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"Yeah,
I'm gonna murder my baby After
a long absence Nighthawk returned to Chicago in 1964 and recorded several
times including a blistering set taped live on Maxwell St. in conjunction
with the filming of Mike Shea's 1964 documentary "And This is Free." Maxwell
St. was at the heart of Chicago's black ghetto and was a bustling open
air market. The market became a magnet for musicians just arriving to Chicago as well as those already established on the local blues scene. Hound Dog Taylor a veteran of Maxwell Street had this to say: "You used to get out on Maxwell Street on a Sunday Morning and pick you out a good spot, babe. Dammit, we'd make more money than I ever looked at. Put you out a tub, you know, and put a pasteboard in there, like a newspaper. I'm telling you, Jewtown (Maxwell St.) was Jumpin' like a champ, jumpin' like mad on Sunday morning."19 Nighthawk played regularly on Maxwell St. and in 1964 Pete Welding wrote an account about Nighthawk and his compatriots playing on Maxwell St. for Blues Unlimited magazine: "Right around the corner could be heard the fine group that Robert Nighthawk was leading with John Lee Granderson on guitar and a drummer, whose name I was unable to catch. (probably James Smith). John Wrencher, the one-armed harmonica player came by and sat in for some exciting numbers. Nighthawk played a number of his old songs and especially pleased everyone with his strong "bottleneck" playing; a young harmonica player called Carey Bell later sat in and electrified us all. Nighthawk and Granderson have recently pooled forces and work several nights a week at various clubs."34
Nighthawk's performances form the centerpiece of these landmark recordings.
If the original Rounder package was an eye-opener as to what Nighthawk
was truly capable of in a live setting, this new package is twice as illuminating,
making him present on 22 of the 30 selections on here. Unlike his studio
recordings this set finds Nighthawk in a raucous mood playing explosive
slide and stinging B.B. King influenced single string runs. Nighthawk really stretches out on some of his old classics including the stunning medley of his two biggest hits "Anna Lee/Sweet Black Angel" as well as a storming reprise of his "Take it Easy Baby. " Nighthawk shows off his wide repertoire playing Big Joe Turner's "Honey Hush", Dr. Clayton's "Cheating and Lying Blues" and Percy Mayfield's "I Need Love So Bad." In an interview done by Mike Bloomfield, Nighthawk, reflected on what brought him back to Maxwell Street: "Lately I went back to Maxwell St.- I been playing off and on for 24 years now. Most all music more or less starts right off from Maxwell St. and so you wind up going back there. ...See it's more hard to play out in the street than it is in a place of business, but you have more fun in the street, looks like. Well, so many things you can see, so many different things going on, I get a kick out of it, I guess."12 During the summer of 1964, while Mike Shea was making "And This Is Free" he was persuaded by blues guitarist Michael Bloomfield to film an interview with Robert Nighthawk. The video portion of the interview has been lost, but four reels of sound tape survive--nearly forty minutes in all--most of which has not been heard in decades. A 13-minute, unauthorized edit of the tapes was released in 1991, but the entire historic interview with Nighthawk is available again. The film "And This Is Free" is not at present available on video. Studio IT is also currently soliciting a distribution deal to put out the original video. Robert Nighthawk - Cheating And Lying Blues -Read a review of "And This Is Maxwell Street" -Read Live On Maxwell Street- Setting The Record Straight -Read the press release for "And This Is Maxwell Street" *Robert
Nighthawk, Cheating And Lying Blues |
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Rounder
records first put some of this music out in 1980 as Robert Nighthawk
"Live On Maxwell Street 1964." At the time of their release
these recordings were incorrectly credited, both for the songs, publishing
and for much of the personnel. It also turns out that the performances
themselves were edited, giving two decades' of listeners an incomplete
and historically incorrect picture of those recordings as they were
originally captured. Finally in May of 1999 the 2-CD set "And This
Is Maxwell Street" was released in Japan on the P-Vine label produced
by Studio IT and issued in 2000 in the US by Rooster Records with an
additional CD containing a 44 minute interview of Nighthawk conducted
by Mike Bloomfield. The set contains all the original unedited recordings
made in conjunction with the film including many performances that no
more than a handful of people had heard in more than thirty years. The
music has been remastered from the original tapes and is superior in
sound to the Rounder release. In addition we finally have the
correct musician credits. The other previously unidentified guitarist
on these recordings turns out to be none other than Shea's close friend
Mike Bloomfield. Deemed "unauthentic" by Shea, none of Bloomfield's
work was filmed and all of his off-mike lead work with Nighthawk was
consequently edited out from the tapes on the Rounder album. Here, Bloomfield
takes the lead on the two Johnny Young numbers and also shows up on
Nighthawk's version of "Dust My Broom" and on the now longer
medley of "Annie Lee"/"Sweet Black Angel," swapping
licks with the old master. In addition to Nighthawk there are fine performances
by Johnny Young, Big John Wrencher, Blind Arvella Gray, Carey Bell,
Big Mojo Elem, James Brewer, Carrie Robinson and Little Arthur King.
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Robert
Nighthawk Interview Pt.1 Tracks 1,12: Robert
Nighthawk- Guitar Tracks 2,6,19: Robert
Nighthawk- Guitar Tracks 3,5,15,16,17, 21: Robert
Nighthawk- Guitar Tracks 7-12,13,18,20,22: Robert
Nighthawk- Guitar, Vocals Tracks 4,8: Robert
Nighthawk- Guitar, Vocals Track 14: Robert
Nighthawk- Guitar, Vocals September 1964 |
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