５月８日はあの師匠の。。
５月８日はなんの日だっけ？てっきり忘れていたぜ。生誕１００年ということでワシントンポストに記事が掲載されているこの人物。
Robert Johnson: The bluesman, the myth, the legend
By David Brown, Published: May 7
GREENWOOD, Miss. — It’s probably a good thing that Robert Johnson has three graves outside this Mississippi Delta town. If the devil comes back to claim his share of the royalties, the confusion should give the long-dead bluesman a head start.On the other hand, the people he really might need to shake are the interpreters, ythologizers, agents and lawyers.
Audio: Listen to clips of "Sweet Home Chicago," "Cross Road Blues" and other Johnson songs at amazon.com
The legendary bluesman, possibly the most influential of the Delta acoustic school, would have turned 100 Sunday. Johnson’s birthday is being celebrated here with a four-day festival of music, art, talk, T-shirts and posters. Leflore County’s 825 hotel rooms are almost all booked. German public radio is making an hour-long special. One of the headliners is Johnson’s grandson Steven, who will play music Saturday night in the town park and preach a sermon at a country church Sunday afternoon.Such Robert Johnson songs as “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Dust My Broom” and “Cross Road Blues” are part of the repertoire of nearly every musician seeking the roots of this uniquely American musical genre. They’re on records by Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and many other bands. There are 30 records with at least one Johnson song on them that have sold more than a million copies.“His songs have made millions of dollars for dozens of people,” said Stephen LaVere, a Greenwood resident and one of the people responsible for turning the bluesman, who died at age 27, into a postmortem commercial success.“We wonder why Robert was so important today when there were lots of other cats who sold tons more records and who had lots more sway among other artists in their lifetime,” said Scott Ainslie, a 58-year-old singer and musicologist from Vermont who’s here this weekend and has done more than anyone to deconstruct Johnson’s performance technique.The answer, according to Ainslie, lies in Johnson’s ability to recapitulate piano stylings on the guitar, his eagerness to incorporate what he learned from live musicians and from records, and his strategic appreciation of the 78 rpm disc’s demand for art lasting just three minutes.Whatever the explanation, the rediscovery of Johnson in the 1960s, when some of his 29 recorded songs were released in LP form, was a revelation.“Robert was like a gateway drug to the world of the blues for young rock-and-rollers and blues fans like me,” Ainslie said.Born in Hazlehurst, Miss., 120 miles south of Greenwood, Johnson spent most of his life in the Delta, which is the oval flood plain of the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers running from Memphis to Vicksburg, Miss. He was a “walking musician,” a professional who, unlike many of the blues’ founding fathers, used his talent to escape a life of farmwork. He performed in countless juke joints in Mississippi and Arkansas, traveled as far as St. Louis and Brooklyn, N.Y., to play, and recorded 29 songs in two recording sessions, one in San Antonio in 1936 and the second in Dallas in 1937.His travels and playing came to an untimely end, however, when he died Aug. 16, 1938, outside Greenwood. The cause was reportedly whiskey poisoned by a juke-joint owner, whose wife Johnson was romancing. He lingered two to six weeks before succumbing to pneumonia or died raving in a few days — accounts differ. And was buried someplace.His high-pitched voice and haunting, inscrutable lyrics captivated listeners when a collection of some of his songs was released in 1961 as the album “King of the Delta Blues Singers.” Musicians were impressed by his virtuoso guitar work. After hearing a song in which there was a rhythm-bearing bass line and intricate melody-making, Keith Richards famously remarked, “Who’s the other guy ？playing with him”
天才、鬼才、悪魔あらゆる形容詞が陳腐に聞こえるというこの男。そうジミヘンと同じだ。一体どれだけ多くのミュージシャンがカバーをしてきたことか。ストーンズ、クリーム、ツェッペリン、ジョニーウィンターなどなど。。。そう、ロバートリロイジョンソン師匠だ。1911年５月８日にミシシッピのヘイズルハーストに生まれ1938年、同じくミシシシッピのグリーンウッドで怒涛の人生にピリオドをうってしまった。。彼より７歳も先輩の1904年生まれのスリーピージョンエステスが来日したことを考えると感慨深いものがある。
こ記事の最後が気にいったので、赤線で太くしておいた。キースリトャードが初めて彼のブルースを聴いた時にこう言ったのだ「ロバートと一緒に弾いているのは誰なんだ？」つまりこういうことだ。ロバートのブルースギターはとても一人で歌いながら弾けるような簡単なものでなく必ず誰かもう一人が弾いているとキースは考えたのだ。そして、ロバートが歌いながら、ベースラインを刻み、ボトルネックでメロディーを奏で、尚且リズムカッティングをサイドギターワークでぶちかますというという事を一人でやってのけている事実に衝撃を受けたのだ。同じようなことをクラプトン、Ｊウィンター、Ｊハモンドジュニアも証言している。そうそれはあたかもジミヘンのジョニーＢグッドのようだ。（「ライヴインザウェスト」という名盤の中での名演中の名演）歌いながらあんな凄いギターは弾けないと言わせしめる演奏。壮絶にして華麗なロバートジョンソンとジミヘンドリクス。彼等の存在するステージは「天才」などというありふれた形容詞とは無縁だ。二人とも悪魔に魂を売り渡して若くして他界してしまった。
Robert Johnson: The bluesman, the myth, the legend
By David Brown, Published: May 7
GREENWOOD, Miss. — It’s probably a good thing that Robert Johnson has three graves outside this Mississippi Delta town. If the devil comes back to claim his share of the royalties, the confusion should give the long-dead bluesman a head start.On the other hand, the people he really might need to shake are the interpreters, ythologizers, agents and lawyers.
Audio: Listen to clips of "Sweet Home Chicago," "Cross Road Blues" and other Johnson songs at amazon.com
The legendary bluesman, possibly the most influential of the Delta acoustic school, would have turned 100 Sunday. Johnson’s birthday is being celebrated here with a four-day festival of music, art, talk, T-shirts and posters. Leflore County’s 825 hotel rooms are almost all booked. German public radio is making an hour-long special. One of the headliners is Johnson’s grandson Steven, who will play music Saturday night in the town park and preach a sermon at a country church Sunday afternoon.Such Robert Johnson songs as “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Dust My Broom” and “Cross Road Blues” are part of the repertoire of nearly every musician seeking the roots of this uniquely American musical genre. They’re on records by Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and many other bands. There are 30 records with at least one Johnson song on them that have sold more than a million copies.“His songs have made millions of dollars for dozens of people,” said Stephen LaVere, a Greenwood resident and one of the people responsible for turning the bluesman, who died at age 27, into a postmortem commercial success.“We wonder why Robert was so important today when there were lots of other cats who sold tons more records and who had lots more sway among other artists in their lifetime,” said Scott Ainslie, a 58-year-old singer and musicologist from Vermont who’s here this weekend and has done more than anyone to deconstruct Johnson’s performance technique.The answer, according to Ainslie, lies in Johnson’s ability to recapitulate piano stylings on the guitar, his eagerness to incorporate what he learned from live musicians and from records, and his strategic appreciation of the 78 rpm disc’s demand for art lasting just three minutes.Whatever the explanation, the rediscovery of Johnson in the 1960s, when some of his 29 recorded songs were released in LP form, was a revelation.“Robert was like a gateway drug to the world of the blues for young rock-and-rollers and blues fans like me,” Ainslie said.Born in Hazlehurst, Miss., 120 miles south of Greenwood, Johnson spent most of his life in the Delta, which is the oval flood plain of the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers running from Memphis to Vicksburg, Miss. He was a “walking musician,” a professional who, unlike many of the blues’ founding fathers, used his talent to escape a life of farmwork. He performed in countless juke joints in Mississippi and Arkansas, traveled as far as St. Louis and Brooklyn, N.Y., to play, and recorded 29 songs in two recording sessions, one in San Antonio in 1936 and the second in Dallas in 1937.His travels and playing came to an untimely end, however, when he died Aug. 16, 1938, outside Greenwood. The cause was reportedly whiskey poisoned by a juke-joint owner, whose wife Johnson was romancing. He lingered two to six weeks before succumbing to pneumonia or died raving in a few days — accounts differ. And was buried someplace.His high-pitched voice and haunting, inscrutable lyrics captivated listeners when a collection of some of his songs was released in 1961 as the album “King of the Delta Blues Singers.” Musicians were impressed by his virtuoso guitar work. After hearing a song in which there was a rhythm-bearing bass line and intricate melody-making, Keith Richards famously remarked, “Who’s the other guy ？playing with him”
天才、鬼才、悪魔あらゆる形容詞が陳腐に聞こえるというこの男。そうジミヘンと同じだ。一体どれだけ多くのミュージシャンがカバーをしてきたことか。ストーンズ、クリーム、ツェッペリン、ジョニーウィンターなどなど。。。そう、ロバートリロイジョンソン師匠だ。1911年５月８日にミシシッピのヘイズルハーストに生まれ1938年、同じくミシシシッピのグリーンウッドで怒涛の人生にピリオドをうってしまった。。彼より７歳も先輩の1904年生まれのスリーピージョンエステスが来日したことを考えると感慨深いものがある。
こ記事の最後が気にいったので、赤線で太くしておいた。キースリトャードが初めて彼のブルースを聴いた時にこう言ったのだ「ロバートと一緒に弾いているのは誰なんだ？」つまりこういうことだ。ロバートのブルースギターはとても一人で歌いながら弾けるような簡単なものでなく必ず誰かもう一人が弾いているとキースは考えたのだ。そして、ロバートが歌いながら、ベースラインを刻み、ボトルネックでメロディーを奏で、尚且リズムカッティングをサイドギターワークでぶちかますというという事を一人でやってのけている事実に衝撃を受けたのだ。同じようなことをクラプトン、Ｊウィンター、Ｊハモンドジュニアも証言している。そうそれはあたかもジミヘンのジョニーＢグッドのようだ。（「ライヴインザウェスト」という名盤の中での名演中の名演）歌いながらあんな凄いギターは弾けないと言わせしめる演奏。壮絶にして華麗なロバートジョンソンとジミヘンドリクス。彼等の存在するステージは「天才」などというありふれた形容詞とは無縁だ。二人とも悪魔に魂を売り渡して若くして他界してしまった。