On February 28th, Kim and I shared the stage with Pat Conte and Joe Bellulovich at the fabulous Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn, NY. As you can probably imagine, each of these men is a very deep well when it comes to their artistry. Pat is unarguably the deepest listener I have ever met - an extremely sensitive musician whose empathy for the music he loves is tangible. Calling his playing “nuanced” would be an understatement. He’s capable of producing music from almost any instrument he touches, as if finding music within the object. I could go on about Pat, and probably will in another note, but I’d like to draw attention to Joe.
Joe is an extremely unassuming guy - you could drink coffee with him, have dinner, talk about the weather… he’d help you out of a jam… all the while, you’d never know that the guy you were hanging out with is, hands down, one of the greatest harmonica players on the planet, and THE greatest living exponent of pre-war blues harmonica styles. He’s also a fine singer and a solid guitar player - listening to Joe accompany his singing with guitar and harp in a rack is a near miraculous experience. He doesn’t actually need any other accompanists… but then when you hear him as an accompanist, or playing harp unaccompanied, his hands start bringing out tonal shadings that you didn’t miss before, but are now making your hair stand on end, electrifying your experience through your ears.
Luckily, on the 28th, John Heneghan of the East River String Band was generous enough to both come out to Jalopy on a cold Sunday night, and to bring his video equipment as well. As a result, much of Joe’s rare solo set at Jalopy is captured on video, so instead of having me fail to adequately describe the experience, you can check out these youtube videos and get something of the experience yourself. Thanks, John!
Here’s Joe Bellulovich:
Muscle Shoals Blues:
Friday Moan:
The Unknown Blues:
and finally - Joe’s fantastic Locomotive Blues:
9 Comments »
03.03.10 @ 9:39 am
wow.
03.04.10 @ 4:01 pm
The video is wonderful!
Here are my drawings from that night:
http://blog.ukulelechicken.com/2010/03/joe-bellulovich-pat-conte-and-the-little-brothers-022810/#more-973
Thanks for a great show!
Robin
03.04.10 @ 4:04 pm
Whoops, try this link to make sure you see everything:
http://blog.ukulelechicken.com/2010/03/joe-bellulovich-pat-conte-and-the-little-brothers-022810/
03.04.10 @ 8:39 pm
It was our pleasure and privilege, Robin. Thanks for the pictures!
03.10.10 @ 9:54 pm
Thanks so much for posting those clips of Joe Bellulovich doing the solo harmonica numbers, Frank. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to see someone play whose work far exceeds the praise it has generated. He is spectacular, and his sound is enormous–note how he is not remotely working the microphone, he’s barely in the neighborhood of it. This would have to be rated very great harmonica playing no matter when it happened. What a treat!
John
P.S. I just got a laptop yesterday and can watch performance videos now, hooray! I’m going to get caught up on your and Kim’s!
03.10.10 @ 11:34 pm
Joe is really amazing - the first time I heard him, I had to pinch myself… the first time we got to play together, the electricity was amazing - for all his attention he has put towards the musicians he admires, there’s so much of *him* in what he does… and what a brilliant accompanist - zero ego… totally in the service of the song. A real gem!
I’m so excited that you have a computer with a high speed connection - there’s so much stuff out there…. you probably won’t sleep for a week!
03.12.10 @ 8:15 pm
This guy has got the goods! Love good french harp playing and he is so dam soulful. Thanks for the post. gil
03.17.10 @ 6:40 am
my pleasure, Gil. Thanks for coming by - see ya soon, I hope!
03.28.10 @ 5:28 pm
I am simply blown away and utterly humbled by teh expressiveness of what he is able to convey. Question: What is it about the name Joe that seems to b a pre-requisite for great pre-war blues harmonica player?Clearly, I need to legally change my name. I told Mike H. that I want an autographed copy of the Little Brothers when released. There’s something in the water up there to produce such an amazing crop of musicians. Please bottle some an send me some asap!
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