Click
to hear:
Live samples of Jumpin' Gene's music
Sat.
April 25, 2009 at The Midway Tavern
ONE
TIME
ONLY(until
next time)PRODUCTIONS PRESENTED:
Sam Lay drummed on the classic early Howlin' Wolf recordings on Chess
records, and later with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. That band
backed Bob Dylan at his controversial electric performance at the 1965
Newport Folk Festival and on his album Highway 61 Revisited, also showing the range of Sam's
career.
He was widely featured in the seven part series on the blues produced
by academy award winner Martin Scorsese. Sam will not only be singing
and doing some drumming at this show, but also showing his abilities on
the guitar: maybe even some Johnny Cash!
The show also featured the return of Rockin' Johnny to active gigging after six years. He's been tearin' up Chicago, and now is primed to peel the paint off The Midway Tavern walls.
OFF THE WALL BLUES BAND
Named after
a Little Walter tune,
Off The Wall Blues Band is one of the hottest bands to storm out of the
Off the Wall
Blues Band's first CD, On the Money, was released in June, 1996 to positive
reviews. At
the Fourth Annual Ribs and Blues Festival featuring Son Seals, The
il Blues Magazine from Milan, Italy noted: "An unusual and right-on melting pot, in my opinion, are these five characters who give muscle, brain and blood to the Off the Wall Blues Band...This is a jolt of life and originality in the boring discographic panorama of the past few months."
As Living Blues
Magazine said, "Off the Wall Blues Band plays in an old fashioned '50s
Jumpin' Gene Halton
has toured with Pinetop
Perkins and Dave
Myers,
performed with Hubert Sumlin, S.P.Leary,
Sam Lay, Lurie Bell, Jimmy Johnson, and
Jim Schwall, and opened for Bobby Bland
and Son Seals. He performed in the
1993
Zürich Jazz Festival with the Oliver
Morgan Rhythm and Blues Band of New Orleans, returned to Europe in 1997
with
fellow band member Lorenzo Thompson, on a tour with The Next Generation
Blues
Band starting in Prague...
"Halton's
harmonica creaks and vibrates all over [the cd]
in smoky,
warm tones."--
Former Muddy Waters drummer S.P. Leary once noted Gene's "great sense
of
rhythm." A photo of Jumpin'
Gene appears in the 1996 Chicago Blues Calender
in
the month of February. Click to hear Gene performing with another
former Muddy
Waters
drummer, Willie "Big Eye" Smith, with Nick Moss, and Little Frank: Big
Eye. Or this live
instrumental:
Get Wet
(c) E. Halton, June
24, 2000.
Or with Bill Nicks'
Jazz Trio, August
13, 2000, outdoors on the river in downtown South Bend: Black
Orpheus.
Or in Dubrovnik,
Croatia. Or Caravan with
Doug
Rice,
2006.
If you can read the fine print, you can click to way back when Gene once played drums in a Dixieland Band
******************************************************
Sat. May 3, 2008 at The Midway Tavern
ONE
TIME
ONLY (until
next time)
PRODUCTIONS
PRESENTED
The Tail
Dragger, drummer Rob Lorenz at
left, --photo by Vicky Darnell
Tail Dragger au festival d'Utrecht 1997 (photo Jocelyn Richez)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
JUNE 4, 2005, kind of cabaret,
CLICK:
SOUL FOOD NIGHT
at The Midway w/ The Where Art Thou Boys
Feb. 4 Midway w/
Bobby
Stone and Robert Stroger!
And recorded
9/7/04, New Buffalo, MI
Cherry Pink and
Apple
Blossom White
--Here is the
band live in front of 5000 people, from the 1998
Ain't
Superstitious
Click here
to see more on Billy
Sticks Nicks
and from
Harbor Country
Blues
Festival
in Three Oaks
party for
click it! Chicago
Art Expo Party
Click it! Chicago Blues Extravaganza at the Midway Tavern
twas Friday the 13th
of July and the blues
were at
the Morris Center for the Performing
Arts in South Bend
...and
it was...
The band featured some of the area's
top
players,
including Bobby Stone, vocals and guitar,
Bill "Sticks" Nicks on drums,
Little Frank Krakowski on guitar, and
Jesse Lee on
bass
Dig this snippet from the concert:
click
on Lovelight
Bobby Stone,
photo by Jumpin' Gene
and
Don't miss this shot!
And more
photos, July
13, 2001 at the Morris Civic
Bobby Stone
and Jumpin' Gene
(compliments of Julie LaFollette)
from a gig at The Big Easy, click
Jambalaya
featuring zydeco accordian
player Guy
Lawrence!
--Jumpin' Gene in Poland, June, 1999: Klinika Blues Club, Krakow
*******************************
Some of the guitarists the band has worked with include:
Rockin' Johnny Burgin
Kevin Shannahan, who's been touring with Jimmy Burns
and doing a number of gigs with Tail Draggerr
Mike Dotson, a seasoned Chicagoan, (when not performing with Magic Slim and the Teardrops.)
Eddie Taylor Jr., son of blues legend Eddie Taylor.
Bass
player
John
Baker is
also an experienced...
...
photo by Vicky Darnell
...extensively and recorded with Eddie Burks. He has also toured with
another
Chicago legend, former Howlin' Wolf
guitarist Hubert Sumlin, performed in
Chicago with Homesick James, Big
Smokey Smothers, and Merle Perkins, and jammed with Buddy Guy and Jr.
Wells, Taj Mahal,
and John Hammond.
Earlier Baker played gospel with Sonny Thompson, who is also known as a
producer at both King and Chess records. John claims that he's never
been to
prison, except as a visitor.
Drummer Rob
Lawrence, pictured
here at Off the Wall "Chicago Extravaganza" gig at the Midway
Tavern with Eddie Taylor Jr. and Liz Mandville-Greeson,
has performed with a wide array of Chicago musicians. He can be heard
on Taildragger's most recent recording on Delmark,
American People.
photo by Vicky
Darnell
Off the Wall
Blues Band is booking and performing
throughout the
Look out for
them!
Booking: (574) 631-7140
Click
here
to hear the band in a live performance--
--with
former
singer Lorenzo Thompson: I Got to
Leave You
Or another: 24 Hours
Click
here to see
a photo of Little Walter's grave.
And click to see Sonny
Boy Williamson's (Rice Miller) grave
And click again
to see Little Walter and
Muddy Waters
There's
nothing like an old EV mike, made in Buchanan, MI!
*************************************************************************************
(Ex-)
Coach Bobby Knight says always reserve your
seat in advance!