Two track from the “Transatlantic Quarantaine Sessions” have been added to this editorial Spotify playlist.
and another nice review for Boo Boo & ElectroBluesSociety
Boo Boo Davis and ElectroBluesSociety – Transatlantic Quarantine Sessions
The pandemic has kept Boo Boo Davis and ElectroBluesSociety from meeting up in person. But that didn’t keep the Dutch duo from working out with Davis. What had been an annual European tour for the trio became an exchange of sessions over the wire. The mix of Davis’ old school delta singing and the creative ferment of Jasper Mortier and Jan Mittendorp has been enhanced. The sound is more experimental and more primal than their earlier work. Necessity has created a set of songs that take the blues into uncharted waters. This isn’t a set of remixes or samples. It’s a full collaboration that brings out the best and most innovative sides of each musician.
While the production can’t quite erase the “assembly” feeling that this sort of recording can bring, that distance (and the strikingly different sounds of the studios) lends these songs that much more of an eternal and otherworldly quality. The blues means different things to different people, and I imagine a lot of people might wonder how some of this relates to the blues at all. The isolation between the notes that simply wails should be enough.
Many of these songs have been released over 2021 as singles. This set is a worthy document of the plague years. Let’s hope for a full concert season in 2021. Davis and the Dutchmen may never follow this exact path again, but it is surely a worthy one.
another review for Boo Boo Davis + ElectroBluesSociety
A musical society to stand up to the present and speculate about the future. Boo Boo Davis, bluesman from Mississippi bone in 1943 and two experienced dutch sound scientists, Jan Mittendorp and Jasper Mortier behind ElectroBluesSociety. What can you expect when they get to work together ? The distance between St Louis (USA) and the Netherlands is 4530 miles, insufficient for the three musicians to start working on their second album together. The internet is a zenith of creative freedom. The blues instinct out in another dimension of the electronic intuition supervised by the bluesman. A waterfall of originality and freshness, Davis whispering the harmonica and murmuring the songs hidden behind the guitars, percussions and sounds of the electric society. The purism will back down before this album but without proposals like the these the alley will continue without having a suggestive exit.
review for ElectroBluesSociety + Boo Boo Davis from Hungary
Új közös lemezzel jelentkezett az ElectroBluesSociety és Boo Boo Davis
Boo Boo Davis a Mississippi-delta szívében, Drew-ban született és nőtt fel. A térség gazdag gyapottermelő vidék volt, a legjobb zenészeket vonzotta a környékről. A munkások a gyapotföldeken hangosan énekeltek, hogy gyorsabban teljenek a fárasztó órák. Davis a bömbölő hangját kétségkívül a földeken kisfiúként hallott ének alapján alakította ki. A 60-as évek elején St. Louisba költözött testvéreivel, ahol részese volt a St. Louis-i zenei élet aranykorának. Európában 1998-ban járt először, azóta évente legalább kétszer turnézott az öreg kontinensen. Lemezeit a holland Black & Tan Records adja ki. A lemezkiadó főnöke, Jan Mittendorp rendszeresen közreműködik albumain és turnézenekarának tagja, így nem meglepő, hogy Boo Boo felvételeket készített a Mittendorp és Jasper Mortier által alkotott ElectroBluesSocietyvel is. A kísérleti electro-blues duó és Boo Boo Davis új albuma Transatlantic Quarantaine Sessions címmel jelent meg. A számok közül több már kiadásra került kislemezként az év során. A záródal a Bye Baby Bye Bye remixe a francia Rosé Sunsettől. A lemez csakis digitálisan jelent meg, elérhető az összes letöltési és streaming platformon.
Jan Mittendorp
Music
Biography
Born in 1959 and started playing music (guitar) when he was 14. First acoustic blues / jazz / skilffle and later on electric blues and jazz. Started booking his own bands (and others) in 1988 and founded Crossroads blues agency. Since 1993 his main focus was booking European tours for USA blues artists. In 1997 he founded his own record label (Black and Tan Records) combining the tours and releases of the same artists.
Over the years he played guitar and recorded with a.o. Percy Strother, Smokey Wilson , Byther Smith, Burton Gaar, Roy Roberts, Larry Garner, Boo Boo Davis, Erskine Oglesby, Jody Williams, Roscoe Chenier, Clara McDaniel, Billy Jones, Hosea Leavy. With Boo Boo Davis he recorded 10 CD’s and did more then 1000 live shows on European blues & jazz stages (like Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Jazz a Juan and Peer Bluesfestival).
About ten years ago he changed from regular guitar to baritone guitar developing a personal style by combining bass guitar parts with lead guitar parts . You can hear the result on more then hundred tracks that he recorded since 2008 with a.o. Boo Boo Davis and Tangled Eye. Recently he also re-discovered a lot of jazz standards from his time at Hilversum Conservatorium in the 1980’s. Besides playing with Boo Boo Davis he is also active in these musical projects:
ElectroBluesSociety
A duo project together with Jasper Mortier; they both have a broad musical taste and an open mind. Together they are mixing the old with the new; combining 30+ years of live stage experience (on the European blues/roots stages) with modern technologies (loops, samples), video projection and other musical styles. The musical input ranges from Alan Lomax to Roxy Music and from Led Zeppelin to techno.
miXendorp
Remixing the blues ! Expect no ‚music for the millions’ but an original and eclectic mix of blues, jazz, world, funk, techno and all kind of other great music with a beat. BLUES always had a strong BEAT and was intended to get people to dance; now it can be played again at the hippest modern parties, festival and clubs ..…. and still feel down home.
BLu ACiD
Together with fellow musician / producer Mischa den Haring he joined forces in this production unit. In February 2014 they released their first tracks and April 2014 the first album production: a new BOO BOO DAVIS release (What Kind Of Shit Is This?) After this succesful project (with several sync placements in the USA) they did some more projects and these tracks were released on BLu ACiD Records, a subsidiary label of Black and Tan.
Recently he started releasing tracks under his own name;
– instrumental blues tracks on Instrumental Blues Records
– cover versions of jazz standards on KuvVer Records
He has a deep love for American roots music and with all his musical activities his goal has always been KEEPING LIVING MUSIC ALIVE.
Releases
review for ElectroBluesSociety from the UK
ElectroBluesSociety feat Jan Hidding – Rosie (Black & Tan B&T 967)
Jan Hidding is singer with the long-standing Europe an garage blues group The Cuban Heels, here teamed up with the Dutch Black & Tan’s label’s house band (Jasper Mortier on drums and bass and label boss Jan Mittendorp on guitars and effects) for a modern recording of “Rosie”, the prison song recorded by Alan Lomax. The results are nicely gritty, rootsy dance music; but don’t let that last phrase put you off, there’s definitely more than a trace of UK 60s R’n’B. Very interesting indeed…
short UK review for new ElectroBluesSociety single
Blues In The South published a short review from Norman Darwen on the new ElectroBluesSociety single:
Bluesman Roscoe Chenier recorded some fine material for Black & Tan, including this fine a cappella rendition of the old gospel standard, released in 2006.
On this new single download release, ElectroBluesSociety have added a modern, bass heavy musical accompaniment including slide guitar it is actually pretty sympathetic and effective. The track runs to five minutes long, and although purists may sneer, if it brings a new audience to the blues, it will have done its job.
another live video ElectroBluesSociety
Here is another live video from ElectroBluesSociety. This one is also shot at their concert at De Hip in Deventer (NL) on January 21.
SoulAndJazzAndFunk.com reviews new single ElectroBluesSociety
GOIN’ IN CIRCLES ………
The traditional hymn ‘Will The Circle Be Unbroken’ is one of Gospel’s most recorded songs. Soul folk will most probably know and cherish the haunting rendition from the Staple Singers. An equally haunting version was cut by bluesman ROSCOE CHENIER in 2006. His acaplla take was recorded for Black and Tan Records. It was, in fact, the Louisiana born Chenier’s last recording (he died in 2013) and amongst the gospel and blues community it has acquired an almost mythical status. The track has just been reissued by Black and Tan, but for the release they’ve added musical backing from Dutch band, ElectroBluesSociety, the sparseness of which manages to enhance the ethereal quality of Chenier’s original vocal. The single is out now.
ElectroBluesSociety interview by Blues.gr
Here you can read the complete interview that Jasper and I (ElectroBluesSociety) did with Michael Limnios of Blues Culture (Greece).
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