Notts Music Archive
A history of groups and musicians from Nottingham, the County and the wider East Midlands region in the mid to late 20th Century
Big Bill Broonzy live at a private party just off Forest Road, Nottingham, 1955, probably Thursday 20th October running into Friday 21st after a gig at the jazz club earlier that evening.
1. I’m Gonna Sit Down at the Feastin’ Table (trad) 2.12
2. Swing Low Sweet Chariot (trad) 1.50
3. Make me a Pallet on the Floor (W.C. Handy/Elman) 1.44
4. House Rent Stomp (Broonzy) 1.27
5. Bill Bailey (H. Cannon) 2.13
6. I’ve Been Waiting For You (Broonzy) 1.08
7. Goodnight Irene (H. Leadbetter/Lomax) 3.40
These recordings were released on an album called “Trouble in mind” in 1978.
Goodnight Irene was firstly a Leadbelly composition but itself based on the Gussie Lord Davis song from 1886.
There is a wider page about Big Bill’s visits to Nottingham here.
I feel this is such a significant recording from Nottingham in the middle of the twentieth century. It has some historical value that can’t be understated. A small but resonant sound that captures a moment both musically and socially important, and literally “just up our road”. While it isn’t a pivotal moment in rock in a way that like seeing The Beatles at the Cavern and the Sex Pistols at the Manchester Free Trade Hall it might have a little of that “I was there” feel to us now.
That the history of rock and pop on our shores is forever indebted to the music of the African-American culture is beyond doubt and the blues, soul and jazz have informed and excited us to produce our own genre’s and great songs. When the great sixties British groups exploded onto the world scene, while having their own deep seated folk traditions as a background, soul, jazz and the blues were a significant part of that musical renaissance. The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and a thousand others found the blues and famously sent it back to “White America” for them to learn their own musical heritage which had been unknown to them because of the racial divide which permeated the USA at that time.
While Britain was not without its racial problems, after the war the social climate was different here, a little more open to some new experiences as the slow toil of rebuilding took place through the fifties. In the world of music the small gatherings of British jazz musicians and fanatics up and down the country learnt about the traditional American music of both white and black America which artists like Ken Coleyer and Chris Barber slowly introduced to us.
Bill, whose grandparents had been slaves before it was abolished in 1865, first played in Britain in 1951, able to avoid the rather restrictive musician union rules of those days by being billed as an instrumentalist. He subsequently visited Britain many times, touring the country by bus or train, and being courted and looked after by Britain’s trad jazz community in whichever town he would visit. He was an instant success with the British jazz fans who were eager to hear the blues first hand.
When Big Bill died in August 1958 he was one of the last in a line of down south blues men who, along with the other bluesmen that were becoming known to a new British audience, had influenced those sixties guitarists who paved the way for the blues rock explosion.
In the more relaxed atmosphere of a room full of late night revellers Bill plays some of his repertoire with the same spirit he would at regular gigs but to maybe twenty or thirty people who caught wind of this party. At the time I imagine those lucky people talked about that night for a few years and it wasn’t the last time Big Bill played in the area. He played both Nottingham and West Bridgford in 1957, the Dancing Slipper gig being recorded as well.
It is unlikely anyone from the room that night in 1955 is still alive to tell us more but at least this 14 minutes gives us a small window into that magic night.
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