A singing street-corner evangelist, Blind Willie Johnson created some of the most intensely moving records of the 20th century. Void of frivolity or uncertainty, his 78s from the 1920s and ’30s are clearly the work of a pained believer seeking redemption. A slide guitarist nonpareil, Johnson had an exquisite sense of timing and tone, using a pocketknife or ring slider to duplicate his vocal inflections or to produce an unforgettable phrase from a single strike of a string. Eric Clapton cites his “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” as “probably the finest slide guitar playing you’ll ever hear,” and Ry Cooder calls “Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground” the “most transcendent piece in all American music.”
Fiel do Rock - A Brazilian blog talking about Corinthians, Tech, Blues, Rock'n'Roll and so on. Be my guest. Have fun and keep in touch!
8/30/2012
Blind Willie Johnson - Let Your Light Shine On Me
A singing street-corner evangelist, Blind Willie Johnson created some of the most intensely moving records of the 20th century. Void of frivolity or uncertainty, his 78s from the 1920s and ’30s are clearly the work of a pained believer seeking redemption. A slide guitarist nonpareil, Johnson had an exquisite sense of timing and tone, using a pocketknife or ring slider to duplicate his vocal inflections or to produce an unforgettable phrase from a single strike of a string. Eric Clapton cites his “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” as “probably the finest slide guitar playing you’ll ever hear,” and Ry Cooder calls “Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground” the “most transcendent piece in all American music.”
8/27/2012
Unicode ♥ וניקוד ☻ Уникод ♫ د"#$%"&
Source: developerWorks - TLC (Technology Leadership Council - Brazil)
Você sabia que há pouco tempo era impossível misturar diversas línguas numa mesma frase de texto sem a ajuda de um editor multilíngue especial? Mais ainda, que havia idiomas cujas letras sequer tinham uma representação digital sendo impossível usá-las em computadores? Tudo isso virou passado com o advento do Unicode e para entendê-lo vamos relembrar alguns conceitos:
http ://w ww.D ecod eUni code .org / http ://e n.wi kipe dia. org/ wiki /Emo ji http ://g oogl eblo g.bl ogsp ot.c om.b r/20 12/0 2/un icod e-ov er-6 0-pe rcen t-of web. html
8/26/2012
Astor Piazzolla - Libertango
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. He revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music.
Piazzolla.org
8/25/2012
8/24/2012
Charley Patton - Prayer of Death
Born in April 1891, between Edwards and Bolton in southern Mississippi, Charley Patton was the scrawny child of sharecropper parents. In 1900, his family moved 100 miles north to the Delta and the Will Dockery Plantation. There Patton fell under the spell of guitarist Henry Sloan and would follow him to gigs. By 1910, he had become proficient as a performer and songwriter, having already composed "Down The Dirt Road Blues," a slow drag called "Banty Rooster Blues," and his theme song "Pony Blues."
After the turn of the decade Patton began playing with Willie Brown, a guitarist who would later become a regular on his recordings. Patton's music began to exert considerable influence; guitarist Tommy Johnson had moved to the Dockery vicinity circa 1913 and was soon playing Delta blues including Patton's "Pony Blues." Around 1914, Patton began playing his guitar with members of the Chatmon family, working picnics and frolics. Bo, Sam, and Lonnie Chatmon and guitarist Walter Vinson later would gain fame as the Mississippi Sheiks. Bo Chatmon also recorded many titles as soloist Bo Carter. Patton continued playing and rambling around the Delta, going north to Memphis and as far west as Arkansas and Louisiana. By 1926, a young Robert Johnson had begun following Patton and Brown to gigs trying to learn from the veteran guitarists.
Patton made his first recording in June 1929, cutting fourteen songs for the Paramount label, all issued on 78s. Such was the success of his initial session that he was invited four months later to Paramount's new studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where he recorded twenty-eight additional tunes. Patton's polyrhythmic picking, accompanied by tapping the body of the guitar, created an intricate dance melody that its author could play for thirty minutes or more. Son House, who recorded in a 1930 session that also featured Patton and Brown, recalled that Charley "clowned" for an audience by playing the guitar behind his back or between his knees. Patton included regional landmarks in his tunes - places that a local record-buying audience would be familiar with, including a Moorehead, Mississippi railroad crossing, "Where The Southern Crosses The Dog," in "Green River Blues" and Parchman Farm in "A Spoonful Blues."
Howlin' Wolf, who moved to Dockery in 1926, recalled seeing Patton on the town square in Drew, not far from Dockery Plantation. Patton's hypnotic three-note songs also deeply influenced Clarksdale's John Lee Hooker, who recorded his own version of Patton's "Pea Vine Blues." Bukka White also cited a desire "to come to be a famous man, like Charley Patton," and demonstrated a similar knack for playing dance songs for extended periods. Patton's last recording session was in New York City in February 1934, two months before his death.
Charley Patton died April 28, 1934, at 350 Heathman Street in Indianola, Mississippi. Patton's grave is located in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, and the tombstone acknowledges his pivotal role in the development of the Delta Blues.
8/23/2012
Blind Willie Johnson - Trouble will soon be over
A singing street-corner evangelist, Blind Willie Johnson created some of the most intensely moving records of the 20th century. Void of frivolity or uncertainty, his 78s from the 1920s and ’30s are clearly the work of a pained believer seeking redemption. A slide guitarist nonpareil, Johnson had an exquisite sense of timing and tone, using a pocketknife or ring slider to duplicate his vocal inflections or to produce an unforgettable phrase from a single strike of a string. Eric Clapton cites his “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” as “probably the finest slide guitar playing you’ll ever hear,” and Ry Cooder calls “Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground” the “most transcendent piece in all American music.”
8/21/2012
Raul Seixas - Ouro de Tolo - 21/08/2012
Ouro de Tolo foi escrita e gravada por Raul Seixas em 1973 no álbum Krig-ha, Bandolo!
Ouro de Tolo is a song written and first recorded by Raul Seixas in 1973 in the album Krig-ha, Bandolo!
8/19/2012
Astor Piazzolla - Invierno Porteño
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. He revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music.
Piazzolla.org
8/18/2012
Muddy Waters - Blow Wind Blow
McKinley Morganfield "Muddy Waters", born April 4, 1915, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, to a sharecropping family, Morganfield moved to the Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale to live with his grandmother after the death of his mother in 1918. As a toddler he acquired the nickname Muddy from his grandmother because he loved to play in the muddy water of nearby Deer Creek. At age seven, Morganfield began playing the harmonica and became proficient enough to play fish fries, picnics, and parties by age thirteen. His family attached "Waters" to his nickname when he began playing harmonica, and the name stuck. Waters first heard records by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, and the Memphis Sheiks on a neighbor's Victrola. He bought his first guitar at age seventeen with his sharecropper's wages and taught himself to play.
Waters's early influences were local guitarists Charley Patton and Son House. One of the first blues tunes he learned was House's "Walkin' Blues." At age eighteen, Waters opened a juke joint where patrons could drink, gamble, eat fried fish, and listen to the jukebox. He played parties, juke joints, and suppers in the Clarksdale vicinity with guitarist Scott Bohannah or his own string band. Waters fell under the sway of Delta guitarist Robert Johnson, whom he saw on the front porch of Hirsberg's Drugstore in Friars Point and whose records he played on his jukebox. Helena-based bluesman Robert Nighthawk offered to bring Waters to Chicago with him on a recording trip during the late 1930s, but he refused the invitation, preferring to remain with his infirm grandmother. In 1940, Waters did venture to St. Louis, then a hotbed of blues, but disliked it and returned to Stovall Plantation.
On August 28, 1941, folklorists Alan Lomax and John Work recorded Waters and fiddler Henry "Son" Sims at Waters's juke joint. Impressed with Waters's ability, they returned in July of the following year for additional material. The sound of his voice emanating from the recording machine's playback convinced Waters he had commercial ability. He caught a train to Chicago in May 1943, found a job, and was soon playing rent parties in the city. A recording session for Columbia Records in 1946 went unreleased. Another for the 20th Century label resulted in the release of "Mean Red Spider," a B-side to James "Sweet Lucy" Carter's 1947 single. Waters next recorded for the fledgling Aristocrat label, owned by Leonard and Phil Chess, in 1947. His second Aristocrat release, "I Can't be Satisfied" backed with "Feel Like Going Home," quickly sold out several pressings, thereby making Waters a bona fide star and solidifying the foundation of the Chess record label.
"I Can't be Satisfied" incorporates all the elements that would make Muddy Waters famous. His strong, rich tenor, sung slightly behind the beat, had a drawl that appealed to southern-born black record buyers. Waters's dark, bass-laden slide guitar conjured shades of blue that stood in stark contrast to the jazzy, single-string guitarists such as T. Bone Walker who were then in vogue. He also became a noted bandleader whose groups became a spawning ground for later blues stars "Little" Walter Jacobs, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Spann, James Cotton, and Junior Wells.
Waters returned to the Delta in 1949 with a trio composed of Jacobs, Rogers, and himself. They based their activities in Helena, Arkansas, where they appeared daily on radio station KFFA, then broadcasting from the Floyd Truck Lines Building. KFFA was famous throughout the Delta as the home of King Biscuit Time, a noontime radio show that featured Sonny Boy Williamson and his guitarist/sidemen Robert Jr. Lockwood, Elmore James, and Joe Willie Wilkins. Waters's trio performed on the 6 a.m. slot and used the exposure to advertise their upcoming gigs at the Owl Café and across the Delta. In 1950, he returned to Chicago and resumed his recording career. He continued to record for Chess during the 1950s, churning out down-home hits like "Long Distance Call," "Louisiana Blues," and the Memphis Minnie derivative, "Honey Bee." Waters continued to tour the Deep South during the 1950s and 1960s, often with John Lee Hooker, but his home was now Chicago. In 1958, he toured England, opening the door for bluesmen to tour Europe. In 1960, Waters's band played the Newport Jazz Festival and won a large white following.
Muddy Waters died April 30, 1983, and is buried in Chicago.
8/17/2012
Charley Patton - Magnolia Blues
Born in April 1891, between Edwards and Bolton in southern Mississippi, Charley Patton was the scrawny child of sharecropper parents. In 1900, his family moved 100 miles north to the Delta and the Will Dockery Plantation. There Patton fell under the spell of guitarist Henry Sloan and would follow him to gigs. By 1910, he had become proficient as a performer and songwriter, having already composed "Down The Dirt Road Blues," a slow drag called "Banty Rooster Blues," and his theme song "Pony Blues."
After the turn of the decade Patton began playing with Willie Brown, a guitarist who would later become a regular on his recordings. Patton's music began to exert considerable influence; guitarist Tommy Johnson had moved to the Dockery vicinity circa 1913 and was soon playing Delta blues including Patton's "Pony Blues." Around 1914, Patton began playing his guitar with members of the Chatmon family, working picnics and frolics. Bo, Sam, and Lonnie Chatmon and guitarist Walter Vinson later would gain fame as the Mississippi Sheiks. Bo Chatmon also recorded many titles as soloist Bo Carter. Patton continued playing and rambling around the Delta, going north to Memphis and as far west as Arkansas and Louisiana. By 1926, a young Robert Johnson had begun following Patton and Brown to gigs trying to learn from the veteran guitarists.
Patton made his first recording in June 1929, cutting fourteen songs for the Paramount label, all issued on 78s. Such was the success of his initial session that he was invited four months later to Paramount's new studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where he recorded twenty-eight additional tunes. Patton's polyrhythmic picking, accompanied by tapping the body of the guitar, created an intricate dance melody that its author could play for thirty minutes or more. Son House, who recorded in a 1930 session that also featured Patton and Brown, recalled that Charley "clowned" for an audience by playing the guitar behind his back or between his knees. Patton included regional landmarks in his tunes - places that a local record-buying audience would be familiar with, including a Moorehead, Mississippi railroad crossing, "Where The Southern Crosses The Dog," in "Green River Blues" and Parchman Farm in "A Spoonful Blues."
Howlin' Wolf, who moved to Dockery in 1926, recalled seeing Patton on the town square in Drew, not far from Dockery Plantation. Patton's hypnotic three-note songs also deeply influenced Clarksdale's John Lee Hooker, who recorded his own version of Patton's "Pea Vine Blues." Bukka White also cited a desire "to come to be a famous man, like Charley Patton," and demonstrated a similar knack for playing dance songs for extended periods. Patton's last recording session was in New York City in February 1934, two months before his death.
Charley Patton died April 28, 1934, at 350 Heathman Street in Indianola, Mississippi. Patton's grave is located in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, and the tombstone acknowledges his pivotal role in the development of the Delta Blues.
9 razones para aceptar siempre una copa de vino
Publicado en La Mañana de Neuquén - 24/05/2012
Por JOAQUÍN HIDALGO
Estas son nueve de las razones por las que no rechazar nunca una o dos copas de tintos y blancos.
Ablanda la conversación. Lo sabe cualquiera que necesitó bajar un nudo por la garganta a la hora de hablar. Pero a diferencia de muchas bebidas alcohólicas, que noquean rápido, el vino hace este trabajo de forma lenta y envolvente. Toda una ventaja que un buen tiempista sabrá apreciar: partiendo con una copa en la periferia del tema, se irá acercando sorbo a sorbo, hasta que la complicidad brille en el meollo en cuestión y la conversación fluya ya sin obstáculos sobre la segunda o tercera copa.
Mejora la digestión. Esto es algo que ya sabían los antiguos, cuando se mandaban esos banquetes que trascendieron en la historia. Es que el vino, por su capacidad de barrer con las grasas de la comida, hace que una paleta de cordero o un asado a la llama sean fácilmente digeridos por el estómago. Y eso, para no hablar de la enorme ventaja que presenta una copa a la hora de enjuagar el paladar y renovar los sabores de la comida trago a trago.
Disminuye el colesterol. Existe una relación largamente probada entre los antioxidantes presentes en una copa de vino tinto –el resveratrol aportado por al uva- y la capacidad del cuerpo para evitar la fijación de grasas en el sistema circulatorio. De modo que acompañar una picada de fiambres con una o dos copas es garantía de consumo doblemente responsable: por la moderación y por el cuidado. No en vano Favoloro lo recomendaba siempre.
Previene las caries. Es raro encontrar catadores con caries, aunque no está del todo claro por qué. Ya lo detectaron en la Karolinstat Institut, de Suecia, cuando en 1991 estudiaron las dentaduras de los catadores oficiales del monopolio estatal de alcoholes, dedicados a probar unos 130 vinos semanales. Mientras que en los catadores los dientes se presentaban gastados por el trabajo –y la vida- ninguno tenía caries. Beber para creer.
Mejora el sueño. En tiempos en que la industria farmacéutica desarrolla lenitivos para una población ansiosa e insomne, ahogada entre cuotas de plasmas, inflación y miedos sinceros, los bebedores de vino sabemos que no hay mejor pista de aterrizaje en la noche que las dos copitas con las que acompañamos la cena. Pocas cosas relajan más que acabar un rico plato, echar el cuerpo hacia atrás en la silla y arrobarse en el sabor final del buen vino.
Es un excusa de encuentro. El vino es el sustituto del mate a la hora de comer. Es que calza como un guante en esa afinidad argentina de reunirse para picar, para beber, para hacer un asado, para lo que sea. Y una buena botella de vino, de esas que se compran cada tanto, es la excusa perfecta para aunar voluntades en la cocina, el quincho o el living y juntar a los amigos a pasar un buen rato.
Porque sofistica. Es una realidad que no resiste mucho análisis. Mientras que el whisky enfriando las sienes es de telenovela sin mérito y el Martini pertenece a series top con escenarios de rascacielos, la copa de vino, con su figura frágil y a la vez atractiva, aporta sofisticación de vida real y a la medida de quien la lleve. Nada más hace falta llevarla con elegancia y saber usar un par de términos con corrección, como taninos, guarda o reserva.
Hace crecer. Es típico entre los jóvenes que rayan los 30, que la cerveza ya no los seduce como solía hacerlo a los veintipico. Y no solo por un tema de sabor, sino porque a sus ojos es la bebida de los que todavía tienen granos en la cara. Ahí el vino se anota un poroto sin esfuerzo: para parecer más grande, basta con beberlo pausada y airosamente junto a las comidas.
Rejuvenece. Esa es otra de las gracias del vino, ya que como son muchas las bodegas en el mercado, están las marcas de viejo y las marcas de jóvenes. Todo el mundo sabe que el tinto que toma el abuelo con sus amigos no es el mismo que comparte un muchacho con su novia. De ahí que hay que saber mirar: hay botellas péndex, con ilustraciones, tipografías nuevas y estilos frescos y frutados, y otras más gerontes, con etiquetas de castillos, tipografías del siglo XIX y vinos evolucionados. Usted sabrá qué botella tiene el elixir de la juventud.
Por JOAQUÍN HIDALGO
Estas son nueve de las razones por las que no rechazar nunca una o dos copas de tintos y blancos.
Ablanda la conversación. Lo sabe cualquiera que necesitó bajar un nudo por la garganta a la hora de hablar. Pero a diferencia de muchas bebidas alcohólicas, que noquean rápido, el vino hace este trabajo de forma lenta y envolvente. Toda una ventaja que un buen tiempista sabrá apreciar: partiendo con una copa en la periferia del tema, se irá acercando sorbo a sorbo, hasta que la complicidad brille en el meollo en cuestión y la conversación fluya ya sin obstáculos sobre la segunda o tercera copa.
Mejora la digestión. Esto es algo que ya sabían los antiguos, cuando se mandaban esos banquetes que trascendieron en la historia. Es que el vino, por su capacidad de barrer con las grasas de la comida, hace que una paleta de cordero o un asado a la llama sean fácilmente digeridos por el estómago. Y eso, para no hablar de la enorme ventaja que presenta una copa a la hora de enjuagar el paladar y renovar los sabores de la comida trago a trago.
Disminuye el colesterol. Existe una relación largamente probada entre los antioxidantes presentes en una copa de vino tinto –el resveratrol aportado por al uva- y la capacidad del cuerpo para evitar la fijación de grasas en el sistema circulatorio. De modo que acompañar una picada de fiambres con una o dos copas es garantía de consumo doblemente responsable: por la moderación y por el cuidado. No en vano Favoloro lo recomendaba siempre.
Previene las caries. Es raro encontrar catadores con caries, aunque no está del todo claro por qué. Ya lo detectaron en la Karolinstat Institut, de Suecia, cuando en 1991 estudiaron las dentaduras de los catadores oficiales del monopolio estatal de alcoholes, dedicados a probar unos 130 vinos semanales. Mientras que en los catadores los dientes se presentaban gastados por el trabajo –y la vida- ninguno tenía caries. Beber para creer.
Mejora el sueño. En tiempos en que la industria farmacéutica desarrolla lenitivos para una población ansiosa e insomne, ahogada entre cuotas de plasmas, inflación y miedos sinceros, los bebedores de vino sabemos que no hay mejor pista de aterrizaje en la noche que las dos copitas con las que acompañamos la cena. Pocas cosas relajan más que acabar un rico plato, echar el cuerpo hacia atrás en la silla y arrobarse en el sabor final del buen vino.
Es un excusa de encuentro. El vino es el sustituto del mate a la hora de comer. Es que calza como un guante en esa afinidad argentina de reunirse para picar, para beber, para hacer un asado, para lo que sea. Y una buena botella de vino, de esas que se compran cada tanto, es la excusa perfecta para aunar voluntades en la cocina, el quincho o el living y juntar a los amigos a pasar un buen rato.
Porque sofistica. Es una realidad que no resiste mucho análisis. Mientras que el whisky enfriando las sienes es de telenovela sin mérito y el Martini pertenece a series top con escenarios de rascacielos, la copa de vino, con su figura frágil y a la vez atractiva, aporta sofisticación de vida real y a la medida de quien la lleve. Nada más hace falta llevarla con elegancia y saber usar un par de términos con corrección, como taninos, guarda o reserva.
Hace crecer. Es típico entre los jóvenes que rayan los 30, que la cerveza ya no los seduce como solía hacerlo a los veintipico. Y no solo por un tema de sabor, sino porque a sus ojos es la bebida de los que todavía tienen granos en la cara. Ahí el vino se anota un poroto sin esfuerzo: para parecer más grande, basta con beberlo pausada y airosamente junto a las comidas.
Rejuvenece. Esa es otra de las gracias del vino, ya que como son muchas las bodegas en el mercado, están las marcas de viejo y las marcas de jóvenes. Todo el mundo sabe que el tinto que toma el abuelo con sus amigos no es el mismo que comparte un muchacho con su novia. De ahí que hay que saber mirar: hay botellas péndex, con ilustraciones, tipografías nuevas y estilos frescos y frutados, y otras más gerontes, con etiquetas de castillos, tipografías del siglo XIX y vinos evolucionados. Usted sabrá qué botella tiene el elixir de la juventud.
8/16/2012
Blind Willie Johnson - The Soul Of A Man
A singing street-corner evangelist, Blind Willie Johnson created some of the most intensely moving records of the 20th century. Void of frivolity or uncertainty, his 78s from the 1920s and ’30s are clearly the work of a pained believer seeking redemption. A slide guitarist nonpareil, Johnson had an exquisite sense of timing and tone, using a pocketknife or ring slider to duplicate his vocal inflections or to produce an unforgettable phrase from a single strike of a string. Eric Clapton cites his “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” as “probably the finest slide guitar playing you’ll ever hear,” and Ry Cooder calls “Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground” the “most transcendent piece in all American music.”
8/12/2012
Astor Piazzolla - Adios Nonino
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. He revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music.
Piazzolla.org
Astor Piazzolla -- Bandoneón
Fernando Suarez Paz -- Violín
Oscar Lopez Ruiz -- Guitarra eléctrica
Hector Console -- Contrabajo
Pablo Ziegler -- Piano
8/11/2012
Muddy Waters - I'm A King Bee
McKinley Morganfield "Muddy Waters", born April 4, 1915, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, to a sharecropping family, Morganfield moved to the Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale to live with his grandmother after the death of his mother in 1918. As a toddler he acquired the nickname Muddy from his grandmother because he loved to play in the muddy water of nearby Deer Creek. At age seven, Morganfield began playing the harmonica and became proficient enough to play fish fries, picnics, and parties by age thirteen. His family attached "Waters" to his nickname when he began playing harmonica, and the name stuck. Waters first heard records by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, and the Memphis Sheiks on a neighbor's Victrola. He bought his first guitar at age seventeen with his sharecropper's wages and taught himself to play.
Waters's early influences were local guitarists Charley Patton and Son House. One of the first blues tunes he learned was House's "Walkin' Blues." At age eighteen, Waters opened a juke joint where patrons could drink, gamble, eat fried fish, and listen to the jukebox. He played parties, juke joints, and suppers in the Clarksdale vicinity with guitarist Scott Bohannah or his own string band. Waters fell under the sway of Delta guitarist Robert Johnson, whom he saw on the front porch of Hirsberg's Drugstore in Friars Point and whose records he played on his jukebox. Helena-based bluesman Robert Nighthawk offered to bring Waters to Chicago with him on a recording trip during the late 1930s, but he refused the invitation, preferring to remain with his infirm grandmother. In 1940, Waters did venture to St. Louis, then a hotbed of blues, but disliked it and returned to Stovall Plantation.
On August 28, 1941, folklorists Alan Lomax and John Work recorded Waters and fiddler Henry "Son" Sims at Waters's juke joint. Impressed with Waters's ability, they returned in July of the following year for additional material. The sound of his voice emanating from the recording machine's playback convinced Waters he had commercial ability. He caught a train to Chicago in May 1943, found a job, and was soon playing rent parties in the city. A recording session for Columbia Records in 1946 went unreleased. Another for the 20th Century label resulted in the release of "Mean Red Spider," a B-side to James "Sweet Lucy" Carter's 1947 single. Waters next recorded for the fledgling Aristocrat label, owned by Leonard and Phil Chess, in 1947. His second Aristocrat release, "I Can't be Satisfied" backed with "Feel Like Going Home," quickly sold out several pressings, thereby making Waters a bona fide star and solidifying the foundation of the Chess record label.
"I Can't be Satisfied" incorporates all the elements that would make Muddy Waters famous. His strong, rich tenor, sung slightly behind the beat, had a drawl that appealed to southern-born black record buyers. Waters's dark, bass-laden slide guitar conjured shades of blue that stood in stark contrast to the jazzy, single-string guitarists such as T. Bone Walker who were then in vogue. He also became a noted bandleader whose groups became a spawning ground for later blues stars "Little" Walter Jacobs, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Spann, James Cotton, and Junior Wells.
Waters returned to the Delta in 1949 with a trio composed of Jacobs, Rogers, and himself. They based their activities in Helena, Arkansas, where they appeared daily on radio station KFFA, then broadcasting from the Floyd Truck Lines Building. KFFA was famous throughout the Delta as the home of King Biscuit Time, a noontime radio show that featured Sonny Boy Williamson and his guitarist/sidemen Robert Jr. Lockwood, Elmore James, and Joe Willie Wilkins. Waters's trio performed on the 6 a.m. slot and used the exposure to advertise their upcoming gigs at the Owl Café and across the Delta. In 1950, he returned to Chicago and resumed his recording career. He continued to record for Chess during the 1950s, churning out down-home hits like "Long Distance Call," "Louisiana Blues," and the Memphis Minnie derivative, "Honey Bee." Waters continued to tour the Deep South during the 1950s and 1960s, often with John Lee Hooker, but his home was now Chicago. In 1958, he toured England, opening the door for bluesmen to tour Europe. In 1960, Waters's band played the Newport Jazz Festival and won a large white following.
Muddy Waters died April 30, 1983, and is buried in Chicago.
8/10/2012
Charley Patton - Devil Sent The Rain Blues - 1929
Born in April 1891, between Edwards and Bolton in southern Mississippi, Charley Patton was the scrawny child of sharecropper parents. In 1900, his family moved 100 miles north to the Delta and the Will Dockery Plantation. There Patton fell under the spell of guitarist Henry Sloan and would follow him to gigs. By 1910, he had become proficient as a performer and songwriter, having already composed "Down The Dirt Road Blues," a slow drag called "Banty Rooster Blues," and his theme song "Pony Blues."
After the turn of the decade Patton began playing with Willie Brown, a guitarist who would later become a regular on his recordings. Patton's music began to exert considerable influence; guitarist Tommy Johnson had moved to the Dockery vicinity circa 1913 and was soon playing Delta blues including Patton's "Pony Blues." Around 1914, Patton began playing his guitar with members of the Chatmon family, working picnics and frolics. Bo, Sam, and Lonnie Chatmon and guitarist Walter Vinson later would gain fame as the Mississippi Sheiks. Bo Chatmon also recorded many titles as soloist Bo Carter. Patton continued playing and rambling around the Delta, going north to Memphis and as far west as Arkansas and Louisiana. By 1926, a young Robert Johnson had begun following Patton and Brown to gigs trying to learn from the veteran guitarists.
Patton made his first recording in June 1929, cutting fourteen songs for the Paramount label, all issued on 78s. Such was the success of his initial session that he was invited four months later to Paramount's new studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where he recorded twenty-eight additional tunes. Patton's polyrhythmic picking, accompanied by tapping the body of the guitar, created an intricate dance melody that its author could play for thirty minutes or more. Son House, who recorded in a 1930 session that also featured Patton and Brown, recalled that Charley "clowned" for an audience by playing the guitar behind his back or between his knees. Patton included regional landmarks in his tunes - places that a local record-buying audience would be familiar with, including a Moorehead, Mississippi railroad crossing, "Where The Southern Crosses The Dog," in "Green River Blues" and Parchman Farm in "A Spoonful Blues."
Howlin' Wolf, who moved to Dockery in 1926, recalled seeing Patton on the town square in Drew, not far from Dockery Plantation. Patton's hypnotic three-note songs also deeply influenced Clarksdale's John Lee Hooker, who recorded his own version of Patton's "Pea Vine Blues." Bukka White also cited a desire "to come to be a famous man, like Charley Patton," and demonstrated a similar knack for playing dance songs for extended periods. Patton's last recording session was in New York City in February 1934, two months before his death.
Charley Patton died April 28, 1934, at 350 Heathman Street in Indianola, Mississippi. Patton's grave is located in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, and the tombstone acknowledges his pivotal role in the development of the Delta Blues.
8/09/2012
Blind Willie Johnson - Nobody's Fault But Mine
A singing street-corner evangelist, Blind Willie Johnson created some of the most intensely moving records of the 20th century. Void of frivolity or uncertainty, his 78s from the 1920s and ’30s are clearly the work of a pained believer seeking redemption. A slide guitarist nonpareil, Johnson had an exquisite sense of timing and tone, using a pocketknife or ring slider to duplicate his vocal inflections or to produce an unforgettable phrase from a single strike of a string. Eric Clapton cites his “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” as “probably the finest slide guitar playing you’ll ever hear,” and Ry Cooder calls “Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground” the “most transcendent piece in all American music.”
8/07/2012
Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy
McKinley Morganfield "Muddy Waters", born April 4, 1915, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, to a sharecropping family, Morganfield moved to the Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale to live with his grandmother after the death of his mother in 1918. As a toddler he acquired the nickname Muddy from his grandmother because he loved to play in the muddy water of nearby Deer Creek. At age seven, Morganfield began playing the harmonica and became proficient enough to play fish fries, picnics, and parties by age thirteen. His family attached "Waters" to his nickname when he began playing harmonica, and the name stuck. Waters first heard records by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, and the Memphis Sheiks on a neighbor's Victrola. He bought his first guitar at age seventeen with his sharecropper's wages and taught himself to play.
Waters's early influences were local guitarists Charley Patton and Son House. One of the first blues tunes he learned was House's "Walkin' Blues." At age eighteen, Waters opened a juke joint where patrons could drink, gamble, eat fried fish, and listen to the jukebox. He played parties, juke joints, and suppers in the Clarksdale vicinity with guitarist Scott Bohannah or his own string band. Waters fell under the sway of Delta guitarist Robert Johnson, whom he saw on the front porch of Hirsberg's Drugstore in Friars Point and whose records he played on his jukebox. Helena-based bluesman Robert Nighthawk offered to bring Waters to Chicago with him on a recording trip during the late 1930s, but he refused the invitation, preferring to remain with his infirm grandmother. In 1940, Waters did venture to St. Louis, then a hotbed of blues, but disliked it and returned to Stovall Plantation.
On August 28, 1941, folklorists Alan Lomax and John Work recorded Waters and fiddler Henry "Son" Sims at Waters's juke joint. Impressed with Waters's ability, they returned in July of the following year for additional material. The sound of his voice emanating from the recording machine's playback convinced Waters he had commercial ability. He caught a train to Chicago in May 1943, found a job, and was soon playing rent parties in the city. A recording session for Columbia Records in 1946 went unreleased. Another for the 20th Century label resulted in the release of "Mean Red Spider," a B-side to James "Sweet Lucy" Carter's 1947 single. Waters next recorded for the fledgling Aristocrat label, owned by Leonard and Phil Chess, in 1947. His second Aristocrat release, "I Can't be Satisfied" backed with "Feel Like Going Home," quickly sold out several pressings, thereby making Waters a bona fide star and solidifying the foundation of the Chess record label.
"I Can't be Satisfied" incorporates all the elements that would make Muddy Waters famous. His strong, rich tenor, sung slightly behind the beat, had a drawl that appealed to southern-born black record buyers. Waters's dark, bass-laden slide guitar conjured shades of blue that stood in stark contrast to the jazzy, single-string guitarists such as T. Bone Walker who were then in vogue. He also became a noted bandleader whose groups became a spawning ground for later blues stars "Little" Walter Jacobs, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Spann, James Cotton, and Junior Wells.
Waters returned to the Delta in 1949 with a trio composed of Jacobs, Rogers, and himself. They based their activities in Helena, Arkansas, where they appeared daily on radio station KFFA, then broadcasting from the Floyd Truck Lines Building. KFFA was famous throughout the Delta as the home of King Biscuit Time, a noontime radio show that featured Sonny Boy Williamson and his guitarist/sidemen Robert Jr. Lockwood, Elmore James, and Joe Willie Wilkins. Waters's trio performed on the 6 a.m. slot and used the exposure to advertise their upcoming gigs at the Owl Café and across the Delta. In 1950, he returned to Chicago and resumed his recording career. He continued to record for Chess during the 1950s, churning out down-home hits like "Long Distance Call," "Louisiana Blues," and the Memphis Minnie derivative, "Honey Bee." Waters continued to tour the Deep South during the 1950s and 1960s, often with John Lee Hooker, but his home was now Chicago. In 1958, he toured England, opening the door for bluesmen to tour Europe. In 1960, Waters's band played the Newport Jazz Festival and won a large white following.
Muddy Waters died April 30, 1983, and is buried in Chicago.
8/04/2012
Muddy Waters - Mustang Sally
McKinley Morganfield "Muddy Waters", born April 4, 1915, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, to a sharecropping family, Morganfield moved to the Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale to live with his grandmother after the death of his mother in 1918. As a toddler he acquired the nickname Muddy from his grandmother because he loved to play in the muddy water of nearby Deer Creek. At age seven, Morganfield began playing the harmonica and became proficient enough to play fish fries, picnics, and parties by age thirteen. His family attached "Waters" to his nickname when he began playing harmonica, and the name stuck. Waters first heard records by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, and the Memphis Sheiks on a neighbor's Victrola. He bought his first guitar at age seventeen with his sharecropper's wages and taught himself to play.
Waters's early influences were local guitarists Charley Patton and Son House. One of the first blues tunes he learned was House's "Walkin' Blues." At age eighteen, Waters opened a juke joint where patrons could drink, gamble, eat fried fish, and listen to the jukebox. He played parties, juke joints, and suppers in the Clarksdale vicinity with guitarist Scott Bohannah or his own string band. Waters fell under the sway of Delta guitarist Robert Johnson, whom he saw on the front porch of Hirsberg's Drugstore in Friars Point and whose records he played on his jukebox. Helena-based bluesman Robert Nighthawk offered to bring Waters to Chicago with him on a recording trip during the late 1930s, but he refused the invitation, preferring to remain with his infirm grandmother. In 1940, Waters did venture to St. Louis, then a hotbed of blues, but disliked it and returned to Stovall Plantation.
On August 28, 1941, folklorists Alan Lomax and John Work recorded Waters and fiddler Henry "Son" Sims at Waters's juke joint. Impressed with Waters's ability, they returned in July of the following year for additional material. The sound of his voice emanating from the recording machine's playback convinced Waters he had commercial ability. He caught a train to Chicago in May 1943, found a job, and was soon playing rent parties in the city. A recording session for Columbia Records in 1946 went unreleased. Another for the 20th Century label resulted in the release of "Mean Red Spider," a B-side to James "Sweet Lucy" Carter's 1947 single. Waters next recorded for the fledgling Aristocrat label, owned by Leonard and Phil Chess, in 1947. His second Aristocrat release, "I Can't be Satisfied" backed with "Feel Like Going Home," quickly sold out several pressings, thereby making Waters a bona fide star and solidifying the foundation of the Chess record label.
"I Can't be Satisfied" incorporates all the elements that would make Muddy Waters famous. His strong, rich tenor, sung slightly behind the beat, had a drawl that appealed to southern-born black record buyers. Waters's dark, bass-laden slide guitar conjured shades of blue that stood in stark contrast to the jazzy, single-string guitarists such as T. Bone Walker who were then in vogue. He also became a noted bandleader whose groups became a spawning ground for later blues stars "Little" Walter Jacobs, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Spann, James Cotton, and Junior Wells.
Waters returned to the Delta in 1949 with a trio composed of Jacobs, Rogers, and himself. They based their activities in Helena, Arkansas, where they appeared daily on radio station KFFA, then broadcasting from the Floyd Truck Lines Building. KFFA was famous throughout the Delta as the home of King Biscuit Time, a noontime radio show that featured Sonny Boy Williamson and his guitarist/sidemen Robert Jr. Lockwood, Elmore James, and Joe Willie Wilkins. Waters's trio performed on the 6 a.m. slot and used the exposure to advertise their upcoming gigs at the Owl Café and across the Delta. In 1950, he returned to Chicago and resumed his recording career. He continued to record for Chess during the 1950s, churning out down-home hits like "Long Distance Call," "Louisiana Blues," and the Memphis Minnie derivative, "Honey Bee." Waters continued to tour the Deep South during the 1950s and 1960s, often with John Lee Hooker, but his home was now Chicago. In 1958, he toured England, opening the door for bluesmen to tour Europe. In 1960, Waters's band played the Newport Jazz Festival and won a large white following.
Muddy Waters died April 30, 1983, and is buried in Chicago.
8/03/2012
Mississippi John Hurt - The Ballad Of Stagger Lee
"Mississippi" John Hurt
Born July 3, 1893, in Teoc, Mississippi, Hurt and his family moved in 1895 to Avalon, a town on the edge of Mississippi's hill country. He dropped out of school at the age of nine to begin working as a farmer. In 1902, Hurt picked up the guitar, a $1.50 "Black Annie" his mother bought him. Self-taught, Hurt developed a distinctive three-finger style that bears no resemblance to other area musicians. He also developed proficiency with the harmonica but was always a self-accompanied musician. Unlike Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie, Hurt refused an offer to accompany a traveling medicine show, preferring to stay close to home.
Hurt played solo at local parties where his fluid yet highly syncopated guitar style made him a favorite among Carroll County dancers. His fame was localized, however; it was not until 1912 that he started playing parties around Jackson, Mississippi, 103 miles from his native Avalon. While Hurt worked mostly outside music as a farmer and laborer, his musical reputation among whites as well as blacks led to his first recording session in Memphis in 1928. Willie T. Narmour and Shell W. Smith, two white country musicians from Carroll County, recommended him to their record producer, Tommy Rockwell.
Hurt recorded eight sides for the Okeh label, two of which were released and sold well: "Frankie" and "Nobody's Dirty Business." In Memphis for the same recording session was St. Louis guitarist/pianist Lonnie Johnson, and Hurt later recalled that Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bessie Smith were also in town. He saw none of these famous musicians play but instead returned home to Avalon. Okeh called Hurt to New York City for another session in December 1928, where he cut twelve additional sides, including "Avalon Blues." Again, Hurt returned home to Avalon to farm and play music for local parties.
These two sessions were the extent of Hurt's recording before the Great Depression curtailed record sales. His graceful picking, gentle crooning, and homespun lyrics marked him as an exceptionally talented musician. The preponderance of songs about legendary figures in his repertoire ("Casey Jones," "Frankie," "Stack O'Lee Blues") and the lack of then-modern blues influences on his style, establish Hurt as a link between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Okeh originally designated two of his songs "Old Time Music," an appellation reserved for the label's hillbilly series. This, together with the fact that white musicians were familiar with and recommended his musicianship, suggests strongly that Hurt's music sprang from a common source that produced blues and country music.
Hurt lived a quiet life as a farmer and laborer, playing occasional parties and fish fries until 1963. He was rediscovered in Avalon, a consequence of having named it as his hometown in a record made thirty-five years before. Hurt enjoyed great popularity during the blues revival of the 1960s, making television appearances, playing folk festivals, and recording albums. Exceptionally well liked by all who came in contact with him, he became the most famous of all the rediscovered 1920s bluesmen, eclipsing in his fame the celebrated Son House and Skip James.
His newfound fame lasted three years before his death on November 2, 1966. Mississippi John Hurt's grave is located outside his hometown of Avalon, Mississippi.
8/02/2012
Blind Willie Johnson - Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
A singing street-corner evangelist, Blind Willie Johnson created some of the most intensely moving records of the 20th century. Void of frivolity or uncertainty, his 78s from the 1920s and ’30s are clearly the work of a pained believer seeking redemption. A slide guitarist nonpareil, Johnson had an exquisite sense of timing and tone, using a pocketknife or ring slider to duplicate his vocal inflections or to produce an unforgettable phrase from a single strike of a string. Eric Clapton cites his “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” as “probably the finest slide guitar playing you’ll ever hear,” and Ry Cooder calls “Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground” the “most transcendent piece in all American music.”
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