|
Bernard Allison: Storms of Life |
 |
|
Features
|
|
Monday, 30 January 2006 21:56 |
Bernard Allison
Storms of Life
By John Sinclair
Second-generation bluesman and rising guitar star Bernard Allison has wrestled for more than a decade with the formidable challenge of establishing his own identity in the gigantic shadow cast by his father, the late Luther Allison, one of the most brilliant guitarists and compelling personalities of the second half of the 20th century.
First as bandleader, rhythm guitarist and arranger for Luther's Paris-based band and then as a European recording artist with six albums to his credit, Bernard has labored long and hard to develop his own approach to the music and find his own distinct personality.
Born in Chicago on November 26, 1965, Bernard is the baby of nine children and grew up primarily in Peoria, where he watched his father come and go in dogged pursuit of a successful career as a bluesman. But nothing would break for Luther Allison in the States and he finally threw in the towel in the late 1970s, relocating to Paris and establishing himself as a popular attraction with European audiences over the next decade.
Bernard picked up his dad's guitar at the age of nine and began to teach himself to play the blues. Left without a father during his teenage years, Bernard went on to graduate from high school in Peoria in 1983 and joined Koko Taylor's Blues Machine three days after graduation, spending several years as her rhythm guitarist before striking out on his own in 1987. Two years later he decided to join his father in Paris, where he became a key member of Luther's overseas band and began to pursue his own recording career as a leader on Ruf Records.
When Luther Allison made his triumphant return to the United States in the mid-1990s and burned up stage after stage with his blazing guitar and marathon performances, Bernard was right at his side and inevitably attracted the attention of the stateside blues industry. His final Ruf release was issued in the U.S. and, while it failed to make much of a dent in the blues charts, it had the salutary effect of convincing Tone-Cool Records to sign Bernard to a multiple-album contract in 2000.
Allison's first release for the Massachusetts label drew considerable favorable notice and created a vigorous demand for the young guitarist that found Bernard criss-crossing America, Europe and Asia, alternating as a headliner and in support of hot acts like Jonny Lang.
His second Tone-Cool album, Storms of Life, is a tour-de-force that demonstrates his mastery of the guitar and of both traditional electric and contemporary blues styles. Now he's being hailed as one of the new stars of the music and an ascending force on the international blues scene.
Bernard Allison came to New Orleans to play the Jazz & Heritage Festival and spoke with me at some length at the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, where he reflected on his personal development, his relationship with his father and his burgeoning career. But first he talked about working with young white blues superstar Jonny Lang and what it meant to him:
Bernard Allison: I m kind of showing the people two different generation gaps of the blues. With Jonny Lang being the new generation, I kind of fall in to that next generation on top of Jonny and try to continue doing what my father started. My father was the type of person that gave everything back. He wanted the people to be involved with the music, to keep the blues going, and I m kind of playing his role. Johnny calls me his big brother. He's a great kid, an amazing talent, and he's only going to get better. So if it wasn t for the Jonny Langs and Kenny Wayne Shepherds, the Susan Tedeschis, Bernard Allison probably wouldn t even have a chance regardless that my father is Luther Allison, because we all have to go out to prove ourselves.
Muddy Waters was my first big influence, and then Lightnin Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, and I got into Albert King really heavy. So when Stevie Ray Vaughn came out, I actually thought it was Albert on the radio and I looked at my Mom and said, Albert's got a new tone, and they said, Stevie Ray Vaughn. I met Stevie the first time here in New Orleans, when I was about ten years old. We were on vacation and my dad bought me here, and me and Stevie became really close. When I was with Koko I had the pleasure of going out on the road with Stevie for while. Now my career has brought me back to the States, and now I m able to come and play my styles and everybody is going, There is new guy on the block, but I m not new. I ve been playing guitar since I was a little kid.
Actually, I played three years before letting my dad know that I was interested in the guitar when I was around 12 years old. He came home one night, I guess it had to be 1977, in Peoria, Illinois, where most of my family was living then, and he was about to begin cutting Gonna Be a Live One in Here Tonight, a double live album on Rumble Records. And he came home late that night from another gig. All the time, when he came home, I would always see his van pull up, and I d take all the equipment out and kind of sneak it in the garage, because his sleeping schedule was really weird from being up all night. I d always know he was kind of passed out, so I would take all of the guitars out and just begin to fiddle with them like for two years and he didn t know it.
But that particular day, when he woke up, he looked at my mom, she was cooking breakfast, and he said, That sounds like my very first record. She said, Yes it is. Why don t you go downstairs and check out the new stereo system? And he kind of looks over and sees me playing along with the album, and he said, Since you are playing that well, come with me tonight and play on our live album. I was only about this tall [gestures], and he said, I m going to give you my B.B. King Lucille guitar to play, and the guitar was actually bigger than me. And that was my first recording, at 12, with my father.
But my dad actually tried to push me away from trying to be a musician. He explained how difficult it was, and he didn t want to see me go through the things that he had had to do. So he actually tried to stray me away, but I always wanted to do it. The only thing he said, well, he wanted me to finish school first, which I did. He said, Education comes before the music, and you need every bit of education in any type of career. So I hung out there and followed his rules, and now I m able to go out and do it on my own.
Living Blues: He must have been very proud of you.
He was my biggest fan. I couldn t keep him out of my rehearsals.
He was about the most beautiful cat in the world, Luther Allison. Yes he was. That's what makes me feel really good, when people come up and say, Your dad was a great man. I appreciate that much more than saying, Luther Allison was a great guitar player or a great entertainer. He was that as well, but people acknowledge that he was a great human being first, and I think that is even more important.
Well, he was a man who loved to play and entertain people. He had so much energy, and he was so inspirational. It must have been kicks working with him in Europe.
That was great, because he was pretty much established. In Europe my father's situation was like you could kind of compare it to what B.B. King is here. How big B.B. King is, my dad was just as big in Europe. And where the last three or four years of his life people said, Who is this new guy Luther Allison? He's not new. He had about four albums on Motown, and a total of 18 to 20 albums, something like that. Actually, my family and I, we are going to be releasing over the next couple of years some of his unheard versions from early on, and I have access to all the tapes now.
Plus I have control of all of his guitars. He was a Gibson guitar endorser, and I got stuck with all of those guitars. I was also endorsed by Gibson and a few European labels, so I actually had to move and get a bigger place because he had 75 guitars on top of my 30. I said, We have got to move. He didn t want those guitars to go to Hard Rock Cafes or to be hung up somewhere, so myself and his road manager, we kind of made a list like I said once before, he was really into supporting the younger generation, so I had to hand out a few of those guitars to, like, Jonny Lang, Lucky Peterson, Ronnie Brooks, the whole new generation of blues that's coming, and he wanted these guitars to be played.
So I chose the people that I felt would continue to try and keep the blues going. I have one guitar left to pass out, and I have to give it to Buddy Guy. Oh yes &. Buddy and my dad, that whole clan there: Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Freddie King, they all kind of grew up together, on the West Side of Chicago. They all kind of migrated from the South and went to Chicago and started the West Side blues, playing rhythm and lead all at the same time.
Let me go back to your development: You were with Koko Taylor for about three years in the early 80s?
I started in 83, and I stayed with her until the middle of 85. I went out on my own in Canada for a little while, then I rejoined her and stayed another year. That was the greatest experience for me, because she is the queen of the blues and she is a beautiful woman and she just taught me so much. She is like my second mother, because at that age I was actually too young to be in the club, so Pops Taylor and Koko Taylor, they were like my guardians on the road.
I went with Koko Taylor, like, three days out of high school. I received a call from Koko, and I was with the Blues Machine three years. Actually, I was trying to debate. I was up for a college basketball scholarship and a choice of music, and I knew I wasn t ready to go out with dad. I didn t want to get locked under his shadow at that young age. I just felt, to learn the rhythm first of all not even to be a front man or lead guitar player or the lead singer, but just to learn it and be educated on how to back someone up before possibly getting with my dad, which I did later once I moved to Europe. Koko taught me pretty much everything I know about the road: the do s, the don ts, the things to watch for, how to communicate with the public. Pretty much all my education came from her. Once I got with my dad, I was pretty much used to it.
So after you returned to Koko, you stayed another year and then you left again?
Then I started my own band. It was called Bernard Allison and Backtalk. We based ourselves out of Peoria, not really playing a lot in the States. I didn t have a record company or an agency or management, but I knew some friends that I met with Koko that had clubs in Canada, and they said, Yes, we will give you a chance, so a majority of our work was there. I kinda had a chance to grow up with Jeff Healy and Colin James we were kind of hanging out together up in Canada.
After that I moved to Europe, in 1989, and it's kind of a shame that we have to go to another country to get our message across. That's what happened to my father. I ve heard many stories why he moved away, but the truth is he had pretty much played everywhere in the States, and everything kind of stayed on one level. He made great records there are many albums out there that are still overlooked today so he left here around 1977 and resettled in Paris. He walked into Europe and they treated him like he was at home. When I went there, I just got into my dad's group and played rhythm and became his bandleader for the last five or six years of his career. Actually, his last three albums, I did all the arrangements for his songs but wasn t able to participate in the recordings because I was touring myself in Europe.
Before that, though, I had never been around my father. I knew Luther Allison was my dad, he was a great musician and entertainer, but I never knew him personally.
He and your mother had split up?
Yes, they kind of separated. They were still married, but he was on the road taking care of the family, which I understood that's the only way possible to take care of nine kids. One day he explained to me that maybe you are in the same situation where you have your family and you are going to have to go on the road to do what you do just to support the family. Now I have a 15-year-old daughter who got involved in music in kind of the same way I did she didn t tell me, her mom told me. She plays guitar and keyboards and saxophone, and I m like, Whoa! So now I can really see it.
Anyway, I just felt it was time for my dad and me to know one another. He had no idea how much I had advanced on the guitar or in terms of just being a man. I think that is the greatest period of my life, that I had the chance to actually move over to Paris and get to know my daddy. I was about 24 or 25 years old when I made that decision, and when I went to Paris, I moved in with him and stayed with him for the first year I was there. But I was there about a week before we went on the road, and we stayed out for almost six months. It was a big tour for him, and I kind of got my first record contract during that tour. The following tour I d kind of go out a little bit with his band when he wasn t working and just started to gradually break out.
When you went over there, did you have a slot in the band, or is this something that developed by you being there?
Well, initially I was just supposed to record on the live album, which is live in 89 from Berlin, but then he asked me to be his bandleader and leader of the band, basically. He worked so hard if you saw him on stage you could not stop him. If the curfew was 12:00 o clock, expect it to be at 2:00 unless you go up and plug him out of the wall, because he just loved to go. We used to play 4-1/2 hour shows, no break. I felt he really didn t need to spend the time in rehearsals, because he would explain to me what he wanted. I would take the band to rehearsals, and this way he could get some rest, because otherwise he's not going to stay still. He was either on the tennis court or fishing always doing something.
When you had the band in Europe, where did you get your players? Were they from the States? Did you use European musicians?
Actually, most of them were Americans who had moved over to Europe. The whole band was actually American. The bass player, Peter Jerome, is from New York, like Sulieman Hakim on saxophone. The keyboard player was French he had been with my father for many years and produced some of the European albums. During this period so many musicians had moved to Europe, throughout France and Germany, like Champion Jack Dupree, Louisiana Red, Screaming Jay Hawkins, they were all there, and the scene was becoming really hot.
It was great, because when I first got to Paris, I didn t expect them to know anything about the blues or anything, and I was totally wrong about it. My father's popularity and the places that we were performing was all new to me. He was playing big theaters, where with Koko I had played more of the bar scene, with some of the big festivals once in a while. But with my father, it was usually 1500 to 2000 people minimum, all over Europe. And then I couldn t understand the language, and the food was really a trip for me. When I first got there it was, like, Dad, after this recording it's time to go back home to mom, because I need a little bit of grease going on. But I learned to get used to it, and I learned to speak a little bit of French and to understand and be able to communicate with the Europeans.
So when you started your recording career as a leader?
As I said, my first recording was with my dad when I was 12. I didn t record again until maybe 15. I flew over to Holland, and he put me in the studio to release my first 45, which had Young Boy's Blues on one side and New Girl in Town on the opposite side. Actually, we were in the midst of doing a father-meets-son type of thing, like Muddy did. We recorded some of the tracks, but not all. I think we have enough for an actual record. We have been in talks with Lonnie Brooks and his son, Kenny Neal and his family, Lucky Peterson and James Peterson.
My father always wanted to do that, across the world, father-and-son type of tour. That was one of his biggest dreams, to go across the world and present this, because it's something that you really can t explain to be up there with your mother or father, doing the same job. I sing and play guitar just like my father, and it's a trip to see it. When we were in the band, it was kind of hard not to play the same thing, because I knew what he was thinking and vice versa. So we would find ourselves playing the same notes.
Our relationship was more like brothers. I never called him Daddy, I called him Lu-Lu and he called me BA. He would never say son or Bernard. It was like, BA, BA check this song out. It would be 4:00 o clock in the morning after the shows and he don t want to go to sleep. He would call me and say, Check this out, come over, and I would say, Okay, come on, let's go. It was all about music at all times. We could be on tour in a hotel, or we could be sitting at the airport; and he would pull out the guitar and say, I got an idea, and I would have my recorder and record it, and listen back to what we had. When it came time to make an album, that's how we made our selections.
You had five albums out in Europe before something came out over here. When did you make your first album as a leader in Europe?
My first album was a Christmas present from my father. We were sitting at the dinner table for Christmas in Paris and I m looking under the tree and I see all these boxes and envelopes and nothing there is for me. I was expecting a guitar. I already told him I wanted this particular guitar. So I was kind of bumming because I didn t see the guitar there. Everyone had opened their presents and I m like, nothing is for me. It was one envelope left and I opened it up and it said, Your Christmas present is to go to the studio and record your first album. This is in 1991.
My first album is called The Next Generation. It's very similar to my style of recording now, where I don t like to stick to just one style of blues. I try to show what I know in using my gospel influence, my funk influence. It kind of follows the same suit. My second album was the following year, it's called Hang On, on the Inacoustic label out of Germany. The third album was a live album recorded in Nice, France, a couple of different places. That's where we kind of got hooked up with Ruf Records, because Ruf was still doing my father.
We have so many tapes. My dad was like, he would put a mic in front of him or people in front of him and just go berserk, and a lot of times he would make words up as he goes. We would look at the song list and say, Dad, this is not & He could be telling a story or talking with someone in the audience and they could say something to him and he would relate right back and put it in a vocal. He saw everything and heard everything that was going on. His whole thing was energy to go out and give 110 percent.
My father had so much on his mind, and I remember everything, and I have lots of cassettes and tapes and reels. It's just a matter of finding the time when I m not touring and get down with Alligator and say, Okay, this is going to be the next step. You know, just keep giving it back to the people, because he didn t want it to stay there. If there is some unfinished things, I will go ahead and finish them and do them how I can do them. I can t go out and try to be my father there is a large portion of that in me already. I just try to enhance what he had already established.
Do you work your material out on the road?
Yes, every year I tour Europe from January until the beginning of March. We do four and a half weeks, then we take two weeks off and do another four and a half. So we have a chance to test a lot of the songs and see the response of the public and see what they like. Like I say, we are not just straight-ahead traditional blues. It's more about power and high-energy blues, if you want to label it. It kind of has been influenced by the funk music and rock music, and then we have some things for the younger generation as well.
Are you producing your recordings yourself?
Yes, I pretty much produced my last two albums with Jim Gaines, who did all of Carlos Santana's and Stevie Ray Vaughn's projects. He's an amazing producer the guy hears everything. I do all of my arranging, I make my selection of the songs and it's my choice of the sequence, as far as what goes on the album. I m there from the recording until the end of the final mix. It's my project, and I tell even the producer to give an artist a chance to give what he knows before producing.
Some producers like to say, I think you should play this, or they say, Well, play this, and I think it's the wrong approach to bringing out the best of someone especially in this field of music, because it's kind of an ad-lib thing. I don t like the studios so much, because you have the chance to make things too right, and the blues is not about right all the time. Sometimes the first time is good, and probably if you go back and say, Well, I don t like this vocal, then it's going to affect the whole song now, because you basically constructed the song around it. I already knew, basically, what I wanted out of these records, and I pretty much got it the way I wanted it.
--New Orleans
2002
(c) 2002, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
3.1.6104]]> |
|
Share Link: 
