John Hammond returns to acoustic blues on latest album
EDMONTON - John Hammond has shared stages and studios with some of the greatest names in blues but he usually prefers to keep it simple.
“Every now and then I put a band together but 99 per cent of my shows are solo,” he explains, “and I’ve only made a handful of solo acoustic albums so this was a chance for me to do what I like to do.”
By “this,” he’s referring to Rough & Tough, his latest album, a fine solo acoustic disc released by Chesky Records last year. In a sense he’s come full circle from the first solo acoustic blues set that he made for Vanguard back in 1962. Back then, the 20-year-old guitarist-singer was bucking the notion that white guys couldn’t play the blues.
“I had only been playing professionally about nine months when I got the chance to record for Vanguard so it was a big deal. I was so wrapped up in the music and my vision of what I wanted to do with my life I wasn’t concerned with what people would say. The most criticism I got was from writers who found it difficult to accept someone from outside the stereotype, but the people I played with were really happy I was doing it.”
In fact, Hammond’s debut album foreshadowed a 1960s blues revival that would shine a new light on a few of the artists he idolized and played with, greats like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Fred McDowell among others.
New York native Hammond first become aware of the blues tradition back in 1949, at age seven, from seeing Big Bill Broonzy and later Jimmy Reed. He also saw the seminal rock ’n’ roll pioneers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Then there’s that legendary band he led for five nights in a New York club in the mid-’60s which included two emerging guitarists named Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. But he says it was “the deeper stuff,” country blues artists like Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell, that inspired him.
All these years later Hammond has an extensive discography of some 35 albums, both acoustic blues and the electric material that he’s focused on since he signed with Pointblank Records in the early 1990s. Wicked Grin, a 2001 album of tunes by his friend Tom Waits, remains the biggest hit of that phase, and Hammond himself continues to focus on a huge repertoire of tunes by other artists, with occasional songs of his own.
“I don’t know how to put it into perspective apart from the fact that I’m still into it. I just do whatever I want to do in concert. I’ve become very spoiled in that way. I’ve been doing this for 50 years and I just assume that folks want to hear me do what I love.”
Hammond brings his usual solo tour combo — a six-string English guitar and a 1935 National steel guitar — to play Sherwood Park’s Festival Place Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, $34 to $38, are available from the box office (780-449-3378).
Dutch masters paint jazz
The Yardbird hosts a brilliant trio of jazz masters from Amsterdam Thursday with pianist Michiel Braam, bassist Wilbert DeJoode and drummer Michael Vatcher.
While Braam actually brought them together to play a festival of Thelonious Monk’s music in 1989 and still serves as chief composer, he emphasizes that they are very much a democratic collective, geared to improvised musical adventures, but not at the expense of their audience.
“It’s about communication,” he underlines. “I really like to have a recognizable tune now and then and I think that also goes for the audience too. We’re also very much into playing with form, changing or shifting chords, but staying with the form.”
There’s a real spirit of exploration and discovery in what they do as you can hear on Quartet, their 20th anniversary album featuring a series of notable guests with the trio.
“I think that’s very important. If I didn’t have the urge to explore any more it would be time to stop. We’re not trying to make commercial music. We have been married in music for over 20 years now and the communication is very deep. It’s as if I know what one of them will be playing before they know it themselves and vice versa. We have to really find ways to surprise each other. That involves risks but it’s also a treat.”
Braam writes tunes with his colleagues’ idiosyncrasies in mind though those tunes may only serve as springboards to spontaneous improvisation. And while he is involved in many other projects, the trio is closest to his heart.
“It’s the most intimate group I play in. Having the same lineup so long makes it very special, but I also need other larger projects to get a different kind of inspiration.”
Braam began piano lessons at seven and he’s dabbled in electric keyboards along the way. He remains a fan of high-energy rock acts like Ted Nugent and Van Halen, crediting jazz influences from Monk, Lennie Tristano and Cecil Taylor, and from the earlier generation of Dutch masters like Han Bennink and Misha Mengleberg. The pianist also attended college studies in Arnhem, where he now co-ordinates the jazz department.
In the end the trio is a unique mix of inspirations, governed by their European roots. Braam’s solos are as likely to quote Stravinsky or Bach as they can Monk or Ellington.
Trio Braam-DeJoode-Vatcher play the Yardbird Suite (102nd Street at 86th Avenue) Thursday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 for members, $20 for guests.
- Saxophonist Eddie Harris remains one of the great unsung heroes of jazz and soul-jazz. An all-star sextet featuring Dave Babcock, Bob Tildesley, Jim Head and others explores that great legacy on the Yardbird stage Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $14 for members, $18 for guests, from Ticketmaster (1-855-985-5000) or at the door.
