Bob Dylan, Benny Goodman & Friends - The World of John Hammond, PBS Soundstage, NET Television Studios, Chicago, IL, 9-10-1975

Here's a really strange and interesting episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. Especially in the show's early years, it had some theme shows, and this was one. The title was "The World of John Hammond," and the show celebrated the role of producer John Hammond in the music industry. 

The big name here is Bob Dylan. But be warned that Dylan only performed three songs, at the end of the show. Most of the show is filled with big band swing music, with the first three songs starring singer Helen Humes, and then the next three being instrumentals led by Benny Goodman. (Note that George Benson, who was becoming a star in his own right, was the lead guitarist in this band.) Then the episode made a drastic stylistic shift, with Sonny Terry playing the blues for four songs, joined by John Hammond Jr. (son of John Hammond) for the last two. Then there was another drastic stylistic shift, with the three Bob Dylan songs at the end. 

The reason for all the musical jumping around is because John Hammond had a role in the musical careers of many musical acts in many different styles. Wikipedia's entry on his says: "Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century popular music. ... Hammond sparked or advanced numerous musical careers, including those of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Charlie Christian, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Big Joe Turner, Fletcher Henderson, Pete Seeger, Babatunde Olatunji, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Freddie Green, Leonard Cohen, Arthur Russell, Jim Copp, Asha Puthli, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mike Bloomfield, and Sonny Burke. He is also largely responsible for the revival of delta blues artist Robert Johnson's music."

He died in 1987 at the age of 76. Here's his entry, if you want to know more:

John Henry Hammond - Wikipedia

Note that this originally was two episodes. I cut out some of the material, but I don't think you're missing much. There were video tributes to Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, but neither of those contained any live music. I also cut out a few gospel songs by Marion Williams that I didn't like.

There's a lot more I could say about this episode, but instead I'd recommend reading this Rolling Stone Magazine article about it, published shortly after it happened:

Bob Dylan, Jazz Stars Salute Label Pioneer John Hammond 

In that, it mentions that only about 100 people attended the taping of the episode, and most of them were older musical insider types who were there mainly to see Benny Goodman. By the time Dylan performed, only a couple dozen people remained. 

Even though Dylan only played three songs, this was an important event for him. John Hammond was the person who discovered him back when he was little known, and Dylan wanted to show his appreciation. It was the first time Dylan had performed on national TV since 1969. Two of the three songs he played, "Hurricane" and "Oh Sister," were unreleased at the time. In fact, this was the very first time he performed them in public. They would be released on his album "Desire" in early 1976. The version of "Hurricane" is particularly important, because this is the version with the original lyrics. One month later, record company lawyers found out about the song and worried that Dylan could be sued for libel regarding some of the things he said about real people in the song. So Dylan was forced to rewrite some of the lyrics, and then he rerecorded it. I'm guessing this performance still hasn't been officially released because those legal issues might still be a concern.

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 Ain't Nobody's Business (Helen Humes & the All Star Band)
02 Body and Soul (Helen Humes & the All Star Band)
03 Where Can I Go (Helen Humes & the All Star Band)
04 talk (Benny Goodman & the All Star Band)
05 Sweet Lorraine [Instrumental] (Benny Goodman & the All Star Band)
06 Avalon [Instrumental] (Benny Goodman & the All Star Band)
07 talk (Benny Goodman & the All Star Band)
08 Seven Come Eleven [Instrumental] (Benny Goodman & the All Star Band)
09 talk (Sonny Terry)
10 My Baby Done Changed the Lock on the Door (Sonny Terry)
11 talk (Sonny Terry)
12 A Whoopin' the Blues (Sonny Terry)
13 talk (Sonny Terry)
14 Terraplane Blues (Sonny Terry & John Hammond, Jr.)
15 talk (Sonny Terry & John Hammond, Jr.)
16 I Can't Find My Baby (Sonny Terry & John Hammond, Jr.)
17 Hurricane (Bob Dylan)
18 Oh Sister (Bob Dylan)
19 Simple Twist of Fate (Bob Dylan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/f6TY3bLE

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/kjyK7MobPdvjyFn/file

The cover photo of Bob Dylan is from this exact concert. However, the picture was rather low-res so I used the Krea AI program to fill in more detail. 

George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-18-1978

Here is a very unusual episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. Back in the 1970s especially, the show had some jazz-themed episodes. I don't plan on posting most of those, because I'm not much of a jazz fan (and most of them seem lost anyway). However, I'm making an exception for this one, because I am a fan of guitar playing, and this features three guitar masters who almost never performed together. In fact, for all I know, this might be the only time the did. I'm speaking of Chet Atkins, George Benson, and Earl Klugh.

Of the three, George Benson might be the most famous. Although a talented jazz guitarist, he is a talented singer and songwriter. He had a bunch of pop hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His 1976 album "Breezin'" sold over three million copies. However, for this concert, he focused almost entirely on his jazz guitar playing. He only sang one song, one of his biggest hits, "The Greatest Love of All." (Whitney Houston later had an even bigger hit with it.) In fact, that's the only song in this concert with lead vocals. 

Here's his Wikipedia page:

George Benson - Wikipedia

Chet Atkins is probably the second most famous of the three. He was significantly older than the other two, being born in 1920, making him about 58 years old at the time of this concert. Known as "Mr. Guitar," his fingerpicking style was formative in the development of country music. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 21 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Here's his Wikipedia page:

Chet Atkins - Wikipedia 

Earl Klugh is probably the least well known, because he didn't cross over from jazz to pop like Benson did. But he's still sold millions of albums. He's also the connection that made this trio work, since he had links to both Benson and Atkins. At first glance, Atkins was country and had little to do with jazz musicians Benson and Klugh. But Klugh got interested in playing guitar as a child after watching Atkins perform on TV. He ended up guesting on some of Atkins' albums, and Atkins guested on one of his. Later on, he also played on on of Benson's albums and was a member of his touring band for about a year. In 1987, they would release an album together, called "Collaboration."

Here's his Wikipedia page:

Earl Klugh - Wikipedia 

Basically, this concert alternated between Benson, Atkins, and Klugh performing together, and playing off each other, and short solo sets. All in all, Benson played three songs solo, Atkins played four songs solo, Klugh played three songs solo, and the three of them played four songs together. Unfortunately, the last song they played together, "Bluesette," fades out after less than two minutes because that's when the hour-long time slot for the show ended. I couldn't find any way to fill in the rest of the song since the three of these guys playing together was so unique. I just kept in as much as I could.

The video of this concert is available on YouTube, and I imagine it's been there for a long time. But this is probably the first time it has been converted to an audio bootleg. The conversion process was relatively easy for me, but I had to do some sleuthing to figure out the names of all of the songs. There's one song Benson did that I just call "Instrumental." I found lots of comments on YouTube asking about this song, and nobody knew the name. It could be an original that he never put on album. If anyone knows the name of it, please let me know.

This unreleased album is 59 minutes long.

01 Cherokee [Instrumental] [Edit] (George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh)
02 Weekend in L.A. [Instrumental] (George Benson)
03 The Greatest Love of All (George Benson)
04 Instrumental (George Benson)
05 talk (George Benson)
06 Oh Lonesome Me [Instrumental] (George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh)
07 Cascade [Instrumental] (Chet Atkins)
08 talk (Chet Atkins)
09 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright [Instrumental Version] (Chet Atkins)
10 Kentucky [Instrumental] (Chet Atkins)
11 talk (Chet Atkins)
12 The Stars and Stripes Forever [Instrumental] (Chet Atkins)
13 Manha de Carnaval [A Day in the Life of a Fool] [Instrumental] (George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh)
14 Jolanta [Instrumental] (Earl Klugh)
15 Dr. Makumba [Instrumental] (Earl Klugh)
16 Cry a Little While [Instrumental] (Earl Klugh)
17 Bluesette [Instrumental] [Edit] (George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Puu3KYoR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0hxXdy6JHydUfOo/file

I had a very difficult time making the cover image. It is a photo from this exact concert. I felt I had no choice since I couldn't find any other instances of these three people together. But the YouTube video I used as a source was very low-res. So I had to put it together in pieces. I took one screenshot of all three of them. Then I took screenshots to focus on their faces, to get more accuracy there. I used Photoshop to resize some pieces and put them all together. I also used Krea AI multiple times, adding detail to different parts too. 

By the way, from left to right, that's Chet Atkins, George Benson, and Earl Klugh.