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Author Topic: new DVD mose vinson  (Read 2661 times)

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Offline hortig78rpm

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new DVD mose vinson
« on: May 28, 2009, 11:19:56 PM »
hello

I`ve found a new DVD about the life of barrelhouse pianist mose vinson from memphis. filmed in the late 7o`s when vinson was at his peak , it`s a must for every prewar blues fan ( yes country blues can also be piano)

order:www.alexiskrasilovsky.com

regards
mike

Offline waxwing

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2009, 12:25:56 AM »
Hey Mike,

Welcome to Weenie Campbell.

You'll find some awareness of CB piano here. Check the Tags list (I'll added a Mose Vinson and a piano Tag to this thread). But every year at Port Townsend, a West Coast Country Blues camp that many of us go to, where there are many pianists, I often wonder why they don't seem to have such a keen interest in the old players that the guitar players do. Any ideas?

Wax
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
George Bernard Shaw

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
Joseph Heller, Catch-22

http://www.youtube.com/user/WaxwingJohn
CD on YT

Offline hortig78rpm

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2009, 01:55:05 AM »
hello wax !

there are two things about the "underinterest" in country blues piano.
1) in the 4o`s the juke box "removed " the piano out of the jukes and bars and in the electryfied bands there was no place for a piano anymore. due to this, most of the early pianists  changed their lives and went on doing regular work and so dropped out of sight
2) in the latre 5o`s early 6o`s , the folknicks were only interested in the ol time guitar players like house, james, hurt etc. nobody really
was interested in discovering pianoplayers except strachwitz ( robert shaw, alex moore ,buster pickens).
imagine that walter roland still lived until the early 7o`s. will ezell lived next to the delmark record store and died in the mid 6o`s and many more.
I did to trips to the south in 198o and 1981 and found many of them still in a fine form .

regards
mike

Offline Slack

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2009, 08:52:00 AM »
Welcome to Weeniecampbell Mike.  We also feature "Piano Hour" on Weenie Juke Radio, played a couple of times on Saturday - nothing but Country Blues piano (well, almost nothing).

Cheers,

Offline waxwing

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2009, 09:08:19 AM »
I agree with your two points, Mike, altho' I'd say the solo blues guitarist was removed from the bars by the same juke boxes.

Another major influence that changed blues in the '40s was electrification, and I think this had a far greater effect on guitar playing styles than on piano playing styles, turning the guitar into a lead instrument in a band setting where previously it was pretty much relegated to rhythm unless played by a solo singer. Today a young guitarist who wants to play in an acoustic country blues style has to look primarily to the pre war players to learn the basics of the instrument, whereas a young pianist does not see such a strong demarcation between the styles of pre-electric and post-electric piano players. Boogie woogie piano is boogie woogie piano, whether the player is pre-electric (i.e."country") or not. Thoughts?

Wax
« Last Edit: May 29, 2009, 09:09:54 AM by waxwing »
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
George Bernard Shaw

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
Joseph Heller, Catch-22

http://www.youtube.com/user/WaxwingJohn
CD on YT

Offline onewent

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2009, 11:41:29 AM »
..and I'd add to the above info, the 'guitar god' syndrome that developed in the 60's onward, for better or worse, had a huge influence on that generation, and beyond, plus, the 'folkie' portablitiy of a guitar ie hitch hiking w/ guitar in hand, and, ..pianos never got the girls  :o  Tom

Offline oddenda

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2009, 02:10:46 PM »
Ever tried to drag a piano down to the crossroads?

Peter B.

Offline poymando

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2009, 11:16:22 AM »
Man, reading this post made me think of one of my favorite old time blues players, Blind John Davis.
Great clip here:

Offline waxwing

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2009, 03:46:39 PM »
That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

Now, does someone listening to that music say, "Oh, that's that old country blues." or do they just hear it as blues, with no sense of datedness about it? I think piano blues has more of a timeless quality, whereas solo guitar blues really says "country blues" to most folks, unless you have something like Buddy Guy, or even (I hesitate to mention) Eric Clapton, where they are mostly playing licks from the electric guitar vernacular, rife with more modern, jazzier chords, and often needing some sort of backing by another instrument.

Wax
« Last Edit: May 30, 2009, 03:48:01 PM by waxwing »
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
George Bernard Shaw

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
Joseph Heller, Catch-22

http://www.youtube.com/user/WaxwingJohn
CD on YT

Offline hortig78rpm

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2009, 10:31:11 PM »
that leads to the mystic word" country blues" this and " city blues" , " barrelhouse piano" where made by whites and not by the musicians. And I think, "country blues" is the most "rapped" word in blues-history.
A term, for a long time describing accustic blues guitar lead to much missunderstanding. many of the old time, old style giutarists liked to play electric guitars simply to be better heard and for a easier playing instead of the steel strings .
country blues: blues played in the country not in the city? right? so , pianists like the first, second generation
who played in the numerous jukes on the highways, the lumber, turpentine camps, on the levees or along the tracks of the railway lines, all these are "country blues musicians"?
don`t worry. seem like a little "wake up country blues". these all are styles played in certain regions or states, which later fell into the idiom " country blues". As in the blues guitar landscape ( country blues) you can put
most of the musicians into these styles with a certain kind og playing, with certain songs, only played by them.
same for the ( country ) piano blues:  in mississippi, the circle round l.b. montgomery and 44 taylor originated the "44 blues", while the so called " santa fee group" intexas originated numbers like jim napy, ma grinder
in alabama, jabbo williams or walter roland came up with " louisse blues".

later on many pianists headed north, chanced their styles to be accepted by blues bands as did f.e. sunnyland slim. but also many of them went up to the cities only to get a regular job, keeping their styles alive, like mose vinson or his good time fellow memphis piano red.

what you`re thinking bout that??
mike 

Offline waxwing

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #10 on: June 01, 2009, 12:02:16 AM »
Ah, yes, totally agree regarding "country blues". Many discussions have ensued on just that distinction. Lets use "pre-war blues" instead? Now, when we ask Joe Everyman to listen to two records, one pre-war blues with guitar, one post-war blues with guitar, he has little trouble telling us which is which. Now we play him two records, one a pre-war blues with piano, one post-war blues with piano, perhaps he has a little more trouble discerning? Of course, Ed, the expert, has no problem, even telling us who the players are by name, and region. But really, the differences in style you speak of are beyond most folks who do not take a deeper interest in the pre-war development of the blues. And you can't really blame guitarists for, well, being guitar-centric. But you can see why pianists have less interest in understanding the differences in the styles until they become far more developed, because the nuances in the styles are much more subtle than the differences between the acoustic and the electric guitar.

And I agree with you, it is very frustrating, for anyone interested in the development of all the blues instruments (and I think you'll find a fair number of these folks here), that all these guitar players are causing the greater popularity of only one segment of the music. But it is understandable, due to these several factors. (including the one about dragging a piano to the crossroads -G-)

However, please do not let this deter you, I for one, and I know many others here, who understand these issues, would be happy to see more knowledgeable discussion of pre-war (or however you want to categorize it) piano blues. Thanks.

Wax
« Last Edit: June 01, 2009, 12:04:52 AM by waxwing »
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
George Bernard Shaw

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
Joseph Heller, Catch-22

http://www.youtube.com/user/WaxwingJohn
CD on YT

Offline hortig78rpm

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2009, 12:15:50 AM »
thanks a lot for your response. and something else, the first major blues-hits ( except the classical female singers)
came from piano man: pinetops boogie, how long blues, black girl blues..

when I started playing blues piano some 3o years ago, I recognized, that there had been a lot of piano players who played in the boogie stylings of ammons , lewis and johnson. so I turned to the lesser known pianists of the 2o`s and 3o`s like montana taylor, henry brown etc, and still keep these long lost styles alive.

I wonder if the unpublished book on texas blues ( mccormack/oliver) will ever be issued, for there should be much information of the texas piano schools, which had been more popular in the 2p`s and 3o`s than the texas guitarists.

but not to talk only bout the pianists. there had been such a great number of great ,unknown guitzarists recorded only one or two tunes, like jim tomkins, freezone, seith richards, who all beat the over recorded masters like blind lemon or rambling thomas. and still in the 8o`s many of young prewarstyled gitarrists could be found in the delta as I remeber meeting jommy holmes in bentonia in 198o when he was completly unknown, but loved to play with jackie owens in the old styles, whatch out, now he`s got known some 2o years later and not as beeing lost like a  w.c. ( not really in remembrance) walker, Ive met in clarksdale, who was round 3o year old but had an imense taste for drugs, maybe that killed him  .

regards
mike

Offline Slack

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Re: new DVD mose vinson
« Reply #12 on: June 02, 2009, 09:32:40 AM »
Mike here is an old discussion entitled:

Country/City, Pre/Post-War Blues--What about it?

That you might be interested in...

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=128&topic=418.0

Tags: Mose Vinson piano 
 


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