J.C. Burris – Blues Professor CD 497

Description

CD 497

Famous harmonica ace, Sonny Terry once remarked about his nephew J.C. Burris: “If you didn’t see him, you’d think he was me.” Although he never gained Terry’s popularity, J.C. became a remarkable folk artist who sang and played in a powerful and emotional manner, wrote well-crafted personal songs, and created delightful dolls which became part of his unique one-man show! Bernice Johnson Reagon included a superb a-capella version of J.C.’s “River of Life” in her first solo album and plans to bring more of the “Blues Professor’s” songs to a wider, contemporary audience.

J.C. Burris – vocals, harmonica, rhythm bones, hand slapping, and dancing with Mr. Jack

1. Hold Me Tight
2. Loneliness
3. River Of Life
4. Mr. Jack’s Dance
5. One Of These Mornings
6. Inflation Blues
7. Hand Jive
8. You Got To Roam
9. Highway Blues
10. Blues Professor
11. Where I Am Bound
12. Moving On
13. Raining In Your Life
14. One Way Trip
15. Holdin’ On
16. Christmas Time Once Again
17. City By The Bay
18. Way Down South
19. Blues Calling On You
20. Wailing And Sailing

REVIEW

“Country blues at its elemental, folk-hinged best. Legendary harmonica player/percussionist/singer, J.C. Burris migrated from Ner York City (after recording for Folkways, Bluesville, Herals and Ember records) to San Francisco in 1961, making Barbara Dane’s always-jumping, North Beach-based Sugar Hill club his initial home. Mostly, though, he played on the streets – frequently around Washington Square Park, where this writer first encountered his irrisistible Carollina blues vision – complementing spry, scruffy vocals with squealing bursts of mouth-harp, a set of African rhythm bones, foot stomping and assorted, quicker-than-the-eye, hand/body slapping.
Despite a major stroke in 1966 (from which it took him nearly seven years to recover) Burris’s declining years were packed with musical activity – performing at local clubs, schools and blues festivals as well as answering Hollywood’s call, appearing in Gordon Park’s well-received ‘Leadbelly’ film. All the while, offering his buoyant, totally unique brand of the blues (borrowing liberally from the emotional canon of his uncle, Sonny Terry, Blind Boy Fuller, and Big Bill Broonzy) until his death in 1988.
The long-overdue CD is a real treat – encompassing all-but-one track from Burris’s original 1975 Arhoolie LP (replaced by the mesmerizing out-take ‘Wailing and Sailing’), along with the contents of a ten-tune cassette tape Burris gave label-owner Chris Strachwitz in 1976, in hopes of a follow-up album. Unreleased until now and sounding, in Strachwitz’ accurate estimation, ‘like audition recordings made in the early fifties in Memphis, Detroit or Chicago.’ Burris’s call-and-response styled songs feature only his ever-vibrant singing in tendem with some of the most ebulient/soulful harmonica playing this side Sonny Terry. My favorites are the autobiographical sketches (‘Blues Professor,’ ‘Holdin’ On’ and a cinematic ‘City By The Bay’ among them) but there’s nary a clunker in the bunch. The remaining (album) selections were all recorded in concert circa 1975 and vividly capture the spontaneity and medicine show robustness at the core of Burris’ appeal. Tunes like scholastic ‘Hand Jive,’ and the topical ‘Inflation Blues,’ an anthem-like ‘River of Life’ (rivetingly convered Sweet Honey in the Rock’s Bernice Johnson Reagon) and, of course, ‘Mr. Jack’s Dance,’ featuring Burris’ hand-made, ever grinning (happy face origin?) toe-tapping wooden doll are hard to resist. Other down-home efforts, such as the bones-accented ‘Highway Blues’ and philosophical ‘You Got To Roam’ are similarly fascinating.
The sound, throughout, is top-notich while the accompanying booklet includes Tom Mazzolini’s heartfelt liners from the original LP, along with a recent, touching reminiscence from Strachwitz. A full-length video, showcasing Burris and his entire one-man band assemblage, is also available from Arhoolie. Long live the Blues Porfessor!”

(Gary Von Tersch — Blues & Rhythm)