The Best Butterfield Band other than the first album or so. ---------- I'm out of the Biz for a while till I get over my burnout. You can try HarveyHarp or arzajac, or just look the page nacoran put together under Forum Search. .
Thanks Ted! What a killer version of this piece! Even though Butterfield never seemed to play a song exactly the same way twice, every recording was a masterpiece!
When I bought that album (and the other Better Days LP) I was gutted after listening to the Butterfield Blues Band LP so much and then hearing this 70's hippy stuff!!!! But "Too Many Drivers" (to me) was it's saving grace and as it turns out one of the great blues harmonica covers, I loved it! Although I do have a soft spot for the song "Small Town Talk" as it reminds of a woman late 80's early 90's....that's the blues! ----------
"Those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do"
Butterfield is the best of the best, in my opinion. Better Days had an fabulous first album and a fine, if not as focused second effort, "It All Comes Back". It was a nice move for Butterfield, a change of pace just as what was then the white blues boom had turned into a caricature of itself with countless bands highlighting an unlimited number of Clapton and Hendrix wannabes. The band, featuring Geoff Muldare on keyboards and vocals, Amos Garrett on guitar, Rod Hicks on bass --had a relaxed but funky grasp of American music idioms, from blues, rhythm and blues, New Orleans, gospel , but it all came down to the blues and funk of it all. Muldaur provided a fine second voice to the vocal duties, Butterfield's own singing and playing were never finer in his career. This band doesn't get enough credit.
I think when you're listening to Butterfield play this kind of stuff, you have to ask yourself who else was playing like this back then. One thing that makes somebody influential is that a whole lot of people come after them who incorporate and work out variations of their inspired discoveries. Jason and Rob Paparozzi both have some Butterfield in their playing--Rob more than Jason--and so at a certain point, to our modern ears, what's going on here may not sound quite as revolutionary as it did back then.
That's why you have to say: How did this sound to people back then? Who else was making the market for blues harmonica? Cotton sure was; so was Magic Dick. Big Walter. Stevie Wonder. So how to you find an original style when those other styles are dominating the airwaves?
I hear Butterfield working inward in this solo, exploring some of the fine points. Nothing in this solo impresses me like the stuff he did on the Woodstock album--especially that solo on "Going Down to Main Street," which remains a benchmark in my own little blues harp universe. Maybe the fact that he was playing with Muddy chastened him a bit, made him bring his best and most disciplined game. Here's what's key: He plays NOTHING like Little Walter, or any of Muddy's other great harp guys, here:
But that's why it's important to share this stuff. Great players are working on different things at different moments, and sometimes it's the gigs where they're pushing hard in some exploratory direction that lay the groundwork for the great studio session.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Sep 02, 2015 8:58 PM
While I In No Way would want to disallow Jinx his opinion here -- it´s after all a debating forum, and this "harmonica community" shit and one big happy family where we all think alike is extremely boring --, it would be interesting to see it developed.
Do you dislike the genre ("modern blues") in general, or is it Paul B´s treatment of it in particular? If so, do you find him coming up short in the technique department, or is he over-developed? (IIRC you are one of the very few here who remain cold before Jason Ricci´s playing, which is a sort of lèse-majesté, but in its way refreshing.)
Or is it that "all this has been said before"? Both the music and the comments?
No obligation to reply, of course, but still, I´d be interested. (I´m partial to Butterfield myself, but rather indifferent to, say James Cotton, and quite a few other harmonica heroes who are regularly thrown in here for accolades, and I find I can live with that, so feel free to give him your worst. People who like "everything" generally don´t like anything.)
I'm with JInx on this one. That particular track is a snoozer. It just doesn't keep my interest. Now the Muddy track...Oh thank you so much Adam! I had never heard this. Love the way the harp, accordian and piano sound together.
Ted I'm with you. The Butterfield phrasing, tone and emotion are tops and the biggest influence in Modern Blues. I saw him several time live so good. ----------
Butterfield was a lot more than just a flashy soloist; his best improvisations are compositions in themselves, the work of a true master no less than Louie Armstrong or Miles Davis. More than that and often overlooked, though, was that he expanded the role of the harp in the blues and rock in a band. His had the harp work with the band, with Broke My Baby's Heart being a prime example. Playing unison at the head, short fills and riffs in select spaces, a beautifully realized solo that compliments the Amos Garrett guitar solo (wonderfully played as well) and which characterizes an inner-dialogue the lyrics speak of. And , as Geoff Muldaur begins the last verse and chorus, Butterfield plays behind him, not just filling in pauses, but continuously, subdued, creating counterpoint with Muldaur's soulful singing, in the groove, underscoring lyric, complimenting guitar and keyboard, bouncing off the rhythms on, ahead and behind the beat with ease and finesse. Butterfield was more than a flashy soloist. He made us think harder about how this instrument can be used. We are talking about someone who had complete mastery over his technique and had the ability to bring his ideas to being at ease, and who challenged himself with what he could play. This track, Number Nine, from the Butterfield Blues Band Live album, demonstrates how, in my view, Paul B could made his work with a jazz/funk/blues framework. His solo is full throttle Butterfield, full of the swoops, loops and snarling, whiplash descending glissandos, the 1 and 2 note draw and blow springboard sense of time, the swimming triplets, always on the beat, and, beautifully playing against the horns for added tension. ---------- Ted Burke tburke4@san.rr.com
Last Edited by ted burke on Sep 03, 2015 1:42 PM
You know I used to dismiss him as some white guy riding the train during the blues revival of the mid early sixties at which time I was about 15 or 16 years old and completely crushed by Little Walter, Big Walter and Sonny Boy II. The older I get the the longer his shadow grows. He did more with 7 holes than anyone back then. Original talent, and that is rare.
Live album (and example) posted by Ted was the one double record set that blew the top of my head off when just starting out....not just Butterfield's playing (and I love the solo stuff when he is just playing alone), but the sound of the band. As tight as the old units that James Cotton used in his earlier days. ---------- The Iceman
This thread is making me realize just how much I didn't know about the totality of Butterfield's recordings. I came across this video. Do yourself a favor: listen to "Born in Chicago." It starts at the 11:25 point. If you think you know the song from the studio version---ah, you don't. Nor did I. This is truly exciting stuff. In 1966! When Butter does his first solo, the whole band kicks into the groove for "Got My Mojo Working." It's crazy.
A key point, too, which I can't stress enough: this was NOT a "white blues band." It was an interracial band. The rhythm section was black. They drove those white boys hard. And the white boys drove them. I think that everybody's sense of doing something a little outside the norm might have been one source of the energy that I hear rippling through this cut.
Oh: and please use headphones. It's a fantastic recording and you'll feel as though you're standing right onstage with these guys.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Sep 04, 2015 4:59 PM
Holy cow! That version of Born in Chicago slapped me around mighty nicely.Thanks Adam for finding this. It's refreshing to be reminded of Butterfield's range and just how inventive a soloist he was. This is from "Fathers and Sons", an an where he , Michael Bloomfield and a host of other stellar talents backed Muddy Waters. The band is sharp and savvy and Butterfield's solos is mind boggling. ---------- Ted Burke tburke4@san.rr.com
Last Edited by