Here's a couple of tunes I did on a session with a former Boston area band called Boston Blues Express, which is far from the more traditional blues I usually do and this is more of what you can call Blues/Rock.
The personnel here is myself on harmonica, Dan Keene on guitar, Kenny Keene on electric bass and Ralph "Tuffy" Kimble on drums. The grooves are played very slightly ahead of the beat rather than the more traditional way of playing behind the beat.
On both tunes, I'm using a JT30 with an MC-151 crystal cartridge, Boss DD-3 digital delay into a 1995 Fender Pro Junior (using all the stock tube numbers, except that the pre amp tubes are NOS long plate GE-12AX7's from the late 50's and the power tubes are mid 60's NOS GE-EL84's).
This first one has Dan Keene on vocals and I've set up the digital delay for more of a rockabilly slap back feel. I don't recall off the top of my head at this moment who's playing organ on this one.
The second one has Ralph "Tuffy" Kimble taking the vocals here on a cover of Luther "Georgia Boy" Johnson's Woman Don't Lie.
---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
@harmonicanick -- When you're hired to do a session, from a pro's standpoint, it is NOT your job to dictate anything about getting solos or not, how long they are because thinking like that says flat out jam hack and a totally unprofessional attitude is happening here and if you ever want to do other sessions, that will tend to put you on a big time s**t list you certainly DO NOT want to be on.
As a pro, and when you're essentially doing a session as a hired gun, it is YOU who has to adjust to whatever the band wants and/or needs and it is NOT their job to adjust to you or anything else and thing like the latter says to those who hire you that stroking your ego comes before ANYTHING and trust me, that is NOT a reputation you want.
I've done a few gigs where there was little or even no soloing done at all, so doing things where no solo is involved I'm perfectly comfortable with and bitching about not getting a solo in any song on any session is just a totally wrong headed attitude to take. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
As a hired gun were asked to play that repeated riff over the entirety of the 2nd tune? Seemed an inappropriate choice, IMHO. I have enjoyed ALL of BBQ Bob’s posts—either his excellent, generous (if tough) advice or links to his own music or the music of others, so I always check out his contributions to this forum…but...if you’re askin’…that last one didn’t work for me. Why? The solo rocked, but playing that harp riff doubling (or so very close to) what the bass was doing throughout the song, combined with (as you explained) the slightly ahead of the beat playing…. was a bit of a groove killer for me and highly uncharacteristic of the BBQ Bob approach that I have heard and admired. It seemed unfunky to me and I assume the band asked you to play that way. Am I wrong? If so, please explain what I'm missing. Maybe it was the mix as well. First song rocked. Great harp tone throughout.
@tomaxe -- What I did was exactly what THEY wanted rather than what I wanted. As a hired gun here, they're the boss. In this case, they wanted an extremely RHYTHMIC approach rather than a melodic approach and on some Albert King recordings, as an example, the horns are at times a more rhythmic approach, and since this was what they wanted, that's how I approached it. Remember, this is not a traditional approach here and the traditional approach is going to sound really out of place with these guys and if you're used to only a traditional approach, than it's obvious this may not exactly float your boat at all and since the non traditional approach was what was required of me, that's what they got from me.
Doubling the bass line isn't exactly a new rock, funk, or more modern approach at all. If you listen, as an example, to the Guitar Slim original version of The Things That I Used To Do, the horns are doubling the bass line and that recording was done back in 1954.
If I did just non stop riffing to 'comp on that tune, there's no doubt in my mind that would mess up the groove and feel far worse than playing the much more rhythmic bass line as I did here.
BTW, I did do a gig with them and they also had a sax player on the gig and both the sax player and myself did that exact same thing and worked quite well with the groove. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by barbequebob on Jul 16, 2015 12:59 PM
@barbequebob: Thanks for the explanation. I just listened to the Luther Johnson original on YouTube and to my surprise—the harp player is pretty much doing what you did through the entire song! Kind of like a rhythmic horn player. The drummer seems a little looser and slippery-er though, more like a trance blues thing. It's interesting. But I now see what you are saying. Yes, playing riffs throughout certainly would not have worked. I realize that doubling the bass is not a new or old, or bad or good thing...just in this song my initial reaction would be to lay out on occasion...like it needed some space to let the funk through. Perhaps some others can contribute their thoughts. But that's what they wanted you to play....and you did it well.
Fair enough Bob, still liked to have heard more of your soloing ability, and I mean that as a compliment please, not a statement regarding your professionalism.
Last Edited by harmonicanick on Jul 16, 2015 2:52 PM
I like it. Modern, funky, cool and tight! And just think folks, Bob was playing thru an amp with EL84's. OMG, it can't be! LOL Nice job Bob. Thanks ...BN
@Barley Nectar -- Yep, a 1995 Pro Junior that was one of the last ones using the Eminence blue painted alnico magnet speaker that was also used on the irst Bassman reisues, the early 4-10 Blues Devilles (my favorite version of that amp), and the early Vibro King amps. Those EL-84's aren't the ones the amp came with, which were Chinese tubes, but NOS GE's, which I personally love and the only ones better are the NOS Mullards or NOS Tung Sols (Those two have now both been reissued). It all comes down to the player, NOT the amp.
@tomaxe -- I listen to TONS of horn players, actually far more horn players than harp players and many of the best I've run into over the years have all done the same thing rather than just listen to harp alone, and that's something EVERY harp player needs to do. I listen to tons of jump blues and big band jazz horns, but I also listen to those old black funk and soul horn players as well and for Woman Don't Lie, that's actually quite a typical thing and even on James Brown stuff, you hear this at times, which is basically using horns as a percussion instrument. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
@bbq, i really liked the tone and the playing. What do you look for tonewise when you set up your delay pedal when you're playing more traditional blues?
Last Edited by blueswannabe on Jul 19, 2015 7:21 PM
@blueswannabe -- Most of the time with delay pedals, I set it for a longer delay time with few to almost no repeats at all to get more of a "faux-reverb" sound, tho it really doesn't replace the sound of a true reverb unit, and on Woman Don't Lie, that the setting, overall. One thing tho, with both reverb and delay pedals, don't get married to any one setting because room acoustics vary QUITE A BIT and what's right on one room/stage can be too little or way too much in another. I haven't used that Boss DD-3 because there's still too much emphasis on the highs which means a loss of warmth for my ears and during the 90's a number of players often had them do a mod that standard on LW pedals so that by properly matching the true impedance of the microphone going into it, there's no loss of warmth and eliminates some of the noise problems that one runs into with the DD-3. If you're in a recording studio, it's a highly controlled environment and with Boss pedals, you absolutely HAVE to use the CORRECT AC adapter because in the recording process, those studio mikes are WAY more sensitive to noise problems you normally may not hear and with Boss pedals that are digital, you HAVE to use the PSA-120 adapter and with analog pedals, the ASA-120 or risk some serious noise problems, especially when you're in a recording studio because those things stick out like a sore thumb. From the tone side overall, the delay pedal doesn't have to do at all with it unless you'e doing a comparison between a digital delay, which sometimes gets too pristine and trebly, and an analog delay, which tends to be darker, warmer, and much more natural than a digital delay.
@sonny2 -- Thank you, and that's how REAL pros do things and when you're the hired gun doing a session, it's not just playing skills that are important, but in addition, good LISTENING skills are equally important. Before I set foot in the studio with them, they made me a tape of the tunes they wanted me to be on and told me to a T, EXACTLY what they're looking for as well as what they did NOT want on it, which makes life easier and when in a recording studio, time is money and you want to avoid doing more than one or two takes possible and I make it a point to ask who ever I'm gonna be recording with exactly what they want as well as what they do not want and sometimes I may have as many as 6 different scenerios to approach it and go thru them all first before anything gets recorded because studio time isn't just the cost recording, as there's also seperate costs like editing, mixing, and mastering and those things get very expense in freaking hurry so everything has to be laser focused and not a single bit of time can ever be wasted.
@Barley Nectar -- I'm sure you look at the groove of Woman Don't Lie, as very modern, but on this groove, modern or not, it isn't quite a true blues groove because the groove is played slightly ahead of the beat and the original version done by the late Luther Georgia Boy Johnson, which was recorded around the late 60's/early 70's, just after he left Muddy Waters and became based out of Boston until he died of cancer in 1975, is still much bluesier than this because the way Luther did it, even if you consider it modern, is still much more authentically bluesy because Luther's playing the groove BEHIND the beat and I saw him several times before he passed away and he and every musician he ever hired NEVER played ahead of the beat at all. On the gear side of things, one of the all time best amps I ever played thru, a Gibson GA-79RVT uses 4-EL-84's and the original equipment manufacturer of the tubes Gibson used were made by Tung Sol and I've hear rumors that this particular Gibson amp was the one Cotton used on a session that had some of my favorite recorded moments of him, with some appearing on Otis Spann's Testament label LP Otis Spann's Chicago Blues on Johnny Young's Arhoolie LP Johnny Young Chicago Blues Band.
I normally play behind the beat, but because even tho these guys were playing ahead of the beat, I had no problem adjusting to playing that way because everyone's time overall was pretty damned good and too often people think playing ahead or behind the beat means that your time sucks, and I know for a fact that not a single word of that is true. However, in order to recognize this as well as to be able to play and adjust to it, you gotta do something that the average non pro harp player is often of being too damned lazy to work on getting their time together, which, unlike gear, is an absolutely ESSENTIAL part of your skill set. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by barbequebob on Jul 20, 2015 12:50 PM
