Showing posts with label Chris Harper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Harper. Show all posts

Saturday, June 8, 2024

Chris Harper - Four Aces And A Harp

Album: Four Aces And A Harp
Size: 168,4 MB
Time: 72:46
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2010
Styles: Chicago blues, harmonica blues
Art: Full

1. Hand Me Down My Cane (3:22)
2. Down In The Bottom (4:18)
3. Sloppy Drunk (3:32)
4. I Smell Trouble (6:36)
5. Blues Is My Life (4:27)
6. Next Time You See Me (3:16)
7. Mojo Hand (3:16)
8. You Make Me Fly (2:58)
9. What's Wrong (3:27)
10. Born In Arkansas (4:16)
11. Don't Get Around Much Anymore (2:31)
12. Forty Days And Forty Nights (3:59)
13. Eyesight To The Blind (3:28)
14. Evil Is Going On (3:31)
15. Long Distance Call (6:17)
16. Digging My Potatoes (3:48)
17. Worried Life Blues (5:35)
18. Fattening Frogs For Snakes (It Took Me A Long Time) (4:00)

Swiss-born "Swississippi" Chris Harper understands feel. He knows it’s not about squeezing in lots of notes designed to impress; instead, it’s about making each note count, delivering a potent musical punch with economical ease and authority. And for his recording debut on his own Swississippi Records label he’s recruited the cream of the old-school crop to help deliver a thoroughly convincing and satisfying outing steeped in tradition.

Harper’s "Four Aces" – the core backing band here – have all lived and breathed this music for many years. On drums we get Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. On bass, veteran Bob Stroger. And on guitar, it’s Jimmy Burns and journeyman John Primer. All are masters of their craft, able to lock into a groove with seemingly effortless aplomb. There’s also an impressive guest list of Chicago blues stalwarts, including the likes of guitarists Rockin’ Johnny Burgin and Little Frank Krakowski, drummer Kenny "Beady Eyes" Smith and vocalist Tail Dragger.

Together with producer/guitarist Dave Katzman, Harper hand-picked the cast with the intention of crafting a collection showcasing classic Chicago Blues – half electric and half acoustic, to illustrate where the music came from. And they’ve succeeded on every level, with eighteen tracks that represent the width of the blue spectrum – songs made famous by Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf as well as Lightnin’ Hopkins and Sleepy John Estes. Also included are a handful of original compositions from Harper that fit seamlessly, and a delightful harmonica romp through Duke Ellington’s "Don’t Get Around Much Anymore". /John Taylor

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

Four Aces And A Harp mc
Four Aces And A Harp gofile

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Chris Harper and Sharade Band - Blues Is My Life

Size: 434 MB
Time: 64:46
File: Flac
Released: 2007
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

1. Sweet Honey Sunshine ( 4:41)
2. You've Got Me Baby ( 6:28)
3. Groove Machine ( 4:54)
4. Help Me ( 8:19)
5. Stormy Monday (10:31)
6. Lie Lie Lie ( 6:06)
7. I'm Checkin' Up on My Baby ( 2:26)
8. Sweet Sixteen ( 5:19)
9. Deep Blue Sky ( 5:27)
10. Blues Is My Life ( 6:43)
11. Soul Blues ( 3:46)

Chris Harper, a late calling musician? Somehow, Swiss-born and now Chicago-based Harper has been connected to the blues and its offshoots most of his life. He is now primarily focused on music, having picked up a harp at age 12, switching to bass a year later and playing it in a number of hard rock, jazz rock and dixie jazz bands. Since 2002 Harper has been more at the pulse of music and in the 'Windy City' he met some bluesers, jammed in the clubs with Melvin Taylor, Billy Branch and Sugar Blue, among others. He owes a lot to the latter, for it was he who made sure that the Swiss changed his harp style »from the lip to the tongue block technique«. So Sugar Blue, whose real name is James Whiting, made sure that the tradition of a Little Walter was passed on. In 2004 Harper met the Italian Sharade Band and there was a successful collaboration, which is now also available as an album with "Blues Is My Life". A full 65 minutes of blues are on the record program and it's clear that you also have to like the music of the people who make the reeds of a harmonica vibrate through different air currents and bending. Six original compositions, one with the band, face five cover interpretations. Other musicians have been invited to Chicago's Delmark Records' Riverside Studios for some pieces, and alongside Billy Branch, another harper, and the Chicago Horns, guitarist Chico Banks will also be giving three guest appearances. Chris Harper's blues express really gets rolling in the opener "Sweet Honey Sunshine". Crisp horns, the best backing vocals from the three ladies Kay C. Reed, May Koen and Vanessa Holmes as well as a furiously playing Swiss who uses his instrument in a variety of ways. Then you step on the brakes and the intonation becomes much softer. Especially the slow blues show what people are capable of and I take my hat off to Harper, because his "You've Got Me Baby" is a ballad to die for. And I stay close to the ground, because with this "Help Me" version, even if Billy Branch is there with his work equipment and on the vocal microphone, one presents one of the mercilessly good interpretations. When the two harps, clean, channel-separated, groovy blues and saxophonist Gianluca Baroncelli passes the solo baton to keyboardist Giacomo Lauria and then two harp interludes follow, the blues heart is happy. You can do the funky gait twice. On the one hand it's the heavier interpretation with the "Groove Machine" that shines with the guitarists Stefano Moruzzi and Chico Banks. Hell, what a 6-string solo effort and behind it the saxophone is constantly accelerating. The slightly more airy version makes up the title track "Blues Is My Life", but with a good portion of soul delivered by the female voices. Contrasts are also provided, as Banks at times plays an almost psychedelic wah wah electric guitar. If we already had a sung slow blues, Harper and the Sharade Band present an instrumental pandon with "Deep Blue Sky". A filigree work of art with a yearning harp and another great Moruzzi, which unleashes a fiery solo into the world at slow beats. Of course, the length of many tracks leaves room for many solo interludes. This is also the case here, because Baroncelli doesn't splash out and sets the wooden reed of his instrument in vibration. With more than ten minutes, the classic "Stormy Monday" is celebrated in epic breadth, very well by the way. The Swiss sings with a sometimes rough-sounding voice and the saxophonist gives the piece a jazzy rebuff. In contrast, the swinging-grooving "Checkin' Up On My Baby" is a 'shorty', but no less worth listening to. Chris Harper and the Sharade Band and their guests are met with an open door from the reviewer and that should also be the case for many of our readers from the blues faction, because you can feel that the 12-stroke is Harper's life and that's how diverse it is CD. As the info material says: »Together with them he realized his Swississippi dreams.« That translates to 8 out of 10 RockTimes clocks. Line up: Chris Harper (harp, vocals) The Sharade Band: Gianluca Baronelli (saxophone) Stefano Moruzzi (guitar) Giacomo Lauria (keyboards) Albano Castrese (bass) Enrico Cecconi (drums) Special guest: Billy Branch (harp, vocal - #4) Chico Banks (guitar solo - #3, guitar, vocals - #5, wah wah rhythm guitar - #10) Chicago Horns: Bill McFarland (trombone) Kenny Anderson (trumpet) Hank Ford (tenor saxophone) Kay C. Reed (backing vocals) Mae Koen (backing vocals) Vanessa Holmes (backing vocals)

Blues Is My Life FLAC