Green of blues
The News Review:
- Green of blues
- The music made it real
- From Traveling Wilburys to Pink Floyd these sets box ‘em in
- Under pressure: ZZ Top changes its tune
- Ron Jackson; band member teacher loved to ‘bluegrassify’…
- Movie songs no longer ‘Stayin’ Alive’ on charts
- 88 and Still Working His Magic on 88 Keys
Green of blues
Malaysia Star – Nov 25, 2007
In fact in 1969 Green’s band was outselling groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones! However all was not well behind the scenes for Spencer’s reluctance to contribute original music and play on Green’s compositions led to the addition of teenage guitarist Danny Kirwan. As the band tried to grow beyond its original blues manifesto its exposure to hippie culture and drugs that pervaded it was to eventually prove disastrous. Still the music got better and better. After a second album Mr. Wonderful highlighted by Green’s finest slow blues song Love That Burns Green’s songwriting became inspired both by the excellent twin guitar lines he played with Kirwan (forget the Allman Brothers and Wishbone Ash I think it started with Green and Kirwan!) and the frantic times he lived in. It all came to a head in the late 1960s. By now the jeans-and-jacket working man Green was a bearded hippie in robes and his songwriting was both visionary and troubling.
The music made it real
Seattle Times – Nov 25, 2007
What was it in my own life that led me down this path to civil rights? Now in the twilight of my career I realize what brought me to this life and these struggles. The most “American” of all art forms are blues and jazz poignantly reflective of our unique history as a nation. There’s no question in my mind now in my 60s that my fascination with the blues and jazz starting when I was about 12 is what led me to the life I’ve lived. I’d been exposed to my father’s jazz collection my older brother had a fleeting interest with the blues of Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) and most significantly I lived in a dormitory room next to another student Geoff Muldaur and listened constantly to Geoff’s own record collection and his strumming and singing through the thin walls. Growing up in the ’50s and early ’60s I’d seen the televised news coverage of the Montgomery bus boycott the student sit-ins and all the rest of the heroics of the civil-rights era. I had come to see that life for blacks in America was at odds with the words and ideals of the Founding Fathers that had been drummed into me since fourth grade.
From Traveling Wilburys to Pink Floyd these sets box ‘em in
San Francisco Chronicle – Nov 25, 2007
This “making of” documentary catches the fabulous five clustered around microphones in Dave Stewart’s kitchen whittling the homemade music together singing the songs under headphones in a booth. Even these illustrious musicians can’t help a bit of hero worship (”Roy rbison is in the band!”). Although the music they produced is often offhand and unpolished (Dylan rhyming “breakin’ my heart” and “tearin’ it apart” hardly qualifies as his most inspired couplet) in the end the mere sight of these shoulders rubbing is enough to carry the day and count on rbison to provide vocal fireworks… After years as a kind of record business orphan the once-proud label’s catalog was leased and re-leased over and over sliced and diced and reissued for more years than the company actually lasted in business. This four-disc set offers the most comprehensive overview yet of the Chicago blues and rhythm and blues company. Vee-Jay Records first made its mark in the mid-’50s with records by blues singer Jimmy Reed and doo-wop groups like the Spaniels. Vee-Jay grew into a broader more expansive label than the more famous Chess Records across town moving solidly into the R&B world gospel music and even white rock ‘n’ roll like the Four Seasons (the label also released some of the early singles by the Beatles not included here). By the time Vee-Jay went out of business in 1965 the company was dabbling in British Invasion rock surf music and comeback records by ’50s rock ‘n’ roll king Little Richard whose “I Don’t Know What You’ve Got (But It’s Got Me)” on the set features a young Jimi Hendrix on guitar.
Under pressure: ZZ Top changes its tune
Houston Chronicle – Nov 25, 2007
He helped ZZ Top generate it. So in the ’70s this garage band took Texas to the world. The songs were basic blues-based stuff about rock ‘n’ roll staples: sex and cars. They were often infectious and lent themselves to being played loudly. “The first five ZZ Top records are pretty much what every Texas guitar player bases his foundation on” says Austin musician and Gibbons friend Jesse Dayton. “But they were also selling a lifestyle. That lifestyle grew into a larger-than-life presentation with lavish shows that got bigger each tour… We’re in this to make a great record that people want to hear. Stubner also states what is becoming a mantra about the tricky 21st-century music business: ne can’t rely on recordings for financial security. A look at the capacity crowd in Grand Prairie proves that. It’s unlikely each audience member has a copy of Mescalero. But the variety of the tour shirts worn by fans is astounding — spanning decades.
Ron Jackson; band member teacher loved to ‘bluegrassify’…
San Diego Union Tribune – Nov 25, 2007
“He only spent a year at Minnesota” said his wife Lisa. “He figured out he liked playing music much more. ”Although he was first interested in folk music Mr. Jackson enjoyed bluegrass old-time blues classical and Latin music. He played with bands with colorful names such as Molly Stone's New Honkytonk Band Squatters' Last Rites Fancy Peaches and the La Mirada Gutter Strutters. In 1979 he started Unstrung Heroes with several other bluegrass musicians including Harrison and David Collins. Harrison and Collins would continue to play music with him until his death.
Movie songs no longer ‘Stayin’ Alive’ on charts
San Diego Union Tribune – Nov 25, 2007
“I didn't want connotations for people to have an idea in their heads if they've heard them in other movies or had other preconceptions with pre-existing material. We felt it was really important for the film to feel real for it to feel like a real band. ”John Sayles also wanted original music for “Honeydripper” (opening Dec. 28) about rival juke joints in 1950 Alabama rather than choose blues or R&B songs people already knew. Sayles co-wrote several of the tunes something he's done for previous films including “Limbo” and “Sunshine State. ”“Here with the genre we're in we can tailor something more specifically by writing in that genre than we can finding something to fit that moment” he said.
88 and Still Working His Magic on 88 Keys
New York Times – Nov 25, 2007
Simmons said he was the oldest of six siblings growing up in a cash-short family in New London when he began plunking out nursery rhyme tunes on a friend’s piano. His father was a hotel waiter who occasionally sang gospel music and Mr. Simmons said his parents cultivated his natural talent by sending him for piano lessons. While he loved the piano and always kept in mind the financial sacrifice his parents made it was not always easy to be a musician. Most of his neighborhood friends would be playing baseball and football while he practiced. “I was teased a lot” he said… Simmons said that despite his years at the keyboard he still buys music books and sheet music and spends hours a day at one of his three pianos. “I like to play songs that are challenging” he said. Among these are blues and jazz standards including the Duke Ellington songs “Sophisticated Lady” “Solitude” and “In a Sentimental Mood. “A lot of Ellington’s music “you really have to be on top of or you don’t even try it” he said. He said he has played for dignitaries from Senator.
Written by admin on November 25th, 2007 with
no comments.
Read more articles on News.