Yesterday Blaise and I headed over to Bonny B. Browns recently opened blues club for a first evening of open stage jamming.
If you have a warped mind that makes you imagine musicians climbing over, biting and bashing each other with their instruments for a place on the stage and holding their ground, playing as long as possible, you would be wrong. MC Bonny B. holds a tight rein and pretty much decides who will play with whom as well as make sure that the evening doesn’t sink into a mind dulling suit of repetitious 3 chord long guitar solo blues. Since he knew most of the musicians there, he also did his best to mingle them up. At one moment I, along with a drummer and sax player, played for two younger guys who had a couple of “Chanson Française”, French songs (sorry how to qualify what that is would take more time than I care to put in this today) they wanted to play.
All in all I think everyone would agree that it was a most enjoyable evening, good enough to stay to the end (1AM) even though we had an hour and a half drive home after. I particularity enjoyed hearing Michael J. Robinson, an English drummer who knows how to play the blues! Most of the Swiss and European blues bands that I’ve heard have drummers who play with a style that comes IMO from rock music, which is fine really but is often too flashy for my personal taste, although it does of course depend on the drummer, the song and many other parameters. But if you listen to an old Muddy Waters album for instance, you aren’t going to hear that type of drumming. Michael J. Robinson on the other hand sounded very much like what you would be hearing. He had what he call an “old school” style, deceptively “simple” until you start hearing how brilliantly the rhythmic elements fill in the space and bring out the pulse without calling undue attention to themselves. Unfortunately his website doesn’t have an example I could send you to since it mostly presents his funk side. Check it out, the guy also has written and illustrated a few books. Amazing all the talent that some people have!