Re: [Harp-L] the difference between funk and blues; a response to JR Ross

billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx · Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:37:05 +0000

I was also going to ask how he explains "Wonderful Tonight" in a blues vein :^)

I see Tim beat me to it, along with others. He's a great artist, not everything he's done is my cup of tea. For example that particular song, if I never hear it again would be too soon.  But then there's "From the Cradle".

Bill

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Mike Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>
> I just read Clapton's bio a week ago.  He considers himself a bluesman first and 
> foremost.  To make a long story short, he left several bands because he felt 
> himself a purist.  For example, he left the Yardbirds as soon as they hit 
> big...because they became pop.  Later in his career (which was heavily distorted 
> through the use of drugs and alcohol), he was teamed up with people like Phil 
> Collins and his songs became more pop and contemporary (like the use of 
> synthesizers).
> 
> Listen to his vocal delivery (sounds like Otis Rush) and his guitar playing.  
> Even on his most pop of tunes, it is all very deeply blues based.  There are a 
> few Cream tunes where they were playing crazy jam music and he'd come in with a 
> solo that reeked of the King's.
> 
> Finally, if he was good enough for Muddy...who loved EC...than he's blues enough 
> in my book!
> 
> Harp content:  Eric sites LW as one of his primary influences.
> 
> Mike Fugazzi
> 
> Harmonica/Vocals
> 
> http://www.myspace.com/niterailband
> 
> http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "Music should be healing; music should uplift the soul; music should inspire. 
> There is no better way of getting closer to God, of rising higher towards the 
> spirit, of attaining spiritual perfection than music, if only it is rightly 
> understood."
> 
> -Hazrat Inayat Khan
> 
> --- On Mon, 8/25/08, mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Fwd:  [Harp-L] the difference between funk and blues; a response to JR 
> Ross
> To: mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx
> Date: Monday, August 25, 2008, 1:56 PM
> 
> --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Buddha <groovygypsy@...> wrote:
> 
> Jonathan,
> 
> 
> Here's the vid from the original post for comparison
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdyvPg0c6bI
> 
> Blues or Funk?
> 
> Is this funk?  it's blues because it's slower?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge9u4g12FsE
> 
> gee do you think John Lee Hooker was influence on this?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOyj4ciJk34
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y4wne1Cl_I
> 
> Of course JLH can be funky so maybe you're right
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-VN1-XR0Vs
> 
> Do you hear any similarities to this classic funk tune featuring James
> Cotton?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K91Qj870HHk
> 
> Found a version with a harp leading the tune...ah yes, Freddie made it
> sound funky and this harp player makes it sounds bluesy. Good thing I
> took my medication today otherwise this morning I would have thought
> they sounded the same. Nice funky guitar solo.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZPLJw5aXIw
> 
> Here's a similar groove but lead by harmonica players and it's slower
> so not too funky.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb5GVVKU7eM
> 
> let's say you're the harp player leadign a jam and you want to play
> over this groove. What do you tell the band?  Gimme a funk groove or
> gimme a fast john lee hooker train style shuffle?  Maybe in Hew
> Hampshire calling a funk will get you that but in Phoenix call a funk
> groove will get you something like this
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyUY9A057JI
> 
> On the topic of Eric Clapp. Maybe his website is incorrect but...
> 
> When he was 16, Eric began studying at the Kingston College of Art on
> a one-year probation. He was expelled at the end of that time for lack
> of progress as he had not submitted enough work. The reason? Guitar
> playing and listening to the blues dominated his waking hours.
> 
> Typical of his introspective nature, Eric looked beneath the surface
> and explored the roots of rock in American Blues. The blues also
> meshed perfectly with his self-perception as an outsider and of being
> "different" from other people. Sometime in 1962, he asked for his
> grandparents' help in purchasing a Â£100 electric double cutaway Kay
> (a Gibson ES-335 clone) after hearing the electric blues of Freddie
> King, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and others.
> 
> 
> 
> ***************
> Bulldogge Ross wrote:
> 
> I don't claim to speak for "blues harp players", and don't
> really
> claim to be one in particular, but I'll take the questions anyway.
> 
> All quotes are from Chris:
> 
> "Why is this considered blues but if it were played on a harp it
> wouldn't be blues?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdyvPg0c6bI";;
> 
> 
> This is in reference to a Freddie King video and my answer is simple--
> it would be considered blues if a harp player was the lead instead of
> King. I say that because this is very similar (essentially the same)
> musical ground which James Cotton and Junior Wells were tilling from
> the late sixties on. I think a better question would be is this blues
> or is it funk. It is an example (as are many of Cotton and Wells'
> songs, and others such as Albert Collins) of how genres influence each
> other and can blend together in ways which go beyond absolute brand
> labels. So I'd argue the answer to the question of is it blues or is
> it funk would be along the lines of either yes or it depends on how
> you choose to look at it.
> 
> For an example of harp which mixes blues and funk together, try this:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nuOWuhWNmI&feature=related
> 
> 
> "Why is only one of these players considered a "blues man"
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmEBTUbaWjA";;
> 
> 
> 
> Probably because Eric Clapton has tended to focus on playing rock/pop
> rather than the blues per se for most of his career, whereas Buddy Guy
> has always defined himself as a blues musician and has very deep and
> direct roots in the blues tradition, unlike Clapton who came to it
> after the tradition had already been codified. Bands like Cream, Blind
> Faith and his 70's solo work are all blues-influenced, but don't
> really sit as purely in the genre as some others (including some of
> his English contemporaries). In the end it's a bit like asking why
> Louis Jordan is often not considered a jazz sax player but a
> rhythm&blues one--it's essentially only important to people who want
> to pigeonhole music into easily defined categories.
> 
> However, that doesn't mean that categories don't exist, rather that
> they are often hard to define in any abstract, absolute or even
> objective way. The phrase "I know it when I hear it" may seem trite,
> but it is more often correct than not in these cases, IMO.
> 
> 
> 
>  ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
> ()  ()
> `----'
> 
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> 
> 
> 
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