Syncopation is the opposite of math
I hate when people cite a defintion except when a definition sounds so good. "In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beats in a meter (pulse)…"
From a couple weeks ago and unreasonably, unseasonably delayed, the best time I've had in a while, with friend Meghan and I going to Rock and Roll Hotel for opener Cedric Burnside and Lightnin Malcom and headliner Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. The downstairs was packed shoulder-to-shoulder and shoulder-to-chest, and we got hot and liked it. First there guitar and hollering. Then guitar and drums. Then horns! Rhythm joined blues, and the night was off to the races.
Better pix on this blog, and I do like the write-up here. "Having seen Lewis in a large festival setting (Austin City Limits 2008 and 2009) and as an opener at the 9:30 Club, it was refreshing to see him play such an intimate venue, where the classic blues really shone through. But there was also plenty of that rough, yet soulful James Brown-style yelling in there too." And it was a good night to be in the city too–
Cold, clear and awake. Meghan and I walked from Union Station and got to see everything that wasn't in the neighborhood when I was at Gonzaga a dozen years ago — and what was coming next. Streetcar! Can't wait for it. I'd spent the day (or what felt like it) doing math for photo crops at work and needed to spend the next day doing similar stuff. For three hours, the counting became intrinsic and all forgotten.
Well, well, well…
Here's the official video of Sugarfoot. Sharp online — roof-blasting live.
March 25th, 2011 at 9:09 AM
[...] Blog post from the Black Joe Lewis show about a year ago at Rock and Roll Hotel: Syncopation is the opposite of math. [...]