The Blues Are Universal

In addition to practicing at home and playing gigs with the Chicago Jazz Quartet +1, I've had the chance over the past few weeks to jam the blues with a couple of fine musicians just a few minutes away from home. We're all around the same age so there is an element of comradeship to our music; we don't have anything to prove except that we want to play. 

My good friend Kim Gooi tracked me down late last year after we met on a Penang rooftop jamming with some Sape musicians from Sarawak in mid-2010. He is a respected photojournalist and lived in Thailand for about 30 years before returning to his native Malaysia. Kim plays the harp and came upon the blues while working in Bangkok, which has a large expat community and its share of bars with live bands. Close your eyes and you would have no idea that you are listening to a native Penangite and not someone from the South Side of Chicago. Kim said he listened to the blues for about 10 years before picking up the harp and it just came naturally to him after that. 

Two weeks ago, guitarist Joe Goh came to visit from Kuala Lumpur. Joe is originally from Malacca. The first time I met him we were jamming the blues before I could even get my gear fully unpacked. After playing for so many years he just has the sound in his blood. We don't need to talk much, just set up and play. Again, close your eyes and you are on the South Side. We've played everything from T-Bone Walker to Miles Davis over the last couple of weeks as well as hundreds of choruses of blues in every key, tempo, rhythm, and style we can think of, spinning off marathon choruses that have me imagining Paul Gonsalves on stage at Newport 1956 in my own minor-league way. Every chorus different, trying never to repeat, trading leads, playing backings for each other, varying the harmonies - just close your eyes and blow. Amazingly, Joe told me he has never played with a sax before! 

Joe was first exposed to the blues through the British Invasion bands in the 60's; then listening to US Armed Forces Radio broadcast from Vietnam he got to hear James Brown, Ray Charles and such. By the 70's he went to Europe for work and played rock and roll, then returned to Penang where he ran a guest house. One of his guests taught him some guitar and exposed him to jazz. A second stint playing music overseas followed. Along the way he heard T-Bone and B.B. King in person. It wasn't until the 90's that Miles and Trane connected for him, and now he is playing their music too. Joe told me that he has given up on being a full time musician in K.L. because there just aren't enough opportunities for him to play honest music, the music he wants to play. That's the subject of a whole separate blog post, forthcoming. 

Hope to get in at least one more jam before Joe heads back to K.L.