Notes @ YouTube: The only documentary portrait of the greatest jazz pianist ever. Includes rare photographs, interviews, and more.
Art Tatum: The Art of Jazz Piano is still the only documentary portrait of the greatest jazz pianist ever. Using photographs and some rare footage of Tatum and his contemporaries, the film reconstructs his genius. Included are interviews with musicians who played with him or who were influenced strongly by him: Guitarists Tiny Grimes & Les Paul, and pianists Marian McPartland, Hank Jones, Dick Hyman and George Shearing. Their reminiscences and demonstrations underline Tatum's status as the "musician's musician."
The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential American guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues, but were adept at many styles of popular music of the time.This was issued during the Great Depession
Here is a nice long YouTube video of the Charlie Parker Story. He was ahead of his time, and Jazz musicians of today are still playing catch up.
You have to understand a bit about the poetry of the blues to know where the references are coming from. ~ Van Morrison
While not earth-shakingly original, FEELS SO GOOD is the CD equivalent of a good-time late Saturday night.BostonBlues
The blues is certainly present in the music, but his style is one that recognizes no boundaries. Feel So Good is a good example of the interesting aspects of the entire Albert Cummings musical approach. More than anything, it demonstrates how much fun people have at his shows. He’s a performer who knows how to get a crowd wound up and energized for the duration.
He was a successful and influential Memphis blues singer and musician. He is best remembered for his unique voice which has been described as "honeyed," and "velvet-smooth". He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001.
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| Jason Vavone & The Billy Bats |
Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one major source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz"jazz.com - for the informative bio
"Fatha" Hines influenced an entire generation of piano players, from Nat Cole to Count Basie and Horace Silver. Perhaps equally important was his ability to nurture the talents of younger musicians, such as Parker and Gillespie. Even late in life, Hines displays a depth of imagination and creativity at the keyboard that can still surprise listeners.
Robert Hicks, better known as Barbecue Bob (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931) was an early American Piedmont blues musician. His nickname came from the fact that he was a cook in a barbecue restaurant. One of the two extant photographs of Bob show him playing his guitar while wearing a full length white apron and cook's hat. ...
| 1. A Apolitical Blues | ||
| 2. Two Trains | ||
| 3. Got No Shadow | ||
| 4. The Fan | ||
| 5. Texas Rose Cafe | ||
| 6. Snakes on Everything | ||
| 7. Cat Fever | ||
| 8. Walkin All Night | ||
| 9. Sailin Shoes | ||
| 10. Dixie Chicken | ||
| 11. Tripe Face Boogie | ||
| 12. Willin | ||
| 13. Cold Cold Cold | ||
| 14. Fat Man in the Bath Tub |
"Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about jazz and blues."~ John Mayall
Fruteland is one of the few Americans dedicated to performing and preserving acoustic blues in its various styles (traditional or contemporary)
Stunning songs of protest from American guitar legend Ry Cooder ...... The lyrics are bitingly satirical - "with champagne and shrimp cocktails/and that's not all you find/there's a billion dollar bonus/and no banker left behind" .... “These times call for a very different kind of protest song. ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone?’ We’re way down the road from that.” If protest is what you want, Cooder has delivered it magnificently.1. Too Tight This Rag of Mine 2. You ve been Doing Something Wrong (I Can Tell By the Way You Smell) 3. Blind Man Messed Up By Tear Gas 4. Instrumental 5. How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live 6. Slow Consumption 7. Forget That Folding Bridge 8. Fool for a Cigarette/Feelin Good 9. Crazy Bout an Automobile 10. Feelin Like a Submarine (Kentucky Blues) 11. Don t take everybody to be a Friend 12. The Tattler 13. One Meat Ball 14. Preacher 15. Vigilante Man from the 70's
Very Best of Big Joe Turner (Reis)
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I just love Big Joe's big booming voice, makes you want to get up and dance.
According to Wikipedia;
"Big Joe Turner (born Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985[1]) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him."
You & Me. Driving Towards The Daylight is definitely the bluesiest album from Bonamassa in the past few years
"Shake Your Moneymaker" or "Shake Your Money Maker" is a song recorded by Elmore James in 1961 that has become a standard of the blues. Inspired by earlier songs, it has been interpreted and recorded by several blues and other artists. "Shake Your Moneymaker" is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll"Elmore's version
You've never heard "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" quite like this. For their first album together in nine years, Neil Young and Crazy Horse have taken classic American folk music and reinvigorated these songs with muscle, radiance and a whole lot of electric guitar.
"The British ballads became a new kind of form in their hand. And out of them came the blues, a new kind of song of commentary and satire, a song form which, after all, has become the main musical form of the whole human species."
~ Alan Lomax
Somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Bob Wills lies the Promised Land inhabited by Lyle Lovett, who balances elegantly broken romanticism with loose-jointed swing
... This is unique music, even when it’s cover versions of other people’s songs – and when Dr. Feelgood rose to the challenge of writing their own material (Back in the Night, Going Back Home, She Does It Right), they were brilliant. They were even better live, too, which is why the live stuff here is essential, as is the superb DVD, which captures them scaring the hell out of the 1970s on various regional TV shows, as well as at their headquarters of evil on Canvey Island. A great collection from a band which shows no sign of getting less great as time goes on.Guardian
.... There's no doubt the hint of violence in Brilleaux and Jonson's live performances elevated what can sound like beery machismo on record to something more complex. Equally, there were moments in the studio when Dr Feelgood succeeded in capturing what made them special, particularly on their 1974 debut Down By the Jetty, home to their three unimpeachable classics: Roxette, All Through the City and the leering She Does It Right. Brilleaux was a genuinely convincing R&B singer, his nicotine growl tapping into something fundamental about what he described as "music about bad luck". All Through the City remains their masterpiece, transforming Canvey Island into a place of mystery and wonder, and incredibly, pulling it off with its opening line: "Standing, watching towers burning, at the break of day," snarls Brilleaux, in what's surely the most romantic and enticing description of an oil refinery in pop history. ....
Blind For Love
click image for info
Ana Popović (Serbian Cyrillic: Ана Поповић) (born Belgrade, Serbia in 1976) is a Blues-guitarist and singer.
According to Wikipedia;
Ana Popović's father first introduced her to the blues, through an extensive record collection and sessions hosted at the family home. Popović founded her first serious band at age nineteen. Within a year, she was playing outside of Yugoslavia and opening shows for American blues icons like Junior Wells. Her band Hush released their debut album, Hometown in 1998. The next year, Popović relocated to the Netherlands to study jazz guitar. She quickly became a fixture on the Dutch blues scene and soon ventured into neighboring Germany.Ana Popovic live at Sighisoara Blues Festival 2009
In 2003, she was nominated for a W. C. Handy Award in the United States.
Notes from YouTube:
"O, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer." Indeed the truth. How great can our peace be if we make prayer our first line of action instead of a route we follow "when all else fails."
The words to this hymn were written by Joseph M. Scriven for his mom in 1855 who were across the ocean from him at the time. In 1868, Charles C. Converse composed the music that accompanied it.
Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of this timeless hymn is one of my personal favourites, mainly for her "smooth as velvet' voice.
Born in 1963, son of the blues guitarist Hideaway Slim, Eugene is the fourth child of five. His mother was from the Bullock family (the same as Anna Mae Bullock better known as Tina Turner)
Joan Osborne has a real hot record here. She has given the Blues a shot this time around and boy, it really works for her. She has picked a great selection of blues classics and it really sounds hot.
Without the power and finesse she exhibited on earlier recordings, Osborne lacks the tools to make these old classics sound fresh again
Amazon.com Review
A Q&A with Gregg Allman
Q: Why did you want to write this book and tell your story?
Allman: I’d actually been thinking about doing a book for a long time, and since the 80s, I’d been putting bits and pieces of the story together. Just a bit here a bit there, that sort of thing. There have been a few books about the Allman Brothers over the year, and they all seem to tell one of two stories—either we were all out there sowing our wild oats, or we were constantly surrounded by tragedy. None of them really got the feeling of the band right, and that was what I set out to do.
Q: What impact have your health struggles over the last few years had on the way you think about your life and history?
Allman: Well, as I said, I’ve been working on this book for a while, but my health being what it has been over the last couple of years gave me an extra push to get the whole story down on paper. Last fall I was pretty sick, and I had this thought that it just wasn’t my time yet. I’ve still got more songs in me, more stories to tell. I guess this is one of ‘em.
Q: Was it hard to make yourself think about the darker times in your life?
Allman: It was. I wanted to be as honest as I could, but at the same time, looking back like this was tough. Facing the past isn’t easy. I threw down though, and didn’t hold back. I didn’t want anything colored up.
Q: What do you hope an Allman Brothers fan would learn about you from this book?
Allman: As I said before, for years, when people have talked about the band, they’ve tended to focus on the tragedy or the insanity of our history. Make no mistake, those are in the book and they’re very real. But a lot of people don’t understand just how much fun we had—especially in the beginning. I tried hard to include the good as well as the bad.
Q: Has spending this time looking back at the band's history given you a different appreciation for what the Allman Brothers have accomplished?
Allman: I’m not so sure it’s a different appreciation so much as just amazed and proud that we’re still here today. In the book, I talk about when my brother first called me about being in the band he said he had these two drummers and two lead guitarists, and I remember thinking that sounded like a train wreck. But somehow it worked then and it’s worked ever since. It’s an incredible band, filled with incredible musicians, and I’ve been very lucky to be a part of it.
Q: Do you think that your kids will learn about you from reading this story? How about your bandmates?
Allman: Sometimes when you’re on the road with someone, it’s easy to lose sight of just how far you’ve come. I’ve lived with these stories for a long time, but having them together, all in one place, is something else. Everyone always takes something different away from what they read. I can’t say what people will learn, but my hope is they have some fun along the way.
Review
In his memoir, the rambling and rambunctious Gregg Allman lays bare his soul… In the end, Allman, writing with music journalist Light, has produced a fiercely honest memoir. (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )
This is a story about musical brotherhood. Rich and moving... Nothing less than profound. Life, love and music from one of the most influential American recording artists of the last 40 years. (Kirkus Reviews )
Joe Bonamassa was also born on May 8, 1977. Being born on the same day as Robert Johnson probably means that the boy was born under a good sign.
Can you believe that someone born in the seventies can play the kind of music that this young man can. The coolest part about him is that he shows that long after guys like me are sitting on the front poarch in heaven, young cats like him will be down here working their mojo.
![Live from Nowhere in Particular [LIVE] by Joe Bonamassa](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uueTV-Jp_lV-WzRuKQc6buYxgjtn6gv_X_f_rG3oWaO-w3W0B5iN5PsZlnEdK0_2kwhW9S_CSSsquOy6b9rIQ-kPgB2e1Ax96mGj-yEtnM1ryDkQPFSoHu25dPuP9_uYI=s0-d)
![The Complete Recordings [BOX SET] by Robert Johnson](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uR3h6KGx4gRLZLFmwo_bh6zblT5ukHoE4Gf7bBSlZSYT6nR6sWaK4YbbYCZnA0Yta1jWxgzv5UOOl48l2ve49PSAoqspe8CrF5pk2AOT2H3XY06Ibqxv3NdNX1WlAmytk=s0-d)
His landmark recordings from 1936–1937 display a remarkable combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend.
Robert Johnson: The New Transcriptions
Searching for Robert Johnson: 
Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson - Signature Licks: A Step-by-Step Breakdown of the Legendary Guitarist's Style and Technique (Guitar Signature Licks)... her work with Gram Parsons. She subsequently toured as a part of his band, The Fallen Angels,.. recorded in 1973. .... Emmylou was distraught by his death but had learned much from her brief sojourn with the personable and influential Gram and continued to champion his ground-breaking work throughout her own career. The 1975 broadcast featured here was aired from San Francisco s famous Boarding House venue and occurred just a year after Parson s death ..... This performance offers a tantalising glimpse of such qualities as Emmylou displays the full magnificence of her voice in this truly wonderful show.Lyrics can be found here
"I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed."~ B. B. King
Boyes’ songs are about classic themes such as drinking, redemption, and lust. Usually they tell a story. Her original songs appear to be older than they actually are.
This is soul music – informed by the church, perhaps, but soul music nonetheless, relatable to all. Which means that What Have You Done, My Brother?, an uplifting record that conveys Naomi’s energy, her excitement, her love of music, her compassion, is no ordinary album.Soultracks
Quiet rage tinges its blues; unshakeable faith lifts its gospel; and simple honesty caress the soul of an album whose title speaks to all three genres blessed here by these humble messengers.
This is an old one, but it still makes me laugh.
Unlike the previous installments in Dion's blues trilogy, Bronx in Blue (2006) and Son of Skip James (2007), Tank Full of Blues is mostly new originals. Dion adds a local tang to the electric-Mississippi glide "Holly Brown" – when he's riding the rails, it's the uptown D train – and his tremolo-guitar nod to my line of work, "I Read It (in the Rolling Stone)," includes the knockout line, "Sometimes I have to ask myself/What would my man Robert Plant do?"
Mirel Wagner is a 24 year old singer/songwriter, born in Ethiopia and raisedA very good review at pitchfork
in Espoo, Finland. Since age 16 she's writing gloomy Blues and Folk songs,
stripped down to the bone. It's just about her airy but rough voice and a
minimalistic guitar picking. Avoiding theatralic gestures effortlessly her
music has a unique intensity and emotional weight
