Review John Hammond, blues

Press, 4 March 1989, Page 8

Review John Hammond, blues

John Hammond; Delta Blues at the James Hay Theatre, Friday, March 3. Reviewed by Neil McLeod. Let me start by saying that I’m not a long-standing non-fan of the blues; the blues are far more fun to play than to sit through. Blues tend to be played in the same key— and in the same rhythm — with the same 12-bar chord sequence; the words tend to be banal and frequently repeated; instruments tend to be limited to guitar and mouth-harp; singers of whatever nationality feel they have to use an American accent; and by the third number numbness sets in. The warm-up act, “Bad Whiskey,” led us through a sort of K-tel selection of blues classics: Staggerlee, C. C. Rider, etc. In the process they demonstrated all those drawbacks of sitting through a blues concert. Even though each was good on his instrument, the audience only really came alive during their version of Basin Street Blues, now more of a jazz standard than a blues number. Then John Hammond took the stage and for the next couple of hours demonstrated how to overcome the severe limits of the blues genre. Now he was driving the audience along with fingers all over his fret board,

punching rhythm and fast and fancy touguing on the harmonica clipped round his neck. And then he was delighting us with a slow and sensitive demonstration, breaking through the cliches, slipping in and out of falsetto, interpreting the song with great breath control on voice and on harp. Then into a new tempo, new key and another new lyric. Then Hammond slipped on a steel phone jack, picked up an open tuned National guitar and treated us to a whole bunch of lovely sounds such as I haven’t watched before. Now the only drawback was having to sit still in one’s seat. Even in the hands of a performer as good as John Hammond, the blues is still music for the feet rather than the head. There was another excellent blues man at the Whitecliffs Festival last week-end. When Paul Urbana Jones started his set we were all lounging on the grass; by the end of his third number, the front of the stage was packed with dancers, facing him, listening and moving. Good luck to the Blues Club being formed in Christchurch at the moment and let’s hope they keep the dancers in mind when they mount their concerts.