POST # 136 Keith Richards on Learning about the Blues

You know, the BBC had not been particularly generous in its deliverance of blues and esoteric kinds of music. You started to search out certain guys that had more knowledge, more material than you did, and you had to know where it came from. So then I went to study this stuff and I realised that these blues men, they're talking about getting laid. And there's me studying what they're doing, but I ain't getting laid. I mean, there was something missing in my life - obviously, to be a bluesman I have to go see what this lemon juice is, running down your leg. And you know, these guys are actually living a life - they're not studying. I loved rock'n'roll but there's got to be something behind the rock'n'roll. – Keith Richards

( Here Howlin Wolf gives you his version of the Blues ! - Ed)

POST # 135 John Abercrombie on Spontanuity

“To be creative and spontaneous, you have to live with imperfection.” —John Abercrombie

( John Abercrombie demonstrates soloing on 1 string. - Ed)

POST # 134 Keith Richards on Early Recordings with the Stones

They were applying European techniques to recording, to making music, that don't apply to that system at all. So you did find yourself, for quite a while, head to head with this sort of monolithic idea of British recording engineers. You just learned by trial and error. Trying to transfer it on to tape was a pain for years. I mean, anybody will tell you you're up against this monolithic idea of, like, the correct method of recording. But we're not looking for the correct method, we're looking for the incorrect method: I want to see how much that microphone can take; if a guy is over there and yelling, I want to see whether the voice still carries. It's trial and error, trial and error, and mostly error. - Keith Richards

(Be a fly on the wall! Interesting clip of the Stones cutting Sympathy for the Devil in the 60's and puts to rest who actually played the guitar solo in the song. - Ed)

POST # 133 Keith Richards on Recording the Blues

Another thing to do with the blues is how they were recorded. They were done on the quick, and some of that stuff was made on wire, not even tape, let alone digital. So you'd have to work out where to put the microphone to get the sound of the room - you know, where John Lee Hooker would put his foot. And you'd sort of work your area. Making regular records - orchestrated and produced records - you didn't get a chance to figure out the room, and figure out what you can do. Every room is different - you get a bounce back here, and you put the microphone a little further back. You could hear on Robert Johnson records where they'd deliberately pulled the microphone back to get more guitar, and so he's wailing over the top. It's one thing doing it, another thing to capture it…. You got one cat with a foot and maybe some guy slapping a bass somewhere round the back, and you could hear them playing the room, as well, and not just the instrument. - Keith Richards

( Recording music is an art itself, Keith tears it up with a Etta James and Cray plays a tasty groovy solo. - Ed )

POST # 132 Stochelo Rosenberg on Developing His Playing

I cannot read notes and I never went to music school. Sometimes they give me a piece of music and when I say that I cannot read notes they gaze at me in a strange way. I was raised among my family and I learned a little from my cousins. The only way to improve my playing was by lowering the speed of my record player and thus figuring out the music of Django. That’s how I developed my playing. What I did in the beginning was pure Django. After that I listened to and learned to play more types of music. That brought me to a style of my own with the music of Django as the base. - Stochelo Rosenberg

( I think written music is just one way of conveying music to another person when you can not hear that person playing it. Here Stochelo plays Django's Tiger in a casual jam at Samois. - Ed)

POST # 131 Pat Martino on Wes Montgomery's Later Recordings

When Wes' Riverside era ended, my personal feelings were based on judgmental concerns. I was critical of anything that went against an artist's aesthetics, and Wes' Riverside days were the aesthetic ones. And then suddenly there was more interest in the sense of production, the industrial. At the time, I was sorry to hear that was taking place. But another part of me thought of how he had to take care of his family. That more or less threw me back into reality and made me realize what a beautiful person he was. The end result was a broader opinion of what life was all about. I was small-minded in those years. My main concern was jazz guitar and nothing more. But being interested in Wes holistically, as a person as well as a player, as a leader as well as a great musician, made me realize that he could adapt to a number of identities. The whole thing spilled out and I began to be interested in a broader context.The honesty of Wes' music was very important to me. He wasn't a competitive image to chase. Most young players find that necessary in our culture, but the way he was as a person neutralized that entire dilemma. I was much more interested in being a better human being, and he was the core of that entire issue. I wish kids had the opportunity to be what I was and to see who I saw in those days. He helped me grow up and be more sensitive amidst insensitivity. Wes was the best person I ever met. - Pat Martino

( If an artist's music reflects true aspects of themselves, then its not suprising to find them to be inspirational as individuals. Pat Martino pays tribute to Wes on Four on Six. - Ed )

POST # 130 Bob Brozman on the Blues

The 12 bar blues, with the three chords as we know them today, did not develop overnight. It took literally a generation for black guitarists in Mississippi to figure that out. African musicians came from a modal culture, not a diatonic one. So the earliest blues, like Charley Patton’s “When you Way Get Dark”….are one-chord blues. You can feel the 12 bar structure, and you can actually take the melodies he sings and put the three chords of the blues under them, but in fact, it’s just one chord and it’s modal. So I look at the history of the blues as kind of a struggle of a modal people to get their heads around the idea of a diatonic instrument and diatonic music. - Bob Brozman

( Brozman shares a few insteresting anecodes and plays a mean guitar - Ed)

POST # 129 Joe Pass on Drug Use

It all started when I split from home. I got the opportunity to go on the road and I went off with groups and trios. And I got introduced to drinking and all that. I was rebelling really and although I wasn't influenced by knowing that other jazz players were onto it, there was a point where there was a definite identifying with that, because it was part of the whole scene. It's just part of the environment and still is; but that doesn't mean that you have got to get caught up in it. But I thought that was the way to go, and I went from one thing to another and that's how I got started. I got heavily involved and people were saying, 'You'd better cool it, you'd better stop.' But I mean - I couldn't hear anything they said. Everybody, people close to me, my family; I didn't hear them; you never do.

I was there for two and a half years. I didn't do a lot of playing then. In fact, when I got there the guitar had absolutely no meaning for me and they said, 'OK, the guitar, put it in the corner and forget it!' Like, you don't play the guitar, because that's something that stands in your way. So I didn't play the guitar for a long time, I did other things, like straighten out my head and my person. Later, I maybe played the guitar on Saturday and then perhaps Friday and Saturday.
But the most I feel I've accomplished has been after that scene. Using drugs didn't help me to play, all it did was to hang me up for about fifteen years. - Joe Pass

( Sometimes a musicians personal struggle and triumph over adversity is as inspiring as the music they created. - Ed)

POST # 128 Martin Taylor on Tommy Emmanuel and Touring

It's always tough when you go to another country and try to establish. It doesn't matter how famous you are somewhere else. And that got him. We just gave him that little help in the beginning, James and I, and then he just absolutely went through the ceiling. He never stops touring....Well, he's got a house in Nashville. [Laughing] I know the first year he had that house I said, "How are you enjoying the house in Nashville?" and he said, "I've been there for two weeks this year"...Yeah, he works. People say to me, they go to my website and see my tour dates and say, "You work a lot," and I say, "Go onto Tommy's website. He's working constantly." - Martin Taylor

( Watch the hard working Australian at work in this amazing guitar piece. - Ed )

POST # 127 Miles Davis on his Stage Presence.

" I'm there because I know how to play music better than most musicians. I mean, my conception is considered by musicians to be top, you know. And I know it; that's the reason I'm there. Those people should know that, that I'm not out there grinning, Tomming. I'm out there doing the best that I can, My lip is cut and I'm still playing. I'm not trying to be cute. I know how I look. I'm not messing around with nobody's woman. If I want a woman I go get her—you know what I mean? So I'm just there performing. I'm straight. Actually, I think, old–fashioned, you know. I'm just straight." - Miles Davis

( Music as Entertainment vs Music as Art...or can it be both? Does how you present your music affect the quality of your music? Perhaps some types of music takes greater concentration to play? I think first and foremost every musician playing live wants to sound good, thats why the Beatles quit touring when they couldn't hear themselves above all the screaming fans. And back to Miles... I don't think he's anti show business...I mean look at some of the funky clothings he was wearing from the 70s onwards!! It's more a rebellion against cultural stereotypes that he felt was typcast at the time. Btw I think both clips below are fantastic /entertaining in their own way. - Ed)