Friday, May 25, 2012

Mick Taylor – Return of the Boo-Ga-Wee

Mick Taylor shows off that awesome jazzy-bluesy slide work on "You Shook Me" at the Iridium Jazz Club, NYC ~ May 12, 2012 ...

... with that sweet soul section of Hamish Stuart, guitar; Wilbur Bascomb, bass; Max Middleton, keyboards; Jeff Allen, drums; Arno Hecht, sax – the meandering Stone lays down a groove at they club that Les built, or at least made famous.

Mick burns on that Les Paul with the Bigsby vibrato. That, and the fact that Max Middleton is sitting there at the keyboard playing "You Shook Me" makes everything quite appropriate indeed.



"You Shook Me"


When he assays "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," it's more than a snippet, less than epic-length. A punch in the face with a licorice stick of slide goodness.




"Can't You Hear Me Knocking"


I had this to say about MT on my Flickr page:

Jimi & Mick Taylor GW March 1988 P. 33
Jimi & Mick Taylor GW March 1988 P. 33

Three of the four photos on the page (two of Jimi and Keith, two Jimi with Mick Taylor) were indeed stills from the Maysles' unreleased footage. There is a fourth one by photographer Ethan Russell. I blogged on this on Rock's Backpages …
www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/2011/11/jimi-micktaylor....

My friend Tom Graves in Memphis calls Mick "one of the best slide players to ever walk the planet."

No lesser light than Keith Richards says that the Mick Taylor era – with a dash of Gram Parsons – was the best the Stones had to offer.

... and speaking' of those bad boys, it's funny that this recent article (May 3, 2012) is in the New York Daily News. My picture was in the NY Post, I mean a picture of me ... not a picture I took:

AnnaNoeStonesNYPost_31.JPG

My sister Anna and I went to see the Stones at Madison Square Garden sometime in the mid-seventies, or maybe it was the Nov. 1969 MSG concert – I am not sure now. We moved up to the front row — in those days you could do that; note the absence of a guard rail and phalanx of beefy mofos. That's us on the lower left hand portion of your screen. We got doused by Mick and made the front page of the New York Post.

PS, I love this bit from the interview with Mick in the Daily News:


Mick Taylor: The best musician ever to play with the Rolling Stones returns
Guitarist plays Iridium

By Jim Farber
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
May 3, 2012
Since his departure, Taylor has worked with the band periodically, adding bits to “Tattoo You” in 1981 and even recording overdubs for last year’s re-release of “Exile on Main Street,” which includes his sole songwriting credit (“Ventilator Blues”). But he remains cagey about rumors he’ll rejoin the Stones on a proposed 50th anniversary tour next year. “I don’t know,” is all he’ll say.
In the meantime, Taylor just collaborated with Ron Wood on a song for “CSI: Miami.” And he plans to continue the rambling life of the journeyman musician he’s enjoyed for over three decades. It’s a role that allows him to indulge his truest love: the blues. “It all comes back to the blues,” he says. “Ultimately, that’s where we all go for nourishment and for warmth.”


Only way I know to close out this blog about Mick is with another video. He really burns on "Blind Willie McTell," a Bob Dylan tune.



"Blind Willie McTell"