John Hammond: City Winery, 2.10.2014
If you want to know what the blues are all about, close your eyes and listen to
John Hammond. His bloodlines connect him to the
Vanderbilts, but
Hammond's sound is the direct descendant of
Robert Johnson. An unlikely bluesman,
Hammond was born into great wealth. The Hammonds were a prominent
New York family, and Hammond's father,
John Henry Hammond, straddled the pre- and post-Depression
Jazz age.
Drawn to the music of his era, Hammond became the most important music producer in
America. From
Benny Goodman,
Count Basie and
Billie Holiday to
Pete Seeger,
Bob Dylan and
Bruce Springsteen,
John H. Hammond almost single-handedly curated the music we listen to today. His son,
John Paul Hammond, went one step further, taking up guitar and harmonica to perform the music his father spent his life promoting.
Unfortunately, father and son were never as close as their musical passions. After a divorce from his first wife,
Hammond the producer saw his son only a few times a year, but
Junior, as he was often mistakenly called, set out on his own, performing in the
Greenwich Village coffeehouses of the early Sixties. In addition to gaining recognition as a blues artist, Hammond the musician, like his father, had a keen eye for talent, playing with
Jimi Hendrix and
Eric Clapton while both were little known beyond the club scene. When Bob Dylan was looking to go electric, Hammond introduced Bob to
The Band. Hammond has been at it now for more than 50 years, never wavering from his musical roots. With a new agent and renewed energy, Hammond is once again performing in clubs not all that different from those he played in his early days. Appearing on a chilly February night at
New York's City Winery, he was as warm and gracious as only a man of his breeding and authenticity can be. The soundtrack here [all music legally purchased] is from his recently released CD, "
Timeless," a live
2013 recording. John Hammond is a worthy inheritor of the blues, preserving and refining an
American tradition. See him whenever you can.