kudzurunner
5170 posts
Dec 05, 2014
3:49 PM
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....and it's not harmonica.
There's some magic in this performance, and also some clams (missed notes), and the magic of the blues is that the bad notes mean nothing--in fact, they help you, they're the ground from which you launch--when you know how to work with them.
Which is a good life lesson, actually.
This is the Albert Collins that I remember from the late 1980s. Watch the first 13 minutes. Collins doesn't even take the stage until halfway through that, so feel free to skip ahead to the 7:00 point. I love the two-chord vamp they're working between 8:00 and 13:00. Heck, I love the melody, which is a four-note guitar riff, tonic to flat seventh twice. Simple stuff. But Collins is one of the greats because of what he does with the simple stuff.
I'll say one more thing: I don't know a single harmonica player, living or dead, who creates what Collins creates here in this two-chord vamp. (Please feel free to rebut me by posting great harp players working a two-chord vamp of this sort.) There's way too much jive, chug, and wail, in what we do, and not enough epic attack-with-space-to-breathe. Which means that there's work to be done, boys.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Dec 05, 2014 3:59 PM
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