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, 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.”

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 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

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  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

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:

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!

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’” 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)