The 500 - #348 - At Newport 1960 - Muddy Waters

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 348

Album Title: Live At Newport

Artist: Muddy Waters

Genre: Blues

Recorded: July 3, 1960

Released: November, 1960

My age at release: Not Yet Born

How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: I Feel So Good

The first Newport Jazz festival took place in the summer of 1954 in the seaside town of Newport, Rhode Island. It was established by wealthy socialite Elaine Lorillard with her husband, Louis, as a celebration of jazz music in the U.S. In fact, the inaugural event, held at the Newport Casino, was called just that... "The First Annual American Jazz Festival".

Picturesque Newport, Rhode Island

Over its nearly 60-year history, the festival has featured an incredible list of music legends, including Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald. Many of these performances were recorded and released. Singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone chose the Newport venue for her second live album in 1960, just a few days before Muddy Waters recorded this week's record, #348 on The 500, At Newport, 1960.

The 1960 festival was not without conflict and controversy. On July 2, the day before Waters would play, drunken patrons caused a commotion during Ray Charles' evening performance, eventually spilling out onto the streets. The violence escalated when the police used teargas and high-pressure water hoses to try to quell the crowds. Eventually, the National Guard was called in to restore order.

The rioters were, for the most part, high-school and college-aged kids from the surrounding regions. According to Marc Myers, jazz journalist and historian, the youth were drawn to the festival because of the popularity of three films: Jazz On A Summer Day, Gidget and A Summer Place. In his 2010 Wall Street Journal article, Riot At Newport, 1960, Myers outlined how each movie contributed to a rise in popularity of jazz and the "beach-bum" youth culture.

Jazz On A Summer Day, a colour documentary released earlier that spring, glamorized the world of jazz and, inadvertently, created the impression that "the concerts were free with limitless seating".

A Summer Place starred Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee as young lovers rebelling against the hypocritical world of their parents, while Gidget, released a year earlier, established beaches "a teenage proving grounds", Myers observed.

The riot began mid-afternoon when thousands of young people who had been tanning and drinking on the nearby beaches began heading into town where the festival was taking place. Approximately 300 partiers ignited the riot when fistfights broke out near the gates. The melee intensified when the crowds began to swell outside the brick walls of the venue. Windows were broken, glass bottles thrown and the local police were overwhelmed. Eventually, at midnight, the Rhode Island National Guard arrived to quell the violence.

The festival was nearly shut down. In an overnight session, town councilors voted 4-3 to scuttle the remaining performances. However, concert promoter George Wein persuaded them to reverse the decision after explaining that the United States Information Agency (USIA) planned to film the festival to showcase American culture (sanitized without rioting, of course). As a result, Muddy Waters and his band took the stage about 12 hours later, and At Newport 1960 was recorded.

I enjoyed multiple listens to At Newport 1960 for this blog. It features Waters (born McKinley Morganfield) and his longtime bandmates ripping through a mix of older, popular blues standards and new material penned by Waters. The musicians on stage that July evening are well known to today's blues fans -- James Cotton (harmonica), Otis Spann (piano), Francis Clay (drums), Andrew Stevens (bass) and Pat Hare (guitar).

A plaque celebrating the life of James Cotton, near his birthplace in Mississippi

My appreciation of the performances grew when I realized the context in which the concert took place. One day earlier, the venue had been a battleground. Waters and his band had tried to attend the event on the night of the riot, but their vehicle was turned away outside town.

According to harmonica-player Cotton, who was driving the car with the band, they stopped when they saw a contemporary of theirs, blues-guitarist and singer John Lee Hooker, wandering toward them with only his guitar (sans case). Hooker, whose Ultimate Collection appears at position #377 on The 500 list, barely escaped the violence. It was he who advised Waters' band to turn around after he climbed in their vehicle.

Guitarist & Singer, John Lee Hooker

This is a terrific album. A veritable Rosetta Stone for the blues scene exploding in England several years after this performance in Newport, and led to the British Invasion. If you are a fan of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, The Kinks, The Who or Led Zeppelin, spend some time with the album that almost didn't happen.