Saya kecewa tidak bisa menyaksikan perhelatan musik akbar cukup unik tahun ini, Jakarta Internasional Blues Festival 2009 tanggal 7 November lalu. Saya sudah membeli tiketnya, nitip Nyanya tapi apa mau dikata… Bedrest aja cyiiiiiin karena bengek. Komplit!

Padahal, bisa dibilang genre musik ini jarang banget diadakan besar – besaran. Sepertinya musik ini sudah mulai dilupakan dan mulai banyak bergeser pola permainannya atau mungkin bisa dibilang sudah terakulturasi dengan berbagai jenis musik lainnya. Tidak ada yang terlalu spesial dalam event ini sebetulnya karena sebagian nama mereka, kecuali musisi lokal, masih kurang akrab ditelinga saya. Hanya saja, saya memang tertarik untuk mengetahui musik ini lebih lanjut.

Dari yang pernah saya baca, musik ini adalah musik yang terlahir berbarengan seiring tumbuhnya musik Jazz oleh para Afro – Amerika pada dekade tahun 30an yang biasa dinikmati sebagai musik nongkrong – nongkrong selesai para buruh bekerja. Musik ini dianggap sebagai counter – attack bagi musik klasik eropa yang khas dengan instrumen piano, harpa dan biola. Blues cukup identik dengan permainan detail dari instrumen gitar dan lirik “penuh makna” yang dinyanyikan dengan gaya khas tersendiri. Jagoan di era awal lahirnya musik blues adalah Robert Johnson yang meninggal di usia 27 tahun namun tetap menjadi idola bagi para musisi blues hingga sekarang.

Robert Johnson

Sebut saja Chicago Blues, tempat kelahiran awal bagi generasi blues selanjutnya : electrified blues, yang dimulai dari daerah Chicago, Memphis, hingga St. Louis. Era ini tidak terlalu terdengar “gigitan” nada – nadanya. Mungkin dikarenakan di era ini sedang terjadi urbanisasi pasca perang dunia ke-2. Idola di era ini yang bisa diacungin jempol karena kesetiaannya pada genre ini adalah Willie Dixon.

Dekade 50-60an bisa dibilang sebagai generasi selanjutnya yang pengaruhnya cukup besar bagi perkembangan musik blues. Kebanyakan dari musisi lebih menyebutnya sebagai Rock and Roll Blues. Yang paling menjulang dimasa ini adalah Chuck Berry dan Elvis Presley. Peraturan musik Blues sudah tidak terlalu mengakar kuat seperti sebelumnya dan kaum Afro sudah tidak terlalu mendominasi.

Chuck Berry

You still got the blues di dekade 70an. Sebut saja Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall dan Eric Clapton. Bahkan musik mereka sudah banyak mengalami distorsi penekanan pada kata “rock” dan akhirnya di era ini menjadi perkembangan awal bagi lahirnya musik rock. Perkembangannya pun sudah bisa dirasa di eropa.

Terinspirasi dari era 70an, Aerosmith dan Led Zepellin memulai kecintaan mereka pada musik ini dan mulai menghipnotis era rock selanjutnya kepada para musisi di generasi berikutnya. Sehingga esensi blues mulai banyak bergeser ke arah rock.

Led Zeppelin

Setelah millenium? Masih belum banyak yang kembali ke “pure-blues”. Rata – rata masih meng-akulturasi blues dengan berbagai genre lain. Musisi yang masih bermain dengan musik blues di era ini seperti John Mayer, Norah Jones, India Arie, Corrine Bailey Rae dan salah satu penyanyi favorit saya, Regina Spektor. Blues pun sudah tidak sekedar dimainkan dengan gitar namun piano.

Regina Spektor

Jadi tertarik dengan blues setelah membaca ini? Saya sendiri… sangaaat!

Besok mulai mencari – cari tahu lebih banyak lagi dan sedikit – sedikit mempelajarinya.

Kemang, 19 November 2009

* Posting setelah bbq-an sama anak – anak kantor…

Genero – Blues
Estilo – Modern Electric Blues
Duración – 33:45
Calidad – mp3@320 kbps
Tamaño – 77 mb

Este fue el álbum debut de Johnny Winter para el sello Columbia y es probablemente el mas blusero y el mejor. Recién llegado de Texas y acompañado por un trió espectacular, Johnny Winter hace un blues-rock para los ángeles. Obtiene de una Fender (de las mas baratas) música celestial y como muestra baste citar los temas "I’m Yours and I’m Hers", "Leland Mississippi Blues," y el blues lento que por si solo justifica este gran disco, "Be Careful with a Fool" de B.B. King. La voz y la guitarra de Winter es diferente a todo lo que hayas podido escuchar y si alguna vez te has preguntado por qué tiene tantos seguidores nada mejor que este disco para comprobarlo por ti mismo.

Temas
01. I’m Yours and I’m Hers    
02. Be Careful with a Fool   
03. Dallas     Winter
04. Mean Mistreater    
05. Leland Mississippi Blues    
06. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
07. When You Got a Good Friend   
08. I’ll Drown in My Tears    
09. Back Door Friend

Musicos
Johnny Winter (guitar, harmonica, harp, vocals)
Edgar Winter (piano, keyboards, alto sax, vocals)
Peggy Bowers, Carrie Hossell, Elsie Senter (vocals)
Albert Wynn Butler (tenor sax)
Willie Dixon, Tommy Shannon (bass)
Karl Garin (trumpet)
Big Walter Horton (harmonica, harp)
Norman Ray (baritone sax)
Stephen Sefsik (alto sax)
John Turner (percussion, drums)

Sello
Columbia, 1969

enlace

pass: gormenghast

Ok, I hate “Best Of” lists just as much as you do. That’s why I’m just calling this my “favorite” list so there isn’t the feeling of who is better than who. I like to write songs when I’m not writing this blog or herding cattle on the range, and have delved into many a great one and pulled it apart to discover what lies within. Most of the time I’m left with nothing but a bunch of words that sound cool together, but are meaningless and shallow. A great song is like a children’s book – when the story is over and the pages are closed, the world created by the author continues to exist within the reader’s head, and echo of the tale lingers and develops a life of its own.

Great songwriters are capable of creating a world we can live in beyond the limits of the song’s duration. Their words toss and turn in our dreams, their melodies drift in our minds and out of our mouths on the elevator to work, and by the end of the day we can’t wait to get back to our record player, put that needle down and relive the moment one more time. A great song lives and breathes and has a personality all its own. The greatest writers have entire albums full of these songs that actually exist as characters in our minds. If you let them, these writers may climb into your conscience too, and you may feel as if you know them. But you cannot really know this person, no matter how you long to, because their existence is a fabrication of their own design, just like their songs. Even those who are related or married to a songwriter cannot claim to know them. They are the modern shapeshifters of society, taking on forms of different characters and moods, living in different times and places all at once. I bet few songwriters would even claim to know themselves.

Now to the list. These are people that I have wanted to meet and thank for making the world more bearable. Another part of me doesn’t want to ruin the fantasy of who I think they are, and I also wouldn’t want to bother them. But if they ever happen to sit down next to me at a bar, I’d treat them as if they were an old friend, because in my mind that’s what they are.

THE BEST OF EACH DECADE:

50’s – Hank Williams – The original “Songwriter”, and one of the greatest of all time. Before this you have the Tin Pan Alley scene, but no one man could cut to the chase the way Hank did, and no one has come close since. “Cold, Cold Heart” is one of the saddest songs ever written. Definitely the greatest songwriter of the 50’s.

60’s – Bob Dylan – What a bastard. How can you be such an anemic prick, sneering and jeering your way via lies into people’s hearts and minds, first with a fake smile, then behind dark darting sunglasses, only to tell them all to go fuck themselves? You write nimble poetry that connects far-off distant memories in our minds and make us thing we know what’s going on, then leave us in the dust like all your forgotten lovers. I hope you can forgive yourself what you’ve done to us, Dylan – I definitely have. You’re still the greatest songwriter to come out of the 60’s, and you’ve done pretty well for yourself in the 70’s and 2000’s, too.

70’s – Neil Young – Neil is friendlier, furrier, and more rustic than Dylan. If Dylan is New York, Neil is Half Moon Bay. Still, a darkness underlies every word the man has written, and sadness is ultimately the subject of most of his greatest songs. What makes Mr. Young so great must be the same thing that makes Steinbeck great - everything is simple, straightforward, and seemingly contemplative of the human spirit, which is treated with reverence and fear. Very few songwriters can put so much of themselves in their songs without it coming out pretentious. Neil’s got my vote for the best songwriter in the 70’s, moving from After the Gold Rush and Harvest through Tonight’s the Night, On the Beach, all the way to Rust Never Sleeps.

80’s – Bruce Springsteen - He is both seductive and honest in his approach to songwriting. Never mind that his voice sounds like warm leftovers after about the fifth song, no one can write a song for the workin’ man like the Boss. His stories appeal to the most basic needs of humans, to be loved, to honor brotherhood, to make quick money and go to Atlantic City. If only judged by Nebraska, he would still come out on top as the greatest songwriter of the 80’s.

90’s – Elliot Smith – Yes, I know he was kind of pathetic and whiny. So was Dylan and Hank Williams. Songwriters are like little brothers - they always get beat up, and instead of fighting back they brood in their rooms for days to perform some act of genius that makes you feel like a jerk for picking on them in the first place. Mr. Smith must have spent weeks in his room, shooting up and drinking vodka in a mad depression, in order to create the incredibly fragile ballads that he is known for. I am aware that most of his songs are about dope and suicide, but no one writes such brilliantly bitter pop melodies that leave you wondering whether heroin is such a bad thing after all (except maybe John Lennon, Elliot’s idol). I guess it was, considering it’s elemental in Smith’s suicide stabbing(!?!). Definitely my favorite songwriter from the 90’s.

00’s – Ryan Adams – Jesus Christ, not again. Another twitchy genius with big mouth and bad hair making snarky comments that cause discomfort. It’s like Dylan all over again, isn’t it? Well, not exactly. Adams is by far the most prolific artist of his  generation, releasing so many albums in the past 10 years it’s ridiculous, starting with the indespensable Heartbreaker. The good news is that he is now “retired” from songwriting after cleaning up off drugs and alcohol, and spends his time writing novels, recording joke heavy metal albums, sleeping with new wife Mandy Moore, painting, and writing blogs about arcade games. What a delightful twist! Actually, I really wish he would get back to writing songs again, because no one can tell lyrical tales of pain and heartbreak in late-night diners over coffee and cigarettes like ol’ Ryan Adams. This decade isn’t over yet, but I’m calling it now:  best songwriter of the 00’s.

OTHER FAVORITES:

Gram Parsons – It took me a little while to forgive him for singing out of tune on most everything he did, but it actually accentuates the earnest sense of urgency that makes his music so endearing. Gram is not the ”Golden Prophet” that he is often revered as, rather he was a lost young man with a difficult emotional past that he channeled into great songs. Most interesting is that his concept of “Cosmic Country” is right on – his music inspires a humanitarian empathy that can’t be ignored.

John Lennon – Definitely not Paul McCartney, Lennon was the antithesis of happy safe pop music. This is one is so obvious, but I really like his post-Beatle catalog the most, as he delves deeper into the personal darkness that made him so such a tragic figure (even if he wasn’t murdered, he was still a tragedy). The most loveable basketcase I can think of, Lennon proved that being a genius songwriter doesn’t change the world, but it definitely makes it more bearable to live in.

Kris Kristofferson – Most people don’t know that Kristofferson wrote hits like, “Me  Bobby McGee”, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, and “Help Me Make it Through the Night”. Plus, he was in the Highwaymen and is a great actor (which has nothing to do with his songwriting, I know). He evokes feelings of the best of times, along with the worst of times. Without sounding too much like a Dickens novel, I can’t live without him.

Lefty Frizzell - A lesser-known contemporary of Hank Williams, Lefty wrote some incredible songs in his short career, most notably the ones covered by Willie Nelson. “If You’ve Got the Money” is the #1 sugar mama track, and that was waaaayyy before it was cool to have one.

Leonard Cohen – If Gram Parsons is the loveable boy-child of songwriting, then Cohen is definitely the Ice King. His lyrical content is seductive without frills, and while Parsons will sing about the Armaggedon with cautionary hope, Cohen will sing as if it has already happened and he is the product of the fallout, mourning the loss of innocence in a land ravaged by sin and overconsumption. It’s no wonder that his adult themes of cheating wives and fallen kings resonate so well with the Hollywood crowd and strip clubs. His voice is the last shred of humanity left standing in Babylon, and it’s like we’re listening to the folk music of the future. I’m guessing that this bard would have fared well in the world of “Total Recall”.

Loretta Lynn – People give Taylor Swift so much credit for being so young and writing her own songs. They forget it’s happened before, and it was done better in the past. Loretta’s about the same as Swift, except she had already had a couple of kids and was married to a no-count drunk which gave her much more interesting things to sing about. She was also poor and uneducated, but that didn’t stop her from becoming one of the fiercest female voices to ever stick up for the forgotten housewives in America. With song titles like, “The Pill” and “Fist City” Loretta could be considered one of the first feminist songwriters. If she isn’t the first, she most certainly is the best of the lot. A special place in my heart is reserved only for this strong woman.

Lou Reed - Inspiring generations of noisy garage bands is easily forgiveable when you write a song like “Heroin”, which has never  before or since been matched in meniachal intensity. The voice of the urban New York underground, Reed has never played it safe lyrically, and almost always delivers in creating the paranoid, zonked-out feeling of hanging out with a tranny, midget twins, and a drug dealer at one of Warhol’s parties. Even Nico could sing his songs and they sounded cool.  Not to mention that his solo exploits, while often scattered, continue to display his mastery of the language of filthy human resiliency.

Lucinda Williams – The queen of modern country, or Americana, as it is now referred to. She has the wail and moan of Hank Williams in her leathery voice, but what makes her so amazing is that she is poetic without being flowery. Much of the themes in her music (especially the more recent “West”) are biographical in nature, conjuring images of single mothers driving buicks in the desert. The forlorn sadness captured in her stark imagery reflects both spiritual and existensial realities, and her writing abilities continue to stretch outward successfully. Definitely the strongest and most responsible female voice of modern songwriting, Williams just keeps getting better and better. I can’t wait to see what she does next. 

Merle Haggard - Never before has the voice of the prisoner been so well emoted as with Merle Haggard. If it just came down to songs about leaving behind mama and getting into trouble, then Merle would be well ahead of the game It just so happens that he also wrote some of the best ramblin’ train songs of all time, too. Try to understand the humor and irony in songs like “Okie From Muskogee”, “Workin’ Man Blues” and “Fightin’ Side of Me”, and you’ll find yourself a happier person. You can’t play a single juke joint from here to Texas without knowing some Merle Haggard.

Townes Van Zandt – The most depressing human on Earth. Seriously, why do you have to do this to us, Townes? What I like best about his music is that for a second you think things are looking up, and then he swoops in like a bird of death and kills all hope. I can’t listen to him too much, but his music fills an irreplaceable void in my life – the depressed space. “Waitin’ Around to Die” pretty much tops the charts of all-time biggest downers, and makes Neil Young sound like Bob Marley. He also writes great story songs like “Pancho and Lefty”, too.

Willie Nelson – He definitely is a beloved country icon, but before Willie was famous for being Willie, he wrote “Hello Walls”, “Mr. Record Man”, and Patsy Cline’s best song, “Crazy”, and sold the rights to them all for less than a bag of weed. Of course, he’s written hundreds of great songs since then, and continues to pump out one great tune after another to this day. The best part about Willie is his sense of humor, and when I heard “Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other” I nearly died laughing. Please ignore the fact that he lets people like Toby Keith and Kid Rock sing on his albums. Please at least try.

Great songwriters who should be on this list but aren’t (with excuses):

Alejandro Escovedo - I must confess, I only own one album (Boxing Mirror), but the words are awesome!
Beck - If humor were the main criteria for a great songwriter, he would be #1.
Brian Wilson - He loses points for writing songs about surfing. No one wonder he went insane.
Buddy Holly - I love Buddy Holly, he wrote perfect pop songs. But Carole King isn’t on this list either.
Cat Power - Sometimes her words are gibberish, other times fantastic. Keep writing, Cat!
Curtis Mayfield - Songs for the ghetto, I guess. Curtis is a political spokesman, but he isn’t a lyrical genius.
David Bowie - I’m also tempted to add him now, but his words don’t quite carry the power of some of the other cats.
George Jones - A great songwriter indeed, but his songs never sound as good when someone else sings them.
Jim Morrison - Really more of a poet than a songwriter, don’t you think?
Keith Richards/Mick Jagger - Rock n’ Roll isn’t supposed to have good lyrics. These guys do it for me, but I’m not taking the words to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” with me to the grave.
Neil Diamond - The man did write some amazing songs, but the schmaltz aspect of his act has always detracted from his genius.
Nick Drake – Neil Young and Townes are depressing enough. I can’t take it any more!
PJ Harvey – She is fun to listen to, and her lyrics aren’t burdened with depression and sadness. I need those in my songs.
Ralph and Carter Stanley - Bluegrass couldn’t exist without these cats. But cautionary religous tales about drinking too much just don’t resonate much with me. I never knew why:)
Robert Hunter – I love his lyrics, they have important life lessons in them. But clever they are not.
Roy Orbison - He definitely wrote great songs, though I can’t exactly admit that he is one of my favorites.
Tom Waits - Awesome lyrics, hideous, overwraught voice. I can’t stand his music.
Stevie Wonder - What a fantastic writer, especially his melodies. But one of my favorites? I gotta say close, but no cigar.
Willie Dixon - The greatest blues songwriter ever, to be sure. But seriously, how hard is it to write a blues song?
Win Butler – Pretty good, pretty good. I’ll make the decision when more albums are released.
Woody Guthrie – Ok, I know he’s great. I’m just not educated enough on his music to make a valuable assesment. Maybe when I finally get enough cash together to get some of his records…

Juke Joint Soul Blogspot – 9/2009

Sunday, September 20, 2009
AZ Kenny Tsak & 56 Deluxe – Like I Do

AZ Kenny Tsak & 56 Deluxe
Like I Do
self-release

Run Time: 56:20

Do you remember Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream album from way back when with the cover model on the LP nude but covered in whipped cream in all the right places? I thought of that album cover when I looked at 56 Deluxe’s album debut. However, the second thought that came to my mind in this day and age of style over substance that things were not going to be very good. Yet, when I tuned in to the disc itself I was immediately harkened back to the dawn of the age of blues-rock when it was at its finest points in the late 70s and early 80s. Tsak (pronounced SACK) and his gravel voice and decently paced guitar solos instantly reminded me of the days of George Thorogood & the Destroyers first few LPs.

Tsak has been on hiatus from the music business since those early 80s I spoke of, working on a family-run business. Like all good things in one’s life, they circle back around and Tsak along with old pal and bassman Avery T. Horton, Jr. put together 56 Deluxe and went on the road. I’m guessing that Tsak worked in some kind of product marketing firm or something, because his slick packaging of this CD and his “56 Deluxe Girls” are instantly recognizable brands when you meet them for the first time. I admit, I went looking around the internet for Tsak’s “marketing tool” to see if one of them was a girl I knew from the adult industry. It turns out I was wrong, but in any case, you can imagine what I mean when I say the packaging is “eye popping.” Yeah, I’m a dirty old man, so what? The blues ain’t pretty. Tsak and his group tap into that masculine edge with their rough and dirty grooves throughout the disc, even tapping some well-mined territory with Chick Willis’ “Stoop Down Baby” and Willie Dixon’s “I Just Wanna Make Love To You.” However, Tsak and company aren’t afraid to add to this well of the male sex drive with tunes like “Full Time Lover” and the jumpy rocker “My Tastee Cake.”

Tsak and Co. aren’t really forging new ground in the blues-rock arena. However, they’ve set themselves apart in a few ways. Tsak isn’t a flashy, over-the-top, pyrotechnic filled guitarist. His solos are concise and show well-rounded command. His gravelly vocals might not be the taste for some, but being as he’s indulging in the male bravura of roadhouse rock-blues, they fit well. Horton & drummer Andy “G” are a well-rounded rhythm section. Frank Perez’s tenor sax lends to the 80s feel of some of these tracks. In fact, I almost thought that the album opener and title track sounded a bit like Huey Lewis & the News. Overall, I feel the disc is a reminder to us all in the blues world who’ve been here awhile just how much potential blues-rock had in its beginnings, and how if it would’ve stayed true to its original ideas and pathos, we might not have to sort through so much of it to find the good stuff. Tsak has a good formula going here. If he continues down this path and doesn’t fall off of it like many in this genre do, he will keep winning over new listeners with each new record.

Posted by Ben the Harpman at 4:38 PM
1 comments:

Johnny Aruba said…

Wow, this reviewer “nailed’ it! I have been listening to, and enjoying the CD, been reading the good reviews, been reading the reviews that are inject what they want to hear themselves say instead of reviewing what the music is saying, and this one is in right-on, 70s like!
Thanks Harpman!

September 21, 2009 9:34 AM

Being an amateur blues harp player it is great to have the opportunity to do a little research and share some thoughts about the greats.

A good starting point is to get a couple of Muddy Waters CDs and trawl through the different harp players that Muddy recruited and provided the space for them to grow, such as Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Junior Wells , Walter Horton, James Cotton, Charlie Musselwhite, Paul Oscher, Carey Bell and Jerry Portnoy just to mention a few. They don’t all get into the top ten, but of course this is all subjective.

Just to make the link check out this great vid with Muddy and Sonny Boy Williamson:

Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck Rice  Miller) was, in many ways, the ultimate blues legend. By the time of his death in 1965, he had been around long enough to have played with Robert Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Robbie Robertson at the end of it.

What is known is that by the mid ’30s, he was traveling the Delta working under the alias of Little Boy Blue. With blues legends like Robert Johnson, Robert Nighthawk, Robert Jr. Lockwood, and Elmore James as interchangeable playing partners, he worked the juke joints, fish fries, country suppers, and ball games of the era.

Check out Sonnyboy.com for more on his life and recordings

Junior Wells

Photo courtesy Price Grabber

Known as the “Godfather of the Blues,” Junior Wells was able to grab an audience by the ears and take them on a musical roller-coaster ride with his own unique spin on the classic Chicago blues sound. Often performing alongside guitarist Buddy Guy, Wells enjoyed a lengthy career that spanned 50 years, his staggering harp solos and vocal interplay defining the Chicago blues harp sound at a time when the music was still shedding its country roots, taking the music to new heights of critical acclaim and commercial acceptance.

“If the harmonica is to blues what the saxaphone is to jazz, then Junior Wells is a post-bebop legend and one of the better players of the blues. He was along with James Cotton the last of a generation that grew out of Chicago in the late 40’s and early 50’s, when the blues scene featured such notables as John Lee Williamson and Rice Miller, Little Walter and Walter Horton.”

“Little Walter” Jacobs

Photo courtesy Geffen Records

More than any other harp-slinger, “Little Walter” Jacobs owned the Chicago blues scene from the moment of his arrival in 1946, and through the end of the 1950s. A dynamic soloist, Little Walter created new tones and bright new textures with the instrument.

An underrated vocalist with a gritty, soulful voice, Walter was also a skilled songwriter and natural-born bandleader. The dominant blues harp player of the post-war years, Walter’s influence can still be heard in the music of harpists like Charlie Musselwhite, Rod Piazza, and Kim Wilson.

James Cotton

Charlie Musselwhite

Photo courtesy The Rosebud Agency

ORIGINALITY.  I call this the three-second test.  If you turned on the radio and heard this player, could you tell within three seconds that it was them–assuming you knew their music to begin with?  Lurking within what harp players call “tone” is the absolutely individuated voice, if you’re lucky enough to develop one.

INFLUENCE. Are the players in question central to the tradition of blues harmonica as it has emerged over the past 100+ years?  Are they foundational in some way?  Do they help modernize, consolidate, or conserve the tradition?  Have they spawned imitators, including very good players who never escape their orbit?   If you leave them off the list, has an injustice plainly been done?  (John Lee Williamson changed the way everybody who came after him played harp.  Billy Branch and Sugar Blue are, in very different ways, both the inheritors and modernizers of the Chicago blues harmonica tradition.)

TECHNICAL MASTERY. Does this player make music at a speed or with a complexity that sets him or her above the rest?  (Little Walter in “Back Track” and “Roller Coaster,” James Cotton in “Creeper Creeps Again,” and Paul Butterfield in “Goin’ to Main Street” set a standard here, and Sonny Terry wins admission on the basis of pretty much any thing he’s every recorded.  Sugar Blue raises the bar yet again.  And please don’t forget DeFord Bailey.)  Or, alternately, does this player have an extraordinary ability to hit the deep blues pitches, especially the so-called “blue third” that I discuss in many of my videos?  (Junior Wells exhibits this sort of  mastery.)

SOULFULNESS. In some ways, this criterion should lead things off.  We’re talking about blues harmonica, after all, not basket weaving.  We’re talking about an extraordinarily expressive instrument.  The thing it seeks to express is a range of passions and moods, many of them very powerful and a few of them downright ugy.  Does this player attack his or her instrument with ferocity that makes you shiver, or jump?  Or with a late-night hoodoo-spookiness that makes you feel your own loneliness?  Or with some magical combination of all those things that make you cry?  (Howlin’ Wolf makes the Top-10 list for obvious reasons; so does Rice Miller, a.k.a. “Sonny Boy Williamson II.”  Rev. Dan Smith, who may be less familiar to you, is the definition of soulful)

RECORDED EVIDENCE.  In order to earn a spot on one of the top 10 lists , a player (or the partisans of a player) must be able to convince with the help of recorded evidence.  Buddy Bolden was the greatest trumpet player ever to come out of New Orleans, many say, but he never made a recording.  Obviously the best and most influential players can’t be fully summarized by 10 minutes’ worth of vinylized or digitized performances, and some players–John Lee Williamson in particular–don’t benefit from this exercise.  Still, it has its virtues as a teaching tool and a way of guiding the conversation.

And if you want to learn blues harp playing then a good place to start is with Adam’s lessons on you tube and on his web site.

Try these lessons just to get you in the mood

and blues scale playing….

So listen to all blues harp players from the last 100 years (plenty of remasters around), as well as practising whenever you have a quiet moment -easy instrument to carry around so no excuses. And remember what Adam says -listen to a wide variety of music to understand rhythm and improvisation.

Helen Humes – The Blues aint’ nothin’ but a woman (1962). In this video, while Helen Hume lays down some smooth vocals, it’s this line-up that accompanies her that is of particular note. Can you imagine the house party this band must be having upstairs?

Helen Humes : vocal
Sonny Terry : harmonica
Brownie ‘Kazoo’ McGhee : vocal, guitar
Willie Dixon :vocal, bass
T-Bone Walker : vocal, guitar
Memphis Slim : vocal, piano
Jump Jackson : drums

George Fish writes a music column “Blues and More” for the online Bloomington (IN) Alternative

Featured Blues Review 6 of 6 in BLUES BLAST August 6, 2009 on-line issue

AZ Kenny Tsak/56 Deluxe – Like I Do

Self Release

www.56deluxe.com

www.myspace.com/azkennytsak56deluxe

11 tracks Total time: 46:20

The CD case and sleeve notes artwork of Like I Do, featuring AZ Kenny Tsak in a paisley shirt surrounded by comely, scantily clad young women with guitars in hand, and with the Guitarus Maximus bravado graphic embedded in the sleeve notes,

might make one feel this is a guitarslinger rock or blues-rock album. But that’s definitely not the case, for this critically acclaimed CD by Tsak and his band, 56 Deluxe, is straightforward roadhouse blues that, while certainly rocking, is solidly blues, not rock.

Kenny Tsak first took up guitar in the 1970s, but had to abandon it in the 1980s to run a business. He reunited with his friend Avery T. Horton, Jr. in 2005 to form 56 Deluxe, which was soon performing regularly across southern Arizona and on the East Coast. Like I Do is the group’s debut CD.

Tsak fronts the band with gravelly bravura vocals and excellent, straight-ahead guitar solos with no extraneous flash, following in the tradition of Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison , Hubert Sumlin and other masters, the tradition that captured young white players on both sides of the Atlantic and gave birth to rock ‘n’ roll and rock. But Tsak has two other fine soloists on hand in 56 Deluxe—piano and organ man James Holt, and saxophonist Frank Perez, both of whom get appropriate space on Like I Do to strut their stuff. Bassist Avery T. Horton, Jr. is an able songwriter as well, co-writing one of the songs of the CD with Tsak, track 9, the exuberant celebration of a woman, “My Tastee Cake;” and writing solo two of the others, track 10, the bass-dominant shuffle “All It Takes,” and track 5, a “sober” warning about the killjoy perils of sobriety, “12 Step Boogie,” that admonishes, “Now that we got sober/All the fun is over.” Rounding out the band is Andy “G,” drummer, and guest players Joe Beard, Jr. on drums and Bernie Rose on back piano.

Six other songs are written by Kenny Tsak himself, which are a solid and variegated mixture of traditional blues themes and approaches, which I list here. The opening title track, “Like I Do,” sets off the roadhouse flavor of the CD well with a sax-opening traditional city blues of doubt about one’s woman. Track 2, “Full Time Lover,” comes in as a ruminative slow number with a piano-and-organ backdrop, while track 4, “Blues Attitude,” is another slow number, this time about getting through tough times. Track 3, “Walkin’ Shoes,” is a vigorous leaving-a-bad-woman sax-driven rocker with solos from both Holt and Perez, and track 7, “Down South Florida, “ celebrates the Sunshine State with a rhumba beat. The final track is actually two tracks combined: “I’ll Take You With Me,” a rockin’ jump with an elemental vocal line and extended guitar and piano work, followed by an untitled “bonus track,” a short guitar-bass-and-drums medium-tempo ruminative instrumental coda.

There are two covers of classics—track 8, Willie Dixon’s “I Just Wanna Make Love To You,” and track 6, Chick Willis’s risqué “Stoop Down Baby,” sung by Florida bluesman Joey Gilmore, who adds two original verses, one celebrating Tsak, the other himself. Gilmore also engages Tsak in a guitar solo duel on the track, where both are in top form.

Like I Do, AZ Kenny Tsak and 56 Deluxe re-create the classic blues sound of the late 1950s and early 1960s in a most convincing way, with real fealty not just to the music itself, but also to its raucous spirit.

This review is an extended version of one that originally appeared in my July 26, 2009 “Blues and More” column for the Bloomington (IN) Alternative.

Reviewer George Fish lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, home of blues legends Yank Rachell and Leroy Carr, and writes a regular music column, “Blues and More” for the online Bloomington (IN) Alternative. He’s also published in the regional Indiana blues and alternative presses as well as Living Blues and Blues Access, and wrote the notes for Yank Rachell’s Delmark album, Chicago Style. He has also published on blues and pop music for the left-wing press as well, and has appeared in Against the Current and Socialism and Democracy, as well as the online Political Affairs and MRZine.

As I promised, here is my post dedicated to the master of the Blues. I played him more than 800 times on my LastFM profile plus who-knows-how-many-more times in collaboration with other bluesmen on their own albums. I also will give you a hint: watch the movie Cadillac Records where the whole story is narrated from Willie Dixon’s point of view who is played by Cedric the Entertainer. Because that is the story of the Blues as it was written by its legends and the true musicians of the 20th century. Comments are welcome at the bottom of this page; feel free to say hello.

WILLIE DIXON (1915.07.01/Vicksburg, MS – 1992.01.29/Burbank, CA) was without doubt the ultimate blues songwriter, sideman, and producer. It is impossible to overestimate his importance. He was a monster force in the post-war Chicago blues scene as well as a decisive influence on modern rock ‘n’ roll music. Willie Dixon’s life and work was virtually an embodiment of the progress of the blues, from an accidental creation of the descendants of freed slaves to a recognized and vital part of America’s musical heritage.

Born one of 14 children in 1915 in poverty outside of rural Vicksburg, Mississippi, his life was a story of fights & skirmishes. A man who’d once been Joe Louis’ sparring partner, and a 1937 Golden Gloves Boxing Champion. He also fought against the US Army and served a year in jail in 1941 for his conscientious objection to the draft in WWII. He was escorted by Military Police off the stage of Chicago’s Pink Poodle Club.

But he prevailed after his release, parlayed his talents into some gigs, record deals, and eventually became a man who’d written and recorded so many songs, they numbered well over 500. By the time of his death, his publishing catalog rights alone were worth well over an estimated 10 million dollars.

That man was Willie Dixon…one of the first professional blues songwriters to benefit in a serious, material way – and that he had to fight to do it – from his work also made him an important symbol of the injustice that still informs the music industry, even at the end of the 20th century. A producer, songwriter, bassist and singer, he helped Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, and others find their most commercially successful voices.

Willie Dixon is the man who changed the style of the blues. As a songwriter and producer, the man was a genius. If you wanted a hit song, you went to Willie Dixon. Played it like he said play it, and sing it like he said sing it, and you damn near always had a hit. Willie Dixon taught bass players how to rock ‘n’ roll. Listen to him on Chuck Berry’s Chess recordings of “Rock and Roll Music,”and “Reelin’ and Rockin”. He took big band music and Mississippi blues and melded them into something new, opening the door for Motown and others to walk in and take it even further.

By the time he was five years old, his mother Daisy saw to it that he was learning to sing harmony at the Spring Hill Baptist Church. Taken with the music that surrounded him, he would play hooky from school to follow after intinerant artists like Little Brother Montgomery as they passed through town. Willie studied music with a local carpenter, Theo Phelps, who taught him about harmony singing. With his bass voice, Dixon later joined a group organized by Phelps, the Union Jubilee Singers that had a 15 minute slot on local radio station WQBC. By the time he was a teenager Dixon was writing songs and selling copies to the local bands.

An adventurous kid, Willie found himself on the wrong side of the law a few times in those days, and by age seventeen he decided to make his way to Chicago and try his hand at a boxing career. Even then he was big, and won himself the State of Illinois Golden Gloves Heavyweight crown in 1937. After only four professional bouts, Dixon ended up in a fistfight with his manager over money. A fight which would unfortunately end up trashing the Boxing Commissioner’s office, and get Willie suspended for six months. That may have been the best thing that could have happened.

He might’ve been a successful boxer, but he turned to music instead, thanks to Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston, a guitarist who had seen Dixon at the gym where he worked out and occasionally sang with him. The two formed a duo playing on street corners, and later Dixon took up the bass as an instrument. They later formed a group, the Five Breezes, who recorded for the Bluebird label. The group’s success was halted, however, when Dixon refused induction into the armed forces as a conscientious objector against the draft instituted by government following Pearl Harbor. Dixon was eventually freed after a year, and formed another group, the Four Jumps of Jive.

In 1945, however, Dixon was back working with Caston in a group called the Big Three Trio, with guitarist Bernard Dennis (later replaced by Ollie Crawford). The group developed a kind of cool vocal harmony jump sound. After recording a few sides for the Nashville based Bullet label, they scored a top ten R&B hit for Columbia with a smooth cover of Big Joe Turner’s You Sure Look Good To Me in early 1946. Popular with the white crowd downtown, they’d jam late nights back on the South Side. In1947 the Trio obtain a recording contract with Columbia Records. On the road, they are a huge success on a circuit that takes in the Mid-West and the northern states.

Working around the corner at the El Casino, Willie would sometimes drop by a new club called The Macomba Lounge. It was there that he met the owner, Leonard Chess, an immigrant entrepreneur who saw the enormous potential in the post-war music boom that was rocking Chicago’s black community. He and his brother Phil became partners with Evelyn Aron in a record company called Aristocrat in 1947, and set about recording what was going on around them. Dixon, who had been doing studio work for years with Bluebird and Okeh, played bass on some of the label’s early sessions. Aristocrat (later Chess) hired him initially as a bassist on a 1948 session for Robert Nighthawk. The Chess brothers liked Dixon’s playing, and his skills as a songwriter and arranger, and during the next two years he was working regularly for the Chess brothers. He got to record some of his own material, but generally Dixon was seldom featured as an artist at any of these sessions.

Leonard Chess, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson @ Chess Records

Aristocrat’s roster would grow to include folks like Sunnyland Slim, Robert Nighthawk and a new arrival from down south named Muddy Waters. By 1950, the Chess brothers had bought out Aron and renamed the label after themselves. When the Big Three Trio broke up in 1951, Willie Dixon accepted Leonard’s offer to become his ‘right arm’ at the new company. It was Dixon who almost singlehandedly created ‘the Chess sound’, acting not only as the bass player, but producer and arranger as well. He was known and respected by everybody on the South Side, and gave the label a credibility among its target audience that it could never have achieved on its own. He put together the sessions, often having to track down his musicians by putting the ‘word on the street’, something Leonard Chess could never have done. He got even more than he bargained for, as Willie’s incredible talent as a songwriter soon became evident.

Willie Dixon & Muddy Waters & Buddy Guy in session for Muddy’s Folk Singer album

In January 1954, Muddy Waters takes one of Willie’s songs and creates a spectacular blues recording ‘(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man’. Little Walter has a Number 1 R&B hit with Willie’s composition ‘My Babe’ in 1955.

The following year dissatisfied with conditions at Chess, Willie leaves for El Toscano’s Cobra and Artistic label where he produces an impressive roster of blues artists including Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Magic Sam. In 1959 Willie Dixon returns to Chess Records after a three-year hiatus. He records Willie’s Blues, his first LP for the Bluesville Record label and in 1960 he provides Howlin’ Wolf with the songs Back Door Man’, ‘Spoonful’ and ‘The Red Rooster’. As the electric bass came into prominence in the early sixties, there was less call for Willie’s playing, but he was still writing hit songs for the label, like KoKo Taylor’s 1966 smash Wang Dang Doodle. When Leonard Chess died in 1969, Willie moved on, forming a new group of Chicago Blues Allstars that toured Europe to rave reviews.

Again signing with Columbia, he released an album called I Am The Blues, which helped establish him as a performer in his own right. Although bands like Cream and The Doors had covered his material by then, Willie never saw a dime. After Arc Publishing successfully sued Led Zeppelin over its wholesale lifting of Dixon’s Bring It On Home, he and his lawyer began an audit of the publishing company that was set up by Leonard Chess way back in the fifties.

Willie tours Europe in 1962 as part of the American Folk Blues Festival. He will also act as agent for the festival throughout the 1960’s. The Rolling Stones have a British Number 1 hit in 1964 with Willie’s composition ‘Little Red Rooster’, the first time a blues record has topped the pop charts.

Willie Dixon & Otis Spann & S.P. Leary @ CBC TV Studios, January 1966

In the 1970’s, Dixon continued to tour & record, and aside from some occasional work with Chess & Columbia, mostly as a solo act for smaller labels like Yambo and Ovation. He also won the first of several legal fights in 1977 to see the return of copywrites, and publishing monies from his Chess years.

In 1982 Willie sets up the Blues Heaven Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping his fellow artists and songwriters finally recieve what was coming to them, as well as providing education for urban youth about their legacy.

Seven years prior to his death, in 1985 he’d won acrimonious litigation & damages, and the right to writing credits, in a dispute that Led Zeppelin had stolen his musical ideas for a song they called “Whole Lotta Love” and appropriated them as their own. Willie Dixon’s victory over Zeppelin was just one in a war, and the legal battles did not even end with his death. After he passed, a former manager kept sniping claims at his estate, attempting to secure as much as 33% of Dixon’s publishing royalties that he claimed he was due. Finally after many years of contentious court cases, the decision finally rested with Dixon’s widow in 1995.

On 29th January 1992 while America’s teens came to grips with grunge, and the NY Giants celebrated their recent Super Bowl victory over the Buffalo Bills, in Burbank California, at St. Joseph’s Medical Center, a one legged, diabetic old black man passed away. Willie Dixon dies of a heart condition. Very few people working in the hospital probably realized that the man, whose musical influence was still felt daily on rock radio, was one of the most important blues musicians, if not musician of any genre in the post World War II era.

On January 19th 1995, Willie Dixon is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the ninth annual induction dinner. Chuck Berry is his presenter.

P.S. I tend to update my posts quite often so please come back later to check if anything new. And btw, comments are always much appreciated: feel free to say hello.

Discography in my collection:

WILLIE DIXON Poet of the Blues

Personnel:
Willie Dixon - Arranger, Vocals, String Bass, Bass (Upright), Composer
Johnny Shines - Guitar
Sunnyland Slim - Piano
Ollie Crawford - Guitar
Hillard Brown - Drums
Charles Sanders - Drum
The Big Three Trio - Vocals
Clifton James - Drums

Columbia/Legacy’s Poet of the Blues is a fine 16-track collection that spotlights Willie Dixon’s own recordings of such blues standards as “Back Door Man,” “I Can’t Quit You Babe,” “Spoonful,” “The Little Red Rooster” and “I Ain’t Sperstitious,” plus some lesser-known originals like “If the Sea Was Whiskey,” “O.C. Bounce,” “Money Tree Blues,” “Juice-Head Bartender” and “Signifying Monkey.” Many of these songs were recorded with his early trio, the Big Three, and while they’re of historical interest, they’re not quite as good as his Chess recordings. Nevertheless, this is a good, concise sampler of his Columbia recordings for anyone curious about this period of Dixon’s career.

All tracks have been digitally remastered. This is part of Legacy’s Mojo Workin’ series. In 1970, Willie Dixon released an album entitled I AM THE BLUES. It was a brash claim, but if anyone in blues history could make it, it was Dixon. Over the course of his career, he penned a suitcase full of tunes that defined Chicago blues, easily the most influential strand of the blues in the post-war era.

This anthology collects several of his best known songs, in versions from the aforementioned I AM THE BLUES ALBUM, along with some lesser-known material that he recorded in the late ’40s with his band the Big 3 Trio. Some of it – particularly instrumentals like “Big 3 Stomp” and “O.C. Bounce” – is reminiscent of what Nat “King” Cole was doing at the time, and is considerably jazzier than you might expect.

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WILLIE DIXON Giant Of The Blues

CD 1
01. You Sure Look Good to Me – Big Three Trio / Dixon, Willie
02. Signifying Monkey – Big Three Trio / Dixon, Willie
03. Reno Blues – Big Three Trio / Dixon, Willie
04. Violent Love – Big Three Trio / Dixon, Willie
05. Cool Kind Woman – Big Three Trio / Dixon, Willie
06. Wang Dang Doodle – Dixon, Willie
07. So Long – Dixon, Willie
08. Walking the Blues – Dixon, Willie
09. Crazy for My Baby – Dixon, Willie
10. This Pain in My Heart – Dixon, Willie
11. Twenty-Nine Ways (To My Baby’s Door) – Dixon, Willie
12. All the Time – Dixon, Willie
13. Sittin’ and Cryin’ the Blues [Live] – Dixon, Willie
14. Spoonful [Live] – Dixon, Willie
15. I Just Wanna Make Love to You [Live] – Dixon, Willie
16. Chicago Here I Come [Live] – Dixon, Willie
17. Tore Down [Live] – Dixon, Willie / Winter, Johnny
18. You Know It Ain’t Right [Live] – Dixon, Willie / Winter, Johnny
19. Mean Mistreater- Dixon, Willie / Winter, Johnny
20 Baby What You Want Me to Do – Dixon, Willie / Winter, Johnny
21. Roach Stew [Live] – Dixon, Willie / Winter, Johnny
22. Killing Floor [Live] – Dixon, Willie / Winter, Johnny

CD 2
01. My Sweet Lovin’ Woman – Dixon, Willie / Nighthawk, Robert
02. Black Angel Blues (Sweet Black Angel) – Dixon, Willie / Nighthawk, Robert
03. Third Degree – Dixon, Willie / Nighthawk, Robert
04. I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man – Dixon, Willie / Waters, Muddy
05. I’m Ready – Dixon, Willie / Waters, Muddy
06. I Just Wanna Make Love to You – Dixon, Willie / Waters, Muddy
07. Don’t Go No Further – Dixon, Willie / Waters, Muddy
08. I Love the Life I Live, I Live the Life I Love – Dixon, Willie / Waters, Muddy
09. My Babe (Mercy Babe) – Dixon, Willie / Little Walter
10. (I Love You So) Oh Baby – Dixon, Willie / Little Walter
11. Crazy for My Baby – Dixon, Willie / Little Walter
12. Sloppy Drunk – Dixon, Willie / Rogers, Jimmy
13. When the Lights Go Out – Dixon, Willie / Witherspoon, Jimmy
14. I Can’t Make It with You – Dixon, Willie / Witherspoon, Jimmy
15. Do Me Right – Dixon, Willie / Fulson, Lowell
16. Loving You – Dixon, Willie / Fulson, Lowell
17. Tollin’ Bells – Dixon, Willie / Fulson, Lowell
18. Diddy Wah Diddy – Diddley, Bo / Dixon, Willie
19. Pretty Thing – Diddley, Bo / Dixon, Willie
20. Seventh Son – Dixon, Willie / Mabon, Willie
21. Evil (Is Going On) – Dixon, Willie / Howlin’ Wolf
22. Shake for Me [Live] – Dixon, Willie / Howlin’ Wolf
23. Little Red Rooster [Live] – Dixon, Willie / Howlin’ Wolf
24. Wang Dang Doodle [Live] – Dixon, Willie / Howlin’ Wolf
25. Built for Comfort [Live] – Dixon, Willie / Howlin’ Wolf

When Willie Dixon left his native Mississippi and traveled north to Chicago, he almost single-handedly dragged the blues with him into the modern era, giving the country blues a hard, new sheen with his deft songwriting, sturdy bass playing and his considerable talents as a producer and arranger.

This two-disc, 47 track set catches Dixon wearing all of his hats, with the first disc featuring Dixon in the studio and in concert (including several live tracks with Johnny Winter) and the second spotlighting his bass playing and production work with the likes of Robert Nighthawk, Eddie Boyd, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Lowell Fulson, Bo Diddley, Willie Mabon and Howlin’ Wolf. What emerges is a well-rounded portrait and introduction to one of the major architects of the modern blues sound.~By Steve Leggett.

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[1945-1950] WILLIE DIXON The Big Three Trio

Once upon a time, before he took to laying the cornerstone of Chicago blues, Willie Dixon was part of a well-paid touring group known as the Big Three Trio. Flanked by friends Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston and Ollie Crawford (who replaced Bernardo Dennis early on), the group’s instruments act as tools unleashing the anxiety left over from World War II. This is especially true of conscientious objector Dixon’s bass, thumping like Big Ben over war-torn London, offering constancy and hope of recovery.

Dixon’s genius can be glimpsed as metaphorically he squares the circle. While his instrument offers consistency (respectability, if you will) his lyrics contain humor, playfulness, and pathos. The froggie sound of “Tell That Woman” links Dixon with the Delta blues, showing his range. Besides being a rock-ribbed blues standard, “Cool Kind Woman” hints at the promiscuity and divorce currents that would swamp post-WWII America, doing their most severe damage to the black community.

“Money Tree Blues” reflects Dixon’s personal creative dilemma as well as that of the nation after the war. Money kept Dixon (later king of Chess Records) distant from some parts of the blues world. As he told Don Snowden in his 1990 biography “I Am The Blues” – (this comment is reprinted in the CD’s linear notes) – “We could make all the big clubs, but they couldn’t hire us on the blues circuit because we were asking…Hell, we started making about $375 a week!” (Think in 1946 dollars).

While using three-part harmony singing and playing on paradoxical energy created by battle fatigue (several songs have the words “boogie” and “stomp” in their titles) in satisfying the mainstream, Dixon winked to his lesser-paid brothers and sisters in the blues and jazz worlds, showing he was still one of them. Thanks partly to Caston’s piano and Crawford’s guitar, Dixon pulls off the binocular feat by recording two songs by another great genre straddler – Duke Ellington (a.k.a. the Duke of Elegance). Big Three Trio versions of “Etiquette” and “You Don’t Love Me No More” are alone worth the price of this important CD (part of the Roots N’ Blues series).

Upon hearing “Juice-Head Bartender” blues fans will say “case dismissed” to any suggestions Dixon polluted himself by playing to mass audiences as part of the Big Three Trio. Lastly, a postcard to Dixon in Heaven – “Good name for a group – Big Three Trio. But isn’t that redundant?”~James Mosher

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http://rapidshare.com/files/163260140/WDBTT.zip.html

[1951-1967] WILLIE DIXON The Chess Box

Willie Dixon’s “Chess Box” is a great collection of 50s and 60s blues, proving if proof was needed that Dixon deserves his place alongside the greats of Chess Records, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Rice Miller.

Willie Dixon is the featured performer on only six of these thirty-six songs.
But he is there on the rest as well, composing, producing, playing bass, and usually taking a back seat to stars like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Bo Diddley.

All of these songs are written and composed or co-composed by Willie Dixon, including classic blues hits like Little Walter’s “My Babe”, Bo Diddley’s “Pretty Thing”, Muddy Waters’ “Hoochie Coochie Man”, and Howlin’ Wolf’s magnificent “Hidden Charms” with its fiery guitar solo.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/75852753/WD-Chess.part2.rar

[1959] WILLIE DIXON & MEMPHIS SLIM Willie’s Blues

Personnel:
Bass, Vocals – Willie Dixon
Drums – Gus Johnson
Guitar – Wally Richardson
Piano – Memphis Slim
Saxophone [Tenor] – Al Ashby

Tracks:
A1 – Nervous
A2 – Good Understanding
A3 – That’s My Baby
A4 – Slim’s Thing (*)
A5 – That’s All I Want Baby
A6 – Don’t You Tell Nobody
A7 – Youth To You

B1 – Sittin’ And Cryin’ The Blues
B2 – Built For Comfort
B3 – I Got A Razor
B4 – Go Easy (*)
B5 – Move me

All Tracks written by Willie Dixon except as indicated (*) Written by by Peter Chatman (aka Memphis Slim).

According to the original liner notes, this 1959 Willie Dixon session was cut during a two hour span in between flights. This certainly explains the relaxed, jam session feel of the recordings. Unfortunately, the songs come out sounding sluggish and stilted at times; this is partly due, no doubt, to the makeshift nature of the date, but also, more surprisingly, because of drummer Gus Johnson’s overly slick and formalized playing. On top of this, one has to contend with Dixon’s less-then-inspired vocals – it’s Dixon’s writing talents and A&R savvy in the blues world that warrant him a place in the pantheon, not his skills at the microphone.

That all said, this still is an enjoyable disc to listen to, not least of all because of the quality of Dixon’s many originals and the freshness of pianist Memphis Slim’s playing. And while the vaudevillian comedy of a song like “Built for Comfort” can be traced to Dixon’s earlier pop R&B work with the Big Three Trio, rougher blues standouts like “Go Easy” and “Move Me” lead back to the Chicago blues world Dixon shared with Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Not a first disc for curious listeners, but certainly a pleasant enough addition to the blues lover’s collection.

Since the early Fifties, Willie Dixon has been the studio kingpin of Chicago blues, having written, produced, and played bass on countless classics by Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor and many others. Dixon has always managed to find time away from the studio to work as a performer, slapping his upright bass and singing his own tunes in a highly compelling, conversational baritone. He was working the coffeehouse circuit with pianist Memphis Slim when he cut this, his first album as a leader, in 1959.

Besides his unique interpretations of “Nervous” and “Built for Comfort,” it includes eight lesser-known compositions from Dixon’s prolific pen. It is unlike all other albums by Dixon, as he and Slim are accompanied not by the usual crew of Chicago blues players, but by a group of New York mainstream jazzmen, including tenor saxophonist Hal Ashby and guitarist Wally Richardson.

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[1960] WILLIE DIXON & MEMPHIS SLIM The Blues Every Which Way

Personnel:
Vocals, Bass – Willie Dixon
Vocals, Piano – Memphis Slim

Track listing:
A1 Choo Choo – 3:00 (Vocals – Memphis Slim)
A2 4 O’Clock Boogie – 3:00
A3 Rub My Root – 4:12 (Vocals – Willie Dixon)
A4 C Rocker – 3:18
A5 Home To Mamma – 5:05 (Vocals – Willie Dixon)

B1 Shaky – 3:38 (Vocals – Willie Dixon)
B2 After Hours – 3:47
B3 One More Time – 2:47 (Vocals – Willie Dixon)
B4 John Henry – 2:37 (Vocals – Memphis Slim)
B5 Now Howdy – 5:52 (Vocals – Willie Dixon)

Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon in a “double value” pack. Such a minimum of personnel was bound to bring a broad smile to the faces of Verve’s accounts department staff, especially when one considers that several great names in the blues scene of the Sixties tried to gain the public’s attention with the help of large and expensive background ensembles. But things were very different with these two great musicians. Instead of depending upon cascades of sound and throbbing rhythm coming out of the electrical sockets, the duo relied upon their own vocal talents and their skill at the piano and bass.

The two musicians reach back to the roots of the blues when they growl out their songs about everyday life to a rolling boogie-woogie rhythm. The listener gets an immediate impression of how it would have sounded in the streets and bars of Chicago’s south side. Without a shadow of a doubt, this album will be right up the street of all those who love original, unfiltered blues.

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[1962] WILLIE DIXON & MEMPHIS SLIM In Paris. Baby Please Come Home!

Personnel:
Memphis Slim – piano, vocal
Willie Dixon – bass
Philippe Combelle – drums

Tracklist:
01 – African hunch with a boogie beat
02 -All by myself
03 – Baby please come home
04 – Baby-baby-baby
05 – Cold Blooded
06 – Do de do
07 – How make you do me like you do
08 – Just you and I
09 – New way to love
10 – Pigalle love
11 – Rock and rolling the house
12 – Shame pretty girls
13 – The way she loves a man

Recorded in November 1962 at the Trois Malletz, Paris.

In Paris: “Baby Please Come Home,” is a spirited trio outing from 1962 with bassist Willie Dixon and drummer Philippe Combelle. When the combo toured Europe that year, Memphis Slim decided to take up permanent residency in Paris.

In Paris: Baby Please Come Home would have historical importance just because the early-’60s European tours by the blues-titan duo of Willie Dixon and Memphis Slim laid the foundation for the American Folk Blues Festival tours to bring more extensive packages of blues artists to Europe – and that genuinely changed music history. The songs are pretty evenly split between the two, and both individuals ironically show better on the other’s tracks. Dixon’s playing is a big revelation here, starting with an extended slapping solo on the opening boogie-woogie “Rock and Rolling the House.”

Even with all the blues and rock roll foundations his playing laid on Chess sessions, there aren’t many chances to hear Dixon the bass player putting to use his 20-odd years of live playing experience. Listening to his countermelodies and solid foundation, you understand why blues label chiefs chose him for session work, and Slim shines here too as an accompanist, be it on the slow blues “New Way to Love” or leaning on the left hand for the up-tempo “African Hutch With a Boogie Beat.” You won’t find Dixon’s trademark songs here – “Do De Do” (aka “Do the Do”) is the best known of the bunch – and most of them are pretty light I-got-a-girl-who-loves-me-right blues. Slim deals more with archetypes: the exuberant “Baby Please Come Home” mixes “Baby Please Don’t Go” with “Boom Boom,” and “How Come You Do Me Do Like You Do?” is effectively spare. Gotta bear in mind, too, that what are blues clichés now were undoubtedly revelatory to a Paris audience in 1962, and Slim’s haunting “Pigalle Love” is a great example of adapting universal blues to the specific locale.

In Paris: Baby Please Come Home is hardly the best disc you can hear from either artist, but the performances are lively enough, and French drummer Philippe Combelle unobtrusively anchors the music. And In Paris does offer an intriguing glimpse into one style of blues performance just before the Brits turned the whole thing around.~Don Snowden, All Music Guide

DL:

http://rapidshare.com/files/215455611/1962_Memphis_Slim___Willie_Dixon_-_In_Paris.rar

[1969.07.01] WILLIE DIXON & CHICAGO BLUES ALL STARS Loaded With The Blues

Tracks:
German Babies
Baby I Need Your Love
29 Ways
Put It All In There
She Gotta Thing Goin’ On
Everytime I Get To Drink
Fat Mama
Little Boy Blue
See See Rider
I Love The World
Chicago Is Loaded With The Blues

Personnel:
Willie Dixon-bass,vocals
Sunnyland Slim-piano,vocal
Big Walter Shakey Horton-harmonica,vocal
Johnny Shines-guitar,vocal
Clifton James-drums,vocal

Recorded July 1,1969, Loeve Studio Cologne.

DL:

http://www.multiupload.com/UDLDDPTX72

[1970] WILLIE DIXON I Am The Blues

Personnel:
Willie Dixon (vocals, bass)
Johnny Shines (guitar)
Walter “Shakey” Horton (harmonica)
Sunnyland Slim, Lafayette Leake (piano)
Clifton James (drums)

Tracks:
01. Back Door Man
02. I Can’t Quit You, Baby
03. The Seventh Son
04. Spoonful
05. I Ain’t Superstitious
06. You Shook Me
07. I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man
08. The Little Red Rooster
09. The Same Thing

Reissue producer: Lawrence Cohn. Includes liner notes by Pete Welding. Digitally remastered by David Mitson (Sony Music Studios, Los Angeles). This is part of Legacy’s Roots N’ Blues series. Titling an album I AM THE BLUES might seen like an unseemly boast, but if there is anyone in blues history who can stand up to that piece of bravura, it’s Willie Dixon. Over the course of his career, and in particular during his tenure at Chess Records in the ’50s and ’60s,
he produced most of the best work of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and a host of other greats. He also penned a suitcase full of tunes that defined Chicago blues, easily the most influential strand of the blues in the post-war era. Here, he tears into nine of them along with his crack band of Chicago All-Stars, including phenomenal blues harmonica player Shaky Jake. The result is as close to a blues master class as you’re likely to hear.

Originally released in 1970, this disc has the legendary songwriter singing nine of his classics as his hand-picked Chicago band makes the changes. Dixon’s nothing special, even if he is the blues personified, since his dryly charming voice lacks tonal inflections and his way with rhythm is less than fluent. Whatever glimmers of expressivity these performances have are due to harp player Carey Bell. In spite of Mobile Fidelity’s exemplary sound technology, the
instruments at the original session sound like mysterious things thumping on the roof in the dead of night.

The material is superb, consisting of some of Willie Dixon’s best-known songs of the 1960s, and the production is smoothly professional, but none of the performances here are likely to make you forget the hits by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and others.

DL:

http://rapidshare.com/files/144622627/I_Am_The_Blues.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/144392469/I_Am_The_Blues.part2.rar

[1971] WILLIE DIXON Peace?

Personnel:
Willie Dixon – bass, vocal
Lafayette Leake – piano
Dennis Miller – guitar
Louis Satterfield – bass
Clifton James – drums
Walter Horton – harmonica
Frank Swan – drums
Buster Benton guitar
Phill Upchurch – bass
Joe Young – guitar

Tracks:
01. I’m Wanted (3:26)
02. Peace (3:22)
03. It’s In The News (4:24)
04. I’d Give My Life For You (3:48)
05. You Got To Move (3:00)
06. Suffering Son Of A Gun (4:09)
07. Jelly Jam (3:34)
08. You Don’t Make Sense Or Peace (4:00)
09. Blues You Can’t Lose (4:26)
10. If I Could See (5:23)

DL:

http://rapidshare.com/files/237409981/DixonPeace.zip

[1971.05.09] WILLIE DIXON & JOHNNY WINTER Crying The Blues (Live @ Liberty Hall, Houston, TX)

DL:

http://rapidshare.com/files/200971414/Willie_Dixon_and_Johnnny_Winter_-_Cryin__The_Blues_1996.rar

[1973.04.03] WILLIE DIXON & CAREY BELL Live @ Richards, Atlanta, GA

[1974.01.24] WILLIE DIXON Live @ Chicago, IL

[1982.07.06] WILLIE DIXON Live@ Montreal Jazz Festival

[1983.07.08] WILLIE DIXON Live @ Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland

[1983.07.13] WILLIE DIXON & SUGAR BLUE Live @ Salon De Provence, Nice, France

[1984] SONNY TERRY & WILLIE DIXON & JOHNNY WINTER Whoopin’

Saunders Terrell was 72 when this album was recorded, but he sounds as healthy as always, and his joyous whoops still pepper his singing. Johnny Winter plays excellent, gritty blues behind Sonny Terry, Willie Dixon slaps the upright bass and drummer Styve Homnick lays down a tough, shuffling backbeat on these ten songs which include one instrumental, and excellent renditions of “I Got My Eyes On You”, “Ya Ya” and the infectious, up-tempo boogie “Hooray, Hooray, This Woman Is Killing Me”, as well as yet another take on the classic “Worry No More / It Hurts Me Too”-tune, this one titled “Burnt Child”, and a swinging, folkish “Crow Jane”.

It’s a bit of shame that Sonny Terry’s harmonica isn’t amplified, but otherwise, this is a really strong session, the arrangements are excellent, and Sonny’s voice is a powerful as ever.

DL:

http://avaxhome.ws/music/Sonny_Terry_Willie_Dixon.html

[1988.08.18] WILLIE DIXON Live @ Charlotte, NC

[1988.09.28] WILLIE DIXON Hidden Charms

Tracks:
1. Blues You Can’t Lose
2. I Don’t Trust Myself
3. Jungle Swing
4. Don’t Mess With the Messer
5. Study War No More
6. I Love the Life I Live (I Live the Life I Love)
7. I Cry for You
8. Good Advice
9. I Do the Job

Personnel:
Willie Dixon – Vocals
Lafayette Leake – Piano
Red Callender – Bass
Earl Palmer – Drums
Cash McCall – Electric Guitar, national steel and Harmony Vocals
T Bone Burnett – Dobro
Sugar Blue – Harmonica

Hidden Charms won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Recording in 1988. Featuring an all star band of Chess session musicians Dixon had worked with from the 1950s and 1960s mixed with some newer talents like Sugar Blue (on harp). Jazz bassist Red Callender provides classy bass lines that provides tracks like Don’t Mess With The Messer and I Don’t Trust Myself with an old school swinging big band sound.

DL:

http://rapidshare.com/files/280191621/Willie_Dixon_-_Hidden_Charms__crazy-tracks.blogspot.com_.rar

[1988.11.10] RON WOOD & WILLIE DIXON Woody’s On The Beach

OK, here it is the master! WILLIE DIXON (1951.07.01/Vicksburg, MS – 1992.01.29/Burbank, CA) is the only guy in the world whose name is 100% synonymous with the Blues. He is the composer of over 100 hit songs (including “Little Red Rooster”, “Hoochie Coochie Man”, “Evil”, “Spoonful”, “Back Door Man”, “I Just Want to Make Love to You”, “I Ain’t Superstitious”, “My Babe”, “Wang Dang Doodle” and “Bring It On Home”, written during 1950-1965, the peak of Chess Records and performed by Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Little Walter) which influenced a worldwide generation of musicians.

He is the most important link between the Blues and Rock And Roll, working with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley in the late-1950s. His songs were covered by some of the biggest bands of the 1960s and 1970s, including Bob Dylan, Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead. The truth is some of them have stolen his songs but later paid him compensations (the best known case is of Led Zeppelin). If ever get some spare time, I will try to dedicate an entire post to the master of the Blues.

DL:

http://hotfile.com/dl/8447968/1d983b6/Willie_Dixon-I_Am_the_Blues.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/8448084/cf6d3b6/Willie_Dixon-I_Am_the_Blues.part2.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/8448178/e70154b/Willie_Dixon-I_Am_the_Blues.part3.rar.html

What a performance with such an amazing line-up! You know Mike Bloomfield was my favorite white guitarist of the 70’s. Muddy Waters is probably your favorite here. Then, there is Jimi Hendrix’s drummer Buddy Miles and the powerful voice of Koko Taylor who both died recently this year, the wonderful harmonica sound of Junior Wells, the unique upright bass sound of the biggest blues composer of all time Willie Dixon and many more. This is basically the essence of Blues of the 70’s and the best line-up of the century.  Don’t miss this rare video!

Tracks:
1″Blow Wind Blow/Introduction” (4.12)
2″Welcome and talk about the blues” (all)
3″Intro by Nick Gravenites/Long Distance Call” (10.41)
4″Messin’ With The Kid” (3.47)
5″10 Long Years” (6.03)
6″Mannish Boy” (6.20)
7″Wang Dang Doodle” (3.12)
8″Walkin’ Thru The Park” (4.20)
9″Hoochie Coochie Man” (5.09)
10″Sugar Sweet” (4.20)
11″Got My Mojo Working” (6.16)

Recording date: 18 July 1974, Chicago.

Personnel:
Muddy Waters, vocals, guitar 1-3,6,9,11
Michael Bloomfield, guitar 1-11
Dr. John, vocals 10, piano 1,2,5-11
Phil Guy, guitar 7-9
Willie Dixon, vocals 7,9,11
Koko Taylor, vocals 2,7,11
Buddy Miles, drums 2,6-11
Johnny Winter, vocals 2,8, guitar 6-11
Junior Wells, hca 3-6,8-11, vocals 2,4,5
Nick Gravenites, vocals 2,4, intro 3

Muddy Waters’ Band (probably):
Al Radford, bass 1,3-11 – ? guitar 1,3-5 -
Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, drums 1,-3-5 – “
Pinetop Perkins, piano 1,3,4,11

DL:

http://hotfile.com/dl/8447044/b13843d/Muddy_Waters_Blues_Summit_in_Chicago.part1.rar.html

http://hotfile.com/dl/8446910/be36cfa/Muddy_Waters_Blues_Summit_in_Chicago.part2.rar.html

pharoah sanders – red black and green

gastr del sol – bauchredner

edward barton – from the blossom to the moon

gnod – LP01

faust – miss fortune

edward barton – you can’t go to the party

willie dixon – all aboard

restless relays from the tomorrow people

alexander spence – grey / afro

theme tune from the tomorrow people

neil young – powderfinger

the united states of america – the garden of earthly delights

broadcast – tender buttons

way out from the tomorrow people

edward barton – two squirrels

ennio morricone – svolta definitiva [cherrystone's hidden charms]

various from tomorrow people

dirty dozen brass band – the flinstones meets the president (meets the dirty dozen)

peaches – set it off

cover cd Adrian Adioetomo plays standards

“Ini bukan album ke dua saya, lagu -lagu ini saya rekam ketika saya sedang latihan,” kata Adrian Oetomo saat menyerahkan CD dengan judul  PLAYS STANDARDS kepada Onestopblues. Di CD ini ada lagu “Hear My Train’ Comin’ ( Jimi Hendrix),  “Death Letter Blues” ( Son House),  “Got My Mojo Workin’ ” ( F.Foster), “I Just Want To Make Love To You” ( Willie Dixon), “Hell Hound On My Trail” ( Robert Johnson), “She Is Allright “(  Muddy Waters), “Sunshine Of Your Love” ( The Cream), “Spoonfull” ( Willie Dixon),  “Baby Please Don’t Go” (Muddy Waters) dan “Walkin’ Blues” ( Robert Johnson)

Walaupun karya ini dikatakan tidak “sengaja” di jadikan CD, alias tadinya hanya sekedar berlatih-direkam-kemudian dianggap layak untuk disebar luaskan, musik yang dihasilkan hampir dipastikan tak akan mengecewakan para penggemat pemusik blues yang memainkan lagu-lagu  blues standard dengan hanya ditemani gitar Dobronya itu. “Saya akan urus masalah hukum hak cipta lagu ini. Rencananya kalau masalah hukumnya bisa saya selesaikan, saya akan edarkan lagu ini kepada publik. Gratis,” katanya. Lho ? “Ya jika semua masalahnya bisa saya selesaikan saya akan mempersilakan siapa saja untuk mendowload lagu-lagu ini di internet lewat alamat situs yang akan saya beritahu nanti.” kata Adrian lagi.

Nah sementara proses hukum karya cipta sedang digarap maka Adrian mempercayakan lagu-lagu blues standard yang ia mainkan untuk diputar di acara BLUES MARA, di Radio Mara 106,7 FM  (Bandung, Indonesia) : “Silakan putar aja dulu. Nanti kalau semuanya sudah beres saya akan kasih tahu.” . Maka mulai hari Jum’at tanggal 24 Juli ini, anda yang kebetulan berada di wilayah Bandung dan sekitarnya bisa meminta lagu-lagu dari album ADRIAN ADIOETOMO PLAYS STANDARD, ke acara Blues Mara yang mengudara tiap hari Jum’at mulai pukul 22.00  hingga pukul 2.00 pagi, atau bagi anda yang diluar kota Bandung bisa mendengar via streaming di  radio.simaya.net. id

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