Big Mama Thornton
Blues giant Willie Dixon assembled a few of
his best friends and hosted a Labor Day Weekend Festival in Grant
Park on Saturday, August 30, 1969. Bob Koester (Delmark Records)
suggested to the newly arrived Adelphi film crew that they "catch"
a little of it. Unfortunately, they were equipped with only a
couple hours of film and were not set up to record the event from
beginning to end. After reviewing the talent roster, the decision
was made to stretch supplies and capture a couple of songs by
each performer, which resulted in about an hour of the greatest
blues show in history.
Here's a snippet of Big Mama Thornton in her
prime. (Please note, audio crumbles at the end of the clip due
to sync problems with the initial film to video transfer.)
Big Mama in RealPlayer 8 format--Time: 00:53,
Size 532 Kb
Adelphi Records does not own any of Ms. Thornton's work, but
there are some great recordings available from other blues labels,
including Arhoolie. You can check out Big Mama's "Ball and
Chain," recorded in 1968, at Arhoolie's
website.