Screamin’ Jay Hawkins dead at 70.
Death comes for everyone, even a man who spent much of his life jumping out of coffins, and for Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, it was no exception. On February 13th, the world’s most frightening blues pianist died near Paris following complications from emergency surgery on a brain aneurysm. Born Jalacy Hawkins in Cleveland, Screamin’ was actually a classically trained piano player who also dabbled in opera and the tenor saxophone. After a stint in World War II, Jay joined Tiny Grimes and His Rocking Highlanders, and even Fats Domino’s band for a while (he was fired for dressing too loudly, if you believe the rumors). He also got his name at that time from a drunk woman in the audience who kept shouting “Scream, baby! Scream!” He cut a few sides for Okeh, but he didn’t find his voice until the September, 1956 sessions that eventually produced his theme song, “I Put A Spell On You.” The tune was originally a mild ballad, believe it or not; depending on who you ask, Hawkins was either a) forced to change it by the record label, or b) so drunk he made the final take up out of thin air. Either way, the result was a terrifyingly demented masterpiece of evil—when he sobered up, he refused to believe it was his vocal, and when shown a photo of himself laying down the track, he set it on fire.
Screamin’ Jay followed that with a slew of other hits in the same style, including “Feast Of The Mau Mau,” “Little Demon,” “I Hear Voices,” and the “party record” classic “Constipation Blues.” Many folks were so intimidated by these songs that rumors began to spread that he was a cannibal, an image not helped by his witch-doctor stage persona, replete with coffin, voodoo icons, and a skull on a stick. (Its name was Henry.) A tremendous baritone with amazing interpretive abilities, Jay was also featured in two Jim Jarmusch films, covered by Nina Simone, and recorded with the Rolling Stones, among others. Hawkins was in the midst of an amazing comeback when he became ill, having become a hero (or a nightmare) to a whole new generation of blues and rock audiences. He was 70 years old.
They don’t like to talk about it, but according to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Blues are the 59th and 60th most important thing happening in music today. It’s right there in the official literature: Categories 59 and 60, Best Traditional Blues Album and Best Contemporary Blues Album, four spots behind Best Tejano Performance and twenty-six spots behind Best Country Collaboration With Vocals. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with either of those kinds of music, but it does point up the fact that the Grammys have always been far more about what moves units than what moves hearts. Sure, Carlos Santana made a great album, but Robert Cray’s was equally good, and the press wasn’t all over it, was it?
This past February 23, when Robert Cray’s Take Your Shoes Off won for Best Contemporary Blues recording and B.B. King’s Blues On The Bayou won for Best Traditional Blues recording, it had to make you wonder if it was just a matter of name recognition on the Academy’s part. After all, Bobby “Blue” Bland’s Memphis Monday Morning and Ruth Brown’s A Good Day For The Blues were equally full of fire, and Odetta’s Blues Everywhere I Go certainly defined “traditional” blues clearer than the others. Clear winner, however, should have been Pinetop Perkins & Hubert Sumlin’s aptly-titled Legends, a tour de force of two old hands who wouldn’t know HOW to modernize their music.
Cray’s Take Your Shoes Off was probably his best set yet, and it was definitely one of the great soul albums of the year, but standing nominated as it was next to Luther Allison’s blazing, career-defining Live in Chicago and the triumphant return of Little Milton with Welcome To Little Milton, it may have been a case of name-brand voting. Although it was a shock to see him beat out Jonny Lang, who’s the latest Savior Of The Blues, supposedly. All’s well that ends well, I say: Lang isn’t even the savior of the classic-rock blooze style he works in. I suggest these people go buy some Vince Converse CDs, pronto. (The last nominee was Charlie Musselwhite’s “Continental Drifter,” a fine but by no means flawless effort.)
While I’m making suggestions, I may as well throw out the URL for this issue’s Blues Website of the Month, the Official North Mississippi All-Stars Web Site just launched at www.nmallstars.com. It’s possibly the finest blues-related site I’ve seen, easily navigable with loads of info and a great design. For those of you who aren’t aware of these guys, they’re part of the hungry new alt-blues generation influenced by Othar Turner and R.L. Burnside; for those who’ve been initiated, you’ll be glad to know that their first CD, Shake Hands With Shorty, has just been dropped on an unsuspecting world. World Boogie Is Coming!
Jazz Fest is coming, too, but we’ll let the special Jazz Fest issue clue you into that scene. However, there’s a fine selection of blues mayhem to jumpstart the month, like Marcia Ball’s boogie-woogie beauty brightening up the House of Blues on the 5th and Jimmy’s on the 6th. On the 8th, Alabama blues mama Peggy Scott-Adams puts in a rare appearance at the Municipal Auditorium, and slightly across town on the same night, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and The Roadmasters strut their stuff at the Maple Leaf. Smack in the middle of the month is that Jazz Fest for locals, the French Quarter Fest, featuring, among others, Kim Carson & The Casualties and the fabulous swamp blues of Tab Benoit on the 15th. Son House vet and local legend John Mooney pokes his head back out again at Tip’s Uptown on the 27th in your last chance for blues redemption before The Big Show. And none other than Bo Diddley brings those funny box guitars and a few arenas worth of attitude to the House Of Blues on the 21st. Don’t say no one gave you a chance to prepare this year.
