Nick Gravenites and John Cipollina - Live In Athens At The Rodon 1987-88 (1991)

The name Nick Gravenites is probably familiar mainly to aficionados of '60s Chicago blues and San Francisco blues-rock and psychedelia of the same era, but not to a wider audience, because although Gravenites was an important contributor to the music during its heyday, he has unfortunately been sparsely recorded and often worked behind the scenes over the years. More people are likely to know him for the dozens of great songs he wrote: "Born in Chicago" (Paul Butterfield), "Buried Alive in the Blues" (Janis Joplin), "East-West," "Work Me Lord," "Groovin' Is Easy," "Bad Talkin' Bluesman," and literally hundreds of others. Gravenites' compositions have been recorded by Paul Butterfield, Janis Joplin, the Electric Flag, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Big Brother & the Holding Company, James Cotton, Otis Rush, Jimmy Witherspoon, David Crosby, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Tracy Nelson, Howlin' Wolf, Roy Buchanan, Pure Prairie League, and others. He also made quite a name for himself as a producer, working on albums by Otis Rush, James Cotton, Michael Bloomfield, Janis Joplin, and others. Gravenites' sessionography is extensive; he's contributed to more than 50 albums as a singer, guitarist, bandleader, and/or producer.

The son of first-generation Greek immigrants, Gravenites grew up on Chicago's South Side and entered the University of Chicago in 1956. He began to play guitar in college, was immediately drawn to the university's large folk music club, and shortly thereafter began hanging out in the blues clubs. He met Paul Butterfield, who was still in high school, through the university's folk music club, though Butterfield never attended the University of Chicago. They began playing acoustic blues and folk songs together at campus-area coffeehouses. Also in the late '50s, he became friends with both black and white blues players then hanging out in the Chicago blues clubs, musicians like Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf, Mike Bloomfield, and Charlie Musselwhite.

A mid-'90s album with his group Animal Mind, titled Don't Feed the Animals, was released by Taxon Records, andGravenites joined Bob Margolin and others in a Kennedy Center tribute concert to bluesman Muddy Waters, taped in the fall of 1997 for airing on PBS. During the 2000s Gravenites could be found along with a host of other blues and blues-rock luminaries -- including Harvey Mandel(Canned Heat, John Mayall), Barry Goldberg (Electric Flag), Tracy Nelson (Mother Earth), Corky Siegel (Siegel-Schwall Band), and Sam Lay (Butterfield Blues Band) -- inChicago Blues Reunion, an aggregation featured on the CD/DVD set Buried Alive in the Blues (recorded at an October 2004 concert in Berwyn, IL), released in 2005 by Out the Box RecordsIn the late '50s he began making periodic trips to San Francisco, and spent nearly ten years commuting between Chicago and San Francisco before finally settling in Northern California in the mid-'60s. Gravenites was a key player and impresario on both the Chicago blues scene and the emerging blues-rock and psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco. In 1967, he formed a short-lived but legendary band, the Electric Flag, with guitarist Bloomfield, organist Barry Goldberg, bassist Harvey Brooks, and drummer Buddy Miles. the Electric Flag made their first performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and their first album, A Long Time Comin', made the Top 40; the group continued to record into the mid-'70s. Gravenitescontinued to perform through the 1970s and '80s around San Francisco and Northern California, filling his live shows with raw, burning, very economical guitar playing and soulful singing. His solo and collaborative albums during this period include My Labors (CBS, 1969), the Steelyard Bluessoundtrack (Liberty, 1973), Junkyard In Malibu (Line, 1980), and Blue Star (Line, 1980). As a founding member and lead guitarist for Quicksilver Messenger Service, John Cipollina helped shape the psychedelic sound of San Francisco in the 1960s. Most musicians on the scene were folkies who eventually turned acid rock, but Cipollina and fellow guitarist Gary Duncan were hard rockers when they formed Quicksilver Messenger Service in the mid-'60s. The band's self-titled 1968 debut brought them some attention, but it was the live, louder, and looser follow-up that made Cipollina a guitar legend. Guitarists would study 1969's Happy Trails for years to come. Cipollina also became famous for the strange amp stack he toured with, which included six Wurlitzer horns on top. Unfortunately, lineup changes would keep Quicksilver from finding firm footing until years later andCipollina would be gone by then, having quit the band in 1970.

The guitarist would go on to spend time in Copperhead, Raven, Terry & the Pirates, Zero, and the Frank Novato Band. He was still a guitarist's guitarist and could be found on stage more often than not, but none of these projects were to be as successful as Quicksilver. In the mid-'80s his health began to decline and he often needed a cane or a wheelchair. He fought respiratory problems hard for the next few years and still kept a busy schedule. On May 29, 1989, Cipollina was preparing for a show at San Francisco's Chi Chi Club when he died at the age of 45 from emphysema. The show ended up being a tribute to the guitarist with Cipollina's brother Mario -- bassist for Huey Lewis & the News -- leading an all-star lineup of Bay Area musicians. His famous amp stack and Gibson SG guitar are on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, OH.

.listen here

Buy @ Amazon: USA - FR - UK