Showing posts with label blues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blues. Show all posts
Saturday, October 14, 2023
A Blues Music Reading list
BLUES READING LIST
Albertson, C. (1972) Bessie. New York: Stein & Day.
All Music Guide to the Blues (1999) Miller Freeman Books. (Online version: www.allmusic.com)
Ball, T. (n.d.) Sourcebook of Sonny Terry Licks (Book and CD)
($19.95; 48 Pages)
Besides 70 famous licks from Sonny, this pack gives you some quick harmonica lessons, information on Sonny's style, a discography with key chart, and a bibliography for future research. The CD includes each lick played out by the author.
Barlow, W. (1989) Looking up at down: the emergence of blues culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Bastin, B. (1971) Crying for the Carolines. London: Studio Vista Blues paperbacks.
Bastin, B. (1995) Red River Blues: the blues tradition in the southeast. Urbana: Illini Books edn.
Brooks, T. (2004) Lost Sounds: blacks and the birth of the recording industry, 1890 - 1919. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Broonzy, B. (1955) Big Bill Blues. (As told to Yannick Bruynoghe.) London: Cassell.
Calt, S. (1988) King of the Delta Blues: the life and music of Charlie Patton. Rock Chapel Press. (Some citations give the authors as Calt, S. & Wardlow, G.)
This book is based on the comprehensive research on the subject by Gayle Dean Wardlow, research which is largely unavailable elsewhere. Unfortunately, Calt's presentation of this information is poor at King best, and downright malicious at times. His writing is typically peppered with ad homien attacks at his subjects, and this book is no exception. The book is also in desperate need of thorough editing ... one sometimes wonders how it got published at all.
Calt, S. (1994) I’d rather be the devil: Skip James and the blues. New York: Da Capo Press. (P/b 2008)
Charters, S. (1997) The Legacy of the Blues: the art and lives of twelve great bluesmen. Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd. [Australia] (Original 1975)
Charters, S. (1991) The Blues Makers. New York: Da Capo. (Reprints The Bluesmen [1967] and Sweet as The Showers Of Rain [1977], with new additional material by the author.) I had it from the library but didn't have time to finish it.
Charters, S. (1977) Sweet as the Showers of Rain: the bluesmen Vol. 2. New York: Oak Publications and Penguin (USA)
Charters, S. (1975) The Country Blues. New York: Da Capo Press. (Original 1959.)
Charters, S. (1967) The Bluesmen. New York: Music Sales Corp.
Charters, S. (1963) The Poetry Of The Blues. New York: Oak Publications.
Charters, S. (2004) Walking A Blues Road; a selection of blues writing 1956 - 2004. Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd.
Cohn, L. (ed.) (1993) Nothing But The Blues: the music and the musicians. New York: Abbeville Publishing Group (aka Abberville Press).
Cowley, J. (?) 'Son House: an historical appreciation.' Blues and Rhythm. 41. 8 - 10. (Another article about Son House is in edition 207.)
Danchin, S. (1998) Blues Boy: the life and music of B. B. King. University Press of Missisippi.
This book explores all aspects of King's life and career, providing an objective description of the man and his music. A revision of the edition published in France in 1993 by `editions du Limon, it supplements B. B. King's moving autobiography Blues All Around Me. Whereas King's is a book of memories, this is an objective story with careful historical perspective and observations from key witnesses. It draws on many printed sources, from King's published interviews, and from the author's recurring encounters with King and his manager since 1977. It shows how in some ways B. B. King's life has conformed to the commonly adopted image of the blues singer's early years of poverty and hardship in the American South, a backdrop of cotton fields and muddy waters of the Mississippi River, a musical apprenticeship in the big city (Memphis), and a career that reaches its peak under the spotlights of Las Vegas.
Davis, F. (1995) The history of the blues. London: Secker & Walberg.
Anthony DeCurtis, A. (n.d.) Blues & Chaos: The Robert Palmer Anthology (tentative title)
Dicaire, D. (2002) More Blues Singers: biographies of 50 legendary artists from the later 20th century. McFarland.
Dicaire, D. (1999) Blues Singers: biographies of 50 legendary artists of the early 20th century. McFarland.
This reference volume is intended for both the casual and the most avid blues fan. It is divided into five separately introduced sections. Beginning with the pioneering Mississippi Delta bluesmen, the book then follows the spread of the genre to the city, in the section on the Chicago Blues School. The third segment covers the Texas blues tradition; the fourth, the great blueswomen; and the fifth, the genre’s development outside its main schools. The styles covered range from Virginia-Piedmont to Bentonia and from barrelhouse to boogie-woogie. The main text is augmented by substantial discographies and a lengthy bibliography.
Evans, D. (1982) Big Road Blues: tradition and creativity in the Folk Blues. Berkeley: University of California Press; New York: Da Capo Press.
Ferris, W. (1988) Blues from the Delta. Da Capo Press.
Ford, R. (1999) A Blues Bibliography: the international literature of an Afro-American music genre. Bromley: Paul Pelletier.
Garon, P. & Garon, B. (1992) Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's blues. New York: Da Capo Press.
Goldsmith, P. (1998, 2000) Making people’s music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Groom, B. (1971) The Blues Revival. Studio Vista.
Handy, W. C. (1991) Father Of The Blues. New York: Da Capo Press. (Originally published 1941)
Harris, S. (1991) Blues Who's Who: a biographical dictionary of blues singers. (revised edn.) New York: Da Capo. (Original: 1989, New York: Arlington House.)
Harrison, D. D. (1990) Black Pearls: blues queens of the 1920s: black pearls. New Brunswick & London: Rutgers University Press. (Original 1989?)
Haymes, M. (2006) Railroadin' Some: railroads in the early blues. York: Music Mentor Books.
Hitchcock, E. W. & Sadie, S. (eds.) (1986) The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Macmillan.
Keil, C. (1966) Urban Blues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Komara, E. (ed.) (2005) Encyclopedia Of The Blues. (2 vols.) New York: Routledge.
Lomax, A. (1993) The Land Where The Blues Began. New York: Pantheon. New edition by New Press, 2002.
Notable black American women (Book 1). Gale Research, 1992.
Oakley, G. (1976) The Devil's Music: a history of the blues. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Oliver, P. (1984) Songsters And Saints: vocal traditions on race records. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oliver, P. (1965) Conversation With The Blues. London: Cassell.
Oliver, P. (1963) The Meaning Of The Blues. New York: Collier Books.
Oliver, P. (1960) Blues Fell This Morning. London: Cassell.
Oliver, P. (ed.) (1989) The Blackwell Guide To Blues Records. Oxford: Basil Blackwood (Blackwell??)
Oliver, P. et al (1987) The New Grove gospel, blues and jazz. New York: Grove Publications. (Published originally in 1986 by Norton?)
Palmer, R. (1981) Deep blues: a musical and cultural history of the Mississippi Delta. New York: Penguin.
Placksin, S. (1982) American women in jazz: 1900 to the present. Seaview Books.
Porterfield, N. (1996) Last Cavalier: the life and times of John A. Lomax. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Price, C. G. (2002) '"Got my own world to look through": Jimi Hendrix and the blues aesthetic.' Journal of American Culture. 25. (3 - 4) 442 - 446.
Rothenbuhler, E. W. (2007) 'For-the-record aesthetics and Robert Johnson's blues style as a product of recorded culture.' Popular Music. 26. 65-81.
Robert Johnson (1911–1938) learned his craft from records and radio and polished his songs to be recorded. As he did so, he effectively developed a ‘for-the-record’ aesthetic that made his music sound different to that of many others - including his Delta contemporaries - who used musical techniques honed in performance for an audience. Decades later, when a ‘for-the-record’ aesthetic was the taken-for-granted standard in popular musical culture, Robert Johnson's records sounded better than those of his contemporaries, and the audience from the 1960s to today has had a reason to think that he and his music were special.
Russel, T. (1970) Blacks, Whites and Blues. London: Studio Vista.
Russel, T. (1997) The Blues From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. London: Aurum Press.
Russel, T. & Smith, C. (2006) The Penguin Guide To Blues Recordings. London: Penguin.
Sacre, R. (1987) The Voice of the Delta: Charley Patton and the Mississippi Blues. Traditions, influences and comparisons. Liége, Belgium: Presses Universitaires de Liége.
Santelli, R. (1994) The Big Book Of Blues: a biographical encyclopedia. London: Pavilion Books.
Southern, E. (1982) Biographical Dictionary Of Afro-American and African Musicians. Greenwood Press.
Southern, E. (1983) The Music Of Black Americans: a history. Norton.
Stewart-Baxter, D. (1976) Ma Rainey And The Classical Blues Singers. New York: Stein and Day.
Terry, S. and Kent Cooper, K. (1975) Sonny Terry’s Country Blues Harmonica.
(His harmonica techniques are detailed in a crude tablature system.)
Tilling, R. (1992) Oh! What A Beautiful City: a tribute to Rev. Gary davis 1896 - 1972. Jersey: Paul Mill Press.
Titon, J. T. (1993) ‘Reconstructing the blues: reflections on the 1960s blues revival.’ in N. V. Rosenberg (ed.) Transforming Tradition: folk music revivals examined. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Wald, E. (2004) Ecaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the invention of the Delta Blues. New York: Amistad.
'There has probably been more romantic foolishness written about blues in general, and Robert Johnson in particular, than about any other genre or performer of the twentieth century. As white urbanites discovered the 'Race records' of the 1920s and 1930s, they reshapred the music to fit their own tastes and desires, creating a rich mythology that often bears little resemblance to the reality of the music they admired. Popular entertainers were reborn as primitive voices from the dark and demonic Delta, and a music notable for its professionalism and humour was recast as the heart-cry of a suffering people. The poverty and oppression of the world that created blues is undeniable, but it was the music's up-to-date power and promise, not its folkloric melancholy, that attracted black record buyers.' (p. 1)
Wardlow, G. D. (1998) Chasin' That Devil Music: searching for the blues. San Francisco: Backbeat Books.
SEE ALSO
Brady, E. (1999) A spiral way; how the phonograph hanged ethnography. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
Brooks, T. et al (2004) Lost sounds: blacks and the birth of the recording industry 1890 – 1919. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Chanan, M. (1995) Repeated takes: a short history of recording and its effects on music. London: Verso.
Hobsbawm, E. (1998) Uncommon people: resistance, rebellion and jazz. New York: The New Press.
Kenney, W. H. (1999) Recorded music in American life: the phonograph and popular memory, 1890 – 1945. New York: Oxford University Press.
Read, O. & Welch, W. L. (1976) From tin foil to stereo: evolution of the phonograph. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Desert Blues April 2014
GEELONG MUSIC GROUP April 2014
‘DESERT BLUES’
I’m interested in how musics change as cultures and societies change and I’ve explored this process in at least three of my previous presentations: Sufi Music, Fusion Music and Monotony.
Tonight's presentation brings together elements that were in each of those three earlier ones. I hope that people who were present at one or more of them recognize some resonances; but that people who weren't will enjoy tonight's presentation in its own right.
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Tuaregs are Berbers, not Arabs as many outsiders assume. (‘Berber’ is derived from the Roman term for barbarians, barbara.) Indeed, the Berbers resisted the 7th century Arab invasion strenuously, but eventually they converted to Islam. Many Berbers adopted Arabic as their language and assimilated into the Arab community. Now, most Tuaregs are Muslims, but Tuareg women rarely wear a veil, whereas men do. At the turn of the 21st century there were about 9,500,000 Berbers in Morocco, about 4,300,000 in Algeria, and smaller numbers in neighbouring countries.
In the early 12th century, the Tuaregs founded the Malian city of Timbuktu as a seasonal camp and trading post on their Trans-Sahara caravan route; but later in the century, a Bedouin Arab invasion of coastal North Africa wrecked the peasant economy and many of the settled Berbers became nomads. Tuaregs adopted camel nomadism about 2,000 years ago, when the camel was introduced to the Sahara from Arabia. Subsequently, they ran camel caravans connecting the cities on the Southern Sahara to the Mediteranian coast. Today, forty years of persistent drought has forced many Tuaregs to forego nomadism. Tuaregs call the Sahara 'Tinariwen' ('the deserts'), because they regard it as many deserts, not just one.
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Contemporary Tuareg music
Contemporary Tuareg music originated in refugee camps and military training camps associated with the region's continuing political instability. In southern Mali & Niger, Tuaregs have a history of rebellion against their domination by the lighter-skinned Berbers of the north; and since 2004, regional (and US) governments have exploited these rebellions to control Islamist militants.
In the 1980s Tuareg rebel fighters founded Tinariwen, a band that fuses electric guitars and indigenous musical styles. Tinariwen play a style of music that has been called 'Desert Blues' - a stripped down, bare music played on electric guitars in a pentatonic scale. The guitars always sound 'clean', with a slight echo and always played by flat-picking - there are few chords and little finger-picking. Rhythm is often marked by clapping and/or hand drums, rather than by western drum kits. 'Desert Blues' is an unconscious play on the Tuaregs' title of 'Blue People' - due to the indigo stains on their skin from their robes.
The roots of Desert Blues
Desert Blues is predominantly guitar based and its guitar style has four main influences or roots. First is the music of the Moorish 3- or 4-string tidinit. Tidinit music is characterised by harp-like swirls and percussive effects, which guitarists have transposed to the electric guitars of desert blues. Traditionally, the tidinit was played exclusively by the iherden, male poets/praise-singers/musicians who were the equivalent of the West African griot. In Desert Blues, however, the social status of the players is much broader, although they are still mostly male. Here is Dey (tidinit solo) by Dey Amartichitt.
TRACK ONE: Dey Amartichitt (1998) Dey (tidinit solo) from Praise Songs by Ooleya Mint Amartichitt. Long Distance. (1.59)
The second influence is the swirling waves of notes characteristic of the harp-like Malian kora. Here is Cheiknah Demba by Toumani Diabaté & Ballake Sissoko.
TRACK TWO: Toumani Diabaté & Ballake Sissoko (1999) 'Cheiknah Demba' from New Ancient Strings. Rykodisc. (4.31)
Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré is often called the godfather of Desert Blues and his self-taught style is the third influence on Desert Blues guitarists. Here is his Tangambara.
TRACK THREE: Ali Farka Touré (1990) 'Tangambara' from The River. World Circuit. (5.22)
The final influence on Desert Blues is a call-and-response style of singing that certainly isn't exclusive to the Sahara but does have a particular Arabic tinge. Here is an example of that vocal style - 'Chargouba' by the Mali group Tartit. Unusually, Tartit consists of 5 women and 4 men:
TRACK FOUR: Tartit (2006) 'Chargouba' from Abacabok. Crammed Discs. (2.58)
Classic Desert Blues
Tinariwen released their first CD in 2000 and captured international attention in 2001 with their performance at the first annual Festival au Desert in Essakane, in Mali's Tombouctou region. In 2004, the band toured Europe and the United States. Their Cler Achel is a good introduction to contemporary Tuareg music - call-and-response vocals, guitar interplay and a shuffle rhythm evoking the loping walk of a camel across the desert!
TRACK FIVE: Tinariwen (2007) 'Cler Achel' from Aman Iman - Water Is Life. Independiente Ltd. (4.28)
As we've seen, Desert Blues integrates a range of influences and it continues to do so - including reggae music. Several Desert Blues bands play reggae, e.g., Aldhechen Manin by Tinariwen
TRACK SIX: Tinariwen (2004) 'Aldhechen Manin' from Amassakoul. Universal AZ. (3.54)
Tinariwen's international success in the mid-2000s encouraged the formation of several other Tuareg guitar groups. Of these, Niger's Etran Finatawa integrates traditional and modern instruments; and it also integrates Tuaregs with Wodaabes - nomadic cattle herders from the Sahel (Western Sahara) who are traditionally hostile to Tuaregs. The band released its first CD in 2005, then toured in Europe. 'Ganyo Maada' has lots of rhythm with spare guitar 'ornamentation'; and its vocals resemble those of Aboriginal and North American Indians!
TRACK SEVEN: Etran Finatawa (2008) 'Ganyo Maada' from Desert Crossroads. Riverboat Records. (4.45)
While many Desert Blues songs share the loping, rolling rhythm of the camel, Terakaft rely on guitars and bass to carry a faster rhythm in their Arghane manine.
TRACK EIGHT: Terakaft (2008) 'Arghane manine (live)' from Live 2008. Tapsit. (3.53)
Highlighting the elements
Abdallah Oumbadougou's 'back to basics' Illilagh tenere features a simple interplay between vocals and two guitars, one playing a persistent rhythm around which the other extemporizes - reminiscent of Ali Farke Touré's early work.
TRACK NINE: Abdallah Oumbadougou (2006) 'Illilagh tenere' from Desert Rebel. Vol. 1. Original Dub Master. (5.02)
Similarly, a spare acoustic guitar augments repetitive percussion and choral vocals in Etran Finitawa's Asistan.
TRACK TEN: Etran Finitawa (2008) 'Asistan' from Desert Crossroads. Riverboat Records. (3.45)
Finally, while Bassekou Kouyate's & Ngoni Ba's Bambugu blues has a full, rich sound, it is composed of spare, distinct singing & playing, featuring a tidinit.
TRACK ELEVEN: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba (2010) 'Bambugu blues' from I Speak Fula. Sub Pop Records/Next Ambience. (5.06)
Developing the form
The elements of Desert Blues are quite simple, although they can be combined in complex and subtle ways. Having said that, and despite the continuing increase in the number of Desert Blues musicians, much Desert Blues music can be a bit samey. I wouldn't call it monotonous (of course!) but it can certainly be repetitious. Consequently, I've had to work quite hard to choose tracks that illustrate the elements of the genre clearly without merely repeating them.
However, the Desert Blues is diversifying as musicians attempt to take it in new directions. For example, women's role in Desert Blues is usually restricted to percussion and/or background vocals, but Oumou Sangere's 'Seya' features her powerful singing (in call-and-response) and a polyrhythmic instrumental track reminiscent of Benin's Angelique Kidjo.
TRACK TWELVE: Oumou Sangare (2009) 'Seya' from Seya. World Circuit. (4.13)
Tamikrest are taking Desert Blues in quite a different direction. Their vocals are call-and-response laced with Arabic ululations, but their instruments are almost exclusively modern and the results are closer to western rock. Here's their 'Aicha'.
TRACK THIRTEEN: Tamikrest (2011) 'Aicha' from Toumastin/Adagh. Glitterhouse Records. (3.20)
The next example of innovation in Desert Blues is perhaps the most interesting. In my presentation on 'Sufi Music', I played two versions of a song called 'Mustt Mustt': the first by leading Pakistani Qua'wwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the second a Massive Attack remix of that recording that became the first song in Urdu to reach the British charts. Indian-Canadian singer/dancer Kiran Ahluwalia studied Indian classical music in India before moving to Canada and in 2011 she recorded a version of 'Mustt Mustt' in collaboration with Desert Blues band Tinariwen. It's unusual for a woman to sing Qua'wwali songs and for her to do it in collaboration with a Desert Blues band is unique! Here's the result.
TRACK FOURTEEN: Kiran Ahluwalia (2011) 'Mustt Mustt' from Aam Zameen: Common Ground. (With Tinariwen). Independent. (4.18)
My final example of developments in the Desert Blues form is another collaboration – this time between Mali’s Songhoy Blues and guitarist Nick Zinner, from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Songhoy Blues is the latest example of Desert Blues emerging from regional conflict. When a Taliban-like, jihadist regime was established in northern Mali in 2012, it banned cigarettes, alcohol and music, with harsh penalties for infringements. Guitarist Garba Touré and his friends - like thousands of others - fled to Mali’s capital, Bamako. Once there, they formed a band to boost fellow refugees’ morale. Three of the musicians (including Garba Touré) are Songhoys – a major ethnic group in the north – but people of all ethnicities flocked to see them, including Tuaregs – despite the Songhoy-Tuareg hostility engendered by Mali's recent civil war.
In September 2013, Songhoy Blues linked up with Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner. Their collaboration was part of a project initiated by a group of European and American musicians and producers calling themselves Africa Express. One result is a track called ‘Soubour’ ("patience") on a compilation album, ‘Maison des Jeunes’ by Africa Express.
TRACK FIFTEEN: Songhoy Blues and Nick Zinner (2013) ‘Soubour’ from ‘Maison des Jeunes’ by Africa Express. Transgressive Records. (3.38)
http://tuaregcultureandnews.blogspot.com.au
You might also consider a couple of tracks by Dirtmusic:
‘Desert Wind’ from their 2010 CD ‘BKO
‘La Paix’ and ‘Take it on the chin’ from their 2013 CD ‘Troubles’.
BluesBreakers September 2015
BLUESBREAKERS
2016 marks the 50th anniversary of "Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton" (1966).
Decca released the LP in Britain on 22 July 1966, literally days after Clapton left the Bluesbreakers and just a week before Cream's launch. “Bluesbreakers” reached number 6 on the UK album charts – no mean feat for a band that had never had a hit single. The LP acquired such myth-like status that it’s easy to forget that it was only Mayall’s third best-selling album of the 1960s – a decade in which he released ten LPs, of which six reached the UK Top Ten LPs chart.
‘British blues’
“Bluesbreakers” was produced by Mike Vernon, who later set up the Blue Horizon label. Vernon produced albums for a large number of British blues stars during the late 1960's, including Chicken Shack, Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, Savoy Brown and Duster Bennett.
“Bluesbreakers” had a major influence on the British blues 'movement'
The new wave of British blues bands, formed after 1966 highlighted individual virtuosity – especially of their lead guitarists and keyboard players:
· Cream featured Eric Clapton
· Fleetwood Mac featured Peter Green and slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer
· Free was led by guitarist Paul Kossoff
· Guitarist Alvin Lee led Ten Years After
· The Animals featured Alan Price on keyboards, Eric Burdon vocals
· The Spencer Davies Group had Steve Winwood on keyboards, guitar and vocals
Each band retained blues or rhythm and blues standards in its repertoire. For example, seven of “Bluesbreakers” twelve tracks are covers of existing blues or R&B songs:
· “All Your Love” (Otish Rush)
· “Hideaway” (Freddie King / Sonny Thompson)
· “What’d I Say” (Ray Charles)
· “Parchman Farm (Mose Alison)
· “Ramblin’ On My Mind” (Robert Johnson)
· “Steppin’ Out (L. C. Frazier) 2:30
· “It Ain’t Right” (Little Water) 2: 42
The covers on Bluesbreakers were very true to the originals. For example, Clapton’s version of Otish Rush’s “All Your Love” follows the original almost note-for note:
· OTIS RUSH (1958) “ALL YOUR LOVE” Cobra (single)
· BLUESBREAKERS “ALL YOUR LOVE”
Additionally, band members began to write their own songs that were neither blues nor pop. They were called ‘blues-rock’ and started a distinction between ‘pop’ and ‘rock’ that would persist for years. Here’s Mayall’s “Key to Love”
· BLUESBREAKERS “KEY TO LOVE”
Not all of Mayall’s originals broke free of the blues, however. His “Another man” was clearly written by a man who’s listed to a lot of blues harp player Sonny Boy Williamson.
· BLUESBREAKERS “ANOTHER MAN”
· SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON “BYE BYE BIRD” (1963) Checker (single)
Indeed, when Mayall performed the Williamson original, he did more with it than his own original!
· JOHN MAYALL “BYE BYE BIRD” (1966?) from “Live at the BBC” (2007) Decca; also on the expanded “Bluesbreakers” album released in 2007.
When British blues bands started to tour the USA, they promoted a resurgence of interest there in ‘original’ blues:
· Young American blues fans ‘rediscovered’ accoustic blues musicians from the 1920s and 1930s, such as Son House, Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt, who became popular performers on the folk circuit.
· Electric blues musicians from the 1940s and 1950s, such as Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and B. B. King, suddenly saw their declining careers – and fees - take an unexpected upturn as they played to white, middle class teenagers and were praised by white guitar legends such as Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield. The Rolling Stones and Cream hired original blues artists to open their shows.
‘Authenticity’
Blues has always featured two mutually-reinforcing ideals:
· Expressiveness. The romantic ideal that performers ‘express’ themselves through the music they perform.
· BLUESBREAKERS “DOUBLE CROSSING TIME”
Hendrix often stripped back all the electronic tricks and techniques when playing ‘traditional’ blues such as ‘Red House’ or ‘Hear my train a-comin’’ (only recorded accoustic?).
· Interpretation. The ideal in oral cultures that a performer’s performance of material matters more than its originality. For example, many blues songs are collections of stock phrases – both musical and lyrical – given new life by the particular musician’s interpretation of them.
· BLUESBREAKERS “RAMBLIN’ ON MY MIND
· BUKKA WHITE (1940) “PARCHMAN FARM BLUES” Okeh.
· MOSE ALISON “PARCHMAN FARM” (1957) from Local Color (Prestige) (Original: Bukka White [1940] Okeh.)
· BLUESBREAKERS “PARCHMAN FARM”
Recorded blues added a third ideal which could conflict with the first two:
· Accuracy. The technical ideal of reproducing accurately the ambience of ‘the concert hall’ and of a musician’s performance in it.
No surprise, then that Mayall originally intended that “Bluesbreakers” - his second LP - should be a live album. A set was recorded at the Flamingo Club, but the recordings were too poor (‘technically’) for release.
The emergence of electric blues in Chicago (was it controversial there?) to the ‘Muddy Waters UK tours’ story and to Dylan’s electric set at Newport.
You’d better move on
Despite the late 1960s blues revival in the USA, soul music was the contemporary music of much of young, black America, for whom blues just wasn’t ‘relevant’ to the new assertive black consciousness. For Nelson George (1989 The Death of Rhythm & Blues. E. P. Dutton.), that cultural gap in the late 1960s between blues and soul derived from an essential difference between black and white cultures in the USA:
The black audience’s consumerism and restlessness burns out and abandons musical styles, whereas white Americans, in the European tradition of supporting forms and styles for the sake of tradition, seem to hold styles dear long after they have ceased to evolve. ... Blacks create and then move on. Whites document and then recycle. (p108)
The Rolling Stones had been part of the boom in British blues and R & B almost from its start and while blues and R & B dominated their first two albums. Here’s their version of Jimmy Reed’s “I’m A King Bee” from their first LP (“The Rolling Stones”) in 1964:
· ROLLING STONES “I’M A KING BEE” (1964) The Rolling Stones. Decca.
By their third LP - ‘Out of Our Heads’ (1965) – they’d moved on from blues to soul. Alongside Jagger & Richard songs such “Heart of Stone” and “I’m Free” were their versions of Solomon Burke’s “Cry To Me”, Otis Redding’s “That’s How Strong My Love Is”, Don Covay’s “Mercy, Mercy” and Marvin Gaye’s “Hitch Hike”.
· ROLLING STONES (1965) “HITCH HIKE” Out of Our Heads. Decca.
... and finally
“Bluesbreakers’ launched Clapton’s career as ‘guitar hero, even though by the LP’s release, he’d left the band to form Cream.
His combination of a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar and a 1962 45-watt Marshall amplifier turned up full) would influence countless guitarist ... and boost the flagging sales of the Gibson Standard! We can see the beginnings in “Steppin’ Out” (credited to L. C. Frazier, a.k.a Pete Chatman, a.k.a. Memphis Slim. Released 1959 on Vee-Jay.)
· BLUESBREAKERS “STEPPIN’ OUT”
Clapton’s Gibson/Marshall set-up
It was notable for its driving rhythms and Clapton's rapid blues licks with a full – even distorted – sound. He plugged a sunburst 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar into a 45-watt model 1962 Marshall 2x12 combo amplifier turned up full. The result was a thick, overdriven sound with tremendous sustain. This particular combination led to the electric guitar becoming a distinctive characteristic of ‘British blues’; and it would become a classic combination for British blues (and later rock) guitarists.
The guitar had with two PAF (literally: Patent Applied For) “Humbucking” pick-ups. “Humbucking” pickups reduced the hum often associated with electric guitars. They used a pair of coils arranged in parallel with opposing polarities. This innovation in pickups debuted on Les Pauls in 1957 and became the flagship pickup design most associated with Gibson. Many other guitar companies followed suit, outfitting their electrics with versions of the humbucking pickup.
In 2012 Gibson issued a replica of the 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard, calling it the ‘The Gibson Custom Shop Eric Clapton 1960 Les Paul’ and emphasising that it had been created ‘with the close personal cooperation of the artist, and with painstaking reference to available photographs.’
‘Eric Clapton’s first record with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers was the single “I’m Your Witchdoctor.” A limited edition single and the trendsetting sole LP followed shortly thereafter. ... Producer Jimmy Page added TONS of reverb to Clapton’s solos, making them even more soaring and fiery than they already were. For example, right after Mayall’s “Got my eye on you...” Clapton lets loose with a ferocious solo with constantly repeated finger vibrato that foreshadows the track one could hold responsible for heavy metal - Cream’s “Cat’s Squirrel.”
Side One
“All Your Love” (Otis Rush) – 3:36
“Hideaway” (Freddie King / Sonny Thompson) – 3:17 (interpolates “The Walk”
by Jimmy McCracklin – as did King’s original)
“Little Girl” (Mayall) – 2:37
"Another Man" (Mayall) – 1:45
"Double Crossing Time" (Clapton/Mayall) – 3:04
“What’d I Say” (Ray Charles) – 4:29 (interpolates “Day Tripper” by Lennon &
McCartney)
Side Two
"Key to Love" (Mayall) – 2:09
“Parchman Farm” (Mose Allison) 2:24
"Have You Heard" (Mayall) – 5:56
“Ramblin’ On My Mind” (Robert Johnson / Traditional) 3:10
“Steppin’ Out (L. C. Frazier, a.k.a Mmphis Slim, a.k.a. Pete Chatman) 2:30
“It Ain’t Right” (Little Water) 2: 42
Recorded: March 1966 at Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London.
Released: 22 July 1966 on Decca in the UK and London in the USA
Musicians:
John Mayall – lead vocals, piano, Hammond B3 organ, harmonica
Eric Clapton – guitar (lead vocals on "Ramblin' on My Mind")
John McVie – bass guitar
Hughie Flint - drums
Additional musicians
Alan Skidmore – tenor saxophone John Almond – baritone saxophone
Derek Healey – trumpet
Jack Bruce – bass (disc two tracks 14–19, not on the original album)
Geoff Krivit – guitar (disc two tracks 8–10, not on the original album)
Production
Mike Vernon - producer
Gus Dudgeon – engineer
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