Topic: New Information About Paramount Blues Artist Blind Blake About to Be Revealed

[Blind Arthur]

The thought of him sitting in his house all day waiting for the next recording session is too depressing.

That was also what I thought two evenings ago when I found this thread. Such a great musician spending his final years in bad health condition but in Milwaukee, why in Milwaukee? Why not Chicago... Lester Melrose would have gotten him as part of the ARC "house band"!

Thank you so much for unearthing the first ever substantial biographical info! Even if I find it depressing. Suffeering for years and then dying of lung problems, in the depression, in the vicinity of the then folded Grafton recording studio; was Beatrice McGhee Blake a local woman and that?s why he stayed there?

It becomes more and more apparent to me that he was a total different character from, say, Reverend Gary Davis. He is praised as a gifted guitar teacher. Or Big Bill, who gives an impression of himself as always enjoying a gathering of music playing friends, without any jealousy. Was Blake, in contrast, always on the go, never sharing techniques, instead sitting in with whomever he could, and then going away again, afraid that others would steal from him? What character was behind it? It really might not be far from the truth that he was indeed evasive and easily got into trouble. But on the other hand, don?t "they" say he shared his Chicago flat with other musicians for regular playing sessions, even if not to the extent of Tampa Red?

I wish he could have continued his 1929 p-g duet playing style, if not his solo style, in a career comparable to Lonnie Johnson, and lived on to play on festivals and on many live recordings like Gary Davis.

[oddenda]

He probably picked Milwaukee because it was a city close to Grafton where a Black man could live that was close to his record company. Didn't plan on The Great Depression and the folding of Paramount - I won't say that he couldn't see that coming... that'd be crass!

Peter B.

[Mr.OMuck]

So someone In Miwaukee needs to trawl black senior centers and nursing homes till they find someone who knows something. Local papers of the Period should be poured over for evidence of live performances. Any Milwaukee Weenies lurking out there?

[ParamountAngie]

I'm a Milwaukee area Weenie.    Like I said, this new information opens a lot more for investigation.  I have been studying the Milwaukee area Bronzeville District for several years now.  IT WAS A THRIVING AFRICAN AMERICAN BUSINESS & MUSIC AREA.  This is one key reason why I believe he lived there.  I do believe that there are Milwaukee residents who know something.  I DO believe there is more to be found.  I highly doubt he was sitting alone in his place alone playing the guitar.  For at least some of the time, I imagine he delved into the music scene quite heavily.  At this point, I don't have evidence.  But it is a very strong hunch based on what I know about the area.  The digging continues....

[unezrider]

great work, angie & co.!
this is some really fascinating stuff. (i would have never guessed milwaukee.)

[ParamountAngie]

REGARDING MILWAUKEE BRONZEVILLE:

"The primary African-American economic and social hub of its time, Bronzeville brought all ethnicities together to celebrate African-American culture - highlighting jazz, blues and the arts. Those living in Bronzeville recall a commercial corridor with nightclubs such as Metropole Club and the Moon Glow featuring performances by such pioneers as Billie Holliday, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, and Nat ?King? Cole, to mention a few."

http://city.milwaukee.gov/Bronzeville

[Mr.OMuck]

Great Angie. Try to track down prominent black photographers of the period or their decedents, they may have pictures that include Blake at some social function or other or better yet (total fantasy here) film footage. But talking to people in senior centers and nursing homes is probably something that ought to be done post haste. Obviously anyone involved in the Bronzeville music scene would be ideal. I would also see if there were any black doctors in the area at the time whose records may be in a grandchild's attic. We shouldn't assume that Blake was not under medical care.

[Mr.OMuck]

By the way Milwaukee was a hotbed of leftist activity :

"Milwaukee citizens had elected another Socialist mayor, Daniel Hoan. Although the Socialists never again completely controlled city government as they had in 1910, Hoan remained in office until 1940 and Socialists continued to exert a powerful influence in Milwaukee politics."

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-043/?action=more_essay

Blake a socialist? Oh be still my beating heart!

[ParamountAngie]

http://wisconsinhistory.org is a great resource/place to look around.  I only have so much time in the day.    I am a music director/marketing director for an arts school in Grafton, WI.  I wish I could go on a hiatus and dig deep.  But I can't right now.  So if anyone finds something of interest, feel free to contact me or any of the other researchers.  My email is angelam@northshoreacademyofthearts.org  All of my time researching, writing, collecting, documenting, archiving, networking, educating, etc...has been a volunteer effort/labor of love and passion.

Like I mentioned before, Alex van der Tuuk and I are the founders of the http://paramountshome.org website which won the 2006 Wisconsin Historical Society website award.  A WEALTH OF INFORMATION there!

And I do hope that people will contact Blues & Rhythm Magazine to get a hold of issue #263 and/or become a 6 month or 1 year subscriber.  More key blues information is on the horizon....and the article goes into great scholarly depth about the Blind Blake search with supporting documentation.

[eagle rockin daddy]

Thanks so much for what you have done Angie, I have an idea about this, How about trying to organize a Blind Blake festival that would center around putting a headstone on his grave?  I live near Barre, Vermont, which is one of the centers of the Granite industry in the world, and know a granite artist who works for one of the sheds that makes headstones.  I could find out about what a headstone would cost, I can't imagine it would be difficult to raise the funds for it.  Then we could get a festival of music etc, for the weekend say when the memorial would be dedicated.  The publicity for the event would help flush out more information, and a flock of us Weenies could descend on the town and look for more information.  There must be an arts or historical or even business organization in Milwaukie that would be happy to work on this with us.  What do you all say?


Oh, BTW, 100 years ago Barre was a hotbed of the early labor and socialist movement.  All the early Granite workers came from Italy, and brought their politics with them.  The local opera house and Labor Hall (http://oldlaborhall.com/home) has been restored, I've played at the Opera house, the same stage that Emma Goldmann and Eugene V. Debs stood on.

Mike

ps, I'm getting a 1 year subscription to Blues and Rhythm.

[MrSunset]

This is incredibly exciting! Thanks to all of the researchers who've had a hand in bringing this new information to light.

The prospect of maybe finding new photos is also very exciting.

[ParamountAngie]

I have contacted the folks at the Grafton Blues Association http://graftonblues.org to see if they would like to collect funds.  Please visit their website to see all of the great things they have done.  They put on a Paramount Blues Festival every year and are based out of Grafton, WI. 

I'll keep everyone posted......thanks for offering so many great ideas and offers to donate for a headstone.

[CF]

What's to say? Thanks!

[RB]

I like and appreciate the information, too, but from these pages and from Angie's sociofocus pages--I have not read the Blues and Rhythm article--think it consists of only a few facts, not many (I hope there will be more) and am surprised at how amateurish (in a negative sense, I can appreciate another kind of amateurishness) it seems.  Also, the discussion both by Angie and many others, not all, is on a 'fan' level that I don't think highly of.  I don't understand the enthusiasm, it seems misplaced.

I'd suggest that, if possible, a discussion more dispassionate and with wide perspective would be more valuable.  

It's also possible--I may be wrong--that there is some self-promotion going on here.  If there is, it may be, in essence, more exploitation then exploration.

All of the above will sound harsh.  I am just hoping to nudge our thinking and our discussion in what would seem to me to be a higher dimension.  By the way I'd be happy to contribute to a fund for a grave marker.

[Blind Arthur]

This comment makes me appreciate only more the enthusiasm people like Alan Lomax have persued their folkloristic researches with, working in the midst of a general atmosphere of indifference, arrogance and worse. And it is researchers like ParamountAngie, Alex van der Tuuk & team we can only be grateful to because it?s them who put it into a new perspective. Like collectors who help to keep the music, researchers are the only ones bringing the background facts to light. I don?t care whether they have a PhD or fit your own educated preferences or whether they act like "fans". Without fans, the music and tradition would die.
That said, I find your attitude highly respectless and on the border to arrogance, not wanting to speak of trollish, towards these modern researchers and their work, articles and books. You do not have to worship them networking and getting the WI locals interested into their musical past, neither do you have to share our gratefulness for those sacrificing their spare time in order to unearthen the most basic life statistics that were so sorely missed of one of the most prolific 1920ies recording artists whose playing still makes people learn fingerpicking and seeing Blake as a stylistic role model. Good for you with not appreciating them and us. You neither explained your higher dimension of the discussion you would prefer, so the T word is really not far.