Dutch Treat

Big Bill Broonzy
Live in Amsterdam 1963
Munich Records

Bluesmen streamed to Europe it seemed in the 1950s, where they found both a freedom and a devoted audience unknown in the USA. We have reason to be grateful too given the rich legacy of quality material those tours left us. And of course how would popular music history be different if all those pasty faced British boys had never got turned on by "Key to the Highway?"

Each of these CDs (each about an hour long) presents one night each when Big Bill performed under the auspices of the Amsterdam Jazz Society at two different cafes/restaurants. Unlike alot of such material unearthed after 50 years and presented to the collector, these recordings have the distinction of being better quality than most of what's already available. The rich tones are probably due to the taper being a professional filmmaker and sound recordist Louis Van Gasteren. Although it might not be accurate to say "unearthed" since it seems various parties have trying to get the tapes released for thirty years. Van Gasteren records in the liner notes that the fee for being allowed to record was two bottles of Dutch gin.

It doesn't include possibly Broonzy's most well known song, "Key to the Highway," but there are plenty of well known blues like "Trouble in Mind", "John Henry", "Goodnight Irene" and "Going Down the Road Feeeling Bad" done with Broonzy's signature razor sharp flatpicking and powerful singing. The liner notes naturally take a Dutch angle, including Bill's relationship with a Dutch woman Pim van Isveldt, which produced a son, Michael. It's illustrated with alot of interesting photos as well, many from the "Nederlands Jazz Archief."

The music is beautifully augmented by Broonzy's talk which top and tail almost every song. He's rather garrulous and charming, in evocative Delta vernacular. He dispenses music anecdotes and covers everything from the definition of folk music ("to me, all songs in the world is folk song, because horses don't sing songs"), the iniquities of sharecropping and delights of the South like crawfishing. Introducing Bessie Smith's "Back-Water Blues" he talks emotionally about his traumatic memories of a great flood in 1927, and refers to understanding the feelings of the Dutch who had recently also experienced destructive flooding and great loss of life. He also says he's never been treated better than in the netherlands and when he goes back to Mississippi he's "going to tell all the black people, they've got to go to Haarlem." Heh. These moments are a great addition to the historical record, as well as being extraordinary to listen to.