Richard Allen Waterman (born July 14, 1935 – died January 26, 2024) died peacefully, after a short illness, in Oxford, Mississippi where he had lived since 1986. The Estate of Richard A. Waterman will announce a local celebration of his life and work soon.
Richard Waterman was a writer, music promoter, and photographer influential in the development and recording of blues music since the 1960s. He was among the first non-performers to be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, and his photographs have been shown in galleries and at events around the country.
Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, he studied journalism at Boston University where he became interested in folk and blues music. He worked as a journalist and photographer around the state, including taking photographs of candidate Senator John F. Kennedy at a campaign event in Bridgewater, MA, during the 1960 campaign
In the early 1960s, he headed to Greenwich Village where he photographed Folk and other musicians, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Phil Ochs, in New York City and at the Newport Folk Festival.
Waterman’s career took a major turn in 1964 when he and two friends “rediscovered” bluesman Son House. In later years, he said it was an experience that changed his life.
He founded Avalon Productions, the first booking agency to represent blues artists, and went on to manage the careers of such icons as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Skip James, Arthur Crudup, and Mississippi John Hurt, among many others. Waterman was in the NBC studios with Son House in 1965 when Howlin’ Wolf became the first African American bluesman to perform on national TV with the Rolling Stones on Shindig! He also worked with a new generation of blues musicians, including Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and Luther Allison. In the late 1960s, Waterman met Bonnie Raitt and went on to manage her career for 18 years.
In Boston in the early 1970s, he booked acts at Club 47 and Joe’s Place, bringing Black bluesmen from the South to eager new audiences. His work with the blues musicians led him to become a tireless advocate for their receiving rightful compensation from the record companies that, years before, had paid a paltry sum for the lifetime rights to their music.
Along the way, Waterman continued taking photos of musicians, and he moved to Oxford and began a second career publishing the photographs of blues, folk, country, and other musicians that he had been taking since the early 1960s. His book Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive contains about 100 of his photographs and the stories behind them. He also wrote BB King Treasures with BB King.
In 2000, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In October 2017, he received a Brass Note on Beale Street in Memphis.
Richard Waterman is survived by his wife Cinda, his sister Rollene, extended family members and many devoted friends who were delighted by his storytelling and passion of the music he did so much to bring to a wide audience.
