[Slowhand] Marsallis & Clapton

[Fabio Dwyer]

I got my combo and I'm having a ball! I really loved it! I don't think it's really weird or strange for Clapton to be doing this, jazz it's one natural branch of blues, weird to my knowledge was to go to electronica - have you ever tried the shuffle function of your stereo using Backless and Pilgrim songs mixed??? THAT's weird!!! I liked EC's singing more than in the 'Clapton' album, although I really liked it - same style of the Marsallis thing, just with less stress on the horns section - there's something about his hinging there that I don't like too much. On the Marsallis album he did the magic for my taste. And using the 335 for basically the whole gig was something wonderful for a change in his strat sound. I don't like the sound of the noiseless pickup he's been using in the last decade, eventhough I liked the Lace-Sensors/Soldano combination a lot. For the highlight were the solos on 44 (at a certain point he's tone and some here of his playing reminded me SO MUCH of Cream!!! No kidding!) and Layla had some mean playing too! I'm amazed how this song can be rearranged and never gets boring! I'm thing about burning a whole cd only with Layla (ok, it's my favourite song ever), and that would include this New Orleans version, Dr. John's funky version, the Orchestra 91' version, the unplugged one, the 'electric - unplugged version of this tour, some version with Derek Trucks, some crazy live version from the 70's like L.A. Forum 75' and maybe the original!lol If anybody can suggest another different version that I forgot, shoot it! Bottom line, I really enjoyed the new album, didn't feel weird for me because, even if it's something new for Clapton to be involved with, 'Dixieland/New Orleans horns oriented music' it's not new to me, it's something that I really liked. The overall production (sound, image, graphic art) is very nice, and the only thing I would add to make it better would be the Lincoln Center 2003 performances as a bonus, it has the best 'Nobody Knows You' I've hear so far, that would make a great bonus!  Best regards, Fabio -----Original Message-----
From: DeltaNick [mailto:deltanick at comcast.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 4:58 AM
To: Slowhand Digest
Subject: [Slowhand] Marsalis & Clapton Play The Blues
 
Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton "Play The Blues," in both CD and DVD formats,
has been out for a week. I find it strange that nobody has mentioned it yet.
I was not especially looking forward to it, as I don't care much for horns
and prefer a 3-, 4- or 5-piece blues band. But this is, so far at least, a
somewhat pleasant surprise. While Clapton's guitar playing is not on fire, I
think he (and keyboards player Chris Stainton) does a decent job integrating
into a Dixieland-style jazz band, and he does almost all of the lead
singing, and quite well too. I'm normally a CD-rather-than-DVD guy, but with
this one, the DVD reveals so much more (facial expressions, etc). Nice tones
from the two Gibsons Clapton uses (mostly an ES-335).
 
                DeltaNick