BY ED FELIEN
An international contingent was at the Cedar Cultural Center on August 16 to celebrate the release of a new album and a new biography of Cornbread by Andrea Swensson, Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and
Cornbread, Jimmy Jam (Cornbread’s son) and Cadillac signing copies of the new book about Cornbread: ‘Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs, and Salvation of Cornbread’
Salvation of Cornbread Harris. Jimmy Jam Harris from LA, US Senator Amy Klobuchar (en route from D.C. to the DNC in Chicago to introduce Tim Walz), Patty Peterson of KBEM Jazz 88 Radio and Cadillac Kolstad (all the way from Wurttemberg, Germany) came for the event.
For many years, Harris and Kolstad Performed as the “Cadillac vs. Cornbread Dance Party,” based in of the Twin Cities and travelling throughout the US.
“It’s such a blessing I could be there,” said Kolstad, “Andrea Swensson created a memorable evening of celebration. It brings me back to a whirlwind of a time when we traversed the country in a ’64 Fleetwood, performing five or more shows a week.”
Andrea Swensson, Cadillac, Cornbread and Jimmy Jam
“I loved hearing Jimmy Jam talk tonight about learning the C chord variations from Cornbread and ending it with C Major 7, calling it the “Sunshine Chord.”
“Glen Grahm even flew in from California, He played with Cornbread for years, and he accompanied me on one of my early tours in Europe. It was great to have him with me, since every second song in the set was either one I learned from Cornbread or one I played with Cornbread. Glen is a master on the sax and really captures the essence.”
As a companion to the book, Swensson and the Slingshot Annie Label released “Anthology,” a compilation vinyl of Cornbread‘s recordings spanning from 1955 to the present day, including a single released with Augie Garcia, and a track from Kolstad and Harris’s Album “Cadillac vs Cornbread, All The Fun” with Johann Swenson as lead engineer, mixed and edited by Friendly Fred at Smoksignyl productions.
Cadillac Kolstad jumping to the piano playing of Cornbread Harris.
“Cool Rider” fits well in the anthology because Cornbread wrote this as a lighthearted tribute to his son Jimmy Jam. “He said I’m gonna play music, and he did!” Cornbread quips at the end of the recording.
It is also featuring Cadillac, so you have a sense of these guys, and one gets a small taste of what City Pages called, “The must-see dueling piano act.”
Cadillac reminisced, “We were doin’ such good solid music in our collaborations, way before the Rock N Roll American Songbook. It was as if our dueling solos would push us to the stratosphere of performance.”
“When you collaborate like that with someone, and there are those moments when you just hit it, with four hands on the piano in full synchronized mayhem. This is a unique feeling. I am blessed to have experienced it for so long.
“After the release party, at the end of the night, we all looked at each other and Cornbread said, ‘This is a new chapter,’ and he laughed.”
You can View Thousands of Videos of Cadillac with Cornbread on YouTube and follow along on Instagram and Facebook. Smoksignyl has been in the process of preparing the tracks from the vinyl to be available for download, so the full “Cadillac vs. Cornbread” record will be online soon.
“Deeper Blues” is available at Magers & Quinn Booksellers and at Andreaswensson.com.
Cornbread Harris’ “Anthology” and a limited number of “Cadillac vs. Cornbread, All The Fun” are available at Electric Fetus.
