Danny Kalb, founder of the Blues Project and one of the great living guitar players, is 69 today. We wish him a very happy birthday.
Yesterday, he had a party in his Brooklyn apartment. There were more guitar players per square inch than I’ve experienced in years. It was a great day, with a terrific jam and a wonderful exchange of stories about a who’s who in the music business.
Barry Kornfeld, (far right) the legendary guitarist who is retired and no longer even touches a guitar, used to “lead” the Rev. Gary Davis, whose great songs still resonate in Kalb’s body of work.
I mentioned that the people of South Carolina, where Davis was born in Laurens, don’t know him today. Kornfeld wasn’t surprised, saying Davis didn’t become famous until the 1960s, along with other performers like Mississippi John Hurt and John Lee Hooker after they played in Greenwich Village.
He knew them all, as well as Bob Dylan, who he said once told him he’d played piano for Elvis Presley. “I don’t think so,” said Kornfeld, amused by Dylan's antics.
