To me this swings, drags, and just plain grooves. I love Jimmy Reed. 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
Very few people that play this kind of stuff are left anymore. When I first started listening to Blues in Chicago, you could hear this kind of stuff seven nights a week and I did. Those were the good old days.
we do some stuff similar. there was only the one Jimmy Reed and he sure had more than 1 groove. most people take him less than seriously, but there he was for all those years, writing, playing, publishing, and making a good living from this stuff. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
Most of the people that don't take this kind of music seriously are the people who can't play it well.
It seems simple, but getting all the players to lock into the groove and get the feeling the Jimmy Reed, Eddie Taylor and Earl Phillips had is getting rarer and rarer every day. It is simple music. When not done right, the flaws are pretty obvious.
The songs are well written. The vocals fit the material. He wraps the vocals into the groove on damn near every tune. The guitarists are always locked into the drummer. The guitarist play the right stuff and execute flawlessly. The harp playing is simple. Everything just fits right.
Out of hundreds of tunes, he recorded, I can't think of a Jimmy Reed tune that's a turd. People are still playing his music sixty years later. That says something.
Most players can't follow a slowed down backbeat, behind the beat singers, and guys that don't follow traditional lock step chord changes and tempos. When I get onstage with most any band I feel like they have a pole in my back wanting me to speed up and I keep trying to slow it down. I am talking fast swinging beats as well as slow ones. For this reason I rarely jam anymore. It just isn't any fun to play in a completely predictable way. The funny thing is most of these guys will tell you right off they learned that jimmy reed stuff years ago and have since moved on to more complex music. For me complex music is music that drags more than pushes. Anybody can play a million notes but to pick out the few that fit and leave space is much more challenging to me thus I would have loved to been in Jimmy Reeds Band! I learned to let my instruments follow my voice. That is another thing most musicians can't do and JR did it full time. Music in general is to stiff for my tastes. 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
We agree. Few can play that way. When you find people that can do it, its a real treat to play with those people. When you find them, few musical experiences feel better.
I will add most who call themselves blues players can't play this way. It is all tick tock push with most players today. Most bands that do the JR stuff butcher it with either being so far off base or so on base it is sterile. They miss the point. This kind of music is organic to the player. Merle Haggard is a guy that does the JR thing his own way. Here is one I did inspired by jimmy reed tonight. It has a little story in it about when one of my old drummers, jimmy carl black, did a tour with JR in teh mid 60's. Also the first pro musician I played was wilbert harrison. He had a huge hit with kansas city in the late 50's and with lets work together as a 1 man band. Wilbert had a JR vibe too. Between him, living with louisiana red, getting to play with lightning hopkins, I was blessed to be around guys that dragged the beat and messed with times not on purpose like most players do today, but because that is way the music came out of them naturally. It seems as the unschooled old guys are dying off this stuff does too? Are too many schooled lessons ruining this side of the art or is it just the way the of the times? Walter a seldom heard jimmy reed story
here is one by wilbert harrison. Same feel to me as JR. I can't believe this guy picked me up as I blew my harp on a street corner.
---------- 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
Many moons ago Rick Beal said you sounded like Jimmy Reed in lots of your music, i googled up JR nd have been hooked ever since, thanks to the internet.
thanks guys. This simple stuff is my natural way to play. I can fake the on the beat, always pushing the beat stuff but a real player can see that is not me. Most players thing dragging the beat means slow songs. They can't feel that in a swinging song but for a player that drags everything it has that feel to it from ripping to dripping. The thing is to find your natural groove and let it develop instead of forcing the issue by trying to define what your natural groove is. I see most players wanting to fit in so bad they try to do what is currently being accepted by the masses in the genere they play. Finding your own groove will lead to having a readily identifiable sound that requires no thinking on your part. This comes via letting music come out without thought and not being concerned with anything but letting it come out like it wants. 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's long been a favorite as an example of less is more alone. Unlike the way you often hear many people play, he lets to groove do the driving and his use of space is an important lesson to learn.
A number of his recordings have 3 different guitar players on them, each doing a totally different, yet simple rhythm parts that never step all over each other but work well.
A big part of his sound was also guitarist Eddie Taylor, one of the most underrated and far too underappreciated blues musicians ever.
Too bad during his lifetime that he aggravated his problem with epilepsy with drinking. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
