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Remembering
Spoon -
I first heard
Jimmy
Witherspoon
back in the fifties when I came upon a jukebox single
issued by the French Jazz record label ‘Disques Vogue’. The A-side was
“Times Are Getting Tougher Than Tough” and the B-side was “Ain’t
Nobody’s Business”. These two tracks had been taken from Spoon’s debut
album “Live At the Monterey Jazz Festival” with
Jay McShann
and his
Orchestra. This chance encounter with Spoon’s amazing and powerful
voice in many ways changed my life. Although this era was my very
beginning and formative period as a Blues performer, Jimmy became my
main influence. Up till then my major gurus were Big Bill Broonzy,
Muddy Waters and
Leadbelly.
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Gradually more and more of
Spoon’s
recorded output reached British stores and I bought
every bit of vinyl with the name
Jimmy Witherspoon on it. This was indeed my
great musical hero! Spoon made the first of his many visits to
Britain in the early sixties. Of course I was front row and center at
all his gigs at Ronnie Scott’s Club in London’s Soho (This was the old
premises on Gerrard Street predating the current Frith Street
location).
Jimmy and I became close friends at this time through the good graces
of Downbeat Magazine. He and I were invited to do a “Name That Tune”
segment for the magazine. I suggested Spoon and the Downbeat gang come
over to my house for tea and play the music for us (Spoon and I) to
guess titles and artists. Amazingly, we guessed every item correctly
and I think we scored 10 out of 10.
Since then we bumped into each other all over the world - a few times
in Toronto, a lot in Los Angeles, sometimes in New York, many, many
times in London and of course here in my adopted city of Vancouver.
Vancouver was the last place I saw Spoon when we recorded a gig
together with handsome accompaniment from
Duke Robillard
and his guys.
Spoon, we had a long journey together and I have still yet to complete
my last miles, but I shall be seeing Robben Ford in October over in
Europe and I’ll be sure to say “This one’s for Spoon!” when we play
“Ain’t Nobody’s Business”. - Long John Baldry/Sept/03
MP3-
Baldry and Spoon-
Times Gettin' Tougher Than Tough -
visit
JIMMYWITHERSPOON.COM |
