Time: 58:09
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1976/1995
Styles: Piano Blues, Electric Blues
Art: Full
01. Prison Bound (3:50)
02. All Down Blues (7:05)
03. Dices #2 (5:05)
04. Louise (4:05)
05. Fare You Well, Mistreater (6:23)
06. How Long Blues (3:06)
07. Let's Talk It Over (5:15)
08. Rocky Mountain Blues (4:05)
09. Hey, Baby (5:25)
10. Sweet Home Chicago (3:44)
11. Chief's EB Blues (5:19)
12. Blues For Moot (4:42)
Those who seek after music often remind me of anthropologists. We rarely consider an area ripe for research unless it is geographically and culturally remote. How else to explain the fact that Wilbert (Big Chief) Ellis has lived amongst those of us in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas for many years with so little attention paid him? He is the legitimate heir of a long and honorable Alabama blues piano tradition. His friends and predecessors include men like Cow Cow Davenport, Pine Top Smith, Walter Roland, Jabo Williams, Vance (Piano Red) Patterson (who recorded) and Bubba Jack, Man Lewis, Goat, Hooky Doo, and Price Linnear (who didn’t). During his long, eventful life, Chief has been exposed to many styles of blues and other music, but, recognizing the beauty and importance of what he has, refused to allow alien influences creep into his thoughtful, emotional and carefully structured approach to the music he loves.
That love and respect is evident in each of the pieces included in his debut album, He is a sensitive and critical man, and each of these tunes was recorded several times in varying circumstances until he was satisfied with both technique and feeling, Although first-class guitarists like Alden (Tarheel Slim) Bunn, Brownie McGhee and John Cephas give strong backing in several of these selections, it is Chief himself who sets the deliberate pace, drawing attention to the lonesome sound of his piano and to the feeling he imparts to every song,
Ellis was born (in 1915) and raised in Birmingham, where he was absorbed with piano music from ‘the first. His parents were religious and allowed no music in their house. Chief circumvented the restriction by working out an arrangement with his great aunt, who owned a piano and who would allow him to practice every time he mowed her lawn. By the time his parents found out it was too late, for Chief was already a respected musician in the community. They relented, of course, and allowed their son to develop his music to its full potential.
Chief was a professional gambler for most of his adult life. This occupation allowed him to travel and provided occasions for him to learn from other musicians (notably Walter Davis in Chicago) and learn the many secrets which allowed him to survive and prosper in his precarious occupation. He settled in New York City in 1942 where he ran night clubs for several years and even became (after 1945) backup pianist on many record sessions. One of these, for Lenox in 1945, produced his own “Dices, Oh Dices”, which remains his signature piece. Oddly enough, this was the second recording of his own tune. Chief had performed it often while still living in Birmingham – it was picked up by Walter Roland, who recorded it in 1933, a full year ahead of the composer. Another significant recording was made during the late 40s, Stick McGhee’s “Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee. This R&B bestseller had been composed previously by Chief while he was serving in the army at Ft. McClellan, Alabama. Wine was a favorite during periods of forced idleness. So much was consumed that Chief made up a little song about it, whose refrain began, “drinkin’ wine, motherfucker, drinkin’ wine”. A white record executive in New York heard it and purchased the song for a few dollars, making a hit for someone else. Stick McGhee was Brownie’s brother, and Chief and Brownie are both heard on the hit release.
The popularity of blues and blues-derived music declined in New York with the mass-marketing approach advanced by rock-and-roll in the fifties, and Chief virtually stopped playing. In 1974 I received a letter from Bob Eagle of Australia, whom Brownie McGhee him informed that Chief might be living in the Washington area. One phone call confirmed that this was so, and that I had introduced myself to a man who would become a close friend, as well as a musician whose power and depths I remain in awe of. Chief has discovered that people once again love and respond to his music and he is taking it to bars, clubs, festivals, concerts, and to the homes of his many friends. He is a huge, imposing man, with the gentle consideration and warmth common to the best of huge, imposing men. He pours love into his music the way that soft-drink company claims they do to their ginger ale. And now you too, lucky record buyer, have a chance to partake. ~by Richard K. Spottswood
That love and respect is evident in each of the pieces included in his debut album, He is a sensitive and critical man, and each of these tunes was recorded several times in varying circumstances until he was satisfied with both technique and feeling, Although first-class guitarists like Alden (Tarheel Slim) Bunn, Brownie McGhee and John Cephas give strong backing in several of these selections, it is Chief himself who sets the deliberate pace, drawing attention to the lonesome sound of his piano and to the feeling he imparts to every song,
Ellis was born (in 1915) and raised in Birmingham, where he was absorbed with piano music from ‘the first. His parents were religious and allowed no music in their house. Chief circumvented the restriction by working out an arrangement with his great aunt, who owned a piano and who would allow him to practice every time he mowed her lawn. By the time his parents found out it was too late, for Chief was already a respected musician in the community. They relented, of course, and allowed their son to develop his music to its full potential.
Chief was a professional gambler for most of his adult life. This occupation allowed him to travel and provided occasions for him to learn from other musicians (notably Walter Davis in Chicago) and learn the many secrets which allowed him to survive and prosper in his precarious occupation. He settled in New York City in 1942 where he ran night clubs for several years and even became (after 1945) backup pianist on many record sessions. One of these, for Lenox in 1945, produced his own “Dices, Oh Dices”, which remains his signature piece. Oddly enough, this was the second recording of his own tune. Chief had performed it often while still living in Birmingham – it was picked up by Walter Roland, who recorded it in 1933, a full year ahead of the composer. Another significant recording was made during the late 40s, Stick McGhee’s “Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee. This R&B bestseller had been composed previously by Chief while he was serving in the army at Ft. McClellan, Alabama. Wine was a favorite during periods of forced idleness. So much was consumed that Chief made up a little song about it, whose refrain began, “drinkin’ wine, motherfucker, drinkin’ wine”. A white record executive in New York heard it and purchased the song for a few dollars, making a hit for someone else. Stick McGhee was Brownie’s brother, and Chief and Brownie are both heard on the hit release.
The popularity of blues and blues-derived music declined in New York with the mass-marketing approach advanced by rock-and-roll in the fifties, and Chief virtually stopped playing. In 1974 I received a letter from Bob Eagle of Australia, whom Brownie McGhee him informed that Chief might be living in the Washington area. One phone call confirmed that this was so, and that I had introduced myself to a man who would become a close friend, as well as a musician whose power and depths I remain in awe of. Chief has discovered that people once again love and respond to his music and he is taking it to bars, clubs, festivals, concerts, and to the homes of his many friends. He is a huge, imposing man, with the gentle consideration and warmth common to the best of huge, imposing men. He pours love into his music the way that soft-drink company claims they do to their ginger ale. And now you too, lucky record buyer, have a chance to partake. ~by Richard K. Spottswood
With the help of a friend.
Big Chief Ellis
