User talk:Daddy Hemingway

Record Producer and Blues Singer DADDY HEMINGWAY was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He began singing in church and in school, continuing on the streetcorners of Boston's Roxbury district with his acapella group, “The Matadors.”

A member of the Beat Poets who read in New York City coffeehouses (along with Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Ted Joans, Ray Bremser, Leroi Jones, etc.) in the late fifties-early sixties, he managed & promoted bands out of Boston & New York, making money so he could write poetry. Most notable were Roy Haynes' early quartets (with Eric Dolphy & Richard Wyands), John Coltrane's 'Love Supreme' quartet, T-Bone Walker's Paris, France & Boston, Mass. bands (1968-1974). He was also bluessinger Taj Mahal's "manager" & consultant on local Massachusetts gigs when Taj was studying  at Mass U. Taj Mahal & Daddy Hemingway also did a live Blues program once a week, in this period, over the Wellesley Girls College radio station!

Hemingway grew up in Boston, and attended local schools & Boston Children's Theatre School as a child, appearing on local Boston TV regularly. Playing clarinet from the age of 9, he always heard music running around in his brain and has always tried to get it out: "That's why I became a record producer!" he laughs.

As a producer in the UK he was smack in the middle of things, producing records in England during the Carnaby Street (1967-68) era, working for such illustrious clients as the Beatles' Apple Music (Artist: Eddie Thornton), EMI Records (Artists: Herbie Goins & Nighttimers, Tony Wilson), RCA Records (Artist: Riff-Raff), breaking in then-15 year-old rocker Darryl Read. His music publishing was administered by Robert Stigwood (Bee-Gees, Cream, Clapton, etc.), and his record production was managed by Michael Jeffries, (Soft Machine, Eric Burdon & The New Animals, Jimi Hendrix).

The last time Daddy Hemingway & Jimi Hendrix were together in London, the conversation got around to Blues & Hendrix told Daddy where T-Bone Walker was living in Paris. And gave him a phone number. Michael Jeffries, manager to both Jimi & Daddy, found Hemingway a production job with an English record label (to make an Blues album in Paris with singer-pianist Joe Turner), to cover the flight & hotel, and off he went.

May 1968. Paris exploding in a 'riotlution' and Hemingway stranded in Paris. NO planes, NO banks, he turned to cooking soulfood for a living at American expatriate Leroy Haynes' Restaurant Haynes. He paid studio & musicians for T-Bone Walker's new album that would win a Grammy Award (1971) by cooking chitlins, an' fried chicken, an' cornbread. Appropriate for the Blues…… As record producer & arranger, his Paris, France recording of T-Bone Walker ('Good Feelin') won a Grammy Award in the category 'Best Ethnic Or Traditional Recording-1970'. "Paris Soul Food", featuring saxophonist Hal Singer & Daddy Hemingway on vocals, produced & arranged in Paris, France by Daddy Hemingway, is a collector's item sold at high prices over the internet.

He started his own band known as The Blackriders in Boston in 1974, and worked with them off and on up to the Eighties, releasing singles in France in 1978 & 1979 on his own Cinedisc label, distributed by a French major, Musidisc. He started up the band again in Paris in 1991, and then moved it to Berlin where he could find work for such a large eclectic Blues ensemble.

The BLACKRIDERS ORCHESTRA began real professional life in Paris, France in 1991, as the successor to previous bands formed and headed by Bluessinger DADDY HEMINGWAY (MALIBU LIMOUSINE, HEMINGWAY, CAFE HEMINGWAY ORCHESTRA, GUERILLAS, etc.)

In 1993, Daddy Hemingway & the BLACKRIDERS ORCHESTRA changed European headquarters from Paris, France to Berlin, Germany, celebrating their arrival with two star-studded, packed concerts in East Berlin's Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears). Berlin society embraced them with open arms, opening the door to concerts from Theodor-Heuss Platz (Opening of Theodor Restaurant - outdoors - New Year's eve 1993-1994) in Berlin-West to Potsdamer Platz (Opening of Sony Style store, April 2000) in Berlin-East.

Popular in the former D.D.R.-East Germany (where Blues was officially considered as one of the few cultural arts the United States has given to the world), the Blackriders Orchestra traveled to Leipzig, Dresden, Rostock, Cottbus & other locations in the eastern part of the new Germany, and performed for the 50th anniversary of Berlin's Ausländischer Presse Verein (Foreign Correspondents Association) in the Staatsratsgebäude - East-Germany's 'White House' - as well as two unusual appearances onstage at the Deutsche Oper Berlin opera house.

Still a statesman for the Blues, Daddy Hemingway and his Blackriders Orchestra recently appeared in concerts in London, England and in Torino, Italy, representing the ex-DDR state of SAXONY.