With more than 70 unreleased tracks and Count Frankula Mask & Cape

By 1981, Frank Zappa’s Halloween shows in New York were already legendary – a rock and roll bacchanalia of jaw-dropping musicianship, costume-clad revelry, spontaneous theatrical hijinks and of course a heavy dose of Zappa’s signature virtuosic guitar workouts. Eagerly anticipated every year, fans never knew exactly what was in store but knew it would be of epic proportions and one-of-a-kind experience that only Zappa and his skilled group of musicians could provide.

When Zappa returned to The Palladium in NYC in 1981 for a five-show four-night run from October 29 to November 1, the nearly annual tradition was even more anticipated than usual as the 1980 concerts were cut short due to Zappa falling ill. Curiously, there was no fall tour the previous year and thus no Halloween shows. Perhaps because of this, Zappa arrived at the 3,000 capacity Palladium raring to play, armed with a cracking new band, a just-released double album and a film crew in tow.

In addition to recording all shows with a professional mobile rig and filming the Halloween night festivities for future releases, the midnight concert was to be the first live simulcast in cable history, broadcasting via satellite over the radio and on a recently launched music channel called MTV.

The early 8 pm show was captured on video by Zappa’s crew and the footage of the two shows ended up being utilized for a number of different video projects over the years, most notably the home video releases, The Dub Room Special (1983) and The Torture Never Stops (1982).

While some of the audio from these concerts has been released on CD over the years including as part of the You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore live series, The Dub Room Special soundtrack and One Shot Deal, audio from the complete shows has never been released in its entirety…until now.

For the first-time ever, Zappa’s historic October 31 Halloween night concerts and the closing November 1 show recorded live at The Palladium in 1981 are now available via Zappa Records/UMe as a gigantic six-disc box set featuring 78 unreleased live tracks totaling more than seven hours of live performances from three complete concerts.

The expansive release is the latest in the acclaimed costume box set series which began with the Halloween 77 box set in 2017 to chronicle these iconic concerts and celebrate Zappa’s love of Halloween. The specially-designed costume box includes a Count Frankula mask along with a red and black cape so fans can dress like vampire Frank Zappa for Halloween or display alongside their FRANKenZAPPA mask and gloves from last year’s Halloween 73 box or the retro mask and costume of the maestro himself from the inaugural release.

Fully authorized by the Zappa Trust and produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, the concerts have been newly mixed from the original Ampex 456 2-inch 24-track analog tape masters by Craig Parker Adams in 2020. This king-size offering also includes a 40-page booklet with rare photos from the event by John Livzey (Livzey.com) and new liner notes by touring band member Robert Martin, Vaultmeister Joe Travers and super fan-in-attendance Gary Titone who pens a remembrance of the shows.

In addition, a 1CD version titled Halloween 81: Highlights From The Palladium, New York City is also available, featuring performances from all three shows along with an exclusive track, “Strictly Genteel,” from the November 1show not included on the box set. It is packaged in a jewel case with liners by Travers.

Zappa returned to The Palladium boasting a brand new band with three new players – Scott Thunes on bass, Chad Wackerman on drums and Robert Martin on keyboards – joining veteran members Ray White on guitar, Ed Mann on percussion and Tommy Mars on keys along with that “Little Italian Virtuoso” Steve Vai, now on his second tour as a band member.

While the group had only been on the road for a month, by the time the Halloween shows took place they were in lockstep when they hit the stage and delivered sensational performances night after night. As Travers writes in the insightful liners, “although there may not have been as much audience interaction and festivities as in the past, the performances lived up to the hype. There were hardly any stops in the action, song after song being presented like rapid fire, all the while drenched in Halloween spirit.”

From the audience’s exalted roar and opening salvo of “Chunga’s Revenge” from the early 8 pm Halloween show that kicks off disc 1 to the closing notes of “The Torture Never Stops” on disc 6 that concluded the November 1 show, that spirit and enthusiasm is palpable throughout the more than seven hours of performances which features Zappa leading his band through three wildly eclectic concerts, handling vocals for many of the songs.

Having recently released his new album You Are What You Is in September of that year, the setlist is a showcase of many of the songs from that double LP such as the title track, “Teen-Age Wind,” “Goblin Girl,” “Doreen,” “I’m A Beautiful Guy,” “Mudd Club,” “Dumb All Over,” “Suicide Chump,” and others, alongside Zappa classics like “Black Napkins,” “Strictly Genteel,” “Dancin’ Fool,” “Bobby Brown Goes Down,” and “King Kong.”

Zappa and Vai’s mind-altering guitar prowess are on full display throughout the shows and spotlighted here with extensive guitar workouts on “The Black Page #2,” “Easy Meat” and “Stevie’s Spanking.” Other highlights include the band’s feverish take on the Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post” and standout tracks “Drowning Witch” and “Sinister Footwear II.”

Although the final concert ends with Zappa saying, “see you next year,” unbeknownst to him this would actually be both the last Halloween show at The Palladium and the last time he’d ever play the classic venue.

It would also end up being the penultimate Halloween show as the final one would take place in 1984 at the Felt Forum where the NYC tradition began in the ‘70s. “Halloween 1981 became one of Zappa’s most popular of all the Halloween residencies in New York City,” Travers writes. “The image of Frank in his hot magenta jumpsuit has gone on to become an iconic one in the world of rock and roll.”

Now nearly forty years later, Zappa’s legendary Halloween 81 concerts have been immortalized for all to experience or to revisit for the lucky ones that got to witness these transcendent nights of musical history.

Robert Martin, who manned the keyboards at these shows, offers in the liner notes, “All in all, the elements of sonic exploration and social commentary that run through all of Frank’s albums and tours are especially well represented in this release, perhaps amplified by the surreal aspect of Halloween and the openness of the crowd to participate even more fully in the ‘anything can happen’ experimental atmosphere that Frank lived in and personified.”

Credits: Paul Zollo – American Songwriter Magazine

I grew up in Southern California in the late '70s and early '80s, discovering rock and roll around the same time Van Halen changed the face of hard rock. I remember being a kid living in a San Fernando Valley apartment building listening to the older cool kids talk about who was better, Led Zeppelin or Van Halen.

Of course, it turned out to be a moot argument, as you're talking about two of the most influential rock bands of all time. So as a kid growing up in L.A. under the specter of Van Halen it was a dream, I chased for years to get to speak to Eddie Van Halen, who music lost today at age 65 to cancer. He was synonymous with rock and roll for me.

I got that chance finally in 2009. What was supposed to be a half-hour conversation about the Wolfgang Guitar for AOL/Spinner turned into a marathon two-hour call geeking out on everything from analog to stories behind songs like "Jump" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love."

That interview was everything I dreamed of as a kid, just as it was the time, I saw Eddie Van Halen and Alice Cooper hanging out together at a John Varvatos Stuart House benefit in Los Angeles.

While Van Halen didn't see himself as a rock star, as he said to me at the time — "I’m not a rock star, I’m just a musician. I make music for a living; I wouldn’t know how to act like a rock star. What is a rock star anyway?" — he embodied the mythology of rock stardom for a generation. A legend, a guitar god, a virtuoso, a hero, Eddie Van Halen was all of those. But he was, during this one conversation, also one of the humblest people you can speak to.

Steve Baltin: Did you always feel a special kinship with music?

Eddie Van Halen: Every idea that the man upstairs gives me I have the pain in the ass job of, “Okay, god, what are you gonna lay on me next?” Because he lays stuff on me, then I gotta figure out how to make it work, which is not easy. Sometimes musical ideas I’m going around with a melody in my head and I try to play it on guitar and it’s just like, “How am I gonna do this?” But I hear it in my head. So, ideas are given, I’m not responsible, just like I’m not a rock star, I make music for a living, that is what I do. And I can’t even read music, I never took guitar lessons, I took piano lessons, classical piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland. And when we moved to America it was just the typical thing except, I was really good at it, so was my brother. I actually won three years in a row at Long Beach City College, which had this contest thing they would put you in, it was a piano recital, they would put you in a room with three judges and you had a choice of one of three pieces of music to play. And the first year I’m like, “Dad, mom, I didn’t play very good. Let’s just go home.” And it came down to 500 out of 5,000 or 2,000 kids, then down to a hundred, and I was in there. Then 25, top 10, then top five and I won first prize. And it was three years in a row, but nobody ever knew that I couldn’t read, not my teacher. I fooled everyone cause they always tripped. They’re going, “How come you’re not looking at the sheet music?” The thing is, just like the guitar, I need to see what I’m doing. I can get away with whatever, I would prefer to see what I’m doing, and I always have to look at my fingers when I’m playing piano. And when I’d win these contests, I had to see what I was playing, so I was just blessed with good ears. I stopped playing piano for one reason, and that is I was forced to do it and I wasn’t allowed to play and do what I wanted on it. I was forced to play what the teacher and my parents wanted me to play, so it wasn’t fun. When I started playing guitar, I didn’t have a clue except how to lay it there. So, I basically wrote my own book, and nobody ever told me how to approach things.

Baltin: Who are those artists that blow you away?

Van Halen: I love Tori Amos, not everything she does, I love Peter Gabriel, not everything he does, I don’t even like everything I do. Sometimes I’ll write something, for instance a song called "Top Of The World," everyone else liked it, I didn’t. I got outvoted and I wrote the damn song, it ended up on the record, I didn’t like the song, everyone else did. I got outvoted. It’s personal preference, that’s all music is. The only band I was really over into was Cream. And the only thing I really liked about them was their live stuff cause they played two verses, then go off and jam for 20 minutes, come back and do a chorus and end. And I love the live jam stuff, the improvisation, cause it was nothing like the record, and that is why I loved Cream, cause Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce pushed Eric Clapton, I almost feel bad for Eric because half the time he probably didn’t know the one was because these guys were jazz players playing Marshall amps and loud as s**t. Listen to "I’m So Glad" on Goodbye Cream, if that doesn’t blow your f**king mind I don’t know what will

Baltin: If I understand correctly, you’re saying you’re just a vehicle for all these ideas.

Van Halen: I’m blessed that the man upstairs, whatever power that is, I believe in god, there has to be, it would be pretty ignorant or whatever to believe that we’re the only thing, that we were responsible for everything. And I just happen to be picked. I believe also if people knew how much time I spent doing what I do, I spend hours on end playing and I can never sit down and say okay, “I’m gonna write a song now.” It takes me a good hour to loosen up my fingers and I always just leave the DAT tape rolling or something, or a cassette, anything, and after two and a half, three hours, you kind of get into a zone that I’m kind of relearning because I’m not drinking anymore. When I used to drink it would get me there quicker. It’s kind of the zone where you’re not thinking, where you’re just open to anything and I just believe that when you play long enough you’re able to execute with your fingers, whatever god gives you, and god’s not gonna give you nothing if you don’t practice or play. So, after a couple, three hours, god says, “Okay, he’s ready. I’ll throw him a bone.” And god’s got a sense of humor too, sometimes he gives me s**t cause not everything I do I like.

Baltin: I think for every writer you hit upon moments where you know you’ve reached something special. What are a couple of those moments for you?

Van Halen: It’s like "Jump," it was our only number one single and believe it or not I built my studio to put that song on our record cause everyone hated it, same with the song "Right Now." Alex and I tracked the whole thing, certain people didn’t want to be a part of it, then it wins a Grammy and a MTV Award for Video of the Year, and all of a sudden it’s like, “Hey yeah, great.” But it was like pulling teeth to get the person to sing the damn song. And there are certain things that I fight for because I do write all the music so I think I have a little bit of say in how things should go. I’m not a tyrant as a lot of people think. I just expect other people, if you’re in this band, to work as hard as I do. I don’t like people that just phone things in

Baltin: I was reading the USA Today article where you were referred to as the “Jimi Hendrix of your generation.” What do you say to stuff like that?

Van Halen: I say it’s a hell of a compliment, but at the same time I’m really nothing like Jimi Hendrix because he used so many effects and stuff that I was the complete opposite everyday in fact. And I wanted the guitar to do things that nobody built the guitar that I wanted. Hendrix didn’t do things like that, he was an amazing player, but if you ever heard any live bootlegs of him, even some of the Woodstock stuff, it’s hard for him to keep that thing even tuned. Believe it or not, before the locking nut system, before Floyd Rose and I built that thing, the first three records were done with the identical piece that Jimi Hendrix used except for again, what I did was I analyzed every aspect of it and everything has to be lined up. I went through five or six different things and people thought I was nuts, but when they saw me play live, I remember Steve Lukather from Toto, he’s one of my best friends, and a bunch of other people just freaked out. We played Anaheim Stadium, and this first tour I forget who headlined, but I’m using the vibrato bar doing everything that’s on the record live. They’re going, “How in the hell is this guy doing that?” And Luke comes up to me, “I can’t even keep my Les Paul in tune like you do that Stratocaster copy with the Fender tailpiece. How the hell are you doing it?” And I showed him, “It works like this. Gotta line up and the string has to be with the slide, otherwise we’re not gonna go back where it came from.”

Baltin: Do you remember who you were opening for?

Van Halen: I think it was Black Sabbath because I think the whole first tour we were third bill; then Ronnie Montrose played; it was Journey headlining, Ronnie Montrose doing his instrumental solo thing, we had a half an hour playing 3,000-seat theaters to get our fans in. I used like six Marshall heads and played so damn loud that the P.A. didn’t matter. We just blew people’s minds, we were so damn loud, then half an hour without a sound check ever and just blew people’s minds. And then we left that tour because we had an offer to play Day on the Green, which was Bill Graham’s annual festival thing and I think that was Aerosmith and Foreigner playing, we played at high noon following AC/DC and I’m onstage watching AC/DC and 80,000 people in the crowd were just jumping up and down because they got that infectious sound. I love ‘em and Angus [Young], they’re all good friends, and Brian [Johnson], and Angus’ brother, we went and saw them when they played L.A., they’re great guys. But I’m going, “Holy s**t, we gotta follow these guys.” So we didn’t blow them away, I’m just saying we blew people’s minds because they are in a funny way very basic as I am, they’re no frills really, except that I do crazier things on my guitar maybe with the techniques. In a funny way when people started copying the pull-out thing I do, the two-handed thing, I didn’t know whether to take it as a compliment or be embarrassed. I was like, “What did I start here?” But I’d been doing it for years. In the club days my brother told me to turn around, show people how you’re doing that, so they’ll rip you off. And yeah when this first record came out people couldn’t figure out what the hell I was doing until they saw us play live, then everyone started doing it. Baltin: I didn’t take the Hendrix quote to mean so much stylistically as much as in terms of influence. And on this last tour, especially at the Philly show, the fourth show on the tour, to see that moment when you’re playing at the end and the crowd is just chanting Eddie.

Van Halen: It brought tears to my eyes. It makes me feel kind of weird, but obviously the man upstairs gave me something and it touches people and I’m just so blessed. And now I got my son in the band and it makes it even more…Alex, Wolfie, and I, it’s a family thing. And by the end of the tour Wolfie was just incredible. For a 16-year-old to get up there and play in front of these people and he pulled it off very, very good.

Baltin: My favorite moment in the Philly show came where you reached over and mussed his hair, just like a father and son. You looked like you were having so much fun up there.

Van Halen: It was. Whoever thought that believe it or not my own son is the one to kick my ass? That kid is so good, you have no idea. When I first him sing, it was like fifth grade for a science project, he came up with the craziest idea, he goes, “Hey dad…” I think it was an N’Sync or New Kids on the Block song, he changed the lyrics, I went out and bought a karaoke track of it, and he and a buddy changed the lyrics and called it ‘Dirty Cell.’ I still have that recording, he sounds like a young Michael Jackson, and he blew my freaking mind how great his pitch was. It took him less than an hour to sing the whole damn thing. I just listened to it the other day and it freaked me the f**k out. I was just sitting there amazed.

Baltin: So, will we ever hear the ‘Dirty Cell’ song on a Van Halen box set?

Van Halen: That would be funny. It’d be up to him (laughs). Believe it or not it holds up. If we ever did put out everything in the kitchen sink, I have footage of me playing guitar when the guitar is actually bigger than me in the sixth-grade talent show, all kinds of crazy stuff like that. That’s a good idea though. There’s all kinds of stuff. I have so much music, so many CDs, DATS, and cassettes in boxes and just recently I’m starting to kind of listen to stuff because I never label stuff very well. I’ll pop something in. She’ll go, “Who’s that? What’s that?” “That’s me.”

Baltin: If it were to work out that you would do an album with all different singers who would you like to work with now?

Van Halen: Oh god, I love Chris Cornell, there are all kinds of people. I can’t think right off hand, but I’d have to listen to some stuff and obviously meet the people, see if they’re into it. But I wrote "Right Now" a long time ago and I envisioned Joe Cocker singing that song, it kind of had that "Feelin’ Alright" vibe to it.

Baltin: Having gone through everything you’ve undergone with the illness and the rehab do you have a different appreciation for we’re you’re at in life and music?

Van Halen: Yeah, I thank god on my knees that I’m alive and obviously to be sober and to be working with my son I’m so damn blessed it’s beyond word, I don’t even know how to explain. And sometimes the reason I get emotional when people chant my name is because it’s like it’s really not me, I’m not a rock star, I’m just a musician. I make music for a living; I wouldn’t know how to act like a rock star. What is a rock star anyway? But it’s almost like, “Okay, what the man upstairs gave me, message delivered.” That’s how I feel; like, “Okay, they get it.” It’s a feel thing, music is vibration, and it is the universal language. I think people pick up on the vibe that I’m not bulls*tting, that what I play comes from the heart, I put everything I have into it. Of course, sometimes I have off nights, but when I’m on people do feel the message that I was given. I was a conduit.

Baltin: I think that comes across and if you look at the great rock bands the ones who have longevity are the ones who are honest, as opposed to those who are writing songs for a commercial.

Van Halen: It’s funny, when bands or younger musicians ask me, “So what does it take to make it?” Well, first explain to me what you mean by making it. Do you want to be a rock star, or do you want music to your livelihood? If you want to be a rock star or just be famous then run down the street naked, you’ll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood then play, play, play, and play. And eventually you’ll get to where you want to be. What’s the old cliché? “It takes 10 years for an overnight success.” If it’s your passion and it’s from the heart, you just keep playing, playing, and playing and eventually somebody’s gonna notice.

Baltin: Since we keep coming back to the first album one of my favorite ever live songs is "Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love." For you what are the songs that either hold up best or that you might have a different appreciation for?

Van Halen: You keep saying older, I don’t feel a day older when it comes to my approach to music or what gets me off then when I was a teenager. I’ve always been intro different kinds of stuff and when I play, I like to play loud. I like my arm hairs to move and I like my body to vibrate cause I like the feel of it; I’m still a teenager at heart. Forget the actual age of how long I’ve been walking the planet, but what I like, my favorite record by AC/DC is Powerage. And "Down Payment Blues" off that record is my favorite f**king song by them. They never play it live. We did a co-headlining tour with them back in ’83 or ’84 and we had a gas, I kept asking, “Angus you plan on paying ‘Down Payment Blues’?”

Baltin: What was the first record you remember hearing that blew you away?

Van Halen: Wow. I started playing guitar, the first song I ever learned was "Pipeline," by the Safaris, and "Wipeout."

Baltin: If you had to pick three songs to turn kids on to discover Van Halen what would they be?

Van Halen: I think "Eruption" being one, "Spanish Fly" just because it’s the same thing except it sounds like Segovia doing something, it’s on a Flamenco guitar. I wish somebody would take that technique and do something with it (laughs). But just because it’s so unique; I never heard anything like it until I did it and I’m going, “Hey, this is kind of cool.” I had no idea it would trip people out to the point that it did, but song-wise you mention "Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love," I have to tell you something, that song and "Loss Of Control," and a song called "Bullethead," which we never released, I wrote all those three songs in the same week. You know what I was doing? I was cartooning off punk. Cause “Ain’t Talkin' ‘Bout Love," we were jumping around in Dave’s father’s basement joking around, that song was a joke. But now actually when I listen to it, it sticks in your head and it’s very basic and simple, but I was actually making fun of punk, cause sometimes I have a tendency to get overly complicated and it goes right over people’s heads. So, I gotta catch myself sometimes and keep stuff almost simpler than I do. But I don’t know, like then the opening to "Mean Streets." I don’t know what possessed me to start doing that too. Crazy stuff, I don’t know where it comes from. But to pick songs I can only go by really what the audience response is, like say "Running With The Devil." I don’t know what you’d call a career song, but to the day I die we’ll have to play that because that’s what people want to hear, and "Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love," but "Unchained," "Jump," there’s all kinds of stuff. I love "Girl Gone Bad," one of my favorite songs of ours is "Drop Dead Legs," whether it’s a hit or not, to me I love that song.

Credits: Steve Baltin – Forbes Magazine

In an incredibly timely interview, People Have The Power host Steve Baltin sat down with Jon Bon Jovi to discuss his latest album release, 2020, and how he chooses to witness history.

Released this past Friday, 2020 is a 13-track ode to humanity’s current state as well as a timeless body of work embodying the larger emotions of a tumultuous time. Baltin had exclusive access to the brain behind the album as he questioned Bon Jovi on his many inspirations and songwriting practices.

“As events started to unfold and I started to write more, I thought, ‘I’m gonna take the position as a witness to history, nothing more. As though I was an unbiased journalist, or I was the voyeur.’” said Bon Jovi. “I didn’t want to make it about me. And so that kind of, ‘Let’s write a love song, let’s write a buddy song,’ really didn’t have much appeal. And as I started down this road, I got more and more excited that I had clarity behind the album title 2020.”

“Now it was a moment in time and yes I was witness to history. ‘American Reckoning’ would’ve been the last song written for the record, which was right after the passing of George Floyd (May 25). But ‘Lower The Flag’ was written last summer. I really looked forward to this interview because of the songwriting aspect.”

In addition to Bon Jovi’s own creative body of work, he curated a specific playlist on People Have The Power that further exemplifies his inclination towards social justice. His top three picks were “For What It’s Worth,” “A Change Is Gonna Come” and ‘Times They Are A-Changing.”

“My songs are not protest songs, but songs of social observation because like I said, I’m just trying to bear witness to history. But in the case of my being the fanboy again, I did think about this a little bit today. ‘A Change Is Gonna Come,’ Sam Cooke, one of the great songs ever. And I had the opportunity to sing it at Obama’s inauguration. And I sang it with Bettye LaVette. And the general public may not know who Bettye LaVette is. She didn’t have the hits that the Supremes had, or Martha And The Vandellas, all the girl bands, Ronnie Spector. But boy could she sing. And when we did that song on the steps of the monument in front of a brand-new president named Barack Obama, I saw in her eyes all of the history of her and those who came before her. And I’ll carry that memory with me forever.”

“‘For What It’s Worth’ is something I used as a benchmark for this record with ‘Lower The Flag’ and ‘American Reckoning.’ And then, of course, Dylan’s ‘Times They Are A-Changin’.’”

This triad of social observation songs clearly left an impression on Bon Jovi and their influences can be subtlety heard in the undertones of 2020. Bon Jovi also pointed out to Baltin a particularly prophetic song of his own in the form of 2020‘s “Blood In The Water.”

“That song, to me, is a prophecy, it’s timeless,” said Bon Jovi.

And on a lighter, more jovial note, this rock genius described his friendship with another titan in the industry — Paul McCartney.

“I have the absolute incredible, heaven-sent gift to actually be able to say I’m friendly with Paul McCartney. And I get to spend a lot of time with him in the summers. And I jokingly tell him that John and George just went back to their planet. I refer to him as Beatle Paul all the time.

Wherever I’m at with him it’s ‘Hey, Beatle Paul, hey Beatle Paul.’ And one night he actually said to me, ‘Why do you do that?’ And I said, ‘Because I’m too old to call you Mr. McCartney and I’m too in awe to think that I could call you Paul. I’m too reverent.’ And he’s like, ‘Okay.’”

Credits: Catherine Walthall – American Songwriter

New York, NY (October 1, 2020)—On November 6th, The John Lee Hooker Estate and Eagle Rock Entertainment will release John Lee Hooker Live at Montreux 1983 & 1990 as a 2-LP set, digital video & digital audio.

Four-time Grammy® Award winner and Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award recipient John Lee Hooker will forever be hailed as a legend of the blues genre. His storied career continues its impact on modern music even today – with fans spanning generations and transcending borders. Hooker was responsible for molding the blues into a sound that was entirely his own, dispensing with 12-bar blues in favor of an intensely deep, funky groove. “John Lee Hooker sent a unique strand of DNA coursing through the gene pool of countless rockers and blues artists … both his guitar playing and, his vocals, in their chanting cadence, could reach the transcendence of devotional singing” – The Guardian

Located in Switzerland, the Montreux Jazz Festival is one of the world’s biggest and longest-running jazz festivals. Live at Montreux witnesses John Lee Hooker deliver two blistering performances filmed at the festival in 1983 and 1990. He was joined by The Coast to Coast Blues Band, covering an impressive set of hits from across his storied career including “Boom Boom”, “Crawlin’ King Snake” and his very first single “Boogie Chillen” – the latter expanded to an epic 13-person jam on the 1983 set, featuring guitarist Luther Allison, harmonica legend Sugar Blue, and a horn section. For his triumphant return to Montreux in 1990, Hooker added an additional guitar and sax to the line-up, as well as female vocalist Vala Cupp. “The Hook” infuses his set with songs from his 1989 Grammy® winning album, The Healer, including the hypnotic title track.

John Lee Hooker’s first single, “Boogie Chillen’’ rose to #1 on the R&B chart in 1949, selling over a million copies. Hooker was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2008, “Boogie Chillen” was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library Of Congress as a song that is “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform(s) or reflect(s) life in the United States.” “Boogie Chillen’’ and “Boom Boom” were both inducted into the Grammy® Hall Of Fame and both songs are also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of The 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

About John Lee Hooker

Known to music fans around the world as the “King of the Boogie,” John Lee Hooker endures as one of the true superstars of the blues genre: the ultimate beholder of cool. His work is widely recognized for its impact on modern music his simple, yet deeply effective songs transcend borders and languages around the globe.

Each decade of Hooker’s long career brought a new generation of fans and fresh opportunities for the ever-evolving artist. He never slowed down either: As John Lee Hooker entered his 70s, he suddenly found himself in the most successful era of his career – reinvented yet again, and energized as ever, touring and recording up until his passing in 2001.

By Martine Ehrenclou – Rock & Blues Muse