⬇️
LITTLE HATCH ⬇️
(Provine Hatch Jr.)
(5CD)
BIOGRAPHY
Hatch was born Provine Hatch Jr., in Sledge, Mississippi. He learned to
play the harmonica from his father. Hearing blues and gospel music,
Hatch knew he wanted to make music for a living. When he was 14 years
old, his family moved to Helena, Arkansas, and the blues scene there
caught his attention.
Hatch joined the Navy in 1943. After his tour of duty, he relocated to
Kansas City, Missouri, in 1946. He worked for a cartage company for two
years and then founded his own cartage business and married.
In the early 1950s, Hatch began jamming in blues clubs in Kansas City.
He closed his business in 1954 and took a job with Hallmark Cards. In
1955, he formed and fronted his own band, playing on the weekends and a
few nights a week. This group continued to perform for more than 20
years. By the late 1950s, Hatch's harmonica style became influenced by
Chicago blues players such as Little Walter, Snooky Pryor and Junior
Wells.
A performance by Hatch was recorded by German exchange students in
1971, and these recordings were released on the album The Little Hatchet
Band, but its distribution was limited to Germany and Belgium.
Hatch retired from Hallmark in 1986. His band, Little Hatch and the
House Rockers, was hired as the house band of the Grand Emporium Saloon
in Kansas City. A cassette tape of his blues performances at the Grand
Emporium was released in 1988. Little Hatch and the House Rockers
performed a Friday evening Matinee from 6-8pm starting in 1987, with
Bass player Joe Wittfeld, Drummer Dennis Spears, and Guitarist Kirk
Brown. Various members of the band circulated with personnel changes
including Memphis Mike McDaniel on guitar, Woody Davis on Drums, Bill
Dye on Guitar, Jaisson Taylor, on drums.
The Album/CD/cassette "Well Alright" was recorded May 31st, 1992, at
the Grand Emporium venue at 3832 Main, Kansas City, Missouri. The
personnel on that recording was: Provine "Little Hatch, Bill Dye,
Guitar, Joe Wittfeld Bass, and Jaisson Taylor on Drums. The subsequent
release was in 1993, and the Band played in Belgium at the Handazame
Blues Festival in 1994. The Little Hatch and the House Rockers band
played the Kansas City, Missouri Spirit Festival that same year. Hatch's
band first KC Spirit Festival, in 1986, with the lineup of Kirk Brown,
Guitar, Dennis Spears, Drums, and Joe Wittfeld, Bass. The band played
virtually every KC Spirit Festival from 1986, until Provine Hatch passed
in 2003.
The band also played the Kansas City Kansas Street Festival where,
Little Hatch was awarded the title of a "King" during the festival.
Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver established a "Little Hatch Day", during
his tenure as Kansas City, Missouri's Mayor. Little Hatch's band also
played the Garden City, Kansas Blues Festival, with "Memphis Mike"
McDaniel, Guitar, Howard Bradley, Drums and Joe Wittfeld, Bass. Except
for a couple years between 1988 and 1990, Hatch's sole regular bass
player was Joe Wittfeld. A few personnel who filled in for Joseph, were
Adam Page, Bass, Bryan Hicks, Bass, Paul Hartfield, Bass (Paul was
Hatch's bassman from 1988 to 1990, when the job was passed back to Joe
Wittfeld). Paul sadly died of liver cancer some years hence. Some of the
pallbearers at Hatch's funeral were Joe Wittfeld, Bill Dye, and Jaisson
Taylor.
In 1993, the Modern Blues label released Well, All Right!, his first
nationally distributed album. In 1997, Chad Kassem opened Blue Heaven
Studios and founded the APO label. Kassem had befriended Hatch in the
mid-1980s and asked him to be his first signed recording artist. The
album Goin' Back was released in 2000, followed by Rock with Me Baby in
2003.
From 1999 to 2001, Hatch occasionally toured other parts of the United
States and twice toured Europe. He settled in Kansas City and performed
locally, frequently playing at BB's Lawnside Bar-B-Q and other
venues.
Hatch died in El Dorado Springs, Missouri, in January 2003.
(Wikipedia)
NEW!
1974-The Little Hatchet Band (Live) @320