The New Orleans Swing of Maison du Malheur

Maison Du Malheur

It's the Dust  Bowl Depression Era Jump Jive Blues- it's the sounds of a jump jive jalopy, broken down banjos and rumble seat sinners fueled up on jungle juice and the churn of the crank shaft as the Model-T lurks into motion  along the dusty  hobo  highway.  Pre-War  Blues and rockin'  rhythm  & blues  rages of  the stage and rumbles through the festival grounds. Maison du Malheur has arrived.

The music of Maison Du Malheur can best be described as old Jazz in combination with Rockin’ Rhythm & Blues and a little bit of Gypsy. No one will sit at a concert of these kids, a swinging band with great feeling for the Blues, Jazz an Gypsy rhythm. Lika a New Orleans Mardi Grass parade party Maison du Malheur walks through time, and five or maybe eight beers later they are done. 

The first time I saw this band was in Delft at the de Koninck Bluesfestival. In front of the stage a group of dancers triggered my attention. They didn´t quit during the entire concert. And justly, it was one of the most swinging concerts I have seen in a long time.

Maison du Malheur is the swinging troupe around songwriter JP Mesker. In 2011 the rocksolid seven-­piece band played their first show and immediately got the attention from clubs and festivals all over Europe. Within a year they played over a hundred shows, opened for blues icon C.W. Stoneking and while touring the band wrote a new album. Stomping Pre-­‐War drums, honky-­‐tonk piano and cracking copper horns call the shots on their new album Wicked Transmission. 

Maison du Malheur is an out of control house party by Fats Waller, where Professor Longhair takes a seat behind the piano and Howlin' Wolf sings out his misery. The universal dance music, traditional roots and storytelling character of the ten songs are packed with musical saw, manic theremin and mariachi trumpet.

Live at Record Store Day in Rotterdam

The Best of Little Walter

Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968)


The first  I heared about Little Walter was in the movie Cadillac Recods. I was a seventeen year old boy who just invented some blues greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker. The first song that got my attention, and I’m sure many more Little Walter enthusiasts, was ‘My Babe’. The swinging harp and Guitar gives  me every time a relaxing groove. Walters voice is one of a kind, that makes his music for me great to listen. 

When Little Walter arrived in Chicago he started playing music on Maxwell Street. A famous place for Chicago blues musicians, back in the day. Not only Walter but also many more Chicago legends made fame on Maxwell Street.  Among Little Walter artist like Floyd Jones, Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Boy Williamson played there tunes on Maxwell Street.

From now on it is possible to listen to some Blues records on the Black Bull Blues Blog. With Amazon musicplayer I can give an impression of the music I'm talking 'bout. Enjoy the famous Little Walter Tracks.

                                              

Death

A few months after returning from his second European tour, he was involved in a fight while taking a break from a performance at a nightclub on the South Side of Chicago. The relatively minor injuries sustained in this altercation aggravated and compounded damage he had suffered in previous violent encounters, and he died in his sleep at the apartment of a girlfriend at 209 E. 54th St. in Chicago early the following morning

His body was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery inEvergreen Park, IL on February 22, 1968. His grave remained unmarked until 1991, when fans Scott Dirks and Eomot Rasun had a marker designed and installed