Re: two blues jews

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Responding to the message of <3B88AB90(dot)809170F7 (at) concentric(dot)net>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> Was Paul Butterfield Jewish?  Yes
> Certainly Mark Naftalin must have been (PB's first pianist).
And his dad, Arthur Naftalin was the first and only Jewish mayor of Minneapolis.
> 
> Also
> Doc Pomus (definitely) 
> Blues harpist Steve Cohen (plays with fellow harpist Jim Liban)
> Houston-based blues bassist Guy D. "Bluesguy" Schwartz
> 
> Bob margolin? (was Muddy Waters' guitarist for many years)
> Ann Rabson? (co-founder of Saffire -- the Uppity Blues Women)
> J Geils?
> Peter Wolf?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Meantime, as far as Siegel-Schwall goes, this is (excerpted) from the
> entertaining on-line Blues'zine, Blues Bytes
> (http://www.bluenight.com/BluesBytes/):
> 
> The Siegel-Schwall Band were never as great, as innovative, as
> serious in their study of the blues, as that other mid-60s Chicago white
> blues band, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. 
> 
> (snip)
> 
> Still, for a time, this low-volume four-piece band played a major role
> in the discovery of the blues by the hippie/college crowd. Furthermore,
> even though they are now largely forgotten (especially when compared
> to       Butterfield and his acolytes, Michael Bloomfield and Elvin
> Bishop),       co-leaders Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall were every bit as
> honest and enthusiastic in their approach, and just as genuinely in love
> with the masters, especially Howlin' Wolf. The Complete Vanguard
> Recordings & More! (Vanguard Records) is a three-CD package that
> collects in their entirety the band's first four albums for Vanguard,
> plus
> six previously unreleased tracks. The first couple of these, including a
> cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Howlin' for my Darling," were recorded (under
> the name Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall Two-Man Blues Band) as
> demo tracks in 1965, within a year of their discovering the blues!
> Within a year, they were discovered by Sam Charters, no less
> 
> [snip}
> 
> They sounded VERY white but didn't rock enough, they weren't great
> singers, and, well, they never really could pull off a slow blues
> without making it sound kind of boring. After the release of the
> slightly "more electric" and definitely more experimental (and partly
> live) Siegel-Schwall 70, produced by Bill Trout, they moved to the RCA
> imprint Wooden Nickel, where they released five more albums, before
> splitting and going in different directions. (Corky Siegel has been
> involved with his Chamber Blues project, fusing classical music and the
> blues, while Jim Schwall now teaches music).
>                                               --- Benoît Brière 
> 
> 
> Now, what i want to see is a list of great Jewish country singers -- and
> don't say Kinky Friedman. (Hey, is Joe Goldmark, a terrific pedal-steel
> player, MOT?)
> 
> George (I'm as country as any Jew in Washington Heights!) Robinson
> 
> 
> 
> .


Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)

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