ALEX "EASY BABY "RANDLE

    ALEX " EASY BABY " nos dejó en 2009, queda su música , su forma de tocar la armónica, que podéis oír junto a HIS HOUSEROCKERS  , una auténtica delicia ! Añadimos unas reseñas referidas a su persona. 

                     


                   

                        

                                  
                  


                                   


                                 

Alex "Easy Baby" Randle 

By David Whiteis

Longtime Chicago blues fans might remember Alex "Easy Baby" Randle from the Rat Trap at Cermak and Keeler, where he led a raucous house band in the 70s. Randle had been working regularly in Chicago--playing harmonica and drums on the south and west sides--since the late 50s, shortly after he moved here from his native Memphis. As the scene contracted during the 60s and 70s, he soldiered on in joints like Kim's Lounge (at Oak and Franklin) and the Rat Trap, where producer Steve Wisner first heard him in the mid-70s. Randle recorded a few tracks with Wisner, which eventually appeared on harp anthologies on Barrelhouse and Rooster Blues; in 1978 he released an LP of his own, Sweet Home Chicago Blues, on Barrelhouse (another full-length, Hot Water Cornbread and Alcohol, recorded for St. George in the late 90s, was never released). In recent years Randle has appeared only sporadically, and mostly on the north side--his brand of down-home blues is out of fashion around his old stomping grounds--but with his latest disc, If It Ain't One Thing, It's Another (on the internationally distributed Wolf label), he's poised to reach a much broader audience. Randle's tubular harmonica tone is reminiscent of Little Walter's, but instead of mimicking Walter's long, saxlike lines, he tends to make brief, epigrammatic statements and then let silence fill out each phrase--like call and response without the response. Only on Howlin' Wolf's "Howlin' for My Darlin'" does he abandon this precise, minimalist style, instead searing through the heart of the tune with a relentless, linear solo that reflects the obsessiveness of the lyrics. He's a passionate singer, too: he delivers Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" in a libidinous rasp, and on his theme song, "Call Me Easy Baby," his scream tightens into a choked gargle, then dissolves into a tremulous sigh--which his harp answers with an equally lusty series of polyphonic shrieks, whoops, and squalls. Saturday, January 19, 10 PM, Smoke Daddy, 1804 W. Division; 773-772-6656.

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This from Karl Meyer, who produced what I believe were Easy Baby's last 

recordings:

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Alex "Easy Baby" Randle, 1934-2009

Alex Randle, known to the world as Easy Baby, passed away Friday, 

September 25, 2009 after suffering from pneumonia.  He was 75 years old.  

Services will be held at the New Paradise Baptist Church, 6645 S. Evans, 

in Chicago, on Saturday, October 3rd.  Visitation is from 10:00 to 11:00 

a.m., and services are from 11:00 to noon.

Alex "Easy Baby" Randle was born in 1934 in Memphis, Tennessee. For the 

first seven years of his life, he lived in Michigan City, Mississippi, 

with his grandmother and uncle, before moving back to Memphis to start 

school. Both his grandmother and uncle were harmonica players, so it was 

natural for Easy Baby to pick up the harmonica himself. In the early 

1950's, when Easy Baby was still a teenager, he began playing 

professionally around Memphis while working a variety of odd jobs, 

including installing floors and shining shoes. Playing in the juke joints 

and gambling houses in Memphis, he befriended Howlin' Wolf, James Cotton, 

and Joe Hill Louis, among others. In 1956, Easy Baby moved to Chicago to 

make a change. Throughout the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's Easy Baby sang 

and played all over Chicago, while working as a mechanic.  In later years, 

he performed sporadically.  His most notable appearances were at the 

Chicago Blues Festival in 1998, 2000, and 2003.

A discography of his recordings is here: 

http://koti.mbnet.fi/wdd/easybaby.htm, but it omits his contribution 

to "Low Blows : An Anthology Of Chicago Harmonica Blues" on Rooster.

For more information on Easy Baby's life, check out Living Blues #144, 

which contains a lively interview.