Continuing on with mention I made in my last post of the early '60's Folk Blues revival, I'd like to throw some notice on one of the clubs that would emerge from that burgeoning scene to become a concert venue of near-mythical status. When Fred Taylor opened Paul's Mall and the Jazz Workshop on Boston's Boylston Street, that same revival was reaching its peak, thanks in no small measure to clubs like these. Just down the way from Paul's Mall was the Unicorn Coffee House. Across the Charles River in Cambridge was Club 47. These were the clubs that would make Boston a curious hotbed for the blues.
Some things never change: where you have universities, you have coffeehouses. Boston is chock full of both. The importance of the universities in how the blues unfolded through this time-frame cannot be overstated, for it was with their students that the country blues (especially) were getting noticed. These same students would be getting turned on to electricity in short order. New York had its Gaslight Cafe. Boston had Paul's Mall.
I take a certain mirthful pleasure in serving up a couple bootlegs cut at the Mall, when Taylor himself began his career taping jazz shows with a $149 recorder he would lug from venue to venue. He was still a Boston College student and along the way, he managed to record Sarah Vaughan and Dave Brubeck.
"I'd heard about this incredible pianist named Dave Brubeck," Taylor recalls, "and when I saw he was coming to Storyville, I set up the mike where the balance was right, and I recorded him. Afterward, I said, 'Come back to my folks' house, because we have to plug it into my hi-fi.' So, Dave and Paul Desmond and I piled into my car and went to my house. When Dave heard it, he said it was great, that he'd never been caught that way playing 'Over the Rainbow.'
"A few days later, he called and said Fantasy wanted to release it as an album. He gave me $110 for the tape, and they produced a 10-inch LP that was praised twice in The New York Times, first as one of the best new works of the year, despite the amateur equipment, and second, as one of the first recordings to abandon three-minute cuts and to take advantage of the long-play format."
The liner notes for Brubeck's Live at Storyville list Taylor as Engineer.
In 1963, he and a business partner invested $4,000 and opened Paul's Mall and the Jazz Workshop, a pair of basement clubs featuring jazz in one and (mostly) electric music and comedy acts in the other. By the time they closed their doors 15 years later, few clubs could boast their longevity or the roster of talent that played those stages; John Coltrane and Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Sarah Vaughan. Bob Marley and Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell and Little Feat.A great many of these concerts were broadcast over Boston's WBCN...which is precisely why we find so many FM-sourced bootleg recordings coming out of Paul's Mall. We see a very similar dynamic with playing out with New York's Bottom Line shows broadcast by WNYU. (Here and Here, for example)
This evening's two outings were both broadcast over WBCN--and both serve up some soaring blues from a pair of its undisputed masters, Muddy Waters and BB King.
When Muddy took the stage at Paul's Mall, it was June 15, 1976 and Boston's Mayor had proclaimed that day "Muddy Waters Day." After the band plays a trio of numbers (all instrumentals this time out...), the Proclamation is read and Muddy is noticeably moved by the moment, stumbling a bit with his thanks. With a stroke of panache, he begins his set by honoring a request.
"This is going out for a young lady, she's a little ill tonight and she's in the bed but she's listening on the radio...Here it is, Terry, your number, Caledonia..."Both Caledonia and Kansas City are time-honored blues that Muddy appears to have grown an affection for and would perform them repeatedly throughout the balance of his career. Through the 1970's, Kansas City served as a vehicle for the band to open up and jam, as well as share vocal duties with the master.
The early-mid-'70's were a rough road for Muddy. He'd started the decade off recovering from a car wreck that had left him with a sprained back and a broken pelvis and hip. His wife, Geneva, had died in '73 and Chess was sliding towards its demise. Many of Muddy's shows through these years could be uneven affairs--though he would also produce quite a number that are just stand-outs. His night at Paul's Mall in June of '76 is ample testimony of a night when he & his band were "on," blazing through a setlist of standards and making them feel vibrant. Muddy is in great spirits through this set and his audience is raucous and appreciative. It all makes for one tasty bootleg.
Like Muddy, BB King had performed at Paul's Mall before and his affection for the place is apparent when he takes the stage not quite two years later, on April 9, 1978. Times had changed, the Mall was closing, and B. B. was brought in to close the joint out on a high note. Production and maintenance costs had become too prohibitive for these two small clubs to remain open. That they had lasted 15 years, far longer than most of their contemporaries, had been an achievement in itself.
Of BB, Fred Taylor said in his intro (& farewell) "There couldn't be a better group or a better artist to go out with the blues, and that's so appropriate...Thank you, Boston, it's been a beautiful engagement!"
It was past midnight when BB stepped to the microphone, leaping into a roaring set and kicking things off, like Muddy, with Caledonia.
This offering is amply laden with energy but feels a bit like BB-by-rote. It is well enough that it is serving as a warm-up, as BB gets into the pocket by How Blue Can You Get and soars there through the balance of this legendary set, building to a ripping, percussive I Need You Baby, sandwiched with a saucy Outside Help for a finale. Along the way, BB calls DeeDee Bridgewater to the stage for a soulful Everyday I Have the Blues duet. "You can sing anything you want," BB assures her, "as long as it's Everyday I Have the Blues..."
733 Boylston Street is a Chinese restaurant now. The torch has been passed a few times since the spring of '78. The music that was made there is something more eternal.
Peace, Mudcatz
Muddy Waters
Paul's Mall
Boston MA
June 15, 1976
FM Broadcast
1. Intro
2. Instrumental 1
3. Instrumental 2
4. Instrumental 3
5. Muddy Waters Day Proclamation
6. Caledonia
7. Kansas City
8. Hoochie Coochie Man
9. I Want You To Love Me
10. Baby Please Don't Go
11. Long Distance Call
12. Mannish Boy
13. Got My Mojo Working
14. You Don't Have To Go
15. Outro
16. WBCN Outro
Muddy Waters - Vocals/Guitar
Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson - Guitar
Bob Margolin - Guitar
Calvin Jones - Bass
Pinetop Perkins - Piano
Jerry Portnoy - Harmonica
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith - Drums
Link
BB King
Paul's Mall
Boston MA
April 9, 1978
FM Broadcast
1. Intro Jam
2. Caledonia
3. How Blue Can You Get
4. Cryin Won't Help You
5. Why I Sing The Blues
6. Everyday I Have The Blues
7. 3 O'Clock Blues
8. Everything Gonna Be Alright
9. I Need You Baby
Link
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