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Corey Harris
Corey Harris's life and music embrace the black experience in all its dimensions. He burst onto the scene in 1995 with his debut recording “Between Midnight and Day,” an acclaimed exploration of acoustic, rural blues styles. At the time, few really grasped the scope and range of Harris's musical persona. He had solid blues credentials. After street-busking and taking small gigs wherever he could drive to from his home outside New Orleans, it quickly became clear that pigeonholing Harris as a blues musician was never going to work.
A native of Denver, Colorado, Corey Harris fell in love with music at an early age, and made his own music with a toy guitar he received at the age of three. Now 31 years old, Corey grew up watching his favorite music television shows - including Hee Haw and Soul Train - and listening to all the popular music of the day. But when his mother turned him on to a real guitar and the blues of Lightnin' Hopkins, Corey - just 12 years old - found his true musical calling. He learned to sing and play by ear, listening to his favorite albums over and over again until he knew all the parts. He sang in church groups, played trumpet and then tuba in his junior high school marching band, and played in a rock band in high school.
After attending Bates College in Maine, Harris, along with his newly acquired National steel guitar, left for Cameroon in West Africa in 1991. While there, Harris' love for acoustic blues grew, as did his understanding of the importance of the indigenous juju music. The polyrhythmic drumming associated with juju is clearly reflected in Harris' propulsive rhythmic, drum-like guitar playing. After returning to the United States, Harris moved to rural Louisiana and began teaching French and English, all the while continuing to play his music and refining his craft by moonlighting as a street musician in nearby New Orleans. Before long, Harris was not only playing on the streets and in coffeehouses, but colleges and clubs as well.
Harris went into the studio in 1994 with producer Larry Hoffman, recording the traditional blues he honed as a street musician. The 1995 release of “Between Midnight And Day” catapulted Harris to international recognition. Critics, fans and fellow musicians could barely contain their enthusiasm. “Harris brought time to a stop,” raved the national edition of The New York Times, “invoking the ghosts of Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins and Howlin' Wolf.” After reading the article about Harris in The New York Times, singer Natalie Merchant bought a copy of “Between Midnight And Day” and immediately invited Harris to open every date on her West Coast tour, and even had him join her on stage for her finales. He's toured Europe many times - including a tour as part of Alligator Records' 25th Anniversary celebration - and toured Japan in 1997.
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Corey Harris: Fulton Blues
by Angelo Leonardi
Sono trascorsi due decenni dal debutto di Corey Harris in Between Midnight and Day, che fece gridare al miracolo catapultando il bluesman sulla scena internazionale. Quelle torride esecuzioni di Delta Blues suscitarono alti consensi e grandi attese (confermate dal successivo Fish Ain't Bitin'), portando il New York Times a paragoni -certo eccessivi-con Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins e Howlin' Wolf. Inutile nascondere che quelle aspettative sono andate un po' deluse: negli anni successivi Harris ha spaziato forse troppo in ...
read moreCorey Harris, Henry Butler: Vu Du Menz
by Ed Kopp
Critics and musicians routinely refer to veteran New Orleans pianist Henry Butler as a genius." An eclectic virtuoso who’s studied everything from avant-garde jazz to opera to New Orleans R&B, Butler plays piano like he has four hands instead of two. As talented as Butler is, I’ve preferred his jazz and R&B albums to his blues releases, simply because the latter have been too ornate to suit my crude tastes. Vu-Du Menz is more down-and-dirty than Butler’s past ...
read moreCorey Harris: Greens From The Garden
by Ed Kopp
Now here's something you rarely find in the blues bin: a concept album.New Orleans resident and country bluesman Corey Harris relates music to nourishment on Greens From the Garden, his third and best release. Like sumptuous courses at a great Southern feast, there's a variety of sustaining musical styles on Greens. Harris's tunes are interspersed with spoken snippets that I find annoying, but his music more than compensates. Greens benefits from a live-in-the-studio feel. Stylistically this ...
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