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Curtis Ensler's Collection

The Nighthawks   08/10/2002

Great Northeast Blues Festival, Syracuse, NY
Source AUD - SINGLE CAMERA SHOT ON TRIPOD, ON CAMERA SOUND

AUD CAMERA > MASTER TAPE > Stand Alone Burner >
DVD > DVD Decrypter > you
Media DVD   1 disc
Notes HUBERT SUMLIN w/ THE NIGHTHAWKS

Great Northeast Blues Festival
Syracuse, NY

2002-08-10

AUD - SINGLE CAMERA SHOT ON TRIPOD, ON CAMERA SOUND

Another amazing set from in2blues!
He wanted to get this out in memory of Hubert.

Sadly this year has found us losing many, many legends and friends.

A little of what I knew of Hubert:
Hubert was indeed a truly nice guy (as anyone who met him would say).

The first time I saw Hubert he was a bit under the weather when the show started.
As it happened an old acquaintance was leading the backing band, so after the
show he invited me over to his house, where Hubert was staying over. We then sat
up the whole night talking with Hubert, who give me a thorough guitar lesson
(that in some ways may have been misdirected, though I did mention I was interested
in learning to play). I sure wish I had recorded all that! It didn't seem right
at the time, but I'm sure he wouldn't have minded. Great stories... Great time.
Every time I saw him after that (which was not that frequently since he didn't get
through here much) he would recognize me by name right away and invite me back stage
to visit through the show. There was one night with him, Jimmy Rogers, and Pinetop
that was really memorable... A great guy indeed.

Anyway Hubert said the secret to guitar playing was in strumming/plucking. You can
see quite well from this great footage how unique his approach was. No pick! Note
the way he mixes the thumb, the fingers, the fingernails, the upstrokes and downstrokes
and hammering and how he absolutely just wrings the whole guitar. I had been initially
taken with how he used the fretting hand as a slide, but as he noticed me observing that
he basically said to ignore that hand and pay attention to how he plucked the strings
instead. It was all in the right hand he said. Maybe he was just being modest about
that too. It is absolutely all in the tone and perhaps he felt that all came from the
plucking, but it seems there was a unique approach to all angles of the instrument.
Listen to how many sounds he gets out of those strings!

We talked a lot about Wolf and how he was like a father to him (though he was also how
Hubert had lost that front tooth, though maybe only Hubert would have had the nerve to
actually mix it up with Wolf). I had hoped to do a formal interview with him some time
after that, but it never worked out.

Though at least 20 years ago that night is still fresh in my mind. Thanks Hubert for
being yourself and sharing so freely.

Enjoy this video. It is the MAN as he should be remembered: obviously feeling great,
playing incredibly, singing as well as I've ever Heard, and thoroughly enjoying every
minute of life. The Nighthawks are obviously in awe here too. As Hubert says:
"I love you" and he was one person who really meant that about everyone.

God Bless You Hubes and thanks for the music and the memories. You will be missed.
-Bombdiggity

in2blues recording

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SETLIST:

Set 1 : THE NIGHTHAWKS

Set 2 : HUBERT SUMLIN W/ THE NIGHTHAWKS

TT: approx. 100:00 (approx. 50 minutes each set)

The Nighthawks in 2002 were (I think!):

Mark Wenner : harp, vocals
Pete Kanaras : guitar
Pete Ragusa : drums, vocals
Jan Zukowski : bass


.md5 is in the Extras folder. If you run it to verify you'll need to
move it out to the root directory.

SPECS:
Complete name : VTS_01_1.VOB
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 1 023 MiB
Duration : 29s 653ms
Overall bit rate : 290 Mbps

Video
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Duration : 29s 653ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 284 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 9 558 Kbps
Width : 704 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 27.994
Stream size : 1 002 MiB (98%)

Audio
Format : AC-3
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Trades Allowed Yes
Owned by Curtis Ensler · Last Updated May 23, 2023