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AN APPRECIATION OF THE FINEST GUITARIST OF THE BLUES Introduction INTRODUCTION Earl Zebedee Hooker, arguably the finest guitarist of the post-war Chicago blues scene, has been greatly under-appreciated when compared to the notoriety attained by Chicago players like Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, and Fenton Robinson, all of whom developed their craft after Charlie Christian, T-Bone Walker and B.B. King brought the electric guitar to the front of the bandstand. While Earl Hooker died young, all of the above mentioned players, save Charlie Christian and Sam, have had fairly long careers, and even if any of them had passed on in their prime, their recorded work to the end of the 1950's would have been strong enough to enshrine them in the blues Hall of Fame. Almost 30 years after his passing, "Zeb" is just beginning to gain the status that he deserves, due in large amount to efforts by guitarist Ronnie Earl to feature his music, and through acknowledgement by some of Hooker's contemporaries like Buddy Guy. One listening of Earl's unforgettable 1962 classic instrumental "Tanya" on Chess records, will convince any blues fan why this man was a giant of the instrument. More significant is that Earl's recorded work, as great as some of it is, does not do his reputation complete justice. Those who saw some of his club performances will attest to other well-known guitarists simply leaving the stage when Earl showed up. Several factors can be attributed to Earl's under-recognition. He fought tuberculosis much of his adult life (ultimately it killed him), his recorded output is not vast, and he spent much of his career on the road touring to support himself (ironically, his band was named the Roadmasters), without the advantage of a long-term recording contract to promote his music. Much of Hooker's recorded output was issued on single play 78 rpm and 45 rpm records during the 50's and 60's, on smaller labels such as Sun, King, Age, Chief, Cuca, and even Chess, which suffered poor distribution and lack of radio airplay outside the Chicago and southern U.S.A. markets. It wasn't until the late 1960's with the surge of interest in blues by European and suburban North American audiences that Earl was able to record on LP format for labels like Arhoolie, Bluesway, Blue Thumb, and Blues on Blues, enabling his music to reach a wider audience. Earl went to Europe in late 1969 as part of a touring American Blues festival, but passed away only six months later, just as his star was beginning to wax. Likely, he would have benefited largely from the blues boom that has occurred in the last 20 years. BIOGRAPHY 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 (Leadbitter & Slaven's Blues Records 1943 - 1970 lists only a handful of sides), 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 (available on Hightone CD -8007). 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 Zebedee 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. (The other guitar player that Buddy recommended was Johnny Littlejohn, who also got to record for Arhoolie). In 1968 Strachwitz went to Chicago to meet Earl and subsequently recorded some of Hooker's best work. Around the same time, blues enthusiast Dick Shurman captured some of Earl's club performances in Chicago to tape, and these provide a glimpse into Zeb's jaw-dropping live performances. 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. INFLUENCES While John Lee Hooker's music continues to echo the Mississippi delta, cousin Earl never ceased to evolve his craft and adapted his sound to take advantage of the changing tastes in music throughout the 1950's and 60's, all the while retaining his core blues roots and unmistakable tone. Earl met Robert Nighthawk early in his life and absorbed Nighthawk's enviable slide guitar technique. One of Zeb's most identifiable trademarks was his ability to create Nighthawk's smooth legato-like phrasing while using a slide in regular tuning on numbers like "The Moon is Rising" and "Anna Lee" (both are Nighthawk tunes), and this attribute remained with his music throughout his life. Examples of his early playing can be found on several of the CD reissues of Rockin and Sun sides like "The Hucklebuck" (a popular tune at the time played by Charlie Parker and other jazz musicians), "Sweet Black Angel", "I'm Going Down the Line", and "Guitar Rag". Each of these titles reflects a different style of playing, from deep delta blues to Merle Travis styled picking, and suggests that Earl's virtuosity was fully formed by the time he was in his early twenties. This was around 1953, about the same time B.B. King was getting his career launched. Not to deny B.B. his due, but which musician influenced the other ? Possibly, the truth is closer to something like both men had the opportunity to see and listen to each other, and some exchange of musical ideas occurred. Earl was comfortable in the role of sideman, something he did frequently in his career, yet he explained to Chris Strachwitz that he could always exploit his ideas better within his own band. Earl's best music was realized when he was on his own. Another point that demonstrates Earl's unique approach to slide guitar, is seen in a comparison of Earl's playing to that of Elmore James and Muddy Waters. Both Elmore and Muddy could be considered the reigning slide guitar kings of Chicago during the 1950's, and both were direct musical descendents of Robert Johnson and Son House. Elmore and Muddy also preferred to play much of their repertoire in the open tunings that were typical of the delta players (House and Patton), while Hooker usually kept his guitar in regular tuning so he could fret freely. Hooker was foremost a mainstay of Robert Nighthawk's approach, yet Earl's style also reflected strong elements of Tampa Red, undeniably the earliest virtuoso slide guitarist of the blues (preceeding Charley Patton by several years). These elements can be heard in Tampa's "Kingfish Blues" recorded on acoustic guitar for Bluebird in the 1930's. Even John Littlejohn, a strong slide guitarist whose playing was mostly shaped in the Elmore mould, evokes overtones of Earl's technique in his number "Slidin" that appears on the excellent Testament compilation "Chicago Blues at Home". Photos of Earl Hooker in his later years show him with a twin-necked Gibson 6-string/12-string guitar. Was Earl an influence on Jimmy Page who later sported a similar axe ? On some of Earl's later recordings, he played with a wah-wah, probably due to the influence of Jimi Hendrix. Listen to the Blues on Blues recording (LP 1002) from 1969 for a good example of how Earl integrated the wah-wah so effectively into his form. It is interesting to speculate how Hendrix may have been influenced by Earl Hooker, since Jimi loved the blues, and he (Hendrix) definitely absorbed influences of the post-war Chicago guitarists. Hendrix played much of his music at very rapid tempos, in a manner not unlike Hooker does on some of his early material like "Goin on Down the Line". Today, Earl Hooker's most tireless promoter is guitarist Ronnie Earl. Ronnie has selflessly acknowledged his debt to other guitarists like Earl, Magic Sam, and Luther Tucker, and the playing on many of Ronnie's recordings so obviously compliments Hooker's. As an accessory to this fact, Ronnie even takes his stage name "Mr. Earl" in tribute to Earl Hooker. Ronnie continues to carry on the deep blues tradition of playing in Hooker's format, and anyone who has seen Ronnie live knows what a monster player he is with a slide (and without). Due in good measure to Ronnie's efforts, Hooker's music will continue to endure. Another current guitarist who has mastered Earl Hooker's style and plays with great fluency in this idiom is Billy Flynn, who performs in the band "Mississippi Heat". Flynn has several CD's and tapes available under his own name and with the Heat, and a live performance of this band is unforgettable. Two of the most popular performers of the blues, albeit in a more rock-oriented format, who have been influenced by Earl Hooker, are Stevie Ray Vaughan and Johnny Winter. Stevie was a fierce slide guitarist even though he played predominantly in the fretted style, and even a cursory listen to his version of the Sly Williams title "Boot Hill" confirms his debt to Earl. Johnny Winter has been active for 4 decades, and his instrumental prowess remains undiminished. Johnny has long used a Gibson Firebird for his slide guitar work, and his gritty slide playing shows a strong Hooker streak throughout from his early sides on Imperial (perhaps some of Johnny's best work) right up to his current live release for the Pointblank label. DIVERSITY OF EARL'S PLAYING STYLES In the simpler view, Earl was a master of both the slide guitar and fretted playing styles and he had few peers in either idiom. Zeb could play slide guitar just like Robert Nighthawk or Elmore James, but at blinding tempos, then effect a chameleon shroud to sound like Albert Collins or Kenny Burrell. Listen to the astounding playing on "Improvisations on Dust My Broom" and "Improvistations on Frosty" on the second Arhoolie collection for evidence of this. Earl could sing too, even though much of his output was instrumental. Witness the catchy "Swear to Tell the Truth" on the Black Top reissue of Earl's 1964 Cuca side for a good example of his easy vocal style. Unfortunately, a few of his 60's period sides are marred by the addition of female vocal choirs, no doubt to take advantage of a trend that was popular in rock and roll at the time. Perhaps the scarcity of vocal titles in Hooker's output contributed to his low-profile status while he was alive (Earl was shy about his singing), but other players such as Freddy King and Lonnie Mack earned strong reputations for themselves by playing many instrumental-only tunes, and today Ronnie Earl does this exclusively in his live shows. It is futile to speculate how Earl's reputation would have grown, had he lived for another 2 or 3 decades, but perhaps the best measure of success for any musician is in how their work influences other players. In this regard, Earl Hooker succeeded beyond category. SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY Earl Hooker - "Blue Guitar", Paula CD PCD-18 Earl Hooker - "Play Your Guitar Mr. Hooker", Black Top CD BT-1093 Earl Hooker - "Two Bugs and a Roach", Arhoolie CD 324 Various Artists - "The Sun Blues Archives, Vol 1, Guitar Blues", Charly CD Various Artists - "Slidin", Charly CD RED 36 Jr. Wells - "Messin with the Kid 1957 - 1963", Paula CD PCD-03 Note: Charly records of England lately, have been releasing the Sun catalogue in budget priced single CD's, several of which contain some of Earl Hooker's early sides. Well worth investigating. Earl Hooker also recorded an LP for ABC-Bluesway (now handled by MCA) in the late 1960's but this has not been released on CD as of this writing. An album on the small label Blues on Blues, "Funk - Last of the Great Earl Hooker", has not been released on CD as of this writing. Other CD releases by Earl Hooker exist on labels such as Red Lightnin', Antilles, and One-Way, most of it recorded in the latter part of his life. A wealth of releases featuring Earl as a sideman for other artists have been available under Charles Brown, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Andrew Odom, Sleepy John Estes, Brownie McGhee, and Jr. Wells. Chess (now MCA) in particular, have put out numerous compilations of various artists from their blues catalogue, a few of which contain titles recorded under Earl Hooker's name, or with Earl recording as a sideman. Much of the Chess catalogue is currently available at budget prices. Curtiss Clarke |
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