The American Folk Blues Festival was a music festival that toured Europe as an annual event for several years beginning in 1962. It introduced audiences in Europe, including the UK, to leading blues performers of the day such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson, most of whom had never previously performed outside the US. The tours attracted substantial media coverage, including TV shows, and contributed to the growth of the audience for blues music in Europe.
Background
German jazz publicist Joachim-Ernst Berendt first had the idea of bringing original African-Americanblues performers to Europe. Jazz and rock and roll had become very popular, and both genres drew influences directly back to the blues. Berendt thought that European audiences would flock to concert halls to see them in person.
Promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau brought this idea to reality. By contacting Willie Dixon, an influential blues composer and bassist from Chicago, they were given access to the blues culture of the southern United States. The first festival was held in 1962, and they continued almost annually until 1972, after an eight-year hiatus reviving the festival in 1980 until its final performance in 1985.
Sonny Boy Williamson's visit to London with the 1963 festival led to him spending a year in Europe including recording the Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds album,[2] (first released on Star-Club Records in 1965), and recording with the Animals.
Many of the concerts were released on a long-running annual series of records, which was collated again for release in the 1990s.
Official:
American Folk Blues Festival, 1962–1968
The Lost Blues Tapes (1993)
Blues Giants
American Folk Blues Festival 1970
Available on DVD:
The American Folk Blues Festival 1962–1966, Vols 1–3 (black and white, recorded live at the Baden-Baden studio of the German public radio and TV network ARD, and (volume 3) of the Danish national broadcaster. The DVD was by Reelin' In The Years Productions.
American Folk-Blues Festival: The British Tours 1963–1966
Bootleg:
Muddy Waters – Hoochie Coochie Man (Laserlight Fake)