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A bunch of harmonica entusiasts are doing an in-depth documentary on our beloved instrument called A Pocket Full of Soul. You can find more about this movie that will feature many famous harmonica players in all genres on their website. They have even launched a song contest anyone can enter to design the film soundtrack!
NHL Roger pointed to me this morning that the layout of the site was messed up. The middle and right hand columns only start once the text on the left hand column is finished. This means a huge blank space at the top of the middle column. I checked it with Firefox, and it looks fine. I then checked it with Internet Explorer and it's indeed all out of whack.
Have any other IE users out there encountered problems these last few days ? I'm wondering if this could explain a dip in my frequentation stats these last few days and I have no idea how long this has lasted. I've opened a toruble ticket with Typepad, I hope things will get back to normal ASAP.
This was one of the first interviews I did, back in '99. Reading it again, the questions are very corny, and most likely it would run very differently if I was to interview Adam now. Still, there are a lot of interesting comments, and it's worth a read if only for the huge blues-related reading recommendations. Adam, if you read this, I promise you we'll do another one soon!
Ben Felten: I just bought the latest issue of Blues Access and there’s this little chronicle you wrote on New York blues. What do you define as the "New York sound," if it can be defined?
Adam Gussow: What did I write in the article? Hmm, something about it being like the sound of two taxis in a head-on collision where what you make is one bigger, gaudier taxi. Sort of like a head-on collision of styles.
I left Satan & Adam out of the list, I guess out of modesty. But I obviously think that we’ve been a part of what that’s about in the ’90s. It’s maybe a little less obvious with someone like Shemekia Copeland but it’s very obvious with Michael Hill and the Blues Mob, with the Holmes Brothers, with Popa Chubby. Those three acts and Satan & Adam are all defined by just mixing a whole lot of different styles and not just blues. I mean the Holmes Brothers mix in gospel and even country. Michael Hill mixes in more of almost an Afro-centric thing where he would use music from other parts of the African diaspora. Mr. Satan and I use … blues melodies, jazz harmonies, funk rhythms, and soul vocals. Those are all black musics, really, but we also have a little bit of rock in there sometimes. On our Living on the River, we do Proud Mary, the old Ike and Tina Turner version.
When we played the Chicago Blues Festival, there was a preview article that talked about "post-modern blues." I don’t know if I’d say we’re post-modern blues. But if by post-modern you mean that there’s not one style but several different styles coming into collision, we are. You know that wasn’t the way that blues used to be defined really. It was more of a folk music. Well, not really folk music – but there was CHICAGO blues and it sounded like CHICAGO blues. We can take a Chicago blues groove; we can do a song like Sweet Home Chicago and add in Blue Monk. That’s a classic move that we do (Plays Chicago Blues > Blue Monk.) To be able to move from one idiom to another is nice. Blues has always done that a little bit. Little Walter learned from Louis Jordan. That’s the way I would say that you fertilize the music.
The particular impetus for my article was Shemekia Copeland who is out of New York City and has been No. 1 on the LIVING BLUES radio charts for three months in a row. She may well be voted Best New Artist at the Handys. She has a very good shot. When was the last time New York produced that kind of a blues artist? So that was my point, to be a LITTLE BIT partisan.
Now I’m not saying that L.A. doesn’t have it. But everyone knows about West Coast blues, everybody knows about Austin, Texas, and Chicago, and I’m sure there are a few other places that are blues centers. But people don’t think of New York as that. And what I wanted to do is say, "you know, if you add all the stuff up that’s come out of New York, and people like Larry Johnson, who Nat Riddles used to play with is a wonderful straight-ahead Gary Davis-type player, and Bill Perry, you know, we’ve got some great players and some originators.
BF: So how is Mister Satan doing?
Yes, it's that time of year again!
The St Aignan Harmonica Festival is looming on the horizon again, and it looks to be a winner once more!
It will take place from May 16th to May 19th in the superb medieval town of St Aignan sur Cher where the wine flows freely and the cheese is soft and delicate, where the old stones shine in the spring sun and where the harmonica is the king of instruments!
I will be there, as will the cream of the French Harmonica Scene (not that I include myself in said dairy product). If you plan to come, please let me know by posting here so we can organise a meet-up!
The musical program is as eclectic as it's promising, and here are the details:
Wednesday, May 16th - 2:30 PM: Beurk la soupe!
Christian Tezenas is a talented musician (and Sugar Blue influenced harmonica player) with an oversized sense of humor. He played the festival a couple of years back with a Chanson Française act that everybody loved. His harmonica playing is fluid and lightning fast, but it's a secondary aspect to his musical and writing talent. He's back with this new show aimed at children that focuses on snapshots of a child's life, from school to imaginary friends, from discoveries to tantrums (the title of the show could be translated as Yucky Soup!) Many songs punctuate the show, ranging in genre from rap to African music via blues and swing. Instruments featured will be guitar, sanza, double-bass, harmonica, calebasse and ukulélé...
Thursday, May 17th - 8 PM: Joe Powers Tango Trio / Charles Pasi
Joe Powers is an accomplished musician, at ease in many musical genres, but when he discovered Tango, he knew it would become a lifelong passion. He quickly grasped the proximity between harmonica and accordion, melodica, concertina and more importantly for Tango, bandoneon. Having discovered Argentinian harmonica player Hugo Diaz, he went to Argentina for a residency in 2000. When he came back to his native Portland, he formed the Tango sextet Conjunto Berretin which has since recorded two CDs, Tango for lovers and Fools in 2004 and Tangamente in 2005. Joe kickstared his European carreer at the famous Méphisto ball in Paris, and has since been invited to play in London, Moscow or Amsterdam.
From his earlier years, Charles Pasi was bathed in soul and folk music, but he discovered blues and picked up the harmonica at the ripe age of 17. He started with the rural genre of delta blues and Appalachian roots music, then moved on to Chicago Blues, and is inspired as much by Robert Johnson as he is by Sonny Terry or Muddy Waters. From Rome to Chicago, he has joined several local landmark blues formations, and moved back to France full of musical ideas. Since then, he has recorded his first album Mainly Blue. His blues is open minded and generous, and smells of all the places he has been to. He and his band recently represented France at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis (USA).
Friday, May 18th - 8 PM: L’Ironie du Son / Kwak
Started in 1995, L'Ironie du Son (the irony of sound) features four musicians: rapper Jonas, harmonica player Guillaume Lagger, guitarist Nicolas Silvestrini and drummer Cyril Bondi. Together, they create musical landscapes where collective improvisation stems from jazz and blues, where multiple musical influences can be felt in the diversity of sounds. Ten years on the road have honed the band's chops and approach. They have four self produced albums under their belt, and multiple collaborations with musicians, filmmakers, painters, dancers, fashion stylists, etc. At ease both in an electric and in an acoustic contexte, drum and electric guitar sometimes take a back seat to calebasse and acoustic guitar. Prepare to have your ears opened, forcefully if necessary!
For four years now Kwak have walked their second degree poetry and rock pedigree all over France and even beyond. In their luggage, they carry all the accessories for a versatile rock formation: guitars that are sometimes plugged, harmonicas that sound as fluid as they are quirky, a flute, a clarinette, some drums, percussions, even a musical saw. In their heads, they carry a little blues, a little rage, and a ferocious appetite for sharing and partying! Sometimes political, sometimes funny, often poetic, the Kwak don't take themselves too seriously and cultivate an ironic naivety that helps them defend their ideas, like so many modern fables. They have worked with the choir of the St Aignan high school who will join them on the stage for a couple of numbers.
Saturday, May 19th 4:30 PM - Michel Herblin
Michel is back this year to enchant us with a concert. In the beautiful Collégiale of St Aignan (a local church), he will play a duo with guitarist Olivier Bréchenade. They will carry us through the quiet romanticism of their interpretations, sometimes melancholy, sometimes light-hearted. Michel has been composing for the harmonica for the last decade, rest assured he has many melodies to share with us!
Saturday, May 19th 8:30 PM - Olivier Ker Ourio & Sylvain Luc / Mátyás Pribojszki Band
Jazz chromatic harmonica player, Olivier Ker-Ourio is also a gifted composer, creator of diverse projects. Throughout the five albums he has released, his work unveils a lyrical poetry, a real harmonica invention and a taste for unusual rhythms. His influences range from straight ahead jazz to Reunion Maloya music and far beyond. His warm and expressive music is focused on emotion and comes straight from the heart. His musical partner is Sylvain Luc, world-renowned guitarist whose versatily and musicality are much admired. Together, they weave a delicate tapestry of sound stemming from both their repertoires. It's not often that we have the chance of seeing and hearing such superb musicians, it should be an absolute treat!
Mátyás Pribojszki comes straight from Hungary, where the traditional roots of the music have nourished his contemporary approach to blues and harmonica. Mátyás travels and plays a lot, and has stunned audiences everywhere he goes with his talents as a musician, singer and composer. The raw energy that he and his band display is a sure way of carrying the festival's audience to a rousing finale. Sit firmly in your seats, prepare to cheer and smile, and if you want to dance, there should be plenty of opportunity for that too!
As usual, throughout the festival, many events will take place: masterclasses, children initiations, lessons, street concerts, jams, etc. For more specific information, check out the festival website at http://www.harmonicasurcher.com/ If you don't speak French, however, I recommend that you send me an email first. The festival organisers are stunningly good, but English is not their forte...
The classic piano-double bass-drums trio is one of my favourite forms of jazz. From the legendary Oscar Peterson records to the very modern Bojan Z or Bad Plus via Count Basie's superb sides with Ray Brown and Louie Bellson or said Ray Brown's hard-swinging formations, I've discovered jazz through the trio and I continue to explore it's seemingly infinite variety. That's not to say that anything trio is good, I've been burned too, but at least I still find freshness and variety in the form!
I heard of Eric Legnini through an interview in the French magazine Jazzman. What interested me was that he seemed to focus his approach on the groove and refered to pianists like Les McCann who are often consider secondaryby the jazz critic's standard because their level of harmonic exploration is limited. I find these cats amazing for their sense of rhythm. My curiosity muted to interest when my good friend and jazz bible Stefan heartily recommended Miss Soul. Since I'm weak, I purchased it.
The first thing that struck me (and pleased me) upon listening to Miss Soul is that it's extremely accessible. I may enjoy avant-garde and exploratory jazz, but it makes for a tough listening experience (anyone who saw the Bad Plus concert on Arte a couple of weeks back knows what I mean). Legnini is indeed more into developing the drive than exploring the harmonies, and that's fine by me. Although I do understand the Les McCann filiation, I'd be tempted to say that whereas McCann tends to groove on his own, as it were, over the rhythm section, Legnini grooves with the rhythm section, and both bassist Rosario Bonnacorso and drummer Franck Agulhon have tons of funk for sale.
Reading this, you might think that the album may lack variety, but alongside the uptempo grooves like the bass driven title track Miss Soul or the stunning closer That Memphis Dude are some more meditative pieces like the lyrical For All We Know or the surprising Joga which alternates between a slow melancholy section and a driven minor part.
Overall, the album is gold from start to finish and a great, exhilarating listening experience. There's a spontaneity in Miss Soul that's hard to ignore - and all too rare in contemporary jazz in my opinion - and I, for one, have discovered a young pianist that I'll be tracking in the years to come. Damn you, Stefan!
I wanted to quickly apologise for the chaos this blog has been in the last few days. I'm experimenting with lots of features at the same time to try and determine what I want to propose exactly, so the sidebars probably don't look the same from one visit to the next. I think I'll settle on what I've got for now and keep it as it is at least a couple of weeks.
Thanks for those who gave me helpful feedback (Marc, Seagull, etc.) and please keep it coming. Suggestions are nice too!
For all those French readers living in Paris, I thought you should know that Le Monde de Kota will be playing the New Morning, also known as the Temple of Parisian Jazz, on April 19th. A date not to be missed. I will be there, so if you decide to attend, by all means let me know!
The seats can't be pre-booked, so no need to try and get them at Fnac or Virgin, you will only be able to get them on the evening, so be there early! The concert starts at 9 PM.
And if you want to hear what they sound like first, you can check their website or my latest podcast!
This is an extract from a recent French TV show which featured the John Butler Trio playing the opener from their latest album Grand National, a song called Better Than.
Following recommendations made and ideas I had, you may have witnessed several changes and there's till more to come.
First of all, the new podcast is now a "sticky" post, so it'll remain on top as long as I feel it should - in theory until the next one comes over. I've tried to make the post as short as possible with all the detail a further click away. Please let me know what you think in terms of readibility, etc. In addition, I've designed a sidebar with links to the previous podcasts. I've asked LG to design a slim logo for the Rambling Podcast, we'll see what he comes up with.
More importantly, in the coming days I'll be restructuring the categories - following some loyal reader recommendations, especially Marc's. Instead of the current thirteen categories, I'll
be trimming it down to seven as follows:
Once I start working on it, it may take a couple of weeks for me to update the categories on all 250 or so posts, so please be patient. In the meantime, I'll wait until the end of the week for comments and suggestions on the issue.
I've mentioned John Butler several times here, ever since I dicovered (and reviewed) his album Sunrise over Sea. Grand National is his new release, and it manages the difficult challenge of being in the same vein while sounding significantly different.
The core of the album remains this folk meets ska meets blues, (mostly) acoustic trio of Butler on vocals, slide guitar(s) and banjo, Shannon Birchall on bass and Michael Barker on drums. The instrumentations, however, are varied, more so than on Sunrise over Sea. Throughout the album you get lots of harmonica (yay!), strings, a brass band horn section, wurlitzer and B3, didgeridoo, as well as various backing vocals. In that sense, Grand National is more varied than its predecessor.
Another interesting aspect of this new album is that its mood is quite different from that of the melancholy Sunrise over Sea. There's more anger, as on Devil Running and the superb Gov Did Nothin' - about the aftermath of hurricane Katrina - but also more upbeat stuff on funky tempos that feature more positive lyrics: Carpe Diem seems to be a recurring theme (Better Than, Good Excuse), but Butler also dwells on seduction (Groovin' Slowly), love (Daniella) and other themes.
I enjoyed (and still enjoy) Sunrise over Sea (and the previous one, Three) so much that I was a little worried this new album wouldn't live up to its promise. Needless to say I'm more than reassured! Grand National is an absolute winner! If you like your music funky, if you like Ben Harper, Jack Johnson or G Love, if you like acoustic folk with a twist, go get it!
