Jim Mesi The Music Between The Notes

Jim Mesi

    For Jim Mesi, the guitar has been a lifelong enchantress. A solid-bodied siren that continuously calls out his name to caress her strings, to run his fingers through her frets, to make her sing. She reached toward him at an early age. As Jim recalls he was only four years old. Having seen somebody on television produce such incredible sounds from an apparent solid piece of wood with a cord running out of it, the vision possessed him incessantly. He had to have one of these wonder boxes of his own and young Jim began to hound his parents for a guitar. They placated the child at the time, purchasing the plastic toy guitars many of us may remember from our own childhood. But, it wasn’t enough for Jim. He continued his quest with his parents until they finally relented and bought him his first true guitar when he was eight.

    Rock & Roll was still in its youth at the time and Jim’s brother, who was seven years older, brought home records featuring such performers as Chuck Berry and Little Richard. It was the coolest thing Jim had ever heard. His parents provided him with guitar lessons, but they were always taught by musicians in their forties, who wanted to teach him songs from the 1940s, such as “Satin Doll.” It was boring for an eight-year-old who wanted to play the livelier sounds he heard on his brother’s records.

    Popular music during the early 1960s continued to grow in the realm of Rock, with artists like Elvis and The Beatles ruling the radio airwaves. But, at the age of 17, a friend convinced him to go to a Blues show at the Crystal Ballroom. It was an event that would change his life forever.

    It was a cold winter’s night when they made their trek to the Crystal. The building had already began to deteriorate from age and rain poured through holes in the ceiling into the ballroom itself. Despite the damp conditions inside the room, Jim noticed that the mostly black audience were quite dressed up, wearing tuxedos and gowns. And, the band was wearing tuxedos as well. The star of the evening was B.B. King. As he sang you could see his breath making fog due to the chill in the air. The guitar playing knocked Jim out. The Blues was not something that you heard every day in the mid-1960s in Portland, Oregon. You just couldn’t go down to the local record store and find this form of music on the racks, but it made Jim run back home and pick up his guitar. That was the end of that; the Blues became a second mistress that walked hand-in-hand with the guitar.

    Although the style consumed him, there was not a lot of call for Blues players in the city at the time. Jim did work in local Rock outfits as a teenager, including landing a role with the popular Northwest band, Moxy. The band included fellow Blues lovers Paul Jones on drums, Rick Aldrich on harmonica and Al Kuzens on bass. Moxy was a short-lived project, as this was the Vietnam era and Paul Jones, on the verge of being drafted into the Army, almost a sure bet of being sent to Southeast Asia, decided to join up with the Air Force instead. Paul’s younger brother, Lloyd, was recruited to fill the drum spot and the group was renamed Pot Roast. Jim had visions of being a Rock star, as he was becoming known as a hot-shot young guitarist around town, and because of this reputation, he was offered a major gig that would take him south to Los Angeles.

    Buck Munger, who holds the reins behind the longtime Portland music magazine, “Two Louies,” was an agent in Los Angeles. Numerous acquaintances told him that there just wasn’t any musicians in the Portland area that were worth paying attention to. Feeling that these people were acting quite snobbish, Munger decided to piece together a band from the Rose City that would prove them wrong.

    Jim Dunlap was the leader of various Rock bands in Portland throughout the 1960s, with fabled groups such as The Redcoats and Gentleman Jim & The Horsemen. He would be the center piece for this new band. The rest of the group was rounded out by Alan Gunther, Jim Graziano, Mike Parker and 19-year old Jim Mesi. They called themselves Wrinkle and recorded a single on the Imperial label. The song was test-marketed in New York and it received enough positive reaction that Wrinkle was signed to a contract with United Artists and began recording material for their Liberty label. It even generated enough acclaim that Wrinkle’s photo appeared in a copy of “Rolling Stone” Magazine. Things were looking bright for the group when the bottom dropped out. The presence of Vietnam reared its head once again and, two of the members were arrested for draft evasion. The deal with United Artists came crashing down and the rest of the band became just a few more numbers within the ranks of struggling artists in Los Angeles. So, they decided to move back home.

    It was September 1969 when Jim returned to Portland. He caught up with old friends, Lloyd Jones and Al Kuzens, and they worked as a trio in the style of bands like Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. When they heard of a harmonica player that was starting to raise attention, the band decided to check him out. Witnessing Paul deLay firsthand at The Neighborhood House, they asked him to join the band and the core of Brown Sugar was set. Over the ensuing years, they would become perhaps the epitome of Blues bands in the Northwest, and the band grew over time with Bob Lyon taking over the drums position as Lloyd began playing more guitar, and former Moxy harpman, Rick Aldrich, came on as saxophonist. Brown Sugar received prized gigs opening, and sometimes even backing, renowned acts touring nationally, such as Chuck Berry. But, by 1977, Brown Sugar was no more. The band broke up and deLay went on tour for the next six months with Sunnyland Slim and Hubert
Sumlin.

    When deLay returned, a new band was formed. Since Paul had been the big guy out front in Brown Sugar, it was only natural that he was the focal point and they named themselves The Paul deLay Band. Like Brown Sugar, this band held a strong command on the Portland Blues scene over the next decade. As attention toward Blues music began to boom in the early 1980s with the breakthrough of Stevie Ray Vaughan and later Robert Cray, work became more frequent, and so did touring artists that needed bands to back them. Big Walter Horton, Pee Wee Crayton, Albert Collins, Johnny Otis and Big Mama Thornton were some of the noted Blues artists who they worked with. And, there was also B.B. King.

Jim Mesi with B.B. King

    The man who first put Blues music in Jim’s mind often hired The Paul deLay Band to be his opening act when he toured the Pacific Northwest. He also occasionally had members of the band join him on stage during his own sets. Often after his shows the opportunity was there to sit down with B.B. King and play guitars together backstage or in the hotel rooms.

    It had been many years since that night at the Crystal Ballroom in the mid-1960s, when Jim first watched B.B. King perform. Still, Jim continued to seek the answers about learning the Blues. Despite its simple format, the Blues is not a music that you can just play. It is something that must be studied. It is a craft within itself and it needs to breathe. King gave him perhaps his most important lesson when it comes to playing Blues guitar. He told him, “The music is in between the notes,” and, Jim concurs, because when an audience is watching and the band comes to a dead stop, waits a second and starts again, that moment of silence is deafening with anticipation.
The Paul deLay Band was extremely popular throughout the West Coast and Jim appeared on three albums with the band (“Teasin’,” “American Voodoo” and “The Paul deLay Band”). But, by 1986, Jim had to get away. What bothered him most was the increasingly heavy drug scene in Portland. Having done many shows with the band in Boise and Sun Valley, Idaho looked like a favorable place to escape to. Yet, much to his surprise, the drug problem existed in Boise as well; it was everywhere. So, he returned to Portland in early 1987, again working with deLay, but that yearn to get away still held strong. Before the year was out, Jim had moved once again; this time to Seattle.

    His time in Seattle was enjoyable. Working as the frontman of his own band, Little Jimmy & The Blues Stars. The band was successful, but Jim found the desire to head home and was back in Portland within just a couple years. During his absence, the Blues had truly began to explode in the Rose City. One of the major changes was the creation of the Rose City Blues Festival, which later evolved into today’s Waterfront Blues Festival. He missed the initial year, but came down from Seattle the following year to take part in a set entitled “Guitar Wizards” with Tom McFarland and life-long friend, Steve Bradley. For the next several years his new Portland-based band, The Jim Mesi Band, was a regularly featured act at the Waterfront.

    When Jim wasn’t playing with his own outfit, those festivals in the early 1990s saw many nationally-known Blues musicians backed by local players, including Jim Mesi. People like Hubert Sumlin, Wild Child Butler and Shirli Dixon, among others, left fond memories of his sharing the stage with them. Randy Lilya, who owned the popular venue Bojangles (unfortunately long closed), allowed the club to be used as a rehearsal hall during the day to prepare for these performances. The day Shirli Dixon came in for a practice session, Jim recalls how unsure everybody was about playing with her because nobody really knew the music she did. She immediately put everybody at ease, stating that she just did her father’s music, which, of course, everybody in the room knew all too well. It ended up being one of the best Waterfront memories of Jim’s multiple appearances at the festival.
For nearly a decade-and-a-half now, Jim Mesi has consistently been one of Portland’s most favored Blues sons. He has released four solo albums and won multiple Muddy Awards from the Cascade Blues Association, including five for Best Guitarist, a Hall of Fame award and the prestigious Lifetime Achievement award. He has performed with many of the best musicians the city has to offer, but feels that his current lineup of Justin Matz (drums), Ed Neumann (keyboards) and Timmer Blakely (bass) are by far the finest ever. They are loyal to the band, hard working and impress Jim on a nightly basis. “They make my job playing guitar seem effortless,” notes Mesi. “They’re that good.”

    Also, beginning in 1995, The Jim Mesi Band became the first locally-based Blues act to tour Europe, but these tours were not your usual fare. Rather they were tours with the U.S.O., performing for troops stationed throughout the continent. The schedule took them through Scandinavia, The United Kingdom and most of the Northern and Eastern Bloc European nations, including the then war-torn countries of Croatia and Bosnia. While in these latter countries, the band sometimes had to pack into the soldiers’ locations, where they had to sleep in tents in the mud and it was not unusual for live gunfire to be directed at the camps.

    On one occasion, Jim remembers beginning a show, playing his self-written number, “Short Guy Shuffle.” During the first few notes of the song, Serb forces fired at the stage. It was a frightening situation, but Jim laughs at it now, claiming he never saw a band tear down their equipment from a stage and load onto a bus in 30 seconds before. He also jokes that the reason they were probably fired upon was the Serbs most likely didn’t like his song.
The feelings of the U.S.O. tours seemed miserable while traveling from one military camp to another. But, afterwards, he’d look back and think to himself that these were the coolest things he’d ever done in his life. And, he can’t wait to do it again, offering his services once again this summer. He doesn’t know where they may send him; hopefully not to Iraq.

    Another project that Jim has participated in every now and then for the past few years has been a guitar jam band called, The Strat Daddies. Originally involving himself with local guitar great Robbie Laws and The Bay Area’s Kenny “Blue” Ray, the band was rounded out by CBA Hall of Fame bassist Jimmie Lloyd Rea and drummer Randy Lilya. It was intended to be a band that might get together every once in a while to perform for special occasions, but it got to be a more frequent happening than anybody anticipated, so the shows now occur farther apart. Kenny “Blue” Ray is no longer working with the group and his role is now filled with slide guitarist, Tim “Too Slim” Langford when he is not on tour with his own band, Too Slim & The Taildraggers. They will be performing a small number of engagements this summer, including the Waterfront Blues Festival and one that will feature Terry Robb sitting in for Langford at the St. Helens American Music Festival.

    This past January, Jim had the honor to perform with the legendary Bo Diddley in celebration of his 75th birthday at the Crystal Ballroom. Part of an all-star lineup of Portland Blues artists, Jim arrived to the venue two hours early. He didn’t want to miss out on this show and the weather had turned nasty, with snow accumulating on the streets outside. He had always heard that Bo Diddley could be a cranky and mean individual. But, when he arrived, he was summoned to Diddley’s dressing room. Unsure of what to expect, he entered the room and Bo told him, “I don’t play lead. You will play all the leads.” Jim informed him that he was only one of several guitarists involved and that they would trade off. Bo was fine with this and the two sat and chatted until showtime. Despite the rumors he had heard about Bo Diddley, the elder Bluesman made him feel comfortable and was very pleasant. It made for an exciting and memorable evening that also came across to the lucky fans in the room that night.

Steve Bradley & Jim Mesi: "The Losers' Club"

    But, perhaps the most interesting thing to come Jim Mesi’s way in the past couple of years has generated out of his holding onto old friends. Many of these old acquaintances gather once a week to tell stories of their past. Not all of them are musicians. It’s kind of a gathering of guitarists and hot rod fanatics. They call themselves “The Losers' Club.” Among the friends are Steve Bradley, Paul and Lloyd Jones, former Paul Revere & The Raiders guitarist Paul Ouelette, famed hot designer Lonnie Gilbertson and pin-striper Mitch Kim.

    Ouelette is also a renowned author and filmmaker nowadays. The idea of filming the stories of Mesi and Steve Bradley developed from the weekly socials. The film, also titled “The Losers' Club,” debuted at The Portland Reel Music Film Festival this past winter to high acclaim. It detailed the journeys that Jim and Bradley have transversed during their careers, stemming from both their early days performing in Rock bands in the Portland area in the 1960s. As of this writing, the film is being sought by two major distributors. One a large cable network wanting to feature the story on television, and the other is a movie studio who would like to place it in movie houses around the country. The only thing holding its release back for the moment is the matter of coming to terms for the use of non-original music and the royalties incurred.

    It has been nearly 40 years since Jim Mesi first began performing music in the Portland area, but he still remembers the lessons he’s learned. As witnessed by the B.B. King Band at his first Blues concert in the dripping Crytsal Ballroom, he has always dressed sharply when in front of an audience. He gives his most at every show and expects the same from the musicians he works with. He loves the Blues and knows that in order to play the music correctly he must continue to study those who came before and learn from their example. That guitar enchantress still holds her sway over Jim Mesi.

    And, most importantly, he remembers the words of B.B. King, “The music is in between the notes.” That’s like seeing life between the raindrops in Portland. Jim Mesi walks between the city’s raindrops and his music lives between his notes. B.B. would be proud.

– Greg Johnson

© 2004 Cascade Blues Association