3.4.05
Ontem à tardinha, depois de muito procurar nos A.A. (Arquivos Anárquicos) cá de casa, dei com o primeiro disco de Corey Harris para a Alligator, que, a bem dizer, já não ouvia há um par de anos. Lembro-me de o ter comprado na Loja da Música do Coliseu os Recreios de Lisboa, por volta de 1996, por sugestão do Pedro Costa, que me chamou a atenção para a emergência daquele que é hoje um dos mais relevantes nomes do blues acústico da América. Corey Harris, Between Midnight and Day: uma coleccção excepcional de blues roots ao estilo do Delta do Mississipi, originais de C. Harris à mistura com interpretações de clássicos de Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Big Jack Johnson e de outros mestres do passado.
Corey Harris is a member of the small but growing coterie of young African-American bluesmen who've eschewed flash and fashion for the emotionally rich but musically challenging (and commercially risky) subtleties of the acoustic tradition.
Corey Harris is a member of the small but growing coterie of young African-American bluesmen who've eschewed flash and fashion for the emotionally rich but musically challenging (and commercially risky) subtleties of the acoustic tradition.
Harris mixes and matches influences with a genre-jumping abandon...he'll punctuate a languorous half-shuffle, half-boogie rhythm with high-treble exclamation marks reminiscent of Charlie Patton, then move into a series of undulating slide whines that invoke Robert Johnson; over the top he'll moan out his vocals with a phlegmy urgency borrowed from Big Joe Williams, with a hint of Son House's tormented high-tension balance between the sacred and profane thrown in. But rather than sounding dilettantish, he is immersed in the spirit of the music, caring more for emotional honesty than for slavish dedication to scholarly notions of authenticity. There's something undeniably inspiring about the sincerity and audacity of Corey Harris and his fellow revivalists, bringing the vintage blues styles into the '90s. -- David Whiteis, Chicago Reader
posted by eduardo chagas @ 3.4.05
