Magic Sam: Live at the Avant Garde

Blues & Rock/Rythm & Blues
premiera polska: 08.05.2014
kontynent: Ameryka Północna
kraj: USA
opakowanie: plastikowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com:
Ikona amerykańskiego bluesa w niepublikowanym nagraniu!
Był mistrzem i wzorem dla Luthera Allisona, Alberta Collinsa, Stevie'go Ray Vaughana, Roberta Craya, Lurrie'go Bella czy Gregga Allmana.

Willie Dixon, z którym współpracował powiedział o nim:
"Potrafi wydobyć z instrumentu tak bogate brzmienie, że wydaje się, iż używa dziesięciu różnych gitar. Gra bluesa dość niekonwencjonalnie, jakby wszystkie normy dotyczące rytmu dla niego nie istniały. Zawsze jednak w zadziwiający sposób potrafił wrócić do pierwotnej melodii. Dokładnie to samo dzieje się z jego obdarzonym niezwykłą wrażliwością głosem"

O całą epokę wyprzedzał Muddy'ego Watersa, Little Waltera czy Jimmy'ego Rogersa. Był jednym z pierwszych, którzy nawiązywali w bluesie do muzyki soulowej, co szczególnie dobrze słychać w niezwykłej ekspresji wokalnej tego bluesmana.

Jego album "West Side Soul", jest uznawany za jeden z najważniejszych w historii bluesa.

Nigdy nie zależało mu na rozgłosie. Nie lubił dużych składów, wolał triowe czy kwartetowe zespoły, idealnie pasujące do małych klubów. Obok przedwczesnej śmierci (zmarł na zawał serca, mając zaledwie trzydzieści dwa lata) była to jedna z przyczyn, że poza środowiskiem muzyków bluesowych pozostaje raczej postacią mało znaną.

Grał na gitarze Fender Stratocaster, bez użycia kostki, w 1982 roku Magic Sam pośmiertnie wpisany został do Blues Hall of Fame.

Wydana właśnie płyta "Live at the Avant Garde", to z górą 67 minutowy koncert zarejestrowany w klubie The Avant Garde w Milwaukee 22 czerwca 1968 roku. Trio w składzie Magic Sam - vocals, guitar, Big Mojo Elem - bass i Bob Richey - drums dało porywający koncert, wytwórnia Delmark, najsłynniejszy bluesowy wydawca w USA zadbała o doskonałe brzmienie tej unikalnej płyty.

Intensywny, ekspresyjny i przejmujący wokal Sama, będącego w świetnej dyspozycji, podnosi emocje w wielu momentach płyty, czysty geniusz Magic Sama w koncertowym, pełnym bluesowego ognia wydaniu!
autor: Marek Dębski

Editor’s info:
Before Magic Sam scored with 1967's West Side Soul (Delmark 615) his recorded legacy included a handful of sides for Cobra in the late `50s, Chief in the early `60s and a few miscellaneous 45s in the mid-`60s. But just when it looked like things were going to really take off for Sam he passed away on December 1, 1969 at the age of 32. Delmark issued 1968's Black Magic (Delmark 620) and there have been several posthumous releases of live recordings including the classic Live (Delmark 645). This album comes from a June 22, 1968 live concert recorded at the Avant Garde in Milwaukee. It features Magic Sam, vocals, guitar; Big Mojo Elem, bass and Bob Richey, drums. Over 65 minutes including "That's All I Need" "I Need You So Bad", "Two Trains Running", "Come On In This House" and more.

rockmrtom.wordpress.com:
The new Magic Sam album is outrageously great. I would say the same about virtually any other Sam Maghett recording–he never made a bad one, and that includes not only his studio work but the four live albums already available (five if one counts the solo house party set Give Me Time), which seem to have been taped almost by chance. Live at the Avant Garde is different in that it was recorded, at a Milwaukee appearance in 1968, to the highest standard of an amateur engineer. Though I had heard at least one of the earlier live shows in private circulation before it received its official (or semi-official) release, the existence of the Avant Garde tape came as a total surprise. Mindful of the adage about gift horses, I don’t question why it has become available after remaining a secret for so long. I am merely grateful, and deeply.

Unlike the other known live recordings of Sam, Avant Garde’s sound is clear and present, and the mix is fine (the set’s engineer and producer Jim Charne details the recording’s technical aspects in his liner notes). Sam’s voice and guitar are out front and crystal-clear, and Bob Richey’s drums are crisp as one could wish. Another reviewer has stated that Mojo Elem’s electric bass is inaudible. Not so. On my copy, it’s plenty loud enough for any blues band, provided that your taste has not been formed by rock soundmen, club DJs, or certain latter-day “blues” CD mixes. I’d also observe that Elem’s no-frills approach makes a better foundation for Sam than Bruce Barlow’s busy playing on Live 1969 • Raw Blues and the Ann Arbor sides.
. . .
The playlist, pretty typical of Sam’s live recordings, contains a variety of material intended to entertain. Sam’s ‘50s classics, those sinuous, minor-flavored, tremolo-laden sides that defined the West Side style for all time, are represented by “Bad Luck Blues” (originally “Out Of Bad Luck”), with Lowell Fulson’s “It’s All Your Fault Baby” and Jimmy McCracklin’s “Every Night, Every Day” performed in the same framework as a bonus. The innovative output of his two albums for Delmark is present in “That’s All I Need,” which retains its lilting, Sam Cooke flavor even at an accelerated tempo, and by the driving boogaloo “You Belong To Me.” Over the remainder of the 16 tracks, Sam interprets the work of heroes Bobby Bland (a live-wire “Don’t Want No Woman”), Muddy Waters (“Still A Fool”–harrowing–and “Hoochie Coochie Man”), Jimmy Rogers (“That’s All Right”), and B.B. King (a brilliant “Hully Gully Twist” and a loose “I Need You So Bad”), and contemporaries Freddy King (“San-Ho-Zay”), Junior Wells (a liquid “Come On In This House”), and Otis Rush, whose “All Your Love (I Miss Loving)” is a rare and special treat. Junior Parker’s Memphis stomp “Feelin’ Good” is here, as is the instrumental it inspired, Sam’s incredible, show-stopping boogie “Lookin’ Good.”
. . .
by TOM HYSLOP

All Music Guide:
(. . .) Live at the Avant Garde has a decidedly different feel than Magic Sam Live, which preserved radio broadcasts from 1963 and 1964 and a 1969 appearance at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival; while those recordings blazed with intensity, this captures Magic Sam and his band in more laid-back form, playing a small, booze-free venue rather than a rowdy bar or a festival audience in the thousands. Magic Sam may be in a more relaxed temper here, but his guitar work is absolutely on point; Sam's agile, incisive lead work, his dazzling string bends, and his fiery solos in which he fires off notes with the precision of a machine gun are all on display, confirming Sam's status as one of the most exciting and underrated players on the Chicago blues scene at the end of the '60s. Here, Sam is backed by Big Mojo Elem on bass and Bob Richey on drums, and if the rhythm section mostly stays out of the way, they give the tunes a rock-solid foundation and leave plenty of room for Sam to strut his stuff. Also, while the material on Magic Sam Live suffers from rather dodgy recording quality, for an amateur audience tape recorded in 1968, Live at the Avant Garde sounds remarkably good, with the instruments sounding clean and rich and Sam's voice suffering just a touch of distortion from the PA system. Magic Sam never broke through to real stardom, but he made a big impression during his short time in the spotlight, and Live at the Avant Garde shows he never dogged it, not even on a coffeehouse gig in Wisconsin, hardly a show where a blues legend would be expected to pull out all the stops (. . .)
by Mark Deming

muzycy:
Magic Sam, vocals, guitar
Big Mojo Elem, bass
Bob Richey, drums

utwory:
1. San-Ho-Zay
2. Don't Want No Woman
3. I Need You So Bad
4. Feelin' Good
5. It's All Your Fault Baby
6. You Belong To Me
7. Bad Luck Blues
8. Come On In This House
9. Hoochie Coochie Man
10. Still A Fool
11. That's All I Need
12. All Your Love (I Miss Loving)
13. That's All Right
14. Lookin' Good
15. Everynight Everyday
16. Hully Gully Twist

total time - 01:07:40
more info: www.delmark.com