Artist Obituaries

Blues piano player-guitarist-singer Al Arsenault, 69, died May 15, 2007 at St. Vincents in Worcester after a lengthy battle with emphysema. He played out for over 50 years. At age 16, he was playing with The Phaetons, a rock band with two hit singles. He was still in his teens when he backed peoplelike Bobby Darin and The Drifters.
 
 He was a fixture at the Kitty Kat nightclub on main streetin Worcester. The owner at Kitty Kat had installed a B3 Hammond organ at the establishment just so Arsenault could play it there. Passing an audition at the Jazz Workshop landed him some gigs in New York, New Jersey and Ohio with Saxophonist Lou Donaldson. When Donaldson got booked in Japan, Arsenault bowed out to fulfill his family obligations at home.

The Phaetons 1958 (Al is second from left)

 

Al the night he opened for BB King     

Arsenault had continued to play up until near the end of his life He slowly tapered off but it was only six months since he played in front of people at an assisted living facility. A year before he passed he was still playing weekly gigs.
 
 "He played small cafes and stuff like that," daughter Charlene Arsenault said. "It got to the point he couldn’t even lift his own equipment into the building. But he played as long as he could with help. It was pretty amazing. I think that was the hardest thing about his illness was having to give up music. Giving up music was like giving up everything. His equipment was like his children. It really was painful to watch. That’s what he knew. He lived and breathed it."
 
 Charlene Arsenault also said her dad "was a born performer and he always looked the happiest when he was entertaining." It can be said that Arsenault did so much in one lifetime that it seemed like he lived three.
 
 Someone must have been looking down on Mr. Arsenault for a long time. He survived several near-death experiences. He escaped a three decker fire. He was almost drowned by a mentally challenged person. A golf ball smashed through his car window. A bridge once collapsed after he drove under it. He was also in a commercial jet liner that had to make a crash landing, requiring the passengers to jump onto an inflatable slide. One night after a show, a staggering drunk had pointed a gun at his head because he had walked a girl to her hotel room.
 
 Arsenault raised six children. He had two children from his first marriage. He adopted the two children of his second wife. Then he and his second wife had two together.
Arsenault worked in the Worcester nightclub scene back when there still  was a Worcester night club scene. "He made his living as a musician, which is pretty rare," Charlene Arsenault said. "Needless to say, it was easier back then. There was something happening seven nights a week. There was no shortage of him talking about the glory days. One of his biggest thrills in the past ten years was opening for B.B. King at Foxwoods."

Al at Foxwood's Casino

 Family and friends are going to eventually hold a large blues jam in Arsenault’s memory featuring many people he had played with over the years. His daughter reports that it may take as long as May of next year to put it all together.
.....Bill Copeland

 

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DETROIT JUNIOR OCTOBER 26, 1931 – AUGUST 9, 2005
Legendary and beloved blues pianist, vocalist and songwriter Emery “Detroit Junior” Williams, Jr., died at his Chicago home on August 9, 2005 of heart failure. He was 73. Over the course of his 50-plus year career, Detroit Junior led his own bands and appeared as a solo performer, in addition to playing in bands with Howlin' Wolf and Eddie Shaw. He wrote hundreds of songs, had numerous local successful 45s, as well as writing hits recorded by Albert King and Koko Taylor.
He was a wildly entertaining performer in his own right as well, gigging constantly and recording on scores of other artists' albums as well as four full albums under his own name. Two of his songs have become blues standards: “Call My Job,” which was a hit for Albert King, and the perennial favorite, “Money Tree.” Koko Taylor has recorded three of his tunes: “Tired Of That,” “Thanks, But No Thanks,” and “Never Trust A Man.” His rambunctious personality, raspy voice and untamed stage antics (including playing the piano standing up, on his knees and from underneath the piano) earned him many fans and friends around the world.
Emery Williams, Jr. was already an experienced entertainer and piano player when he came to Chicago in 1956 from Detroit. He was originally from Haynes, Arkansas where he was born on October 26, 1931, and spent his childhood in southern Illinois. He had led his own band, the Blues Chaps, since he was 19, playing clubs in Pontiac and Flint, Michigan. For three years they were the house band at The Circle Club in Detroit, backing touring stars like Roscoe Gordon, Eddie Boyd, John Lee Hooker and Amos Milburn. Milburn was Junior's idol, and his humorous blues about the evils of alcohol inspired some of Junior's best songwriting.
Blues musician Eddie Boyd first brought Junior to Chicago in the early 1950s, hoping to line up a contract for him with Chess Records. The Chess deal didn't work out at first, but Junior fell in with J.T Brown, the city's leading blues sax man. They landed a gig at Club 99, then at the legendary Squeeze Club. Junior quickly won a following with his percussive piano and energetic stage show. He paired up with harp man Little Mack Simmons, and they settled into a steady gig as house band at Cadillac Baby's South Side club. He recorded his first single, “Money Tree” backed with “So Unhappy” in 1960 for the Bea & Baby label. That record marked the first appearance of “Detroit Junior;” before that time he had been known as Little Junior Williams, and when the record became a local hit, the nickname stuck.
Chess Records, sensing they had missed something, signed Junior, but subsequent singles didn't sell, and he cut for Foxy, CL and Palos before waxing his next hit, the original “Call My Job,” on U.S.A., in 1965. The flipside, “The Way I Feel,” a spontaneous and sensitive piano solo, proved that Junior had talent for deep blues as well as novelty tunes.
During the '60s, Junior gigged with Mack Simmons, Eddie Taylor, Sam Lay and Johnny Twist. From 1968 on, he toured and recorded with the late Howlin' Wolf, playing everywhere from college auditoriums to Big Duke's Flamingo. When Wolf died in 1976, Junior stuck with the band, The Wolf Gang, under the leadership of sax man Eddie Shaw for a number of years.
Detroit Junior's first full album under his own name, “Chicago Urban Blues” (on the Blues On Blues label) came out in the early 1970s. Alligator Records included four of his songs on the “Living Chicago Blues, Volume 6” anthology in 1980. The album helped establish him as a successful solo performing career. From 1995 through 2004, Detroit Junior released four CDs under his own name, three for Blue Suit Records: “Turn Up The Heat” (1995), “Take Out The Time” (1997), and “Live At The Toledo Museum Of Modern Art” (2004). His most recent CD was 2004's “Blues On The Internet” on Delmark.
In the last few years, Junior often appeared on the Chicago's North Side at clubs like Kingston Mines, even after losing a leg to diabetes. He was filmed for Martin Scosese's PBS series, “The Blues,” and kept on writing and performing up until his death.

LITTLE MILTON
First, we acknowledge that our sense of loss--no matter how heavy--cannot match that of his immediate family. Those of us who have lost a spouse or a father know how deep the grief is, how painful the sorrow can be, how private and personal your feelings can be at this time. The blues family honors and respects that.
But as a musician and entertainer, he was loved and respected by people all over the world who not only loved his music, but also liked him as a person. This almost personal relationship between artist and fan is one of the most unique and wonderful things about blues music. And because of the type of person he was—a gracious and generous person—he had a very special relationship with his fans.
The word that has been repeated and repeated by fans is “sad.” It is just sad. Sad that someone in seemingly good health is gone. Sad that one who was performing at the highest level just a few weeks ago is gone. Sad that a man everyone thought so highly of is gone.
In addition to sad, there is that touch of being mad about it. Why him? Why now? Why not someone else-someone who was in bad health or could not really perform anymore? There must have been plenty of people in line in front of him. While it is hard to keep such thoughts from popping up, we know they are not productive, not helpful. So we try to find something positive.
As all of us here today know, Blues music is not designed to give you the blues; rather, it helps you deal with your blues. Loss of a loved one is about as blue as it gets. But instead of being sad or mad, we can be glad that Mr. C. had a pretty good life, all things considered. We can be glad that he was able to provide us with so much comfort and joy over the years. We can be glad that he received some recognition in life—21 Handy nominations, 6 Handy awards, induction into the Blues Hall of Fame. And we can be glad that we will always have his music—his voice, his guitar, his songs.
All over the world this past week, radio stations, internet sites and people with their CDs or MP3s have been playing tributes and this morning they are honoring Milton by playing “The Blues are Alright.” And the blues is and will be all right. Yes, “We’re Gonna Make It” but it just won’t be the same without him.

JAY MCSHANN
Jay “Hootie” McShann, Kansas City bandleader and pianist, died on December 7. He was 90. Born James Colombus McShann on January 12, 1916, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he taught himself to play, partly by listening to broadcasts from Chicago of the Earl Hines Band and began playing professionally at age 15. A police raid on a club in Kansas in 1936 (still a dry state then) convinced him to take a bus to Omaha, Nebraska, where he had an uncle; he had a two-hour stopover in Kansas City, he said in an interview in 1999, discovered the rich music scene there and went no further.
Kansas City was a wide-open town, run by political boss Tom Pendergast (who went to bed every night at 9), and nobody paid any attention to prohibition. Musicians didn’t make much money, but they played all night and the town was a hothouse of musical innovation; the style, drenched in the Blues, was well-known in Chicago and points east, called “Western Swing.” The Bennie Moten band had had hit records as early as 1924; its successor, the Count Basie Band, went to New York in 1937 and set the town on its ear and by 1940 McShann had his own big band. A non-drinker, McShann allegedly acquired his nickname when he was slipped a loaded drink at a jam session and was unable to play at the “hootenanny.”
McShann was the first to hire Charlie Parker, who made his recording debut with the band on “Hootie Blues” in 1941 (though recordings with Parker made at a radio station the previous year have been issued). McShann’s biggest hit (same year) was “Confessin' The Blues,” co-written by McShann and vocalist Walter Brown, and covered many times since, notably by B.B. King. “Get Me On Your Mind” (vocal by Al Hibbler) was successful, but WWII wrecked the band; McShann had moved to New York, but served in the U.S. Army in 1943-44 without recording some of his best arrangements. He did have a no. 1 R&B hit, “Hands Off” in 1955 with vocalist Priscilla Bowman on Vee-Jay, but the war and other factors had put an end to the big band business. He lived on the West Coast after the war, but eventually returned to Kansas City.
He made small-group albums for half a dozen labels; there were some solo tracks on Master Jazz Piano, since reissued by Mosaic in a compilation with solos by Hines and others. He was eventually recognized as a living legend. In 1972 Jim Galloway, musician and director of the Downtown Jazz Festival in Montreal, brought him to Canada where he made close to a dozen albums for Sackville. His last four albums were released by the Canadian Stony Plain label, including Going To Kansas City in 2003, nominated for a Grammy. Label boss and producer Holger Petersen acted as his tour manager to international Jazz festivals and recorded interviews with him.
He was the subject of a film, Hootie Blues in 1978, and was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1987. He received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1996, and in 2000 the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City named its outdoor performance pavilion after him.
McShann is survived by his companion of 30 years, Thelma Adams (known as Marianne McShann), and three daughters.

 

PIANIST/VOCALIST FLOYD DIXON 1929 - 2006
 "A musical genius, impeccable piano technique." - LIVING BLUES
 
West Coast jump blues and R&B pianist / vocalist / songwriter Floyd Dixon died Wednesday, July 26, 2006 in Los Angeles, California, of kidney failure. He was 77. The critically acclaimed performer - best known for his 1954 song "Hey Bartender" (popularized by The Blues Brothers) - stood alongside Charles Brown, Ray Charles and Louis Jordan as one of a few artists who helped transform swing music into Rhythm & Blues.
 
Dixon was one of the true heroes of early R&B and jump blues. He first recorded for Supreme Records in 1947 and then for Modern Records in 1949. He switched to Aladdin Records and had his first hits, "Telephone Blues" and "Call Operator 210" in 1951 and 1952 before hitting it big in 1954 with "Hey Bartender" for the Cat label.
 
Floyd Dixon was born in Marshall, Texas on February 8 1929. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was 13. A self-taught pianist, Dixon began his career by singing mostly cool, after-hours piano blues in the Charles Brown mode. Soon enough, however, Dixon charted his own territory with a more rocking, jumping style. From traditional, slow blues to booming R&B, pop and proto-rock and roll, Dixon's created a sound and style that was his alone.
 
After Dixon won a few talent contests in Los Angeles, bandleader Johnny Otis encouraged him to record. Dixon recorded his first single, "Dallas Blues," while still working his day job at Orenstein's Drug Store. He went on to record hits for a number of labels, including Modern, Supreme, Aladdin, and Specialty. By the time he released the classic "Hey Bartender" 1954, Dixon was an established star in the West Coast R&B scene. He toured constantly and at various times shared the stage with the likes of Ruth Brown, B.B. King, Charles Brown and Ray Charles. It was an early tour with Charles that Dixon encouraged Ray to switch from his suave Nat King Cole approach to a more gospel-inspired delivery. Charles took his advice, and the result for Ray Charles was an unsurpassed string of R&B hits.
 
Although he continued to perform and record sporadically through the 1960s and early 1970s, Dixon nearly dropped out of music altogether, living a secluded life in Paris, Texas. He was invited to perform in Sweden and quickly developed an international following. With reissues of his older material beginning to surface, European interest in Dixon continued to rise. In 1980, he joined the European Blues Caravan tour with old friends Charles Brown and Ruth Brown.
 
Dixon performed occasionally on the West Coast during the 1980s and even spent time on the road with the then-unknown Robert Cray and Little Charlie & The Nightcats. In 1984 he received a "Billboard" Blues Award for "Hey Bartender," recorded by the Blues Brothers. The following year, he received a "Billboard" Country Award for the song, recorded by country singer Johnny Lee.
 
In 1993 Dixon received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Pioneer Career Achievement Award. This helped him secure gigs at major outdoor blues festivals, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Sacramento Blues Festival and the Chicago Blues Festival.
 
In 1996 a new album, "Wake Up And Live!," was released on Alligator Records. The album won the 1997 Blues Music Award from The Blues Foundation for "Comeback Album of the Year." The CD reintroduced Dixon to old fans and brought him many new ones. He never stopped performing, and he recorded another CD, "Fine, Fine Thing," for the HighJohn label in 2005. In June 2006, Dixon recorded a live CD/DVD with fellow pianists Pinetop Perkins and Henry Gray, scheduled for a fall release on HighJohn.
 
Dixon is survived by first cousins Marie Banks of Los Angeles, California, and Mary Dixon of Marshall, Texas.

 

JESSIE MAE HEMPHILL