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©2003
052-8237707
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Blues for PeaceBy Johnny Mayer
Copyright 2003 by Johnny Mayer All rights reserved.
For performances and booklets [email protected]
Website: www.bluesforpeace.com
In memory of my father Henry Mayer, May his memory be blessed.
Foreword
Did you ever have the urge to write something and you’re not sure why? So far, I wrote two blues guitar books published in Israel by Modan House - Blues & Rock N Roll for Guitar and Blues Guitar Band and I am grateful to them. In spite of this, I have the feeling like something is missing…
Charlie Parker, the legendary bebop saxophonist said… "If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn"...
Perhaps, that's what's missing… to tell you about the places, people and things connected with my music, how I wound up in Israel and what's Blues for Peace…
To stay up all night, listen to music, talk things over, play blues harmonica, laugh, drink and enjoy each moment of living the blues in the little blues country of Israel.
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wanted to hear some live blues. So I decided to hold a Blues for Peace evening for them at the “Syndrome” nightclub in Jerusalem.
In return, they invited me to join them for dinner in Ramallah in the Palestinian Authority. After a dinner, people gave speeches and out of the blue… the host asked me to express my view on the Peace Process. And I thought, “Are you referring to me?”
As I stood up, I felt my harmonica in my pocket, took it out and said to the group, “Listen, I'm not a speech maker or a politician, but there's one thing I know how to do - this!" And I played them a few blues licks on the harmonica.
There was a long silence… then everyone started clapping and smiling. And I said, “That's what Blues for Peace means to me - the power of music to communicate when words fail, to bring people together and encourage leaders to make peace”.
May all your blues… be Blues for Peace.
Shalom,Johnny Mayer
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“If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn...”
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Shootout at the Reno Gardens
I was sitting around the house in Milwaukee, WI, one day when the phone rang. Steve Cohen, a good friend from 10th grade was on the line. He said, "Hey, Johnny, we're starting a blues band, do want to join?" Although I had no idea how to play blues guitar… I said, "Sure, man, I'm with you".
So we met at Bill Stone's and went down the basement… Steve - harmonica and vocals, Bill - guitar and vocals, Danny Smith - drums, Dave Kasic - bass, and me on guitar. Bill played us songs like "Hideaway" by Freddy King - and we learned our parts and practiced endless hours. We did songs by BB King, Paul Butterfield, James Cotton, Eric Clapton, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, etc.
After two months, the "Stone Cohen Blues Band" played its gig at the Catacombs in basement of the YMCA in Milwaukee. Before we started to play, our drummer got punched in the mouth and went home. Marc Wilson brought his drums, played great, and became the band's drummer.
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Blues for PeaceAnd they shall beat their swords into guitars
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Blues for Peace… Is it Possible?
In 1971, I was a volunteer on Kibbutz Gonen when I had a dream… “In the middle of the night, terrorists burst into the room where we were slept and started shooting us as we lay in our beds. I was really scared and reached into my pocket, took out my harmonica and threw it at them!
I think the harmonica dream is connected to Blues for Peace that I dreamed up in 1997 on my way to a blues festival in Tel Aviv. In ten minutes I made up a flyer to pass out at the concert that began …
BLUES FOR PEACE
And they shall beat their swords into Guitars...
Recognized by UNESCO as promoting the Culture of Peace, Blues for Peace appeared in Downbeat, USA Today HOT Site, CNN Student News, PBS American Masters, Jerusalem Post, etc.
In 1999, a People to People group sponsored by the Eisenhower Foundation contacted me. They planned to visit Israel, Jordan and Lebanon and
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On Halloween Eve, we did a gig I'll never forget at the "Reno Gardens". Everyone was in costumes, dancing and laughing. The band was deep in the groove of the "Hoochie Coochie Man" when all of a sudden chairs start to fly through the air and people were fighting like a Western movie… then I heard gunshots, and saw a guy with a gun firing bullets into the ceiling.
I never packed up my equipment so fast, with my guitar and "Super Reverb" amp in hand, I fled out the nightclub and jumped into the car. Everyone was in shock…
We' started to drive… our manager sat next to the driver and started to scream and curse. Then he bent down as if he was looking for something and came up with a bloody hand… it turns out he was shot in the butt!
We took him immediately to the Emergency Room at Columbia Hospital and waited the whole night on the bench… (Don't tell my mother, she thinks I was late because of a snow storm.)
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almost everything by notes and was jealous of how easy he could learn new songs. Chris also drew cool pictures of Hercules and other Greek heroes at school.
Another friend of mine, Howie, played bass and sang. He would come and rehearse with Chris and I in the back room… my mother said Howie would be a star someday. We played our first gig at the "Black Steer" owned by Chris’s dad in 7th grade.
In 1971, I was in Israel on a work-study program when I heard that Chris died in police custody of a drug overdose. He was arrested by the Milwaukee Police and ingested the drugs sitting in the patrol car. He was seventeen years old.
Howie grew and performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on bass and vocals for twenty years. Howie died of a heroin overdose at 46.
Tom Petty wrote in Rolling Stone... “It’s like a tree by your house that you love and see that it’s dying no matter how hard you try to save it. And one day you look outside and it’s not there anymore.”
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Jimi Hendrix – We Gotta Go!!!
One night in 11th grade, I was hanging out with my friend Steve Cohen, when we heard Hendrix was playin' at the Madison Coliseum. We didn't have tickets or money and just decided out of the blue… "We gotta go, man!"
So we hopped a bus to Madison and hitchhiked to the Coliseum. It was a madhouse… there were thousands of people milling about outside because the cops wouldn't let them in... all of a sudden the doors opened and people started streaming in...
Steve and I walked next to the building and all the time we motioned for someone inside to open the door for us... then all of a sudden, someone popped the door open and we flew inside and ran like crazy the hallway ... we came to a place where we couldn't run and farther and entered a side door… and found ourselves in the front row!
There was lots of tension and electricity in the hall from the anticipation of hearing Jimi Hendrix and because the cops. I remember staring up at a wall of "Marshall" amps… I was 15 and had never been
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Like A Tree By Your House
I was born in Milwaukee, WI in 1953 at a time when it wasn't easy to be a Jew in America. As a kid, I remember signs that said "No Jews Allowed" at some resorts and restaurants outside the city.
On weekends, we used to visit my grandparents in Burlington, Wisconsin. They lived in a rural area of farms and factories and the Ku Klux Klan, an anti black and anti Jewish group. Driving home, I saw burned crosses on the hillsides a few times.
When I was 8 years old, I started to play guitar. My teacher, Larry Reuter, was a good musician and before long I was performing in concerts on my red electric guitar.
By the time the Beatles came along, I could play the guitar. I didn’t have an ear for music… but I at least I had the hands. It took me hours to learn to play by ear "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones.
My best friend, Chris, was an artist and musician from a Greek family. He could just pick up the guitar and play almost any song by ear... I played
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to rock concert… it was awesome to look at all that equipment.
After awhile, the house lights went down and they turned on the stage lights ... the band got on stage one by one, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding… then Hendrix grabbed his guitar which was white and plugged in ... he started tuning it up and playing blues licks… he fiddled around for a while and then tore into the first song.
The volume was unbelievable... it took me awhile until I could hear anything… then I recognized the songs - "Wind Cries Mary", "Purple Haze", "Hey Joe" and the Spangled Banner that he played as an unaccompanied solo full of strength and anger.
Hendrix didn't say much to the audience ... at one point he broke a string and laid his guitar down on the stage while he went to get a new one ... I remember it just lay there screamin’. Also he did lots of tricks .... playing behind his back, with his teeth and setting his guitar on fire ... in the end he smashed his guitar and walked off stage ..."
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Musicians Off The Record
"It don’t make sense.. you can’t make peace.” Willie Dixon
”If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn” Charlie Parker
"The Blues is Life.” Brownie McGhee
"Music is everywhere, you just have to grab it!" - Horace Silver
"War Is Over When You Want It” -John Lennon & Yoko Ono
"You gotta have heart if you want to make it in this business.” - Dexter Gordon
“Music washes away the dust of every day life.” - Art Blakely
“Notes are expensive, spend them wisely” - BB King
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From Lincoln Center With Love
After receiving my degree in music, I moved to New York City to play jazz and especially to play with Charles Mingus, the legendary bassist that performed with Charlie Parker and Eric Dolphy. I was crazy about Mingus from the moment I laid eyes on his "Blues & Roots" album that I bought with my friend Steve Cohen when I was fifteen.
When I got to New York, Jimmy Cheatham, my Black Music Professor – that’s what they called “jazz” then - arranged for me to join Local 802, the Musicians Union. On Wednesday afternoon, members would meet to book Broadway shows, recordings, club dates and talk…and that’s where I ran into George Adams, tenor sax for Charles Mingus that I met at his concerts at college.
I said hello to George and told him that I had just moved to NY, joined Local 802 and how much I wanted to play with Charles Mingus… I could see this wasn't the right time… when all of a sudden George said, "Tell you what, let’s meet again next week and see about setting up something for you with Mingus".
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"Hey, tell you what, come on down to my club tonite and show me some of that Ice Pickin '.
Talk about cloud nine… our boy can't wait to tell his friends back home about Buddy Guy and sittin’ in with the band. He thinks to himself... "Man, this is the best thing that happened to me since I met that girl last summer out on Highway 49.
Back at the train station, our boy takes his guitar and starts running down blues licks… his mind running wild... he's gonna show Buddy Guy he plays cool… just like a V-8 Cadillac.
It's show time and our boy is raring to go thanks to a few drinks he had at the bar… he waits and waits and sure enough Buddy Guy calls him on stage... Our boy grabs his guitar, feels for his pick.... and the rest is a blank… a hazy Blue Midnight.
On the train back home, our boy is thinking what to tell his friends about his big trip to Chicago…
"Yeah, and after I sat in, Buddy Guy asked me to join the band… begged me in fact. Buddy said life on the road is more fun than a Roller Coaster!
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I was really excited and thought, "I just moved to NY, I'm belong to Local 802 and George Adams is going to set up an audition for me with Mingus.” Then I got out my guitar and played my best jazz licks and thought to myself, "I'll show Mingus I’m a good musician and he'll ask me to join his band!”
Despite the good will, George didn't show up at the union the next week, and I thought to myself, “That’s it, he forgot about me…” Then I heard Mingus and the band were on tour outside NYC.
Meanwhile, I joined the rehearsal band of Paul Jeffries that played sax with Mingus and arranged some of his albums and studied jazz improvisation with Jimmy Guiffre, a well-known saxophonist … and every night I was playing out I went to Sweet Basel to hear "Stuff" - Aretha Franklin's band that played the blues and funky jazz to cry for!
Best of all was performing in nightclubs and bars in New York City - after all that's why I came to the Big Apple in the first place. I played in a band with a Latin drummer, bass, keyboard and myself on guitar, blues harp and vocals. One night we had a gig in a bar right across from Lincoln Center.
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The “Blues Jam” Story
This is the timeless story of every guitar player that took off in pursuit of his or her dreams… hear mp3’s at www.bluesforpeace.com/bluesjam.htm
The story begins when our boy packs a suitcase and guitar and heads down to the train station... thoughts of Robert Johnson runnin’ through his head... looking to find bright lights and flashy women, he boards a train that's Chicago Bound.
The train pulls into the station and our boy is all alone... nobody came to meet him... he winds up spending the night all alone on a cold bench with the panhandlers and the Blues SO Bad.
It's early in the morning and our boy puts his guitar in a locker and goes for a walk in the Windy City. And who does he run in to walkin’ down the street… Buddy Guy lookin' to buy a 1/2 Pint.
Our boy wastes no time telling Buddy Guy that he can play guitar just the "Iceman" himself - Albert Collins... Buddy goes, "Ah, yeah sure" and says,
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We started to play and I noticed that the crowd was Irish youth drinking and having fun. After the break, we were playing when a young Afro- American entered, went up the bar and ordered a drink. I stood right next to him playing guitar by the picture window. The bartender said to him, "You know what, this bar isn't for you… go find someplace else where you belong."
The conversation went on like this and people started to gather around and argue with him… then suddenly, they picked him up and threw him out the window right where I was standing!
Fortunately, he wasn't hurt. He just got up, brushed himself off and walked away. Also, the police did not come. I was in stunned… it broke my heart to see what happened this person and thought to myself, "What the hell am I doing here?"
Lots of other things happened to me in NY, however the hatred of the young people that threw the Afro-American through the window weighed heavy on my decision to leave to move Israel, perform and teach music to youth.
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Sweet Home Chicago Robert Johnson.
?Come on, baby don't you want to go?Come on, baby don't you want to go
To the same old place, sweet home Chicago
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Song Form and Harmony The typical blues song has three chords that repeat themselves over 12 measures (bars) such as:
"Further On Up The Road" A7 / A7 / A7 / A7 / D7 / D7 /A7 / A7 / E7 / D7 / A7 / E7 /
Blues lyrics are simple and direct and talk about the every day life of people. In traditional blues, the first line is repeated and the third line rhymes and completes the thought. For example, take “Sweet Home Chicago” by Robert Johnson.
Come on, baby don't you want to go. Come on, baby don't you want to go. To the same old place, sweet home Chicago.
Most blues songs talk about unrequited love broken hearts. There are also blues that talk about problems such as poverty, discrimination, violence and drugs, etc. Blues music provides and oral history of people, places and events of Afro-American culture.
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Don’t Mess with Mingus
When I returned home to pack up my stuff and move to Israel, I didn’t expect Charles Mingus to perform in Milwaukee. But my friend Steve Cohen called and said, "Johnny… guess who’s playing at tonite at Teddy's? Mingus!” Of course, I went and just for the heck of it, I brought my guitar.
The Jazz Workshop was George Adams, tenor sax, Don Pullen, piano, Hank Walrath, trumpet and Danny Richmond, drums. I met George Adams at the in NY and stayed in touch with him. Although George had never heard me play, he asked Mingus if I could sit in. Charles looked at me for a very long minute… and said something I took as YES.
After the intermission, Mingus called the band back on stage and invited me up to play. I didn't have an amp and asked Mingus if I could plug into his bass amp. He refused and like an idiot, I started to argue with Mingus. A few moments later, he gave in and I thought, “Don’t’ tell me… Mingus is mad at me.” Then Charlie announced the names of the band members and said, "And John Mayer, for one tune.”
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Doggone It… What’s Blues Music?
Prior to the US Civil War, the slave trade brought millions of people from West Africa to the United States. The blues is based on the music and culture these Africans brought to America. The African roots of blues may be identified in three ways- blues notes, pentatonic scale and shuffle beat.
Blues Notes - Flat 3rd - sounds out of tune - Flat 5th - sounds dissonant - Flat 7th - sounds funky
Pentatonic Scale Blues is based on a pentatonic scale that sounds minor compared to the major classical scale.
Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do - major classical Re Fa So La Do Re - blues pentatonic
Shuffle Beat Blues music has a 'shuffle beat' that is based on “dotted” eight notes.Classical music is based on regular eighth notes.
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The tune was “Flowers For a Lady”, a relaxed Latin piece by George Adams who showed me the chord changes in NY.
As I got on stage, I recalled something my friend Dave Kasic told me after seeing people sit in with Mingus in NY City. "Either Mingus changes keys suddenly in the middle of the song or they play it so fast the guy sitting in makes a fool of himself".
But it was too late. Charlie counted off a tempo like a bat out of hell… First we played the melody twice, then Don Pullen soloed on piano followed by Jack Walrath on trumpet. Then Mingus looked at me, pointed his finger and said "Now!
And what luck a professional photographer was there and captured the moment. See photo at www.bluesforpeace.com/mingus.htm
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The tune was “Flowers For a Lady”, a relaxed Latin piece by George Adams who showed me the chord changes in NY.
As I got on stage, I recalled something my friend Dave Kasic told me after seeing people sit in with Mingus in NY City. "Either Mingus changes keys suddenly in the middle of the song or they play it so fast the guy sitting in makes a fool of himself".
But it was too late. Charlie counted off a tempo like a bat out of hell… First we played the melody twice, then Don Pullen soloed on piano followed by Jack Walrath on trumpet. Then Mingus looked at me, pointed his finger and said "Now!
And what luck a professional photographer was there and captured the moment. See photo at www.bluesforpeace.com/mingus.htm
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Doggone It… What’s Blues Music?
Prior to the US Civil War, the slave trade brought millions of people from West Africa to the United States. The blues is based on the music and culture these Africans brought to America. The African roots of blues may be identified in three ways- blues notes, pentatonic scale and shuffle beat.
Blues Notes - Flat 3rd - sounds out of tune - Flat 5th - sounds dissonant - Flat 7th - sounds funky
Pentatonic Scale Blues is based on a pentatonic scale that sounds minor compared to the major classical scale.
Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do - major classical Re Fa So La Do Re - blues pentatonic
Shuffle Beat Blues music has a 'shuffle beat' that is based on “dotted” eight notes.Classical music is based on regular eighth notes.
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Don’t Mess with Mingus
When I returned home to pack up my stuff and move to Israel, I didn’t expect Charles Mingus to perform in Milwaukee. But my friend Steve Cohen called and said, "Johnny… guess who’s playing at tonite at Teddy's? Mingus!” Of course, I went and just for the heck of it, I brought my guitar.
The Jazz Workshop was George Adams, tenor sax, Don Pullen, piano, Hank Walrath, trumpet and Danny Richmond, drums. I met George Adams at the in NY and stayed in touch with him. Although George had never heard me play, he asked Mingus if I could sit in. Charles looked at me for a very long minute… and said something I took as YES.
After the intermission, Mingus called the band back on stage and invited me up to play. I didn't have an amp and asked Mingus if I could plug into his bass amp. He refused and like an idiot, I started to argue with Mingus. A few moments later, he gave in and I thought, “Don’t’ tell me… Mingus is mad at me.” Then Charlie announced the names of the band members and said, "And John Mayer, for one tune.”
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Song Form and Harmony The typical blues song has three chords that repeat themselves over 12 measures (bars) such as:
"Further On Up The Road" A7 / A7 / A7 / A7 / D7 / D7 /A7 / A7 / E7 / D7 / A7 / E7 /
Blues lyrics are simple and direct and talk about the every day life of people. In traditional blues, the first line is repeated and the third line rhymes and completes the thought. For example, take “Sweet Home Chicago” by Robert Johnson.
Come on, baby don't you want to go. Come on, baby don't you want to go. To the same old place, sweet home Chicago.
Most blues songs talk about unrequited love broken hearts. There are also blues that talk about problems such as poverty, discrimination, violence and drugs, etc. Blues music provides and oral history of people, places and events of Afro-American culture.
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We started to play and I noticed that the crowd was Irish youth drinking and having fun. After the break, we were playing when a young Afro- American entered, went up the bar and ordered a drink. I stood right next to him playing guitar by the picture window. The bartender said to him, "You know what, this bar isn't for you… go find someplace else where you belong."
The conversation went on like this and people started to gather around and argue with him… then suddenly, they picked him up and threw him out the window right where I was standing!
Fortunately, he wasn't hurt. He just got up, brushed himself off and walked away. Also, the police did not come. I was in stunned… it broke my heart to see what happened this person and thought to myself, "What the hell am I doing here?"
Lots of other things happened to me in NY, however the hatred of the young people that threw the Afro-American through the window weighed heavy on my decision to leave to move Israel, perform and teach music to youth.
...
Further On Up the RoadA7 /A7 /A7 /A7 / D7 / D7 A7 / A7 / E7 D7 / A7 / E7
. ,
Sweet Home Chicago Robert Johnson.
?Come on, baby don't you want to go?Come on, baby don't you want to go
To the same old place, sweet home Chicago
. , , , ,' .
,-
".
The “Blues Jam” Story
This is the timeless story of every guitar player that took off in pursuit of his or her dreams… hear mp3’s at www.bluesforpeace.com/bluesjam.htm
The story begins when our boy packs a suitcase and guitar and heads down to the train station... thoughts of Robert Johnson runnin’ through his head... looking to find bright lights and flashy women, he boards a train that's Chicago Bound.
The train pulls into the station and our boy is all alone... nobody came to meet him... he winds up spending the night all alone on a cold bench with the panhandlers and the Blues SO Bad.
It's early in the morning and our boy puts his guitar in a locker and goes for a walk in the Windy City. And who does he run in to walkin’ down the street… Buddy Guy lookin' to buy a 1/2 Pint.
Our boy wastes no time telling Buddy Guy that he can play guitar just the "Iceman" himself - Albert Collins... Buddy goes, "Ah, yeah sure" and says,
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I was really excited and thought, "I just moved to NY, I'm belong to Local 802 and George Adams is going to set up an audition for me with Mingus.” Then I got out my guitar and played my best jazz licks and thought to myself, "I'll show Mingus I’m a good musician and he'll ask me to join his band!”
Despite the good will, George didn't show up at the union the next week, and I thought to myself, “That’s it, he forgot about me…” Then I heard Mingus and the band were on tour outside NYC.
Meanwhile, I joined the rehearsal band of Paul Jeffries that played sax with Mingus and arranged some of his albums and studied jazz improvisation with Jimmy Guiffre, a well-known saxophonist … and every night I was playing out I went to Sweet Basel to hear "Stuff" - Aretha Franklin's band that played the blues and funky jazz to cry for!
Best of all was performing in nightclubs and bars in New York City - after all that's why I came to the Big Apple in the first place. I played in a band with a Latin drummer, bass, keyboard and myself on guitar, blues harp and vocals. One night we had a gig in a bar right across from Lincoln Center.
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"Hey, tell you what, come on down to my club tonite and show me some of that Ice Pickin '.
Talk about cloud nine… our boy can't wait to tell his friends back home about Buddy Guy and sittin’ in with the band. He thinks to himself... "Man, this is the best thing that happened to me since I met that girl last summer out on Highway 49.
Back at the train station, our boy takes his guitar and starts running down blues licks… his mind running wild... he's gonna show Buddy Guy he plays cool… just like a V-8 Cadillac.
It's show time and our boy is raring to go thanks to a few drinks he had at the bar… he waits and waits and sure enough Buddy Guy calls him on stage... Our boy grabs his guitar, feels for his pick.... and the rest is a blank… a hazy Blue Midnight.
On the train back home, our boy is thinking what to tell his friends about his big trip to Chicago…
"Yeah, and after I sat in, Buddy Guy asked me to join the band… begged me in fact. Buddy said life on the road is more fun than a Roller Coaster!
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From Lincoln Center With Love
After receiving my degree in music, I moved to New York City to play jazz and especially to play with Charles Mingus, the legendary bassist that performed with Charlie Parker and Eric Dolphy. I was crazy about Mingus from the moment I laid eyes on his "Blues & Roots" album that I bought with my friend Steve Cohen when I was fifteen.
When I got to New York, Jimmy Cheatham, my Black Music Professor – that’s what they called “jazz” then - arranged for me to join Local 802, the Musicians Union. On Wednesday afternoon, members would meet to book Broadway shows, recordings, club dates and talk…and that’s where I ran into George Adams, tenor sax for Charles Mingus that I met at his concerts at college.
I said hello to George and told him that I had just moved to NY, joined Local 802 and how much I wanted to play with Charles Mingus… I could see this wasn't the right time… when all of a sudden George said, "Tell you what, let’s meet again next week and see about setting up something for you with Mingus".
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Musicians Off The Record
"It don’t make sense.. you can’t make peace.” Willie Dixon
”If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn” Charlie Parker
"The Blues is Life.” Brownie McGhee
"Music is everywhere, you just have to grab it!" - Horace Silver
"War Is Over When You Want It” -John Lennon & Yoko Ono
"You gotta have heart if you want to make it in this business.” - Dexter Gordon
“Music washes away the dust of every day life.” - Art Blakely
“Notes are expensive, spend them wisely” - BB King
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-"Hey Joe" "Purple Haze", "Wind Cries Mary"
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to rock concert… it was awesome to look at all that equipment.
After awhile, the house lights went down and they turned on the stage lights ... the band got on stage one by one, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding… then Hendrix grabbed his guitar which was white and plugged in ... he started tuning it up and playing blues licks… he fiddled around for a while and then tore into the first song.
The volume was unbelievable... it took me awhile until I could hear anything… then I recognized the songs - "Wind Cries Mary", "Purple Haze", "Hey Joe" and the Spangled Banner that he played as an unaccompanied solo full of strength and anger.
Hendrix didn't say much to the audience ... at one point he broke a string and laid his guitar down on the stage while he went to get a new one ... I remember it just lay there screamin’. Also he did lots of tricks .... playing behind his back, with his teeth and setting his guitar on fire ... in the end he smashed his guitar and walked off stage ..."
" ..."Willie Dixon
""John Lennon & Yoko Ono
""Brownie McGhee
" ... "!Horace Silver
" "Dexter Gordon
"- "Art Blakely
...BB King
Like A Tree By Your House
I was born in Milwaukee, WI in 1953 at a time when it wasn't easy to be a Jew in America. As a kid, I remember signs that said "No Jews Allowed" at some resorts and restaurants outside the city.
On weekends, we used to visit my grandparents in Burlington, Wisconsin. They lived in a rural area of farms and factories and the Ku Klux Klan, an anti black and anti Jewish group. Driving home, I saw burned crosses on the hillsides a few times.
When I was 8 years old, I started to play guitar. My teacher, Larry Reuter, was a good musician and before long I was performing in concerts on my red electric guitar.
By the time the Beatles came along, I could play the guitar. I didn’t have an ear for music… but I at least I had the hands. It took me hours to learn to play by ear "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones.
My best friend, Chris, was an artist and musician from a Greek family. He could just pick up the guitar and play almost any song by ear... I played
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Jimi Hendrix – We Gotta Go!!!
One night in 11th grade, I was hanging out with my friend Steve Cohen, when we heard Hendrix was playin' at the Madison Coliseum. We didn't have tickets or money and just decided out of the blue… "We gotta go, man!"
So we hopped a bus to Madison and hitchhiked to the Coliseum. It was a madhouse… there were thousands of people milling about outside because the cops wouldn't let them in... all of a sudden the doors opened and people started streaming in...
Steve and I walked next to the building and all the time we motioned for someone inside to open the door for us... then all of a sudden, someone popped the door open and we flew inside and ran like crazy the hallway ... we came to a place where we couldn't run and farther and entered a side door… and found ourselves in the front row!
There was lots of tension and electricity in the hall from the anticipation of hearing Jimi Hendrix and because the cops. I remember staring up at a wall of "Marshall" amps… I was 15 and had never been
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almost everything by notes and was jealous of how easy he could learn new songs. Chris also drew cool pictures of Hercules and other Greek heroes at school.
Another friend of mine, Howie, played bass and sang. He would come and rehearse with Chris and I in the back room… my mother said Howie would be a star someday. We played our first gig at the "Black Steer" owned by Chris’s dad in 7th grade.
In 1971, I was in Israel on a work-study program when I heard that Chris died in police custody of a drug overdose. He was arrested by the Milwaukee Police and ingested the drugs sitting in the patrol car. He was seventeen years old.
Howie grew and performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on bass and vocals for twenty years. Howie died of a heroin overdose at 46.
Tom Petty wrote in Rolling Stone... “It’s like a tree by your house that you love and see that it’s dying no matter how hard you try to save it. And one day you look outside and it’s not there anymore.”
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On Halloween Eve, we did a gig I'll never forget at the "Reno Gardens". Everyone was in costumes, dancing and laughing. The band was deep in the groove of the "Hoochie Coochie Man" when all of a sudden chairs start to fly through the air and people were fighting like a Western movie… then I heard gunshots, and saw a guy with a gun firing bullets into the ceiling.
I never packed up my equipment so fast, with my guitar and "Super Reverb" amp in hand, I fled out the nightclub and jumped into the car. Everyone was in shock…
We' started to drive… our manager sat next to the driver and started to scream and curse. Then he bent down as if he was looking for something and came up with a bloody hand… it turns out he was shot in the butt!
We took him immediately to the Emergency Room at Columbia Hospital and waited the whole night on the bench… (Don't tell my mother, she thinks I was late because of a snow storm.)
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Blues for Peace… Is it Possible?
In 1971, I was a volunteer on Kibbutz Gonen when I had a dream… “In the middle of the night, terrorists burst into the room where we were slept and started shooting us as we lay in our beds. I was really scared and reached into my pocket, took out my harmonica and threw it at them!
I think the harmonica dream is connected to Blues for Peace that I dreamed up in 1997 on my way to a blues festival in Tel Aviv. In ten minutes I made up a flyer to pass out at the concert that began …
BLUES FOR PEACE
And they shall beat their swords into Guitars...
Recognized by UNESCO as promoting the Culture of Peace, Blues for Peace appeared in Downbeat, USA Today HOT Site, CNN Student News, PBS American Masters, Jerusalem Post, etc.
In 1999, a People to People group sponsored by the Eisenhower Foundation contacted me. They planned to visit Israel, Jordan and Lebanon and
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I was sitting around the house in Milwaukee, WI, one day when the phone rang. Steve Cohen, a good friend from 10th grade was on the line. He said, "Hey, Johnny, we're starting a blues band, do want to join?" Although I had no idea how to play blues guitar… I said, "Sure, man, I'm with you".
So we met at Bill Stone's and went down the basement… Steve - harmonica and vocals, Bill - guitar and vocals, Danny Smith - drums, Dave Kasic - bass, and me on guitar. Bill played us songs like "Hideaway" by Freddy King - and we learned our parts and practiced endless hours. We did songs by BB King, Paul Butterfield, James Cotton, Eric Clapton, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, etc.
After two months, the "Stone Cohen Blues Band" played its gig at the Catacombs in basement of the YMCA in Milwaukee. Before we started to play, our drummer got punched in the mouth and went home. Marc Wilson brought his drums, played great, and became the band's drummer.
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Blues for Peace
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Blues for PeaceAnd they shall beat their swords into guitars
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wanted to hear some live blues. So I decided to hold a Blues for Peace evening for them at the “Syndrome” nightclub in Jerusalem.
In return, they invited me to join them for dinner in Ramallah in the Palestinian Authority. After a dinner, people gave speeches and out of the blue… the host asked me to express my view on the Peace Process. And I thought, “Are you referring to me?”
As I stood up, I felt my harmonica in my pocket, took it out and said to the group, “Listen, I'm not a speech maker or a politician, but there's one thing I know how to do - this!" And I played them a few blues licks on the harmonica.
There was a long silence… then everyone started clapping and smiling. And I said, “That's what Blues for Peace means to me - the power of music to communicate when words fail, to bring people together and encourage leaders to make peace”.
May all your blues… be Blues for Peace.
Shalom,Johnny Mayer
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“If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn...”
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Foreword
Did you ever have the urge to write something and you’re not sure why? So far, I wrote two blues guitar books published in Israel by Modan House - Blues & Rock N Roll for Guitar and Blues Guitar Band and I am grateful to them. In spite of this, I have the feeling like something is missing…
Charlie Parker, the legendary bebop saxophonist said… "If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn"...
Perhaps, that's what's missing… to tell you about the places, people and things connected with my music, how I wound up in Israel and what's Blues for Peace…
To stay up all night, listen to music, talk things over, play blues harmonica, laugh, drink and enjoy each moment of living the blues in the little blues country of Israel.
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©2003
052-8237707
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Blues for PeaceBy Johnny Mayer
Copyright 2003 by Johnny Mayer All rights reserved.
For performances and booklets [email protected]
Website: www.bluesforpeace.com
In memory of my father Henry Mayer, May his memory be blessed.
