Blues Reunion: African, American and European Musicians Connect and Transform America’s Quintessential Music on Putumayo’s African Blues

The blues has long been about storytelling, about raising a voice from the margins and edges of American life. As it spread from the Deep South to Chicago and beyond, the blues incorporated a powerful musical groove which has influenced music around the world. Now, musicians are reaching across the Atlantic and finding that they have a common story to tell in shades of blue.

Putumayo’s African Blues chronicles the return of the blues to its African motherland. It also demonstrates the burgeoning connections between West and East African musicians and performers from the blues’ traditional heartland in the U.S., as well as converts in Europe—and shows how these connections are revolutionizing traditions on both continents.

Taj Mahal, together with the Culture Musical Club of Zanzibar, gets down and deep in a slow-burning meditation on the beauties of Dhow Countries. Mali’sIssa Babayogo brings his characteristic, sparkling knack for gritty, melodic grooves. The ever-evolvingPlaying for Change band—this time featuring hip desert rockers Tinariwen and Keb Mo—reveals how globally malleable a good old 12-bar blues can be. And as always, the collection is filled with engaging new discoveries like hard-hitting Tuareg singer-songwriter Amar Sundy, unfolding and grooving collaborations like the Belgian-Malian project Kalaban Coura and the unexpected blend of Mali Latino.

“It’s like two halves of a circle,” muses Putumayo head Dan Storper, a passionate collector of music from around the world. “The blues’ roots are in Africa but emerged and evolved as a powerful musical style in America. Now they’re reuniting in new and exciting ways.”

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“When we worked on Mali to Memphis, we recognized the powerful connection between the bluesy music of West Africa and the Mississippi Delta,” explains Dan “That began my search for American and African blues and blues-influenced music and led to a series of successful CDs including Mississippi Blues, American Blues and Blues Around the World.”

Storper, a blues fan who lives in New Orleans and his staff found a growing number of collaborative projects based on close musical friendships British guitarist Ramon Goose teamed up with kora (West African bridge-harp) whiz Diabel Cissokho (“Totoumo”), while respected Latin keyboard player and producer Alex Wilson found the sweet spot where Afro-Latin beats and roaring organ lines jive with kora, percussion, and other sounds from West Africa (Mali Latino’s “Ni Koh Bedy”).   

As the various currents of blues have flowed back together—the developments in the U.S. and Europe, and African musicians’ responses to the American blues records that arrived midcentury—a new depth and richness have come to this storied musical form.

“It’s natural since the collaborations between Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba, George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo,” reflects Storper. “There’s something magical when two musical cultures collide and bring the best of each world to a song.”

The Vaults of (Roots Music) Heaven: Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music Unlocks the Lost Gems and Wild Creativity of its Live Archives

Venerable vernacular music institution releases 127 live tracks by the best in American and global music from last half century.
On a stack of DATs in a shoebox lay the history of American music. There were local legends and major icons, global musicians and indie rockers. Some captured beautifully from the board, some gleaned quietly from the dusty archives of a radio station, the recordings held wildly creative decades of sound from Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, a roots-music touchstone for nearly 55 years. And no one had heard them.

Joan Baez and Donovan, Big Bill Broonzy and Ella Jenkins, Pete Seeger and Taj Mahal, Martin Carthy and Steve Earle, Doc Watson andMahalia Jackson: It was a literal who’s-who of folk, gospel, country, bluegrass, blues, and world music, caught in hours of exciting performances. But someone had to put the pieces together—all 127 tracks worth—and someone had to clear all the rights with 85 different artists.

They succeeded, against odds that would have stopped others in their tracks. Live From The Old Town School (Old Town School Recordings; release: December 13, 2011) reveals not only the venerable institution’s storied start, but its role in the recent infusion of new energy into the roots music world, with everyone from Toumani Diabate and Oumou Sangare toAndrew Bird and Lila Downs.

This crucial collection of rare live gems is available for download from iTunes, Amazon, and CD Baby, with most of the proceeds going to benefit the School’s educational work with children and adults. And though very diverse, the tracks share a common quality.

“These are all performers who know how to communicate with the audience in a very personal way,” says Colby Maddox, librarian/archivist and teacher at the Old Town School, who spearheaded the project and attracted support for it from the Donnelley Foundation. “They don’t need that distance, that huge arena. They want to get down close and make people happy. And they are all coming from well-established traditions, all different, but all strong.”

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“You can feel the immense energy in the concerts and what we’re presenting,” explains Maddox. “Take Andrew Bird’s show. He was called in as an opening act on short notice, and he put together a band last minute. All these great musicians ran in to play with him, and you can really feel the spontaneity and excitement of that show in the recording.”

Immense energy and deep commitment are at the heart of the Old Town School’s work, past and present. From humble, grassroots beginnings in the lessons and singing circles during the folk revival’s heyday, the School became an established part of the thriving Chicago folk scene, a scene that temporarily rivaled New York and Berkeley in its vibrancy. At the School, folk stars of the day crooned, moved audiences, and even jokingly imitated each other.

Behind the scenes, even as the School became a highly respected fixture of the Chicago music scene and a sought-after venue for many musicians, the spirit of its origins remained. Jam sessions would go on all evening, in the dressing rooms, hallways, and elevators. Annual parties would last all night. Unlikely duos and trios would perform at unforgettable one-off shows, fortunately caught on tape (and now released for all to enjoy). Moments likeOdetta’s striking version of “Strawberry Fields Forever” or Jeff Tweedy ofWilco’s unexpected cover of Schoolhouse Rock anthem (and De La Soul inspiration), “Three Is the Magic Number.”

“We once did a show with Robbie Fulks and Cowboy Jack Clement, the rockabilly producer from Sun Studios who wrote, ‘I Guess Things Happen That Way,’ for Johnny Cash,” recalls Jon Langford of The Mekons, an alt-country and punk legend in his own right and a longtime supporter of the School whose gritty cover of Procol Harum’s “Homburg” is part of the Live From collection. “At the end of the night, he joined us onstage for a ragged version, then played his ukulele for us all the way back to the dressing room, even in the elevator.”

But to bring these key moments and gorgeous relics to light also demanded intense energy. Maddox’s predecessor, Paul Tyler, meticulously copied early live tapes at the radio station that had become an unknowing repository for the School’s first concert recordings. “They had accumulated hundreds of tapes of performances and interviews. I would tuck our rack-mount DAT under my arm and hop on the El,” he remembers with a chuckle. Tyler grabbed tapes sitting in the station’s warehouse and recorded what he could in a vacant studio while his welcome lasted, gleaning famous performances from the late 1950s and 1960s. In addition to the older archives Tyler created, the School itself harbored shelves of digital recordings, started during its second heyday at the turn of the early 21st century.

Then they had to get the right to release the highest quality tracks. Some established artists, like eccentric folk rocker Donovan, were highly skeptical at first, but came around as they got mixes from Maddox and his team. Some composers, like the Puerto Rican songwriters behind some of Los Plenaros de la 21’s hot numbers, could not be found, no matter how the team tried. Months of back and forth, and they had their 127 choice tracks, merely the tip of the iceberg, Maddox notes.

“We transferred thousands of hours of music,” Maddox recalls. “I couldn’t cut it off; there was just so much good stuff. I knew this might be the only time we’d get to do this. I didn’t want to tell anyone no!”

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Simply Six: The Dysfunctional Family Jazz Band

1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew they wanted to be a singer.  For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later.  Is there such a defining moment for you?

Patty: I knew I wanted to be a singer when I started singing in nursery school and every one stared at me cause my voice was pretty good and certainly loud for a 4 year old kid.  Music has been my main focus through out my life, and I knew it was what I always wanted to do. It didn’t matter as much to be a performer, as to just have it in every particle of my days. Also, I really wanted to be Annette Funicello on the Mickey Mouse Show, cause I loved her singing!

Melissa: I was on the beach in Mexico and someone taught me how to sing Gracias a La Vida – it made me weep and I wanted to be able to do that, to share that level of emotion.

2. When you’re not creating music what are you listening to?  Who are some of your favorites?

Patty: I am very eclectic, but I love to listen to women singers, and great songwriters. SO, here are a few: from Billy Holiday, to Sharon Jones, Bob Dylan to Alison Krauss, Miles Davis, to Esperanza Spaulding.  Abdulla Ibrahim…..

Melissa: Miriam Makeba, Taj Mahal, Carmen McRae, Rosa Passos, Lee Morgan, Silvio Rodriguez, Bonnie Raitt

3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record or live?

Patty: Singing my children to sleep and awake again!

Melissa: I got to sing with Mundell Lowe, and he recorded with Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae and played with Billie Holiday – it gave me such a thrill.

4.  Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to?   How much can music influence current events?

 Patty: Music has already changed the world from promoting peace, revolution, work, dancing, solitary reflection, social communion, joy, sadness, and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

Melissa: I would say look at Woody Guthrie, the Civil Rights Movement, and South Africa. There is an amazing film called "Amandla! A revolution in four part harmony." It's all about the power of music to affect change.

5. How has technology affected the music industry?  How has technology affected your career as a musician?

 Patty: The industry is in freefall and that is good and bad.  I think that many doors have opened for the everyday musician, and that has brought us more musical diversity than what A&R execs might decide is commercial, but I really miss record stores. I like to browse in real feel. I do love the accessibility of most any music with a few keystrokes of the keyboard. Who could resist this wealth of songs!

Melissa: The sound quality has gone downhill. We need a Vinyl revolution.

6.  Now for my Barbara Walters question:  If you were a pair of shoes what type of shoes would you be?

Patty: My favorite shoes ever were low heeled gold strappy shoes from Sweden (cause Swedish Women have big damn feet like me!), built for sexy comfort and ready to haul an amp, walk on and into adventure, dance on stage!  So, make me them!

Melissa: Flip-Flops - easy to take off. I prefer to be barefoot.