. They fit him perfectly."
As a reflection of the diversity of styles and material that have been a hallmark of Mellencamp’s eclectic career, the concerts are formatted into three segments. These showcase John Mellencamp in an acoustic context, fronting a small combo recalling blues/country and rockabilly roots and with his full rock band. Musicians backing Mellencamp include Michael Wanchic (guitar), Andy York (guitar), Miriam Sturm (violin), John Gunnell (electric and upright bass), Dane Clark (drums) and Troye Kinnett (accordion/keyboards).
Of special note is the fact that the tour’s "opening act," is a documentary film by Kurt Markus entitled It’s About You. Shot on Super8 film over the course of last year’s Bob Dylan-John Mellencamp-Willie Nelson tour of minor-league baseball stadiums, it chronicles the creation of <em>No Better Than This</em> while serving as a cinematic ‘think piece’ on the state of the country at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Markus, whose still work has put him in the front ranks of contemporary American photographers, has been cited for his vision of his work documenting the American West and is the recipient of <em>Life</em> magazine’s Alfred Eisenstaedt Photography Award.
For more, visit mellencamp.com.
oin top Fender Custom Shop representatives for a series of events that provide "an all-access pass to the dream factory" as the Fender Custom Shop Road Show visits U.S. and Canadian dealers throughout summer and fall 2010.
At Custom Shop Road Show in-store events, dealers invite their top customers to meet and greet Custom Shop managers and master builders and their local Fender® district sales managers in a relaxed atmosphere that is as cool as it is informative. Guests can see, play and purchase special Custom Shop instruments created exclusively for these events; learn about Custom Shop instruments, history and programs; have their questions answered straight from Custom Shop staff; and design and order their "dream guitar" with direct assistance from Custom Shop staff and their local dealer.
Dates and locales include:
Aug. 10 Long & McQuade Toronto, Toronto, Ont.
Aug. 12 Long & McQuade Vancouver, Vancouver, B.C.
Aug. 28 Dave’s Guitar Shop ,La Crosse, Wis.
Sept. 16 Music Gallery, Highland Park, Ill.
Sept. 30 Wildwood Guitars, Louisville, Colo.
Oct. 2 Rainbow Guitars, Tucson, Ariz.
Oct. 22 Wild West Guitars, Riverside, Calif.