PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND
East-West Live
Three live versions of "East-West" -- 56 minutes
PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND
Strawberry Jam
More live nightclub recordings 1966-1968
PERCY MAYFIELD
Percy Mayfield Live
The only authorized live recordings by the Poet Laureate of the Blues
RON THOMPSON
Just Like A Devil
Solos, band tunes, duets with Mark Naftalin
The recordings in this album, made on portable tape recorders during nightclub performances, were
collected by Mark Naftalin during his travels with the Butterfield Band.
SONGS
MUSICIANS, DATES & LOCATIONS
1 - Whiskey A Go-Go, Hollywood, California, winter, 1966
CREDITS
Thanks to Ellen Naftalin, Arthur & Frances Naftalin, David & Genie Ames, E.E. Barker, Fred & Cathy Steck,
Allen Bloomfield, Val Parker, Jan Mark Wolkin, John Stepek, George Jones, Beth Patterson, Gayle Harvey
Special thanks to Billy & Mattie Davenport for the use of their photo and memorabilia archives
NO MATTER WHAT you may believe, the Paul Butterfield Blues
Band was not the first great white blues band. In the first
place, its membership was always integrated; black musicians
played a central role in the Butterfield bands from day one. More
important, the original Butterfield group, especially the one
that made the first two albums, does not deserve to be judged
with any modification or apology. It was a great blues band by
any standard.
ONE REASON the appellation "white" gets tacked onto the
Butterfield group's accomplishments is that it was, even then,
unusual for people like Paul Butterfield, Michael Bloomfield,
Elvin Bishop and Mark Naftalin, who had not grown up in
African-American communities, to play Chicago blues with such
authenticity and intensity.
UNDENIABLY, HOWEVER, the Butterfield Band laid the
foundation for much of the white rock experimentation of the mid-
Sixties. It did this with the fiery emotional personality its
central figures, singer/harpist Paul Butterfield and guitarist
Michael Bloomfield, brought to remolding blues music, and by
exploiting the wide variety of interests possessed by its
members, including drummer Billy Davenport's jazz background, and
the serious music training of Naftalin.
BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT PLAYER was Bloomfield, a
prodigious talent who forged the essential components of his
style in the Butterfield Band. Bloomfield once told Naftalin that
his ambition was to create a sound so distinctive that it was
immediately recognizable to anyone who heard it, and as much as
anyone this side of Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King, he came close to
doing that. He started out on the Butterfield Band's 1965 debut
album, as an heir of the best Chicago blues guitarists--Muddy
Waters, Elmore James, Jimmy Rogers, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin--as
well as the Memphis-based King whose most famous album (Live at
the Regal) had been cut in Chicago. But his style changed
radically within a year, in part because Bloomfield also paid
serious attention to his contemporaries in soul, jazz, and
funk--you can hear Steve Cropper's Stax/Volt single-string attack
and some of Wes Montgomery's cool jazz. Bloomfield also clearly
listened to the English rock guitarists like George Harrison,
Brian Jones, Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton, who were beginning
to expand their blues-based guitar vocabularies by toying with
intense amplification and other forms of noise, and, in the case
of Harrison and Jones, with what would today be called "world
music."
IT REAMAINED FOR SOMEONE to synthesize all of these
influences, and the possibilities that the mixture suggested,
into a signature style. The person who made that synthesis,
before even Jimi Hendrix, was Michael Bloomfield.
THIS CASE doesn't have to be argued, because it can be
heard--on the second Butterfield album, East-West, originally
released in 1966. The components of what Butterfield was doing
to extend the blues, and to meld it with other musics, would have
been familiar to the dozens of musicians who flocked to the
band's shows after it left Chicago, from New York to Detroit to
San Francisco and Los Angeles. But where Bloomfield and his
bandmates took those elements could not have been predicted by
anyone--there were strong suggestions of the Indian ragas with
which Harrison had been experimenting, but there were also echoes
of both jazz and classical avant-gardism, and a heavy Latin
accent frequently came to bear.
PAUL BUTTERFIELD RAN a strictly disciplined group, and by
early 1966, the Butterfield Band was playing Chicago blues, by
strict definition, and the existential kind of blues that Ralph
Ellison and Albert Murray describe: Music of inner torment,
heartbreak and, at the same time, spiritual reaffirmation and
even transcendence. In this respect, every great bluesman or
blues combo redefines the idiom in his or their own terms--by
playing with what the cliche calls "soul." "East-West" is the
climactic expression of the Butterfield Band's redefinition of
the blues, and it is a magnificently soulful piece of music.
MARK NAFTALIN SAYS that Michael Bloomfield brought "East-
West" to the Butterfield Band in the days following an all-night
acid trip (in Cambridge in late 1965). "Mike sequestered himself
in the wee hours of the night," Naftalin recalls, "and when he
emerged at dawn he said he'd had a revelation into the workings
of Indian music." At first simply called "the raga," "East-West"
was an exploration of music that moved modally, rather than
through chord changes. As Naftalin explains, "This song was
based, like Indian music, on a drone. In Western musical terms,
it 'stayed on the one.' The song was tethered to a four-beat bass
pattern and structured as a series of sections, each with a
different mood, mode and color, always underscored by the
drummer, who contributed not only the rhythmic feel but much in
the way of tonal shading, using mallets as well as sticks on the
various drums and the different regions of the cymbals. In
addition to playing beautiful solos, Paul played important,
unifying things in the background--chords, melodies,
counterpoints, counter-rhythms. This was a group improvisation.
In its fullest form it lasted more than an hour."
THERE'S NO PERFORMANCE quite that long included in this set,
which is drawn from tapes that have survived three decades--from
the winter 1966 shows the band did at the Whisky in Hollywood, a
sweet Chicago homecoming at Poor Richard's that spring, and a
show at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, south of L.A., the
following winter. But the three performances, taken together,
play like an extended, ever-developing suite. Solo flourishes and
ensemble turns emerge and re-emerge as the music pours towards
its final, joyful climax, and in the path from first to last, one
can read much of the temper of that cataclysmic year.
IN THESE INCARNATIONS, "East-West" can be heard as part of
what sparked the West Coast's rock revolution, in which such song
structures with extended improvisatory passages became a
commonplace. In particular, Billy Davenport's use of a bossa nova
rhythm for the basic beat must have helped to inspire Carlos
Santana's early salsa-rock experiments. It can even be argued
that the Butterfield Band did a much more thorough job of
integrating Indian music into the basic rock soundscheme (to
which Jerome Arnold's still blues-centered bass ensures they are
anchored) than any English band, the Beatles included.
"EAST-WEST" WAS IN SOME WAYS much further ahead of its time.
When Bloomfield and Bishop begin to use their instruments and
amplifiers to really bang and clang, what emerges is a hint of
the noisy attack favored by postpunk and grunge guitarists of the
Eighties and Nineties. Those contemporary guitarists almost
certainly don't think of Bloomfield, Bishop, the Butterfield Band
or even the blues when they do this. Nevertheless, the sounds are
the same.
BY CREATING an entire album from "East-West," however, Mark
Naftalin has done something more important than just capturing an
organic force, or tracing the patterns left by some kind of happy
accident. He's paid an ultimate tribute to one of the greatest
bands of the rock era. The Butterfield Band inspired those who
wanted to play blues, and those who wanted to hear them, by
showing that the form wasn't restricted in any way. This isn't
nostalgia; it's history. And that's so because the Butterfield
Band didn't make music to study at a distance. What that group
played was exciting, alive, happening right now. With
"East-West," above any other extended piece of the mid-Sixties, a
rock band finally achieved a version of the musical freedom that
free jazz had found a few years earlier. In this respect,
East-West Live isn't a glimpse of the past so much as it is a
preview of the future--a future that does not just happen but is
made to occur through the application of talent, brotherhood and
love. Those things are as inspiring at the turn-of-the-century as
they were thirty years before.
"...ONE OF THE FINEST archival projects of the year, East-West Live fills in a crucial gap
in the histories of a great American band -- and even rock itself..."
"...FLOWS as a single otherworldly piece...The three long versions echo loud and clear across
the years..."
"...AMAZING PERFORMANCES...Takes you inside this extraordinary improvisation and returns you
for a few minutes to the glory days of a great American band..."
"...PUNCHY Bloomfield solo work and impassioned harp blowing from bandleader
Butterfield..."
"...THE PERFORMANCES boast surprisingly good sound and impressively document a
confident band blazing forth in new-found creative glory..."
"...THE MUSIC is incredible...a fascinating and illuminating window into the improvisational genius
of what was undoubtedly one of the most cutting-edge blues groups EVER..."
"...THESE RECORDINGS capture a valuable moment in time while proving that great music can
at once define an era and transcend it..."
"...AN INCREDIBLE DOCUMENT, and an opportunity to get inside the minds of some
amazing musicians..."
"...THE THREE live versions soar like a long, long meteor in the dark sky..."
The recordings in this album were collected by Mark Naftalin during his time with the Butterfield Band. Some of them he made
himself, others were made by friends. The tapes were made on mono or stereo portable recorders during nightclub performances.
SONGS
MUSICIANS, DATES & LOCATIONS
1 - Whiskey A Go-Go, Hollywood, California, winter, 1966
5,6 - New Penelope, Montreal, summer, 1967
CREDITS
Special thanks to Arthur & Frances Naftalin, Ellen Naftalin, David & Genie Ames, E.E. Barker, Chance & Debbie Browne, Fred & Cathy
Steck, Val Parker, Jan Mark Wolkin, David Bither, Beth Patterson, Gayle Harvey
IN THE 1960'S in the blues clubs on Chicago's south side, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band
was setting off the first depth charges of what would come to be a worldwide blues explosion. Its main role model was the
reigning Hoochie Coochie Man himself, Muddy Waters. Did Butterfield and band play and sing Muddy's music as well or as
enduringly as Muddy did? Even the band, with all its legendary brashness, might well concede that one to Muddy. But as
musical trendsetters and subversives, popularizers of the blues and prototypes for at least a generation of blues bands, the
Butterfield band holds its own and has indeed, in Muddy's words, "carried it on."
AT A TIME WHEN the typical nationally-marketed white blues was either acoustic, solo-oriented
folk music or the enthusiastic but generally unconvincing covers of British Invasion bands, it was the racially-integrated
Butterfield group who brought to the fore a groundbreaking take on electric Chicago blues with all its grit and ferocity.
Butterfield's vocals had all the toughness and passion of the kings of the ghetto bandstands where the School Of Blues was in
session, and his heavily amplified harmonica was firmly in the Little Walter tradition (with a strong sense of James Cotton's huge
tone and power and a great appreciation of the use of hands to provide nuance). But he also always had a strong sense of
himself ("I think I'm better than all the people who are trying to reform me," he allegedly wrote for a school yearbook), which
translated into an everpresent sense of style on top of the traditional aggressiveness.
ATTITUDE HAD A LOT to do with the band's image, beyond the chip on the leader's shoulder. Perhaps
because its members came from musical and cultural backgrounds outside the Chicago blues idiom, they took some license with
it. Their de facto anthem, "Born In Chicago," was in part a declaration of something original to contribute to the blues repertoire
(via a Nick Gravenites composition in this case), without sacrificing the mean, hard point of view. The group's two guitarists also
blended more modern guitar influences into the harmonica-led Delta motif, once describing their ensemble approach as "The
Muddy Waters band with B.B. King on lead guitar." Mark Naftalin was a solid, well-schooled pianist but was heard more often on
organ, then a progressive and jazzy edge to a blues band. Of course, all this rested on the foundation of a seasoned hard-core
rhythm section, to the occasional irritation of Howlin' Wolf, former employer of bassist Jerome Arnold and original drummer Sam Lay.
WITHOUT QUESTION the band was charismatic. Even the studied sleaze of the first album cover had so
much blues pull for searching white eyes that it finally lured young guitarist Robben Ford to buy it, thereby identifying his calling and
changing his life forever. That effect happened so often, in so many ways, that Butterfield and his band acquired the same sort of
style-setting status among the growing white blues (and rock) audience as Muddy once had, in his world, when southern black
migrants to the cities were defining the music. Many modern players echo Butterfield's harp techniques. Mike Bloomfield was the
first white American blues guitar hero, with an incalculable influence. Elvin Bishop's considerable impact came as much from his
good-timing, barstool persona as it did from his highly original guitar playing. The band even had a literally electrifying effect on the
larger musical scene as accompanists; its 1965 Newport appearance with Bob Dylan was widely heralded as a revolutionary (and
controversial) event in folk music.
INITIALLY, THE BAND used Chicago blues to turn on a whole new coterie of listeners (and imitators),
enough to achieve stardom and also enough to reflect some of the spotlight on some of their mentors. The Butterfield band led many
followers to explore the whole idiom. (B.B. King singled out Bloomfield for praise in helping him cross over to a white audience and
stated at the time, "I'm grateful...because to me, it seemed to open a few doors for us that seemed like they were / never going to
open.") Band members played on and/or produced breakthrough records by Muddy, James Cotton, Otis Rush, John Lee Hooker and
others, not to mention Dylan. But the band's musical trailblazing went rapidly past electric club blues. Their extended improvisations
brought jazz and non-western sensibilities not only to the Butterfield band, but to countless garages and stages. When a horn
section was added and emphasis began to shift toward R & B, much notice was taken and, along with Blood, Sweat & Tears and
Chicago, the group rceived renown as pioneers in the use of R & B horns in white popular music. And while the band's increasing
adventures into fusion weren't always seamless or successful, they nevertheless had an anticipatory spirit which reflected
Butterfield's continuing determination to make music his way. The transformation during these times appeared to be happening at
warp speed. Though Butterfield and company demonstrated plenty of appreciation for their contemporaries and predecessors,
boundaries and categories never seemed to matter much to this band. They seemed to take pride in trampling more than a few, from
their incursions into the ghetto blues scene onward through musical history.
THE MUSIC OF the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was many things -- a cry for recognition of a harder,
fiercer kind of blues than white ears were used to; an accommodation of diverse musical influences with a personal verve and
virtuosity; and a celebration of freedom to reinvent the context for its musical voice as it went along. Even those who would chalk
the last up to youthful impudence must acknowledge that it was a perfect mirror for the ascendant spirit of the times (especially the
psychedelic ballroom circuit), where other impudent souls were striving to reinvent culture and society with emphasis on tolerance
and diversity, and music was the main bearer of the message for those who knew how to tune in. Surely the empathy between the
group's aspirations and those of its audience had a lot to do with the band's popularity. In both cases, the results weren't always
pretty, but they were bold, idealistic and ambitious -- and they changed the landscape forever.
"...BUTTERFIELD COULD WORK his harp like a jazzman's horn, as demonstrated on the standout title
track...A vital intro, Strawberry Jam reminds us that the blues remains unbound by time and circumstance..."
"...BUTTERFIELD PLAYS with limitless raw passion and guitarists Mike Bloomfield
and Elvin Bishop are already earning their heroic stature..."
"...THE SOUND IS ALWAYS clear and listenable...Strawberry Jam is both an excellent introduction for
newcomers and a wonderful reminiscence for old-timers..."
"...THESE SIDES REAFFIRM Butterfield's status as one of the most significant trailblazers in the
history of the blues...Paul Butterfield has been gone for almost ten years but he lives again on Strawberry Jam..."
"...BUTTERFIELD'S HIGHLY PERSONAL single-note cries on the title track reveal a vast emotional
range...Great versions of 'Mystery Train' and 'Born In Chicago' show a band obviously polished, but one that always seems ready to
explode beyond the confines of the songs..."
"...BUTTERFIELD'S HARP sounds almost explosive...An historic document from a band everyone
should hear..."
"...THERE'S A DARK MENACE to 'Tollin' Bells' and a fat throb to 'Mystery Train,' but the standout is the
title track...This music rang a bell that echoes today..."
"...GREAT HARP AND VOCALS by Butterfield...The band not only was influential in its time, but also
sounds ahead of its time..."
"...IT'S ALMOST TERRIFYING to hear how deep these guys were...Historically, this is
a treasure..."
"...THIS BAND, more than any other, helped open up the possibilities for a new
generation to take blues in new directions, as evidenced by the extended title track..."
"...SIMPLY A GREAT COLLECTION of blues recordings...a piece of history..."
"...A MUST GET for any blues collection...The live feeling and the immediacy of this CD are evident
from the first notes..."
"...A REAL TREAT, with a live blues sound that most recordings don't quite capture...This is a unique
look at a band that truly changed the scope of modern blues..."
"...SHOWS HOW STRIKINGLY well the band was able to capture the sound of Muddy Waters-era Chicago
blues..."
"...GREAT CLUB AMBIENCE and performance...Butterfield's harp comes through loud and clear, alternately
sweet and smokin'!...If you are like me and Butterfield was an important early inspiration in discovering the blues, this is a disc for
you..."
"...POSITIVELY FEROCIOUS...Sizzling performances by the influential Windy City-born band who first
turned rock listeners' ears to the insistent sounds of amplified Chicago blues 30 years ago...The disc is eminently listenable, and the
power of the music pours through undiluted..."
"...THE MUSIC HERE is absolutely great!...Anyone who is interested in the development of blues,
and particularly Paul Butterfield's contributions, should acquire this..."
"...THIS WAS A BALL-to-the-wall band with no frills, gimmicks or glitter; they shot straight from the
hip...It's Mark Naftalin's 'Strawberry Jam' that makes this a collectable..."
"...THE REAL STAR as always is Paul himself, his harp coercing, conversing, convincing,
especially in the languid Gershwinesque intro to the "Strawberry" showpiece..."
"...THE REAL FEELING of being in the club with the band, where the feel of cold beer, sweaty bodies
and peeling walls permeates into the music...This is blues as it ought to be..."
Mark Naftalin's Blue Monday Party was a weekly rhythm & blues show and dance held at two San Francisco Bay Area
nightclubs between March, 1979, and September, 1983. The performances in this album were recorded during the live radio
broadcasts (heard throughout the Bay Area on KTIM-FM) which emanated from the Blue Monday Party between February,
1982, and September, 1983.
SONGS
MUSICIANS
DATES & LOCATIONS
Uncle Charlie's, Corte Madera, California
CREDITS
Special Thanks to Dennis Hale, production director of the Blue Monday Party broadcasts. Without his efforts, this music would not
have been recorded.
Very special thanks to Fred and Cathy Steck.
In the early 1980's, in the San Francisco Bay Area (in Marin County, to be exact, just across the Golden Bridge to the north), the
great blues singer and poet PERCY MAYFIELD had a final heyday.
At a time when the world seemed to have forgotten him, Percy was drawn into a circle of Bay-Area musicians and friends who
accepted him as a prophet and a star -- and labored to present him as widely as possible. He sang at private parties and in
nightclub shows. He headlined blues and jazz festivals and starred in a series of live radio concerts. And he was featured in
a BLUE MONDAY PARTY television special and in the Handy Award-winning videodocumentary "Percy
Mayfield -- Poet Laureate Of The Blues."
When Percy was on the scene, everyone (on stage and off) was influenced by his matchless style, impressed by his wise words (in
song and out), touched and inspired by the beautiful feeling of his singing.
Percy Mayfield said his philosophy of life was "live, love...and let love." To know Percy was to love him. His life story was a love
story and this album is the last musical chapter in that story. On his behalf -- and in his memory -- we offer this music as
our PRAYER FOR PEACE.
"...HE SPINS HEART-STOPPING TALES of loneliness, despair, addiction and redemption, timeless
comments on life at the edges of American society...From the hypnotic plea of 'Never Say Naw' to the langour of 'My Jug And I,' the
busted hope of 'My Mind Is Trying To Leave Me Too' and the final acceptance-of-life medley, 'My Bottle Is My Companion'/'The
Highway Is Like A Woman,' Mayfield weaves a spell that will live in people's minds for years to come..."
"...MAYFIELD HAD A GIFT for writing songs that can tear into your heart, as illustrated by the 11
tracks here...The band is on the money throughout this clear-sounding, atmospheric effort..."
"...CREATES A RIVETING sense of intimacy...His lyrics are sublime...Fuses soulful tenderness with a
ribald wit..."
"...WITTY AND MUSICALLY BRILLIANT...This disc goes to the head of my blues collection..."
"...THE DEPTH of his involvement with his songs is so palpable that it causes a lump in the
listener's throat -- prepare yourself for 'Please Send Me Someone To Love'...Pianist Mark Naftalin is warmly receptive to his
adopted father throughout that signature song and 11 others..."
"...WHEN HE SLIDES into the first low note of 'The River's Invitation,' he makes hearts flutter and knees
quake...For anyone who has ever loved Mayfield, this album is a necessity..."
"...AN EXTRAORDINARY ALBUM...A magic moment in Mayfield's career..."
"...THE KIND of summer-evening, front-porch stuff that borders on the mythic...It's blues as
high art..."
"...SOME OF THE MELLOWEST blues around..."
"...LOVINGLY PRESENTED...Glistening acoustic piano work...Reveals Mayfield's fundamentally gentle
artistic soul..."
"...THE ATMOSPHERE and Mayfield's voice almost conjure up classic Ray Charles..."
"...EVERY SONG is bolstered by a terrific group of sidemen, but Mayfield's vocal work is the sweetest
deal...one of the best midnight-in-the-juke-joint voices you'll ever hear..."
"...PIANO PLAYER Mark Naftalin's touch is magnificent...The artists who suppoprted Mayfield on
these sessions are nothing short of superb..."
"...SOME OF THE MOST STUNNING vocals Mayfield set down on tape...So cool, you'll think, 'There
ain't enough O's in "smoooth" to describe this record'..."
"...THE SHEER ABUNDANCE of vocal musicality here is an opera in one man..."
"...HERE YOU HAVE the joyous essence of Mayfield on a single CD. His voice is perfect, his
words, melodies and rhythms are brilliant..."
"...HIS DELIVERY of these mostly confessional songs was warm and personal, as if you
were his dear friend and he really wanted you to understand him..."
"...FULL OF relaxed, deep blues, like you'd hear in an after hours club, with the music honed
down to its essential emotions...As you listen to Percy's singing, you begin to realize what years of life and
experience can add to a simple blues..."
"...HIS BEAUTIFUL SOULFUL VOICE is complemented so well on this record, what a tribute...
This is the ultimate recording to hear Mark's keyboards..."
"...THERE'S PLENTY to enjoy here: Percy's songs and his deep, cool vocals, of course, but also
Mark Naftalin's beautiful piano work...An excellent showcase for the talents of the man they called the Poet Laureate Of The
Blues..."
"...NOBODY SINGS MAYFIELD better than Mayfield...The easy mood which this 'live' recording radiates
and the often subtle and inventive manner in which his accompaniment manages to color the space in and around Mayfield's
voice lift the entire performance..."
"...THE EMPHASIS for much of the album is on the mellow, poetic moments of Percy Mayfield, when
there's time to savor the rich beauty of the message and mood of the songs he wrote...It's a delightful album to hear..."
"...SO MELLOW AND SMOOTH...He sings with his natural dandy style...That's him!...Let's recall the great
master of the blues, listening through this well-done album..."
"...WHAT A DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE...Excellent West Coast musicians provide exactly the sort of
support that an artist of this calibre requires...What a pleasure it is to hear such a warm bass sound and drummers who can employ
the brushes deftly..."
"...HIS SINGING -- mature, deep and alluring -- has evolved with time...The original motions of the
songs are broken, slowed-down, sometimes dramatized in an allusive dialogue with the audience that has the flavor of a long
night-time soliloquy...Naftalin and a wide court of Bay Area musicians second and enrich Mayfield's enunciation in an exemplary
way, giving to the history of blues perhaps the last, precious inheritance of its laureate poet..."
PERCY MAYFIELD has been widely heralded as one of Black America's
greatest songwriters ever, "The Poet Laureate Of The Blues," by
the likes of RAY CHARLES and B.B. KING, both of whom hired Percy
to tailor his genius for them. His treatments of the themes of
loss, insanity, alcohol and the pain and tricks of memory are
enduringly striking and profound, and are continually covered and
updated.
His renown as a brilliant and unique recording artist and singer
of the blues has also endured for almost half a century; as a
balladeer he has been called a master equalled only by FRANK
SINATRA. During his forty-year career before his death in 1984,
he created timeless masterpieces such as his prayer for peace,
"Please Send Me Someone To Love," and overcame a terrible auto
wreck to create a remarkable body of music and songs.
During his last few years, Percy's deepest musical bond was with
Bay-Area pianist and entrepreneur MARK NAFTALIN. Percy often
introduced Naftalin onstage as "my son, Mark Naftalin Mayfield"
during their frequent appearances at festivals, concerts and
clubs and on the radio, TV and film.
Naftalin has long demonstrated his commitment to the blues
through his live shows, studio work, radio shows and the many
special events he's organized. Now he continues to honor the
Mayfield legacy and Percy's special place in his heart through
PERCY MAYFIELD LIVE, a superb and sublime compilation of the high
points of their collaboration, culled from six live radio and
television performances.
As Percy renders some of his most memorable compositions with his
immortal style, insight and depth of feeling, Naftalin's piano
plays off every nuance of Percy's approach with a rare
sensitivity. Percy also demonstrates his own piano skills,
recorded for the public for the first time. Blues stalwarts
including guitarists PEE WEE CRAYTON, BOBBY MURRAY and RON
THOMPSON, drummer FRANCIS CLAY and other exemplary saxophone and
rhythm players round out the immaculate bands. But the
highlights are Percy's voice, lyrics and wisdom and the
surpassing interplay between him and his disciple and advocate.
The results are a stunning communication of some of the best
truths to savor, remember and celebrate about the blues and
music. As such, the album naturally aspires to some of the
commercial appeal which helps keep Percy's songs reissued and
revived. Most importantly, though, PERCY MAYFIELD LIVE is a
testimonial to the empathy, love and understanding for which
Percy's greatest song was a plea, and which he and Naftalin --
and their fellow musicians -- found and expressed together
through their music.
Mark Naftalin's Blue Monday Party was a weekly rhythm & blues show and dance held at two San Francisco Bay Area
nightclubs between March, 1979, and September, 1983. The performances in this album were recorded during the live radio
broadcasts (heard throughout the Bay Area on KTIM-FM) which emanated from the Blue Monday Party between February,
1982, and September, 1983.
SONGS
MUSICIANS
DATES & LOCATIONS
Uncle Charlie's, Corte Madera, California
CREDITS
Special thanks to Dennis Hale, production director of the Blue Monday Party broadcasts. Without his efforts, this music would
not have been recorded.
The Ron Thompson Story...From Richmond to Vallejo with BIG ROGER COLLINS...From West
Oakland to East Palo Alto with LITTLE JOE BLUE...From Coast to Coast (for three years straight) with JOHN LEE HOOKER...
Jamming onstage with LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS and EDDIE TAYLOR...
Club dates with JIMMY REED (and JIMMY McCRACKLIN and LITTLE JOHNNY TAYLOR)...Touring
California with SUNNYLAND SLIM (and BIG WALTER HORTON and ROBERT JR. LOCKWOOD)...Blues Connoisseur 45's with
LITTLE WILLE LITTLEFIELD and SCHOOLBOY CLEVE...Live recordings at the San Francisco Blues Festival with LOWELL
FULSON (and ROY BROWN and BIG MAMA THORNTON)...
European concerts with LUTHER TUCKER and MISSISSIPPI JOHNNY WATERS...Acoustic
blues at the Monterey Jazz Festival with MARK NAFTALIN and CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE...Sessions and shows with MICK
FLEETWOOD'S Zoo...And all those Rhythm & Blues Revues with SONNY RHODES and CHARLES HOUFF...
"RON THOMPSON?...MY MAIN MAN!"
"...SHOWCASES Thompson's considerable talents singing and playing Delta-style acoustic
guitar on Robert Johnson's 'Terraplane Blues," plus searing single-note electric leads on the swamp-boogie classic 'Hip
Shake'...Thompson also deliver two solid originals, the title track and the chilling lament 'Pin-Eyed Woman'..."
"...SHOWCASES Ron's extraordinary talent as he literally bursts with electric and acoustic
slide fury...His sense of phrasing, timing, and touch are caes studies in style..."
"...THOMPSON'S CRASHING SLIDE work distinguishes Just Like A Devil, especially on the solo
acoustic outings...Thompson was seriously into Robert Johnson long before it was fashionable, conjuring up heartfelt readings
of three Johnson standards here..."
"...THOMPSON WAILS...Showing you how heart-wrenching the blues can be..."
"...A POWERHOUSE blues rocker who plays like a man possessed...The depth of his skills and
knowledge is revealed..."
"...INCLUDES a typically impassioned reading of Thompson's heaviest slide-drenched ballad,
'Pin-Eyed Woman...It's heavy..."
"...IF ROBERT JOHNSON sold his soul to the devil, Ron Thompson sold his soul to
Robert Johnson...The man will move you..."
"...'STOP BREAKIN' DOWN' and 'Terraplane Blues' have Thompson in the center field of gutbucket
blues...His own blues tunes show sterling writing abilities as well...."
"...FEATURES Thompson's National Steel prowess and audacious slidework...His original
true-life ballad 'Pin-Eyed Woman' is profoundly gripping...This is Ron Thompson at his best..."
ALBUM INFO
1 - East-West, Live Version #1 (12:37)
2 - East-West, Live Version #2 (15:55)
3 - East-West, Live Version #3 (28:06)
2 - Poor Richard's, Chicago, spring, 1966
3 - Golden Bear, Huntington Beach, California, winter, 1967
Paul Butterfield, harmonica & maracas (#1 only)
Michael Bloomfield, guitar
Elvin Bishop, guitar
Mark Naftalin, keyboards
Jerome Arnold, bass
Billy Davenport, drums
Produced by Mark Naftalin
Mastered by: Bob Olhsson
Cover photo by: not known
Inside photos by: Billy Davenport, Mattie Davenport, Barry Feinstein
Tray card photo by: William S. Harvey
Design by: Virginia Lindsay
LINER NOTES
May, 1996
PRESS QUOTES
-- Steve Futterman, Rolling Stone
-- Frank-John Hadley, Down Beat
Strawberry Jam
(Winner 446)
ALBUM INFO
2,4 - Golden Bear, Huntington Beach, California, spring, 1967
3,8,9 - Golden Bear, winter, 1967
Paul Butterfield, harmonica & vocals
Elvin Bishop, guitar
Michael Bloomfield, guitar (except 2,4)
Mark Naftalin, keyboards
Jerome Arnold, bass
Billy Davenport, drums
7 - JD's, Tempe, Arizona, winter, 1968
Paul Butterfield, harmonica & vocals
Elvin Bishop, guitar
Mark Naftalin, keyboards
Bugsy Maugh, bass
Phillip Wilson, drums
Keith Johnson, trumpet
Gene Dinwiddie, tenor sax
David Sanborn, alto sax
Produced by Mark Naftalin
Mastered by: Bob Olhsson
Cover photo by: William S. Harvey
Inside photos by: Milly Hurlimann
Design by: Virginia Lindsay
LINER NOTES
February, 1995
PRESS QUOTES
-- Paul Evans, Rolling Stone
(Winner 445)
ALBUM INFO
Vocals: Percy Mayfield
Keyboards:
Percy Mayfield - piano (11)
Guitar:
Mark Naftalin - piano (1-10), organ (11)
Pee Wee Crayton (3,4)
Sax:
Bobby Murray (1-6,8,9,11)
Ron Thompson (7,10)
Dr. Wild Willie Moore (2,5)
Bass:
Julien Vaught (3,4,8,9,11)
Bobbie Webb (3,4,7-11)
Leonard Gill (8,9)
Drums:
Henry Oden (1,2,5,6)
Francos Rocco Prestia (11)
Ted Wysinger (3,4,7,10)
Fred Casey (1,6)
Francis Clay (2,5)
Kelvin Dixon (8,9)
Gary Silva (3,4,7,10,11)
Sleeping Lady Cafe, Fairfax, California
July 1, 1981 (1,6)
March 8, 1982 (2,5)
September 20, 1982 (3,4)
November 29, 1982 (7,10)
April 4, 1983 (1,6)
August 8, 1983 (8,9)
Produced by Mark Naftalin
Mastered by: Bob Olhsson
Live mix by:
Phil Edwards (1,6)
Line Engineer: Tim Crane
Nancy King (2-5,7-11)
Production Assistant: Ellen Naftalin
Photography: Paul Orbuch
Design: Linda Gordon
LINER NOTES
-- Tina (Mrs. Percy) Mayfield
PRESS QUOTES
-- John Swenson, Rolling Stone
-- Bob Santelli, CD Review
-- David Whiteis, Down Beat
-- Stu Norwood, The Secret Guide To Music
by Dick Shurman
(Record Producer, Re-issue Annotator and Percy Mayfield Biographer)
Just Like A Devil
(Winner 444)
ALBUM INFO
Ron Thompson - lead guitar and vocal
Mark Naftalin - piano (1,3,5,7,8,10)
Bobby Murray - rhythm guitar (1,3)
Ted Wysinger - bass (1,3,5,10)
Gary Silva - drums (1,3,5,10)
Bobbie Webb - sax (5,10)
Sleeping Lady Cafe, Fairfax, California
May 31, 1982 (9)
November 22,1982 (8,10)
November 29, 1982 (5)
December 20, 1982 (1,6)
January 31, 1983 (2,3)
April 25, 1983 (4,7)
Produced by Mark Naftalin
Mastered by: Bob Olhsson
Live mix by: Nancy King
Line Engineer: Tim Crane
Production Assistant: Ellen Barker
Photography: Kingmond Young
Design: Linda Gordon
LINER NOTES
PRESS QUOTES
-- John Swenson, Rolling Stone