3

dating back to the pre-microphone days when, as the saying goes, you took a song and "threw it from the velvet." In other words, without electronics, you rocked the joint.

Myra Johnson.

## MYRA JOHNSON

L.H.: And now, topping the afternoon, from Chicago, a great traditionalist of the blues, like John Lee Hooker, a man from the Delta, a country blues singer with his big city band---Muddy Waters:

## MUDDY WATERS

L.H.: To close our program, and bring everybody back into the picture---in the old days, before television, radios, microphones, in the cabarets the singers used to work the tables. "Working the tables" meant moving from table to table as they sang. In a big room, while the band was on the platform, there might be three or four singers on the floor, each singing her own blues verses to parties at tables around the room, and each trying to top the other in lyrics. Here there are no tables, but the artists of the afternoon are going to try to give you the flavor of an old-time blues session such as you might have heard in St. Louis after Muddy's the turn of the century, or Memphis or New Orleans, or on the Barbary Coast at the time of the earthquake. For our finale---just blues:

## BLUES FINALE

TRIO: "SAINT LOUIS BLUES"

L.H.: Well, that's the blues! And now for a little music,
without the talking. Sammy Price, take it from here---
the music of the blues.

TRIO: 2 NUMBERS

BETTY: 3 SONGS: BACK WATER BLUES
MY MIND GETS ME IN TROUBLE
AIN'T NOBODY'S BUSINESS IF I DO
Encore: BIRTH OF THE BLUES

SAMMY: And now the blues-jazz dancers, Al and Leon.

AL AND LEON: TISHAMINGO BLUES
JUMP BLUES

.....GOING OUT

L.H.: One of the last great exponents of the country blues,
the down-home, backwoods style of singing, is this
man from Mississippi, John Lee Hooker.

JOHN LEE HOOKER

L.H.: The recent, but now passing, vogue for poetry-to-
into
jazz, brought poetry MMMMM night clubs and coffee
it
houses on both coasts, and in some cases/brought
jazz for the first time into some colleges. One of
my poems influenced by the blues, that I have read
Tony Scott---
with jazz groups---Monk, Mingus, Webster, Red Allen, MM
is called BLUES AT DAWN. To indicate to you how the
blues have influenced poetry, here it is:

BLUES AT DAWN

But you can't dodge the blues. Sad, yes, lonely, yes.
But in the music of the blues, courage, fortitude,
strength, determination, a kind of in-spite-of-all
keeping on. Two thrilling instrumentalists of the
blues; M

BUTCH CAGE AND WILLIE THOMAS

L.H.: One of Harlem's most popular singers of the blues,

## INTRODUCTION

SAMMY PRICE from Honeygrove, Texas, at the piano--- who learned to play the piano from a player piano, and who grew up with the blues. He made his first records in Dallas before he was 20, toured the South on the old T.O.B.A. vaudeville circuit. T.O.B.A. meant Theatre Owners Booking Association, but what a lot of performers said it meant was, "Tough On Black Actors." Sammy Price has played for most of the great blues and gospel singers of our times, and with many great jazz vibos as well. Several times he made it in Europe, Sammy has taken part in the International Jazz Festival at Nice. But perhaps the greatest honor to come his way was when, in 1955, *Les Jeunesses Musicales* of France, a government-subsidized group with members all over the continent, in sponsoring their jazz band, brought over for a tour of France and its North African possessions, Sammy Price.

With Sammy today are Lafayette Thomas, guitar, singer
drums, Betty Jeannette, and Al and Leon, Al Mimms and Leon James,
blues and jazz dancers enjoyed at previous Newport Festivals.

Sammy, what are the blues?

THE BLUES - 2

TRIO: "SAINT LOUIS BLUES"

L.H.: Well, that's the blues! And now for a little music,
without the talking. Sammy Price, take it from here--
the music of the blues.

TRIO: 2 NUMBERS

AL AND LEON: TISHAMINGO BLUES
JUMP BLUES
.......GOING OUT

JOHN LEE HOOKER

L.H.: The recent, but now passing, vogue for poetry-to-jazz,
brought poetry into night clubs and coffee houses on
both coasts, and in some cases it brought jazz for the
first time into some colleges. One of my poems influenced
by the blues, that I have read with jazz groups--Monk,
Mingus, Webster, Tony Scott, Red Allen--is called BLUES
AT DAWN. To indicate to you how the blues have influenced
poetry, here it is:

BLUES AT DAWN

But you can't dodge the blues. Sad, yes, lonely, yes.
But in the music of the blues, courage, fortitude,
strength, determination, a kind of in-spite-of-all keeping
on. Two thrilling instrumentalists of the blues:

BUTCH CAGE AND WILLIE THOMAS

L.H.

THE BLUES - 3

L.H.:
One of Harlem's most popular singers of the blues,
dating back to the pre-microphone days when, as the
saying goes, you took a song and "threw it from the velvet."
In other words, without electronics, you rocked the joint.
Myra Johnson.

## MYRA JOHNSON

L.H.:
And now, topping the afternoon, from Chicago a great
traditionalist of the blues, like John Lee Hooker, a man
from the Delta, a country blues singer with his big city
band---Muddy Waters:

## MUDDY WATERS

L.H.:
To close our program, and bring everybody back into the
picture---in the old days, before television, radios,
microphones, in the cabarets the singers used to work the
tables. "Working the tables" meant moving from table to
table as they sang. In a big room, while the band was on
the platform, there might be three or four singers on the
floor, each singing her own blues verses to parties at
tables around the room, and each trying to top the other
in lyrics. Here there are no tables, but the artists of
the afternoon are going to try to give you the flavor of
an oldtime blues session such as you might have heard in
St Louis or Memphis or New Orleans after the turn of the
century, or on the Barbary Coast at the time of the earthquake.
For our finale---just blues:

## BLUES FINALE

THE BLUES - 3

## MYRA JOHNSON

### MUDDY WATERS

For our finale---just blues:

### BLUES FINALE

THE BLUES
Newport Jazz Festival
Sunday, July 3, 1960

Leila: Samay, what are the blues?

ANS: "The blues ain't nothin' but the dog-gone heart's disease"

Leila: Lafayette, what's the blues?

ANS: "The blues ain't nothin' but a good man feelin' bad."

Leila: Drummer man, what is the blues?

ANS: "The blues ain't nothin' but wantin' what you never had."

Leila: Betty Jeanette, tell me, what are the blues?

ANS: "Blues ain't nothin' but a good woman been done wrong."

Leila: What did Blind Lemon sing a long time ago?

ANS: "I got the blues so bad it hurts my feet to walk."

Leila: What did old Ma Rainey sing?

ANS: The Deep Moanin' Blues, then Broken Hearted Blues.

Leila: How about Leadbelly?

ANS: Leadbelly? "I ain't sick, I'm just dissatisfied."

Leila: How about Bessie Smith?

ANS: "Nobody knows you when you're down and out."

Leila: And what was that line of Billy Holiday's?

ANS: "I'm sitting here wonderin' will a matchbox hold my clothes."

Leila: The blues....A montage of the blues....But bucket...Boogie Woogie....Slow....Sweet....Fast....Play 'em Samay!

SAMMY: THE CUT BUCKET BLUES:
THE BOOGIE WOOGIE BLUES:

A SLOW BLUES: "How Long"

A SWEET BLUES: "West End"

A JUMP BLUES: "Kansas City"

L.H.: The blues! Nobody knows how the blues began. I imagine...etc.
W.C. Handy

J. great Smiths: Willie, Bessie, Clara

Spencer Williams, Clarence Williams

J. C. Johnson, Porter Creinger, Mule Bradford

George Gershwin: RAPSCOPY IN BLUE

"THE SAINT LOUIS BLUES"