August 12, 2014 -
(Burbank, CA.) -- An occupational hazard of musical genius is categorization.
Most humans, in the face of greatness crave sourcing. This desire can lead to
labeled boxes impeding an evolving brilliance. Miles Davis began blowing big
band tunes. Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Albert King (to name but a few)
started strumming Rhythm & Blues. The genesis of these deities is pertinent
to history. Their legacies, on the other hand, could care less. This is why Gary
Clark Jr. has built a young albeit decorated career on ground paved
outside the categorical box. The previous three years saw the guitar hero and
his band obliterate stages and stupefy audiences with pyrophoric play and clone
consistency. Whether in a dark club or The White House, Philadelphia or
Stockholm, alongside Alicia Keys or Mick Jagger, Clark and crew devoured and
seduced entire audiences--fans walk away better for having been the feast. Ripe
blues licks, syrupy grooves of R&B and b-boy beloved baselines over indigo
lyrics overwhelm listeners so much that they attempt to spell the spirit, which
Clark awoke in them tangible. Is he an old soul or the new soul? He is cosigned by Jay-Z and Eric Clapton, and has lit up
Glastonbury, Coachella, Bonnaroo and halftime at the NBA All-Star Game. Legends
have anointed him sole heir to the chordophone throne. But that voice! Exactly
who on Earth is Gary Clark Jr.?
Clark's
Warner Bros. debut, the vivacious The Bright Lights EP, began answering that question in 2011.
Orientation continued in 2012 with the full-length Blak And Blu. Though
structured in format and delivery, both were musically amorphous. Gary Clark
Jr.'s Epiphone screamed psychedelic blues and garage soul but you heard
Atlanta's Organized Noize down bottom, saw the silhouettes of Curtis Mayfield
and Marvin Gaye in the pools of his pen's ink. Yet, if you press the Texan to
name his offspring, he'll flatly answer with shrug in tow, "It's all just
soul music."
Wrapping
arms around the artistry of Gary Clark
Jr. is an attempt at sorcery. It exists nowhere in particular, swimming in
and out of vibes. Even on stage, Clark's band performs without a net (set
list), using audience's energy as fabric to customize show sequences. The
process is as reciprocal as it is spiritual. But for the 6'4 evangelist, it's
bigger than the word. The GCJ experience is not defined by a studio booth
alone. Thus, this fall the artist whom Rolling
Stone Magazine called "the Chosen One" offers a compromise via
his first double album Gary Clark Jr. - LIVE.
Since
a preteen who put aside drums, trumpet and piano to include six strings to his
music arsenal, he has been entrancing crowds--whether in church, on 6th
street or his old stomping ground, Antone's. On his latest composition,
the 30-year-old's 10,000 hours for mastery is unequivocal with a swagger to
match. Texas rap legend Scarface will be proud of Clark's proclamation on "Ain't Messin 'Round":
"I don't believe in competition. Ain't nobody else like me around."
Then there's Clark's pen, which has a shape shifter's talent for fitting big
stories into short phrases. The song "Blak
And Blu" supports this gorgeously; "When My Train Pulls In," possibly more as Clark paints
the inescapable frustration of living poor despite not touching economics.
The
aforementioned track is where the mastermind-to-fingertips phenomenon blooms.
Chord manipulations and note runnings shoot past each other, high and low,
never clashing like a light show of comets. Then the string master graduates to
full puppeteer, morphing his six-stringed tool into a screaming alto. Clark's
strum is so magical it nearly disguises his songbird--those shark grey vocals
sing the prettiest hues of blue. On cuts like "Numb," "Things
Are Changin'" and the Grammy-award winning "Please Come Home," diamonds can be heard falling from
the speakers.
Gary
Clark Jr. - LIVE is clearly a collection
of Junior's brightest global exhibitions, but more valuably one of the richest
live albums in recent decades. Clark has the incomprehensible ability to fuse
genres, distort styles then blend them, all to serve up his own black fruit
punch. Witness "Catfish Blues"
which alchemizes the mud of the Mississippi Delta with the hip-hop swagger of
The Marcy Projects.
He
approaches the endangered art of improvisation with a subtlety and homage. Only
Clark would add the bottom of the Jackson 5's "Can You Feel It"
baseline to "Ain't Messin'
Around" or reheat his "Next
Door Neighbor Blues" with dashes of Sly Stone, Bo Diddley and RZA. It
ain't clean eating, but still purist catnip.
The
biggest misconception about Miles Davis is that he's the pioneer of electric
jazz; Jimi is the godfather of electric guitar distortion (check out Willy
Johnson from Howlin' Wolf's band a year earlier for proof). John Coltrane was
certainly determined to go further than the limitations of his instrument but
these accomplishments should be acknowledged more as milestones than
definition. Masters like Miles, Dr. Dre, Coltrane and Gary Clark Jr. are
essentially decades of musical evolution in the human form of genius. These
days, they hatch maybe once per decade, but the moment they first greet your
ears, you're reminded of who they are and were. They step on stage without a
set list and tell complete strangers, "You're gonna know my name by the
end of the night."
Gary Clark Jr. Live track listing:
Gary Clark Jr. Live (disc 1)
Catfish Blues (Robert Petway)
Next Door Neighbor Blues
Travis Country
When My Train Pulls In
Don't Owe You A Thing
Three O' Clock Blues (Lowell Fulson)
Things Are Changin'
Numb
Gary Clark Jr. Live (disc 2)
Ain't Messin' 'Round
If Trouble Was Money (Albert Collins)
Third Stone From The Sun / If You Love me Like You Say (Jimi Hendrix / Albert Collins)
Please Come Home
Black and Blu
Bright Lights
When The Sun Goes Down
Gary Clark Jr. LIVE is available for pre-order now. Those who choose to pre-order in any format will receive an instant download "When My Train Pulls" (live). Both the physical vinyl and CD are available on Amazon, GaryClarkJr.com or digitally on iTunes.
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