If for many musicians to achieve success record is given by a random path of lucky meetings or events and special situations, well this is not really the case of Benjamin Chase Harper.
The linearity of his musical training seems almost a office, a real task to keep the disclosure of that hymn to life in the modern world, which had started celebrating Bob Marley, search for a poetic and sensitive yet authoritative, visible only in the verses of Bob Dylan.
Class 1969, Ben was born in California, nell'Inland Empire, fifty miles from Claremont to Los Angeles in a very mixed family roots: his father Leonard, a percussionist, is African American and Cherokee descent, while his mother Ellen Chase-Vendries is Jewish, the daughter of Russian immigrants.
His parents separated when she was only five years and he, together the brothers Joel and Peter, spent his childhood with his maternal family, which deals with music by three generations: grandfather luthier, guitarist grandmother, mother, singer and guitarist. The family also owns a music store, the Folk Music Center and Museum, in the back of which Ben began to play the guitar for quite small. One can well understand that all family members are not just passionate but true professionals, deeply in love with their job and that will inevitably pour their passion in the young Harper, who now shows considerable ability in playing the acoustic guitar. It is at this time that his maternal grandfather makes him discover his true inclination: urging a provare quella slide guitar Weissenborn, originale degli anni ‘20, lo stesso strumento che successivamente diventerà indispensabile nelle sue creazioni musicali.
Alla sua prima esibizione pubblica, a soli dodici anni, dimostra di essere un enfant prodige, non solo per i suoi evidenti virtuosismi alle sei corde, ma soprattutto per le influenze che in un così giovane musicista vengono fuori, nota dopo nota: da Ry Cooder a Bob Dylan, da Sam Cooke a Jimmie Rodgers fino al pioniere Robert Johnson, ed ancora molti altri musicisti funk, soul, jazz e rock.
La sua musica però non si può definire semplicemente black: anche se non trascura its African American origins, his style is a real evolution, which has its roots in jazz, rap, blues, but also through the rock with its modern ramifications. The same Herper has always stressed that his songs are not only targeted at a specific audience, black or white, and it is this conviction to lead them in finding new sounds.
Consequently, he refuses to be pigeonholed in a genre and yet does not succumb to marketing, those remaining faithful to its values \u200b\u200brooted in humanity that believes in the peaceful reunification of the people.
His first production was in 1992 when it records, with his friend and folk guitarist Tom Freund, an album entitled Pleasure and Pain.
After this first experiment, and get his first real mission in 1994 with Welcome To The Cruel World, in which Harper describes an exciting musical design in our cruel world, that despite all its faults is still the our house. It does so through fine sound, but mainly through amazing texts that reveal the moral integrity of a singer with the best of Dylan, and that optimism is also present in the music of Marley.
In the next Fight For Your Mind in 1995, the youth of Claremont began increasingly to broaden his horizons, experimenting in all shades of black music. Central to the evolution of his artistic career is the formation of the band of Innocent Criminal, not just a support group, but real life companions, including the talented bassist Juan Nelson, drummer Oliver Charles and percussionist Leon Mobley .
Obviously this album in the range of sounds that Harper draws, and also expands the sound of his Weissenborn guitar begin to reach saturation distortion.
The album begins on peaceful note of Oppression, to move to the funk-blues of Ground On Down where the lap steel begins to heat up, accompanied by Juan Nelson class that holds the band in a dynamic robust. Gold To Me is a soul in which Ben sings his love for his woman, his guitar back on his knees and his voice becomes more solar Tone Bar used to obtain the typical sound slide, seems to want to reproduce those sounds hot the winds of tradition Stax and Motown.
The atmosphere is relaxed about Burn One Down, almost a folk song, Jamaican-style, soft drugs, consisting of simple acoustic guitar and percussion.
on Excuse Me Mr. the rhythm becomes almost hypnotic, the charge against industrial civilization becomes fierce, the filtered voice seems to take the form of the consciousness of modern man, selfish and materialistic.
the song By My Side soul excels the presence Hammond Ervin Pope, but in God Fearing Man Ben gave vent to his mystique class on slide guitar, and pressing in a long solo.
In his third album The Will To Live, dated 1997, Harper continued to sing his social message, but musically evolve as particular influences on blues rock Led Zeppelin, alternating intense heat and the soul of Al Green: the Mama's funkeggiante Trippin and intense Glory & Consequence are an example.
Burn To Shine, 1999, and Live From Mars, 2001, following in the footsteps of the previous album, with influences even winking at the black blues twenties Suzie Blue or cover of some high-class live in between the which the great Marvin Gaye Sexual Healing.
In 2003 he published the most complete and mature album of his career: Diamonds On The Inside. The lyrics are incisive and thoughtful, but his message is optimistic: encourage people in search of that light do shine like a diamond, the interior power.
With My Own Teo Hands, the first single, is a real tribute to Bob Marley, most sought after are the sounds in songs like When it's good, the true gospel paced energetic, or Picture Of Jesus, song in which the choirs of the fathers of African prayer mingle with the delicate shades of Harper. Perfectly balanced, also the song Blessed To Be Witness, a crescendo of instrumental delicate, with strong African roots, much more rhythmic style funk and Motown, the tracks Bring The Funk and Run Eyed Blues.
Winner of a Grammy, There Will Be A Light was born in 2004 in collaboration with the Blind Boys Of Alabama, a collective of singers non vedenti over ottanta. Il disco parte subito molto allegro sulle note di Take My Hand, in cui ben si intersecano percussioni e sonorità liquide di tastiere e chitarra wah wah; l’inversione di mood ci porta alla ballad Where Could I Go, stile Otis Redding.
Finalmente un assolo intenso di Ben con la sua chitarra in 11th Commandament, che apre la strada alla cover di Bob Dylan, Well Well Well, ottimamente reinterpretata dai protagonisti corali diretti dalla rassicurante chitarra slide di Harper.
Dopo l’emozionante gospel Mother Pray, interamente vocale, entusiasma l’ultimo brano sempre gospel ma più movimentato, a base di hammond and cheerful and insistent vocals.
The subsequent double album Both Side Of The Gun, a division intended as a simple distinction of ballads and spiritual songs in the first and sounds more aggressive in the second, is less effective previous. The first hard fact, slow and romantic, it is almost flat, other than the second disc, full of rhythmic funkeggianti as the title track features the gospel or country-folk as Gather Round The Stone. The most exciting track on this album is definitely Black Rain: a furious funk in which the arcs intersect perfectly Blaxploitation, with the explicit text referring to the black rain, because of war and suffering.
Un messaggio anti-Bush da vero rivoluzionario:
Il terzo album con gli Innocent Criminla è del 2007, intitolato Lifeline, disco sicuramente più rilassato the previous ones, both in terms of issues addressed in music. The gospel is less powerful, rock nod to a more peaceful r'n'be also solo weissenborn in Paris Sunrise # 7, which anticipates the poetic title track, is a quiet and gentle melody.
This is Ben Harper Jack Johnson surfs on the quiet beaches of Byron Bay, really charming place, where he returned very happy and where Ben spent his evenings playing for the public is not paying for the Arts Factory Backpackers Lodge, a real artistic laboratory in which anyone may retain a memory of his musical talent. The last new partnership came in 2009 with the album White Lies Relentless7 For Dark Times, in which the sounds linger and expert on rock and funk with a heavy dose of electric guitars.
Noteworthy is the latest project, which is the formation of the trio Fistful Of Mercy, in August 2010, consists of Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur and the whimsical Dhani Harrison son of the legendary George.
In the work of Harper is very pleasant to listen to the best of traditional black skillfully blend sounds to more modern He is a masterful director and a true prodigy on guitar and slide at the same time romantic poet and narrator in describing a modern focus on waste and consumerism. The positiveness with which disseminates his message, can only stimulate the modern man to pursue that activity aimed at social education aimed at a more conscious and less materialistic lifestyle, to achieve that peace so necessary in times of strong cultural and political crisis.
Claudio Valerio
0 comments:
Post a Comment