I've just stumbled upon the name of Jimmy Reed in Adam's "Second 10 all time" list. He is there along with Sugar Blue, Kim Wilson, Carey Bell and the like.
I'm not discussing the list here, or whether Jimmy Reed is a good musician or not (IMO he is, and a great songwriter). But I am very much interested in your appreciation on his harp playing.
As far as my listening experience goes (it boils down to 2 cds and some youtube vids), I find his harp playing rather pedestrian.
I've mentioned Buster Brown in an earlier thread, and I find their approach and use of the instrument very similar (same period ; slightly different music). Mainly, it's used as a response instrument, not for expanding or developping the phrases.
Any perpective (style, influence...) and listening suggestion welcome.
The big thing about his playing isn;t the licks per second, but how he uses space and playing as few notes as necessary and a lot of players have a difficult time with that, plus typical with black music, it's THE GROOVE that does the driving and NOT the licks, which is more white music
During the 50's and 60's, he had MORE crossover hits on the charts than BB King ever did (crossing over from the R&B charts to the white top 40 charts). ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Jimmy Reed recorded some of the most tasteful harmonica playing in the history of recorded music. Eddie Taylor and Earl Phillips kept time like a Rolex watch. Jimmy Reeds vocals and playing floated on top of a bed a pure groove like a ship on the ocean.
His harp playing may never have been technically state of the art, but his execution was damn near perfect. He's hugely influential.
Maybe you need to listen to more of his music to get it. It's possible that you'll never get it, but you deserve to be commended for trying.
Jimmy Reed really was Mr Groove. He could play the simplest shuffle rhythm and make it sound so beautiful. So many people fail miserably when they try to imitate him, simply because they can't feel the groove.
Joe - I love that line "Eddie Taylor and Earl Phillips kept time like a Rolex watch".
Yes,he's the epitome of "less is more" school. I remember in Tony Glover's book as describing him as laconic(I had to look it up). Laconic is a good description of him.
I am discovering. Jimmy Reed's music is obviously not instrument driven. He doesn't use the heavy classic dialect of the walters and sonnys, and goes with short melodic phrases (no chugging or hard style TBing as far as I know) used sparsely. And there's something of sheer elegance about it.
Tuckster, thanks for the word "laconic" (even if it's not yours).
Edit : Which musician, or more specifically harp players, would you name as having been influenced by Jimmy Reed ?
Last Edited by on Jun 14, 2010 12:12 PM
Just about everyone who recorded on the Excello label, most especially Slim Harpo.
Black music as a general rule is largely more groove driven than melodically driven, even tho there are tons of black music that has amazing melodic concepts, the bottom line is the groove, be it hip hop, soul, gospel, blues, reggae, you name it from Jimmy Reed to James Brown and more and that is an area too often white musicians clearly don't often understand particularly well.
The sparse way of playing is more like a vocalist and outside of rhythmic drive AKA groove, the way black music has usually used instruments has always been more along the lines of the human voice, and the bending of notes on guitars or harmonicas or use of a slide on a guitar is to better mimic the way the voice is.
A band or musician with a great groove happening and far less emphasis on soloing is often going to go over better with audiences, especially if they want to dance than someone just throwing out non stop licks with no underlying sense of groove happening. Music, regardless of genre, when there's a groove happening (and with that, the time HAS to be on the money 24/7/365), can be easily danced to, and sometimes is referred to as "people music" and music with just non stop soloing with no underlying sense of groove happening just ain't gonna come across well to an audience unless the entire audience is made up entirely of musicians and so here's where the term "musician music" fits to a T. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
James Cotton's playing on the high notes traces directly back to Jimmy Reed. But I'd like to hear from others on this. I think the OP has asked a fair question and I'd like to hear from others. Jimmy Reed is certainly a minimalist. My feeling is that he distilled and purified a certain kind of first-position high note playing from everything that had come before him. Obviously there were quite a few guys back in the 20s and 30s playing all kinds of stuff up on the high end.....
If I only could take 3 harp albums to a desert island, they would be ones by jimmy reed, slim harpo, sonny boy II. Anybody that is 1/2 way decent on a harp can blow a million notes all day long. To pick the right ones, at the right time, that fit the groove, use killer dynamics, and the fit the mood, makes these three kings IMO. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Jimmy Reed is easily in my top 20. His grooves pull you in and the rest is icing on the cake. His stuff is great listening if you are just learning high end first position harmonica blues.
I can hear his influence in people like Mitch Kashmar and Paul Lamb. Great stuff!
