Daryl Davis on Chuck Berry's Performance at The Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival

I'm re-running this one because of the great comment I just got, below, from a fan who stepped on his blue suede shoes during the show.  No warning required-- check out his reaction when she tracks him down to apologize!


A long time  ago I asked the amazing Daryl Davis if he'd consider writing a "review" of Chuck Berry's performance at The Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival from his rather unique position on stage.  He agreed to do so once he'd completed a bunch of other projects that included recording sessions, performances, and a performance with his buddy and mentor Pinetop Perkins.  I was pretty excited.  But as usual, what we got from Daryl Davis is bigger than what you might hope for.  Everything not in italics comes straight from Mr. Davis.

The Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival started in 1998 and is still going strong and growing in popularity, due to the wonderful insight, professionalism and dedication of its founder and visionary, Don Hooker and his staff. This festival is very unique in that apart from the performing talent, all the producers, stage hands and other festival workers, are volunteers. All the proceeds are distributed to charities. There’s an old saying that I normally live by; “You get what you pay for.” It is been my experience on a number of gigs that if the promoter tries to cut corners and go cheap by not paying for quality and professionalism, then you don’t get it. This festival proves that old cliché can be wrong. I have played festivals all across the country and I can tell you that many with paid professional staffing will find this one very hard to beat.


The 2010 musical lineup for the 2-day weekend Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival included Tinsley Ellis, The Yardbirds, Shemekia Copeland and Buddy Guy on Saturday. The entertainment culminated on Sunday with the talents of among others, Joe Louis Walker, Jimmy Vaughan, and Chuck Berry who closed out this year’s festival.

I arrived at the airport and met a great guy named Jay from the festival staff who was there to pick up Chuck Berry. While we waited, Jay briefed me on the background and history of this particular festival. He was very passionate about his work with the festival, considering the fact that he wasn’t being paid for it. He does this one weekend every year just for the festival. I was soon to learn that everyone I met, including the producer/promoter Don Hooker was equally as passionate, dedicated and nice to work with at the festival. This certainly translates well to the performers who come to do the show. They are treated extremely well with genuine respect and it immediately puts them at ease.

Chuck arrived and Jay took him to the hotel to get checked in. From there, I took Chuck to the festival. It had been calling for bad weather in the area for that day. While the stage is covered, the audience is not and would get wet should it rain. As I drove Chuck to the venue, we rode through cloud bursts of rain which would alternate with sunshine. I crossed my fingers in hopes that the bad weather would hold off and festival goers would not be deterred from attending. Amazingly, my finger-crossing trick worked!!! We arrived to beautiful weather. No expense was spared. Very nice mobile trailers served as dressing rooms, not the tents that one sees at some of the other festivals.

I got Chuck situated in his dressing room and went to listen to some of Jimmy Vaughan’s set. When Jimmy’s set was over, I went up on stage and assisted the stage hands with the correct placement and electronic knob settings of the two Fender Dual Showman amps and speaker cabinets that had been specially rented for Chuck Berry.

Looking out from the stage was a sea of people and behind them was the beautiful Chesapeake Bay complete with passing boats. A performer could not have asked for a better setting. I returned to the dressing room and tuned Chuck’s guitar as well as my own which I brought for backup. When it was time, Chuck followed me to the stage and when the MC announced his name, thousands of people rose to their feet clapping and cheering to acknowledge the person who 50 some years ago created a whole new form of music. I handed him his guitar and took my place on the piano. He waved at the audience and then went into the familiar Chuck Berry guitar riff that starts "Roll Over Beethoven" and many other Chuck Berry songs. By the second song, the moist salty air blowing off the Chesapeake Bay had affected the tuning of his guitar. He switched to mine, but it too had been affected. A couple of stage hands were right on top of it and rescued each guitar and quickly re-tuned them.

This being a Blues festival, Chuck mixed in some Blues tunes with his Rock’n’Roll repertoire. He has a number of his own Blues compositions and one of my favorites which I immensely enjoy playing with him is Wee Wee Hours. But he did not pull that one out this particular evening.

There was a slight pause in the show when during one of the songs, Chuck asked a videographer to not videotape. The cameraman didn’t understand and Chuck came to me at the piano and asked me to take care of it. I called over one of the sound techs and informed him that Mr. Berry would not continue the show until the camera was turned off. The tech explained that the video was not being recorded it was simply being used for the closed circuit big screens so the audience far back would be able to see the performance on stage. I advised him to still have it cut off. He did and Chuck continued the show. About halfway into the performance, Chuck motioned to the cameraman who was standing in the wing, that it was now okay to continue filming. I don’t think he understood what Chuck was saying because he had a puzzled look upon his face and didn’t pick up the camera that was sitting at his feet.

Chuck is a master of pacing himself. This comes not just intuitively but through over 50 years of seasoned performance experience. He began to kick the show into high gear. More often than not, he will close his show with Reelin’ & Rockin’ by inviting women on stage to dance. This time, we had about 20 minutes left and he decided to invite the girls from the audience on stage during his performance of "Nadine." Ironically, the great Blues and R&B singer Nadine Rae who had performed earlier that day was backstage watching the show. She came out with some of the other women and shook her stuff to the delight of the audience. The party continued with "Johnny B. Goode" and "Reelin’ & Rockin’."   (read more about Nadine Rae on her website.)

As he will sometimes do when I play with him, Chuck came to the piano and handed me the guitar to play while he took over the roll of pianist. Many people may not know it, but Chuck can play piano. In fact, piano was his first instrument before switching to guitar. While one of his older sisters was being trained in Classical music on the piano, little Chuck taught himself to play some Boogie Woogie by ear.

Chuck is as fond of harmonies as he is of melodies. When one hears his guitar licks and solos, many of them are what are known in the guitar world as double stops. It means he is playing two strings at once. These notes harmonize with each other. He plays the piano much in the same fashion by playing two notes at once in harmony. Chuck has often mentioned T-Bone Walker as one of his influences. If one were to strip away the harmony note and leave just the melody note to some of Chuck’s leads, one would easily see the influence as T-Bone played similarly but less syncopated and using a single note line instead of the double stop approach.

The performance concluded with the aforementioned "Reelin’ & Rockin’" and Chuck made his way back to the dressing room. I packed up Chuck’s and my guitars. Don Hooker who makes this festival possible every year is an affable, hands-on person who enjoys the performances and enjoys mingling out front with the audience. He is very respectful of the talent he brings and their privacy. At this point he had not even met Chuck. I introduced him and some of the other charitable workers to Chuck who had already read up on the great work that Mr. Hooker was doing and was pleased to meet him.

We said our goodbyes to the wonderful festival people and Chuck signed some autographs for fans, before getting in my car for me to drive him to his hotel. Along the way, we stopped to get something to eat and as we drove through Washington, DC that evening, Chuck reminisced about playing there in the 1950s. He mentioned the Howard Theatre. Having graduated from Howard University, I knew exactly where it was. I also knew he would be stunned and disappointed to know how run down it had become. I made a detour and under the cover of darkness drove Chuck his old stomping ground.

This guy had not been there in over 50 years but still knew the area and was telling me about what was on which corner and little tidbits of information. Sure enough, when we turned down the street, everything he had said was accurate. He pointed out the rooming house where he would stay because in those days, Blacks couldn’t stay in the White hotels. He had named a bar next door to the Howard where the entertainers would hang out. Sure enough, there it was. It had since changed names but it was still the same bar in the same building.

As I suspected, when he saw the now decrepit Howard Theatre, his excitement turned somber and he shook his head. I explained there has been a lot of talk about refurbishing the Howard and that while there is hope, so far it’s been nothing but talk. The neighborhood is now very crime- and drug-ridden. As we drove around the building and through the backstage alley, he pointed out the backstage door he used to use. I could tell these were bittersweet memories; the good times he had there, countered by the racism he would have to face off stage at hotels and restaurants to coming back 50 years later and reliving the fun times in his mind of this once thriving area, only to face the reality of the run down neighborhood and it’s decrepit landmark. While the neighborhood has new faces, there are still people who reside there from back in the day and would remember seeing Chuck Berry at the theatre across the street from their homes. I couldn’t help but wonder what they would have thought had they been able to see through my tinted windows on my car and seen their idol from their youth, fifty years later sitting in front of the Howard.  (For more about the Howard Theater, see http://www.howardtheatre.org/home.html)

He continued to tell me more stories about playing in DC and some of the places where he performed. I drove him by these places as well. Then it was on to the hotel to get him some well-deserved rest before his early morning flight. I drove back to my home with my life that much more enriched from not only playing with him but from receiving an historical education from him as well.

- Daryl Davis

(Daryl Davis will be coming to my cold, gray neck of the woods in August to teach and play at the Centrum Blues workshops and festival in Port Townsend, Washington.  Read about it here.  Find his website here.

You CAN go Back Home Again

I wish “Back Home” would come back.

ATCO reissued “Rockit.” “London Sessions” made it onto CD at some point. But “Back Home” didn’t stay home. It was there when I became a Chuck Berry fanatic in 1971, and then pretty much disappeared into the bargain bins. Only a few cuts, like "Tulane" and "Have Mercy Judge" have survived on various reissues.

(Since this post first appeared the glorious "Have Mercy" set came out.  It has all the "Back Home" stuff, and a few "Back Home" sessions things I don't have much use for.  Still want a "Back Home" CD!)

But last night, in the Wee Wee Hours, I heard "Back Home" again, or a few dazzling scraps of it anyway-- like a faded memory, without even turning on my record player.

I was fussing around on the net and found the site of Robert “Boogie Bob” Baldori, a man who played with Chuck Berry as much as anyone, and who was rumored (in books, and Wikipedia) to be among the personnel on the record. (The album, though graced with fine liner notes by Michael Lyden, doesn’t identify the players.)

There was an e-mail address, so I dropped him a line just to confirm that he played on “Back Home.”

I got a late night response that Baldori had played both harmonica and electric piano on the record, and that other personnel included Lafayette Leake (grand piano) and Phil Upchurch (who I believe played bass on the record. Still checking that one).

Baldori made his mark. “Back Home” is dominated by harmonica like no other Chuck Berry album except “Chuck Berry in London” (not to be confused with The London Sessions,) a mid-sixties record with some good blues. In fact, the harmonicas are what make both those efforts sound like albums, and not just song collections.

Baldori was a member of the mid-sixties Detroit rock group The Woolies. The Woolies had recently had a hit with Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love,” and had toured with Berry for a couple of years after filling in for a failed backup band during a five night East Lansing club date. The Woolies and Baldori kept backing Chuck Berry for years—and the attached photograph tells a lot about the musical connection Berry and Baldori had.

Who Do You Love? Baldori and Berry

What I was remembering very specifically last night was an instrumental called “Flying Home” with wonderful, energetic piano by Leake and a melody provided largely by Baldori's harp. (I now have to dig out the old disk and listen more intently to the bass).

Chuck Berry had already recorded the Benny Goodman/Lionel Hampton/Charlie Christian song “Flying Home” during his brief string with Mercury records—notably on “Live at the Fillmore.” Along with another instrumental that he recycled as "Rockin' at the Fillmore" it’s a nice glimpse into Chuck Berry the aspiring big band jazz musician.

“Flying Home” is an example of “rhythm changes”—a jazz chord progression originally used in the song “I Got Rhythm” that Chuck Berry talks about in his autobiography. (He said something to the effect that, having learned the blues progression and the rhythm changes he could cover 80% of the songs he wanted to play.)

On “Back Home” the song loses some of its Goodman/Hampton/Christian decoration and becomes a Chuck Berry/Robert Baldori song. I love it.

It is a song of pure ecstatic energy—a perfect incarnation of a day when you can go home again, and the plane’s landing, and your loved ones are there at the gate, and there’s gonna be a long party after which everything will be good from now through eternity. It’s music for passing through pearly gates, or at least airport gates, with beautifully refined and energetic guitar work by Chuck Berry alternating with cascading, exhilarating piano notes by Leake. Baldori tops it all with a new and memorable melody line.

By the way, there’s something about Chuck Berry and piano playing lawyers! Robert Baldori is an attorney. Berry’s St. Louis keyboardist, Robert Lohr, (who does a fine job filling the large, tapping shoes of Johnny Johnson,) is a lawyer, too.

As a member of the bar, this gives me hope--but then I plug in and remember…

Anyway, Robert Baldori’s bright red website can be found at http://www.boog.com/. And for a bit of history, some new music, and perhaps a personally packaged memento from the legendary Phil Upchurch try http://www.philupchurch.com/ .

Got a Chance-- Had to Take It! (A Super Fan Connects With Chuck Berry)

The guy in the blue shirt look pretty satisfied with life, doesn't he? 

Well-- ever dream you could meet Chuck Berry?  Maybe have dinner with him?  Or just a chat?

Ever fantasize that you could play guitar with Chuck Berry?   Not on stage-- just for fun?  A little bit of blues?


Carmelo Genovese, an Italian author, journalist and musician has done all those things-- and has pictures to prove it.  He sent some photos to me after reading something on this website-- and I had to learn more about them.  Carmelo also sent an article he wrote describing Chuck Berry's performance at a private party at London's 100 Club.  The best part: a rare, surprise appearance by Mr. Berry at the soundcheck, not unlike the one Daryl Davis described at B. B. King's . 

In this interview he tells about a whole bunch of shows; about meeting Mr. Berry the first time through the driver's window of his rental car; about getting a volunteer position on one of Berry's European tours and about racing across Milan in a Lancia (Berry), a Ford Escort (Genovese), and an SUV (road raged Italian Flattop).  He tells about how he got a last minute bear hug from his hero at the end of a long day; and he tells about taking the chance playing the blues with Chuck Berry backstage.  Dang!  Bravo, Carmelo!

But we started at the very beginning.

What is it about Chuck Berry’s music that got you “hooked?”

When I was a child I was always captivated by the boogie which I heard sometimes on tv. In fact I didn’t know yet it was named “boogie” but I surely recognized that walking bass and I loved it. In 1977, while in France for my summer holidays, I listened to my cousin Talì who played guitar and sang Johnny Halliday and Eddie Mitchell songs. So the first time I consciously listened to Chuck’s music was through the French versions of “Johnny B. Goode,” “Bye Bye Johnny,” “Carol” and “Promised Land.” When he saw how fascinated I was with rock and roll - I started to play guitar that summer just because I wanted to learn the intro of Johnny B. Goode - he gave me a 45 (the wonderful Arthur Smith’s “Guitar Boogie”) and a Chuck Berry double album (“La Terre Promise”) which, when I went back to Sanremo, became my greatest treasures. Almost all my friends were into progressive music – they were crazy for Genesis, Yes, ELP, Camel, Caravan - but I couldn’t stand those long long suites. The first record I bought was Jimi Hendrix’s Axis: Bold As Love (but I wasn’t prepared yet for it, so it remained on the shelf for a couple of years…) and Elvis’ Sun Sessions, which gave me the other main part of the rock and roll equation.

How many times have you met the man? Where? How?

In fact I’ve always been lucky: the first time I met Chuck was the first time that I went to see him live. It was the end of August, 1983, at Il Covo di Nord-Est-- a well known nightclub in Santa Margherita Ligure, near Genoa. I went there with my great friend Paolo “Beba” Bellucci and we had the chance to see Chuck when he arrived at the Club: he was parking a long green BMW 730 and we stood firmly at the side of his door with a notepad in hand for the autograph. He looked at us and with a sardonic smile he closed the dark window glass, remaining inside the car for few long seconds. We were thrilled and nervous. When he came out of the car he was kind and signed us an autograph. Later we had the chance to meet him at the bar and he was very kind. I told him I knew all his songs by heart and he asked me with a smile to show him how true this it was: I started to sing “Johnny B. Goode” (man, I must have been so boring…) and after the first verse he shook my hand vigorously with a big smile.

He played a great show (there were Jim Marsala, Ingrid Berry and also Billy Peek on guitar) which was later broadcast on national RAI television. Chuck argued with the promoter because it was not stated on the contract about the tv deal, so he probably asked for more money. That night, attending the show, there was the famous Italian journalist Gianni Minà and the singer songwriter Edoardo Bennato (who played and loved rock and roll ; here's a link) and who, at the time, was one of the best selling artists in Italy. He asked Chuck to sing “Nadine” and, after the show, I heard him telling his friends about it and he was so happy Chuck had sang it.

Then I saw him several more times - Rome (a great show in 1987 with Johnnie Johnson), Pistoia Blues (an unforgettable show with Buddy Guy & Junior Wells and Albert King on the same bill), Juan Les Pins, Salon En Provence – before meeting him again.

You’ve lived the dream! How on earth did you get into Chuck Berry’s dressing room and play guitar with him?!?! Tell us about the experience, and how it came to be.

It was February 1997, Chuck was due to come to Italy for a couple of shows (Milan and Campione d’Italia – which is a small town at the border with Switzerland) and I was lucky and smart enough to find me the chance to help the tour manager. The previous year I had become a pen-friend with Jean Pierre Ravelli (a real long-time friend of Chuck) and when I met Chuck at the Milano-Linate airport I told him about the “Ravelli Connection”: he suddenly treated me as the only one to trust in the promoter’s crew.

I spent two days with him and it was an incredible experience. At first, when the tour manager told him “we are expected to be at the sound check at 4.30 pm” he replied “this is not written in the contract.” After a few minutes he said that the car they provided him (a grey Lancia K) was not the Mercedes he expected to find and that he wanted that specific car “as stated in the contract.” (In Milano it’s difficult to find a Mercedes to rent because they usually only rent them with a driver). When he saw that it obviously was a difficult task, he asked if there was another airport in Milan (the Milano-Malpensa airport was 40 miles from there) and asked to go there to search for the car.

The tour manager was nervous because he still hoped to go for the sound check. Going to Malpensa airport and then back to central Milano to the hotel was really fun. I couldn’t believe it: I was driving with my Ford Escort and Chuck was following me driving the Lancia! During the trip he argued with a guy who was driving a big SUV and flashing his lights because he wanted to pass the Lancia: at one point Chuck gave him the impression to approach to the right leaving him the way on the fast lane but, suddenly, he cut across on the left blocking him from passing. The guy went mad and started hooting and screaming. Chuck accelerated and overtook me with the guy almost pushing him a foot from his bumper.

We were driving at more than 100 mph. I was very worried but, at the same time, so excited: it was like finding myself inside “Maybellene” or “You Can’t Catch Me.”

When we arrived at the hotel I met Jean Pierre Ravelli and his lovely wife who where just arrived from Paris. That night the first show was at the Palalido with the band Cherrie Pye as backup band. They were not “swing” enough (they played a robust 70’s rock-blues) and the show was really bad. After the end, Chuck understood people felt cheated, so he came back on stage for an encore and sat at the piano. He started to play but the sound man had already cut off the power…Chuck stayed at the piano for a long minute waiting but nothing happened so he gave up while people were booing to the organization.

We went back to the hotel and then met the following afternoon to go to Campione d’Italia casino (where he had to play). The previous drummer had been “fired” and there was another one. I brought my old Silvertone gutar and, while Chuck was relaxing in the casino with Jean Pierre I did the soundcheck with the band playing Chuck’s song. Before the show me and my wife Elena had dinner in the dressing room with them. It was incredible: we stayed for about a couple of hours together, talking about many things. Chuck was really kind and asked us where we were from and many other things. I proudly showed him my guitar (a semi-acoustic Silvertone 1446L) I had just bought in Austin the previous year and told him it had a real good sound for rock and roll and that I had a good deal paying it just 450 dollars. He looked at me with a smile and told me “probably at the time they sold them for 99 dollars…”

After the dinner he called the young promoter in the dressing room and for around 10 minutes had a dispute over a few “business details” of their deal. It was very instructive to witness the way he was treating the deal.

When the promoter went away Chuck took his guitar and started to play the chords to “Downbound Train” (Elena while having dinner told him that she loved that song) then he played the whole “Havana Moon” singing it with Jean Pierre. Then he started to play a blues and I told myself “Carmelo this is a chance you won’t have again in your life”, so without asking permission or saying one single word I grabbed my guitar and started to play rhythm letting the music do the talking. I was worried, and he didn’t even look at me, but when I started to play along with him he sang “C.C. Rider” playing some solos. After this one it was time for a fast boogie. I was playing the way he plays that rhythm and all of sudden he theatrically stopped playing, looked at me and with a big smile, and said loudly “Do you want a job!!!”

I was in rock and roll heaven!

He started to play rhythm and told me to play solos, which I surely did at the best of my knowledge. My smile went from one ear to the other… The whole “session” lasted around 15 minutes but all of sudden someone knocked on the door and said “Mr. Berry you should be on stage in 5 minutes”. So there he went with his guitar…

The show was better than the night before and the back up band did the best they could do to keep things going. Around 2 a.m. we were at the hotel, we shook hands and he went into the elevator to go to his room. But there was room for another surprise: when I said "goodbye," another time, waving my hand, he came out of the elevator, said “we say 'goodbye' the Russian way” (before coming to Milan he had just played in Moscow), and gave me a strong hug. I was really deeply touched and told him “Take care Chuck”. He replied “take care…man.” He didn’t recall my name but, at this point, this had really no meaning for me. The next day I wrote 16 pages, full of details and impression, which I carefully keep as a treasure of life.

After this time I met him again in Nice (1998 - La Grand Parade du Jazz), Montecarlo (2002 - at the Sporting), Bellinzona (2003 - Piazza in Blues), Milano (2005 - Teatro Smeraldo) and London (2008 - 100 Club). Every time we had the chance to go and say hello in the dressing room and one time we took a couple of really nice pictures.

In Milano (it was my birthday) I also spent all evening backstage and after the show I had dinner at the hotel with him and the band (CBII, Ingrid, James). What can I say? There are no words to describe how it has been to find myself living this experiences after 20 years in which I had played and listened to his music almost daily. I know I have been a really lucky guy and I will never thank Jean Pierre Ravelli enough for the way he helped me to fulfill this dream.

I see you went to Wentzville and Berry Park—tell us about that trip.

In 1996 I finally went to the USA. A coast to coast trip from L.A. and San Francisco to Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Missouri, and then to Philadelphia and New York. Elena and I went to Wentzville but there are no particular anecdotes to tell. We tried to go in, thinking that it was possible to visit, but they told people were not allowed to go in. We just took a picture in front of Berry Park.

How on earth did you get that pair of pants?!?!

In 1997 we went in Paris and Jean Pierre Ravelli invited us for dinner in his home. We had a wonderful time and he showed us a lot of pictures and memorabilia. It was fun to have that picture with the Toronto rock and roll festival pants!

Do you plan to make the trip to Senigallia to see him perform this summer?

I obviously would like it but I don’t know yet if I will be able to go.

Tell us about your book. Is it still in print?

At the end of the 90’s I started to write for some magazines and at one point they asked me to write a book about Chuck. I also have written books about New Orleans and Louisiana music, Elvis Presley, and the birth of rock and roll (LINK). They are out of print but you could still find them in various shops. Writing for Jam Magazine (http://www.jamonline.it/pages/) I also had the chance to interview Jerry Lee Lewis (phone call while he was in his Nesbit Ranch in Mississippi) and it was a really thrilling experience. Now I write a few articles and I have a lot of fun with my band (The Boogie Ramblers): we play a lot of Chuck Berry songs, you know….

And so they do... And be sure to hang on to the end to hear Carmelo absolutely nail the guitar solo!