The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The News Review:
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- ‘W.C. Handy’ by David Robertson
- TheatreWorks’ winning blues sampler is just a tad too tame
- ‘A good man passed:’ Hundreds pay respects to blues legend Willie King
- Guitar Hero and Rock Band try to drum up new players
- ‘Ask Your Mama’: A Music And Poetry Premiere
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Journal Constitution
pensacolawinefestival. Jacksonville Beach —- The three-day Springing the Blues April 3-5 offers free blues music from Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band the Legendary JC’s Roger “Hurricane” Wilson and more. Art shows and movie also scheduled. 904-247-6100 springingtheblues. Fort Lauderdale —- The FGRA Sunshine Stampede Rodeo April 3-5 is one of the largest gay rodeos in the country and this year features a rodeo school.
‘W.C. Handy’ by David Robertson
Los Angeles Times
The young Handy was a phenom on piano and most important the cornet with which he’d be associated for the rest of his career. (He died in 1958 the year Robertson points out that Elvis — another guy who clocked time on Beale Street — entered the Army. )What no guitar? Handy’s blues which hit the American market in 1912 with the release (on sheet music the form of music distribution then dominant) of “The Memphis Blues or Mister Crump” were based on the sound that Handy’s generation grew up with: brass bands. Listening nowadays to recordings of Handy’s music from the 1910s you get a strange sensation and it can be summed up like this: John Philip Sousa’s Got the Blues. Handy was after all sometimes known as “the colored Sousa” yet what he pulled off was no mean trick: Take a triumphal white genre tailored to parade grounds military encampments and dedication ceremonies and turn it into something melancholic swinging and well-suited to saloons bordellos and dance halls. Even the subject matter of Handy’s songs was arguably daring in ways we take for granted now.
TheatreWorks’ winning blues sampler is just a tad too tame
San Jose Mercury News
“Ain’t Nothin’” does however offer an outstanding two-hour survey of where the blues came from and where they can take us. Hundreds of black-and-white slides serve as a backdrop and set the historical tone as the revue proceeds from African chants through Delta Blues to post-World War II diversity. The cast and the music also mix black and white a recipe sometimes overlooked in blues circles creating an aura of authenticity that’s heightened by the presence of writer musican and blues elder statesman Mississippi Charles Bevel. He helped conceive “Ain’t Nothin’” back in the early ’90s. The seven core performers teach and preach throughout with emphasis on the teaching. The setting at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre might seem like a church but it feels more like a classroom. Stationed in two straight rows of chairs facing front the seven singers take turns before the class and deserve straight A’s for their presentations.
‘A good man passed:’ Hundreds pay respects to blues legend Willie King
The Commercial Dispatch
“Willie King was a hard fellow to tell about because you never knew which way he was going” Williams said. “Because Willie was always willing to help the poor and help the sick. Williams’ friendship with King and the music they made with each other took them across the Atlantic cean with opportunities to play in London Rome and Cognac France. “I’ve been with him for 36 years and I’m proud of those 36 years” he said. Speaking later during the ceremony Williams said King told him to keep alive the Freedom Creek Festival which King started. “I’m fixing to build another band” Williams said. “I may be a wild-looking crazy fool but I’m doing my job.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band try to drum up new players
Los Angeles Times
6 billion in North American sales last year from players who love jamming along with music legends. But now customers may be singing an old blues classic: "The Thrill Is Gone.
Related from Metalmareny: Guitar Hero and Rock Band try to drum up new players
‘Ask Your Mama’: A Music And Poetry Premiere
KUAR
“What attracted me to the piece was not only that it was written by Langston Hughes who I think is one of the most brilliant poets who ever lived” Karpman says “but in the right-hand margins of the poem Langston says exactly how the music should sound. “Hughes’ Eclectic SoundtrackHughes wrote the sprawling poem late in his career in 1960 while he was attending the Newport Jazz Festival. He had music in his ears and dictated a kind of soundtrack in the margins of the poem that included everything from blues to German lieder to gospel and Latin music all together. “ne of the poems is called The Gospel Cha-Cha” Norman says “where there’s sort of African-American gospel music but also the music that one would have heard that was coming up from the Caribbean. “Annie Dorsen who directed Passing Strange on Broadway is overseeing the physical presentation of Ask Your Mama which will include video. She says Hughes was paying homage to generations of African-American artists while experimenting with form. “You know he’s taking in Charlie Parker he’s taking in bebop he’s taking in sort of innovations from more radical artists” Dorsen says.
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