News Release

2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival to celebrate the great Howlin' Wolf

PORTLAND , Ore.— The late Howlin’ Wolf, arguably the greatest bluesman to emerge from the Chicago blues scene of the late 1950s and 1960s, was a major influence on such rockers as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The 2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival will pay homage to this central figure of the genre through films, special interviews and a main stage performance with Wolf’s longtime guitarist Hubert Sumlin and Portland blues harmonica ace Paul deLay and his band and Jimmy Vivino, guitarist for the Conan O'Brien Show.

The Northwest Film Center presents Reel Blues 7

The Northwest Film Center invites you to two special outdoor screenings on the Oregonian A&E Front Porch Stage.

“Hubert Sumlin: Living the Blues”
Friday, July 2, 10 p.m.
A&E Front Porch Stage
Directors: Jim Kent, Sumner Burgwyn
U.S. , 1987, 60 minutes

Born in Mississippi in 1931, Hubert Sumlin moved to Chicago in the 1950s. He soon began a 25-year association as guitarist with the great Howlin’ Wolf. As Wolf’s steady sideman and in his own career, Sumlin has recorded dozens of classic performances that remain influential favorites for blues and rock guitarists. Sumlin’s career provides an overview of the evolution of the blues from its origins in the Delta to the electric Chicago era that transformed modern American music. Kent and Burgwyn’s loving film gives eloquent testimony to the remarkable career and impact of a living legend. Director Jim Kent will introduce the film.

Hubert Sumlin will perform with the Paul deLay Band and Jimmy Vivino, guitarist for the Conan O'Brien Show at the Waterfront Blues Festival on July 5.

“The Howlin’ Wolf Story”
Saturday, July 3, 10 p.m.
A&E Front Porch Stage
Director Don McGlynn
U.S. 2003, 90 minutes

Don McGlynn’s film is the definitive film portrait of one of the blues’ most forceful artists. Uncut performances of classic tracks, countless excerpts and interviews with fellow musicians, band members, friends and family, tell the story of Wolf’s tragic early years in the Mississippi Delta, family difficulties, little known military service (in Oregon!) and amazing musical legacy. The directors include vintage performances of many of the Wolf’s and Hubert Sumlin’s timeless cuts including “Moanin' at Midnight,” “Shake for Me,” “Dust My Broom,” “Smokestack Lightning,” “Killing Floor” and “Back Door Man.”

Wolf biographer Mark Hoffman, co-author of the just released biography “Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howling Wolf” will introduce the film.

Interview: Mark Hoffman, co-author, "The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf”
Saturday, July 3, 3:15 to 4 p.m.
Household Workshop Stage

Mark Hoffman, co-author of a new biography of Howlin’ Wolf will discuss one of the greatest bluesmen of all time. Ray Varner, former blues DJ, nightclub manager, music writer and concert promoter and co-founder of the Washington Blues Society, will interview Hoffman.

"This fluid, fascinating and thoroughly researched biography is a long overdue tribute to one of the two giants of post-WWII Chicago-style electric blues music. Music writers James Segrest and Mark Hoffman do a superb job of capturing the many facets of Wolf's long career, making it a worthy companion to Robert Gordon’s “Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters,” the other Chicago blues giant. But while Waters was controlled and sexy, Segrest and Hoffman show, in contrast, how Wolf was ferocious, angry and unpredictable, a large man with a powerful, raspy voice and a keen intelligence. Born Chester Burnett in Mississippi in 1910, Wolf, as the authors show, endured crushing poverty and almost constant physical abuse, the source of much of the anger in his music.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review), April 12, 2004

Howlin’ with Hubert: Hubert Sumlin with the Paul deLay Band and Jimmy Vivino
Monday, July 5, 2:15 to 3:30 p.m.
Credit Union Stage

Jimi Hendrix called Hubert Sumlin, “My Favorite Guitarist.” Stevie Ray Vaughan described him as the “heaviest, most original guitar player I’ve ever heard in my life.” “Rolling Stone Magazine” named him “One of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

Quiet and unassuming off the bandstand, Hubert Sumlin developed an incendiary guitar style that provided the perfect foil for the legendary Howlin’ Wolf. Sumlin's twisting, darting, unpredictable guitar lines energized such Wolf classics as “Wang Dang Doodle,” “Howlin’ for

My Darlin,” “The Red Rooster,” “Backdoor Man,” “Killing Floor,” “Smokestack Lightnin’” and “Sittin' on Top of the World.” They are songs that helped define the Chicago blues of the late 1960s and inspired cover versions by the Cream, the Doors, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones.

At his Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival appearance, the Paul deLay Band, joined by Sumlin’s pal and musical director, Jimmy Vivino, guitarist for the Conan O’Brien Show, will back Hubert Sumlin. In the late 1970s, not long after the Wolf’s death, Portland harmonica ace Paul deLay played with Sumlin in a band backing the legendary Chicago blues pianist Sunnyland Slim on a West Coast tour. Sumlin and deLay have remained friends and admirers ever since. deLay considers Sumlin the greatest of the Chicago blues guitarists. Sumlin says of deLay, “For my money, he’s the best harp player on the planet.”

Dick Waterman interviews Hubert Sumlin
Monday, July 5, 4 to 4:45 p.m.
Household Workshop Stage

Following Sumlin’s main-stage performance, blues photographer and historian Dick Waterman will interview Sumlin about his years with Howlin’ Wolf.

Oregon Food Bank

Oregon Food Bank is a nonprofit, charitable organization. It is the hub of a statewide network of more than 800 hunger-relief agencies serving Oregon and Clark County, Wash. Oregon Food Bank recovers food from farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, individuals and government sources. It then distributes that food to 20 regional food banks across Oregon. Eighteen are independent charitable organizations. OFB directly operates the two regional food banks serving the Portland metro area. Those two centers distribute food weekly to more than 300 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other programs helping low-income indivdiuals in Multnomah, Clackamas, Clark and Washington counties. Oregon Food Bank also works to eliminate the root causes of hunger through advocacy and public education.

Festival sponsors

Oregon Food Bank thanks festival sponsors for making the 2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival possible. The 2004 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is presented by First Tech Credit Union with major sponsorship by CO-OP Network, Household, Miller Genuine Draft, KINK fm102 and The Oregonian A&E.

Supporting Sponsorship is provided by iQ Credit Union, Pepsi, Snapple, Safeway Refreshe, Beringer Wine, Henry's, Tully's Coffee, Frito Lay Snacks, Dreyer's Ice Cream, Yoshida Sauce, Smuckers, Stonyfield Farm Yogurt, Zenner's Sausage and Smoked Meats, Gillette, POVA, Riverplace Hotel, OregonLive.com, KBOO, KOIN TV6, Northwest Film Center, Spring PCS, Day Wireless Systems, Green Mountain Energy, Edge Design, Music Millennium, Guitar Center, Beard Frames, Karolyn H. March, Attorney, Cascade Blues Assocation, Oregon Potters Association and Cascade Zydeco Association.

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Contacts:

Jean Kempe-Ware, public relations manager
Oregon Food Bank
503-419-4170 (office)
503-572-7588 (cell)
jkempe-ware@oregonfoodbank.org

Peter Dammann, talent coordinator
503-283-3225