Logan Center Blues (II)
“Third comes the kind of madness that is possession by the Muses, which takes a tender virgin soul and awakens it to a Bacchic frenzy of songs and poetry that glorifies the achievements of the past and teaches them to future generations”
“Gypsy woman told my mother
Before I was born
You got a boy child’s comin’
He’s gonna be a son of a gun
He gonna make pretty womens
Jump and shout
Then the world wanna know
What this all about
But you know I’m him
Everybody knows I’m him
Well you know I’m the hoochie coochie man
Everybody knows I’m him”
And then there was more, more, more. (See Part I for the beginning of the story)
Lecture, Lecture, Lecture: Given that the Festival is staged on the University of Chicago’s campus, no one should be surprised that it involved more than just rollicking performances. Saturday afternoon was reserved for discussions and lectures. First up was David Whiteis, whose talk focused on Denise LaSalle (1932-2018) and his recently published book, Always the Queen: The Denise LaSalle Story. While the details about LaSalle’s life and Whiteis’ personal encounters with her were interesting, Whiteis made a fundamental mistake in how he structured his remarks, choosing to close by playing an Otis Clay song apparently written as a tribute to LaSalle. Far more illuminating would have been five or six 30-second snippets of LaSalle’s music to illustrate the key points that Whiteis made about her life. The Clay tribute was an excellent piece of music, but it added little to the talk.
It was then time for the Festival’s artistic director, Matthew Skoller, to interview 87-year old Bobby Rush, a two-time Grammy winner and legend. On stage, Rush adopts a ladies man persona, relying heavily on double entendres, slang, and mildly coarse language. Off stage, Rush is an entirely different person. He spent a significant portion of the interview talking about his mother, how blessed he is, and his clean living. He doesn’t spend his money on fancy jewelry or other frivolous items. Of particular note is his business acumen. Long ago, he chose not to sell the rights to his masters, which means he controls his back catalogue and the resulting income. I particularly liked the portions of the interview when Rush discussed and demonstrated his techniques. Skoller did an excellent job of interjecting insightful comments while leaving the spotlight firmly on Rush. It was clear that Rush has a lot of respect for his fellow harpist.
There were two lectures left; I skipped the last one because I needed to eat dinner before the evening show, but I was not going to miss Rick Kogan’s interview with the celebrated music photographer Paul Natkin. He has photographed Willie Dixon, Honeyboy Edwards, and other blues musicians in his home studio, worked with Buddy Guy for years, toured with the Rolling Stones as their official photographer, managed a Brian Wilson tour, served as the staff photographer for Oprah Winfrey, and photographed countless musicians and other celebrities. Natkin got his start when he accompanied his father, who was the official photographer for the Chicago Bulls, to a basketball game. He eventually gained unfettered access to games, which also permitted him to play a little B-Ball with Norm Van Lier during pre-game warmups.
Natkin broke into the music business when a photographer for a publication got kicked out of a Johnny Winter concert. Natkin contacted the photographer’s employer the next morning, telling the editor that he heard they needed photographs.
For Natkin, one thing led to another. He was asked to fly to Minneapolis to photograph a party that Prince staged to coincide with the release of Purple Rain. Natkin assumed there would be many photographers present, but he was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was the only one, giving him exclusive access to a Prince performance at the venue where Purple Rain was filmed. The next weekend, Natkin found himself back in Minneapolis for the start of Bruce Springsteen’s tour. On that Friday, he spent seven hours in the arena where the then-unknown Courtney Cox was pulled from the audience to dance with Bruce for the video promoting Dancing in the Dark. And shortly after the Prince and Springsteen events, he found himself in Kansas City for the start of a Jackson Five tour.
Natkin’s work has appeared in Rolling Stone, on a Newsweek cover, and in countless other publications. Needless to say, I found it a fascinating interview. As anyone who has heard Kogan before knows, Kogan knows how to plum the depths of the interviewee’s knowledge and life experiences.
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Bobby Rush Demonstrates His Technique
Bobby Rush Discussing His Life
Matthew Skoller Poses a Question to Bobby Rush
Paul Natkin Tells One of His Many Stories
Rick Kogan Listens to Paul Natkin Answer His Question
Jontavious Willis and Bobby Rush: The evening performance teamed up the new with the old. Jontavious Willis is 24-year-old phenom from Greensville, Georgia who has made waves in the Blues world. He plays country Blues using an acoustic guitar and harmonica. The audience had a great deal of fun, as did Willis, when he and the audience engaged in a call and response centered on an old train whistle—Willis’ arm functioned as a piston signaling to the audience when it was their turn to make some noise. His set was respectable, but in all candor, I much prefer Blind Boy Paxton, who also mines the country Blues. Paxton performed in 2018 at the second Logan Center Bluesfest.
When Willis finished his set, Bobby Rush came out, sat down, and picked up his black acoustic guitar. He then told some of the stories he had told earlier in the day, but this time he treated the audience to the full numbers. Rush has been around for a long time, so he knows how to command a stage and keep the audience engaged.
As promised, Willis came back out to duet with Rush. There was some good-natured kidding, some terrific playing, and then Rush, with much humor and respect, told Willis to get off “his” stage. At that point, Rush’s band came out, and like Dylan, they went electric. After a long, but thoroughly enjoyable, day at the Logan Center, Rush gave the audience what they came for and what they needed: hand-clapping music with some bawdy lyrics and commentary.
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Jontavious Willis Looks to His Left
Jontavious Willis Stands Up
“Full Band Stage Plot”
Bobby Rush Beats Time with His Foot
Blowin’ Harp
Letting the Audience in on a Secret
The “Father” (Bobby Rush) and the “Son” (Jontavious Willis)
Playing Some Clean Lines
Adding Some Bottom
Prancing for the Ladies
Bringing the Night to a Close
Melody Angel and Avery R. Young. When Sunday came around, there was only one in-person event—an evening concert, with Melody Angel opening, followed by Festival closer Avery R. Young, a singer, poet, musician, and multi-media artist who channels Funkadelic, Bobby Blue Bland, James Brown, and as one critic pointed out, Donny Hathaway, among many others.
But when it comes to channeling, nobody does Hendrix better than Melody Angel. She is a fantastic guitar player, and an incendiary singer. Angel’s set was relatively short, but she did what she needed to do: broke Sunday’s serenity. To be clear, she is not a Hendrix copycat. Angel writes much of what she performs, a significant portion of which includes social commentary, as evidenced by the number she performed during the recent Pro-Choice rally in Chicago’s Daley Plaza. She can handle Bill Withers, Prince, Santana, and classic Blues.
Angel poured the foundation; Avery R. Young then built a house on that foundation. He speaks, sings, recites, and raps social commentary and historical reflection, throwing into the mix lots of humor and cuss words (which he says he shouldn’t say). He is his best audience, repeatedly cracking himself up. His band sits behind him, with their eyes transfixed on their leader.
Young is best described as mad, in the best sense of the world. In his Ion comic dialogue, Plato writes,
“lyric poets, too, are not in their right minds when they make those beautiful lyrics, but as soon as they sail into harmony and rhythm they are possessed of Bacchic frenzy. Just as Bacchus worshippers when they are possessed draw honey and milk from rivers, but not when they are in their right minds.”
Devine madness is what Avery R. Young is all about. He moves to stage right, then to stage left, then behind his three backup singers, then to the front of the stage, all while he is gesturing wildly. Using an old Yiddish term, he is best described as having shpilkes, or in the James Brown translation ,”I got ants in my pants, and I need to dance.” That’s Young. Given his multi-disciplinary interests, Young is one to be watched. He is going places. And I definitely look forward to seeing him again.
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Melody Angel in One of Her Few Reflective Moments
Channeling Hendrix
One Giant Leap
Plato’s Ion
Adding Some Funk to the Mix
One of a Million Gestures
Adding Some Bottom to the Mix
On the Move
Summing It Up. Everyone agreed that the Logan Center Bluesfest was topnotch. We heard some jazz, country Blues, Chicago Blues, poetic Blues, rocking hard Blues, and a little bit of gospel. More importantly, the Festival provided context for the music by including some interesting panel discussions and lectures, often combined with intimate musical performances. Let’s hope the Logan Center continues what is becoming a tradition next year or the year after.
The Photographer Squid Game: Covid has messed everything up, as everyone well knows. To protect the audience and the performers, the Logan Center staff assigned each photographer a seat toward the front of the house, but at least three rows back from the stage. We were instructed to remain in our seats.
Through no fault of the staff, the photographers found themselves in a mini-Squid Game. As every photographer knows all too well, the inability to move around is a slow death because concert photography is largely about the angles, particularly when the stage is filled with monitors, mike and music stands, and water bottles. [Spoiler Alert]. Being assigned a seat was equivalent to being assigned the number 1 or 16 in the “walk over tempered glass” fifth game. Until the game was revealed, the players didn’t know whether being first or last was a good thing. Much could be said of the seat each photographer was assigned. Sometimes the angle worked; other times a mike stand blocked the singer’s face or a music stand blocked the musician’s or singer’s entire body. it was the luck of the draw. Sometimes you stepped on plate glass and fell to your death; at other times, it was tempered glass and you lived to take another decent photograph. I have seen many photographs from the three-day Festival online already. Everyone largely overcame the obstacles, which speaks to their talent and patience. Thanks to the Logan Center staff for doing what was necessary to protect everyone while letting us capture the event for posterity.
