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Post by Admin on Aug 8, 2014 10:01:01 GMT -5
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Post by AlanB on Aug 9, 2014 8:57:11 GMT -5
Make of this what you will.
JOHN CEPHAS - PHIL WIGGINS Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham, Hants. November 7th. 1992
During the past twenty five years I've reviewed blues performances at many venues, from the fading grandeur of St. Pancras Town Hall to the back street clubs of North London. This however was the first time I'd encountered the blues in an arts centre, the building itself being a converted school with tables and chairs at the front and a bar discretely tucked away at the back.
Singer and guitarist John Cephas (60) kicked the evening off by giving the hushed, still-as-statues, audience an explanation of the sort of blues they were going to hear by demonstrating on his guitar the difference between the Piedmont and Mississippi styles. You could've heard the proverbial pin drop! The atmosphere transported me back to Les Cousins folk club in Greek Street where I was once "shushed" for accidentally moving my chair during a performance by Davey Graham of his anthem, "Angie". Needless to say I never returned, but I digress....
Launching into a warm-up guitar and harmonica instrumental, this country blues duo from Washington DC, ably demonstrated that their roots are firmly planted in the East Coast/Piedmont traditions of Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake and Blind Gary Davis and at the end of which the oh-so-still audience moved their hands in polite applause. During the following two, 45 minute, sets Cephas sang his way through an eclectic set including several Fuller numbers ("Mamie", "Screaming And Crying" and "Mama Let Me Lay It On You"), a half remembered "Keep Your Hands Off Her" in response to a request for Big Bill Broonzy (yes, it still happens), Skip James' "Hard Time Killing Floor", Memphis Minnie's "Black Rat" (probably learnt via Big Joe Williams), McTell's "Broke Down Engine" (with Wiggins harmonising on the chorus, bringing to mind Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee), Blake's "West Coast Blues" (I think) and Gary Davis' "I Saw The Light". Ironically, it was the Davis song that eventually broke through the reverential, hushed atmosphere when the duo got the audience to clap and sing along to the chorus and from then on they lost most of their inhibitions.
For some, myself included, the real star of the evening was Phil Wiggins whose down-home, country blues harp accompaniment reminded me, not so much of the East Coast, but more of the pre-war greats like DeFord Bailey, Alfred Lewis, Bobby Leecan and Eddie Mapp. He was truly amazing, managing to project a full blown (excuse the pun) sound without needing to get near his mike - even when vamping it "Chicago style" during two Jimmy Reed encores.
I hope the Arts Centre sold sufficient tickets to warrant booking other blues artists. I also trust that in the meantime the organisers of the Centre go to see a visiting blues artist in a club or pub setting to get an insight into the atmosphere they work in at home - it isn't all deadly hush and "please don't leave your seats until a convenient moment" - far, far from it. As Big Bill once said, "These blues are meant to be barrelhoused". I'll go along with that! Alan Balfour (Blues &Rhythm 75 Jan 1993)
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Post by Admin on Aug 9, 2014 12:02:01 GMT -5
Just out of curiosity Alan, has the Art Centre survived?
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Post by dadfad on Aug 11, 2014 8:11:31 GMT -5
I'd known John since the 70s. I'd been trying to learn from my sort-of mentor John Jackson for awhile and I'd asked him about playing Skip James stuff in open minor tuning. (I'd tried to find Skip down in Bentonia a few years earlier, not knowing he'd already died.) John said he never played in minors, but he knew a man over in the next county who did. We drove over and he introduced me to John (Cephas).
Over the years I learned a great deal from John (Cephas) (both Johns really!) and we became good friends. I was pretty shocked when Phil called and told me John had died. I'd just played with him maybe six or eight months earlier and he seemed in pretty good health. (I kind of always thought he'd outlive me!)
"Cephas and Wiggins" recorded and performed some great music together for twenty-five years. While both John and Phil were (are) great talents individually, like so many musical groups (from the Beatles to Sonny and Terry) the magic of the collective talent as a unit was much greater than the simple sum of the individuals. (Does that make sense? LOL)
I sat around and jammed with Phil a bit (and passed a bottle of tequilla back and forth) (with some 'shine for a chaser. LOL) just a few weeks ago.
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Post by Admin on Aug 11, 2014 8:36:48 GMT -5
I sat around and jammed with Phil a bit (and passed a bottle of tequilla back and forth) (with some 'shine for a chaser. LOL) just a few weeks ago. What songs??? [cheers]
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Post by dadfad on Aug 11, 2014 10:50:18 GMT -5
I sat around and jammed with Phil a bit (and passed a bottle of tequilla back and forth) (with some 'shine for a chaser. LOL) just a few weeks ago. What songs??? [cheers] (My rapidly becoming senile mind starts...) (The smell of burning sawdust fills the air...) I can't remember them all as there were probably dozens, but I can remember a few of them. "Louis Collins" (an old John Hurt tune), RJ's "Last Fair Deal," "St. James Infirmiry" (don't really care for that tune but Phil called it so...), "Mamie (an old BB Fuller tune, Cephas and Wiggins also recorded it), "Black Rat Swing" (an old Memphis Minnie tune) and Stagger Lee. I especially like doing old Cephas and Wiggins tunes when I get together with Phil, as I'd learned so much from John over so many years, I'm not too shabby in playing his tunes in his style. And so I like trying to "play like John" against Phil's harp. John's version of Stagger Lee (Stack-o-Lee, or whatever ya wanna call it!) is probably my favolite version out of the hundreds or versions that have been recorded. (In dropped-D, very dynamic.) Anyway, that's a few of them. Oh, one more thing that was kind of funny. I was in a Guitar Center a few months ago buying some guitar strings. On my way to the counter they had these packs of harmonicas on sale. Hohner "Piedmont Blues" harps. A little case with seven harps for twenty bucks. I figured they'd probably be fairly low-quality but something I could toss in a guitar case for "harp emergencies." And they had a picture on the wrapper of Phil playing harp. So I bought 'em. When I got home the first four harps had at least one dead-note in each one. Another sounded like I was doing bad tongue-blocks when I played it. Pure crappola, I tossed the case (the little case was worth more than the harps! LOL) in my bag thinking "someday" I might check them out to see if they could be salvaged or whatever. Anyway, when I was playing with Phil I was digging through my bag for a slide and came across that pack of crappy harps and remembered. I pulled 'em out showed them to Phil with his his picture on the pack and said "Man, you owe me twenty bucks. I bought these pieces of shit based soley on your personal endorsement of the product!" and laughed. He looked at it closely and then (more seriously) said "John, I never endorsed these. I don't have any kind of arrangement with Hohner. (Phil does prefer Hohner Marine Bands, I prefer Special 20s myself). I don't know where they got that picture either." I said "Phil, you ought to contact your lawyer. Maybe they might've bought or in some way acquired the rights to that picture, or maybe not. But even if they did, they've used your name and reputation as an endorsement for a very obviously inferior product and that could easily reflect on or hurt your reputation as an artist. There might be some damages there." He said he was going to look into it as soon as he got back to Maryland. (Phil and his wife Judy were leaving for the Port Townshend Blues festival in a couple of days.) Anyway, I thought that was pretty funny!
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Post by JamesP on Sept 27, 2016 11:51:00 GMT -5
John Cephas and Phil Wiggins - Discuss Piedmont Blues
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