Michael Jackson – the other debts that he owed

Just one year ago -still controversy surrounds his life and death…

Michael Jackson was undoubtedly a talented and creative  artist and one, through the media channels and marketing of the time, was able to communicate to a huge global audience.

As a black artist he was also subjected to the racial bias and prejudice of the time and in his early years had to fight his corner (such as the attitudes of MTV). However his journey was made easier by being able to  walk the paths that had already been cut by black musicians during the previous 50 years. This is one more debt that he owed.

We need to put his story into historical perspective and understand how other black musicians had put their careers and even their lives in jeopardy while fighting for basic rights as musicians and as human beings.

Music and other creative arts have always been used for people to express themselves and with African-Americans in particular the use of these media have not only been used to express their plight and discrimination but also as a way of describing their own personal identity.

Starting with  American enslavement, captured African slaves and their American descendants created work songs, spirituals, gospels, ragtime, jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, and contemporary rap and hip-hop .

Even the different forms of jazz (Dixieland, Swing, Bebop, Avant-garde, and Free Jazz) represent Black people’s struggle to determine  a narrative about their  existence in the world.  Black  music can be seen  as a way of looking at the world, in the face of white supremacy and anti-Black racism. Jazz has always been  creative, innovative,  improvisational and often political.

Paul Robeson

Let’ start with Paul Robeson, a true giant in many fields and who ‘ paid with his career for his principles’. Paul Robeson was a truly creative man. He was a singer, an actor, a national football player and a lawyer. Robeson achieved worldwide fame and recognition during his life for his artistic accomplishments, and his outspoken, radical beliefs which largely clashed with the colonial powers of Western Europe and the Jim Crow climate of pre-civil rights America. Robeson was a forerunner in the Civil Rights movement, a leader in the labor movement and a crusader in the anti-lynching movement. Because of his  anti-colonialist sentiments, Robeson was investigated by both the CIA and the FBI.

“All that Paul Robeson stood for had enormous impact on American and global history. The combination of his art, intellect and humanity was rarely paralleled. The cruelties visited upon him by the power of the State stands as a great blemish on the pages of American history. But despite the attempt to wipe him from memory, he has endured and continues to influence. It speaks to our most strategic interests that African American children be instructed about the truth of his existence. Indeed it would be in the best interest of all Americans to know what this great patriot offered this nation.” –Harry Belafonte, April 9, 2008, on the occasion of Paul Robeson’s ‘110^th’ Birthday

Billie Holiday

1949

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan Gough; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was the daughter of Clarence Holiday.  Her father abandoned the family early and refused to acknowledge his daughter until after her first success.Billie Holiday incorporated the song “Strange Fruit” into her set list in 1939. Adapted from a poem, by a New York high school teacher, “Strange Fruit” was inspired by the 1930 lynching of two black men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. It juxtaposes the horrid image of bodies hanging from trees with an description of the idyllic South. Holiday delivered the song night after night, often overwhelmed by emotion, causing it to become an anthem of early civil rights movements.

• Lyrics to “Strange Fruit:”

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

On November 10, 1956, she performed before a packed audience at Carnegie Hall, a major accomplishment for any artist, especially a black artist of the segregated period of American history. She died in 1959 , with only$0.70 in the bank after  she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings.

Many blues musicians suffered from racist attitudes and often sung about them as way of direct expression of their feelings as well as to raise awareness. This is from one of J.B.Lenoir’s songs:

I never will go back to Alabama, that is not the place for me (2x)

You know they killed my sister and my brother,

And the whole world let them peoples go down there free.

From “Alabama Blues”

JBL

J. B. Lenoir (March 5, 1929 – April 29, 1967) was an African-American  blues guitarist and singer/songwriter ,popular in  the 1950s and 1960s.

Curtis Mayfield

Mayfield is remembered for his introduction of social consciousness into R&B and for pioneering the funk style. Many of his recordings with the Impressions became anthems of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and his most famous album, Super Fly, is regarded as an all-time great that influenced many and truly invented a new style of modern black music (#69 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums).

James Brown

James Brown is known as “The Godfather of Soul”, other times as “the hardest working man in show business”. He was a social activist as well as an all round artist.

As a prolific singer, songwriter, dancer and bandleader, Brown was a pivotal force in the music industry. He left his mark on numerous artists. Brown’s music also left its mark on the rhythms of African popular music, such as afrobeat, jùjú and mbalax,^[4] and provided a template for go-go music.^[5]

Many in the black community felt that Brown was speaking out to them more than some major leaders in the country, a sentiment that was strengthened with the release of his groundbreaking landmark single, “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud“.

Brown continued performing benefit concerts for various civil rights organizations including Jesse Jackson‘s PUSH and The Black Panther Party‘s Breakfast program throughout the early-1970s. Brown also continued to release socially-conscious singles such as “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I’ll Get It Myself)” (1969), “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved” (1971), “Talking Loud and Saying Nothing” (1972), “King Heroin” (1974), “Funky President (People It’s Bad)” (1974) and “Reality” (1975).

Like Michael Jackson he had several personal problems that certainly did not make him a saint, but he did leave  a legacy that deserves to be recognized.

Charles “Charlie” Mingus, Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and pianist. He was also known for his activism against racial injustice.

CM 1976

Charles Mingus was known for being angry and outspoken on the bandstand. That’s why, in response to the 1957 Little Rock Nine incident in Arkansas, when Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to prevent black students from entering a newly desegregated public high school.

Mingus displayed his outrage at the event by composing a piece entitled “Fables of Faubus.” The lyrics, which he penned as well, offer some of the most blatant and harshest critiques of Jim Crow attitudes in all of jazz activism.

Oh, Lord, don’t let ‘em shoot us!
Oh, Lord, don’t let ‘em stab us!
Oh, Lord, don’t let ‘em tar and feather us!
Oh, Lord, no more swastikas!
Oh, Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan!

Name me someone who’s ridiculous, Danny.
Governor Faubus!
Why is he so sick and ridiculous?
He won’t permit integrated schools.

Then he’s a fool! Oh Boo!
Boo! Nazi Fascist supremacists
Boo! Ku Klux Klan (with your Jim Crow plan)

Two, four, six, eight:
They brainwash and teach you hate.

“Fables of Faubus” originally appeared on Mingus Ah Um (1959), although Columbia Records found the lyrics so incendiary that they refused to allow them to be recorded. In 1960, however, Mingus recorded the song for Candid Records, lyrics and all, on Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

Odetta Holmes, (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement”.

Odetta

Max Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.

Max Roach

A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He worked with many of the greatest jazz musicians, including Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown.

Roach also led his own groups, and made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement of African-Americans. His famous composition”Freedom Now Suite”  used a  photo of black students at a whites-only lunch counter in the South on the album cover.

In African countries  there have been many black musicians who have had to fight racism , prejudice and discrimination.

Hugh Masekela

Since 1954, Masekela played music that closely reflected his life experience. The agony, conflict, and exploitation South Africa faced during 1950’s and 1960’s, inspired and influenced him to make music. He was an artist who in his music vividly portrayed the struggles and sorrows, as well as the joys and passions of his country. His music protested about apartheid, slavery, government; the hardships individuals were living. Masekela reached a large population of people that also felt oppressed due to the country’s situation.

Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 10 November 2008) was a South African singer and civil rights activist. The Grammy Award winning artist is often referred to as Mama Afrika.

Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled.

Fela Kuti

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October, 1938 – 2 August, 1997), or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of afrobeat music, human rights activist.  HMV ranked him #46 on a list of the top-100 most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Not to forget the many other artists who had to make their way against the odds -

Duke Ellington 1943

In a 1944 New Yorker profile of Duke Ellington, Richard Boyer told of a white St. Louis policeman enthusiastically greeting Duke Ellington after a performance, saying: “If you’d been a white man, Duke, you’d have been a great musician.”

Louis Armstrong

“Once the whites who played it and the listeners who loved it began to balk at the limitations imposed by segregation, jazz became a futuristic social force in which one was finally judged purely on the basis of one’s individual ability. Jazz predicted the civil rights movement more than any other art in America.” (Stanley Crouch)

.

John Coltrane

and what about ….”Stand up for your Rights…”

Bob Marley

Bob Dylan – Freewheelin at 70

“master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation”

Robert Allen Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan hits 70 on May 24th 2011. He has been recording for at least five decades , yet his music represents nearly a century of North American music as he brought his influences from blues and traditional music, along with his family background from Ukraine and Turkey. Even Welsh poetry had its influence as Bob’s name reminds us  (i.e. Dylan Thomas).

Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler, and an apparently reluctant figurehead, of social unrest. Though he is well-known for revolutionizing perceptions of the limits of popular music in 1965 with the six-minute single “Like a Rolling Stone,”a number of his earlier songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” became anthems for theUS civil rights and anti-war movements.

His early lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social and philosophical, as well as literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoningcounterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, and the performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard,Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres, exploring numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk,blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly, to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.

In Mike Marqusee’s words: “Between late 1964 and the summer of 1966, Dylan created a body of work that remains unique. Drawing on folk, blues, country, R&B, rock’n'roll, gospel, British beat, symbolist, modernist and Beat poetry, surrealism and Dada, advertising jargon and social commentary, Fellini and Mad magazine, he forged a coherent and original artistic voice and vision. The beauty of these albums retains the power to shock and console.”

Even though many find his singing ‘unconventional’ he is unique and I am sure it does not bother him what people think of his singing -just like when he went electric at Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1966 . Here is the commentary by Andy Kershaw on the incident when Dylan was called ‘Judas’ just for relinquishing his acoustic guitar for one with pick ups.

In the autumn of 1978, I arrived at Leeds University, already over-qualified in Dylanology. Another Bobsessive, I soon discovered, was living close by in our Headingley student ghetto, and he supplemented his grant by dealing Dylan bootlegs. One night he sold me a copy of an album that, according to the crudely stamped label, was a recording of Bob Dylan and The Hawks (later The Band) at the Royal Albert Hall on their notorious UK tour in May 1966. It was on these dates that Bob first appeared in Britain with an electric band. (His tour the previous spring, immortalised in the film Don’t Look Back, was still solo Dylan, in protest mode, with just an acoustic guitar.)

Bob by Feinstein

The 1966 bootleg was not only of first-rate sound quality; it was also the most dramatic, confrontational concert I’d ever heard – and I was a regular at Clash gigs at the time. It remains, for me, the most exciting live album of all. Dylan, on that tour, split his audiences straight down the middle. Many were thrilled by his new psychedelic songs and the massive onslaught of The Hawks roaring through the biggest PA system that had, at that point, been assembled in the UK. It had flown in with the band from Los Angeles.

But many others in those staid, municipal concert halls were outraged and betrayed by their darling acoustic minstrel plugging into the mains. (It was, though no one realised it at the time, the birth of rock music as opposed to pop music). No matter that Dylan had released five electric singles – notably, “Like a Rolling Stone” – and one electric album in the previous 12 months: British audiences were still getting up to speed on his earlier records and they wanted back the Woody Guthrie protégé they’d seen in 1965.

This tension between artist and audience snapped in an almighty confrontation on the bootleg. Slow hand-clapping and jeering throughout Dylan’s electric half of the show – which was later properly identified as his concert at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall on 17 May 1966 and finally given official release by Columbia Records in 1998 – climaxes with one betrayed folkie letting fly with a long yell of “Judas!” It became the most famous heckle in rock’n'roll history.

Dylan is rattled, and for an awkward second the audience is stunned – until a yelp of solidarity with the heckler goes up. It is still a genuinely shocking moment. (Concert-goers in those days were routinely reverential. They still stood for the national anthem at the end). Dylan eventually composes himself and leers: “I don’t believe you. You’re a liar!” And then, off mic: “You fucking liar!” (some claim he said: “Play fucking loud!”) before he and the band kick into the most majestic, terrifying version of “Like a Rolling Stone”, their final number – a performance of Gothic immensity surely drawn from Dylan by his anger at that single shout.

Well, if you dont like his singing or his electric guitar playing you can at least wonder at the genius of his poetry..

As early as 1965 media critics were acknowledging Dylan’s status not only as a popular music star but as a poet of substantial literary merit. Dylan has generally treated his critics with derision, stating that they do not understand what he is trying to express. Dylan has always confounded reviewers by refusing to explain the meaning of his songs, however, insisting that they stand for themselves. Because many of his songs hold up well as poetry, separated from their music, they are natural choices for study by critics specializing in contemporary language arts, who compare them to the works of Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, and Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg himself proclaimed Dylan to be among the greatest poets of the century. Dylan usually avoids discussion of his works as poems or talk of himself as anything but a performing songwriter: “Poets drown in lakes,” he told Paul Zollo in a 1991 interview. Zollo explains that Dylan “broke all the rules of songwriting without abandoning the craft and care that holds songs together.” Such well-crafted songs include “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” which are examined for their visionary symbolism and imagery. “Like a Rolling Stone” is praised for its lyrical qualities and the emotional force of the repeated refrain, “How does it feel?” and its powerful expression of alienation. “Desolation Row” which portrays a dark, apocalyptic vision of the fate of human society, is another favorite of critics. Dylan’s work fell below his own classic standard during parts of the 1980s and 1990s. Not until Time Out of Mind did critics once again overwhelmingly praise Dylan’s lyrics as startlingly fresh compositions, equal to his most critically acclaimed songs from the 1960s and 1970s. Music writer Bill Flanagan was present at a party held in 1985 to honor Dylan’s accomplishments. When television reporters asked him to explain Dylan’s significance, he explained that Dylan refused to accept any limits on rock and roll and thus showed everyone else that the form could expand to include all sorts of ideas. Flanagan relates a conversation he had with musician Pete Townshend, who also attended the party. “He joked about the futility of trying to offer a concise explanation of Dylan’s significance. ‘They asked what effect Bob Dylan had on me,’ he said. ‘That’s like asking how I was influenced by being born.’” (ref:http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/dylan-bob).

A taste of his poetry

It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born is busy dying

Temptation’s page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you’d just be one more
Person crying

So don’t fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don’t hate nothing at all
Except hatred

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked

An’ though the rules of the road have been lodged
It’s only people’s games that you got to dodge
And it’s alright, Ma, I can make it

Advertising signs they con
You into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks they really found you

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something they invest in

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he’s in

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please him

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn’t talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer’s pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death’s honesty
Won’t fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes must get lonely

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed
Graveyards, false gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They’d probably put my head in a guillotine
But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only

Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music

and from ‘Freewheeling’

Masters Of War

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
’Til I’m sure that you’re dead

Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music

And now for some recordings….

Early Dylan  -live at Newport

As any Dylan fan knows every time you see him live, his songs morph into new creations -sometime for the best and sometimes…but their his songs and he doesn’t stand still -his idea of the ‘never ending tour and musical journey.

And remembering Woodie Guthrie

Live in 1963 -Brandeis University

1964 -I dont believe you

1975 -Abandoned love

Bob Dylan at Live Aid

Live Aid -when the ship comes in

The last waltz – forever young medley

A very croaky Bob in 2010 -Blind Willie McTell

Dylan re-invents every song every night. The results range from transcendent to downright intolerable, sometimes within the same song, but they are never predictable.

and the artist as painter…..

Following Bob’s motorcycle accident in 1966 (some say he was in rehab -no serious motorbike crash just a psychological crash)

he was ‘taught’ to draw and ever since he was been working on his other arts -here are some examples of his paintings:

Paul Butterfield – Got a mind to give up living

When I was a teenager in Swansea I heard the record ‘East -West’ by the Butterfield Blues Band – a very creative fusion of sounds with solid blues notes from the harp of Paul Butterfield and the guitars of Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield. Paul Butterfield remains firmly in my top ten of great harp players.

Growing up in Chicago and mixing with the likes of   Muddy Waters,Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Otis Rush, Butterfield was ushered into the magic world of the blues while also having some classical music background (on flute) and more than a passing interest in Jazz.

Lets start with driftin blues from 1967

And how did he get that sound….hard work and a touch of genius…

Butterfield practiced long hours by himself — just playing all the time. His brother Peter writes, “He listened to records, and he went places, but he also spent an awful lot of time, by himself, playing. He’d play outdoors. There’s a place called The Point in Hyde Park, a promontory of land that sticks out into Lake Michigan, and I can remember him out there for hours playing. He was just playing all the time … It was a very solitary effort. It was all internal, like he had a particular sound he wanted to get and he just worked to get it. “

(ref: http://www.bluesharp.ca/legends/pbfield.html)

A great version of the Thrill is Gone

A nice version of Off the Wall

Some technical notes:

Like most Chicago-style amplified harmonica players, Butterfield played the instrument like a horn — a trumpet. Although he sometimes used a chromatic harmonica, Butterfield mostly played the standard Hohner Marine Band in the standard cross position.Remember, he was left-handed and held the harp in his left hand, but in the standard position with the low notes facing to the left. Butterfield played and endorsed (as noted in the liner notes for his first album) Hohner harmonicas, in particular the diatonic ten-hole ‘Marine Band’ model. His primary playing style was in the second position, also known as cross-harp, but he also was adept in the third position, notably on the track East-West from the album of the same name, and the track ‘Highway 28′ from the “Better Days” album.

Seldom venturing higher than the sixth hole on the harmonica, Butterfield nevertheless managed to create a variety of original sounds and melodic runs. His live tonal stylings were accomplished using a Shure 545 Unidyne III hand-held microphone connected to one or more Fender amplifiers, often then additionally boosted through the venue’s public address (PA) system. This allowed Butterfield to achieve the same extremes of volume as the various notable sidemen in his band.

Butterfield also at times played a mixture of acoustic and amplified style by playing into a microphone mounted on a stand, allowing him to perform on the harmonica using both hands to get a muted, Wah-wah effect, as well as various vibratos. This was usually done on a quieter, slower tune.

He tended to play single notes rather than bursts of chords. His harp playing is always intense, understated, concise, and serious — only Big Walter Horton has a better sense of note selection.

(ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Butterfield )

One of Paul’s talents was as collaborator/band leader -here he is on ‘Slowdown’ with Dr.John and David Sanborn

and here he is supporting John Lee Hooker in a masterful way

and here he is in 1986 singing ‘Born under a bad sign’ with Buzz Feiten on guitar

and sadly to say  -one of Paul’s last collaborations -with Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King and Albert King

Buddy Guy – Damn right I have the blues

Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon

Buddy Guy is a guitarists’ guitarist….the following comments illustrate this:

Clapton said in a 1985 Musician magazine article that “Buddy Guy is by far and without a doubt the best guitar player alive…if you see him in person, the way he plays is beyond anyone. Total freedom of spirit, I guess. He really changed the course of rock and roll blues.”

Jimi Hendrix himself once said that “Heaven is lying at Buddy Guy’s feet while listening to him play guitar.”

Stevie Ray Vaughan once declared that Buddy Guy “plays from a place that I’ve never heard anyone play.” “Buddy can go from one end of the spectrum to another. He can play quieter than anybody I’ve ever heard, or wilder and louder than anybody I’ve ever heard. I play pretty loud a lot of times, but Buddy’s tones are incredible. He pulls such emotion out of so little volume. Buddy just has this cool feel to everything he does. And when he sings, it’s just compounded. Girls fall over and sweat and die!”

Jeff Beck : “Geez, you can’t forget Buddy Guy. He transcended blues and started becoming theater. It was high art, kind of like drama theater when he played, you know. He was playing behind his head long before Hendrix. I once saw him throw the guitar up in the air and catch it in the same chord.”

Jimmy Page: “Buddy Guy is an absolute monster” and “There were a number of albums that everybody got tuned into in the early days. There was one in particular called, I think, American Folk Festival Of The Blues, which featured Buddy Guy. He just astounded everybody.”
Bill Wyman: “Guitar Legends do not come any better than Buddy Guy. He is feted by his peers and loved by his fans for his ability to make the guitar both talk and cry the blues. Such is Buddy’s mastery of the guitar that there is virtually no guitarist that he cannot imitate.”

Although Buddy Guy’s music is often labeled Chicago blues, his style is unique as it often moves towards jazz and hard rock.

Born in Louisiana in 1936  Guy moved to Chicago in 1957 and immediately fell under the spell of Muddy Waters. He had an inconsistent start to his recording career with Chess but in the 80′s was able to reassert himself with the help of Clapton who was able to include him in the ‘ 24 nights’ all star series of concerts in London. Following this ‘revival’ of his fortunes Guy has gone from strength to strength:

New York Times music critic Jon Pareles noted in 2004:

Mr. Guy, 68, mingles anarchy, virtuosity, deep blues and hammy shtick in ways that keep all eyes on him… [Guy] loves extremes: sudden drops from loud to soft, or a sweet, sustained guitar solo followed by a jolt of speed, or a high, imploring vocal cut off with a rasp…Whether he’s singing with gentle menace or bending new curves into a blue note, he is a master of tension and release, and his every wayward impulse was riveting.

Lets hear some music:

Here is an early vid of Buddy playing Texas Blues in 1969

First time I met the blues   1970

Sweet Home Chicago:

I can’t quit you baby

Two greats -BG with BB King -two great showmen

Remembering Muddy…Hoochie Coochie Man  -live in 2010

Buddy Guy and Junior Wells

Buddy Guy and Junior Wells were great friends

Compare the electric with an acoustic version of  Hoochie Coochie Man…..

And if you liked that acoustic number , you will love  …  Can’t be satisfied

Early video of a young Buddy in the 60′s -Let me Love You

Great guitar and vocals work on My Time After a While:

A wild version of Mustang Sally from Montreaux showing his great stage presence plus great guitar work

Buddy , like John Lee Hooker has become a great collaborator -here are some examples

First with Big Mama Thornton -Hound Dog

Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan

A great version of a classic blues -Stormy Monday – with Carlos Santana – 2004

With Jonny Lang in 1997 – Little by Little

With Jeff Beck in 2009  Let me Love You

With Susan Tedeschi -Feels like Rain -at the Montreal Jazz Festival 2009

and there are some great versions of …I’m 74 years young…and he proves it

Buddy Guy still records with BB King and here they are reminiscing:

During his 50-year career, the 74-year-old Guy has earned 23 W.C. Handy Awards, won the first annual Great Performer of Illinois award, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Presidential National Medal of the Arts. His influence as a guitarist has extended from Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Asked what he considers himself “living proof” of, Guy said: “Do you know how many guys I started out with who just threw up both hands and quit? My first wife said to me, ‘It’s me or the guitar,’ and I picked up my guitar and left. We still laugh about that. But I’m still picking away at it.”

Robert Doisneau – the dignity of workers

Known for his fashion photography (e.g. for Vogue) and his images of artists such as Giacometti, Cocteau, Leger, Braque and Picaso Robert Doisneau’s portfolio is particularly rich in images of workers. He brought out in stunning black and white not only the harshness of manual work but more importantly, the dignity of the workers themselves. He was also concerned with the more marginalised in society, such as the Gitanes (gipsies) and the clochards ( homeless).

He went underground to document mining life

Mineur ,Lens 1945

les lampeslens

piqueurslens

les trieuseslens

He took to the streets and photographed the homeless

Les megots, Paris-1956

Doisneau documented the weavers and textile workers

Tapisserie-des-Gobelins

les teintures 1945

Aubusson 1945

And other workers such as musicians were also on Doisneau’s list of subjects:

doisneau_accordionist

 

doisneau_cellist

 

and a quick review of some of Robert Doisneau’s more famous pics with accompanying accordion..

 

PHOTO VOICE – Participatory Photography for Social Change

I have always been interested in how photography can change awareness and attitudes or at least encourage viewers to look at the world in different ways.

Photo Voice provides opportunities not just for the ‘passive’ viewer but for people to use photography to reflect on their personal worlds as well as communicate to others.

PhotoVoice’s vision is for a world in which no one is denied the opportunity to speak out and be heard. PhotoVoice’s mission is to build skills within disadvantaged and marginalised communities using innovative participatory photography and digital storytelling methods so that they have the opportunity to represent themselves and create tools for advocacy and communications to achieve positive social change.

Over the course of 10 years PhotoVoice has worked with numerous disability and mental health groups in the UK and internationally, training those accessing services or care to use photography to explore their lives, share their viewpoints and experiences, and in some to create work that seeks to change public perceptions or social practice. The images created by PhotoVoice participants, usually accompanied by explanatory captions written by the photographer that give a context for the chosen subject, show their lives and experiences as they wish them to be represented, and reveal their unique perspectives on issues important to them.

Methodology

PhotoVoice works with a broad methodology which is tailored to the needs of participants in each project.  It is a methodology that builds on the power and potential of photography as a flexible and empowering tool that is at the same time accessible, therapeutic, influential and communicative.

Projects

Since 1999 PhotoVoice has pioneered the use of participatory photography as a tool for communication, self expression and advocacy. We have worked in the UK and across the globe with marginalised and vulnerable communities whose human rights are being undermined. Our organisational partners have included Amnesty International, World Vision, UNICEF, Save the Children, The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and United Response.

International projects

Current international projects include: Eyes of Youth – Kurbin, Albania (2011); Workshops with nomadic pastoralist children in Somali Region of Ethiopia; Images of What is Ours – Paraguay (2009-2010); See it Our Way – Albania, Armenia, Lebanon, Romania, Pakistan (2010-11); Youth as Agents for Change – Direct Voices Russia and Bosnia Herzegovina (2009-2010);

 

 

Training workshops

A comprehensive introduction to designing and running participatory photography projects – 3 day training course

Upcoming Course Dates:

• 22-24th February 2012

Overview

The 3-day course provides a comprehensive introduction to understanding, designing, managing and facilitating a participatory photography project.  The course covers key aspects of participatory photography including practicalities, methodologies, ethics, participatory tools, facilitation and participatory frameworks.

Aimed at: anyone seeking to gain a thorough grounding in participation and photography. It is ideal for practitioners and professionals who want to set up a participatory project.

The course is suitable for a wide range of participants interested in social change and photography or digital media including: photographers, visual practitioners, voluntary sector and NGO staff, campaigners, statutory sector workers, and academics.

The course covers

• What is participatory photography?
• Participation and power
• Photography as a participatory medium
• Examples of participatory methodologies
• Workshop and project design
• Facilitation skills
• Ethics and informed consent
• Understanding and working with risk
• Creating a safe space
• Project practicalities
• Participatory editing
• Images and change

Course outcomes: By the end of the training you will have gained: new skills, knowledge, tools, confidence and resources for initiating and carrying out a participatory project.

RESOURCES

Methodology Series

Our range of practitioner guides and case studies offer valuable information, advice and best practice guidelines to those work with a range of groups using participatory photography.

The resources can also be accessed for free online, using the links below. (Please note that not all the resources provided on the CD-ROM can be accessed online.)

If you have used any of our resources and would like to comment on how it has fed into your work please contact info@photovoice.org

To help PhotoVoice continue to offer these resources free of charge to support the use of participatory photography by organisations and individuals working for positive social change, please consider making a donation to support our work.

Photography for Integration: Photography with young refugees (password: pvn3tw0rk1)

Change the Picture: Photography with vulnerable women (password: pvn3tw0rk2)

Therapeutic Photography: Photography as a tool for promoting well being

Sensory Photography: Photography for blind and partially sighted people

Interested in ‘exceptional’ photographs?

This is a special organisation and even if you cannot directly support the projects shown perhaps if you are a photographer you could provide the marginalised and unheard with a voice -or at least a lens for them to see the world and also a lens for others to see the world of the marginalised with a new viewpoint.

PHOTOVOICE 

Saxophone – what makes a player “great” – innovation, improvisation, inspiration!

I was mentioning to Mic that I was thinking of writing a post about great saxophone players. He immediately responded by saying -but what makes them great? I may not have thought enough about it but I started to try to sound knowledgeable. Well firstly, the instrument will make a difference to the sound, as well as the mouthpiece, type of reed and the player’s embouchure. Of course the technical mastery of the instrument including the ability to play in a range of keys both major and minor and various modes. The other players in a band will also make a difference -whether the percussionist drives the rhythm etc. However after all that is taken into consideration there are still other criteria, such as  - innovation, improvisation and feeling   as well as just pure unique ability and sometimes a touch of genius.

This post is just a taster of some of the great saxophone players…please comment if you have other suggested ‘greats’..

Coleman Hawkins (Prez)

Charlie 'Bird' Parker

Lester Young

A good start  -  viewing and listening to some greats is the following clip, Bird, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins

The Bird in good spirits

some more rare footage of Bird, this time with Dizzie

Coleman Hawkins -Indian Summer

Colemand Hawkins -Quintet South of France Blues

Coleman Hawkins – Stoned – live 1962

What better way to introduce John Coltrane with ‘So what’ with Miles Davis -1959

Miles and Trane

The Trane playing soprano sax…

defining a players style….   Tenor saxophonist, Coltrane is known for his huge dark tone with clear definition and body. He made the high registers look like child’s play and was known for his split-note multi-phonics. There is no denying his skill as demonstrated in the virtuoso performance of his difficult “Giant Steps”. Giant Steps is generally considered to have the most complex and difficult chord progression of any widely-played jazz composition.

Giant Steps -John Coltrane

Now try the Trane playing with Stan Getz -such different styles (live in Dusseldorf)

Stan Getz

Stan Getz

This consummate musician had an amazing technique and could play anything on saxophone. As one musician said, it’s as though the saxophone was a direct extension of his heart. (quoted from the – saxophone.com)

Vintage film of Count Basie orchestra featuring Lester Young (1938)

Lester Young and Billie Holiday

So who else should we include in the ‘Greats’:

Zoot Sims

Eric Dolphy

Dexter Gordon
Art Pepper

Pharoah Sanders
Paul Desmond
Wayne Shorter
Sonny Rollins
Benny Carter
Stanley Turrentine

any others?

Magnum photos – a new archive and some great photographers

Magnum photos  has a new archive. As one of its co-founders  Henri Cartier-Bresson  said , “Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.

(note other founders include Robert Capa, David “Chim” Seymour,George Rodger,William Vandivert,)

Robert Capa (himself)

by David 'Chim' Seymour

by George Rodger

by William Vandivert

Lets explore some of the gems within the Magnum family…. check out the Magnum blog

Some of the members of the Magnum family:

Ansell Adams

Dorothea Lange

Martin Parr

Eve Arnold

Dob McCullin

Sebastiao Salgado

And if you like to view online photo galleries – try the vids

swayzak – saints:

Magnum photographers

Leica and Magnum

and something about the photographic process:

and to finish,close to where we started a short vid onHenri Cartier Bresson (en francais)

If you are new to Magnum…there is much to enjoy

Carey Bell – blues harp player : celebrating a blues legend

While listening to one of Adam Gussow’s insightful harp lessons based on a Carey Bell recording, I was reminded of a talent that is not so well known. I thought I would bring together some examples of his playing.

From the American Folk Blues Festival 1983 with Louisiana Red and Jimmy Rogers on guitars:

Originally influenced by jazz players , so much so, that he would have liked to have learned to play the saxophone. Due to financial limitations he had to accept the ‘Mississippi saxophone’ or blues harp.

In 1956 Bell moved up to Chicago to try his luck and soon was drawn to the likes of Little Walter and Big Walter Horton. He was also influenced by Sonny Boy Williamson II. To make ends meet Bell developed his talent on bass guitar .

Bell played harmonica (harp) and bass for other blues musicians during the late 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s before embarking on a solo career. Besides his own albums, he recorded as an accompanist or duo artist with Earl Hooker, Robert Nighthawk, Lowell Fulson, Eddie Taylor, Louisiana Red and Jimmy Dawkins. He even played with Muddy Waters , Willie Dixon,Howlin Wolf and Earl Hooker.

                                                                                                                                                                ….and here he is playing bass

Here is a recording from 1964 on Maxwell Street with Bell playing with Robert Nighthawk (Cruisin in a cadillac)

Another from the American Folk Blues Festival of 1983 accompanying Louisiana Red (guitar/vocals) and with his friend and godfather Lovie Lee on piano.

And here is a great clip which shows Bell’s virtuosity and feeling on the harp -Easy to Love you. This is from the 1982 American Folk Blues Festival and recorded in Germany. He is accompanied on guitar by his son Lurrie Bell and notice the chromatic harmonica and the range of his playing.

Here is another great blues from 1981 – ‘A man and his blues’ -with Hubert Sumlin and Lurrie Bell on guitars. Again Carey gets a wide range of sounds out of his harmonica. Great interplay between guitar and harp.

Carey Bell and the sons of blues -American Folk Blues Festival (1982 Germany)  - apart from the sensitive and joyous harp playing check his relationship with guitar playing son Lurrie Bell.

When you feel confident with Carey’s style why not work on some harp of your own with a great lesson from the wonderful teacher, Adam Gussow:

Hubble Telescope – Astronomers Pin Down Galaxy Collision Rate

I am in awe when I view the night sky…possibly a childish feeling in that I still cannot comprehend the huge distances between those glowing specs of light.

As a photographers I am now in awe of the images that have been put together using data from telescopes such as Hubble. The latest images refer to ‘merging galaxies’ and the rates by which they collide.

 

The galaxy merger rate is one of the fundamental measures of galaxy evolution, yielding clues to how galaxies bulked up over time through encounters with other galaxies. And yet, a huge discrepancy exists over how often galaxies coalesced in the past. Earlier measurements of galaxies in deep-field surveys made by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope generated a broad range of results: anywhere from 5 percent to 25 percent of the galaxies were merging.

Some more amazing images:

 Merging Galaxies — 2.4 Billion Light-Years from Earth

 

 

Merging Galaxies — 6.2 Billion Light-Years from Earth

 

And if those images dont thrill you then try this one of Carina Nebula (mystic mountain) -released at the time of Hubble’s ‘ 20th birthday

 

and another stunning image of the tantalisingly named Tarantula Nebula

 

What next? Well in 2014 the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be launched as the successor to Hubble -

 

 

What I like about astronomy is the feeling of humility. When our egos get the better of us, as more species are listed as extinct, and we create more havoc and destruction on earth by new weapons’ technology we can look up at the sky and realise how insignificant we really are!

JOHN MARTYN – LIVE!

While running a folk and blues music club in London I booked John in 1971. He was mesmerizing with a great persnality. His records are wonderful-but you really had to see him live. His personality and playing skills just demanded live performances. I have listed a sample, mainly from the 1970′s, but a few more recent as well. Enjoy.

Here he is playing the wonderful ‘May you never‘ in live 1973

From his website

“Every record I’ve made – bad, good, or indifferent – is totally autobiographical. I can look back when I hear a record and recall exactly what was going on. That’s how I write. That’s the only way I can write ! Some people keep diaries, I make records.”

Iain David McGeachy was born on the 11th September 1948, the son of two opera singers who divorced when he was five years old. John, as he would later call himself, moved to Glasgow and was brought up by his grandmother. John started to learn how to play the guitar at the age of fifteen being tutored by Hamish Imlach.

In 1973 with Danny Thompson – Make no mistake

His uniqueness comes from both his slurred singing style  , the timbre of which has been said to ‘ resemble a tenor saxophone’  and his guitar style which when amplified though fuzzbox and echoplex provides a dreamy backdrop to his own distinctive lyrics.

In 1973 and again with Danny Thompson, his good friend –   Couldn’t love you more

On Whistle Test  1975 – Discover the Lover

As Davy Graham was an important influence on John, it is understandable why he was described (in The Times) as “an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues”.

In 1977 on whistle test with Danny Thompson again and Gaspar Lawal -“One World”

and it is worth comparing a later version with David Gilmour live at the Shaw theatre

Also in 1977 -Spencer the Rover

And in 1978 -I’d rather be the devil

1978 -Small Hours -live from Reading Unversity

One of my (many) favourites -Bless the Weather  -live at Collegiate Theatre London (1978)

1978  - One day without you

Quite a year 1978 -this is John showing off the echoplex again – Outside In

Still going strong in 2007 and with new collaborators  -May you never with Danny Thompson and Kathy Mattea

John died at the age of 60 in January 2009.

For much of his career, Martyn enjoyed a lifestyle of typical rock’n'roll excess and later struggled with alcoholism. He once told Q Magazine: “If I could control myself more, I think the music would be much less interesting. I’d probably be a great deal richer but I’d have had far less fun and I’d be making really dull music.” In 2003 his right leg was partially amputated after a large cyst under his knee burst, leading him to spend his latter years in a wheelchair.

John Martyn was awarded an OBE in the 2009 New Year honours list.

Throughout his life he kept searching for new musical forms in which to express essential themes: love, loneliness, and what it means to be alive.

He is much missed.

biographical tributes:

When I was wondering who to book for the blues club I was sent this record……enough said…I booked him.

Rollin’ and Tumblin – a blues classic

(reference for much of the text is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollin’_and_Tumblin’)

“Rollin’ and Tumblin’” is a blues song that has been recorded hundreds of times by various artists.Considered as traditional, it has been recorded with many different lyrics and titles. Authorship is most often attributed to Hambone Willie Newbern or McKinley Morganfield (aka Muddy Waters), but Gus Cannon’s Jug Band may also lay a claim.

Rollin_and_Tumblin_Hambone_Willie_Newbern_2.mp3

However, although the rhythm is similar the words certainly vary  - watch some of the more recent versions below and enjoy the typical improvised lyrics and variations on the instrument breaks. Sometimes even the title has been changed e.g. Robert Johnson’s ”If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day”

 

 

 

 

Baby Face Leroy did a cover (note the reference to the writer -copyright?)

 

 

And Eric Clapton’s version from his Crossroads guitar festival

Try this version by Muddy Waters (1950)

The song has also been recorded by :
Sonny Boy Williamson I, 1938
Elmore James, 1960
Cream, 1966
Canned Heat, 1967
Bonnie Raitt, 1972
Johnny Winter, 1968
Eric Clapton, 1992
Jeff Beck, 2001
Bob Dylan, 2006
Jenni Muldaur, 2007
Cyndi Lauper, 2010
R.L. Burnside, various years

and here is R.L. Burnside

and the great Elmore James

and a Johnny Winter acoustic version (after Robert Johnson)

Canned Heat had a go at this song too:

and the Cream’s version with Jack Bruce on harp

and quite a different version from Imogen Heap and Jeff Beck -live at Ronnie Scotts

and Bonnie Rait

and an even more recent and very different version fro Imelda May, moving well away from more traditional versions:

But lets get back to basics with a version by Eddy one string Jones (the single string taking us right back to African roots)