Blues y rock en La Rioja 1-11-08

Carey & Lurrie Bell Buddy Guy's Legends, Rosa's & Lurrie's Home, 2006

Documento historico de uno de los mejores armonicistas del blues.

Henry Gray

Bio
Henry Gray was born on January 19, 1925 in Kenner, Louisiana, an outskirt of New Orleans. Within a few years his family moved to a small farm in Alsen, Louisiana a few miles north of Baton Rouge. It was here that Gray began to demonstrate his talent on the piano at the age of eight.

He was exposed to the piano through church, the radio and records, and an elderly woman in his neighborhood, Mrs. White. She recognized Henry's interest and gave him lessons. He began playing piano and organ in the local church. Eventually, Henry's family acquired a piano in their home.

Yet, as with many families, the blues was not allowed to be played on the piano at home, so Henry had to sneak around and play the blues where he could. Fortunately, Mrs. White encouraged Henry to play the blues at her house.

At the age of sixteen, Henry was asked to play with a band at a club near his home in Alsen. He gathered the courage to tell his father. To Henry's surprise, his father agreed, but only if Henry was accompanied by his father. Henry played the gig and made some money. As Henry tells it, "When my father saw that I could make money playing the blues, he liked that all right!"

It was this event, that gave birth to Henry Gray's remarkable sixty year career in the history of the Blues.


Henry served several years in the army during World War II in the south Pacific. On a many of occasions, Henry entertained troops with a piano and his singing. He fondly recalls those moments as they were breaks from the stress of being a war-time soldier.

Shortly before the war was over, Henry was given a medical discharge from the army. He returned to his family's home in Alsen for a short period before leaving to go to Chicago where he had relatives.

Soon after arriving in Chicago in 1946, Henry began frequenting the clubs and joints checking out the piano players and measuring his skills and talents with theirs. At times, he would sit in a play in some of the places.

While doing this, Henry caught the eyes and ears of Big Maceo Merriwether, who is considered one of the best blues and barrel house piano players in history. Maceo was born in Detroit but had moved to Chicago to make money playing the piano. Merriwether mentored Henry and showed him the ropes in the blues scene in Chicago.

It wasn't long before Henry was being sought after for his abilities. For the next twenty-two years, Henry played and/or recorded with many notable players and innovators of the blues.

In 1956, Howlin' Wolf asked Henry to join his band. Henry did and remained Wolf's main piano player until 1968. This is evidenced on many of Wolf's recording during this time. During the fifties and sixties, Chess records employed Henry many times as side man on their recordings. Also, he can be heard on many of J. D. Miller's Louisiana Excello blues recordings in the fifties and sixties.

The following is a list of blues artists that Henry has worked and/or recorded with in his career: Robert Lockwood Jr., Billy Boy Arnold, Morris Pejoe, Muddy Waters, Johnny Shines, Abe Locke, Hubert Sumlin, Lazy Lester, "Little" Walter Jacobs, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), "Homesick" James, Jimmy Reed ( including a Carnegie Hall concert), Jimmy Rogers, Elmore James (with him the night he died), "Snooky" Pryor, Koko Taylor, Otis Rush, "Little" Milton, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Raful Neal, Kenny Neal, Taj Mahal, BB King, Tabby Thomas, Larry Garner, Moses "Whisperin" Smith, Silas Hogan, Guitar Kelly, Washboard Sam, and Guitar Slim. This list in not complete but it gives one the idea of the prolific and vital history of Henry's accomplishments.

Henry left Wolf's band and Chicago in 1968 to return to Alsen, due to the death of his father and to assist his mother with a family fish market business.

Since 1968, many have wondered what Henry has been doing. He worked with the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board as roofer for nearly fifteen years before retiring, helped raise a family with his wife Rivers Gray for the last thirty years, and remained active as a musician in a number of ways.

During the last thirty years, Henry has been performed at virtually all New Orleans Jazz Festivals, two Chicago Blues festivals (1987 & (1989), the Montreal Jazz Fest (1988), nearly every Baton Rouge Blues Festival since its inception, the San Francisco Blues Festival, Memphis's W.C. Handy Blues Festival Blues Festival, several Festival Internationals (Lafayette, Louisiana), the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the King Biscuit festival (Helena, Arkansas), and many other festivals around the United States.

Also, Henry has travelled to Europe to play festivals and concerts regularly during this time. He is on several European releases with several bands. Henry can be found playing occassionally at Blind Willies in Atlanta, Georgia, the Rhythm Room in Phoenix, Arizona, Tabby's Thomas' Blues Box and Abe's Barbecue in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 1988, Blind Pig Records released Henry's first stateside feature LP entitled "Lucky Man."

More recently, Henry received a Grammy nomination for his work on TelArc Records' 1998 release "A Tribute to Howlin' Wolf". Also, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones paid homage to Henry by having him play at Jagger's 55th birthday bash in Paris in '98 along with a few other blues legends. In the summer of '99, Henry joined Marva Wright and her band for a 30-day Louisiana music European tour produced by Blue House Records. Finally, Henry Gray and the Cats will continue "keepin' the blues alive" according to God's plan. Support the blues! Peace.

www.henrygray.com/
Andy Cornett

Nueva produccion de Delta Groove - CEDRIC BURNSIDE & LIGHTNIN' MALCOLM

Gacetilla de prensa

CEDRIC BURNSIDE & LIGHTNIN' MALCOLM
"2 MAN WRECKING CREW"

“Once in a while you witness a birth in this business. A kind of unawareness to the fact that there are other sounds to be heard that you haven’t yet discovered, or dialects and music that is still being invented. That is precisely the sound you hear from this Mississippi duo.”
– Bluessource.com
"Cedric & Malcolm are the next generation of amazing Blues with this duo’s swagger, intensity, and the way they make the crowd get up and start rockin’ out to their explosive sound." - Blues Web Radio
"Burnside & Malcolm have hit on a sound that takes the spirit of the blues breaking it down and adding some of their own intriguing twists." - The Charleston Gazette
CEDRIC BURNSIDE, grandson of the legendary R.L. Burnside and son of drummer great Calvin Jackson, is widely regarded as one of the best drummers in the world. Growing up at his grandfather’s side, he began touring at age 13, playing drums for “Big Daddy” on stages around the globe. Cedric was born in 1978 and raised around Holly Springs, Mississippi, and has been playing music all his life, developing a relentless, highly rhythmic charged style with strong hip-hop and funk influences. An equally adept songwriter and surprisingly powerful vocalist, Cedric brings new life and energy to the Blues.

Guitarist LIGHTNIN’ MALCOLM was born in 1974 in rural Missouri, and enjoyed the freedom of country life, quickly learning to entertain himself and others around him. Growing up in a little village called Burgess in a country house next to the KCS Railroad that ran from Kansas City to New Orleans, the train has always been a theme in Malcolm’s music, as well as the inspiration for the steady, insistent bass rhythms of rural dance music. Skilled on guitar, bass, and drums, Malcolm is an in demand session player with a telepathic sense of how to follow the older archaic styles.

Over the years the two have made friends and worked with the some of the very best Mississippi Blues legends including Cedell Davis, R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, T-Model Ford, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Big Jack Johnson, Sam Carr, Otha Turner, Robert Belfour and Hubert Sumlin, in addition to the younger generation of musicians including the North Mississippi All-Stars. Together Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm have crafted a sound reminiscent of such minimalist rock duos as The Black Keys and The White Stripes, while still retaining a sound uniquely their own by featuring original music, drums, guitar and dual vocal harmonies, and fusing Soul, Hip-Hop, and Funk with electrifying Blues power that's contemporary and traditional all at the same time. So prepare yourself… and get ready for an authentically swampy and raggedly stomping juke joint affair that is deeply rooted in the rich musical legacy of the Mississippi hill country blues of the Delta. It’s old school, but it’s got that beat and electricity that’s gonna make you move!

Viva el cabaret

Vuelve un gigante del Blues a Buenos Aires

R.L. Burnside - The Original Boogie~LIVE!!

Este es un concierto pirata del ya desaparecido RL Burnside, un maestro y poco reconocido en el mundo blues, Fat possum lo refloto como a T-model ford entre otros, muy buen sonido, grabado en jukejoint del mississippi, imperdible.
Link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I7SOADCD

Festival de Blues y Rock en Plaza Huincul - Neuquen

El sur tambien existe y tiene buena musica, no crean que todo pasa en la capital, aguante el interior.

John Lee Hooker - Sunday Jamboree (Chicago Blues Fest) 1990

Una joya, imperdible.
Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H5DLCQSQ

Segunda cumbre de blues en Valparaiso - Chile

20.000 visitas y vamos por mas

Quiero agradecer a todos los cibernautas del mundo porque hoy superamos las 20000 visitas, lo cual para mi muy gratificante, porque la semillita del blues sigue viva y con más fuerza. Este es mi pequeño aporte para que el blues siga en la ruta.
Gracias a todos los que dia a dia visitan mi blog y vamos por más.
Nota: lo unico que quiero es que dejen su opinion, porque sin sus conmentarios hacer esto no tiene mucho sentido.