le blues

Publiée le 11 juin 2013
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Strange Fruit" Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa From 2013 Album, Seesaw.

"Strange Fruit" is a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a white, Jewish high school teacher from the Bronx and a member of the Communist Party, and who later became better known as the adoptive father of the two sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the Jewish couple who were executed in 1953 for the alleged crime of giving the secret of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Writing under the pen name of Lewis Allan, the names of his two children who were stillborn, Meeropol set the poem to music on his own. For the first two years after it was written, the song was performed in political circles, at meetings, benefits and house parties.

The lyrics are under copyright but have been republished in full in an academic journal, with permission. In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynching's. He had seen Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. He published the poem under the title "Bitter Fruit" in 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine. Though Meeropol had often asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set "Strange Fruit" to music himself and the piece gained a certain success as a protest song in and around New York. Meeropol, his wife, and black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden.

The song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. The song has been covered by artists, as well as inspiring novels, other poems and other creative works. In 1978 Holiday's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Barney Josephson, the founder of Cafe Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday's show at Cafe Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Holiday first performed the song at Cafe Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the poignancy of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction, Holiday would stand with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer...
Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. Even John Hammond, Holiday's producer, refused so she turned to friend Milt Gabler, whose Commodore label produced alternative jazz.

(1999) Time magazine called it the song of the century.
(2002) The Library of Congress honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The big bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the leafs to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Publiée le 7 juil. 2013
Festival Roots in the park, Utrecht july 6 2013

Publiée le 31 mars 2013
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix.
"Georgia Blues" was recorded on March 19, 1969 at New York's Record Plant Studios with saxophonist Lonnie Youngblood

Publiée le 27 déc. 2012

Beth Hart & Jeff Beck perform "I'd Rather Go Blind" at the 35th Annual Kennedy Center Honors 2012 (December, 26 - CBS). They also joined Bonnie Raitt on stage for the grand all star finale "Sweet Home Chicago". Honoree: Buddy Guy.

Beth Hart's new album "Bang Bang Boom Boom" will be released in the USA on April 2, 2013 on Mascot Records.

Nous voilà dans le contexte de 1920; s'y intégrer pleinement nous donnera l’opportunité belle de capter ce Crazy Blues digne d'un délire érotique tout à fait hypersonique en flagrant délit de voodoo chile; soyons aux aguets de tout surtout...

Ce disque superbe Crazy Blues fut gravé un 14 septembre 1920 sous l'étiquette Okeh élucubrée en superbes lettres gothiques Ledit Crazy Blues fut remanié musicalement et vocalement pour devenir en 1935 Harlem Blues à entendre ci-dessus en Volet ultime

Ouais, sensas ce Harlem Blues don't cha' or y'a think Blues fellows ? I do think que l'expérience s'avère indéniablement une des seules cadences qui ne s'achète pas mais peut s'acquérir joyeusement avec et dans les bons temps, n'est-ce pas ?

Mamie Smith - Crazy blues

Mise en ligne le 13 août 2009
Mamie Smith & her Jazz Hounds - Crazy blues (1920)

I can't sleep at night
I can't eat a bite
'cause the man I love
He don't treat me right.
He makes me feel so blue.
I don't know what to do.
Sometime I sit and sigh
And then begin to cry
'cause my best friend
Said his last goodbye.
There's a change in the ocean,
Change in the deep blue sea, my baby,
I'll tell yo,u folks, there ain't no change in me.
My love for that man will always be.
Now I can read his letters.
I sure can't read his mind.
I thought he's lovin' me.
He's leavin' all the time.
Now I see my poor love was blind.
Now I got the crazy blues since my baby went away.
I ain't got no time to lose.
I must find him today.
Now the doctor's gonna do all that he can.
But what you're gonna need is an undertaker man.
I ain't had nothin' but bad news.
Now I got the crazy blues.

Mise en ligne le 26 févr. 2009

Blues singer Mamie Smith, who recorded the first vocal blues records for OKeh in 1921, sings "Harlem Blues" (actually a re-worked version of her first hit "Crazy Blues") accompanied by the Juanite Hall Singers.

Mise en ligne le 28 mars 2011
Janis Joplin-Trouble In Mind. 18 Essential Songs. 1st track on this album. Enjoy

Mise en ligne le 30 août 2008

From the album "I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama!" with The Kozmic Blues Band. Notice the superb guitar work by Michael Bloomfield. From FanOfJanis to YouTube. Peace.

Mise en ligne le 4 août 2006
Janis sings Try at the world's most famous music festival with her Kozmic Blues Band.

Mise en ligne le 6 déc. 2009
Eric Clapton & J.J. Cale- Ride The River, from the album The Road To Escondido