Earl Hooker • The Genius of Earl Hooker

 

In October 1964, guitarist Earl Hooker made the journey from Chicago up I-90 to Cuca Records in Sauk City, Wisconsin, to record with the famously affordable engineer and label founder, Jim Kirchstein. The cousin of blues giant John Lee Hooker, Earl was a decade into his career by the time he hit Sauk City, cutting singles for Rockin’, King, Argo, Bea & Baby, Checker, Chief, CJ, Age, and Mel-Lon, with little to show for it. “Earl called and set up a 7:00 appointment,” Kirchstein recalled. “At about midnight I gave up and then they came in. They were very tired after a long day of travel and finding us, but we got a few bottles of wine… About 2AM we got recording and it was one of the finest sessions. We recorded all night.” The fruit of that session and a handful of others make up Hooker’s 1967 LP, The Genius Of. The mostly instrumental album consisted of eight Hooker originals alongside a reworking of Delta classic “Dust My Broom,” and bluesy covers of Sam & Dave’s “Hold On... I’m Coming,” James Brown’s “I Got You” (called “The Screwdriver” here) and “Sleepwalking”—the latter coyly obscured on the label as “Bertha” in tribute to his wife. After a lifelong battle with tuberculosis, Earl Hooker perished in 1970 at the age of 40.

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En octubre de 1964, el guitarrista Earl Hooker emprendió el viaje desde Chicago por la I-90 hasta Cuca Records en Sauk City, Wisconsin, para grabar con el famoso y asequible ingeniero y fundador del sello, Jim Kirchstein. Primo del gigante del blues John Lee Hooker, Earl ya llevaba una década de carrera cuando llegó a Sauk City, y había grabado singles para Rockin', King, Argo, Bea & Baby, Checker, Chief, CJ, Age y Mel-Lon, pero no había conseguido mucho. «Earl me llamó y me citó a las siete», recuerda Kirchstein. «Hacia medianoche me di por vencido y entonces entraron. Estaban muy cansados después de un largo día de viaje y de encontrarnos, pero nos tomamos unas botellas de vino... Sobre las 2 de la madrugada nos pusimos a grabar y fue una de las mejores sesiones. Grabamos toda la noche». El fruto de esa sesión y de un puñado de otras componen el LP de Hooker de 1967, The Genius Of. El álbum, en su mayor parte instrumental, constaba de ocho temas originales de Hooker junto a una versión del clásico de Delta «Dust My Broom», y versiones de Sam & Dave «Hold On... I'm Coming» de Sam & Dave, “I Got You” de James Brown (llamada aquí “The Screwdriver”) y “Sleepwalking”, esta última tímidamente ocultada en la etiqueta como “Bertha” en homenaje a su esposa. Tras toda una vida de lucha contra la tuberculosis, Earl Hooker falleció en 1970 a la edad de 40 años.

Earl Hooker • Blue Guitar

Review by Bill Dahl
The slide guitar wizard's immaculate fretwork was never captured more imaginatively than during his early-'60s stay with Mel London's Age/Chief labels. 21 fascinating tracks from that period include Hooker's savage instrumentals "Blue Guitar," "Off the Hook," "The Leading Brand," "Blues in D Natural," and "How Long Can This Go On," along with tracks by A.C. Reed, Lillian Offitt, and Harold Tidwell that cast Hooker as a standout sideman.

 

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Reseña de Bill Dahl
El inmaculado calado del mago de la guitarra slide nunca fue capturado de forma más imaginativa que durante su estancia a principios de los 60 con los sellos Age/Chief de Mel London. 21 fascinantes temas de ese periodo incluyen los salvajes instrumentales de Hooker "Blue Guitar", "Off the Hook", "The Leading Brand", "Blues in D Natural" y "How Long Can This Go On", junto con temas de A.C. Reed, Lillian Offitt y Harold Tidwell que sitúan a Hooker como un destacado sideman.

Earl Hooker • Two Bugs & A Roach

Earl Hooker, Blues Master

 

 

Jimi Hendrix called Earl Hooker “the master of the wah-wah pedal.” Buddy Guy slept with one of Hooker's slides beneath his pillow hoping to tap some of the elder bluesman's power. And B. B. King has said repeatedly that, for his money, Hooker was the best guitar player he ever met.

Tragically, Earl Hooker died of tuberculosis in 1970 when he was on the verge of international success just as the Blues Revival of the late sixties and early seventies was reaching full volume.

Second cousin to now-famous bluesman John Lee Hooker, Earl Hooker was born in Mississippi in 1929, and reared in black South Side Chicago where his parents settled in 1930. From the late 1940s on, he was recognized as the most creative electric blues guitarist of his generation. He was a “musician's musician,” defining the art of blues slide guitar and playing in sessions and shows with blues greats Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, and B. B. King.

A favorite of black club and neighborhood bar audiences in the Midwest, and a seasoned entertainer in the rural states of the Deep South, Hooker spent over twenty-five years of his short existence burning up U.S. highways, making brilliant appearances wherever he played.

Until the last year of his life, Hooker had only a few singles on obscure labels to show for all the hard work. The situation changed in his last few months when his following expanded dramatically. Droves of young whites were seeking American blues tunes and causing a blues album boom. When he died, his star's rise was extinguished. Known primarily as a guitarist rather than a vocalist, Hooker did not leave a songbook for his biographer to mine. Only his peers remained to praise his talent and pass on his legend.

“Earl Hooker's life may tell us a lot about the blues,” biographer Sebastian Danchin says, “but it also tells us a great deal about his milieu. This book documents the culture of the ghetto through the example of a central character, someone who is to be regarded as a catalyst of the characteristic traits of his community.”

Like the tales of so many other unheralded talents among bluesmen, Earl Hooker, Blues Master, Hooker's life story, has all the elements of a great blues song―late nights, long roads, poverty, trouble, and a soul-felt pining for what could have been.

 

Sebastian Danchin (Author) 

Earl Hooker • Don't Have To Worry

 

Biography
Earl Hooker played and lived the blues. He played in a Delta style taken largely from Robert Nighthawk with a touch of T-Bone Walker, but he did it with a flair and flamboyance unmatched by any of his contemporaries. He was part of the Chicago scene but his style was not simply a Chicago sound, as he had a fondness for Country and Western and a leaning towards jazz. He experimented with any new technology he could afford (or steal). He used the slide not to play block chords but to race up and down a single string while his fingers as fast as any in the business produced dazzling melodic patterns, and when slide and wah-wah were used simultaneously he really made the guitar talk. No one could touch him for precision or control.

Earl Hooker was born in Clarksdale in 1930 which made him about 15 years junior to Muddy Waters (who was also from Clarksdale), and 12 years younger than John Lee Hooker. Earl was John Lee Hooker's first cousin, but that is where the similarity ended between these two.

Earl moved to Chicago at the age of one, and as a youngster and teenager, no doubt was exposed to the fertile blues scene there. Music came naturally as his parents were both playing musicians. He started playing guitar about 1945 after meeting Robert Nighthawk. Nighthawk had already cut records under the name of Robert Lee McCoy for the Bluebird label, and had been an accompanist for John Lee (Sonny Boy) Williamson on some of his sides for Bluebird.

While Nighthawk became the main influence on Hooker's playing, Earl learned from other guitarists and became adept in several genres aside from the blues, like country & western, jazz, and popular music that would soon become rock and roll. While still a teenager, Earl left Chicago and became a road-rambler. He returned to the south to play in Ike Turner's band which might account for Hooker making some of his early recordings for Sam Phillip's Sun Records company, since Turner was a talent scout for several of the independent labels. Earl's earliest sides in 1952, were instrumentals, made for the King label (re- issued once on a King LP of mostly John Lee Hooker sides) and were recorded in Florida right in the club where he was playing a job. Earl was to spend much of his life on the move, criss-crossing the U.S.A. (and once to Europe), playing clubs and joints, and making trips to studios in Bradenton, Miami, Memphis, Chicago, Wisconsin, Los-Angeles, and London.

The scarcity of recorded work during the middle and late 1950's suggests that Hooker was on the road, and could not secure a long-term recording contract. Of the companies he recorded for, most did not stay in business long enough to earn him much income (or recognition).

During the early 60's, Earl returned to Chicago to record some of his finest work for Chess, Chief and Age. This was the time of “Blue Guitar,” “Tanya,” “Blues in D Natural,” and “Universal Rock.” Earl was also a sideman on some of Jr. Wells' great sides for Chief, and played on sessions for Muddy Waters, A.C. Reed, Ricky Allen, and Lillian Offitt. Offitt's wailing “Will My Man be Home Tonight” featured one of Earl's searing guitar riffs that became a trademark for him in subsequent recordings. In 1971, Otis Rush paid tribute to Earl by featuring this riff on his own instrumental named “I Wonder Why” from his “Right Place, Wrong Time” sessions. It is Earl Hooker who plays the slide guitar that accompanies Muddy Waters on “You Shook Me” no small deed considering Muddy was one of the great slide guitarists of the blues.

Earl was always self-sufficient and he never had a day job. He made his living full-time playing music, and at one time tried his hand at jazz, and even country. He always returned to the blues however, and we as fans can be grateful that he put down so much outstanding material for the recording machines. It was during the late 1960's that Hooker began to get some overdue recognition. Chris Strachwitz, the owner of Arhoolie records, asked Buddy Guy to recommend guitar players from Chicago whom he could record for his fledgling label. Buddy promptly gave Chris Earl's address in Chicago. In 1968 Strachwitz went to Chicago to meet Earl and subsequently recorded some of Hooker's best work, starting with “Two Bugs and a Roach.”

In 1969, Earl took a band to California and made additional sides for Arhoolie. Here, Earl got to stretch out beyond the 3-minute length of chart-market single recordings, and cut some great loose improvisations of material heavily based in the blues. Some of the Arhoolie sides feature well-known Chicago sidemen like Louis and Dave Myers, Carey Bell, Andrew Odom (vocals), and Eddie Taylor, and in the company of these players, Earl made great music.

In late 1969, Earl travelled to Europe to play in the American Folk Blues Festival, along with Magic Sam, Carey Bell, Clifton Chenier and others. By this time, he was quite ill with advancing tuberculosis, and after returning to the USA, was admitted to a Chicago sanitarium where he passed away in April 1970. He was just 41.
https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/earlhooker

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Biografía

Earl Hooker tocaba y vivía el blues. Tocaba en un estilo Delta tomado en gran parte de Robert Nighthawk con un toque de T-Bone Walker, pero lo hacía con un estilo y extravagancia sin igual por ninguno de sus contemporáneos. Era parte de la escena de Chicago, pero su estilo no era simplemente un sonido de Chicago, ya que tenía una afición por el Country y el Western y una inclinación hacia el jazz. Experimentó con cualquier nueva tecnología que pudiera permitirse (o robar). Usaba el slide no para tocar acordes de bloque sino para subir y bajar una sola cuerda mientras sus dedos, tan rápidos como cualquiera en el negocio, producían patrones melódicos deslumbrantes, y cuando el slide y el wah-wah se usaban simultáneamente hacía hablar a la guitarra. Nadie podía tocarlo para tener precisión o control.

Earl Hooker nació en Clarksdale en 1930, lo que lo hizo unos 15 años menor que Muddy Waters (que también era de Clarksdale), y 12 años menor que John Lee Hooker. Earl era primo hermano de John Lee Hooker, pero ahí es donde terminó la similitud entre estos dos.

Earl se mudó a Chicago a la edad de un año, y como joven y adolescente, sin duda estuvo expuesto a la fértil escena del blues allí. La música surgió de forma natural ya que sus padres eran ambos músicos. Empezó a tocar la guitarra alrededor de 1945 después de conocer a Robert Nighthawk. Nighthawk ya había grabado discos bajo el nombre de Robert Lee McCoy para el sello Bluebird, y había sido acompañante de John Lee (Sonny Boy) Williamson en algunos de sus discos para Bluebird.

Mientras que Nighthawk se convirtió en la principal influencia en la forma de tocar de Hooker, Earl aprendió de otros guitarristas y se hizo experto en varios géneros aparte del blues, como el country & western, el jazz y la música popular que pronto se convertiría en rock and roll. Cuando todavía era adolescente, Earl dejó Chicago y se convirtió en un viajante de carretera. Regresó al sur para tocar en la banda de Ike Turner, lo que podría explicar que Hooker hiciera algunas de sus primeras grabaciones para la compañía Sun Records de Sam Phillip, ya que Turner era un cazatalentos para varios de los sellos independientes. Los primeros lados de Earl en 1952, fueron instrumentales, hechos para el sello King (re-editados una vez en un LP de King, mayormente de lados de John Lee Hooker) y fueron grabados en Florida justo en el club donde estaba tocando un trabajo. Earl pasó gran parte de su vida en movimiento, cruzando los EE.UU. (y una vez en Europa), tocando en clubes y bares, y haciendo viajes a estudios en Bradenton, Miami, Memphis, Chicago, Wisconsin, Los Ángeles y Londres.

La escasez de trabajo grabado durante mediados y finales de los 50 sugiere que Hooker estaba de gira y no podía asegurar un contrato de grabación a largo plazo. De las compañías para las que grabó, la mayoría no permaneció en el negocio el tiempo suficiente para ganarse muchos ingresos (o reconocimiento).

A principios de los 60, Earl regresó a Chicago para grabar algunos de sus mejores trabajos para Chess, Chief and Age. Esta fue la época de "Blue Guitar", "Tanya", "Blues en Re Natural" y "Universal Rock". Earl también fue un compañero de algunos de los grandes equipos de Jr. Wells para Chief, y tocó en sesiones para Muddy Waters, A.C. Reed, Ricky Allen y Lillian Offitt. El lamento de Offitt "Will My Man be Home Tonight" incluía uno de los ardientes riffs de guitarra de Earl que se convirtió en una marca registrada para él en grabaciones posteriores. En 1971, Otis Rush rindió homenaje a Earl presentando este riff en su propio instrumental llamado "I Wonder Why" de sus sesiones "Right Place, Wrong Time". Es Earl Hooker quien toca la guitarra slide que acompaña a Muddy Waters en "You Shook Me", un hecho nada despreciable si se tiene en cuenta que Muddy fue uno de los grandes guitarristas slide del blues.

Earl siempre fue autosuficiente y nunca tuvo un trabajo de día. Se ganaba la vida a tiempo completo tocando música, y en una época probó su mano en el jazz, e incluso en el country. Sin embargo, siempre volvió al blues, y nosotros como fans podemos estar agradecidos de que dejara tanto material sobresaliente para las máquinas de grabación. Fue a finales de los años 60 que Hooker comenzó a recibir un reconocimiento tardío. Chris Strachwitz, el dueño de Arhoolie records, le pidió a Buddy Guy que le recomendara guitarristas de Chicago a los que pudiera grabar para su incipiente sello. Buddy dio rápidamente la dirección de Chris Earl en Chicago. En 1968 Strachwitz fue a Chicago a conocer a Earl y posteriormente grabó algunos de los mejores trabajos de Hooker, comenzando con "Two Bugs and a Roach".

En 1969, Earl llevó una banda a California e hizo más bandas para Arhoolie. Aquí, Earl consiguió extenderse más allá de los 3 minutos de duración de las grabaciones de los singles de las listas de éxitos, y cortar algunas grandes improvisaciones de material fuertemente basado en el blues. Algunos de los lados de Arhoolie presentan a conocidos músicos de Chicago como Louis y Dave Myers, Carey Bell, Andrew Odom (voz), y Eddie Taylor, y en compañía de estos músicos, Earl hizo gran música.

A finales de 1969, Earl viajó a Europa para tocar en el Festival de Blues Folclórico Americano, junto con Magic Sam, Carey Bell, Clifton Chenier y otros. Para entonces, estaba bastante enfermo con tuberculosis avanzada, y después de regresar a los EE.UU., fue admitido en un sanatorio de Chicago donde falleció en abril de 1970. Tenía sólo 41 años.
https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/earlhooker

 

VA • Boogie Woogie Riot

Review by Jason Ankeny
Boogie Woogie Riot assembles highlights from Arhoolie's extensive back catalog of boogie woogie collections; it includes performances from Piano Red, Lightnin' Hopkins, Walter Horton and Big Joe Williams.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/boogie-woogie-riot%21-mw0000233892

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Reseña de Jason Ankeny
Boogie Woogie Riot reúne lo mejor del extenso catálogo de colecciones de boogie woogie de Arhoolie; incluye actuaciones de Piano Red, Lightnin' Hopkins, Walter Horton y Big Joe Williams.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/boogie-woogie-riot%21-mw0000233892

Earl Hooker • Calling All Blues

 

 

Biography by Bill Dahl
If there was a more immaculate slide guitarist residing in Chicago during the 1950s and '60s than Earl Hooker, his name has yet to surface. Boasting a fretboard touch so smooth and clean that every note rang as clear and precise as a bell, Hooker was an endlessly inventive axeman who would likely have been a star had his modest vocal abilities matched his instrumental prowess and had he not been dogged by tuberculosis (it killed him at age 41).

Born in the Mississippi Delta, Hooker arrived in Chicago as a child. There he was influenced by another slide wizard, veteran Robert Nighthawk. But Hooker never remained still for long. He ran away from home at age 13, journeying to Mississippi. After another stint in Chicago, he rambled back to the Delta again, playing with Ike Turner and Sonny Boy Williamson. Hooker made his first recordings in 1952 and 1953 for Rockin', King, and Sun. At the latter, he recorded some terrific sides with pianist Pinetop Perkins (Sam Phillips inexplicably sat on Hooker's blazing rendition of "The Hucklebuck").

Back in Chicago again, Hooker's dazzling dexterity was intermittently showcased on singles for Argo, C.J., and Bea & Baby during the mid- to late '50s before he joined forces with producer Mel London (owner of the Chief and Age logos) in 1959. For the next four years, he recorded both as sideman and leader for the producer, backing Junior Wells, Lillian Offitt, Ricky Allen, and A.C. Reed and cutting his own sizzling instrumentals ("Blue Guitar," "Blues in D-Natural"). He also contributed pungent slide work to Muddy Waters' Chess waxing "You Shook Me." Opportunities to record grew sparse after Age folded; Hooker made some tantalizing sides for Sauk City, WI's Cuca Records from 1964 to 1968 (several featuring steel guitar virtuoso Freddie Roulette).

Hooker's amazing prowess (he even managed to make the dreaded wah-wah pedal a viable blues tool) finally drew increased attention during the late '60s. He cut LPs for Arhoolie, ABC-BluesWay, and Blue Thumb that didn't equal what he'd done at Age, but they did serve to introduce Hooker to an audience outside Chicago and wherever his frequent travels deposited him. But tuberculosis halted his wandering ways permanently in 1970.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/earl-hooker-mn0000150062#biography

 

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Biografía de Bill Dahl
Si hubo un guitarrista de slide más inmaculado residente en Chicago durante los años 50 y 60 que Earl Hooker, su nombre aún no ha salido a la superficie. Con un diapasón tan suave y limpio que cada nota sonaba tan clara y precisa como una campana, Hooker era un hachero de inagotable inventiva que probablemente habría sido una estrella si su modesta capacidad vocal hubiera estado a la altura de su destreza instrumental y si no le hubiera perseguido la tuberculosis (que le mató a los 41 años).

Nacido en el delta del Mississippi, Hooker llegó a Chicago de niño. Allí recibió la influencia de otro mago del slide, el veterano Robert Nighthawk. Pero Hooker nunca permaneció quieto mucho tiempo. A los 13 años se escapó de casa y viajó a Mississippi. Tras otra temporada en Chicago, regresó al Delta y tocó con Ike Turner y Sonny Boy Williamson. Hooker realizó sus primeras grabaciones en 1952 y 1953 para Rockin', King y Sun. En este último sello, grabó algunos temas magníficos con el pianista Pinetop Perkins (Sam Phillips inexplicablemente se sentó en la ardiente interpretación de Hooker de "The Hucklebuck").


De nuevo en Chicago, la deslumbrante destreza de Hooker se exhibió intermitentemente en singles para Argo, C.J. y Bea & Baby entre mediados y finales de los 50, antes de unir fuerzas con el productor Mel London (propietario de los logos Chief y Age) en 1959. Durante los cuatro años siguientes, grabó como músico de acompañamiento y como líder para el productor, respaldando a Junior Wells, Lillian Offitt, Ricky Allen y A.C. Reed y creando sus propios temas instrumentales ("Blue Guitar", "Blues in D-Natural"). También contribuyó con su penetrante slide al éxito de Muddy Waters en Chess, "You Shook Me". Las oportunidades de grabar escasearon tras la desaparición de Age; Hooker grabó algunas tentadoras caras para Cuca Records de Sauk City, Wisconsin, entre 1964 y 1968 (varias de ellas con el virtuoso de la steel guitar Freddie Roulette).

La asombrosa destreza de Hooker (incluso consiguió convertir el temido pedal wah-wah en una herramienta viable para el blues) atrajo finalmente una mayor atención a finales de los 60. Hooker grabó LPs para Arhool Records. Editó LPs para Arhoolie, ABC-BluesWay y Blue Thumb que no igualaban lo que había hecho en Age, pero sirvieron para presentar a Hooker a un público fuera de Chicago y dondequiera que le depositaran sus frecuentes viajes. Pero la tuberculosis puso fin definitivamente a sus andanzas en 1970.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/earl-hooker-mn0000150062#biography

 

Junior Wells • In My Younger Days

 

 

Junior Wells (December 9, 1934 – January 15, 1998) was a blues vocalist and harmonica player and recording artist based in Chicago, who was also famous for playing with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison.

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Junior Wells (9 de diciembre de 1934 - 15 de enero de 1998) fue un vocalista de blues e intérprete de armónica y artista de grabación con base en Chicago, que también fue famoso por tocar con Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones y Van Morrison.

VA • Rock Around The Clock

 

VA • Let The Good Times Roll

 

T-Bone Walker, Lazy Lester, Leroy Washington, Slim Harpo, Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, Blues, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Witherspoon, Earl Hooker …