Samui Blues

Pull up a chair, open a cold one, or pour your favourite glass of wine, light up that _ _ _ _ _ , and listen to the COOL Smooth, Jazz Blues of Oscar Peterson & Count Basie from 2000 .  Jazz in Koh Samui, Thailand OK they did not play here but we can dream.

Where’s all those kool kats with some $ash that can open a nice Jazz Blues Bar here in Koh Samui?

Come on down and make this place an International Entertainment Samui with some Samui Blues and Samui Jazz

Anyone who has ever listened to the “Blues” knows that it is more than just music, but an inspiration, an unfolding of the emotions that we all feel. From Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon and many other influential Blues legends, to the more contemporary Blues artists such as Robert Cray, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Blues music has and always be a part of out musical heritage.
Capturing the essence and spirit that the Blues represent is a novel “Blues Musical” called “The Tear Jar.” Not focusing on a particular band or individual, the “Tear Jar” instead is a collaboration and meeting of the minds of many talented people including producer Chris Bravacos, song writer Robert Welch, audio engineer Frank Silver and writer Jerry King Musser.

Blended into the musical are the rare talents of musicians such as: industry veteran Diane Wilson (singing the character of Savannah), talented Bluesman Don Johnson (singing the character of Mason Ball), Blues guitar virtuoso Jared James Nichols (singing the character of JD Hunter), Jazz sensation Rose Hudson (singing the part of Chandra), veteran Gospel singer Eugene Barclift (playing the character of Stubs) and Soul Music vet Charles Lee (as the Preacher), among others.

To set up the story, one needs to know what a ‘tear jar’ is and what it represents. In ancient cultures, water was a prized possession and giving up water from one’s own body, in the form of tears, was considered a personal sacrifice. They would catch their precious tears in tiny pitchers or ‘tear jars.” The ‘saved’ tears could then be used to ward off evil or to help a sick child. The writer takes this belief and implements into the storyline and applies it to the infectious Blues songs that encompass and define the musical. Here is a brief synopsis of the story:

“Seasoned, itinerant blues man, Mason Ball, returns to The Blue Rose, a club in which he enjoys playing, with an owner he deeply ‘admires.’ Upon his arrival, he’s surprised to discover that a ‘new kid in town’ has claimed the stage and attention of an appreciative audience. This young upstart, one JD Hunter, is unwilling to relinquish the limelight and makes it clear that the ‘old blues’ is dead. To add to the tension, Mason’s private love interest shares with him a serious, personal loss. Frustrated with his inability to appease her emotional pain, Mason dips his finger into a jar of tears given him by his recently departed mother and touches her with the potion. This act, apparently, manifests in wondrous results… relieving her of her anguish. Mason doubts his healing powers, yet can’t dismiss the changes he seems to have made. When word gets out, the audience demands Mason’s appearance onstage and seem to come for his ‘gift of healing’ as much as his gift of song. JD challenges Mason’s abilities, those both spiritual and musical. When a plan to expose Mason backfires, JD Hunter learns what it’s like to be on the receiving end of ‘the gift.’ But, gift or not, the characters in this story find themselves at a new place in their lives after discovering life’s potential magic is available to anyone.”

I have not seen the production, but have listened to some of the music and was overjoyed to hear a dizzying array of crisp, fresh Blues cuts that are certain to be standards and will have die-hard Blues fans clamoring for more.

“When Does The Healing Begin” is full of Gospel-fueled licks and superb vocals that fuses the Blues and Gospel in an explosion of sound. The cut called “The Magic,” like any great Blues song, just bleeds emotion, from the growling vocals and the Stevie Ray Vaughan-like riffs, yet it still remains achingly tender. “Satisfier” is expertly played and sang, with sultry vocals and is sung with immeasurable passion and strength. “I’m Gone,” is bound to become a classic blues rocker, tight and structured, and just compels you to bob your head or tap your foot with melodic adventure. “Stormbringer” perfectly fuses Soul and Blues music, with impassioned vocals and stellar guitar and organ work.

“The Tear Jar” is bound to become an instant classic Blues production, with fresh Blues music for all fans of the genre, who are sure to be pleased with the efforts of all the performers and everyone who is involved with this wondrous project. In its beginning stages, “The Tear Jar” has a performance slated for the Sunoco Performance Theater on Thursday, August 7 and Friday August 8, 2008 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. And with an intriguing storyline, a stellar cast and new Blues standards, it will soon make a bold impression in the music world and specifically Blues music.

In the history of the guitar blues there have been some great players and fortunately many of those great players are still with us today. Whether you prefer smooth guitar blues or whether you like to have your guitar blues smash you in the face there have been players to oblige you and to entertain you for over a century now. Here is a quick look at some guitar blues players that have made an impact.

BB King

BB King has been playing guitar blues for over 60 years and is one of the standards that people use when they talk about guitar blues players. He has recorded with such great bands as U2 and is best known for his trademark hollow body electric guitar he calls Lucille. He was originally called the Beale Street Blues Boy but before his first record came out the record company shortened it to BB and used his real last name of King to create the name BB King. In over 60 years BB King has played his smooth style of blues all over the world.

Eric Clapton

Known simply as “Slow Hand”, Eric Clapton is a self taught guitar prodigy who got his start in the famous 1960′s hard rock blues band Cream. After Cream disbanded he went on to form such acts as Derrick And The Dominoes but Clapton was always displaying his trademark slow hand smooth guitar blues style somewhere in the world. Recently Cream was reunited for a few shows and it is unknown whether or not they will stay together but even without a reunited Cream Eric Clapton has still left his mark as one of the greatest guitar blues players ever.

Robert Johnson

It is difficult to talk about guitar blues players without talking about the man that greats such as Jimi Hendrix and Muddy Waters cite as one of their prime influences. Robert Johnson was born in 1911 and died in 1938 but in between there he recorded and released at least a half dozen or more records that survive today as an example of the talent and vision that Johnson had. He lived the blues and, by some accounts, died because of the blues and Robert Johnson is the place where most blues is said to have come from.

Jimi Hendrix

For some reason Jimi Hendrix is never given his due as the master guitar blues player that he was because many people cannot see past his use of sound and energy on the electric guitar. But everything Jimi did was based in the blues and many of his more popular songs are simply blues songs done Jimi’s way and there is nothing wrong with that.

If you have a hankerin’ to be a blues guitar player but don’t know how to start, there is no better way than to immerse yourself in the recordings of the blues guitar players of the twentieth century. You can use the licks of famous blues guitarists as building blocks that will eventually be the fragments of your own blues guitar solos. There is wide agreement amongst blues fans about who are the greatest blues guitarists, who is the best to learn from, but once you get talking to people you will realize that each person’s reaction to the works of the blues masters is personal and unique. So your starting point to being a blues guitar player is to take your own personal take on the blues you hear and expand on it.

If you are a new guitar player you might not be familiar with the various techniques that blues guitar players use to make their guitars sing. There is no special blues “magic” that you learn from the blues legends, the guitar techniques for one style are pretty much the same as for another, but you will find your own personal way of making established guitar techniques your own.

There’s a whole world of communication in the techniques that guitar players use to play notes with the left hand instead of picking using the right hand. The techniques are called hammer-ons and pull-offs. A pull-off is the art of picking a note and taking your left hand finger away in a kind of pulling action so that the note below your original note sounds. For example, you could place you first finger on the first fret of the first string and the second finger on the second fret of the first string. With both fingers in place, you pick the first string sounding the F# note and pull your second finger away so that the F note at the first fret sounds.

The “opposite” to the pull-off is the hammer-on which, if you follow up on the pull-off you just executed, you “hammer” the second finger back to where it was at the second fret so that the F# note sounds again. Another technique for the guitar player’s left hand is String Bending. If you look at your finger placed at a fret, you move the finger by pushing up and down. This makes your guitar string give a warbling sound.

As you are an aspiring blues guitarist of the twenty-first century, you will probably prefer to listen to electric guitar players. B. B. King is the coolest of the black blues guitarists, closely followed by a white English boy named Eric Clapton. You could also give a listen to Chuck Berry who is practically a one-man guitar style.

Memphis Blues music first appeared in the 1920s in Memphis, and Memphis ever since has been a Mecca for blues music lovers worldwide. Beale Street, the heart of Memphis music scene, is home to everything from jug bands to jazz.

The sub genre of Memphis Blues music that is Jug Band Blues emphasizes syncopated rhythms and sounds of early jazz and folk songs. Jug bands play on homemade, simple instruments, such as harmonicas, banjos, washboards, and kazoos, and of course, jugs.

After WWII, Memphis Blues music saw the birth of electric instruments. Many musicians flocked to Memphis to the Blues scene with these electric instruments, changing the sound of Memphis blues. The musicians would gather on Beale Street, where there were recording studios up and down. West Memphis saw the same influx of musicians, who would record the most famous and renowned classic blues, rhythm and blues, and rock & roll records. Once of the most famous of these studios was Sun Records, who would also record the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, among many others.

The beginning of Memphis self expressive music was attributed by a certain sound that became familiar to the colored workers of the cornfields, the sharecroppers. Much of the early Memphis blues music was an attempt to capture the sound of the singing workers. This sound at first was nicknamed the gutbucket blues. Some of the more popular topics of the songs were those of prayer, faith, and life.

Even today on Beale Street, songs are written and recorded in the small studios by artists with their dreams in tow. The streets in Memphis are just as alive today with the Memphis Blues as they were in the 40s and 50s. The clubs and bars in Memphis fill up every night with tourists and people who sit for hours listening to the artists and their music, much the same way they always have.

With all of the new and ever changing genres of music that have come about, people may wonder what gives the Memphis Blues music such staying power. The answer is simple. The Memphis Blues remains such a huge part of tradition in Memphis because it is more than just music. It is an entire culture and lifestyle that gets passed from one generation to the next.

Ever since the Memphis Blues music was born on the curbs of Beale Street, people have been flocking to Memphis to enjoy it ever since. Chances are pretty good that it will continue to be enjoyed and loved for many more generations to come.

In popular music, blues keyboard riffs are universal. From Billy Preston jamming with the Rolling Stones to Ray Charles kicking into “What I’d Say,” blues progressions and scales serve as the basis for legendary songs and amazing keyboard solos. One of the greatest aspects of blues keyboard riffs is the musical theory behind them, which is simple enough for beginners, yet still challenges virtuosos.

An important musical tool to understand when playing blues keyboard riffs is the pentatonic scale. The minor pentatonic scale is the basis for most blues solos. Its cousin, the blues scale, adds a flatted fifth in between the fourth and fifth of the minor pentatonic. The major pentatonic is also used in blues keyboard riffs.

If you’re not familiar with these scales, here are some examples. We’ll use the key of E. The minor pentatonic consists of the tones 1, b3, 4, 5 and 7. So in the key of E we would have E, G, A, B and D. To change this to the blues scale, add the flatted fifth, which is bB. This gives you the notes E, G, A, Bb, B and D. The major pentatonic consists of the 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6. In the key of E, this gives us E, F#, G#, B and C#. By learning these scales up and down the keyboard, you will have a base on which to build some awesome blues keyboard riffs.

So how do you make these scales mourn and wail like only the blues can? By knowing them inside and out, you can make musical theory sing. Running up and down scales will just make your blues keyboard riffs sound like finger exercises, but knowing how to blend major and minor pentatonic together will leave your listeners astounded. The key is to understand how blues keyboard riffs incorporate each scale over different chords.

For a basic twelve-bar blues progression, the choice of scale is open, with a few basic rules thrown in for good measure. One of the basic rules to keep in mind is that there are two easy scales to use over any one chord. If you’re playing over an E or E7 chord, you can choose to use the E minor pentatonic or the E major pentatonic. By alternating between the notes of these two scales, you’ll find a variety of notes from which to choose when playing blues keyboard riffs.

You can change any of the minor pentatonic to the blues scale for some added flavor. To do this in the major pentatonic, it may be easier to visualize the scale differently. Take the root of the chord and drop it a minor third. For example, if A is the root, then you would go down to F#. Now play a minor pentatonic in this key. You’re using the same notes as the A major pentatonic, just starting on a different root. Change it to a blues scale and you’ll have the notes F#, A, B, C, C# and E. Now you’ve got another blues scale to play over an A chord! It’s that simple, and it works for any key.

By mastering the use of these scales, you can play any blues keyboard riffs that come your way. The trick is to practice them until you no longer have to think about the notes; you just feel them under your fingertips. Then you’ll wail and mourn like only the greatest blues players can.

Blues music has its inclination to African-American community of the USA. It is a kind of vocal or instrumental music which is generally based on blues notes. The concept aroused from the spirituality, chants, work songs and ballads. The African influence is greatly felled in the notes and call-and-response patterns of music and lyrics. The American and Western music is more inclined to this music genre. It became the foundation stone for the different music forms namely jazz, rhythm and blues, heavy metal, bluegrass and hip-hop. The blues mainly reflect the mood of the singer i.e. depression, down hearted feeling or sadness. The Blues word was used for the first time in George Colman’s farce’s ‘Blue Devils’. It was in the 1912 that Hart Wand’s ‘Dallas Blues’ came and it was the first Blues Music to describe the depressing mood. There is common distinctiveness in the music genre. Showing the individual peculiar habits, the music elements were earlier call-and-response shouts. They were just individual’s performance with no harmony or formal music structure. These pre-blues were simply a solo song with emotional touch. They were often heard in shouts and hollers. The present day music form has harmonic base and call-and-response format of African and European communities which gave new structure to the Blues. The voice and guitar were incorporated in the songs. The elements reflected the songs of Africa. The most common instruments, Diddley bow and Banjo were used in the early music. The Diddley bow belonged to South America whereas the Banjo was mostly used in Africa to increase the instrumental vocabulary. With each passing days it adopted Ethiopian airs, Negro spirituality and minstrel shows together with instruments and rhythmic supplements. The blues are rewarded for preserving the melodic patterns of African music. The songs from this genre have distinct musical structure. The songs recorded by Lead Belly’s and Henry Thomas reflected twelve- and sixteen-bar structure with tonic, sub-dominant and dominant chords. The modern form has 12-bar structure with influence of sheet music. The lyrics of the blues were based on repetition. Each line was repeated four times. Currently, the lines are repeated once with a standard single line conclusion. They are sung in the form of rhythmic talk than a melody. The Blues music has given great artists like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker and Bessie Smith. The credit can be given to the hollers and calls without which this genre would not have evolved. It is based on the changing lives of the post slavery era of African-Americans. The music is quite popular amongst blacks and generally reflects on the atrocities faced by the community. More popularly considered as secular songs, the Blues lyrics highlighted singer’s inner shelf. Thus it was not an innovative approach but simply a presentation of oneself. It describes the condition of African Americans communities. It has descriptions related to slaves’ freedom, Booker T. Washington’s teachings, and the famous Horatio Alger model, who once said that man is the creator of his/her destiny. Lawrence Levine stresses on the fact that national ideologies affect the individual’s behaviour and the blues music reflect this relationship. Blacks were badly treated during the slavery era and were socially and economically exploited. The secular songs reflect this psychological oppression. The music was earlier treated as folk blues and was sung during leisurely periods. These songs were mostly sung in shows and carnivals. Due to close contact with country singers, the blacks learned to sing professional Blues which are often called classic blues. In the 20th century, African Americans migrated and played the songs in Texas, Chicago, Louisiana, New York, Arkansas and Detroit. Later the classic blues singers introduced this genre to clubs, vaudeville halls, and theaters with the help of New Orleans and Fast Western musicians. It was in 1895 when George W. Johnson recorded the first blues song called “Laughing Song”. The genre gained popularity in 1920 with Mamie Smith’s evergreen songs namely “Crazy Blues” and “It’s Right Here for You”. Online music shop have varied array of latest blues music for the fans. Keep the blues alive says Samuiblues !