Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Different Version - Sweet Home Chicago (All Star Cast)
This time with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and Steve Ray Vaughn live in concert
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Different Version - Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson)
Supposedly the original version of Sweet Home Chicago from Robert Johnson. Very raw, very blues and very good!!!
Different Version - Sweet Home Chicago
WIKIPEDIA
"Sweet Home Chicago" is a popular blues standard in the twelve bar form. It was first recorded and is credited to have been written by Robert Johnson.[1] Over the years the song has become one of the most popular anthems for the city of Chicago despite ambiguity in Johnson's original lyrics.. . .
. . . Johnson did not live to enjoy national popularity. If he had become a star with a following in Chicago, he might have altered the chorus with its confusing geographical coupling. As it is, he succeeded in evoking an exotic modern place, far from the South, which is an amalgam of famous migration goals for African Americans leaving the South. To later singers this contradictory location held more appeal than obscure Kokomo . Tommy McClennan's "Baby Don't You Want To Go" (1939) and Walter Davis's "Don't You Want To Go" (1941) were both based on Johnson's chorus. Later singers used Johnson's chorus and dropped the mathematical verses.
Johnson recorded the song during his first recording session in November 1936, and it was released on Vocalion Records (Recording Number 03601).[16] He gives a stirring performance, with a driving guitar rhythm and a high, near-falsetto vocal. It was a limited release race record, and was not a big-seller. The song's popularity grew only after Johnson's death in 1938.
Interestingly, the lyrics only obliquely refer to Chicago itself, in the song's refrain, where the song narrator pleads for a woman to go with him back to "that land of California/ my sweet home Chicago". Indeed, California is mentioned in the song more than Chicago, both during this refrain and in one of the stanzas ("I'm goin' to California/ from there to Des Moines, Iowa"). These perplexing lyrics have been a source of controversy for many years. In the 1960s and 1970s, some commentators speculated this was a geographical mistake on Johnson's part. This is clearly untrue, as Johnson was a highly sophisticated songwriter and used geographical references in a number of his songs. One interpretation is that Johnson intended the song to be a metaphorical description of an imagined paradise combining elements of the American north and west, far from the racism and poverty inherent to the Mississippi Delta of 1936.[1]. Like Chicago, California was a common such destination in many Great Depression Era songs, books, and movies. A more sophisticated and humorous interpretation (and one more consistent with all of the lyrics) has the narrator pressuring a woman to leave town with him for Chicago, but his blatant geographic ignorance reveals his attempt at deceit. Another explanation suggests that Johnson was conveying a trip across the country, as mentioned in the line, "I'm going to California/from there to Des Moines, Iowa", and that the end destination was Chicago, Illinois, a state sharing borders with Iowa. There is yet another unverified suggestion in Alan Greenberg's Love In Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson, that Johnson had a remote relative who lived in Port Chicago, California, which if true would add ambiguity as to which Chicago the lyrics are referring.
As the song grew to be a homage to Chicago, the original lyrics that refer to California were altered in most cover versions. The line "Back to the land of California" is changed to "Back to the same old place", and the line "I'm going to California" becomes "I'm going back to Chicago". This altered version dates back to pianist Roosevelt Sykes.[1]
California Avenue is a thoroughfare which runs from the far south to the far north side of Chicago. The original road predates Johnson's recording and may have been the subject of the "land of California" references.
The authorship of the song is a matter of some dispute. The musical atmosphere of the 1930s blues and folk community lent itself to borrowing of music. Reportedly, songs recorded by bluesmen Scrapper Blackwell and Kokomo Arnold bear striking similarity to "Sweet Home Chicago", having been recorded years before.[1] Leroy Carr's "Baby Don't You Love Me No More" (Scrapper Blackwell played guitar and accompanied Leroy Carr who played the piano) shares the rhythmic approach and the feel of the initial two verses.
As of 2002, the copyright to the song was owned by businessman Stephen LaVere, who in 1973 convinced Johnson's half-sister Carrie Thompson to sign a contract splitting the royalties with LaVere.[1]
The list of artists who have covered the song is immense, including Magic Sam, Buddy Guy, Earl Hooker, Honeyboy Edwards, Freddie King, Foghat, Status Quo, Johnny Otis, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Blues Band, and The Blues Brothers. LaVere once remarked "It's like 'When the Saints Go Marching In' to the blues crowd.
"Sweet Home Chicago" is a popular blues standard in the twelve bar form. It was first recorded and is credited to have been written by Robert Johnson.[1] Over the years the song has become one of the most popular anthems for the city of Chicago despite ambiguity in Johnson's original lyrics.. . .
. . . Johnson did not live to enjoy national popularity. If he had become a star with a following in Chicago, he might have altered the chorus with its confusing geographical coupling. As it is, he succeeded in evoking an exotic modern place, far from the South, which is an amalgam of famous migration goals for African Americans leaving the South. To later singers this contradictory location held more appeal than obscure Kokomo . Tommy McClennan's "Baby Don't You Want To Go" (1939) and Walter Davis's "Don't You Want To Go" (1941) were both based on Johnson's chorus. Later singers used Johnson's chorus and dropped the mathematical verses.
Johnson recorded the song during his first recording session in November 1936, and it was released on Vocalion Records (Recording Number 03601).[16] He gives a stirring performance, with a driving guitar rhythm and a high, near-falsetto vocal. It was a limited release race record, and was not a big-seller. The song's popularity grew only after Johnson's death in 1938.
Interestingly, the lyrics only obliquely refer to Chicago itself, in the song's refrain, where the song narrator pleads for a woman to go with him back to "that land of California/ my sweet home Chicago". Indeed, California is mentioned in the song more than Chicago, both during this refrain and in one of the stanzas ("I'm goin' to California/ from there to Des Moines, Iowa"). These perplexing lyrics have been a source of controversy for many years. In the 1960s and 1970s, some commentators speculated this was a geographical mistake on Johnson's part. This is clearly untrue, as Johnson was a highly sophisticated songwriter and used geographical references in a number of his songs. One interpretation is that Johnson intended the song to be a metaphorical description of an imagined paradise combining elements of the American north and west, far from the racism and poverty inherent to the Mississippi Delta of 1936.[1]. Like Chicago, California was a common such destination in many Great Depression Era songs, books, and movies. A more sophisticated and humorous interpretation (and one more consistent with all of the lyrics) has the narrator pressuring a woman to leave town with him for Chicago, but his blatant geographic ignorance reveals his attempt at deceit. Another explanation suggests that Johnson was conveying a trip across the country, as mentioned in the line, "I'm going to California/from there to Des Moines, Iowa", and that the end destination was Chicago, Illinois, a state sharing borders with Iowa. There is yet another unverified suggestion in Alan Greenberg's Love In Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson, that Johnson had a remote relative who lived in Port Chicago, California, which if true would add ambiguity as to which Chicago the lyrics are referring.
As the song grew to be a homage to Chicago, the original lyrics that refer to California were altered in most cover versions. The line "Back to the land of California" is changed to "Back to the same old place", and the line "I'm going to California" becomes "I'm going back to Chicago". This altered version dates back to pianist Roosevelt Sykes.[1]
California Avenue is a thoroughfare which runs from the far south to the far north side of Chicago. The original road predates Johnson's recording and may have been the subject of the "land of California" references.
The authorship of the song is a matter of some dispute. The musical atmosphere of the 1930s blues and folk community lent itself to borrowing of music. Reportedly, songs recorded by bluesmen Scrapper Blackwell and Kokomo Arnold bear striking similarity to "Sweet Home Chicago", having been recorded years before.[1] Leroy Carr's "Baby Don't You Love Me No More" (Scrapper Blackwell played guitar and accompanied Leroy Carr who played the piano) shares the rhythmic approach and the feel of the initial two verses.
As of 2002, the copyright to the song was owned by businessman Stephen LaVere, who in 1973 convinced Johnson's half-sister Carrie Thompson to sign a contract splitting the royalties with LaVere.[1]
The list of artists who have covered the song is immense, including Magic Sam, Buddy Guy, Earl Hooker, Honeyboy Edwards, Freddie King, Foghat, Status Quo, Johnny Otis, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Blues Band, and The Blues Brothers. LaVere once remarked "It's like 'When the Saints Go Marching In' to the blues crowd.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Different Version - Spain
WIKIPEDIA
Spain is an instrumental jazz fusion composition by jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. It is probably Corea's most prominent piece, and some would consider it a modern jazz standard.
Spain was composed in 1971 and appeared in its original (and most well-known) rendition on the album Light as a Feather, with performances by Corea (Rhodes electric piano), Airto Moreira (drums), Flora Purim (vocals and percussion), Stanley Clarke (bass), and Joe Farrell (flute and saxophone). It has been recorded in several versions, by Corea himself as well as by other artists, including a flamenco version by Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin in the 1980s.
The Light as a Feather version of Spain received two Grammy nominations, for Best Instrumental Arrangement and for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Group. In 2001, Corea was awarded the Best Instrumental Arrangement Grammy for "Spain for Sextet and Orchestra".
Spain is an instrumental jazz fusion composition by jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. It is probably Corea's most prominent piece, and some would consider it a modern jazz standard.
Spain was composed in 1971 and appeared in its original (and most well-known) rendition on the album Light as a Feather, with performances by Corea (Rhodes electric piano), Airto Moreira (drums), Flora Purim (vocals and percussion), Stanley Clarke (bass), and Joe Farrell (flute and saxophone). It has been recorded in several versions, by Corea himself as well as by other artists, including a flamenco version by Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin in the 1980s.
The Light as a Feather version of Spain received two Grammy nominations, for Best Instrumental Arrangement and for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Group. In 2001, Corea was awarded the Best Instrumental Arrangement Grammy for "Spain for Sextet and Orchestra".
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