1. Listening to the Blues

    Posted in: Videos on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

    Sno-Cone Koinonia 1984 Montreux

    When I was getting ready to workout earlier today, the first thing I did was look for the right music to get me through the session.  I not only wanted something with enough energy to get me working hard, but also something played with both emotion and skill, something so good I would get caught up in the music and forget about the the clock and how hard I was breathing.  I finally settled on two concert videos, Leon Russell and Buddy Guy.  No surprise there.  These days I seem to be going back to the music I started with, Blues based Rock and straight up Blues.

    There’s a touch of gospel flavor in that music as well.  Years ago I was talking to the old blues artist Sippy Wallace about the difference between the blues and gospel.   We had just filmed her singing in a Detroit nightclub on Saturday night and then filmed her playing the organ and leading the choir on Sunday morning in her church, and she said, “Blues and Gospel are the same music, the only difference is on Saturday night I’m singing ‘Oh Baby’, and on Sunday I’m singing ‘Oh Jesus’.”

    Well the music worked for my exercise session, because it took my mind off how out of shape I am and got me to thinking about all the great musicians I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and see in concert over the years.  I’m still friends with three of the first musicians I met when we were all teenagers.  They were part of a band called “The Third Avenue Blues Band” and I think two of the guys weren’t even old enough to legally be in the bar were they were playing.   I know for sure it was against the rules of my school for me to be there.

    Those three guys later became part of a jazz group called Koinonia.  I used to go hear them all the time at the Baked Potato in LA.  Their music especially appealed to me because it was often a blues based jazz.  I found this old clip of Koinonia playing at Montreux in 1984.  They were doing a cover of the Albert Collins song, “Sno-Cone.”   Enjoy

    Tags: , , , , ,