I got a call one evening from Jim “Fig” Field, asking if I would like to run down to the scene of an estate sale where he happened to find a 1920s Aristocrat model Buescher alto sax. It was cheap and in mint condition. I said I’d prefer he buy it for me on the spot and bring it to our next gig! Turned out I loved that horn! That was in 1987.
Thereafter, I got more interested in playing The Blues. In the early ‘90s, Mary Leinfelder, a popular local blues singer, suggested I go jam with John Beach who sang and played keyboard at Nikki’s bar downtown. Back in the ‘60s’ I had played in trad jazz bands with John’s dad, Rex, on the piano, and John welcomed me to sit in. When I got the two of us a gig in 1995 at the multi-cultural Chang-OHara pub on Selby in St. Paul, we recruited Dave Faison on bass and Paul Lagos on drums, which group proceeded to teach me their classic bluesy tunes. The star Delta blues man in town at the time, Dave Ray, of Koerner, Ray, and Glover recording fame, heard us and allowed as how he would like to learn some of our traditional jazz tunes. When he joined, we were at first all over the place in styles, chord choices, and sounds and it was pretty sad for quite a while. Then Mary Leinfelder joined us on vocals and eventually we got cooking, with an increasing following and had a regular gig on Saturday and Tuesday eves at Leo Gadbois’ friendly “Changs.”
Soon thereafter, Stefan Kren, looking for recording business for his studio, brought his equipage in to record us live. We didn’t pay much attention to what he was recording. Only years later his mastered tapes reappeared in a big pile found when Stacy and I sold our home and moved to an apartment. As a Pandemic-Time hobby in 2020 I digitized the best of these audio tapes and issue them here. The lead tunes of each CD feature a different band member: Beach on “Holy Cow,” Leinfelder on “Honeysuckle,” and Ray on “Person-to-Person.” Personel on bass and singers vary. The core stayed the same ‘till we were let off in 1999 by Leo’s new young manager who complained “we had too much business for them to handle” on Saturdays! It was a new millenium!
These recordings are rough and ready performances along with sounds of a live audience. Those few of the BBBB (the Blackburn Beach Blues Band) still alive, find them full of fun, with both good and painful memories! Our studio-recorded CD, “Blues in My Heart,” is also found on this site. Henry Blackburn. August, 2021.