MrVerylongusername
976 posts
Mar 15, 2010
9:09 AM
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Does anybody know whether SB was still busking in Paris in 81/82?
Around that time I visited Paris with my parents and recall seeing an incredible harp player busking solo outside the Pompidou. He wore a harp-bandolier like the one in the clip and was playing amplified, with what I now know to be a pignose hanging from his belt.
I have to say until this thread I hadn't paid Sugar Blue much attention and other than 'Miss You' do not have any recordings by him.
Now I'm wondering if he was in fact the man that I saw as a 12 year old and set in motion the interest that led me to buy my first harp a few years later...
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saregapadanisa
152 posts
Mar 15, 2010
9:30 AM
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MrV, His Paris releases (Crossroads & Paris to Chicago) date from 1981 and 1982.
I was student in Paris at that time, and remember very well seeing him playing in the metro, and taking that mass of energy right in my face.
So I guess, yes, it was him. There was a great deal of Bob Dylan wannabe back then, but few harp players performing in the street.
I don't remember the bandolier, but that's unmistakably him.
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pharpo
213 posts
Mar 15, 2010
9:48 AM
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hvyj - after listening (one time) to "Another Man done Gone" I can say that it is well produced and offers diversity of style. I'll admit that I am not a big jazz fan and a few of the cuts are what we used to call " jazz-blues fusion " His harp playing on those cuts was fantastic. My favorite cut is the title track. Tone so great you can swear that he is playing in the room with you ! I also like his cover of "Pontiac Blues"...One final thought.....which ever style you prefer on this album.....Sugar Blue ( and his band for that matter) does not disappoint.
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Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. - Charlie Parker
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hvyj
209 posts
Mar 15, 2010
2:40 PM
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Yes, a lot of the material has jazz flavor with very sophisticated blues harp playing. A couple of the tracks, "Cold Blooded Man" and "Shed No Tears" have a very contemporary sound--especially "Cold Blooded Man" which has somewhat of a rock flavor to it. Both of these tunes were recently re-recorded by SB on the CD CODE BLUE. Truly original musical statements.
I also really dig his interpretation of "Pontiac Blues." He takes Sonny Boy Williamson to a whole different level.
Btw, I've actually heard SB do "Another Man Done Gone" live and unaccompanied--wow!--unimaginably great tone. A master musician with a style of his own. A truly great artist, IMHO, who is under appreciated and whose depth of artistic originality is not widely understood.
Last Edited by on Mar 15, 2010 2:48 PM
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djm3801
322 posts
Mar 15, 2010
6:16 PM
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His "Blue Blazes" CD is a good one. Love his version of "Help Me".
The Allentown gig did not get hooked up for May, as it is no longer on his tour, but for Philly folks, it says he will be at Warmdaddy's on April 23 and 24. I think it said in NYC a little before that.
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