Big Mama the Queen at Monterey STEREO ·

By PHILIP ELWOOD Examiner Jazz Critic

MONTEREY - W i llie Mae T h or n to n, the Big Mama b 1 u e s singer, with voicP and heart to match her huge body, m et all comers at yesterday's Monterey Jazz Festival.

She remained, aft e r a strenuous afternoon o f competition, th e monarch of Monterey blues.

N o b o d y came close to Big Mam a 's singing, al-though Muddy Waters and Memphis Slim had t h e i r moments. M i s s Thornton, relaxed and looking won-d e r f u 1, dug in for keeps when she started dancing to Big Black's conga drums at the beginning of the "Blues All the Way" narative, which framed the whole concert.

Big Mama Still Tlie Best Around There 's a big hunk of Americana at the Both/And Club

this week. She 's Willie Mae Thornton, a r eal Am eric,m original who has been " Big Mama" for quite a spell . P hysically, she cer tainly m akes it ; and as for voice and heart, I've never had any larger quantities of either ( or of en_;oyment) than I've gotten over the years from Big Mam a. Vic Green's Quartet, with her this week, adds to the fu n. In spite of American and

In her voice I can hear European concert triumphs Bessie Smi th and Ma Rai- in recent months, Big ney; Mahalia J ackson , and Mam a has r etained her Julia Lee. But m ostly it's giggling informality and hi-the unadulterated joy of larious repartee with the th i s huge human being, audience and her bands-ch a r g in g her whole au- men. "Little Red Rooster," dlence with infec tious glee . for instance, with guitar by

She shouts and wails , Piney Clark and Mama's stomps and dances , han- voice had the entire club in dles drums and harmonica a convivial uproar . with the best of them; and And as for the blues : Big when she r eveals_ he~ less Mama just won' t let go! brusk nature (which 1s fre- I'm inclined to think that quently ) she 's really still she's the best around. And just a minister 's daughter I mean it : there 's no one from Alabama who loves to i; hat can even challenge stand up there and sing. her. -Philip Elwood

On the Town 111111111111111111m1111,111111111111nn1nm,mn,111m111,

'Big Mama' Brings The 'Truth' to UC

u11111111111111111m11111111111111111111111111111 Ralph J. Gleason ~E UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA'S Jazz '67

program got off to a flying start Saturday night with the appearance of Willie Mae Big Mama Thorn-ton, pound for pound the best woman blues singer alive today.

Big Mama sang up a storm in two S.R.O. con-certs at the Bear's Lair before enthusiastic audiences of Cal students and members of the cC1mmunity who infiltrated the room to hear her.

"I can sing louder than any mike," she said as she adjusted the electronic equipment when she went on stage, "and I don't want no mike louder than me!"

On the Town nmnnmmnmnmnmmmmnmnmmnm111

Big Mama Sings The Blues She Likes

u11111u1111111u1111111111111111111111111 Ralph J. Gleason Big Mama is the woman who made a hit out of

"Houn' Dog" before Elvis Presley ever heard the tune.

"I didn 't write It ," she says, "Lieber and Stoller wrote it. That was back in 1953. I was singing with Johnny Otis' band and we were recording in Hollywood for Peacock Records out of Houston. They were just a couple of kids then (Lieber and Stoller are two of the most successful rock 'n roll songwriters now - RJG) and they had this song written out on the back of a brown paper bag. So I started to sing the words and I put in some of my own. All that talkin' and hollerin.' that's my own.' '

Big Mama paused a moment and added, "That song sold over two million copies. I never got what I should have. I got one !:!heck for $500 and I never seen another. All I'm tryin ' to do now is get a.ritit'her "Houn· Dog.'

* * * 41 LIKE MY OWN old down home singing, with the

feeling. I learned to sing blues by myself. The first blues I ever heard was Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie and Big Maceo. My singing comes from experience. My own experience. My own feeling . I got my own feelings for everything.

"I never had no one to teach me nothing. I ~ver went to school for music or nothing. I stayed hollk! to take care of my mother who was sick. I taught myseH to sing and to blow harmonica and even to play -drums by watching other people. I can't read music but I know where I'm singing! If I hear a blues I like, I try to sing It In my own way. It's always best to have something of your own. I don't sing Jike nobody but myself.''

Willie Mae Thornton got the name "Big Mama" when she was billed in a battle of the blues with singer "Little Esther."

" 'Big Mama Thornton and Little Esther,' they put on the posters. I been singing since I was 15 years old. I left Montgomery, Alabama, with Sammy Green's Hot H~rlem Review. I played opposite Johnny Otis' show with "Little Esther" in 1952 and I didn't have no rec-ords and I was singing The Dominos song, "Have Mer-cy, Mercy, Baby" and I stole the show!

"I went with Johnny Otis and we played the Apollo in New York and that 's where they made their mistake . They put me on fi rs t! I wasn't out there to put no one off stage. I was out there to get known and I did! I stopped the show. They had to put the curtain down. Little Esther never got on that first show. That 's when they put my name in lights and Mr . Shiffman, the man-ager, came backstage hollerin' to Johnny Otis and pok-ing me in the arms with his finger (it was sore for a week ) 'You said you had a star and you got a star ! That 's your star ! You got to put her on to close the show! '"

* * * "J TRAVELED WITH Johnny Otis but I went even further on my own a,fter I recorded "Houn' Dog."

That man put it on the shelf and when I switched on the radio one day and heard the man saying "Houn' Dog by "Big Mama," I had to go out and buy that record. I had forgotten how. I did it. And then I had to buy a record player, I didn't have one, to play it on and I sat there in my dressing room, me and that record player learning my own record all over again!

BIG MAMA THORNTON

VOL.2 WITH THE

CHICAGO BLUES BAND Otis Spann - piano, James Cotton - harmonica, Muddy Waters-guitar, Samuel Lawhorn-guitar, Luther Joh nson - bass, Francis Clay-drums, Willie Mae Thornton-vocals (and drums on " Everything gonna be alright" ). Recorded in Sa n Francisco, Calif. April 25th, 1966.

l'M FEELING ALRIGHT SOMETIMES I HAVE A HEARTACHE BLACK RAT LIFE GOES ON EVERYTHING GONNA BE ALRIG HT

BUMBLE BEE GIMME A PENNY LOOKING THE WORLD OVER I FEEL THE WAY I FEEL GUIDE ME HOME

Cover photo by Jim Marshall Produced by Chris Strachwitz

For Big Mama Thornton " In Europe" note Arhoolie LP 1028

Send 25¢ for our LP catalog

ARHOOLIE RECORDS BOX 9195, BERKELEY, CALIF. 94719

"People talk about the blues comin' back. The blues have never left. The blues will never leave. The blues satisfies the ear. They can hear what you're sa)"in' if you sing them fast or slow. In the blues, yo u got more feelin'. You got to really understand the blues to play the blues. I can sing 'em all when I put my mind to it.

"Rock 'n roll? That's nuthin' but the blues speeded up. I never sang pop. I never really wanted to . What do I want to go out there and try to be like Ella Fitz-gerald for? I want to be me.

"I can go first, second, third or last. I can open or close or sing In the middle, I don't care who you art' I'm going to do my little bit the best I know how. Where-ever they put me, they know I was there. I just go out and sing what I feel. I'm no show stopper. I don't play nothin'. I just get up there and put on my show. I sing what the public wants because I like to eat. If I didn't, they'd call me 'Skinny Mama !'" ( Reprinted from the San Francisco Chronicle and the San

Francisco Ex am ine r)