Blues

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba (6/10/10)

Malian musician Bassekou Kouyate and his band Ngoni Ba played at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park on Thursday, 10 June 2010. Their music was exhilarating and thrilling. It continues to amaze me that they can get so much music out of such “primitive”-looking instruments as the ngoni.

As someone who is still learning to play a six-string fretted guitar, It’s hard to imagine how one can play a four-stringed unfretted instrument with such apparent ease and precision. They played their hypnotic music for a little over an hour.

As an introduction to the Chicago Blues Festival that began the following night, Barry Dollins came on stage and announced the Howlin’ Wolf tribute (yesterday was the 100^th anniversary of his birth). Otis Taylor came out with Eddie Shaw and Hubert Sumlin. They played a few Wolf tunes (“Spoonful,” “Back Door Man,” “Shake It”) with the Kouyate group. Taylor played a white Fender Telecaster, Shaw played sax and sang, and Sumlin played his well-worn Strat. He had his oxygen tank with him and had to sit, but he seemed to be having a good time.

The jam was a chaotic mess. Taylor mostly just played a rhythm line. Sumlin’s guitar was hard to hear whenever he got a chance to solo. I imagine they never rehearsed, but I’m surprised that they didn’t do it so everyone got a chance to be heard. Fortunately, I’d heard Otis Taylor and Hubert Sumlin before so I knew what they were capable of, but it wasn’t a good introduction for new listeners.

Blues / Learning Music / Quotes — No Comments
29
Apr 10

4 Blues Rules

1. Have fun.

2. Play loose.

3. Play with feeling.

4. Don’t worry about mistakes.

—Kenny Sultan. Blues Guitar Legends (1996)

Blues / Learning Music — No Comments
13
Jan 10

Guitar practice

The cold weather has made practicing difficult. In particular, the second finger on my left hand and the first finger on my right hand are cracked and sore. I only practiced about half an hour last night. I worked on “Gambler’s Blues” from the Acoustic Blues book that my teacher, Jim Goelitz, gave me some time ago. I had forgotten about it, but when we were talking about finger picking he recommended I work on that material.

I also started doing a musical analysis of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Commit a Crime,” which I really like. I believe it’s just a one-chord riff-based song in B, but I really like the riff. I’d never heard the song until I heard it on the three CD Chess Box set. When I Googled it last night, I discovered that it had been covered by a lot of musicians, including Stevie Ray Vaughan. I haven’t figured out the riff yet, but hope Jim will help me today.

Blues / Documentary / Movie Review — No Comments
11
Jan 10

The Howlin’ Wolf Story (2003) [DVD]

I really enjoyed Don McGlynn’s The Howlin’ Wolf Story (2003), which I saw on DVD. I think it’s one of the best blues documentaries I’ve seen. It’s a typical mix of archival footage and photos with contemporary talking heads interviews. It gives an overview of Wolf’s life and music. One of its strengths is that several songs are heard in entirety. Some are recordings behind a montage of images. The best segments are from a 1966 performance of Wolf with Hubert Sumlin, his lead guitarist, and others. There are also some clips of drummer Sam Lay’s home movies of Wolf and the band at Silvio’s Lounge in Chicago (now a vacant lot). One really gets a sense of what he might have been like as a performer. I would give almost anything to have seen him perform before his death in 1976.

Howlin’ Wolf is one of my blues heroes and mentors. While he’s not as well known, perhaps, as Muddy Waters, he’s of equal stature in his importance to the blues and his influence on later music, including rock ‘n’ roll.

Blues / Electric Guitar / Learning Music — No Comments
05
Sep 09

Music Listening Analysis

My guitar teacher, Jim Goelitz, suggested that I listen to songs I’m interested in learning and do a music analysis of them. He said this would be good ear training and would help me learn to pay attention to more elements of the music. Based on his input, I developed a form that I use to record my analysis. The elements include the name of the song, the composer, the performer or band, the instrumentation, the time signature, the tempo, whether it’s “swing” or “straight” rhythm, the form of the song (e.g., 12-bar blues), the key of the song, the chords in the song, and the tuning. I also add the source album, release date, record label and length of the song.

On early recordings such as those of Howlin’ Wolf on Chess Records, it can be a challenge to hear all the instruments. It can also be difficult, especially in the beginning, to hear the chord changes and work out the progression. It’s much easier on recent recordings where instruments are on separate microphones. To determine the key, I work my way up the neck of the guitar until I find something that seems to fit. I missed a few at first, but have gotten better at it. It’s a very useful “exercise,” but requires having a good teacher.

Blues / Live Music Report — No Comments
29
May 09

Eddie C. Campbell at Buddy Guy’s (5/29/2009)

Based on a review in the Chicago Reader, I went to Buddy Guy’s Legends to see Eddie C. Campbell, a bluesman I hadn’t heard of before. He gave an outstanding show and I especially loved the tone of his guitar, which reminded me a little of that of Albert Collins, one of my blues heroes. Campbell played an extremely road-worn magenta Fender Jazzmaster plugged into a Fender Vibrosonic Reverb amp. He didn’t need any effects pedals to play his blues. Campbell is a good example of the fact that you don’t need to play fast to play cool. He really knew how to “milk the notes,” as my teacher says.

His local back-up band consisted of an electric bass and drums, keyboards and second guitar. The latter was played by a young man named Alex. He was a contrast to Eddie Campbell in that he played fast, technically accomplished leads that were impressive, but by comparison seemed to me to lack blues feeling. It was very revealing to see the two styles side by side.

Campbell’s 70^th birthday was May 6, so at one point toward the end of the set, Buddy Guy came out to wish him a happy birthday. Guy sang one song in his characteristic style.

Campbell’s latest CD is Tear This World Up (2009) on Delmark Records.

The opener for Campbell was a Chicago-based group called The Cash Box Kings. The leader, Joe Nosek, played very good harmonica and sang. The guitarist was pretty good, though I didn’t care for his tone or style of playing. He played a St. Blues 61 South guitar. Completing the quartet was an acoustic bassist and drummer. I enjoyed the group, especially the harmonica; they had good energy.

The opening acoustic act was Matt Hendricks, who played an electric/acoustic Stella guitar. He played some slide. I enjoyed his playing, but couldn’t understand the words when he sang.

Blues / Electric Guitar / Live Music Report — No Comments
22
Jan 09

Buddy Guy at Legends (1/22/09)

It was close to 11:00 p.m. when Buddy Guy came onto the stage of Buddy Guy’s Legends, his blues club on south Wabash in Chicago. He’s quite the showman and crowd-pleaser—and they ate it up (as did I). He sang some songs with a little innuendo to titillate the suburbanites and tourists in the crowd. He played free form with one song morphing into another. It was sometimes hard to see his playing because of the angle at which he stood and where I was sitting, but I enjoyed watching him. His outstanding band included drums, bass and rhythm guitars and keyboards. The downside of his set was that it was too often punishingly loud.

Guy uses a wireless system for his guitar (a Fender Stratocaster, of course), so he isn’t connected to his amplifier by a cable. While he continued to play, he walked out through the audience. It was another crowd-pleasing moment and people were firing away with their cameras. Buddy’s final piece of showbiz was throwing guitar picks from the stage into the audience or handing them out to those up front. I confess I would have liked to have gotten one if I could.

Blues / Electric Guitar / Learning Music — No Comments
06
Jan 09

Guitar Lesson

At my guitar lesson (I managed to get in two 30-minute practice sessions before I went), my teacher, Jim Goelitz, talked about phrasing, specifically the three-part phrasing in a 12-bar blues (AAB pattern like the words usually follow). I tried it couple of times, but it feels challenging. Just playing a phrase that’s simple enough to remember so I could repeat it seems challenging and then to do three four-bar phrases is another challenge. I hope I have time after I get home to at least go over the John Lee Hooker riff he gave me before his vacation and which I didn’t practice. He went over it with me, so I want to practice it while I still remember what he showed me. I often have trouble remembering things he shows me if he doesn’t write them down.

Making Music On the Road to the Blues