20 legendary blues songs
01.Canned Heat - On The Road Again
Canned Heat blues enthusiasts and collectors have revived a vast array of forgotten blues classics from the 1920s and 30s. The group had its greatest popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Well, their most famous song was On The Road Again.
02. Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man
The mysterious expression "hoochie coochie man" is known to everyone who loves the blues even a little, because this is the name of the song, which is considered a classic of the genre. "Hoochie coochie" was called sexy female dance, which captivated the public during the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. But the expression "hoochie coochie man" came into use only after 1954, when Muddy Waters recorded a song by Willie Dixon, which instantly became popular.
03 John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom
Boom Boom was released as a single in 1961. By then, Lee Hooker had been playing Apex Bar in Detroit for quite some time and was consistently late for work. When he showed up, the bartender Willa would say, "Boom-boom, you're late again." And so every evening. One day, Lee Hooker thought that this "boom-boom" could make a good song. And so it happened.
04.Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You
Screaming songwriter Jay Hawkins originally intended to record I Put A Spell On You in the style of a blues love ballad. However, according to Hawkins, “The producer got the whole band drunk, and we recorded this fantastic version. I don't even remember the recording process. Before that, I was a regular blues singer, Jay Hawkins. Then I realized that I could make more devastating songs and scream myself to death.”
In this compilation we have included the most sensual version of this song performed by the gorgeous Nina Simone.
05.Elmore James - Dust My Broom
Written by Robert Johnson, Dust My Broom became a blues standard after it was performed by Elmore James. Subsequently, it was covered more than once by other performers, but, in our opinion, best version You can call it the version of Elmore James.
06.Howlin Wolf - Smokestack Lightnin"
Another blues standard. Wolfe's howl is able to make you empathize with the author, even if you do not understand the language in which he sings. Incredible.
07.Eric Clapton - Layla
Eric Clapton dedicated this song to Patti Boyd - the wife of George Harrison ( The Beatles), with whom they secretly met. Layla is an incredibly romantic and touching song about a man who is hopelessly in love with a woman who also loves him, but remains inaccessible.
08.b. B. King - Three O "Clock Blues
It was this song that made Riley B King famous from the cotton plantations. This is a common story in the spirit: “I woke up early. Where did my woman go? True classic performed by the king of the blues.
09.Oscar Benton-Bensonhurst Blues
And here there is nothing to say, a wonderful composition performed by no less than a wonderful musician, you cannot pass by!
10.Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - Messin" With The Kid
A blues standard performed by Junior Wells and virtuoso guitarist Buddy Guy. Under this 12-bar blues, it is simply impossible to sit still.
11. Janis Joplin - Kozmic Blues
As Eric Clapton said, "The blues is the song of a man who doesn't have a woman or who has lost a woman." In the case of Janis Joplin, the blues turned into a real frantic soulful striptease of a hopelessly in love woman. The blues in her performance is not just a song with repetitive vocal parts. These are constantly changing emotional experiences, when plaintive pleas move from quiet sobs to a hoarse, desperate cry.
12. Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
Thornton was considered one of the coolest performers of her time. Although Big Mama became famous for only one hit, Hound Dog, in 1953 he remained at the top of the Billboard rhythm and blues lists for 7 weeks and sold a total of almost two million copies.
13.Robert Johnson - Crossroad Blues
For a long time, Johnson tried to master the blues guitar in order to perform with his comrades. However, this art was given to him extremely hard. For some time he parted with friends and disappeared, and when he appeared in 1931, the level of his skill increased many times over. On this occasion, Johnson told the bike that there was some kind of magical crossroads where he made a deal with the devil in exchange for the ability to play the blues. Maybe the damn cool song Crossroad Blues is about this intersection?
14 Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues
The most famous song in Russia by Gary Moore. According to the musician himself, at the studio it was recorded from the first time from beginning to end. And we can safely say that even those who do not understand the blues at all know it.
15. Tom Waits - Blue Valentine
Waits has an idiosyncratic husky voice, described by critic Daniel Duchholz as: "It's like it's been soaked in a bourbon barrel, it's like it's been left in a smokehouse for a few months, and then when it's taken out, it's been driven over." His lyrical songs are stories, most often told in the first person, with grotesque images of seedy places and shabby characters. An example of such a song is Blue Valentine.
16. Steve Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
Another blues standard. The 12-bar blues performed by a virtuoso guitarist touches to the core and makes you goosebumps.
17. Ruth Brown - I Don't Know
A song from the wonderful film "Tariff on Moonlight". She plays at the very moment when main character, nervous before the meeting, lights candles and pours wine into glasses. The penetrating voice of Ruth Brown is simply mesmerizing.
18. Harpo Slim - I'm A King Bee
A song with simple lyrics, written in best traditions blues, helped Slim become famous in an instant. The song has been covered many times various musicians, but no one did it better than Slim. After the Rolling Stones covered this song, Mick Jagger himself said: "What's the point of listening to I'm A King Bee performed by us when Harpo Slim performs it best?"
19. Willie Dixon - Back Door Man
In the American South, "back door man" referred to a person who meets a married woman and leaves through the back door before the husband returns home. It is about such a guy that the song of the magnificent Willy Dixon Back Door Man, which has become a classic of the Chicago blues.
20. Little Walter - My Baby
Thanks to his revolutionary harmonica playing technique, Little Walter is on a par with blues masters such as Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix. He is considered the player who set the standard for blues harmonica playing. Written for Walter by Willie Dixon, My Baby is the best showcase of his great playing and style.

      Publication date: October 05, 2004

INSTEAD OF THE PREFACE. TO A JOKE ABOUT TWO GUITARS.

Probably, there is not a single young musician who has not heard this anecdote, which has already become a textbook. About a young man tormenting the guitar furiously and rapidly, giving out ten thousand notes per minute, and an old man playing his four notes, which he FOUND. Today our story is more about the second character, although he did not have a chance to live to old age. John Campbell, a Louisiana white bluesman who found his own unique, "Campbell" blues, is probably not known to the current admirers of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen. It's a pity. For the guitar world is like a diamond with many facets. Where fusion, and jazz, and neo-folk, and classics are woven into one multi-colored pattern. And the stellar thread of the blues in this flicker still burns clearly to this day. And shines on those who catch this light.

“The blues is the way. It's such a path. Through darkness, through fear, through your own nightmares. If you have pain in your chest, and you sing, you play it, you bring it out into the world. Bring yourself into the light. So music is real magic. The blues is real, true magic. Yes, when I sing and play, I am real. I believe that". To John Campbell, the bluesman who passed away 11 years ago, we dedicate this free essay.

HALF LORD HALF PIRATE OF THE BLUES MYSTICITY

John Campbell... This strange guest on the blues scene is already where everyone ends up. Half lord, half pirate. Half tramp, half monk. A semi-medieval classical portrait, a semi-freak from the leper colony of time. When he was still young, he was in a car accident; one eye bled out and was forever disfigured Right side faces. Therefore, people rarely approached him from the right. And he continued to live as if nothing had happened. What grief? Things that are much more inhuman in terms of cruelty are happening in the world than this mere trifle - eternal mutilation. And John Campbell moved on with his life. And what path do you think the young musician should take, who from childhood knew in his own skin what pain, despair and injustice are? Into the blues Naturally, the blues. And in the most poignant, sincere and pure blues heart - acoustic blues. Although every true bluesman finds his own blues at the end of the road. Campbell was true.

LOUISIANA - THE LAND OF BLUESMEN AND WIZARDS

John Campbell was born in 1952 in Shreverport, Louisiana, a city considered the center of country music. Shreverport was then home to the famous radio show Loisiana High Ride, which aired blues, country and other reasonable music, and the now forgotten Dale Hawkins, the author of immortal hit Creedence about Susie Q. However, the young Campbell's favorite musicians, teachers and invisible mentors were by no means country characters, but the legendary blues preacher Mississippi Son House and the Texas acoustic wizard Lightnin Hopkins. This paradoxical mixture subsequently determined the style of his playing - a soft, typically Texas guitar, occasionally screaming, as if from erupting pain, with furious Mississippi slide phrases, and a voice - from a calm, semi-hypnotic vocal to an inhuman wheeze, almost a growl. And when Campbell is called the heir not only to the musical, but also to the mystical tradition, this is not far from the truth.

In general, Louisiana is a strange place. New Orleans, the birth of jazz, bands playing at funerals, parallel to the usual night life, weaving dreams with reality into one flickering knot, shops selling sinister and disturbing amulets, legends about voodoo rituals, stories about the strange fates of great musicians. It is here, in Louisiana and New Orleans, that the blues heroes Muddy Waters and Lightnin Hopkins go to take the "strong" magical talisman called "mojo" from the local hoodoo mans. And this secret, mystical component was certainly present in Campbell's blues.

BLACK WARROCKS AND THEIR BLUE MYTHS

However, let us make some essential, in our opinion, explanations. In fact, in the African American blues tradition there is no voodoo cult and other "black" themes in the spirit of mystical thrillers. There was a normal ritual-magical practice common to any traditional society. In the southern United States, it was called hoodoo - "hoodoo". It was a mixture of traditional African beliefs, Indian beliefs and partly European folklore (with the basis, of course, on Africa). Tradition is domestic, that is, it would be wrong to call it a religion. All mentioned in blues texts magic items served very specific purposes: hot foot powder - for love magic (love spell), mojo hand or mojo bag (leather bag with roots and herbs; obvious borrowing from the medicine men of the Choctaw and Cherokee Indians) - also for a love spell, but, in addition, for protective purposes. magical properties The bones of a black cat are a universal motif in many mythologies.

The symbolism of the crossroads (the legend of the sale of the soul to the devil by Robert Johnson, known from the film of the same name by Walter Hill) is also traced in a variety of traditions - from the very symbol of the cross in Christianity and the image of the World Tree passing through the Upper, Middle and Lower worlds to beliefs about divination at night on crossroads, because an unknown force must appear there. Crossroads and its connection with learning to play musical instrument, - in general, a motive that goes back to primitiveness, and this plot is found in Russian fairy tales when the Forest Grandfather takes his son as a wizard's apprentice. So this topic is good, serious and interesting, but you should not romanticize and demonize reality. Life is not a mystical film. The magic of John Campbell and other bluesmen was primarily in their music. In their heart. In their blues

A LIFE THREE ALBUMS LENGTH

Part one. "A MAN AND HIS BLUES" ("Man and his blues").

Campbell did not play hall concerts for a very long time. His stage venues were roadsides and small clubs. And he played every night. In 1985 he came to New York - to the same small clubs and on the roadsides of highways ... Soon they started talking about him, and the virtuoso blues guitarist Ronnie Earl specially came to the white street bluesman. This meeting eventually resulted in the magnificent album “A MAN AND HIS BLUES”. Surprisingly bright, sad and very, very Texas. I would call this most blues of albums a strange but fair term "heavy acoustics".

More than half of the songs are made in a chamber-kitchen sound - one or two guitars ... and that's it (remember Robert Johnson: “You come to my kitchen when it's raining outside”? That's what Campbell remembered). The album is based on the classics of Texas country blues, including the songs of the old Hopkins:

I'm going to Dallas
watch my little horse run...

Indeed, Campbell's pony ran, as in an amazing Soviet cartoon - in a circle. Bewitched. Like everything else in the blues world. Where there is light, and twilight, and hope, and at times - despair rising to the throat. Somewhat apart on the album is the magnificent instrumental piece Deep River Rag, surprisingly clean and energetically played ragtime. Have you heard the guitarist playing rhythm and lead and bass at the same time? This is just that case. And of course the songs:

I'm a Texas country boy
The big city crushes and tramples me...

Traditional songs. Shukshinian blues whisper and scream. John removes with a few chords the already half-century contradiction between Negro (black) and European (white) blues. And if Eric Clapton and Peter Green, Nordic blues Britons, still remain on the white squares of blues chess, then John Campbell's Blues House is the whole board. He plays black and white blues.

Part two. "ONE BELIEVER" ("The only one who believes").

The album that brought Campbell well-deserved fame. The first blues-rock work of the master. And in many ways, a characteristic, recognizable and at the same time very smart sound comes from Dennis Walker, the man who previously put into orbit music industry the black star of Robert Cray's soul blues guitar. But with Campbell's sound, Walker worked very differently. After all, as you know, a good producer is not the one who imposes his "chip", but the one who allows the artist to fully reveal himself through OWN sound. “THE ONLY BELIEVER” is like that. There are many sad, poignant ballads, sung and played by a sad, tired, but undefeated man. Both the background keys and rare winds do not in the least interfere with the guitar and voice from telling their not-too-joyful stories.

On this album, apart from the killer shuffle Person To Person by Hendrix's idol Elmore James, everything else is his own. Gone are the days of other people's blues; they brought up a musician, but he has already grown out of them. There are two ways - to play the standards, the great pieces in your genre, or to make your own stuff the standards. Few take the second route. From the 80s to the present, I can only name two names: SRV and Chris Duarte. In fact, Pride And Joy and All Night have outplayed almost all the current blues bands in a good half of the countries of the world. Almost no one else could write such songs. Except John Campbell. With his Angel Of Sorrow, World Of Trouble and of course Devil in My Closet opening the album. The traditions of delta blues are intertwined here with modern New York and its serpentine shimmer. But the underlying theme is:

I have a devil
In my closet
And the wolf at my door...

As one of the medieval theologians said, every bishop carries the devil with him. Evil is around, it is near, it is in us. And bluesman John Campbell sees it. And sings about it. In this, one of the most famous numbers, against the background of a hard, shamanic guitar riff, you can hear the famous Campbell's growl, his extremely hoarse and powerful, to the bestial, voice. A voice that brings to mind the Howling Wolf of Chicago Howlin' Wolf and the raucous Delta clown Charlie Patton. Campbell is their heir. And a worthy heir.

Part three. “HOWLIN’ MERCY” (“Howl for mercy”).

The culmination of our search blues mystic. An album that brings together blues rockers looking for a powerful guitar sound and connoisseurs of the old blues yearning for the raging Mississippi slide. There is both here and there. And the third, and the thirteenth. Here the songs are already with drama, with their own breath, with their "roughness" and authenticity, connecting two sound spaces. The bird cries of the slide, which must be listened to fascinated and attentively, and the fiery guitar flow, which takes the listener to the climax. Live the song like a day in the life. And maybe the last day.

There are two cover versions on the album. But what! Once upon a time, in pre-war America, a blues star named Memphis Minnie and her husband, Kansas Joe, wrote a song that was simple, honest, and bitter, like all blues. About the flood. What happens when a dam collapses. And crumbling human life. Much later, the British guys from the group "Lead airship" made this song a blues-rock classic, however, forgetting to indicate the co-authorship of Memphis Minnie. However, neither Page nor Plant, who grew up in quite decent European families, did not know what happens when a dam collapses. Campbell knew. He said: “We had such dams in Louisiana. I have seen them since childhood, and they brought people a lot of grief. But the worst thing is when the dam breaks inside you. And these rainy days, this deaf, endless longing - this is what happens when the dam collapses.

Campbell makes When the Levee Breaks look like no other. He returns the old blues, which had time to walk around the world, to his own homeland. And Campbell's slide literally brings the smell of the Louisiana swamps out of oblivion. And the sound of falling water. The second cover version is also unexpected. This is Down To The Hole by Tom Waits. Originally written as a spiritual, it acquires blues-like flesh in Campbell's work. And this is not the unctuous voice of a preacher who himself hardly believes in what he is talking about. This is a stern, like an Old Testament prophet, the voice of a man standing at a crossroads.

"Howl for Mercy" (as cruel fate decreed) is Campbell's last, dying album. His will. Its not too long life, captured in sound. A small square of a CD that makes us, who live on the other half of the globe, again and again listen with surprise and joy to the eternal, furious and paradoxical Campbell blues. And be grateful to the departed guitarist for his music.

If you walk with Jesus
You are going to Heaven.
But if you hold on to the Devil, -
You are falling into a deep abyss...

TYLER. TEXAS SESSION. THE PLATE WHICH IS NOT AVAILABLE

Happy owners of this collectible disc (on my disc ballpoint pen written number 341; here it is, the true limited edition) can safely say they've heard early Campbell. And of all the history of white acoustic blues, this is perhaps one of the most impressive records. This is Campbell non-commercial but authentic. Made as a demonstration material for one of the record companies, and published after the death of our hero, the record “Tyler. Texas Session gives us a holistic view of what blues worlds and spaces Campbell drew his music from. At first glance, absolutely nothing unusual. Just a collection of cover versions of blues classics - Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and other blues heroes. Blues standards? It wasn't there! There is not a single thing on the record that the musician would not turn into the signature Campbell blues. Listening to this acoustics, you clearly understand where the ears of Campbell's subsequent albums "grow", only whose early death prevented, as critics wrote, "becoming the second blues star after Stevie Ray Vaughan in the empty firmament of modern blues."

Several nuances. The Mississippi folk song Catfish blues, slightly altered by Muddy Waters in Rolling stone, listening to which inspired the British guys Jagger and Richards to create their notorious band of the same name, Campbell plays amazingly on the record. But absolutely not using the famous hypnotic riff on which Muddy built his version. All subsequent musicians who played this standard (remember the concert of Jimi Hendrix in Paris in 1968 or his Blues collection) could not get out of the power of those Waters four or five notes that came back to haunt through the “rollings” a revolution in the history of the music of the middle 20th century. Campbell did. Not only that, by playing Rolling Stone in his own individual way, he did nothing to deprive the old Mississippian blues of either its hypnosis or its original ancient magic. Listen for yourself, you won't regret it!

The plate is simply crammed with such examples, like a good cook's ham. Sky is Cryin' Campbell plays like it's his song. In one of the later interviews, he said: “I feel the spirit of the blues. I may not know the exact lyrics, and to be honest, I never memorized the lyrics, for me it's not too important. You catch this wave, and then you feel the soul of the blues.

In addition to the well-known blues authors, Blind Blake's blues appears on the track list of the Texas disc. And this is also very interesting. Arthur Blake, nicknamed Blind, is one of the main figures of the pre-war acoustic blues. A virtuoso guitarist, Blake did not limit himself to pure blues, most often recording a cocktail of blues, ragtime and melodies popular in the 20s. Those who are familiar with the work of such not the last artists in the modern guitar world as Ry Kuder or Jorma Kaukonen could hear their versions of the magnificent Police Dog Blues. And it was under the influence of Blind Blake that Campbell began to experiment with the finger picking style. This style of playing is represented in the blues by the so-called Piedmontese tradition, where a mediator is never used (claws are put on instead) and playing with a slide. a lot in common with the tradition of black rural ragtime and partly with country music.

In general, Campbell believed that his own blues was formed at the intersection of three blues guitar schools: piano style, banjo style and delta blues using slide technique. Truly so. His teachers and mentors in these three blues traditions were great men: Blind Blake, Leadbally, Lightnin Hopkins, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. And the original, acoustic Campbell, paying tribute decades later to those who gave him this music, music-for-a-lifetime, we can hear on the record “Tyler. Texas session.

EPILOGUE. GOOD WAY, JOHN!

Three albums and one collectible acoustic "studio" in Texas - that's all that's left of a bug-eyed blues wanderer with a disturbing Lermontov soul. He left. In 1993. Sudden heart attack while on tour in Paris. On his way, which he knew about and for which he was ready. Maybe since the day he suddenly saw the headlights of a car heading towards him inexorably. And I clearly understood what it is ...

FROM there are hundreds, thousands of jazz standards - which it is desirable to know. Although many are looking for 100 jazz standards for saxophone, I will give only the 50 most popular according to the expert opinion of our American colleagues.

E If you plan to play jazz, you will need to learn a minimum set of songs that you can play anywhere, anytime, without laughing. This is one of the fundamental qualities of a jazzman.

H I often get questions from beginner musicians, what standards should I learn? I note that this applies not only to the saxophone, but to all instruments in general, for that it is a jazz standard so that everyone would play it.

FROM There are so many standards out there that it's often hard to know where to start in the first place. It is important to know as many standards as possible for you. This knowledge will not only help you play fluently in concerts and jam sessions, but will also strengthen your improvisational skills and knowledge of harmonies. However, it is impossible to know them all, but the most necessary ones must be known.

AT Each country or city has its own specific set. It is important to spin in the local jazz scene and keep track of the most popular songs. But, there are certain melodies that are standards among standards. Songs that every jazz musician must know, and when you find yourself on stage in another city or country, most likely your repertoire list will strongly coincide with the local current.

H below list of 50 jazz standards which you need to know. If you're new and looking for a starting point, the list below is a must! Set a goal to master each tune and you will have a solid foundation on which to grow as a musician. If you are an experienced player, make sure you know all these tunes. I guarantee you will need them many times over.

E If you do not know some of the melodies presented, you can click directly on the name of the standard and if there is material on it on the site, you will go directly to the tutorial post, with notes. Minus and backing tracks of jazz standards will.

R The section will be filled gradually, pay attention to the date of publication of the post. I spend a lot of time and countless hours researching these tunes and creating material for each one.

E If you already know all these songs, your journey is not over, this is just the beginning... Come visit more often, subscribe and follow the news in my group: vk.com/gorec_sax

50 Jazz Standards Everyone Should Know:

1. All of Me
2. All The Things You Are
3. Alone Together
4. autumn leaves
5. Billie's Bounce
6. Black Orpheus
7. blue boss
8. body and soul
9. But not for me
10. Bye Bye Blackbird
11. Cherokee
12. Confirmation
13. Days of Wine and Roses
14. Doxy
15. Fly me to the moon
16. Footprints
17. Four
18. Have You Met Miss Jones
19. How High The Moon
20. I Hear a Rhapsody
21. I love you
22. I remember you
23. I'll remember April
24. I'm Old Fashioned
25. If I Should Lose You
26. If I Were A Bell
27. In A Mellow Tone
28. In A Sentimental Mood
29. It Could Happen To You
30. Just Friends
31. My Funny Valentine
32. night and day
33. Oleo
34. On Green Dolphin Street
35. Recorda Me
36. Satin Doll
37. What Is This Thing Called Love
38. Sweet Georgia Brown
39. There Will Never Be Another You
40. Up Jumped Spring
41. Stella By Starlight
42. Solar
43. Take The A Train
44. The Girl From Ipanema
45. Scrapple From The Apple
46. There Is No Greater Love
47. St. Thomas
48. Yesterdays

* Bold, highlighted standards description for which is on the site, just click on the name.Over time, material for each standard will be added to the site.

P Remember, mastering a jazz standard does not mean playing it from sheet music. Mastering the standard means playing in the harmonic sequence of the track, from sight, by memory or by ear. The last option is the most favorite, it saves you from memorizing sequences. But, not everyone can play by ear. This skill can be developed, someone in the very early age distinguishes sounds barely hearing, but to someone " bear stepped on ear"There's nothing to be done here...

H oh don't be upset, you can always play the improvisation on the chords written on paper, this will not affect the technical aspect of your improvisation at all. Order removal of chords from any song on this moment will not be difficult, for 200-300 rubles. it is quite real. But besides this, "a whole ocean" of chord progressions for jazz standards is written, so the world is at your feet, gentlemen, you just have to want, YOU JUST WANT...