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Blues & Roots #1 - June 15, 2004 |
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Reviews
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Tuesday, 01 November 2005 22:57 |
"Blues is the roots, the rest of it is the fruits."
Willie Dixon
Blues is America's essential root music and the source of everything that's good about the music we love to listen to. Jam music, jazz, rock & roll, rhythm & blues, gospel, soul, funk, reggae and zydeco are among the beautiful fruits that grew from the blues root, and yet the pure root form itself continues to flourish as an expressive force well into the 21st century.
This column will be devoted to bringing the blues to you in all its historical and contemporary glory-from the early blues giants and post-war blues masters to the great blues artists of the modern era and the working blues men and women who tour the world today.
Let's begin with a few introductory notes about the past, and then get right up to the present. The blues past presents us with an unfathomable treasure trove of recorded music going back to 1921
A fine place to begin your initial investigation of the blues would be the two-disc set of The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson from Columbia/Legacy Records. Johnson recorded just 29 tunes in 1936 and 1937, including songs like "Cross Road Blues," "Sweet Home Chicago," "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" and "Love in Vain" that are known to modern audiences in versions by Elmore James, Little Junior Parker, Fleetwood Mac, Cream, the Rolling Stones and other popular recording artists.
A careful study of the Robert Johnson set will provide hours of great listening as well as a firm foundation from which to follow his music back to its sources in Charley Patton, Son House, Lonnie Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Kokomo Arnold and other blues titans of the 1920s and '30s, and forward to urban blues pioneers Robert Lockwood Jr., Robert Nighthawk, Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Howlin' Wolf.
For the post-World War II electric urban blues, there's no better place to start than with Muddy Waters and a two-disc set from Chess Records called Rollin' Stone: The 50th Anniversary Collection. This magnificent compilation might well lead you to Chess Blues, a four-disc box set containing classic recordings by Muddy, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Otis Rush and many more.
Looking into the fabulous output of the Chess labels will open up a window onto the blues world of the late 1940s to the mid-'60s and the output of little independent record labels like Atlantic, Modern, RPM, King, Federal, Specialty, Imperial., VeeJay, Cobra and a host of others. The hard, starkly emotive sound of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters will be heard to give way to a dazzling array of musical mutations rooted in the blues of the Mississippi Delta and branching out into every city in America.
Man, there's so much incredible music to be heard from the blues historical past that it's hard to resist the urge to dedicate one's life to seeking it all out and hearing every bit of it. There are hundreds of fantastic blues artists whose recorded works remain hidden outside and underneath the mainstream of American popular music, but once one penetrates the thick crust of this underground phenomenon and enters the splendiferous universe of the blues, there's enough terrific stuff to be found there to keep you busy for the rest of your life.
No matter which way you turn, there's music there that will blow your mind-from classic blues by Bessie Smith and Blind Lemon Jefferson to party blues by Tampa Red & Georgia Tom, Bo Carter and the Harlem Hamfats; early urban blues by Leroy Carr and Big Bill Broonzy; jump blues by Count Basie and Jay McShann, Wynonie Harris and Big Joe Turner; Texas blues from T-Bone Walker, Albert Collins and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown; smooth West Coast blues by Roy Milton, Amos Milburn and Charles Brown; rough Chicago blues by Sunnyland Slim, J.B. Lenoir and Willie Mabon; New Orleans blues by Professor Longhair, Fats Domino and Smiley Lewis; Detroit blues by John Lee Hooker, Alberta Adams and Johnnie Bassett; and all the shades of blues in between.
Then there's the music called rhythm & blues that gave birth to rock & roll-from Louis Jordan and Jackie Brenston to Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley. There's the birth of soul music with Ray Charles and Jackie Wilson and James Brown, Sam Cooke and Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield. There are the magnificent R&B vocal groups from the Ravens and Billy Ward & the Dominos to the Clovers, the Moonglows, the "5" Royales, the Flamingos and Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters. There are the soul stars of the '60s and '70s from Motown and Stax/Volt and Philadelphia International.
That's just a few little scratches on the surface of the vast mountain of blues history, and each step you take toward gaining a little blues knowledge will lead you toward new and ever more fascinating musical horizons beyond your wildest expectations. Stay tuned to this spot in An Honest Tune and we'll survey the exciting blues world of today in the next installment of Blues & Roots.
-Detroit
June 15, 2004
(c) 2004 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.3.1.6127Blues is America's essential root music and the source of everything that's good about the music we love to listen to. Jam music, jazz, rock & roll, rhythm & blues, gospel, soul, funk, reggae and zydeco are among the beautiful fruits that grew from the blues root, and yet the pure root form itself continues to flourish as an expressive force well into the 21st century. |
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