Willie Dixon not only played bass on many of the popular blues songs ever to come out of Chicago, he wrote the songs! Countless standard blues tunes are Dixon compositions, including “Hootchie Cootchie Man,” “Wang Dang Doodle,” “My Babe,” “Evil,” and “Bring It On Home.” If you’d like to get an idea of how widespread his influence is and how many of his compositions have appeared on records over the years, check out the All Music guideand take a look at his list of credits. You can also get a good idea of Willie Dixon’s role at Chess Records by checking out the movieCadillac Records… it’s a Hollywood-ized version of history but a cool music film nonetheless.
As a bass player, Dixon primarily played upright bass and can be heard on many of the early Chess Records releases of Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Robert Nighthawk, Howlin Wolf, Chuck Berry, and many others. If you go back and listen to some of these older recordings, the bass isn’t particularly up front in the mix, partly due to the difficulty of recording upright bass at the time. However, if you listen closely, you’ll hear that the bass and lead instrument (guitar or harmonica) often double the same lick or the bass plays a simplified version of the lick that highlights certain notes to enhance the groove. Dixon also used the box shuffle patterns, “bumps” the root note, and utilizes the two-step groove or other modified root-fifth patterns. [Editor's note: Check out our feature on Willie Dixon’s legacy.]
Donald “Duck” Dunn

If you’ve ever watched the Blues Brothers movie, you probably remember seeing a super-cool guy with an afro standing in back, smoking a pipe. Long before the Blues Brothers, Donald “Duck” Dunn’s bass playing helped define blues, soul and R&B music during the 1960’s and 70’s. Dunn was the house bass player at Stax studios in Memphis and can be heard on hits from Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd, Sam and Dave, and his own band, Booker T and the MGs. In addition to his contribution to soul music, he backed numerous blues artists over the years including Albert King, Freddie King, and Eric Clapton.
Listening to Albert King’s album Born Under a Bad Sign, you’ll hear how Dunn acts as the quintessential “groove” player. Whether he’s doubling the guitar riff or laying down a shuffle or rumba groove, he confidently plays the bass lines and allows for the horns and keyboard parts to fit in around it. There’s little variation in his playing, which is appropriate for the style and for backing a soloist like Albert King. His use of dead notes or “hiccups” add to the feel, particularly with shuffles like “Kansas City.” “Personal Manager” and “Laundromat Blues” are perfect listening tools for learning a standard 12 bar slow blues…listen for how he outlines the walking pattern and transitions from chord to chord. Also take a listen to the Blues Brothers album Briefcase Full of Blues and you’ll hear Dunn navigates through stop sections and how he grooves some of the more “modern” blues and soul tunes.
Coming up in the next column: a look at Willie Weeks, Nathan East, Albert Collins’ bass players, and Tommy Shannon of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.
After reading the previous column in this two-part series, I’m hoping you’ve had a chance to check out some music featuring the playing of Willie Dixon and Duck Dunn. Their old school approaches to playing blues compliments the players they accompanied and reflects how novel full-band blues recordings were in the 1950′s and ’60′s.
Early on, blues recordings typically only featured a chord instrument (guitar or piano), vocals and possibly a lead instrument (harmonica). As blues recordings evolved and certain artists began playing with larger ensembles, Dixon and Dunn were two of the cutting edge bassists in the genre.
To continue our discussion of great blues bass players, we’ll zip ahead to more modern styles of blues. First up: Tommy Shannon of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble!

With a few hundred blues gigs under my belt, I can safely say that SRV’s “Pride and Joy” is one of the top five all time requested blues songs. Aside from the beginning guitar hook, the shuffle feel can bring people on the dance floor or at least pique the interest of listeners at the bar. Shannon’s groove in “Pride and Joy” combines a driving walking line with prominent dead notes and hammer ons. It‘s not just a shuffle, it’s a Texas shuffle… it’s more aggressive and percussive compared so some of the other shuffles we’ve discussed in previous columns and Shannon’s intense groove works well to balance out the Double Trouble trio. Before working with SRV, Shannon backed up Johnny Winter in the late 1960′s, and continued to work with him and other artists including Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Buddy Guy and W.C. Clark throughout his career.

Another great bass player known for his work with one of the “blues legends” is Johnny B. Gayden, bassist with Albert Collins. Collins, AKA the “Ice Man” is another Texas native and took blues guitar playing to a new level in the late ’70′s and early ’80′s. Although bassistAron Burton played with Collins in the early days, you’ll most likely hear Gayden’s playing on many of the live recordings or videos with Collins and on some of his later albums such as Don’t Lose Your Cool and Frostbite. Gayden’s bass playing is distinctive in two ways: note choice and tone. While Collins began breaking away from some of the traditional 12-bar forms, introducing funkier blues elements on his records, he had a band that took some of the same strides in blues playing. Gayden’s note choice in a walking-style shuffle is far more daring and varied; he rarely plays the same exact line all the way through. Also, unlike the “low down and dirty” tone that earlier bass players had, Gayden’s tone jumps out in the mix and shares a similar “listen to this” quality as Collins’ guitar playing. He also goes where few early blues bass players had gone before by busting out a killer slap groove on some of the funkier numbers.

Although Nathan East has quite the resume and has played almost every style imaginable, he’s got a great blues feel and knows when to take either a traditional “this is the bass line” approach or go for something more eclectic.
East has had a long stint with Eric Clapton, both live and in the studio, and played on the record Riding With The King with Clapton and B.B. King. Check out this album to hear some classic blues and R&B tunes revamped and Nathan’s grooves on “Marry You” or “Hold On I’m Comin’”.
I could go on and on about other great blues bass players, but I decided to highlight these because they each have unique qualities to their playing, whether it is tone, groove, or versatility. A few other guys to check out are Russell Jackson (B.B. King), Bill Rich (Taj Mahal), Willie Weeks (Clapton, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, etc.), Oteil Burbridge (The Allman Brothers Band, Derek Trucks) and Hutch Hutchinson (Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs, Delbert McClinton, etc).
Please comment on this column and list some of your favorite blues bass players! Let us know why you like their playing or how they’ve influenced your style.
I’ll go first: Shortly after I picked up a bass for the first time, I became obsessed with Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000 movies. Duck Dunn was by far the coolest person in that band and was one of the first bass players to inspire me to buy a record, simply for the bass parts. My favorite scene in Blues Brothers 2000 is at the very end, where there’s a battle between the “Louisiana Gator Boys” and the Blues Brothers. I’m pretty sure the director of the film said “let’s get as many living blues legends on stage at once, give ‘em a line of the lyrics, and have a jam party afterwards!” And there, on bass, was Willie Weeks. He was one bad mamajama… he was the glue of the whole band and while the other players each got their moment in the spotlight, he was the one in the back, doing the bass player head bop, and simply grooving.

Respiriamo musica.

Si conclude con un bilancio molto positivo il Music Valley Festival di Borgo San Lorenzo. Si è infatti registrata un’altissima affluenza di pubblico nei tre giorni di concerti, gratuiti, e che si sono svolti in un’atmosfera festosa, che ha raggiunto il suo culmine con il concerto di Noemi.

Sul palco si sono avvicendati vari artisti, dando espressione a diverse sonorità e performance, acclamati da un’entusiasta platea di spettatori e superando le più rosee aspettative. La prima sera, venerdì, è stato dato ampio spazio alla musica d’autore con i brani del pratese Nicola Pecci, seguito dalle emergenti e energetiche star del pop italiano Le Ragazze che hanno poi lasciato la scena al trio voce-chitararra-mandolino del cantastorie mugellano Francesco “Baba” Fuligni. A chiudere la serata è stato Alfredo Vestrini, accompagnato per l’occasione da un’ottima blues band, per un’interpretazione inedita del suo repertorio, compreso il testo “Alle porte del sogno”, da lui scritto e portato al successo da Irene Grandi. Sabato, dopo l’apertura della serata, affidata a uno dei personaggi più eclettici, simpatici e trasgressivi della dance italiana, Monnalisa, si è esibita l’attesissima Noemi che è stata accolta dal calore di migliaia di ragazzi. La cantante ha voluto dunque esprimere, con due intense ore di concerto, la sua passione per il Mugello: terra che ha spesso frequentato grazie alla collaborazione artistica instaurata con Francesco Sighieri e Pietro Stefanini.

“Tengo molto a ringraziare il pubblico che ci ha fatto capire che possiamo, e dobbiamo, continuare a proporre eventi musicali di questo genere in Mugello- dichiara Pietro Stefanini, produttore artistico e organizzatore del Festival- naturalmente un enorme ringraziamento va a chi ha reso possibile queste tre belle giornate di musica e divertimento: anzitutto il Comune di Borgo San Lorenzo, gli sponsor e tutte le realtà associative e non, che hanno organizzato insieme a noi l’evento. Senza dimenticare i partners, TeleIride, lo studio di registrazione Seventy70, l’associazione Beecom che ha curato la comunicazione, e gli altri volontari che si sono attivati in queste intense giornate.”

La chiusura del Music Valley Festival è affidata al saggio della scuola di musica Music Valley e, a seguire, saliranno sul palco due band fiorentine, The Frog con la cantante Dafne e, al basso, Lorenzo Consigli, e i Grow Up, duo di viola e voce, composto da Paolo Clementi e Filomena.

Ufficio stampa beecom

Accademizzazione sterile.

Il secondo aspetto della globalizzazione musicale ha a che vedere proprio con la materia della mia sussistenza.

Grazie alla grandissima semplicità di comunicazione di questo periodo storico è possibile raggiungere tutorial di qualunque specialità, non per ultima,la tecnica strumentale.

La comparsa di scuole e pubblicazioni didattiche, sempre più evolute, dà la possibilità ad un gran numero di persone di apprendere un linguaggio musicale basico superiore.

Per capire meglio il concetto è sufficiente farsi una ricerca sul web, in merito a questa o quella specialità, e ne verrà fuori una quantità impressionante di documenti multimediali inerenti.Cloni virtuosi degli artisti che per primi, si sono inventati modi di suonare attraverso talento e istinto, possono essere reperiti facilmente.

La reale creatività, però,  appartiene spesso, a chi non ha filtrato le codifiche didattiche oppure a chi(cosa molto importante!) le ha apprese e poi riposte, dando libero sfogo alle impressioni scevre da modelli…diventando semplicemente “lo strumento”.

Fortunatamente la necessità di conoscenza non è completamente deviata nell’essere umano e si riescono a trovare ancora talenti capaci di donare emozioni.Va considerato anche che la velocità dello spirito del nostro tempo possiede la capacità di prosciugare ogni risorsa esponenzialmente. Francamente, non per essere fatalista, penso che quest’aridità di contenuti possa condurci semplicemente ad un cambio di scenario dove l’ego non farà più da padrone.

L’autenticità del messaggio romanticamente si riapproprierà del suo ruolo d’importanza rispetto al messaggero.