2016 Ten Best Music Books

This is the list according to the Rolling Stone Magazine. Too bad I am not interested in any of them, except maybe Slim Harpo, the blues singer and harp player. He is among one of the influences of the Rolling Stones (band) whose latest release this year is a blues cover album, which I enjoy quite a bit.

Rediscovering Shoutcast

還記得多年前常常聽Shoutcast.com的不同音樂種類streaming，近幾年卻轉為從Podcast網評或雜誌認識新碟後再上Pandora，Rhapsody或Spotify聽，其實也有時覺得聽得太狹窄，上星期又想起Shoutcast這個source，除了近年聽得最多的爵士樂（包括smooth jazz），特地找點其他種類聽聽，例如Electric blues及Flamenco，以下幾個台值得推介：

• BellyUp4Blues
• Radio Muro Flamenco
• MasFlamencoRadio
• Calm Radio - Flamenco

今天認識了David Cobo, Eric Hansen幾位Flamenco樂手，待會上Spotify/Youtube再欣賞欣賞！

我的結他雜記: 如何扮識彈藍調結他

Guitar Player雜誌介紹了一個相當有趣的教學視像:
有些美國人很喜歡用fake it 這個詞語,廣東俗語大概就是無料扮四條吧:) 以上短片教授最基本扮識彈藍調結他的技巧,說不定大家有朝一日也用得著!

No-one-likes-the-blues Blues

I came across a blog post about how unpopular the blues is in America. He mentioned one of the "makeover" TV show host suggested a blues club to switch to other type of music in order to be more viable because a study found that only 3% of American claimed blues as their favorite music genre. (Well, JJ Blues didn't need this TV show host's advice and "converted" already) I don't know if that study matters that much. As much as I like blues (or metal or classical for that matter) I won't claim that as my favorite music genre though. Another thing mentioned by that blog post was the harp (a.k.a. blues harmonica) player Paul Oscher from the legendary Muddy Waters band performed for free in a suburb city of Austin Texas. However, some readers pointed out in the comments that it wasn't that bad: Oscher actually performed at other shows that charge for admission. Anyway, blues and blues club hopefully will survive. 

So, how about jazz? Does it have better stats? I found this article from 1999, which quoted numbers from a 1992 study (that's 20+ years ago) Jazz lovers came in as 5% compared to Blues' 3%. I was trying to look for that number from the 2012 study but I couldn't seem to find it. The only jazz related number is that 8.1% of U.S. adults have attended a jazz concert. And that number went up from 7.8% in 2008. I guess this is encouraging.

JJ's Blues has changed hand too

Two of my favorite music genre, jazz and its older sibling blues, are both struggling in the SF bay area. I wrote about Yoshi's changing hand and its departure from jazz last year (here's another article on another failed jazz venue in the Fillmore Jazz preservation district) And I just found out the legendary San Jose blues club, JJ's Blues, has changed hand last Summer too. Even though I've only been there 2 or 3 times (once in 2014 before it changed hand) I was impressed. The atmosphere was awesome. Too bad it won't be blues-centric anymore.

我的結他雜記:Youtube片

早幾年經常上論壇討論結他相關話題，其中一個最常出現的是可用甚麼結他彈甚麼風格，於是搜尋了一堆視像連結：

民謠結他（鋼線木結他） - 民謠

電結他 - 重金

電結他 - Hard rock

電結他- 藍調

民謠結他（鋼線木結他） - 藍調 這條片十分特別：已故藍調結他大師Stevie Ray Vaughan演出時大多彈電結他，這是少有的木結他錄像

古典結他（尼龍弦木結他） - 古典

古典結他（尼龍弦木結他） - 爵士樂

古典結他（尼龍弦木結他） - Flamenco

我的結他雜記: The 4 levels of the Blues

Guitarist and magazine columnist Carl Verheyen did a great job in classifying 4 different ways of blues improvisation, from the most basic (minor pentatonic) to the most sophisticated (jazz blues with altered scales and upper extensions.) You might consider these the secrets of blues guitar. :)

Fingerstyle guitar master Stefan Grossman

禮拜日無節目，也是當天才知道，幸好家在bay area，不愁沒有音樂會，基本上我的策略是先看KCSM Jazz datebook，以及一些著名演出場地的網址，包括Yoshi's, Freight and Salvage, Davies Symphony Hall等等。首先看到Freight and Salvage有acoustic fingerstyle guitar表演，然後看到SFJAZZ有一場拉美爵士樂，有我欣賞的古巴單簧管色士風大師Paquito D'Rivera，可惜SFJAZZ售票網及電話皆不通。兩全其美的方法：是去前者，在路上聽後者的CD！相當慶幸沒有錯過一場非一般的音樂會。

Freight and Salvage這個場地本身已是非一般牟利娛樂場所，而是一個歷史悠久，靠捐款由義工協助運作，以傳統美國音樂為主的表演中心。傳統美國音樂除了我常聽的Blues及Jazz，也包括我興趣不大的Country及Bluegrass。不過演出宣傳網頁介紹Stefan Grossman彈fingerstyle guitar，從結他手角度也絕對值得支持。提起fingerstyle，我聽得較多的有Tommy Emmanuel, Martin Taylor, Adam Miller（去年他首次從澳洲來美國巡迴演出，可惜Bay area一站是在偏遠的Lafayette，包括我在內的捧場客寥寥無幾）網頁上的Stefan Grossman sample track風格頗有不同，卻是我非常欣賞但不常聽到的Acoustic blues。音樂會打頭炮就是一首令人聽出耳油的acoustic blues instrumental。接著他開始他獨有的「棟篤笑」式表演：邊說邊唱邊彈地介紹自己學及玩結他的軼事，歌曲的出處等等。雖然個人偏好instrumental music，也覺得他的方式很是過癮。他是一個成長於Brooklyn的猶太人，小時候想學結他，父母叫他去買點唱片，他在唱片店買來一張folk(Woody Guthrie)，一張acoustic blues唱片，決定走後者的路線，師從Reverend Gary Davis，學了一大堆廿世紀初至中的美國傳統歌曲，包括Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy等大師的作品。當晚表演也有原創，例如拿另一位acoustic blues 結他手開玩笑的Assassination of John Fahey，大概有三分二是instrumental，除了blues，也有一點pop/jazz；作為一個白人，唱blues的唱腔亦別具一格。還不忘宣傳他當晚有售的CD Blues for the Mann，該碟包括大部份作品的TAB(PDF)，大家可以跟著彈，中場break time大家都趕著買一張（包括我）！

Electric blues compilation

I have been a big fan of electric blues since the first time I listened to SRV years ago. Just read about a new 12-CD compilation from the Guitar Player magazine. I was in the mood for some blues and listened to some Lightnin' Hopkins 2 weeks ago. What a coincidence!