Welcome to a particular version of Homegrown Plus. The passing of harmonica virtuoso and blues grasp Phil Wiggins on Might 7, 2024, was a tragic occasion for the music world, and notably for the American Folklife Heart. Phil was probably the most celebrated musicians within the blues nationwide, and probably the most necessary roots musicians of any sort within the Washington space. For these causes amongst others, AFC has featured Phil in concert events most likely extra typically than every other musician throughout the previous couple of many years. On this put up, we’ll carry collectively movies of a lot of Phil’s live performance appearances, present you some never-before-seen photographs of Phil, and pay tribute to a longtime buddy of the Heart.
Phil Wiggins was a recipient of the Nationwide Heritage Fellowship from the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts, and you’ll find a full biography at their web site at this hyperlink. (Higher but, you’ll be able to learn the largely autobiographical guide Phil wrote with Frank Matheis!) Since these biographical assets can be found, I’ll simply sketch out a short define of Phil’s musical life right here.
Phil Wiggins was born right here in Washington, D.C. in 1954. He spent his childhood summers at his grandmother’s dwelling in Alabama, the place he listened to old-time hymns sung in church within the conventional call-and-response model. Phil was interested in the blues harp as a younger man and commenced his musical profession in Washington, studying from such extraordinary elders as Flora Molton, Esther Mae Scott (“Mom Scott”), Johnny Shines, Sunnyland Slim, Sam Chatmon, Robert Belfour, Howard Armstrong, John Jackson, Archie Edwards, and Wilbert “Huge Chief” Ellis. Phil additionally developed his harmonica sound by listening to performances and recordings of Sonny Terry, Sonny Boy Williamson I, Little Walter, Huge Walter Horton, and Junior Wells, in addition to to many piano and horn gamers. In 1976, by way of piano participant Huge Chief Ellis, Phil met the D.C.-born, Virginia-raised Piedmont blues guitarist John Cephas. Quickly Phil joined Ellis’s band alongside John, and solely a few months after they first met, in September of 1976, Cephas and Wiggins performed as a part of Ellis’s band at one of many American Folklife Heart’s first concert events, a celebration for the restoration of the Neptune Plaza right here on the Library of Congress. Sadly, we don’t appear to have recorded the live performance, however a Library of Congress photographer did attend the occasion. Thus far I’ve solely discovered a contact sheet, however we consider the negatives are retrievable in a couple of weeks time–within the meantime see a low-quality scan beneath!
Splitting off from Huge Chief Ellis’s band, John Cephas and Phil Wiggins performed collectively as a duo for over 30 years. In that point they grew to become probably the most important acts in blues, taking part in throughout the nation and around the globe. They got here to outline the “Piedmont blues” model for a technology of aficionados. They carried out 4 instances in AFC’s Neptune Plaza Live performance Collection, in 1981, 1985, 1988, and 1990. All of Phil’s 5 appearances on the Library of Congress with John Cephas occurred within the years earlier than there was a mechanism to current audio or video freely to the general public, and as a consequence we didn’t search permission to take action, however you’ll be able to hearken to recordings of the Neptune Plaza concert events by visiting us at our analysis middle in Washington, D.C.
Many people on the American Folklife Heart grew to become buddies with Phil throughout his time with John Cephas. Our manufacturing crew labored on their concert events, and several other of us additionally labored for the Smithsonian festivals at which John and Phil first met, and at which they often performed, as our buddy Jeff Place lately remembered.
Since John Cephas’s loss of life in 2009, Phil has performed solo, along with his band the Chesapeake Sheiks, and with many different musical buddies. In these final fifteen years of his life, along with masterful harmonica taking part in, he continued to develop the talents as a singer and songwriter which had marked his work with Cephas. As a harmonica participant, singer, songwriter, and musical collaborator of the very best caliber, Phil Wiggins continued to contribute new music to the blues custom till the tip of his life.
All of us who knew Phil bear in mind him fondly. I used to be an admirer of Cephas and Wiggins’s music earlier than I ever met them, and their recordings had been a part of the soundtrack of my life. Very quickly after I moved to the Washington space to take a place at AFC, I didn’t know whether or not I’d slot in and develop to love the world. Someday I had the window open in my condo in Silver Spring, and I heard what I assumed was a neighbor taking part in a Cephas and Wiggins report. That was comforting in itself, however then the tune ended and I heard a low voice speaking in regards to the subsequent tune. I abruptly realized that Cephas and Wiggins had been taking part in dwell open air on Ellsworth Plaza, proper subsequent door, and I may hear them by way of my condo window! I hurried out to see the remainder of the set, and met John and Phil after the present. The expertise satisfied me that perhaps I’d just like the DC space in any case. For the following 18 years or so, throughout many conferences and conversations, Phil stored making me really feel welcome. As soon as I watched Phil play a terrific set open air in Takoma Park. I had one other dedication proper after his set, so I left instantly after he completed. Later that day I received a Fb message from Phil saying he’d seen me from the stage. He thanked me for listening and expressed remorse that we didn’t get an opportunity to speak. It was a gesture of kindness and thoughtfulness I wouldn’t count on from most of my musical idols!
Phil additionally didn’t pull punches if you happen to requested for his actual ideas and emotions, and in interviews and fewer formal conversations through the years he spoke about recollections of racial discrimination and different abuses that he and his household have suffered. He stated it was generally a battle to keep up the calm and pleasant demeanor all of us knew so effectively. In dialog, the battle solely confirmed when he instructed these painful tales. However in fact, you could possibly really feel the emotion pouring out of him when he sang and performed the blues. Phil’s artwork got here from ache in addition to from pleasure, and he shared himself when he shared his music. The American Folklife Heart extends condolences to his spouse and daughters, his different household, and his buddies and followers.
Live performance Movies and Hyperlinks
Sadly, John Cephas died in 1989, which was in regards to the time the American Folklife Heart started taking pictures concert events on video and putting them on-line, so none of our on-line movies options Phil along with his longtime musical companion. However just a few months after Cephas’s loss of life, Phil participated in a live performance right here on the Library of Congress which IS on-line: The Legends and Legacies live performance, honoring the folklorist Joe Wilson, who did pioneering work on the Nationwide Council for Conventional Arts and elsewhere. For this live performance, Phil teamed up with Corey Harris, a groundbreaking blues guitarist and singer recognized for bringing the blues nearer to its African roots whereas additionally collaborating with a variety of standard artists.
Harris has shared phases, recorded, and toured with an esteemed array of musicians, together with BB King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Man, Henry Butler, R.L. Burnside, John Jackson, Ali Farka Toure, Dave Matthews Band, Tracy Chapman, Olu Dara, Wilco, and Natalie Service provider. Harris was featured as an artist and narrator in Martin Scorcese’s critically acclaimed documentary “Really feel Like Going House” (2003), tracing the blues from its origins in West Africa to the southern United States. In 2007, simply a few years earlier than his look on the Library with Phil Wiggins, Harris was honored with a MacArthur Fellowship, generally generally known as the “genius grant,” for his progressive and eclectic strategy to music. This prestigious grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Basis acknowledged Harris as an artist who fearlessly forges new paths. For all these causes, we had been honored to current Phil Wiggins in a duo with Corey Harris, and their set seems at 02:01:00 of the live performance video within the participant beneath.
For his subsequent look on the Library of Congress, we invited Phil to carry out with a gaggle we billed as Phil Wiggins and Buddies, an all-star blues and dance group together with Phil (harmonica and vocals), Rick Franklin (guitar and vocals) Marcus Moore (violin) and Junious Brickhouse (dance). Rick Franklin has been entertaining D.C.-area audiences along with his personal combination of conventional Piedmont blues and early business “hokum” blues for over thirty years, and is among the space’s favourite blues musicians. Marcus Childs Moore is a Marion, Alabama native who earned his bachelors in Jazz Violin Efficiency from Metropolis School of New York in 2009. Marcus has carried out with quite a few musical greats and legends, and was a member of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra for 2 years. Junious “Home” Brickhouse is an award-winning city dance educator, choreographer, group chief, folklorist, and cultural preservationist. As founder and govt director of City Artistry, Inc., Junious has impressed and created a motion of artists devoted to the genuine preservation of city dance tradition and group whereas discovering methods to responsibly innovate.
By a typographical error someplace within the Library, the Phil Wiggins and Buddies live performance got here to be described as “Acoustical Blues and Dance from Maryland.” This uncommon phrasing had an old style ring that amused Phil, so we’ve stored it! After their live performance on the Library of Congress, the quartet continued to carry out, and had been billed as The Phil Wiggins Home Social gathering. Be part of the social gathering within the participant beneath!
Phil’s subsequent look on the Library of Congress had its roots in a tragic state of affairs affecting a few of Phil’s buddies: in January, 2015, the American Folklife Heart had signed a contract with Nationwide Heritage Fellows the Holmes Brothers for an look in April. Already affected by the lack of their drummer Popsy Dixon, who had simply handed away, the well-known trio was diminished to the duo of Sherman and Wendell Houses. By March, Wendell had turn into in poor health and invited his apprentice, the gifted guitarist Brooks Lengthy, to affix the group. As his well being declined, Wendell withdrew from the live performance completely, and Lengthy took his place within the lineup. We requested Phil Wiggins to affix Holmes and Lengthy for the present, and the three did a fabulous job. On the time, blues musician and folklorist Barry Lee Pearson wrote a biographical essay in regards to the Holmes Brothers for us, which you’ll be able to learn at this hyperlink. Benefit from the live performance within the participant beneath!
In 2017, Phil participated within the first of our Archive Problem Sampler Concert events. For this live performance, he was joined by piano participant Ian Walters on a set that included a number of songs from our archive. We additionally did transient video interviews with the 5 artists who carried out quick units. We’ve already featured the 2017 sampler live performance and interview in a Homegrown Plus weblog, which you’ll find at this hyperlink. The weblog will inform you the particular instances at which to search out Phil’s set and interview–nevertheless it is perhaps enjoyable to look at the entire thing!
The subsequent time Phil got here to see us, it was to steer considered one of our “Summer season Music Jam” collection on September 29, 2018. The thought of the jams is to be a welcoming environment the place all ability ranges are invited to play alongside. Since it’d discourage newbies from displaying as much as play, we don’t report the jams and put them on-line, so we don’t have video of this enjoyable occasion. However I did take some photographs of the Blues Jam, which you’ll be able to see on this weblog put up.
What turned out to be Phil’s closing efficiency for us was a live performance he recorded at dwelling as a part of our “Homegrown at House” video premiere collection, which allowed us to maintain bringing you nice music in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the time we quoted the Nationwide Council for the Conventional Arts, who stated:
“Phil Wiggins is arguably America’s foremost blues harmonica virtuoso. Whereas rooted within the melodic Piedmont or ‘Tidewater’ blues of the Chesapeake area, his mastery of the instrument now transcends stylistic boundaries. Born in Washington D.C. in 1954, Phil Wiggins achieved worldwide acclaim over three many years as one half of the premier Piedmont blues duo of Cephas & Wiggins. Because the loss of life of guitarist and singer John Cephas in 2009, Phil has introduced his harmonica wizardry to bear in quite a lot of musical collaborations.”
We premiered the solo video on September 23, 2020. Discover this final live performance within the participant beneath.
Phil Wiggins and Ben Hunter with Junious Brickhouse (and Me)!
Quickly after we premiered Phil’s “Homegrown at House” video, I interviewed Phil in an internet video name and we recorded it for the Library. The plan was to current the video alongside the live performance within the “Homegrown Plus” collection. Sadly, as the results of a critical sickness of the video’s producer quickly after it was shot, that interview video appears to have been misplaced. (Fortunately, the producer recovered!)
Nonetheless, we do have an interview panel to share with you. On November 4, 2024, the American Folklore Society and its Music and Track Part hosted An Night with Phil Wiggins and Ben Hunter, which additionally included Junious Brickhouse and me as moderators. You could find that interview embedded on this memorial web page for Phil Wiggins over on the American Folklore Society web site.
We’ll be again with extra nice photographs of Phil from the archive. Keep tuned!
Till Subsequent Time…
As at all times, thanks for watching, listening, and studying! The American Folklife Heart’s Homegrown Live performance Collection brings music, dance, and spoken arts from throughout the nation, and a few from additional afield, to the Library of Congress. For a number of years, we’ve been presenting the concert events right here on the weblog with associated interviews and hyperlinks, within the collection Homegrown Plus. (Discover the entire collection right here!) For data on present concert events, go to the Folklife Concert events web page at Concert events from the Library of Congress. For all out there previous live performance movies, go to the Homegrown video checklist on the Library of Congress web site.