Living Blues magazine has recently announced the winners of its Living Blues Awards.
Lazy Lester was named Most Outstanding Musician (harmonica) and Bob Corritore won the same category in the Reader's Poll.
Discuss.
Edited to add: These prizes are not, in the main, given for lifetime achievement, but for achievement in the past year and, to some extent, for achievement over a longer period of time that notably culminates in the past year: i.e., an album or the equivalent.
Last Edited by on Sep 10, 2012 4:21 AM
I saw Lazy Lester with the Mark Hummell Blues Blow-Out last year. In a line up of great harmonica players he was the most entertaining. It lends itself a little to the Geneva Red discussion about entertainment skill versus musical skill. I'm not sure he was the "most oustanding musician" on the stage, but he was great fun to listen to both when he spoke and played.
First of all, this is from a Blues magazine. Which means the people they consider are going to be limited to Blues players. There are two awards. Reader's choice and Critic's choice. One easy way to influence the reader's choice is to subscribe to Living Blues and vote.
It's nice to see Lester get some recognition. He's a guy with a deep Blues pedigree. He's written some great songs. He's a fine player. He's been very influential and is one of the last surviving links to the post war period. I have no issue with Lester being recognized. It's nice to see it happen before he passes away. Maybe, this will put some money in his pocket. He isn't likely getting rich from royalties.
Bob Corritore is a solid player. He's been on some fine Blues recordings in the past 12 months. He has also covered quite a bit of ground in the past 12 months. Additionally, he does some cool stuff for the blues community with his ownership of the Rhythm Room and his record production.
I just finished a three day mini-tour with Bob Corritore (along with Mitch Kashmar & LIl Ronnie)...
Aside from being a great guy, BOB is dripping with 1950's Chicago Blues tone, licks and attitude.. I would be hard pressed to find a better sideman for that genre... He really knocked me out with his ensemble playing, especially his work behind a singer...
SIDE NOTE: Mitch sounded great as well... REally hope someone got some video.. If so, I will try to upload///
I spent time with Mitch recently-great player,and truly one of the nicest people I have met in a while.
I saw Lester at Amandas Rollercoaster for the first time-he just draws you in with his enthusiasm and generosity.
Bob went out of his way to congratulate me on my playing,and invited me back to play The Rhythm Room anytime I like. He is a monster player,and also very outgoing.
So,congratulations to Bob and Lester!!
Last Edited by on Sep 10, 2012 5:06 PM
Kurt- Caught you guys in Raleigh Saturday night. It was a great show! I was at Amanda's Rollercoaster as well. Lazy Lester spent about 3 hours with me and a couple of other players one afternoon, just telling stories and jamming. He is a really friendly guy. He has written some classic songs. His playing style is sparse and melodic. He says that a lot of the stuff that many harp players play "fits the music like a saddle on a pig." Bob Corritore helped to make Amanda's Rollercoaster possible by providing the venue. He has recorded with a lot of the greats. He also is not a "showy" player, but as Kurt says, his playing is solid, soulful, tasty and toneful. He looks like he loves what he does, and he really seems to enjoy the playing of all of the other harp players and other musicians around. I know that this isn't what Adam's question is getting at...but I don't often get a chance to brag on "brushes with greatness," so, there it is.
Bob is also responsible for getting two of my favorite harp players recorded, Little Willie Anderson and Big Leon Brooks. Those two guys were seriously bad ass and Bob had the foresight to record them.
I've only seen Lazy Lester live once--Satan & Adam opened for him at Manny's Car Wash in NYC in the mid-1990s--and I wasn't impressed. But I've learned never to judge somebody by one night. Still, my assumption was that he got this award because he did something of note in the past year. Did he? Please supply details, if so. Maybe he has a new album that we all need to know about.
Bob's a very congenial, very funny guy who does a thousand things; he's played and recorded with seemingly everybody who is anybody. I can't believe there's another living blues harmonica player his age with a CV anywhere near the length of his. I heard a great cut on Bluesville recently by either Mud Morganfield or Big Bill Morganfield, and the harp solo was stellar--dead-centered in that South Side Chicago part of the blues tradition, but with some original touches that made my ears sit up and take notice. Big sound, too. I didn't know who it was, but I waited until the end of the cut, and the DJ identified the player as Bob.
Bob seems like a guy who has created a body of work that is now, finally, getting him this sort of award. Last year, as I remember, he won a BMA for his blues harmonica playing; this year it's a Living Blues reader's choice award. The LB awards, both critic's choice and readers choice, generally go to African American artists, in part because the magazines explicitly states on its masthead that it's "the journal of the African American blues tradition." So it's a remarkable achievement for Bob to have won an award there.
Neither Lazy Lester nor Bob Corritore has been discussed much here; I thought they deserved to be after this set of awards, which is why I started the thread and said "discuss."
Mitch Kashmar is a true badass as a player. If somebody asked me to name my top three favorite living blues players, he'd be on that short list. He makes me want to get a drink, pull up a chair, and watch him go.
Last Edited by on Sep 11, 2012 9:56 AM
I couldn't tell you what Lester has been up to this past year. He lives about two hours away from me. He's been playing some, but I haven't seen him in a while. I think he will be featured on some of Mark Hummel's Harmonica Blowouts later this year and early next year.
While it is a notable achievement, the Living Blues readers do not tend to pick African American artists. Here is the list:
Living Blues Reader's Choice Award Winners (Harmonica)
1997 - William Clarke 1998 - Junior Wells 1999 - Carey Bell 2000 - James Cotton 2001 - Snooky Pryor 2002 - Snooky Pryor & Wallace Coleman (tie) 2003 - Snooky Pryor 2004 - Charlie Musselwhite 2005 - Same Myers 2006 - Charlie Musselwhite 2007 - Charlie Musselwhite 2008 - Charlie Musselwhite 2009 - Charlie Musselwhite 2010 - Charlie Musselwhite 2011 - None listed 2012 - Bob Corritore
Living Blues is very Afro Centric in their blues coverage and they are pretty much up front about it. They'll laud white blues players if the talent just can't be ignored. I think Adam just might be the first white guy that graced the cover of the magazine. I love Lazy Lester, but I don't believe that he put anything on the table last year that couldn't be topped by at least a half dozen blues harp releases, so it just couldn't have been based on anything other than his LEGACY. Which is substantial.
Bob Corritore has been everywhere, backing everyone and deserves to top both polls. ---------- Ricky B http://www.bushdogblues.blogspot.com RIVER BOTTOM BLUES--crime novel for blues fans available at Amazon/B&N and my blog THE DEVIL'S BLUES--coming Fall of 2012
Hi all, I spent last weekend at the Harvest blues festival in Monaghan, Ireland (www.harvestblues.com). Lazy Lester was on the bill, he played an hour long set each evening before the main stage acts started. I only managed to get there early enough to see him on the saturday but he was great, I got a few minutes to talk to him and sign a few CDs and get a photo at the end.
the following afternoon I walked into a bar and who is enjoying a pint at the bar but Lester himself, he had a laugh and a chat with anyone who took the time to say hello so I had another chance for a few minutes to chat, he told me that he had been touring the UK and Europe for the last few months and when he gets back to the US he may be doing some movie work with Willie Nelson. a very nice friendly old guy and I don't think he stopped laughing the whole time I seen him, maybe its just his time for recognititon.. ---------- My granddad gave me some sound advice on his deathbed. "It's worth spending money on good speakers," he told me.
Frank, thanks for posting that clip. I like what Lester is doing here. He's got some chops! He was probably just drunk or tired the night I saw him, many years ago. He's sounding good here.
@bdr: Thanks for the front-line report! This forum never ceases to amaze me.
Last Edited by on Sep 12, 2012 5:54 AM
I should have also said that Terry Harmonica Bean played some acoustic sets at the festival too. another highlight for me was Terry and Dave Thomas played a couple of numbers backed by the Giles Robson & the dirty aces band. I chatted with Dave later and he told me that He, Terry and Lester collaborated on an album that he will be releasing sometime soon...however, there was some alcohol involved and my remembory may not be 100%accurate on those details. regards Bdr ---------- My granddad gave me some sound advice on his deathbed. "It's worth spending money on good speakers," he told me.
Place dropping, I was down in Monaghan on the Sunday night, Giles Robson and the dirty aces were fantastic, a fabulous rhythm section with great vocals and harp from Giles, Terry Harmonica Bean joined them at the start of their second set, a very charismatic blues man, thats my tuppence worth
