Havana Small Blues

damage & shit

2007-10-08T20:18:00.001-07:00

It's always hard when you suddenly realize you're not as good as you thought you was.
In my case that was the hard way, when "word" came about my bass playing skills.

Anyway, this is gonna be slower than I though, and probably harder. I guess it will also be a one person only path.

cheers! and that's enough for the lonely ranger routine.

What we do

2007-08-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

I joined MikeO's blues project 5 years ago, & what would be the first blues band in cuba "sociedad havana blues" started.
After a few changes in my life, MIkeO & me are on another project this time called "bbblues". What we intend to do is to blues-style sing the newest english poetry.
MikeO already did that with young cuban poetry within a project called "Van Gogh'.
The "Van Gogh" project results were amazing (well, at least amazing to me). I've never heard such a well driven marriage between lyrics & music. I guess Blues is one of the best music styles for mixing up with poetry.
"Van Gogh" songs was full of beatifull images, sang with feeling and full of good blues too.
So I'm really looking forward for see how this project develops. For the beginning, we're workin in two poems:

"No convictions" from Simon Armitage
"In my country" from Jackie Kay

So far, so good!!

Hardware & stuff

2007-06-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well, that's not much about "music", but it's something to talk about.

We put our hands on a brand old "SOLINA A215" Keyboard. It came straight from the seventies. I bet it hasn't been played since then. We had to spend $50, but weŕe actually kind of excited. We feel like if we had bell-trousers, long hair, and we're playing at woodstock!! Most of the sounds are not working, but we got the organ sound and a few others.

I also put my hands on a small "goGear" mp3 player/recorder although everybody probably thinks this is not a new, here in cuba it really means something. This is another thing I've thought about a lot. How simple electronics can help musicians promote themselves, save their work, etc... This "goGear" thing has a line-in hole we're pushing to the limits. We already made some recordings I expecto to torture you with not too far from now. I still have to find some "youtube like" site for that.

The GIG

2007-05-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

We finally got through it.
It was, as usual, at "Sociedad havana blues" place : The "casa de la cultura de centro habana" is an old palace which is falling down and beautifull in the very heart of havana city.

We played 4 tunes:

Negros de los desperdicios
Yo solo escribo canciones de amor
Mariel 1980
Bendito Ceremonial

This place has a special spirit, and we all enjoyed the night, MikeO and I used a drums machine and it turned out to be good!

The place was crowded with good friends, yoss, el keko, raulito, and even some very old, old fellows who came from the usa to see MikeO.

Neither Mike or me was completely satisfied with the gig, though. We were so nervous we barely look to each other during the show.
I also think our first two tunes wasn't played good, but hey!!! it was our very first, and I think it was worth it.
I leave you with some pics of the event. Hope you enjoy it

Presentación BBBlues

The "yadda yadda has born" post

2007-05-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

I'm JoeZ. I'm a bass player
My buddy is MikeO he sings and plays acoustic and electric guitar
We love love blues
We live in havana, Cuba
There are only two blues band on the city, we're one of them
We're starting our very first Gig on May the 25 (Friday), 2007
We're about to begin a new blues band in Cuba

BBblues

I'm also a geek, and I intend to start this band "on the internet" also. From the very beginning, we shall try to have as much digital presence as we can afford. (Internet access is a very, very expensive resource in Cuba).
So, next post will be about the gig. See you, folks