August 14, 2008

• Beats - It's the beats, the beats, man, the beats

  In one of those marvelous internet journeys, I stumbled onto the Blind Boys of Alabama.  Then to a video of Ben Harper singing with them.  "Satisfied Mind" was the name of the song, sung at the Apollo, where the musicians seemed to enter a jam state worthy of the Grateful Dead. 
  

  I'd not heard of the Blind Boys or Ben Harper -  please remember that Pearlbamboo grew up a classical musician, more than a little snooty, enough so that when my old buddy Chet Helms was helping reshape the history of American music across the bay, I dutifully stayed out of the Haight, out of the Avalon Ballroom and away from that music that wasn't Bach or Brahms    It's never too late, right?

   I continued to follow my mouse, arriving on the website of the Blind Boys.  In streaming audio, right here,.was "Free At Last."   (the embed of this on youtube is disabled.) The words are wonderful.  But it was the beat, man, the beat.  Big fat bass drum sounds on 1  on 2  and on the half beat after 2 - with 3 an empty beat, full of air - and the snare on 4.   If you can count, count 1 &  2 &  3 & 4 &/  repeat ad infinitum.... you can hear this.  Not the whack it on2 and 4 for the drummer in a rock or blues back beat, not at all.   I fell in love.  With the beat.   

  That led me to poking around some more to find out something about Ben Harper.  After a long tour through his musical spaces, I hit upon "Burn One Down,"  performed at Bonnnaroo last year in an incredible transparent duet with the percussionist Leon Mobley on djembe.  I knew almost nothing about djembe when I found this clip a few days ago and had trouble, old treble clef melody line follower that I've been most of my life, hearing anything but the basic rythmn, and trouble with that at times.  Now,  two days later, the drum sounds like a symphony of instruments as it changes pitch and voice and sharpness, its tone and resonance depending on where and how Mobley strikes its surface.

  The guitar, drum and voice meld seamlessly in this version.  They are breathing together and they are breathing the same air, andI don't have any meaning about herb embedded in that comment at all, true, I don't.  Musicians, drummers, talk about "air" in a piece of music.  That's what I feel here.  Not just the beats, but the air around them, on either side of them.  I am enamored.  I am struck.  I am in love with the beats.  I 've learned 95% of the rhythm pattern (Leon????  Leon????? do you ever get to Chicago????) and will nail it all if it kills me.  Did I say I love this?  Lily, who has truly never smoked one in  her life and most likely never will . Did I?

  love you all,

  pearlbamboo

  (aka emily hodges)

  • 3:30 pm
  • 3 Comments