Blues for Kwilla

[jazz lady]

Boy, does that bring back memories! In 1987, we went to a tribute to Thelonious Monk at Constitution Hall hosted by Bill Cosby and Debbie Allen. An amazing night (one that didn't end until around 2 in the morning!) with a virtual who's who of stars: Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Ellis, Wynton, and Branford Marsalis, Gerry Mulligan, Ron Carter, Kenny Kirkland, and a host of others including my first introduction to the amazing Koko Taylor and her Blues Machine. She blew me away with her soulful vocals and I was lucky enough to catch her performing at several other jazz festivals over the years.

 

[BOP]

Boy, does that bring back memories! In 1987, we went to a tribute to Thelonious Monk at Constitution Hall hosted by Bill Cosby and Debbie Allen. An amazing night (one that didn't end until around 2 in the morning!) with a virtual who's who of stars: Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Ellis, Wynton, and Branford Marsalis, Gerry Mulligan, Ron Carter, Kenny Kirkland, and a host of others including my first introduction to the amazing Koko Taylor and her Blues Machine. She blew me away with her soulful vocals and I was lucky enough to catch her performing at several other jazz festivals over the years.

You know, I really hate you.

One of my favorites:


A new one to me. Despite the title, it's a group called Duo Gadjo, featuring Jeff and Isabelle (duoGadjo: jazz with a french twist). Their album, and the first song I heard of theirs, is called "Meet Me in Paris." Hope you guys like them as much as I do.

 

[BOP]

 

[jazz lady]

You know, I really hate you.

Sorry. I won't tell you about my close encounter with Dizzy at Blues Alley then.

A new one to me. Despite the title, it's a group called Duo Gadjo, featuring Jeff and Isabelle (duoGadjo: jazz with a french twist). Their album, and the first song I heard of theirs, is called "Meet Me in Paris." Hope you guys like them as much as I do.

Very cool. Reminds me of a band playing at a street festival down in New Orleans last year. Very similar music but they also had an accordian player. People were literally dancing in the street.

 

[BadGirl]

Whenever I see this thread, I immediately think of this Grateful Dead album.

Blues for Allah




Original release
Side one
1."Help on the Way" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) – 3:15
"Slipknot!" (Garcia, Keith Godchaux, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir) – 4:03
2."Franklin's Tower" (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Hunter) – 4:37
3."King Solomon's Marbles" (Lesh) – 1:55
"Stronger than Dirt or Milkin' the Turkey" (Mickey Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh) – 3:25
4."The Music Never Stopped" (Weir, John Perry Barlow) – 4:35

Side two
5."Crazy Fingers" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:41
6."Sage & Spirit" (Weir) – 3:07
7."Blues for Allah" (Garcia, Hunter) - 3:21
"Sand Castles & Glass Camels" (Garcia, K. Godchaux, Donna Godchaux, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, Weir) – 5:26
"Unusual Occurrences in the Desert" (Garcia, Hunter) – 3:48

2004 reissue bonus tracks
8."Groove #1" (Garcia, K. Godchaux, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, Weir) – 5:45
9."Groove #2" (Garcia, K. Godchaux, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, Weir) – 7:35
10."Distorto" (Garcia) – 8:14
11."A to E Flat Jam" (Garcia, K. Godchaux, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, Weir) – 4:39
12."Proto 18 Proper" (Garcia, K. Godchaux, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, Weir) – 4:18
13."Hollywood Cantata" (Weir, Hunter) – 4:14

 

[kwillia]

 

[BOP]

This one brings up a fundamental question, which is: what is the blues?

I don't know that I have an answer. Like that judge, way back when, "I know it when I see it."

 

[kwillia]

This one brings up a fundamental question, which is: what is the blues?

I don't know that I have an answer. Like that judge, way back when, "I know it when I see it."

My favorite Neil Young song! You know who constantly shocks me when I here him in the blues genre? Dr. Hook.

 

[Larry Gude]

This one brings up a fundamental question, which is: what is the blues?

I don't know that I have an answer. Like that judge, way back when, "I know it when I see it."

The blues is very definable which is why it is what it is.

Blues - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


"Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre[1] that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.[2] The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most common. The blue notes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the major scale, are also an important part of the sound.

The blues genre is based on the blues form but possesses other characteristics such as specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues that were more or less popular during different periods of the 20th century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles. World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues-rock evolved.

The term "the blues" refers to the "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is found in George Colman's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798).[3] Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to since 1912, when Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" became the first copyrighted blues composition.[4][5] In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood.[6]"

When you hear the blues and become attracted and then get a chance to find out how they do that, to start playing simple blues on a guitar, you then find magic in the fretboard. The relationship between the root note, it's fourth and fifth, say, E, A and B, or G, C and D, in blues, plus everything that works, or can be made to work off of them, is just magic at it's simplest, most basic level hence the wide, universal, reflexive appeal of the blues.

Some patterns and relationships make us reflexively happy, such as C, A and G; every pop song ever written, and majors, country music and rap, no music, and metal diminished and minor chords. The blues is the blues.

 

[BOP]

To me, the Blues have always been, and always will be about that "reflexive response" to the capturing of the human emotions. From the technical standpoint, you're correct; the blues is the blues. From the emotional standpoint, why is the blues limited to being constrained by technical criteria?

Some music is not the blues. Snoopy and the Red Baron is not the blues. But, is "Nothing Compares to You" not the blues? It might not contain the technical elements we think of when we think of the blues, but it does contain the emotive element that evokes a reflexive response.

 

[wharf rat]

I've had a whole new respect for the blues in recent months. I've played music most of my life but never had much interest in the blues. I understood that most of my favorite bands were influenced by it but it never took hold with me as a style of playing.
With a recent new found hobby (building primitive instruments, mostly cigar box guitars) I've been diving into the history of it all lately as well.

From a fellow named John McNair.
cigar box guitar history

 

[Larry Gude]

I've had a whole new respect for the blues in recent months. I've played music most of my life but never had much interest in the blues. I understood that most of my favorite bands were influenced by it but it never took hold with me as a style of playing.
With a recent new found hobby (building primitive instruments, mostly cigar box guitars) I've been diving into the history of it all lately as well.

From a fellow named John McNair.
cigar box guitar history

How kewl is that!?

Learned musicians, meaning those who learned early in life and learned properly, music theory, structure, all that stuff, I have noticed tend to not be fans of the blues and it is because the blues is dull as paste to play as far as the basic song goes. The blues comes alive with the inflection and feel of the guitar and the vocals. That's where the emotion and the feel come from and those are things you simply can't get off a piece of paper. You can't transcribe it and, thus, it becomes a very, very individual thing unlike, say, symphony where every orchestra sounds the same because they are THAT good and that is what it calls for for the piece and there are words and numbers for all of it. It is science.

The blues is art.

 

[wharf rat]

How kewl is that!?

Learned musicians, meaning those who learned early in life and learned properly, music theory, structure, all that stuff, I have noticed tend to not be fans of the blues and it is because the blues is dull as paste to play as far as the basic song goes. The blues comes alive with the inflection and feel of the guitar and the vocals. That's where the emotion and the feel come from and those are things you simply can't get off a piece of paper. You can't transcribe it and, thus, it becomes a very, very individual thing unlike, say, symphony where every orchestra sounds the same because they are THAT good and that is what it calls for for the piece and there are words and numbers for all of it. It is science.

The blues is art.

Very well put.

I can't find the article right now, but somebody (maybe John McNair) said something along the lines of the public school system did more to destroy the culture of blues music by trying to teach it in music class, basically turning off droves of youths to the true meaning of it all.
The person was so right (at least for me).

I can remember those days in class thinking how boring the blues were, but now I know it wasn't the music but the teacher and the way the music was being presented to me at the time that gave me such a bad impression of it all. I can imagine it affected many others the same way.

 

[kwillia]

Hey BOP... have you ever had the pleasure of visiting one of those music stores where they have multiple stations with headphones set up to display music of various genres and then discovering an artist that you would have probably never heard of if it wasn't for that kiosk?

Well, Ted Hawkins was my discovery... he's been one of my favorite artist ever since...

 

[BOP]

Hey BOP... have you ever had the pleasure of visiting one of those music stores where they have multiple stations with headphones set up to display music of various genres and then discovering an artist that you would have probably never heard of if it wasn't for that kiosk?

Well, Ted Hawkins was my discovery... he's been one of my favorite artist ever since...

There's a place in Carlsbad, CA called Spin Records which has earphones for whatever you want to put on, but you had to specify what you wanted to hear. On the other hand, they played lots of stuff I'd never heard of over the sound system. I've even bought an album or three after hearing something I liked.