The BAND

Jerry Portnoy   

Harmonica, Vocals (6, 13)

Steve Ramsay  

Drums

Mark Davis  

Fiddle, Mandolin, Mandocello (7)

LINER NOTES

In a conversation I had with Jerry Portnoy shortly after Christmas of 1995 he told me how excited he was about one gift his wife Eli had left under the tree: a multi-CD retrospective of the work of Louis Armstrong. His effusiveness about this music and the way it was affecting him was evident. Clearly, he was fully possessed by the magic of Satchmo, especially the ground-breaking recordings of the late 1920s and  early 1930s.

   

Louis Armstrong

Muddy Waters

In retrospect it all seems logical. As the former student of one master – Muddy Waters – Jerry earned his blues pedigree while occupying the harp chair with Muddy for six years. Muddy is the father of urban, amplified blues. For over thirty years his bands set the model for all blues bands that followed, one that has rarely been duplicated in its communicative power and emotional resonance.  Likewise, Armstrong is the father of modern jazz. He infused his music with an  expressive blues tonality, and his early bands transformed an ensemble music into that of the soloist free to experiment with melodic and harmonic improvisation. Both men prescribed the sound and texture of those forms for the entirety of the twentieth century.

It was only natural then that Jerry, having learned from one master, would now be so deeply entrenched in the lessons of another, especially Armstrong, whose music is steeped in the blues. Of course, Jerry is a master himself. Long regarded as one of the greatest living blues harmonica players – by fans, critics and his peers – Jerry is a “player’s player.” His immersion and mastery of precedent styles and techniques of his forebears – John Lee and Sonny Boy Williamson, Big and Little Walter and others – is well documented on his own Blues Harmonica Masterclass instructional package, the finest tutorial ever produced.

Big Walter Horton

Jerry Portnoy

Like all masters, Jerry has his own distinct style. And certain affinities with Armstrong are evident: an economical approach to note selection, brilliance of sound, richness of tone, huge vibrato, and the rare ability to speak directly through the instrument. Jerry also shares Armstrong’s irreverent wit in his playing – note his use of Armstrong’s theme song When It’s Sleepy Time Down South in the prelude to his own song Lazy, and his quotation of Hoagy Carmichael’s Lazybones in the solo. In the late 1990s much was made of the harmonica’s potential within jazz settings, but proponents seemed inclined to invest their energies in the pyrotechnics of be-bop.  They may have succeeded in finding a new, often questionable role for the instrument, but in doing so abandoned it’s greatest strength: the unequaled tonal capabilities that allow it to sing or speak, moan or growl, it’s great capacity for direct emotional comment.  

Mention must be made of Duke Robillard, whose talent and encyclopedic knowledge of all forms of American music play a large part the success of this recording. As producer, guitarist and co-arranger of many of the songs, his role is central to the realization of Jerry’s concept. Together they selected the players to insure the high level of musicianship evident throughout. That Duke and Jerry have also shared a long musical and personal friendship is another reason the attention to detail heard here is so complete. Jerry has always been a lover of melody, regardless of the musical style, and on the thirteen songs here Duke has helped him realize a long held desire to document this aspect of his musical passion.

           

Duke Robillard 

   -Tom Ellis III, Fall, 2001 

    Tom Ellis III is a music critic and writer for Blues Access Magazine.  He is currently at work on a biography of Paul Butterfield