Piano Blues

Yet another of the ubiquitous Memphis Slim compilations, Grinder Man Blues is different from most of Snapper Music's budget blues reissues in that it confines itself to a tiny space in its subject's career: his Bluebird sides from 1940-1941. The sound quality is good, which is no surprise, and the producers have mixed-and-matched the sides, so that slow, solo blues ballads, faster boogie numbers, and duet and full-band numbers alternate. The best cut here is probably "Old Taylor," which features Slim working (and sharing vocal chores) with an uncredited scat singer, while his piano ripples through and around their work. Every so often the blues harp joins his piano in the spotlight, while Leroy Batchelor's bass and Washboard Sam's percussion hold the rhythm, elsewhere, as on "Maybe I'll Loan You A Dime" it's pretty much just Slim's voice and piano, which are pretty formidable…

In this charming solo piano session recorded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1974, Sunnyland Slim works the empty studio exactly as he would a small blues club, casually (but not without purpose) introducing several of the songs, setting them up with what would initially appear to be random piano trills and vocal asides, and then the song slips in and begins as the most natural thing in the world. This kind of up close intimacy makes this set, which was originally released in 1974 as part of Samuel Charters' Legacy of the Blues series, a particularly compelling portrait. Although Slim's songs can appear on the surface to be tossed-off exercises in the usual blues clichés, they were actually carefully written, and pieces here like the powerful "Couldn't Find a Mule" and the equally as striking "Days of Old" emerge as deeply personal accounts of racism and social injustice, both delivered with a relaxed approach that greatly adds to their impact…

David Bennett Cohen - Learn To Play Blues Piano (DVD#1 & DVD#2) [Repost]

David Bennett Cohen is an American musician best known as the original keyboardist for the late 1960's psychedelic rock and blues band Country Joe and the Fish. Cohen's musical career began at age seven, when he began seven years of classical piano training. He also learned to play guitar at age nine. When he was fourteen, Cohen heard boogie-woogie piano for the first time, and from then on his playing was influenced by boogie-woogie, as well as piano blues.

An integral member of the nonpareil Muddy Waters band of the 1950s and '60s, pianist Otis Spann took his sweet time in launching a full-fledged solo career. But his own discography is a satisfying one nonetheless, offering ample proof as to why so many aficionados considered him then and now Chicago's leading post-war blues pianist.

Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues - A Musical Journey [7 DVD Box Set] (2003) {Snapper Music}
7xDVD -> 46.0 Gb | All Regions | PAL 16:9 | English (LinearPCM, 2 ch / Dolby AC3, 6 ch / Dolby AC3, 2 ch) | ~ 13 hours | ISO Images
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 546 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2003 Snapper Music / Reverse Angle / Vulcan Prod | SMADVD039
Blues / Traditional Blues / Moderm Blues / Soul / Documentary

This 7 DVD set features rare archival performance footage of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton and many more. It also features newly filmed performances by contemporary artists singing classic blues songs. It may have been underrated when first broadcast on PBS on consecutive nights in the fall of '03, but executive producer Martin Scorsese's homage to the blues is a truly significant, if imperfect, achievement. "Musical journey" is an apt description, as Scorsese and the six other directors responsible for these seven approximately 90-minute films follow the blues–the foundation of jazz, soul, R&B, and rock & roll–from its African roots to its Mississippi Delta origins, up the river to Memphis and Chicago, then to New York, the United Kingdom, and beyond.

Pianist Otis Spann played in Muddy Waters' band from 1953 to 1970, and was instrumental in creating the electric Chicago blues sound. These 11 tracks were recorded in the mid-'60s by Down Beat magazine editor Pete Welding, and were previously released as Otis Spann's Chicago Blues on Testament Records. This reissue omits the solo Spann material from the original disc and highlights the group recordings featuring S.P. Leary, Johnny Young, James Cotton, Willie Dixon, and Muddy Waters. While not as revolutionary as the records Spann played on with Muddy in the late '50s, you can't deny this lineup of seminal Chicago bluesmen doing what they did best.

David Bennett Cohen - Learn To Play Blues Piano (DVD#3 & DVD#4) [Repost]

David Bennett Cohen is an American musician best known as the original keyboardist for the late 1960's psychedelic rock and blues band Country Joe and the Fish. Cohen's musical career began at age seven, when he began seven years of classical piano training. He also learned to play guitar at age nine. When he was fourteen, Cohen heard boogie-woogie piano for the first time, and from then on his playing was influenced by boogie-woogie, as well as piano blues.

Jimmy Yancey was one of the pioneer boogie-woogie pianists, but unlike many of the other pacesetters, he had a gentle and thoughtful style that also crossed over into the blues. This Atlantic LP contains Yancey's final recordings (from 1951), cut just eight weeks before his death from diabetes. The pianist is in fine form on these introspective and often emotional performances which, with the exception of Meade "Lux" Lewis' "Yancey Special" and the traditional "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor," are comprised entirely of Yancey's originals. His wife, Mama Yancey, takes five memorable vocals on this memorable set of classic blues.