I MIEI SOGNI D'ANARCHIA - Calabria Anarchica: Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band 1963

Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band

All'inizio del secolo, durante l'epoca del ragtime, si formano tra la gente di colore nel Sud degli Stati Uniti dei gruppi musicali che vengono denominati jug bands. Oltre a strumenti tradizionali, come chitarra, banjo, kazoo, armonica, fiddle e washboard, queste bands utilizzano, , più che altro come elemento di richiamo, una grossa brocca dal collo stretto (jug) che viene "suonata" soffiandovi dentro o attraverso l'imboccatura. il periodo d'oro di questa musica si situa negli anni '20, fino alla Depressione, e numerose sono le testimonianze discografiche di complessi quali i Dixieland Jug Blowers, la Memphis Jug Band e la Old Southern Jug Band. Nel corso dei '50 questa forma musicale omincia ad essere rispolverata e nei primi '60, nell'ambito del fiorente del folk revival, assurge a nuova popolarità, Jim Kweskin (n.1940, USA) forma la sua Jug Band verso il 1963 raccogliendo intorno a sé musicisti che bazzicano il Club 47 di Cambridge: Geoff Muldaur, Bill Keith,Maria D'Amato (poi Muldaur) e Fritz Richmond. Questi gli elementi stabili ma la band, nei suoi pochi anni di vita, subisce numerose vaziazioni; particolarmente interessante la partecipazione del violinista Richard Greene, che poi passerà ai Blues Project e ai Sea Train. In breve tempo la Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band diventa la più importante di queste tipiche formazioni grazie al successo dei suoi spettacoli e alla varietà del repertorio che, per lo più, riporta alla luce e modernizza vecchie canzoni folk, blues e jazz. Verso il 1967 la fine della band, oltre che da un normale evolversi dei gusti del pubblico, viene affrettata anche dall'intervento dell'armonicista Mel Lyman, strana figura di profeta e predicatore, ispiratore di una setta di Boston denominata "The Family". Kweskin diventa collaboratore di Lyman e nei '70 fà ancora parlare di sé con alcuni album, tra cui l'interessante JIM KWESKIN'S AMERICA (Reprise 1971 USA). Fra gli altri, Geoff e Maria Muldaur proseguono ad incidere, da soli e in coppia, con alterno successo.

1963 Newport Folk Festival

Die Jim Kweskin Jug Band beim Newport Folk Festival 1963 (aus Wikipedia)

Jim Kweskin (born July 18, 1940, Stamford, Connecticut, United States) is an American musician most notable as the founder of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, also known as Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, with Fritz Richmond, Geoff Muldaur, Bob Siggins and Bruno Wolfe. They were active in Boston in the 1960s. Maria D'Amato, known after her marriage to Geoff Muldaur as Maria Muldaur, formerly with the Even Dozen Jug Band, joined the band in 1963. During the five years they were together, the jugband successfully modernized the sounds of pre–World War II rural music. Kweskin released six albums and two greatest hits compilations on Vanguard Records between 1963 and 1970; Jim Kweskin's America on Reprise Records in 1971; and four albums on Mountain Railroad Records between 1978 and 1987. Kweskin is probably best known as a singer and bandleader, but he is also known for his guitar stylings, adapting the ragtime-blues fingerpicking of artists like Blind Boy Fuller and Mississippi John Hurt, while incorporating more sophisticated jazz and blues stylings into the mix. In 2013, the band held a reunion tour that included Jim Kweskin, Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur, Richard Greene, Bill Keith, Cindy Cashdollar and Sam Bevan, most of whom were amongst its original members.
In the late 1960s, Kweskin joined the Fort Hill Community, which was founded by former Kweskin Jug Band harmonicist Mel Lyman in Boston. In the 1970s, Kweskin recorded some vocals for some Sesame Street inserts, most notably, "Ladybugs' Picnic". In the 1980s, he stopped recording and performing regularly in order to devote himself to building houses. The Fort Hill Community evolved into the Los Angeles–based Fort Hill Construction, of which Kweskin was a founding partner and where he works as vice president.

Jim Kweskin Jug Band members

Jim Kweskin – guitar, vocals, comb
Mel Lyman – harmonica, banjo
Bill Keith – banjo, pedal steel guitar
Fritz Richmond – jug, washtub bass
Richard Greene – fiddle
Maria Muldaur – vocals, percussion, fiddle
Geoff Muldaur – guitar, vocals, mandolin, washboard, kazoo
Bruno Wolfe – vocals
Bob Siggins – vocals, banjo

Discography

Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band: Albums

Unblushing Brassiness (1963)
Jug Band Music (1965)
Relax Your Mind (1966)
Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band (1966)
See Reverse Side for Title (1966)
Garden of Joy (1967), later reissued as a double album with America, below
The Best of Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band (1968)
Whatever Happened to Those Good Old Days (1968)
Greatest Hits (1988)
Acoustic Swing & Jug (2006)
Vanguard Visionaries (2007)

Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band: Singles

"Minglewood" / "Sheik of Araby" (1967)
"I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" / "Circus Song"

Jim Kweskin: Albums (incomplete list)

Relax Your Mind (1966)
Jump for Joy (1967)
Jim Kweskin's America (1971), later reissued as a double album with Garden of Joy, above
Lives Again (1977)
Side by Side (1979)
Swing on a Star with Jim Kweskin and the Kids (1979)
Now & Again (2003), with Samoa Wilson
Live The Life (2004)
Enjoy Yourself (2009)
Jug Band Extravaganza (2010), by Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, John Sebastian, David Grisman, Maria Muldaur, the Barbeque Orchestra
Jim Kweskin in the 21st Century (2015)
Come On In (2016), by Jim Kweskin and Meredith Axelrod