[Harp-L] Sugar Blue Live and Kickin'



Saw Sugar Blue Friday night. Absolutely off the hook! Best I've ever heard him. Fresh arrangements, the usual unbelievably high energy, some new material from the new CD and a new tune called "Once and Again" he just wrote for a film of the same name. He also performed "The Gucci Gucci Man" putting the album version (which isn't bad) to shame. Rico McFarland on guitar. SB dancing on stage and engaging with the audience all night with the most pleasant charisma I've ever seen flow from him. Played two sets.

This guy is an incredible musician and is an absolute virtuoso on the harmonica. Some people dis him for playing "so many notes" but when he does play fast (which is not all the time) each note is articulated with artistic expression, played precisely on meter in relation to the beat, and his note SELECTION is incredibly musical. He's not just playing patterns like Popper does, he's playing a combination of scale tones and chord extension tones that are very tightly related to the chords he's playing over. And he does all this at 32d note speed when he steps on the gas. It's not just how many notes he plays and how fast he plays them. It's WHICH notes he plays at that speed and WHERE he puts them. Unbelievable control.

He did an incredibly good new arrangement of "Another Man Done Gone" on a 365, playing into the vocal mic, unaccompanied, using his hands to shape tone a la Sonny Boy Williamson, playing with acoustic tone from the hand of God. He got sounds out of 365 most musicians couldn't get with a synthesizer. IMHO, this guy is a modern master walking among us.

Except for "Another Man Done Gone" SB was amplified for the rest of the show, playing through an Astatic wireless into a Mesa Boogie Mark (one 12), which, i am reliably informed, he borrowed from Rico McFarland. No effects. Rico was playing through a Mesa SOB ("Son of Boogie"). Ilaria Lantieri on bass, Anthony Space who was tearing it up on keys, and a drummer who, unfortunately was not having the best night. He would speed up occasionally, prompting looks from Rico, but it wasn't bad enough that a non-musician would notice it.

Well worth the 90 minute drive.



This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.