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dimanche 18 août 2019

FENTON ROBINSON Blues Guitar Masters 8


FENTON ROBINSON/ BLUES GUITAR MASTERS
Volume 8

           
Malgré son immense réputation auprès des fans de blues du monde entier, Fenton Robinson est rarement cité parmi les bluesmen majeurs. Alors que son œuvre, presque toujours excellente voire remarquable, en fait un des plus accomplis des chanteurs/guitaristes du blues "moderne".
            Né le 23 septembre 1935 à Minter City, dans le Mississippi, au sein d'une famille de métayers miséreux, essentiellement élevé par sa mère, il doit quitter l'école très jeune pour aider aux travaux des champs. C'est un voisin, le guitariste Sammy Hampton, qui lui apprend les rudiments de la guitare. Mais ce n'est qu'après avoir déménagé à Memphis en 1951 que Fenton découvre les guitares des grands innovateurs de la Côte Ouest comme T-Bone Walker ou Oscar Moore, les arrangements des big bands de jazz et les voix des blues shouters tels Eddie Vinson ou Joe Williams. Ce seront toujours ces influences sophistiquées et urbaines qui domineront sa musique.
            Il décide alors de devenir musicien professionnel, forme un groupe avec Charles McGowan et parfait son éducation musicale auprès de différents musiciens chevronnés de la ville. Une démarche extrêmement inhabituelle pour un bluesman du Mississippi qui, plus tard, l'amènera à apprendre à lire et à écrire la musique et arranger l'orchestration.
            Memphis se révélant peu lucratif, Fenton gagne tenter sa chance à Little Rock en 1953, en faisant sa base de rayonnement jusqu'en 1961. Il joue dans les clubs de jazz et de blues, anime une émission de radio sur KXLR, présentant tous les talents de la capitale de l'Arkansas: Larry Davis (alors bassiste), Sammy Lawhorn, Sunny Blair, Ernest Lane... Il joue aussi souvent à Saint Louis, notamment en 1954-55 au Blue Flame Club où il rencontre Ike Turner et ses Kings of Rhythm. Quand Fenton retourne à Little Rock, il est suivi de quelques musiciens des Kings of Rhythm, tel le saxophoniste-ténor Little Cameron avec lequel il enregistrera.
           
Remarqué par Lester Bihari, Fenton enregistre enfin en 1957 pour Meteor Tennessee woman, ce qui l'amène à signer pour le label de Don Robey, Duke qui saura lui faire graver une série de séances remarquables dans ses studios de Houston: As the years go passing by (une composition originale de Peppermint Harris cédée à Robey qui deviendra le standard que l'on sait), une version supérieure de Tennessee woman, Mississippi steamboat ou l'instrumental The Freeze (qui influencera tant Albert Collins). Fenton accompagne aussi plusieurs chanteurs comme Larry Davis sur le classique Texas flood.
            Mais dans le Sud, Robinson ne réussit pas à vivre, comme il le souhaite tant, de sa musique, et doit travailler en usine le jour (notamment chez Coca Cola). Il gagne donc Chicago. Presque immédiatement, la réputation de ses disques Duke, son jeu de guitare jazzy, fluide, virtuose, expressif, son chant poignant qui ajoute au phrasé distingué des blues shouters la ferveur du Gospel lui permet d'assembler un groupe (Bobby King, Jack Myers, Earl Robinson) qui devient l'orchestre-maison du club Theresa's. Il enregistre pour plusieurs petits labels de Chicago (USA, Palos). En 1967, le magnifique Somebody loan me a dime commence à flirter avec les Hit Parades locaux mais l'hiver précoce et très dur paralyse la ville durant plusieurs semaines, empêchant l'ascension du titre.
           
Cependant, Somebody n'est pas perdu pour tout le monde, notamment pas pour le chanteur de rock Boz Scaggs qui l'enregistre en 1969 sur Atlantic, s'en approprie la composition et en fait un énorme succès commercial! Malgré ses efforts, Fenton - qui n'a guère les moyens financiers de lutter - ne récupérera jamais les droits qu'il aurait dû percevoir. Robinson continue donc une petite carrière, grave encore quelques 45 t pour le minuscule label Giant puis, dans la foulée du succès de Boz Scaggs, un album entier à Nashville sous l'égide de John Richbourn qui ne trouve rien de mieux que de le priver de sa guitare et l'entourer d'un des groupes de rock les plus rigides du moment.
            Fenton tourne ensuite avec Charlie Musselwhite durant quelques années. Jusqu'à ce que Bruce Iglauer lui permette enfin en 1974 d'enregistrer le merveilleux Somebody loan me a dime (Alligator). Magnifiquement produit, entouré de grands musiciens de blues, Fenton est au sommet de son art et cet album est certainement un des grands chefs d'œuvre indispensables du Chicago blues de cette période. Plusieurs titres de cette sublime séance sont encore inédits et on peut espérer que Alligator va en sortir un jour l'intégrale?
            Avec un tel disque et un label comme Alligator, l'avenir de Fenton semblait enfin prometteur. Malheureusement, impliqué dans un accident de voiture mortel, Robinson est condamné à la prison et incarcéré en 1975. A sa sortie, il enregistre un nouveau très bon album pour Alligator I hear some blues downstairs. Mais le caractère ombrageux et la personnalité de Fenton le brouillent avec beaucoup de monde. Il retourne vivre à Little Rock, cette fois pour trouver une scène du blues agonisante, gagne Springfield (Ill) où il obtient une résidence d'artiste dans un college... Il ne joue plus en public que sporadiquement, disparaît pratiquement de la scène américaine. Heureusement, sa réputation en Europe et au Japon lui permettent d'y effectuer des tournées et d'enregistrer encore sporadiquement quelques albums pour le label néerlandais Black Magic (Blues in progress/ Nighflight; Special road).
            C'est hélas un homme amer, désabusé, sûr de ses talents dont il vivote à peine qui meurt d'une attaque le 30 novembre 1997 à Rockford dans l'Illinois.
            Sa très belle œuvre enregistrée, elle, n'a cessé de grandir avec le temps.
            Si tous ses albums sont relativement disponibles en CD, ses premiers 45t sont difficiles à trouver. Nous les avons donc rassemblés ici.
                                                           Gérard HERZHAFT
Photo © Emmanuel Choisnel


Although rarely credited as a major figure of the Chicago blues, Fenton Robinson has nevertheless a strong and well deserved reputation as a wonderful smooth singer and subtle and expressive guitarist among blues buffs all over the world.
Born September 23, 1935 in Minter City (Ms), the young Fenton had a very hard childhood, having to quit school at an early age to help his farming mother. A neighbor guitarist, Sammy Hampton, opened up his mind to music, jazz and blues. It was anyway not before Fenton had moved to Memphis in the early 1950's that he was confronted to "real" musicians, live or on records, T-Bone Walker, Oscar Moore, the sound of the big bands, the blues shouters like Joe Williams (from Count Basie's) and Eddie Vinson who, all of them, would stay as his main musical influences. All his life Fenton would want to be a professionnal, classy musician, taking lessons, learning how to read and write music and arrangements. With a friend, the guitarist Charles McGowan, Fenton embarked himself on a musical career with great expectations and ambitions. Relocated in Little Rock (Arkansas) in 1953, Fenton knew and played with all the local musicians (Larry Davis, Sammy Lawhorn, Sunny Blair), hosted a local radio programme and had gigs all around Little Rock up to Saint Louis where he knew and played with Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm. Sax-tenor Little Cameron, one of Ike's alumni, even went into Fenton's band whose whom he would record a handful of sides.
            At last, Fenton recorded in 1957, first for Lester Bihari's Meteor label (Tennessee woman), then for Don Robey's Duke label. Well produced, with gound sound and arrangements, the tracks that Fenton waxed for Duke in 1959-60 stand up very well the tests of time. As the years go passing by (an original composition by Peppermint Harris who sold it to Robey), a new superior version of Tennessee woman, Mississippi steamboat or The freeze (which would greatly influence Albert Collins) are some of the best Duke titles.
           
But despite all that buzz, Fenton had still to work on a day-job (in a Coca Cola plant) for bread and butter. Once again, with great hopes, he went to try his luck in Chicago where he would take more music lessons with Reggie Boyd.
            Quickly, his mellow, jazzy, floating and inventive guitar playing as well as his classy singing (plus the reputation of his Duke 45's) earned him a secure job as leader of the house band (with Bobby King, Jack Myers...) at Theresa's. He also managed to record for several small Chicago labels: USA, Giant, Palos... In 1967, his stunning composition Somebody loan me a dime, for Palos, started to climb the local charts but was unfortunately cut off by an early and severe Chicago winter which froze litteraly all activities in the Windy city.
            Anyway, rising rock star Boz Scaggs heard the song, copyrighted the tune and recorded it for his Atlantic album in 1969, a national smash it that should have earned some needed money to Fenton but instead left him embittered and poorer, the expanses of lawyers and such going nowhere!
            Trying to emulate Boz's music, Nashville producer John Richbourn signed Fenton and made him recording a poor rock-oriented album in which Fenton didn't even had the right to play his guitar! Fenton went for a while on the road with Charlie Musselwhite.
            At last in 1974, Fenton recorded a major album under the wise production of Bruce Iglauer. Somebody loan me a dime (Alligator) is certainly a masterpiece of the "modern" Chicago blues idiom in which Fenton appears at the peak of his considerable talents. Several tracks from this legendary sessions are still unissued. Maybe one day, Bruce and Alligator would give us the "complete" recording session?
            With such an album and a dedicated producer like Iglauer, the future of Fenton Robinson seemed at last promising. But bad luck struck him once again. Involved in a fatal car accident, Fenton had to go to jail for several months in 1975.
            He recorded another good album for Alligator albeit less stunning than the previous one (I hear some blues downstairs) but seemed not to be able to cash on anything. His brood temper, his versatility discouraged many to take care of his career. Fenton quit Chicago to return to Little Rock, just to find a dying blues scene, relocated to Springfield, Illinois, where he chiefly lived upon musical lectures in schools and even day jobs. He dropped off the US blues scene almost completely but, fortunately, his great reputation in Japan and Europe gave him the opportunty to tour overseas and record a handful of (very good) albums for the Dutch Black Magic label.
            But this is a very bitter, suspicious, disillusionned man, still aware of his considerable musical talents largely unrecognized outside some limited circles, that died after an attack on november 30, 1997.
            His mostly first rate recorded legacy speaks for his greatness.
            If his albums are all still available on CDs, his first sides on 45's are quite hard to obtain. I have thus collected his complete early works on those .mp3 comp.                                                                     Gérard HERZHAFT



FENTON ROBINSON
Complete Early Recordings
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; Charles Mc Gowan, g; pno; Robert Williams, t-sax; Larry Davis, bs; J.W. Hughes, dms. Memphis, Tn. mars 1957
01. Tennessee woman
02. Crying out loud
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; David Dean, t-sax; James Booker, pno; Larry Davis, bs; Nat Kendricks, dms. Houston, Tx. 17-26 mai 1958
03. Crazy crazy lovin'
04. Mississippi steamboat
05. The freeze
06. Double freeze (vcl: Peppermint Harris)
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; James Booker, pno; Texas Johnny Brown, g; David Dean, t-sax; Hamp Simmons, bs; Nat Kendricks, dms. Houston, tx. 1959
07. As the years go passing by
08. Tennessee woman
09. You've got to pass this way again
10. Schoolboy
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; Hop Wilson, st-g; Elmore Nixon, pno; Pete Douglas, bs; Ivory Lee Semien, dms. Houston, Tx. 27 octobre 1960
11. You don't move me anymore
12. My woman done quit me
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; Detroit Jr, pno; Burgess Gardner, t-sax; Eddie Silvers, a-sax; Bob Anderson, bs; Billy Davenport, dms. Chicago, Ill. 1966
13. Say you're leaving
14. Directly from my heart
15. You're cracking me up
16. I put my baby in high society
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; Kenneth Sands, tpt; Bobby Forte, t-sax; Alberto Gianquinto, pno; Leo Lauchie, bs; Sonny Freeman, dms. Chicago, Ill. mai 1967
17. I believe
18. Somebody loan me a dime
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; tpt; Little Cameron, t-sax; Wayne Bennett, g; pno; James Green, bs; dms. Chicago, Ill. janvier 1968
19. Farmer's son
20. Let me rock you to sleep
21. Keep on grooving me baby
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; horns; John Logan, og; Mighty Joe Young, g; James Green, bs; Bill Warren, dms. Chicago, lll. 1969
22. 7/11 blues
23. There goes my baby
24. Fen-ton a soul
Fenton Robinson, vcl; Ed Kollis, hca; Troy Seals, g; Mac Gayden, g; Bob Wilson, kbds; Tim Drummond, bs; Karl Himmell, dms. Nashville, Tn. Juin 1970
25. The Getaway
26. Somebody loan me a dime
27. The sky is crying
28. Stormy monday
29. Smokestack lightning
30. Moanin' for my baby
31. Don't start me to talking
32. Little red rooster
33. Sideman
34. Let me come back home
35. Leave you in the arms of another
36. I'm not through loving you
37. Give you some air
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; horns; Sandy Kaye, kbds; Mark Tidwell, g; Neal Dover, bs; Tarp Tarrant, dms. Muscle Shoals, Al. 1971
38. She's a wiggler
39. Little turch
40. Mellow fellow
41. I wanna ooh
42. Laughing and crying blues
43. I fell in love one time
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; Little Mack Simmons, hca; Mighty Joe Young, g; James Green, bs; Ashward Gates, dms. Chicago, Ill. 1973
44. Find a way
45. Cryin' the blues
Fenton Robinson, vcl/g; Mighty Joe Young, g; John Logan, og; pno; horns; James Green, bs; Bill Warren, dms. Chicago, Ill. janvier 1974
46. Blue monday blues
47. One room country shack
48. Nothing but a fool

27 commentaires:

  1. FENTON ROBINSON/ Blues Guitar Masters Vol. 8
    (updated and expanded)
    01-32:
    https://mega.nz/#!7UpwVIyB!VapS9A2X8hKQmmP8SxfGO4eQSAcLsjS2R0MtzY5hclE

    33-48:
    https://mega.nz/#!nMp2QYYD!xfoNkVvaqWYg-o48DXJJ2SgyCDTUD4Bl8To6BrR28CU

    OK? And thanks for your feedback

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  2. Merci beaucoup pour ce magnifique post .

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  3. Hello Gérard, Thank you for this beautiful update.

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  4. Many thanks Gerard. I do of course have the previous edition of these early recordings, so your updated and expanded edition is most welcomed. Also that's a good cover photo of Fenton, I haven't seen that one before...looks like he'd been chugging a few too many beers :-)

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    1. Thanks Bob Mac. The picture was effectively never published. It is my photo of Fenton (taken by my friend from the Soul Bag magazine Jean Pierre Arniac) that he autographed to me in 1995.

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  5. bonne journee a toi Gerard;merci pour ce nouveau post prolonge !!!.

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  6. Thank you for updating and expanding early Fenton Robinson. There are lots of tracks I've never seen before. I wonder if any live recordings of Fenton Robinson exists. Thanks for your terrific work!

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  7. @Terry A. The only live Fenton Robinson I have is: Fenton Robinson With The Nighthawks - Live in Boston (1976), there's also the DVD: Fenton Robinson - Live In Holland (1984). I'm not aware of any others, so like you I'm curious if anything else exists.

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  8. There are two very good live recordings from the BBC documentary The Devil's Music. There is also a live album on Charly Records he shares with Billy Branch and another band (which may be a bootleg, not sure).

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  9. In addition, there is some live material of Fenton playing with the Norman Beaker Band from the 1st Burnley Blues Festival(JSP CD 228).
    Also on JSP, there are four tracks Fenton did with the Beaker Band for Paul Jones (The Paul Jones Rhythm & Blues Show - The American Guests, Volume 3, JSP CD 235).
    With regard to tracks 11 and 12, Ray Topping identified Fenton as the vocalist/guitarist on these tracks, but his assumptions were widely disputed. Fenton once told me that it is not him singing and playing on these tracks.
    Thank you for keeping the music of a true master of modern blues alive.

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    Réponses
    1. Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Yes the tracks with Hop Wilson have been controversial but I anyway included them but I should have warned about it. I'm also pretty sure that the "Little Cameron" tracks unissued until the XXIst Century have Fenton playing the lead guitar. The tracks with the Norman Beaker Band are to my ears not live recordings (I mean before an audience). Anyway they are from 1989, so out of the scope of this compilation.

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  10. What's the full title of the live Billy Branch/Fenton Robinson Charly album? I'm curious if I have this or not.

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  11. OK, I've found it now:
    Fenton Robinson, Billy Branch, Sons Of Blues, Howard & The White Boys ‎– Sweet Home Chicago

    Charly Schallplatten GmbH ‎– CDGR 274

    Recorded Live At Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago

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  12. Yes, I think that's the one. More of these 1993/94 recordings from Legend's were released both on CD and DVD. These recordings were done for a TV show called Chicago Blues Jam. I think there are more than a dozen releases in this series. This time Fenton shares a CD with the James Harman Band.
    The JSP cuts from Burnley were recorded at the 1989 festival and you can hear Fenton interact with the audience. I know people who saw the show. Yes, Paul Jones recorded his guests either live in concert (with audience) or live in the studio (no audience).
    Yes, the scope of this compilation ends in 1974 before the first Alligator recordings. The mentioned live recordings are all from 1976 and later. But the question was are there any live recordings.
    One track from the phase covered by your scope is 'You Don't Know What Love Is', an unissued recording for Giant which was released for the first time on the Japanese compilation entitled "The Mellow Blues Genius".
    Cheerio!

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  13. Interesting, there's quite a bit of live Fenton scattered around on various comps & labels, but not really that much. It'd be nice to see these tracks gathered together in a "Complete Fenton Robinson Live Recordings" ...possibility for a future project, Gerard?

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  14. Thanks B Flat and Bob Mac. I don't have too much those Fenton's live sessions. I saw him live only twice each time with a rather pedestrian European band. His guitar playing and voice were wonderful but he seemed to me a little bit elsewhere.

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  15. Seems I've got a fair bit of live Fenton:
    Fenton Robinson With The Nighthawks - Live in Boston (1976)
    Fenton Robinson - Live In Holland (1984) - DVD
    Sweet Home Chicago - VA (Recorded Live At Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago)
    Paul Jones R&B Show - The American Guests Vol 1-3 (3 CD set) - VA


    I don't have: The First Burnley National Blues Festival 1989 (JSP Records JSPCD 228) but will ask over on Xyros blog and hopefully someone will fill the request.

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  16. Thanks Gerard
    I hadn't heard the earlier recordings...so appreciate all your efforts to keep the history alive
    Cheers

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  17. I just listed the live recordings I am aware of. You will find more on YouTube I guess. I did not say that they are all good. Much to the contrary, most of them I do not like at all. There is stuff out there that would never be issued with the artist's permission I am sure.

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  18. Thanks for these Gerard. I've been a big fan of Fenton who I always felt was underappreciated.

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  19. merci Gerard c'est effectivement superbe!

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  20. Α really nice compilation, thank you!

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  21. Thank you, Fenton Robinson does not get the attention he deserves. The link for the second part (33-48) doesn't work for me.

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  22. Lovely - a very nice compilation indeed, thanks for posting!

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  23. Just a couple of lines to communicate that the Burnley Festival and BBC recordings have been recently reissued on JSP Records together with a few live tracks recorded with his Chicago band at a festival in Belgium. Cheerio!

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