Putumayo Presents Brazilian Cafe Raro
John Lee Hooker (1917-2001) was one of the blues’ most prolific artists, recording hundreds of songs for multiple record labels, ranging from solo acoustic numbers to swaggering electric tracks with a full band. No matter what the format, there were always three constants: Hooker’s unforgettable moaning vocals, foot-stomping accompaniment and trance-inducing guitar lines. Though Hooker is most often associated geographically with Detroit, where he made his first recordings, the foundation of his approach was born out of his childhood in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hooker used the traditional Delta blues style as a launching pad, often ignoring conventional meter and chord patterns in favor of a highly improvisational stream-of-consciousness approach where his droning, dark vocals and idiosyncratic guitar patterns dictated the action. “Baby Don’t Do Me Wrong” is a classic John Lee Hooker track that demonstrates the down-and-dirty groove that infuenced a generation of rock artists. Pulsing, raw around the edges, and deeply soulful, “Baby Don’t Do Me Wrong” reflects the ingenious ways John Lee Hooker adapted the rural blues of his early years into an electric setting.
Avoiding the powerful horn sections and uptempo arrangements of many urban blues styles, John Lee Hooker’s bass-heavy, repetitive riffs created an otherworldly vibe that dug deep into the African roots of the blues. Early Delta musical pioneers like Robert Johnson and Charley Patton set the standard, playing slide guitar and singing unaccompanied country blues that didn’t need a backing band. Patton and Johnson’s ferocious intensity and simultaneous rhythm and lead guitar playing made them one-man bands that kept dance oors packed. Meanwhile, piano players like Pinetop Perkins were accomplishing the same feat, sitting down alone at the ivories and pounding out boogie-woogie and aching slow numbers that kept revelers and lovers alike in rapture. It’s a place and era now shrouded in myth; Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads in exchange for his other- worldly skills remains one of the blues’ persistent legends. But there’s no denying the real proliferation of talented musicians who made their mark. Net Spy Pro Serial Ativa Office here. A new breed of musicians made honest, indigenous blues music that became part of the cultural fabric of the South – and laid the foundation for rock and roll.
In the 1940s, large segments of southern African-Americans migrated north, drawn by the promise of fruitful employment and a new way of life in urban centers like Chicago. Mississippi Blues traces this musical journey. Along the way, you’ll hear how innovators like Luther Allison and Ike and Tina Turner took the musical legacy of Robert Johnson and incorporated new regional and musical in uences, making individual statements of their own.
Geographically, the route extends from the electric sounds made in Chicago by Delta natives, to the sophisticated Memphis stylings of Tennessee’s Bobby “Blue” Bland, to the river’s final destination in Louisiana, where guitarist Chris Thomas King plays his own brand of acoustic blues. The pool of artists nurtured by the Mississippi River is as wide and vast as the river itself, and it would be impossible to t all those artists on a single compact disc.
But this cross-section of performers is a distillation of the region’s talent, and we hope it leads you on a memorable musical voyage, and inspires a fresh look at the beauty and vitality of Mississippi blues.