Growing up listening to these albums along with BB King Live at the Regal, BB King and Bobby "Blue" Bland Together for the First Time...Live, and James Brown Live at the Apollo created my love for live music. Well, that and seeing BB King live every year from ages 6 to 16 and seeing Prince open for Rick James. Thus, as you indicate, the church, the cafe, and the juke joint were some of the few places where black folks could be whoever they were in their fullness, which is why the live performances were so powerful. As such, these two albums show us that, originally, studio records were a faint attempt to capture the magic of live performances and that the most skilled artists always take the audience beyond the recording to a new and heightened experience with the live performance. As Miles Davis famously said to Herbie Hancock, "Don't play it the same effin' way every effin' night!" because the circumstances of the night and venue should dictate the performance of the work.
This is just beautiful, I hope you are going to put these essays in a book. You have a wonderful insight into so many kinds of music. Looking forward to you writing about jazz.
Having grown up in Philadelphia in the 50’s and 60’s, when visiting the family in the South I was shocked at the visible racism, signs on shops and public places that proclaimed Whites Only. Philly had a more subtle racism and black music was the Philadelphia Sound until the ‘80’s.
Growing up listening to these albums along with BB King Live at the Regal, BB King and Bobby "Blue" Bland Together for the First Time...Live, and James Brown Live at the Apollo created my love for live music. Well, that and seeing BB King live every year from ages 6 to 16 and seeing Prince open for Rick James. Thus, as you indicate, the church, the cafe, and the juke joint were some of the few places where black folks could be whoever they were in their fullness, which is why the live performances were so powerful. As such, these two albums show us that, originally, studio records were a faint attempt to capture the magic of live performances and that the most skilled artists always take the audience beyond the recording to a new and heightened experience with the live performance. As Miles Davis famously said to Herbie Hancock, "Don't play it the same effin' way every effin' night!" because the circumstances of the night and venue should dictate the performance of the work.
You make it hard to comment on these posts. Why? Because you say everything that needs to be said. Beautifully.
This is just beautiful, I hope you are going to put these essays in a book. You have a wonderful insight into so many kinds of music. Looking forward to you writing about jazz.
Having grown up in Philadelphia in the 50’s and 60’s, when visiting the family in the South I was shocked at the visible racism, signs on shops and public places that proclaimed Whites Only. Philly had a more subtle racism and black music was the Philadelphia Sound until the ‘80’s.
It still angers me that nobody will ever go to prison for murdering Sam Cooke.