[Harp-L] The Best shows I Ever Saw (Long little harp content)

[Jason Ricci <jason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

                 Some of the Greatest Shows I¹ve Ever Seen and Why
                                      (In No Order)
                                     By Jason Ricci
                              For: www.jasonricci.com
 
1.)  James Cotton (circa 1989/90) Roaul¹s, Portland Maine. Cotton was on and
had the perfect amount of rasp in his voice those years like an early 80¹s
Bobby Bland. I¹m pretty sure he played harp the whole night through the Pa,
I was only fourteen or fifteen my Mom brought me. It was cool with the club
for me to be there cause they had food so kids could come in as long as they
had their parents or someone. Cotton came out blowing some high end Jimmy
Reed type stuff over a funk groove... Oh yeah!: Johnny B. Gaden was the bass
player I don¹t remember the rest of the band... I realized only much later
who I saw was Johnny B. Gaden. Any way after Cotton played a few bars up
high he hit the low end of the harp and I just lost it.... I had never
really heard anything like that in person...no amp just through the PA...It
was bigger than me. It was nuts. I had seen Musslewhite and some good local
guys and a couple of other nationals, but Cotton was for real from then on
to me. After the show was Over he came out and silenced a roomful of
drunken, fisherman, logger, redneck chowder head Mainers to a serious
nirvana level of silence and or nothingness...he played the song Black Night
and sang completely of the mic and blew harp the same way...everyone shut up
for the entire tune and transcended all worry, regret, joy and pain. That¹s
when I first thought that music, might, be a good way to make a living.
 
2.)  Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters. I saw and opened for this band all
over Maine and New Hampshire a bunch of times throughout 96-97 The line up
was Per Hanson a Mainer on Drums, Bruce Katz on Hammond and Piano, Rockin¹
Rod Carey on Bass and then Ronnie. This is really the only line up for me
when it comes to Ronnie...I love all his music but the songs and albums and
creativity of this band has not really been matched by anyone since
like...maybe... War in the 70¹s or something.... maybe Derek Trucks...these
guys had a sound mixing all this Santana, Magic Sam, Pharaoh Sanders, Kenny
Burrell, with all the other great Blues guitarists thrown in seamlessly,
influenced, but never derivative. Ronnie¹s the best Not enough people
realize how ridiculous Ronnie is! SRV was great, Jimmy Vaughn, BB, all the
Alberts etc...But Ronnie is so sensitive and multifaceted. Per is my
favorite drummer too and with Bruce Katz and solid Rod Carey, this band was
unbeatable for me. Sadly, since no one sang in this band ever, I got to
watch a lot of this music fly over the heads of New England audiences
everywhere...The band never cared either, just went from song to song, never
saying shit on the mic and playing some of the most unique, dynamic,
sentimental, rocking. Latin flavored, jazzy, bluesy, pure, soulful music I
have ever heard. I miss this band!
 
3.)   Satan and Adam I also saw this band a bunch of times around the same
time I was seeing Ronnie in New England. I had never heard and still haven¹t
lyrics that poignant, topical, spiritual and moving. Satan is a monster
singer and his charisma is other worldly he had/has all these crazy ideas
about things that are all rooted in love and respect, but he¹s got this like
messed up wild way of communicating them through language, with all these
attached and detached meanings, metaphors and symbols... Try reading ³Space
Is the Place ³ about Sun Ra to get an idea of what it was like to speak with
him.... Nuts! Like an episode of the x-Files where no one believes the Crazy
black man on the street, who in the end is actually God or really knew the
secret of life or something humbling like that. Some of his songs are
prayers to me, when I told him that he said ³I suspect that was what they
were to me when I wrote them.² Adam Gussow Swings harder and differently
than any other Harmonica player I have ever heard...The way he backed Satan
was as innovative as the way Little Walter backed Muddy or Maceo to James
Brown. I also heard notes I had never heard obtained before on the diatonic
harmonica for the first time from Adam¹s playing. I later found out from
him, as he taught me the technique, that it was called ³Over-Blowing². These
Satan and Adam shows Changed my life and getting to know these guys is still
whacky to me...like a kid who Idolizes Babe Ruth and then later ends up
playing on the team or something. I wish I could always remember how good
this feels every time I get all bummed out and entitled/self obsessed, like
tattoo this feeling on my brain, because relationships and experiences like
this are all I ever REALLY wanted out of music and life and I have more than
most.
.
4.)  Derek Trucks Band at Rays Downtown Blues in West Palm Beach Florida
(circa 1999). My Buddy and later future band mate in my band: New Blood:
Jason ³King Fish² Madaris practically had to drag me out to this one. At the
time I wasn¹t a big Almond Brothers Fan and all anyone ever said about this
kid was he was like four years old and sounded like Duane Almond. So I
wasn¹t really into hearing some teenage ³Prodigy² recycle Statesboro blues
for a bunch of drunken baby boomers who failed the bar room extras audition
for a scene in the movie ³Rush² yelling BROTHERS!!!!, WHIPPING POST, ONE WAY
OUT! . I got to the club got a good seat with my then Girl friend, yes GIRL,
Sunshine Hahn (I was different then). The band came onstage and opened with
an instrumental version of Rasta Man Chant my favorite Marley tune. I never
heard anyone touch/quote/cover this tune in any way, it got my attention
then that guitar slide hit me. It was eastern sounding, controlled, focused,
bluesy, jazzy, terrific. Derek stood motionless almost the whole night. He
was a Buddha to me. The whole band though! Man... Yonrico on the drums was
the history of Drum music in eight bars, Koffee Burbridge, was playing flute
so pretty, Todd Smalley modern, funky, attentive on Bass, there was  a B-3
player I don¹t remember...sorry. From Rasta Man they went into Amazing Grace
then into Afro Blue right from that... I could hear the hints in the music
and was able to predict what song would bubble up into existence next; it
was very personal to me too. It was the first time I ever saw jazz really
played that well and they mixed it with sounds, textures and influences from
all around the world simalar but more eclectic than Ronnie Earl. I cried a
lot that night out of happiness and it was great to be alive and decided my
next band would be called New Blood and we would play anything we wanted and
wouldn¹t care what it was called.
.
5.)  Curtis Salgado Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar Nashville TN circa
2001. Curtis first, is an amazing singer, technically above almost all blues
and otherwise singers alive today, but more importantly too me the sincerity
and honesty of every word and note he utters is never missing or ever
contrived. His harp playing is fat, rhythmic, unique to him and always tells
a story not to mention he is the only guy I ever heard pull off a decent
Paul Delay imitation. Curtis did this thing that night where he played a lot
of pop, R&B, blues and rock and between every song or so kept weaving it in
with this theme about how it¹s all blues.... It sounds cheesy or preachy the
way I¹m putting it here and I can¹t recollect any exact phrases or even Para
phrase for anyone, but Salgado¹s sophistication and knowledge made it into
this life lesson somehow. I can¹t tell you how blown away I was that night
by him...I cried at this show a lot as well. Later that evening he signed a
CD for Sunshine and me and wrote ³Stay in love² inside it.... We did not...
but now I like to write that same thing in my CD¹s to couples who ask me to
sign theirs, hope that doesn¹t jinx them, at least I have stayed in love
with Curtis.
 
6.)  Walter ³Wolfman² Washington The Maple Leaf New Orleans, (circa 2001) I
had a big gig there at the House of Blues the day of this show because of
this harmonica contest I won and they flew me to New Orleans to play with
the Fabulous Thunder Birds.  Kim Wilson and the band where way cool to me
and all but as soon as I was done sitting in with them, I split, never
saying goodbye, or even thank you. I left to go see Walter Wolfman
Washington. The locals call this every other Saturday show ³Going To Church²
cause Walter comes on at 12:00am so it¹s technically Sunday and he¹s God.
You have not heard a vocalist this stunning. The Maple Leaf is a little
famous local dive near the original Tipatina¹s outside the Quarter I think.
It¹s been in some movies namely ³Angel Heart² with Mickey Rourke. It¹s small
and gets crammed quickly. Any one can show up to jam at any time, but they
don¹t let just anyone get up. You wouldn¹t want to sit in anyway you¹d be
too high. With Walter... just sit back and let his Guitar strings bend out
at you till they prick one of your veins and all those four octaves of New
Orleans, dope drenched, vocals start plunging through your blood and rushing
to your heart where soon and instantly after they arrive your stomach will
be warm and everything will be alright at Church... Tis  morning at the
Maple Leaf -Thanks Be to Walter ­Amen.
 
7.)  Pat Ramsey 1995 Beal Street Memphis. This wasn¹t even Pat¹s show it was
an open jam. First I heard Billy Gibson for the first time and was blown
away. Then Billy said to me: ³Wait till you hear this next guy². I was 20
years old, had snuck in the Bar. Pat started playing I listened to his three
songs, drove home to Maine, quit school in Idaho, moved to Memphis, waited
tables and went to everyone of Pat¹s gigs almost (unless I was playing) for
an entire year, revamped my entire sound around his, enough said. Love you
Dad!
 
 
8.)  Pharaoh Sanders some theatre Raleigh North Carolina. Some of you will
inevitably doubt this shows description and will try like men do, to find a
logical reason for the events I am about to tell you. Even worse, many will
now begin to doubt my sincerity and accuracy in all my past show reporting,
like a reputable and decorated airline pilot or scientist is discredited and
fired from work for reporting a bright saucer shaped disc in the sky moving
at speeds unknown to man, just remember this: you weren¹t there. Pharaoh
played mostly blues that night...My favorite record of his is ³Thembi² so it
wasn¹t the ³Mystical² sound I was hoping for... at first...then...he stepped
away from the microphone blew into his horn took his mouth completely off
the horn and fingered the keys of the horn music came out
everywhere...Alright you don¹t believe me fine go read the ³Power of Myth²
by Joseph Campbell...Its not a myth though... not a trick, it wasn¹t the
mic, he was four feet to the side of it, standing on the edge of the stage,
there was no horn mic clipped on either generating feed back, no sample box
it¹s not his style any way. It was real to me then and now. That was some
mystical, levitating, mind expanding, space/time transcending, water into
wine, Timothy Leary, walk on water, Red Sea parting, faith healing, shiny
saucer shaped, discs moving at warp speeds style blues that night.
 
9.)  R.L. Burnside/ Junior Kimbrough numerous jooks around Holly Springs MS.
I was living and playing a lot with Junior¹s son David ³Malone² Kimbrough at
this time in 1995. The reason these two are grouped together is because I
always saw them together, never at the same time, but always in the same
night. Junior¹s kids backed R.L. and R.L¹s kids backed Junior all at
different times and I was on stage for most of them that year. Because I was
often playing, I hesitated to include this show/shows, but Man!!!.... I
WASN¹T one of them, I wanted to be but I couldn¹t. I tried. I was a kid,
just there with my harmonica trying to ³get it² and not get in the way.
Trying to be black, trying to be real...I was confused. You know I don¹t
know if that¹s true...the trying not to get in the way part... I don¹t know
how much respect I really had at that time for these cats...I understood
this music was transcendental because I felt it. That happened to me,
because the music along with corn liquor, reefer, the atmosphere, the state
the people and other intoxicants sent me further and deeper into a silent
mind and egoless state where I didn¹t care or know who I was, if I really
got it, or was black enough or real enough. I knew these guys were all of
that though. They were real. Life had happened to them, and it was happening
to me with them from these shows and from the parties, the stealing,
playing, hustling, running, the fucking, sleeping, the eating, joking,
lying, sharing, the loving, the fighting and the being I did with them that
year in 1995. It was too much too put here about a show. The whole year The
whole life was part of the show.Dig? What can I tell you about these
two...You just had to sit in that shack out in the middle of the woods
surrounded by booze, and reefer and droning guitars, tribal drums, and
groovy repetitive bass lines.... being a white kid from Maine.... Lost!....
Too Sane!.... Too Smart....Too Stupid....Desperate!... High!... All that at
once. Out in the kudzu buried Mississippi moonlight swamp hills sitting in
this shack this Juke
Joint...Lonely...Alone...Loneliness...different...disconnected and THEN! and
THEN!.... you lookup to the stage where your not playing for good reason and
see a big, dark, black, very serious man wearing a blue plaid hunter¹s
flannel shirt, old trucker cap, dirty jeans and work boots, sitting in a
folding chair with a guitar and a band made up of his offspring and he
stares right at you, never breaking eye contact with that bloodshot, dark
ringed gaze, and with a bright white, evil, knowing and  content grin on his
face He sings to you:           ³I¹D RATHER    BE DEAD,
            I¹D RATHER BE    DEAD,
         SIX FEET IN THE GROUND².