Topic: Cornelius Bright

[Pan]

Hi all,

I couldn't find anything on the forum about the Bentonia bluesman, Cornelius Bright. In fact, I couldn't find much about him on the internet either, so I thought maybe he should deserve a thread here. What might you guys know of him?

Here are two YouTube videos from some 1966 recordings. I wonder if this is all we got from him?





Cheers

Pan

[Bunker Hill]

I'm not at my computer at present so responding to this 'remotely'.

From memory these two items came from David Evans's 1968 Decca LP compilation Goin' Up The Country and were recorded by him in 1966. As I recall the LP has a very extensive sleeve note by DE so undoubtedly there must be some kind of biographical data there. It's possible that one of Stefan's discographies (Roosevelt Holts?) might have a shot of the LP's reverse sleeve. No time to check it out I'm afraid.

[Pan]

I'm not at my computer at present so responding to this 'remotely'.

From memory these two items came from David Evans's 1968 Decca LP compilation Goin' Up The Country and were recorded by him in 1966. As I recall the LP has a very extensive sleeve note by DE so undoubtedly there must be some kind of biographical data there. It's possible that one of Stefan's discographies (Roosevelt Holts?) might have a shot of the LP's reverse sleeve. No time to check it out I'm afraid.

Thank you, Bunker Hill!

http://www.wirz.de/music/holtsfrm.htm

Cheers

Pan

[Pan]

This is a quote from the record sleeve of "Going Up The Country" from 1968?. David Evans recorded the songs in this album (including the two Cornelius Bright numbers mentioned in the 1st post) in 1966 and wrote the sleeve notes in 1968.

"The blues of Jack Owens, 64, and Cornelius Bright, 45, exemplify two layers of tradition in Bentonia, Mississippi, where both have lived all their lives. They perform in a style that has locally developed among many musicians, including the famous Skip James. Owens grew up with James, and both learned the style together from the same older musicians.  Owens lives in the country, where he tends cattle and operates a small juke joint in the front of his house. Although he has a Juke-Box in his premises, he continues to play guitar for dancing, and his strongly rhythmic yet intricate style still brings couples on the floor. Cornelius Bright sings and plays in a more ornate, less rhythmic style, as will be seen, by comparing his version of Devil Got My Woman with that of Jack Owens. This song is probably the best known and most popular e in the area.?

Bright apparently introduced Owens to Evans.

http://www.hutten.org/rob/writing/remembering_jack.html


A quote  from Jeff Konkel, from the Blindman's Blues Forum:

"the warehouse to the right of the blue front used to be a cotton gin. these days it's supposed to be a mechanic's shop, but it's mostly a junkyard. the building is owned by one of jimmy's siblings.

back in the day when it was a cotton gin, one of the earlier bentonia bluesmen, cornelius bright, used to work there. he lost some fingers (possibly at the plant) and could no longer play guitar . . . but sometimes he would hear jimmy and other bentonia blues guys like jack owens, bud spires, tommy west and jacob stuckey, playing and whooping it up at the blue front. cornelius would wander over to have a can of beer and listen. sometimes he'd take the vocal chores for bentonia classics like, "cherry ball," "i'd rather be the devil" and "hard times."

[Bunker Hill]

Born 13/11/1916 Died 02/08/1991

[Pan]

Born 13/11/1916 Died 02/08/1991

Ok, thanks. Edited my previous post.

Pan

[78erhortig]

during my 1981 field trip to the US, we had a stop in bentonia, where we first met the then unknown jimmy holmes, owner of the "Blue Front Cafe", who , after some playing brought Jack Owens over his place, who also did many tunes for us. round midday, we talked to Bright, who worked in a sawmill near the cafe and lived in a cabin nearby. he promised to come over the cafe after work was finished.
in the meantime we went to Flora, a neary comunity, to look for Lonzo Burks, one of the best guitarists in that aera, learning that he will come in the evening. so we went back to Bentonia to wait for Bright. after many hours, we, together with Holmes went to Bright`s house, but we were
cheated away by his wife, who told us, that Bright wount come to the cafe, for " he always gets nuts, when playing the blues"..
so we decided to go back to Flora, where we found Burks, but he told us, that he had quit playing two years ago, and maybe, if we come by next year, he will be playing again ( note: I know, that he had performed at a local festival some two months before).
so you see, things can happen when you went down south at that time

regards
mike