videos of the great blues musicians
i don't know why it never occurred to me to search youtube for such before, but WOW have they got some great stuff. i've googled these often enough, but even though google owns youtube now, it took me this long to find them. youtube is definetly the new napster in terms of unifying all possible user-clouds so that you can find even the most esoteric stuff. here's a few of the best stuff i found. it'd be easy for me to list 50 videos here, but i'll keep it brief; just search the artist's name for more.
i'll start out with the king of the blues, muddy waters:
muddy waters "you can't lose what you never had"
muddy waters and junior wells "got my mojo workin"
muddy was neck and neck with howlin' wolf for king of chicago at the height of chicago's scene. it's still hard to say who's best:
howlin' wolf "may i have a talk with you"
howlin' wolf "howlin' for my darling"
john lee hooker should be familiar to even you non-bluesfans.
john lee hooker "tupelo blues", about the 1929 mississippi flood i've mentioned before.
john lee hooker "i'm leaving"
bukka white was one of the original bluesmen along with charlie patton. according to this link, he even gave 9 year old bb king his first guitar. the link also tells of a bus driver who all but exploded when he learned he driving for bukka, after hearing this song:
bukka white "aberdeen blues"
a second-generation blues musicologist, Alan Lomax, was one with foresight enough to film some of the original bluesmen as they would play back in mississipppi, such as this:
bukka white plays "Alcohol Dance" while son house dances
and lastly, completely out of context with the others, i was also stunned to find fela kuti videos. it's tough to summarize fela, but here's a video, part music part not, that should get you interested.
fela kuti "music is the weapon"
if you ever had doubt the similarities between african and modern jazz/funk/blues based music's syncopation, call n response, polyrhythms, and the dancing's booty-shaking; fela doesn't show many lines between them here at all, likely the most african thing you'll see all year:
fela kuti "teachers don't teach me nonsense"
i'll start out with the king of the blues, muddy waters:
muddy waters "you can't lose what you never had"
muddy waters and junior wells "got my mojo workin"
muddy was neck and neck with howlin' wolf for king of chicago at the height of chicago's scene. it's still hard to say who's best:
howlin' wolf "may i have a talk with you"
howlin' wolf "howlin' for my darling"
john lee hooker should be familiar to even you non-bluesfans.
john lee hooker "tupelo blues", about the 1929 mississippi flood i've mentioned before.
john lee hooker "i'm leaving"
bukka white was one of the original bluesmen along with charlie patton. according to this link, he even gave 9 year old bb king his first guitar. the link also tells of a bus driver who all but exploded when he learned he driving for bukka, after hearing this song:
bukka white "aberdeen blues"
a second-generation blues musicologist, Alan Lomax, was one with foresight enough to film some of the original bluesmen as they would play back in mississipppi, such as this:
bukka white plays "Alcohol Dance" while son house dances
and lastly, completely out of context with the others, i was also stunned to find fela kuti videos. it's tough to summarize fela, but here's a video, part music part not, that should get you interested.
fela kuti "music is the weapon"
if you ever had doubt the similarities between african and modern jazz/funk/blues based music's syncopation, call n response, polyrhythms, and the dancing's booty-shaking; fela doesn't show many lines between them here at all, likely the most african thing you'll see all year:
fela kuti "teachers don't teach me nonsense"
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