January 2010

When I was young, one of my goals was to someday work with some of the blues greats I went to see at clubs around Chicago. YIKES! Guess it happened.

I have spent a lot of the month down at Buddy Guy’s club Legends listening to an amazing musician at the height of his power. It is no wonder that people like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and recently John Mayer cite Buddy as one of their biggest influences. Some of the nights this month I find myself crouching in front of the stage forgetting to shoot photos because I am listening so intently.

Last night (1/23) in the middle of his set, he brought Mud Morgenfield (Muddy Waters son) up on stage to do a song with him. It brought back thoughts of the past- Mud sings like Muddy and even kind of looks like Muddy.

Last week my friend Matthew Skoller called and asked if  he could bring a group of guys over to my house for a photo shoot. They had recorded a CD late last year, and it was nominated for a Grammy. They needed some publicity shots. So on Thursday (1/21) some great blues musicians started appearing at my house. First Billy Branch, one of the great harmonica players in Chicago. Next Carlos Johnson, a blues guitarist that I had photographed many times around Chicago. Next was Billy Boy Arnold, a major part of almost all of Bo Diddley’s great songs from the 60’s. Next in the door was Lurrie Bell, son of Carey Bell- Muddy Waters harp player for many years, and one of Chicago’s greatest guitar players. Finally, to round out the group, John Primer (Muddy Waters guitar player for many years) rang the bell. For the next two hours, an amazing discussion –and a few beers- was passed around the room. (And many pictures were taken).

This whole month is reinforcing in my mind why I still do this crazy job, and why sometime it could be the greatest job in the world!

Recently I was sent an article from a Canadian website concerning a rights grab by the Vancouver Olympics.

It seems that professional singer and songwriter Nicole Scoffield wrote a composition called Sea to Skyway about the road that links Vancouver and Whistler, which come February, will be the main sites of Olympic sport events. Scoffield sent the song to VANOC, as well as to B.C. premier Gordon Campbell and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.

She got a shock when officials at VANOC sent her a contract demanding she give up ownership and royalties — even before they would listen to it.

This got me to do some research some other Canadian websites

TechDirt has some great stuff about what the Vancouver Olympic Committee is doing concerning controlling rights to certain words such as Olympic!

So after living through the years of  discussion about whether or not the Olympics would be good for Chicago, and then having the whole point rendered moot by the Olympic committee’s rejection of my fair city, I am glad that I will never have to deal with that mess. Just the everyday mess of the music business!!!

On an unrelated note, just photographed the mighty Anvil last week. The publicists (Heidi Ellen Robinson and Julie Arkenstone) couldn’t have been nicer and more professional. One email set up the shoot and the photo pass and a perfect followup email with all the details was sent in plenty of time to print out and bring to the gig. Anyone who has ever worked with Heidi knows that she is one of the great ones, and anyone who works for her is learning form the best. Makes me long for the good old days!!

The question I am asked the most is “How do I get photo passes to concerts?” There is no simple answer. But one of the most important principals is DON’T START BY TRYING TO GET A PASS FOR THE ROLLING STONES!!!

Start small- every band who is playing arenas was at one time traveling around in a van, playing in clubs, usually having no problem with people photographing them.

A prime example:

In 1981, I was asked to photograph a 10 day music festival in downtown Chicago called Chicagofest. Many stages, and at least 4 bands per day per stage.

On July 30^th I went down to the rock stage in the middle of the afternoon and found a bunch of really cute women sunning themselves on the lakefront before they played their set. I looked at my schedule and found out that they were called the Go-Go’s. They were more than glad to pose for some pictures before they went on, and we remain friends to this day.

A little more than a week later, on August 9^th, I went to the same stage to photograph Jimmy Vaughn, who had just quit the Fabulous Thunderbirds to go solo. He told me I should catch his brother Stevie Ray, who was opening for him. WOW! Stevie invited me to his show at a club that night, where I did some photos of him. We remained friends until his tragic death in 1990.

January brings incredibly cold weather to Chicago (10 below zero wind chill today!!) and the one guy that could warm up any cold day anywhere. That would be the amazing Buddy Guy, who spends most of the month of January playing in the club he owns here (Buddy Guy’s Legends). For 4 out of the 7 nights of each of the January weeks, the epicenter of the Chicago music scene. There should be a rule in the music business that everyone who wants to be in a band and play in front of people should have to watch Buddy- to learn how a professional does it. Each night he proves that along with being one of the greatest living guitar players on the planet, he is also a master showman, spending almost as much time wandering through the club playing and singing as he spends time on stage. This almost always includes a trip outside (Remember- January- Cold) and occasionally a trip into one of the clubs washrooms- just to check that everything is clean and sanitary!

I had the opportunity last month to photograph him for the cover of Downbeat magazine. As per usual, he wanted to do the photo shoot at 10 AM- imagine a rock musician wanting to get up that early- and took great pride on the fact that he beat me to the club that morning. He was very gracious and did whatever was needed to get the shot we wanted

So, I won’t get much sleep for the next month, but it will be worth it!