“Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out/Here comes something, you never dreamed about/Life is so unpredictable, that’s the way it is.
It gets a little hard to bear sometime/Things out of nowhere to blow your mind/But one thing I know for sho’/You’ve got to let life flow.”
Kenny Neal – “Let Life Flow”
The music world lost two supremely talented and distinctive artists recently when R&B and rock drummer/singer/ songwriter Buddy Miles and Canadian guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Jeff Healey passed away. Miles succumbed to congestive heart failure at the age of 60 on February 26th in Austin, Texas, and Healey died a few days later in Toronto after a lifelong battle with cancer. He was 41-years old.
Honeydripper is the latest film by independent filmmaker John Sayles (The Brother From Another Planet, Return Of The Secaucus Seven, Sunshine State). Sayles has created a musical fable – a compelling mixture of blues, myth, and history woven beautifully by a novel-like script, surrealistic camera angles, and a stellar ensemble cast.
In the liner notes to the Little Arthur Duncan: Live At Rosa’s Blues Lounge DVD/CD set (Delmark), writer, producer, radio personality, and all-around blues maven Scott Dirks, referring to the band on the stand, says “This is exactly the kind of music that made Chicago famous a half century ago.” I beg to differ. Although the songs on the CD are recognizable as blues, the overall feel has very little to do with the music of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, and the seething cauldron of hot South and West Side clubs that bred Chicago blues.
During a recent talk at Northwestern University by Israeli professor and musician Karen Alkalay-Gut, the conversation turned to language and perception in poetry and music. Alkalay-Gut teaches Hebrew poetry in English at Tel Aviv University. As the discussion became musical, a British chap in attendance disparaged rock music played in various cultures, claiming it to be unauthentic. He arrogantly intoned, “after all, rock is ours.” I leapt to my feet, removed a shoe and banged it on the table.
“Son Seals was a man that everybody loved. I loved him, speaking for myself. And everybody that I know, you know, like the other entertainers and things, if they mentioned Son Seals, it was always something good they had to say.”
– Koko Taylor
Booty Bumpin’ (Blind Pig), by legendary good-time guitarist Elvin Bishop, is a CD you will listen to again and again. Bishop and his six-piece band were captured live December 3rd, 2006 at Constable Jack’s in California, and he is still the real deal after all these years. His authentic, rootsy approach to the blues was nurtured in Chicago clubs throughout the ’60s where he learned first hand from masters like Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, J.T. Brown, and others. Bishop is his own man, but Booty Bumpin’ recalls the heyday of Chicago blues as played by his ex-bandmates in The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, with its rompin’ high-energy approach and deep-blues feeling.
Eric Bibb comes from a musical place. His father, folk-singer Leon Bibb, made a name for himself in the 1960s New York folk scene, his uncle was John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and the legendary Paul Robeson was his godfather. Bibb grew up surrounded by musical icons. Bob Dylan advised him to “keep it simple, and forget all that fancy stuff.”
In July, while Eric Clapton’s Crossroads guitar extravaganza kicked off at Toyota Park, the annual Taste Of Lincoln Avenue was revving up its 24th year with performances by a wide-ranging group of artists. Of particular interest to “Sweet Home” was the stage at Lincoln and Altgeld sponsored by the club B.L.U.E.S.
Renowned actor Stan Shaw (Roots, Harlem Nights, The Great Santini, Fried Green Tomatoes) helped kick off the Bronzeville Film Festival in June, at the Carruthers Center For Inner City Studies at Northeastern University. Shaw was there to talk about his upcoming film Roots Of My Father, Blues Royalty, a documentary about his famous father, Handy Award-winning saxophonist/bandleader and Howlin’ Wolf alum Eddie Shaw, and brother, guitar phenom, and integral member of his father’s band, The Wolf Gang, Eddie “Vaan” Shaw Jr.
“I love singing the real, old-school blues. It gives me a feeling to sing them type of blues. That’s old school. That’s me.”
– Koko Taylor
Old School (Alligator) is Queen Of The Blues Koko Taylor’s first album in seven years! Taylor roars and growls her way through five originals and six cover tunes from a diverse group of artists including mentor Willie Dixon, protégé E.G. Knight, Memphis Minnie, Magic Sam, and Lefty Dizz.
Blues vocalist and harmonica master Carey Bell died of heart failure on May 6th at Kindred Hospital during a visit to Chicago. He was 70. Bell was one of the last of the classic Chicago blues harp players. Steeped in the traditions of Mississippi and Chicago blues, Bell developed a signature harmonica style characterized by punchy, jazz-like phrasing and deep blues feeling.
Otis Taylor was a surprise guest at last year’s Chicago Blues Festival. I did not get a chance to hear his performance but had the pleasure of meeting him and his beautiful daughter, Cassie, backstage. I also had the opportunity to listen to a few tunes from Taylor’s then work-in-progress Definition Of A Circle. I have been eagerly awaiting this release since.
“According to most people’s thinking, a guy that sits on a big bucket lookin’ north, wearing a cap with the bib of the cap turned east, and he’s got a jug of corn whiskey on his left side on the ground and his pants are torn on the south side of it, and he has a cigarette hanging on his lip that’s west. He’s got to be drunk, or half drunk . . . that’s supposed to be the way a blues singer is . . . but that’s not true. It’s a myth. We’re people just like everybody else.” – B.B. King, from the Chicago Blues Reunion: Buried Alive In The Blues documentary.
“When you get off the plane in Detroit, you hear Motown; when you get off the plane in Memphis, you hear Elvis. When you get off the plane here, there’s one horrible painting of Muddy, [Howlin’] Wolf, and [Little] Walter sitting in a corner. I’ve mentioned that to the mayor . . . what are we doing with our history?” – Buddy Guy
