Blusicman
words and photos spike

Guitarist/singer/songwriter Jimy Graham has played with everyone from Wilson Pickett to The Wailers, from Janet Jackson to Namie Amuro and is now set to become a regular in Hong Kong’s music scene.

But Jimy is not merely a musician - he’s on a mission from God. I met him at Rockschool, a new bar and restaurant in Wanchai dedicated to “live kick ass music.” And once you get this veteran musician talking about his role in spreading the gospel of the blues in Asia, it’s hard to get him to stop. “It’s a dying genre, unfortunately, and I hate to see it just disappear, and if I can travel around these countries and enlighten the next generation, then I feel my mission is almost half completed. This is our classical music, you understand? This is the 20th century’s classical music. This is ours and we have to keep it alive by any means necessary. Oh yeah, and it’s my mission. And if I awaken one soul, it’s a great thing. It’s a noble thing. And God is watching.”

Born in Jamaica and raised in New York City, Jimy traded the trumpet his father gave him for a guitar and has been playing since he was 8 years old. Like so many others, he fell in love with Japan on his first trip there, a two week tour with Wilson Pickett. He returned for a six month gig in a Roppongi club and six months turned into 24 years.

In 2006, he decided to move to China and spread the blues gospel. The result was, as he puts it, “culture shock!” But he was just as much of a shock to the mainland Chinese - over six feet tall, with dreadlocks down past his knees, playing a kind of music that was unfamiliar to much of his new audience, who would insist that what he was playing was country & western or jazz. Like the classic John Sayles film, he was a Brother From Another Planet.

He spent his spare time traveling around China, “just my old dobro, and playing and singing alone or sometimes with a harmonica player. I would go into the mountains, different provinces and visit these people who make their own stringed instruments and sit there and sing, old ladies singing and playing. You can go anywhere in the world and find people just sitting there playing an old piano or an old stringed instrument and singing their guts out and it’s the blues! It’s the same damned thing. So when I started teaching them that, that this is the same thing, they got it. I would sit with my dobro and they would sit with their thing and we were speaking two different languages and yet it was the same. Oh man, it was pure art man, it was poetry.”

Jimy’s own influences range from the music he heard as a child – his mother playing Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin records – up through the cream of the great blues guitarists – Albert King, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan. “I don’t listen to guitar players any more. But when growing up, as a child, you need it, you need that nourishment. I don’t listen to them any more, I don’t have to. I’ve got what I needed to get from them.” His current live shows combine original material with many of his favorite blues classics.

Teaching seems to be in his blood. Among the numerous clips of Jimy on Youtube, performing live in Japan and China, there’s a series of blues guitar instructional videos. He plays classic riffs and then slows them down, talking you through each note and chord, till you almost feel as if you could get onstage yourself.

Perhaps most impressively, Jimy’s already agreed to work with the government on a project tentatively titled, 1,000 Guitars. “Our aim is a thousand guitars but we’ll settle for a hundred right now.” He’ll be teaching music to kids ranging from 8 to 20 years old, teaching them not only culture but also giving them an alternative to drugs. Look for the first 1,000 Guitars concert to take place in Sai Wan Ho on 19 Dec.
All of this activity is very much in line with Jimy’s philosophy of life and the blues. “It’s only one small planet we’re on. We breathe each other’s air. We speak to each other. We make love to each other. We argue, fuck and fight with each other. We are all we have. We all get the blues.”

TrioTango
It takes two to tango but for Korean Song Young, three is the magic number to bring out the best of nuevo tango creator Astor Piazzolla. The young cellist – who debuted with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of nine and later became the youngest student to take a master class under Yo-yo Ma – teams up with Spanish clarinettist Jose Franch-Ballester and Uruguayan pianist Pablo Zinger, who has collaborated with the Argentine maestro himself, for a Piazzolla-tribute charity concert in the SAR this month. Song Young talks of his encounters with the seductive music of Piazzolla’s ‘new tango’.

Has tango always been your favourite genre or has it just been a random interest?
It’s random, to be honest. I like tango, and mostly Piazzolla. I am 100% a classical cellist and my repertoire is mainly Beethoven, Bach and all the other classical composers but I came across tango when I was in college. One thing led to another and I met the great Japanese tango group Cuatrocientos – as I was one of the youngest cellists in Korea, I was invited to play with them on national TV. I had so much fun playing with them – as much as playing any classical music.

And how was your trio with Pablo and Jose formed?
I met Jose Franch-Ballester later on a chamber music tour as we were driving through Atlanta to get to a concert venue, and the radio was paying Piazzolla. I asked if he liked him, and he said he actually knew Pablo Zinger, the pianist who had worked with Piazzolla. I was shocked – I ended up visiting Zinger’s home, with a bottle of wine. And the next thing I knew, we were going on tour and putting out a CD.

What is tango to you?
I think tango speaks to all people, whether you like classical or jazz, pop or rock. It has a very strong message of love and also a very, very sad character. Sorrow, peace and, most importantly, passion, I would say. It touched my heart – that’s why I want to do it, not because everyone else is doing it and it’s popular for sales.

What are your favourite Piazzolla recordings?
I do like the Central Park Concert recording a lot – you get to hear Astor’s voice. It is an outdoor concert and that is great because he is a bit more relaxed and communicates with people more than on his records. My favourite piece, though, is Adios Nonino. It means ‘goodbye grandfather’ and was the first Piazzolla I listened to when I was in college. That started my connection with other tango music.

If Piazzolla was alive today and you could ask him a question, what would you ask?
Ah… I like that. I would ask him if he would approve of what we are doing today. Well, Pablo has already worked with Piazzolla, so I guess he will be very generous. Pablo said Astor would have loved to hear us play because it is so unique. Most tango groups are piano, bass, violin, guitar and bandoneon – the original formation. But we are doing it with a piano, cello and clarinet – it is very unusual. We serve the music very carefully. Also I would carefully ask if he has ever written or would like to write anything for cello! (laughs)

The trio will play at the Springboard 15th Anniversary Charity Concert – Original Tango – Tribute to Piazzolla on September 4 at 7:30pm in the HK City Hall Concert Hall. Tickets are $380, $280, $180 and $100 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

San Miguel Showcase
Look out for a new series of gigs at The Wanch, the strong line-up will spring a few surprises from time to time. This month brings three of the most visible expat rock bands on the scene today: Shotgun Politics, whose debut EP Broadcast was released not too long ago; Tai Tai Alibi, who are busy recording and hoping for a release towards the end of the year and, last but not the least, the infectious and sexy David Bowie Knives – beware either they or/and you will be bare-chested by the end of the night. The riot starts at 9pm and entry is free.

More gigs…
September 4, 10:30pm
Signal to Noise @ Backstage
A night of improvisation with saxophonist Joe Rosenberg, pianist Masako Hamamura, drummer Edward Perraud and bassist Peter Scherr. Entry is $200 at door.

September 13, 4pm
Shout Out Charity Show @ Musician Area
(172-180 Tai Lin Pai Road)
All proceeds after deduction of necessary expenses will be donated to Red Cross for victims of 8.8 disaster in Taiwan. Line-up are Gong Wu, FBI, ToNick, Ghost Word, AMS, Scream For Silence, Amino Shower, Sexy Hammer, Milkshake 7. Entry at door is $90.

Wuji Ensemble @ HK Cultural Centre Studio Theatre
A night of ruan music from the visionary collective. Tickets are $250, 180 and 120 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

September 6, 7:30pm
Travel Buddies @ Mackie Kitchen
Gloria Tang and AniDa return with a new EP Travel Buddies, filling with their signature heart-warming tunes. Ticket is $100 (including one drink) from the venue.

Silent Voice
Singer Ketchup is so low profile that you would probably need a pair of ultra-sensitive antennae to catch that he released his 6th album, His Master’s Voice, a few months ago: There was hardly any buzz about it, save for the few live promotional shows he set up. The album came more than four years after his previous release, In Love Again, and, whether it will make a musical difference or not, owns to one quirk his others cannot claim. ‘Usually I title an album first and then build my songs around it, but this time it was the other way round. The title doesn’t actually have much to do with the songs,’ he says. It’s just that he likes the famous logo of the HMV chain and, sneaking away with its name, he can put his beloved dog on the cover art. In fact, the pooch isn’t only on the cover, he is also in the music – listen carefully to the second track, Perfect Life. ‘I recorded the album at home, and once I played the drums he just barked – so that is now in the album too.’

Strangely Ketchup’s next show, Silent Live 2, instead of promoting his new songs, will be a retrospective of his career. ‘When I look back at my catalogue, some songs I really like but have never played live, so I want to play them this time,’ he explains. The show is “silent” in the sense that he will only have an acoustic guitar and a piano on stage with him. At first he thought of using his very first guitar, but now cannot decide, as there is no plug-in for it. ‘I didn’t know anything about guitars when I bought it – it is just a $199 guitar I bought in Wanchai,’ he says. ‘But I recorded most of my songs with it. I actually think it sounds the best – even better than those worth thousands of dollars that my friends gave me.’

After Silent Live, Ketchup will be playing with Rebecca Pan in her My Dream My Way My Indie Music with a line-up that includes the likes of Chet Lam, at17 and The Pancakes. Then he will be sorting out his first best-of album – but instead of just gathering old recordings to stick together into an album, he wants to record the songs again live and he will be choosing both fans’ favourites as well as his own. ‘The so-called hit songs of mine are really not hit songs anyway,’ he laughs. ‘Not many people have heard of them.’

Catch Ketchup on September 5 at 8pm in No 7, Cattle Depot Artist Village. Advance tickets are $120 from Kubrick, The Bookshop and On and On Theatre Workshop or door sales are $130.

Five-star Motel
Call them a production team, a musical collective, an agency for independent musicians or simple a group of dreamers, Rock Motel are determined to take independent music in Hong Kong to the next level. Formed recently by a dozen followers of indie music coming from backgrounds as diverse as filmmaking, designing, marketing and internet music publishing, Rock Motel seek to raise the bar of the scene by making music videos, help with styling, photo shooting, draft promotional plans and finding sponsors for bands etc. Sounds pretty much like a record label/management company, doesn’t it? But the truth is, so far members have donated their time and skills on a voluntary basis, often after work.

The collective have already planned a series of four concerts, each with a theme based on what’s happening in its respective month. And so the first gig is titled Rockhall 1st Floor Band Live and, as September is a back-to-the-school month, bands are dressed in school uniforms for its promotional material. Bands playing on the night are Killer Soap (winning of last year GBOB’s China final), pop-punkers Dear Jane and ToNick and -– drum roll please – the comeback appearance of cutie-pop/rock five-piece Tai Tau Fat. On top of the bands’ performances, a highlight of the night will be the release of the four music videos members of Rock Motel have made for the bands. Judging from what we see on Rock Motel’s Facebook page – now with over 1,500 fans in the short time since its launch – some really serious stuff is going on here. The group continues to seek new bands to collaborate with and volunteers who would like to take part in the project. Check out www.facebook.com/RockMotel for updates.

Rock Motel Rockhall 1st Floor Band Live will be staged at Hang Out on September 12 at 8pm. Advance tickets with a special souvenir are $150 from White Noise Records, Zoo Records, CD Pawn Shop, Ultimate Music Institute, President Piano Company, 310 Studio, Natural Music Center, Cat’s Store and Mcboy.