John Lee Hooker

The Boogie Man

Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi to a sharecropping family, John Lee Hooker's earliest musical influence came from his stepfather, Will Moore. By the early 1940's Hooker had moved north to Detroit by way of Memphis and Cincinnati. Hooker found work as a janitor in the auto factories, and at night, like many other transplants from the rural Delta, he entertained friends and neighbors by playing at "house parties". He was "discovered" by record storeowner Elmer Barbee who took him to Bernard Besman, who was a producer, record distributor and owner of Sensation Records, Besman leased some of his early Hooker recordings to Modern Records. Among Hooker's first recordings in 1948, "Boogie Chillen" became a number one jukebox hit for Modern and his first million seller. This was soon followed by an even bigger hit with "I'm In The Mood" and other classic recordings including "Crawling Kingsnake" and "Hobo Blues." Another surge in his career took place with the release of more than 100 songs on Vee Jay Records during the 1950's and 1960's.

When the young bohemian audiences of the 1960's "discovered" Hooker along with other blues originators, he and various he and others made a brief return to folk blues. Young British artist such as the Animals, John Mayall, and the Yardbirds introduced Hooker's sound to the new and eager audiences whose admiration and influence helped build Hooker to superstar status in the mid - 60's England. By 1970 he had moved to California and worked on several projects with rock musicians, notably Van Morrison and Canned Heat. Canned Heat modeled their sound after Hooker's boggie and collaborated with him on several albums and tours.

During the late 1970's and much of the 1980's, Hooker toured the U.S. and Europe steadily but grew disenchanted with recording, through his appearance in the Blues Brothers movie resulted in a heightened profile. Then, in 1989, The Healer was released to critical acclaim and sales in excess of a million copies. Today the "The King Of The Boggie" is enjoying the most successful period of his extensive career. In the past ten years Hooker's influence has contributed to a booming interest in the blues and, notably, its acceptance by the music industry as a commercially viable entity.

Hooker's career has been a series a highlights and special events since the release of The Healer. In addition to recording his on albums Mr. Lucky, Boom Boom, Chill Out, and Don't Look Back for Pointblank / Virgin, he contributed to recordings by B.B. King, Branford Marsalis, Van Morrison, and Big Head Todd and the Monsters and portrayed the title role in Pete Townshend's 1989 epic, The Iron Man.

John Lee Hooker: The Best of Friends

Read "The Best of Friends" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
July 20, 2024

In contrast to his often (always?) irascible peer Chester Burnett, aka Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker has long been amenable to collaborations, reciprocal and otherwise. Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, Charlie Musselwhite and Carlos Santana, among others, appeared on The Healer (Chameleon,1989) and all those artists also populate the credits for The Best of Friends. (Santana, the Mexican-born guitar hero, appears with two different iterations of his band). Fittingly titled, this anthology is a suitable companion piece to Whiskey ...

Album Review

Cory Weeds: Home Cookin'

Read "Home Cookin'" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 17, 2024

On Home Cookin', his second recording with an eleven-piece “little big band," tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds is doing the best he can. Really. As Weeds writes in the liner notes, the plan was to rehearse the band for two nights at Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver, Canada, home to Weeds and most of the band's personnel, then to convene at the Warehouse Studio on Sunday to record. Arriving at the club on Friday evening, Weeds found to his dismay that ...

Album Review

Cory Weeds: Home Cookin'

Read "Home Cookin'" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
November 26, 2023

Cory Weeds, a prominent figure in the contemporary jazz scene, has made a remarkable statement with his Little Big Band's latest album Home Cookin'. The session showcases a vibrant collection of compositions/arrangements carefully curated to resonate with his personal journey, including those by Horace Silver, Thad Jones and Oliver Nelson, which are essential to him for a variety of reasons. The band comprises ten of his favorite world-class Vancouver, BC-based musicians. These previously mentioned influential tracks ...

Album Review

Mike Allen: To a Star

Read "To a Star" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 2023

If you're a tenor saxophonist leading a piano-less trio, much of the group's melodic and harmonic components rest squarely on your shoulders. In spite of that--or perhaps because of it--Canadian tenor Mike Allen says he prefers working within that framework, as he has been doing for many years. If that is one's choice, he may as well recruit as comrades in arms the best bassist and drummer available. On To a Star, Allen has done precisely that, ...

Album Review

Cory Weeds Quartet: Just Coolin'

Read "Just Coolin'" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 21, 2022

Although Cory Weeds spends much of his time promoting and recording other jazz artists, he does manage to place those tasks on the back burner every once in a while to blow his own horn, so to speak—which he does about as well as anyone else on today's scene. While the Canadian-based saxophonist is especially engaging on alto, he plays only tenor on Just Coolin', backed by a rhythm section he assembled in 2021 for a live gig at Frankie's ...

Album Review

Cory Weeds Quartet: Just Coolin'

Read "Just Coolin'" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 25, 2022

Owner of the Cellar Music Group label, Canadian music producer and veteran jazz saxophonist Cory Weeds unveils another superb session of hard bop with the exceptionally bright Just Coolin', featuring a host of sizzling standards as well as a couple of low temperature classics for balance. The album became more a labor of love than a profitable musical proposition for Weeds; after assuming the presidency of The Fraser MacPherson Jazz Fund, his major challenge was to replenish the organization's depleted ...

Album Review

Cory Weeds With Strings: What Is There To Say?

Read "What Is There To Say?" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
December 12, 2021

Tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds continues to search for new ways to explore and expand his personal musical horizons. In the release What Is There To Say?, Weeds looks to the expression “everything old is new again" and delivers an album backed by a fulsome string section reminiscent of sessions that both Charlie Parker and Bobby Hackett undertook in the 1950s. With sumptuous arrangements from pianist Phil Dwyer, Weeds is provided with a framework with which to explore the four corners ...

165

Performance / Tour

Blues Legend John Lee Hooker Jr. Plays at the Iron Horse in Northampton on August 24

Source: MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts
August 21, 2010

John Lee Hooker Jr, Detroit's legendary bluesman, is performing at the Iron Horse in Northampton on Tuesday, August 24 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $12.50 in advance and can be purchased online, or $15 at the door. As a child in the 1970s, Hooker learned the blues from Delta blues masters, including his father John Lee Hooker and blues harp legend Jimmy Reed. His 2004 album, Blues with A Vengence received a Grammy nominiation and marked his transition as a ...
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211

Interview

John Lee Hooker Jr Interview

Source: All About Jazz
March 25, 2009

This interview is part of the book project “under your skin" which includes Interviews with: Anthony Braxton, Ornette Coleman, Chuck D - Public Enemy, Taj Mahal, Yusef Lateef, Melvin Gibbs, Bob James, Skip Mcdonald, Erika Stucky, Living Colour, Rhonda Smith, Dj Rob Swift, Marilyn Crispell, Dick Griffin, Billy Bang, Kahil El Zabar, Michael Ricci - All About Jazz, Val-Inc, Chico Freeman, Esperanza Spalding, Eddie Henderson, J. Mascis - Dinosaur ...
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168

Interview

John Lee Hooker Jr. Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
November 25, 2008

For many, growing up in someone else's shadow is daunting, particularly when that someone is a looming, legendary figure known worldwide. Eclipsed by that someone, a musician may constantly hear comparisons drawn as they try to establish themselves and their career. This is not the case for John Lee Hooker Jr. Born the son of blues great John Lee Hooker, he acknowledges the significant contribution his father made to music, and knows he was never overshadowed by his father. Rather, ...
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155

Recording

Shout! Factory Honors Master Bluesman John Lee Hooker with First-Ever Career Box Set: 'Hooker'

Source: All About Jazz
July 31, 2006

Deluxe 4-CD Set Represents A Half Century Of Blues And Boogie

Includes Performances with Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison, Ry Cooder, Jimmie Vaughan, Charles Brown and Los Lobos

In Stores October 31

LOS ANGELES - John Lee Hooker, master bluesman and undisputed father of boogie, recorded for more than 30 labels over a span of nearly 50 years. Amazingly, he has never had a definitive career box set - until now. On October 31, 2006, ...
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146

Music Industry

John Lee Hooker: Eight Decades of the Hook

Source: All About Jazz

In 1989, blues singer/guitarist John Lee Hooker exploded, again, onto the music scene with an extraordinary recording. The Healer, which might have easily been a denouement in a luminous career, served as a new beginning, marked with a Grammy award for “I'm in the Mood," a re-sculptured duet with singer/slide guitarist Bonnie Raitt. While the record was well received for its all star cast, including Raitt, Carlos Santana, Keith Richards and Canned Heat, critics accused the bluesman of spreading himself ...
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