Otis Taylor – Trance Blues Master
I was wrapping up a pre-production meeting at a Boulder video facility when my cell phone played. Years ago, my dumbbell phone would have rang; now, my whip-smart Blackberry plays a song to rouse me, Otis Taylor’s “Bowlegged Charlie.” The jangling banjo and huffing harmonica intro laid down a deep groove. I excused myself and answered the call. It was Otis.
“Martin, want to get together for lunch?”
“I’m there.”
“Shugs?”
“Natch.”
Otis is a Blues legend, multi-instrumental, adept at all forms of music but universally regarded as the King of Trance Blues. I met him at a Blues Workshop and Festival in Port Townsend, WA in Y2K and now I was helping him produce his own Trance Blues Workshop and Festival. http://trancebluesfestival.com/
In 2007, Otis was the subject of a video I produced entitled, “What is Democracy?” The piece was featured at the Obama Love-In that was the Democratic National Convention and was shown at related events and theaters all over Denver. My attitude was, and still is, “If you want the plain truth about life or love, ask a Bluesman.”
I hied over to Shugs for Low Country Cuisine; fried chicken, sides and sweet tea. Shugs’ chicken is a dinner menu feature, but Otis, a Boulder celebrity and a most persuasive guy, needled the maitre d’ into being gracious and accommodating. I said “needled” but Otis would correct me, “annoyed…” Besides, sitting at a window table he was a living advertisement to the passing lunch crowd – Look Who Eats Here!
We got royal treatment.
We talked about food, music, touring, the upcoming festival and traded anecdotes. I mentioned getting offstage at the Punchline in San Francisco after a killer stand-up set and having the manager say, “Hey Marty, George here wants you to open for his band.” I didn’t recognize the guy and, although he was very complimentary, I waved him off with a brusque “Good luck with your band, George!” Later, the manager was puzzled, “I thought you liked George Thorogood.”
Oops.
Otis smiled, “When I played with B.B. King, he said, `How come you don’t play any B.B. King songs?’ I said, `I will when you start playing Otis Taylor songs.” It doesn’t get more matter-of-fact than that.
I remembered how Otis impressed me with his cool, laid-back style a decade earlier. Port Townsend was awash in Blues people and Otis was leading a workshop. He said, “Do this.” and plucked the lowest string on his guitar. The class started tuning their guitars to the note; a buzz of sour notes grew slowly into one sweet one. “Now do this.” Otis said, moving to the next string. Again the twenty or so students plucked and twisted tuning pegs listened for their own instrument in the wallah. One Gray Ponytail (with the dangling price tag still on his brand new Johnson Resonator guitar!) piped up, “Is that a Major Fourth?”
Otis dismissed him with a tolerant stare, “It doesn’t matter. Just do this.” and lead us through his special tuning.
A couple of toe-taps and chord strums and we all slipped effortlessly into a Trance Blues riff (ostinato for the Gray Ponytail) that gave each of us a rhythmic and tonal world to explore. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Notes and chords and modes were replaced with “go here” and “like this” and “one of these…”
Otis’s world was now our world too.
After that session, I heard Trance Blues in all kinds of music; Jazz, Irish, Marching Bands, Swing, County… just about every style. I learned to incorporate it into everything I do: playing guitar, writing, filmmaking, cooking…
“How’s your chicken?” Otis asked.
“Out-of-this-world,” I said, “Clean out of this world.”
- end -
Martin Higgins has been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king, and he knows one thing – “It’s never too late to be a bad example.” http://www.martinhiggins.com
“Martin, want to get together for lunch?”
“I’m there.”
“Shugs?”
“Natch.”
Otis is a Blues legend, multi-instrumental, adept at all forms of music but universally regarded as the King of Trance Blues. I met him at a Blues Workshop and Festival in Port Townsend, WA in Y2K and now I was helping him produce his own Trance Blues Workshop and Festival. http://trancebluesfestival.com/
In 2007, Otis was the subject of a video I produced entitled, “What is Democracy?” The piece was featured at the Obama Love-In that was the Democratic National Convention and was shown at related events and theaters all over Denver. My attitude was, and still is, “If you want the plain truth about life or love, ask a Bluesman.”
I hied over to Shugs for Low Country Cuisine; fried chicken, sides and sweet tea. Shugs’ chicken is a dinner menu feature, but Otis, a Boulder celebrity and a most persuasive guy, needled the maitre d’ into being gracious and accommodating. I said “needled” but Otis would correct me, “annoyed…” Besides, sitting at a window table he was a living advertisement to the passing lunch crowd – Look Who Eats Here!
We got royal treatment.
We talked about food, music, touring, the upcoming festival and traded anecdotes. I mentioned getting offstage at the Punchline in San Francisco after a killer stand-up set and having the manager say, “Hey Marty, George here wants you to open for his band.” I didn’t recognize the guy and, although he was very complimentary, I waved him off with a brusque “Good luck with your band, George!” Later, the manager was puzzled, “I thought you liked George Thorogood.”
Oops.
Otis smiled, “When I played with B.B. King, he said, `How come you don’t play any B.B. King songs?’ I said, `I will when you start playing Otis Taylor songs.” It doesn’t get more matter-of-fact than that.
I remembered how Otis impressed me with his cool, laid-back style a decade earlier. Port Townsend was awash in Blues people and Otis was leading a workshop. He said, “Do this.” and plucked the lowest string on his guitar. The class started tuning their guitars to the note; a buzz of sour notes grew slowly into one sweet one. “Now do this.” Otis said, moving to the next string. Again the twenty or so students plucked and twisted tuning pegs listened for their own instrument in the wallah. One Gray Ponytail (with the dangling price tag still on his brand new Johnson Resonator guitar!) piped up, “Is that a Major Fourth?”
Otis dismissed him with a tolerant stare, “It doesn’t matter. Just do this.” and lead us through his special tuning.
A couple of toe-taps and chord strums and we all slipped effortlessly into a Trance Blues riff (ostinato for the Gray Ponytail) that gave each of us a rhythmic and tonal world to explore. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Notes and chords and modes were replaced with “go here” and “like this” and “one of these…”
Otis’s world was now our world too.
After that session, I heard Trance Blues in all kinds of music; Jazz, Irish, Marching Bands, Swing, County… just about every style. I learned to incorporate it into everything I do: playing guitar, writing, filmmaking, cooking…
“How’s your chicken?” Otis asked.
“Out-of-this-world,” I said, “Clean out of this world.”
- end -
Martin Higgins has been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king, and he knows one thing – “It’s never too late to be a bad example.” http://www.martinhiggins.com
