(Editor's note: Although the December 2 Adler Theatre "Legends of the Blues" concert was canceled, the River Cities' Reader thought readers - particularly blues enthusiasts - would appreciate this interview with Bob Margolin of the Muddy Waters Reunion Band.)

"For me, ‘the crossroads' is in Boston, not Mississippi."

That's how guitarist Bob Margolin explained his luck at finding himself playing beside a true musical giant, the father of deep "old school" blues - Muddy Waters - from 1973 until 1980. 

Back in the day when the vinyl LP ruled the world, one of the greatest thrills a record collector could stumble upon was the odd, privately pressed "bootleg" album - a secret, magical experience in which rabid fans met outlaw commerce, demanding that live concerts and other unsanctioned recordings be set free. Often hit-or-miss in terms of sound quality, one surefire way to pick a winner was to look for those LPs stamped with the image of a portly American Yorkshire hog and the words "Trade Mark of Quality." Bootlegging the bootlegger, Cleopatra Records uses that iconic image and the "swinging pig" logo to grace the cover of its new "underground" three-CD set, This Is Remixed Hits: Mashups & Rare 12-Inch Remixes. Highlights include a Razed in Black remix of Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" that sounds like a Nine Inch Nails outtake, Funkstar De Luxe's thumping reconstruction of Tom Jones' "She's a Lady," and a Sigue Sigue Sputnik remix of Warrant's "Cherry Pie" that sounds like a lost Zodiac Mindwarp session. The set features two more must-hear mashes: the Swing Cats' "surf guitar" remix of Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly" that could make a great game-show theme, and KRS-ONE giving Stephen Pearcy of Ratt a real smackdown in his rock-versus-rap mashup of "Round & Round."

 

While an exhausted record industry takes a long nap on the couch next week in that post-Thanksgiving food coma, a terrific stack of new rock-and-roll books gives good reason to stay down a little longer and balance a good read and another piece of pie on your belly. The Beatles add two terrific selections to their wing of the sophisticated rock library, and a long-lost moment in time from the late 1960s is given a new life. Almost as large as the visual punch of a 12-inch LP jacket, Boxigami Books has just released the perfect coffee-table gift for any fan in Beatles Art: Fantastic New Artwork of the Fab Four. Featuring more than 200 pages of visual interpretations both joyfully touching and quietly sad, the glossy pages jump and cross-cut the band's iconic imagery, both real and imagined. Highlights include the quartet portrayed as sloths, hip-hop homeboys, a Spanish Colonial retablo, and wild beer-keg-sized ceramic busts. Want to taste immediate jealousy? Check out the 250-square-foot murals in the home of a California musician.

 

I know of no other town or high school in the Quad Cities area - or of any place in the world - that is doing the great things the citizens of Eldridge and the North Scott High School are doing in terms of educating their children and adults on America's original art form: jazz music.

East Moline-born and -bred Bill Bell - known as "The Jazz Professor" for his three decades of educational efforts in the San Francisco area - conducted a workshop at North Scott High School during a Mississippi Valley Blues Society residency several years ago, and stated that he had never seen a music department with comparable equipment and supplies at any educational institution he had been involved with. He asked: "Where and how do they get all that money?"