Drummer Keef Hartley

April 8, 1944, — November 27, 2011

Guitarist Miller Anderson speaks about Keef Hartley Band’s Woodstock experience

The Beatles were not at Woodstock, but a few of their songs were sung, most notably Joe Cocker‘s “With a Little Help From My Friends.”  The Beatles were not at Woodstock, but the drummer who replaced Ringo Starr when he joined the Beatles was.

The threads of rock’s tapestry are trivial taken singly, but  together tell the story. We all know that when Pete Best was let go, Ringo replaced him. Ringo had been in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes at the time. Keef Hartley replaced Ringo.

Keith Hartley was born in Preston, England and said that because he had small hands, found the drums an easier instrument to learn than guitars.

He said to Spencer Leigh in an Independent interview: “I have very short hands and I couldn’t manage the guitar neck so the drums were for me. My biggest influences were Tony Meehan, Sandy Nelson and the guy who did that wonderful drumming on the Ventures’ ‘Walk – Don’t Run’.”

The first band he was in was the Heartbeats (who opened for the Beatles once) and in 1963 joined the aforementioned Rory Storm, but he soon replaced that band by joining Freddie Starr and the Midnighters.

Drummer Keef Hartley

More bands

He joined the Artwoods with Art Wood (brother of Ronnie) before leaving them and joining John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers.  Among the Bluebreakers during Hartley’s stint with them was Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, and Harvey Mandel who later played at Woodstock with Canned heat.

Before Hartley left Mayall, the friendly two recorded “Hartley Quits” with the Bluesbreakers. 

Drummer Keef Hartley

Keef Hartley Band

Keef formed his own band in 1968. True to their humorous relationship the first track on the band’s premiere album, Halfbreed, is called “Hearts and Flowers” in which there is a tongue-in-cheek phone call in which Mayall fires Hartley. 

Hartley “returned the favor” in another song.

The All Music review describes the album as “some of the best ever late-60s jazz-influenced blues, and the album remains an undiscovered classic.” 

Drummer Keef Hartley

Hard and brassy set

Invited to Woodstock, Rolling Stone magazine described the band’s performance there as “a hard and brassy set.” They came on after John Sebastian unscheduled appearance on Saturday.

Drummer Keef Hartley

The band members were

• Keef Hartley: drums
• Miller Anderson: guitar, vocals
• Jimmy Jewell: saxophone
• Henry Lowther: trumpet, violin
• Gary Thain: bass

Their setlist…

1. Spanish Fly
2. She’s Gone
3. Too Much Thinkin’
4. Believe In You
5. Halfbreed Medley: Sinnin’ For You (Intro) > Leaving Trunk > Just to Cry > Sinnin’ for You

In a 1994 interview Hartley said of Woodstock, “They were hiring some incredible names but they had a fixed budget to stick to so they needed some lesser known names as well. I can’t remember what we were paid now but it was two or three thousand dollars and I got the lion’s share!”

Drummer Keef Hartley

 Five band albums

The band released five albums between 1969 and 1972. Hartley released one solo album and two other albums as part of Little Big Band and Dog Soldier. (Wikipedia discography)

Drummer Keef Hartley

Out of music

Eventually the band dissolved, particularly after Miller Anderson, who had been the band’s mainstay composer as well, left.

In the early 90s Hartley left music and took up work as a joiner, working as one part of Hunter Hartley of Preston, England.

Keef Hartley is one of those “unknown” Woodstock performers. Not on the triple album. Not in the movie. No Woodstock push, but the quality of the music that Hartley, his own bands, and the bands he was simply a member of remains undiminished.

He died on November 11, 2011.

On his death, John Mayall said: “When I think back to all the adventures we had over the years, both on and off the road, it seems hardly possible that my friend of so many years will not be showing up to sit in with any of my bands in the future. His sense of fun and love of life will always remain in my thoughts as special memories.”  (>>> British Blues archive site)

• Related link >>> Independent obit
• Related link >>> All Music discography

Drummer Keef Hartley

Sitarist Humanitarian Ravi Shankar

 April, 7 1920 – December 11, 2012

First a dancer

A professional dancer until age 18 with his brother, Uday, Ravi Shankar turned to the sitar in 1938. In 1956, the New York Times referred to Shankar as “one of India’s most famous performers on the sitar.” Two years later, it said, “The classical music of India, one of the world’s great cultural treasures, has so far been little known outside the frontiers of that country.” In 1961, he was still, “an artist of a cultural tradition alien to our own.” That would all change.

Met the Beatle

Shankar was already 46 years old and playing the sitar for 28 years when in September, 1966 23-year-old Beatle George Harrison went to India to study sitar with him. The Byrds had introduced Harrison to the sitar because they and Shankar recorded at the same American studios. Harrison included the instrument when recording the Lennon-McCartney composition Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) for the 1965 Rubber Soul album.

Beatle boost

Beatle fame was a golden touch to any who felt its imprimatur and the renown of Shankar, a reluctant recipient, spread quickly. In 1967 he became the Buell G. Gallagher Visting Professor at City College (NYC). His performance at the Lincoln Center was called the “most in event of the ’67 season”  with the audience overflowing onto the stage. The same happened again in September. The Mamas and the Papas, organizers of the Monterrey Pop Festival in June 1967, invited Shankar who opened the third night. [In 1967, the New York Times carried ten articles about Shankar.]

Sitarist Humanitarian Ravi Shankar

Woodstock

Shankar did not need Woodstock to permanently sculpt his name into stone for young music fans. George Harrison and the other Beatles had already done that. Harrison and Shankar’s continued friendship kept that fame dust-free. If Michael Lang couldn’t get the Beatles to play at Woodstock, having their good friend play was a wonderful alternative and let “true” fans know that the festival was going to be extraordinary.

Sitarist Humanitarian Ravi Shankar

World music

In a modern media sense, Harrison and Shankar invented “world music.” Suddenly, listeners were no longer limited to local music. Access to all kinds of music became not just easier but part of music in general.

Obituary

The opening paragraph of the NY Times obituary read: Ravi Shankar, the sitar virtuoso and composer who died on Tuesday at 92, created a passion among Western audiences for the rhythmically vital, melodically flowing ragas of classical Indian music — a fascination that had expanded by the mid-1970s into a flourishing market for world music of all kinds.

Thank you

• Related link >>> his site
• Related link >>> All Music bio

Sitarist Humanitarian Ravi Shankar