Book Excerpt: ‘I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya’

By Bobby Rush 
Mud, Walter, and Jimmy
After Big Joe Turner, the next person I saw at the Big Rec was Jimmy Reed. His performance had a profound effect on me. I had never heard a group that had Jimmy Reed’s band’s feel. There was a mysterious chemistry between the drummer, bassist, and guitarist. They were playing behind the beat—almost dragging—but it was still tight as a tick and hypnotizing. Ya couldn’t help but fall under the spell of that feel. A few years later, in 1957, you’d hear that vibe on one of his signature songs, “Honest I Do.”

But it cost me only 75 cents to change my life. ’Cause that was the ticket price to see Muddy Waters at the Big Rec. Little Walter was in his band. Muddy, with that moon face and twisted mouth, sang from the Rec stage like he was trying to tell me something. Raising his eyebrows high and low while he sang, he really let his band shine. Often he’d look at one of his musicians and say, “Play that thing, boy.”

With Little Walter blowin’ that harp right behind him, he gave praise up a lot. Like most young musicians, you learn by watching others. I soaked up every one of Muddy’s musicians that night. Going back and forth with my eyeballs, I was a sponge. And I would do a lot of soppin’ first time I saw Muddy Waters.

After seeing some greats perform at the Big Rec, my dreams felt possible. Because there they were, standing right in front of me. The greats came down to earth. What remained in outer space was recording and songwriting. I wanted to know more. And in my case, that was the basics. I started to listen to music, more like a doctor examining a patient. I checked out the lyrics. I learned what sets the verse apart from the hook, word-wise. I was figuring out what made great guitar riffs and the power of repetition that created a bass line. Still, I just kept putting my pennies together, working little jobs, and booking little gigs. From gig to gig I went, just trying to survive. This sounds crazy, but I didn’t know what I was doing—but somehow I knew what I was doing.

This was 1952, right before the dam burst with what would be the birth of rock ’n’ roll. But don’t get it twisted. As Ike Turner and a hundred other Negro musicians would soon say to me: that rock ’n’ roll is nothin’ but R&B.

Full interview on WBUR

Bobby Rush on TKA

Amanda Gorman, who impacted a global audience when she delivered the poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s Inauguration, closes the series with a powerful poem titled “The Miracle of Morning.”

It is the lone spoken word piece, but as she reads her words, Meshell Ndegeocello’s gentle and pensive music underscores her words. The episode ends with an animated version of Gorman stepped out onto the podium in that unforgettable yellow coat from Inauguration morning, and Ndegeocello’s music plays before the credits roll.

Written amid the pandemic, she reminds audiences of loss and discovering solidarity. Her words once again reinforce the message of the series, reminding viewers of a united country and the promise of healing.

“Do not ignore the pain. Give it purpose. Use it,” she says.

Read full article on Variety

Meshell Ndegeocello on TKA

From NPR:

From the first notes of Delvon Lamarr’s latest album, I thought, “This is juke joint music.” This album is perfect for small, packed, dimly lit venues that promise a good time, but not much in the way of air conditioning. I Told You So invites you to move, particularly on “Hole in One,” “Fo Sho,” and “Aces.” The trio says they “specialize in the lost art of ‘feel good music.'” After listening to this album’s blend of jazz, soul and funk (and after a year inside), any listener will be ready to find a hole in the wall to dance like their grandparents used to. —Mitra Arthur

Stream I Told You So here

Read the full article on NPR

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio on TKA

Nigel Hall released a new single, “The Sun.” The song is set to land on the Lettuce keyboardist and vocalist’s upcoming solo album, Spiritual, set to arrive on July 16 via Regime Music Group.

Hall announced Spiritual — the follow-up to his 2015 solo debut Ladies & Gentlemen… Nigel Hall — earlier this year. Nigel previously previewed the new LP with “Wake Me,” and “Gotta Go To Work” and now follows with third and final single, “The Sun.”

Read full article on JamBase

Nigel Hall on TKA

From the New York Times:

On the heels of winning his second Grammy in March, and on the verge of publishing a memoir in June, Rush, now in his 80s, is enjoying a moment of recognition. A lesser-known figure compared to many of the luminaries he has considered friends and mentors, including Elmore James, Muddy Waters and B.B. King, Rush is one of the last remaining Black blues musicians who experienced the horror of Jim Crow-era racism and participated, however tangentially, in the genre’s postwar flowering.

“I may be the oldest blues singer around, me and Buddy Guy,” he said in October, during the first of several conversations, this one via video conference. Rush sat at the edge of a couch at his son’s house in Jackson, slouching to peer into a laptop screen and trotted out a quip he uses onstage: “If I’m not the oldest, I’m the ugliest.”

Read the full article on New York Times

Bobby Rush on TKA

Congrats to Elvin Bishop, Bobby Rush and Walter Trout on their 2021 BMA wins!

Album of the Year – WINNER 100 Years of Blues, Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite

Song of the Year – WINNER “All Out of Tears” – written by Walter Trout, Maria Trout, and Teeny Tucker (performed by Walter Trout)

Acoustic Blues Album – WINNER Rawer Than Raw, Bobby Rush

Traditional Blues Album – WINNER 100 Years of Blues, Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite

Nominated:

Album of the Year: Rawer Than Raw, Bobby Rush

Album of the Year: Rise Up, Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters

Traditional Blues Album: Rise Up, Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters

Blues Rock Album: Ordinary Madness, Walter Trout

Blues Rock Album: Ice Cream In Hell, Tinsley Ellis

Blues Rock Artist: Tinsley Ellis

Traditional Blues Male Artist: Jontavious Willis

See the Full 2020 BMA Winners

Elvin Bishop on TKA

Bobby Rush on TKA

Walter Trout on TKA

“Barefoot, wearing all black, a solitary guitarist sits on the stage, her face shrouded by a curtain of long hair, her hands a blur of motion. The sound she makes is so cavernous, evocative and frenetic it sounds as though at least two more guitarists are hiding somewhere in the wings of this atmospheric art deco theatre.

They aren’t: Gwenifer Raymond – in her spare time a games designer, astrophysics PhD and punk drummer – attacks her songs with a technique called clawhammer. Transposed from the banjo, it uses the right hand – thumb and fingers curled in like a claw – to provide a rhythmic counterpoint to the singing work of the left, and its own subtle melodic storytelling as well.”

Read Full Review From The Guardian

Gwenifer Raymond on TKA

“Sunny Jain is an innovative percussionist/composer and master of the double-sided Indian dhol drum, known for combining his Punjabi roots with his love of post-bop, jazz, fusion, psychedelic rock and more. He first earned critical success with his brass and drum ensemble Red Baraat and has worked with several of the greats throughout his career. Wild Wild East, his 2020 album, explored the myth of the American cowboy through the lens of an immigrant.”

Listen to the Full Podcast Here

Red Baraat on TKA

Sunny Jain’s Wild Wild East on TKA

From WBGO.org

Pianist Joey Alexander has a few associations with the onset of summer. “I think summer is a time where we flourish,” he tells WBGO. “It’s a time of maturing. So I decided to write this tune in the sense of being hopeful, looking forward to a time when we can perform, and in this uncertainty, we don’t feel obligated and we don’t feel stuck.”

The song to which Alexander is referring is “Summer Rising” — his new single on Verve, premiering today at WBGO. With a vibrant melody and a flowing pulse in quintuple meter, it features Jaleel Shaw as a special guest on alto saxophone, along with Daniel Winshall on bass and Tyson D. Jackson on drums. “Summer Rising” is the third standalone single that Alexander has released this spring, following “Salt” (in March) and “Under the Sun” (in April). “All three songs I wrote during the height of the pandemic,” Alexander says. “And to me, ‘Summer Rising’ — I would say basically it’s about, in this uncertainty: how do we rise above it?”

Read More on WBGO.org

Joey Alexander on TKA

“Pat Metheny’s latest, Road To The Sun, represents several departures for the individualistic guitarist-composer. First off, with this record he steps away from his longtime label at Nonesuch to join the recently formed Modern Recordings, an imprint of BMG devoted to jazz-classical-electronic hybrids. Then, he doesn’t play much on the album, turning his two lengthy, multipart compositions over to leading classical players to perform. He does reserve one track for himself, though—Arvo Pärt’s “Für Alina”—on which he plays his 42-string Pikasso guitar, the odd, cubism-inspired instrument that allows him to mobilize as many tones as possible in one sitting.”

Read full review on DownBeat

Pat Metheny on TKA