[Harp-L] Carey Bell RIP

["Glenn Weiser" <celticguitar1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I looked through the last several of my Harp-L digests and couldn't find an 
obituary posted for Carey Bell. So, sadly, here is one from the Chicago 
tribune.
I met Cary a few times, interviewed him once for my book "Master's of the 
Blues Harp," and thought he was a great player.

-Glenn Weiser

CHICAGO (AP) - Blues harmonica player Carey Bell, who performed with both 
Muddy Waters' and Willie Dixon's bands, has died of heart failure. He was 
70.

Bell died Sunday at Kindred Hospital, according to Alligator Records, which 
released several of Bell's albums.

"He was truly a master of his instrument. He learned the blues from living 
the blues," said label president Bruce Iglauer. "When he picked up that 
harp, it was deep down. He reached in."

Carey Bell Harrington was born on Nov. 14, 1936, in Macon, Mississippi. He 
wanted a saxophone but his family could not afford one. Instead, his 
grandfather bought him a harmonica.

He was playing the harmonica by age 8, and in 1956, at age 19, he moved to 
Chicago with his godfather, pianist Lovie Lee.

Soon, he was supporting himself as a professional musician, playing on the 
street for tips, Iglauer said.

He met and learned from Marion "Little Walter" Jacobs and Sonny Boy 
Williamson II, but found a special fatherly mentor in Big Walter Horton, 
Iglauer said.

Bell was a bridge between the styles of first-generation Chicago blues 
players such as Jacobs and Horton and the players who followed, such as 
Billy Branch, said Iglauer.

"Carey took the big tone that Little Walter brought with amplifying the 
harmonica in the first place and using distortion from the microphone to 
thicken the sound of the instrument, and he combined that with a funkier, 
more contemporary rhythm feel," Iglauer said.

Bell spent 1971 traveling and recording with Muddy Waters, and can be heard 
on Waters' "The London Sessions." He worked regularly in the 1970s with 
Willie Dixon's Chicago Blues All-Stars.

Branch replaced Bell in Dixon's band, but the two developed a taunting, yet 
friendly, rivalry over the ensuing years, Branch said.

"He would come to my gigs and surprise me," Branch recalled. "And sometimes, 
right in the middle of my solo, he'd say, 'Give me that harp.' And I'd give 
it to him!"

Branch said Bell's style was so unique he has trouble describing it. He 
visited Bell in the hospital Friday, and while the bluesman was in and out 
of consciousness, "I got him to respond by imitating one of his signature 
licks. He turned around like, 'There you go, stealing my stuff again.'"

Iglauer served as producer for several of Bell's albums, including "Harp 
Attack" - which also featured Junior Wells, James Cotton and Branch - along 
with the solo records "Deep Down" in 1995 and "Good Luck Man" in 1997.

He said Bell never planned too far ahead, would show up for gigs in 
suspenders, and had a missing front tooth he never replaced. He had little 
formal education, and his reading and writing skills were limited, Iglauer 
said.

"He was just such a sweet, gentle guy, with a huge ability to laugh at 
himself," Iglauer said. "And he took great pleasure in bringing joy to other 
people. When he'd play harmonica and people applauded, he just loved it, he 
glowed."

Bell is survived by 10 children, including gifted blues guitarist and 
vocalist Lurrie Bell, with whom he recorded the 2004 album "Second Nature." 
Funeral arrangements are pending.


Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press