THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I have never heard any of these tapes. This is amazing and priceless info. Who is the interviewer? What's with the random, strange captions that pop up?
*Some of the most interesting moments for me:
1.) "Echo Chamber"!!! Echoplex ? ("before the started making them") certainly implies its not simply the old PVC pipe chess room to room trick everyone is so quick to use. Regarding "off the wall." and other recordings.
2.) Talks about switching positions advantages and disadvantages!
3.) Talks about the natural delay problems experienced from using the PA mic/advantages of amp,importance of cupping the mic the right way, relentless practice/hard work discipline.
4.) Shows a tremendous concern for amplifiers and which one and how they affect his gigs!!!! 1.) I thought I heard Walter say: "HAD THE AMP BUILT" (Then later Louis implies it was a National Walter confirms) or 8 speakers "4 on each side". "Looked like 3 walls". I had heard this section of this interview before (4th vid) I think some people found it was a Masco PA of some sort. ("All kinds of little lights') whats crazy is The PA idea makes sense but Walter and Louis clearly seem to the difference between a PA and an Amp ...So for me the mystery continues Somewhere there is a big and very well written and researched paper I read once on this subject from the dude who wrote the majority of the Blues with a Feeling book. crazy.
5.) Walter threw an amp in the river.
5.) Racism
6.) Talks about playing as a three piece with no bass.
7.) Interesting to hear the average pro gig paid about the same as it does now 50 years later.
This rules thank you Im going to listen to this a lot.
I can't take any credit for posting these - I just found them on YouTube, posted by username gassertrucks (Mark Mumea from the Elgins I think). I'm sure he'd answer any questions if you mail him via YouTube.
Jodanchudan - Great stuff! Thanks for posting the links. I've only had a chance to have a quick listen, but will listen to it all when I have the time.
@ Moon Cat "1.) "Echo Chamber"!!! Echoplex ? ("before the started making them") certainly implies its not simply the old PVC pipe chess room to room trick everyone is so quick to use. Regarding "off the wall." and other recordings."
"Echoplex" might be regarded as a generic term, like Hoover to describe a vacuum cleaner? It was pretty common in the 50's to use a 2nd tape recorder to provide a slap back echo/delay. Bill Puttnam (engineer/proprieter at Universal where all the early Aristocrat/Chess & VJ recordings were done) did this, Sam Phillips also...probably countless others. Juke, Don't Have To Hunt, Off The Wall would appear to be using this tape delay effect...note this is achieved using studio tape machines, not an in-line effect like the Maestro Echoplex/WEM Copicat/Space Echo that were are more familar with, though they are descendants of this technology.
Echo chamber - room reverb, embryonic attempts were "Peg o'my Heart" by Jerry Murad & the Harmonicats (Puttnam apparently used the tiled mens room of the Chicago opera house). Recorded media was played back in an echoey room & the subsequent echo recorded as the wet effect. Malcolm Chisholm (engineer at both Universal & Chess at various times) made reference to a "washing line", type pulley system that was presumably used to move the mic recording the reverb in the chamber, to fine tune the effect. Echo/reverb chambers were also well used by Motown (Hittsville) & Capitol amongst others. "Oh baby" (not "I love you so, oh baby" which is dry) & "A quarter to 12" would appear to use this technology.
PVC pipe? Did PVC even exist then? Phil Chess remarked that the Chess echo was "a length of sewer pipe". There could be a couple of explanations for this. At 2120 S Michigan Ave, Puttnam built a stereo reverb chamber with lines in/out from the desk going via the upstairs studio/booth floor to a reverb chamber below (only one side ever worked), possible that Phil wasn't fully versed in the mechanics of the situation and thought the ducting actually did the effect? At E21st street (the last studio, from late spring 67) some have made reference to a large pipe running through the building...this seems less likely as a form of "Heath Robbo" reverb...Chess was always up for a deal, but technology had moved on quite a bit by then, I read somewhere that someone (Bob Koester?) had procured a plate reverb from the last Chess studio (E21st St)? Scott Dirks will probably know? Plate reverbs, despite the common assumption that "all old recordings feature a plate reverb", typically became available in the mid/late 50's, again post early Chess/Universal/LW recordings featuring "Chess echo".
"Chess echo" predates Chess having their own studio & hands on the operation of the desk (they always had professional engineers employed - Jack Weiner, Ron Malo, Malcolm Chisholm, Norman Dayron, Stu Black...etc.) it was a modern industry, guys were in demand in the race to keep up & changing jobs in a "revolving door" fashion) - "Peg o'my heart" was '47, first reverb on a Muddy track as far as I can tell was "Too Young To Know" in Jan '51 (some earlier recordings feature some "ambience", unclear if this a creatively applied "effect"), first delay on a Muddy track was "All night long" Dec '51.
Prior to 2120 opening in approx May '57, Chess had made some recordings at a makeshift studio at 4750 South Cottage Grove (from mid '54), it's entirely possible that Chess experimented with various techniques here, including Phil's infamous "sewer pipe" but many recordings from this period are either dry, ambient, or feature techniques already heard at Universal, who were still mastering for Chess and able to add certain effects post session. Sessions seemed to be being carried out at more than one location during this time.
A substantial number of Chess releases, throughout the history of the label were also dry. ---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
Last Edited by on Mar 29, 2012 3:22 AM
In Chicago, sewer pipe from the home to the street was commonly ceramic pipe, not PVC. It had a smooth, tile like finish.
The person who wrote a big part of the Little Walter Bio is Scott Dirks.
A transcription of these tapes appeared in living Blues #7. Bill Lineman was the interviewer.
Having seen Louis Myers a zillion times while I was living in Chicago, I never thought of him as a gear head. I don't remember him using a variety of equipment or maybe I should say I never noticed. I was busier listening to what he was playing. I don't ever remember him blowing the harp through an amp.
I still have a copy of the interview Bill Lindemann did with these two together that was published in one of the very first issues of Living Blues magazine and I'm pretty sure they're still in their archives.
A number of the Chess recordings were originally done at Universal Studios (I believe that's the correct name), which was the biggest and best recording studio in Chicago at the time.
PVC pipe, according to an old pluber friend of mine really didn't come into existence until about the mid to late 70's.
Many thanks for posting this stuff!! ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by on Mar 25, 2012 9:26 AM