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Post by blueshome on Mar 28, 2011 8:41:11 GMT
I see that Michael has made several references to Kokomo Arnold lately, and is studying his playing again.
KA has been one of my favorite composers,singers,players for many a year and I've worked out versions of a few of his songs - great fun.
He was the only clearly identified left-handed player recording pre-war (always good to know that a fellow lefty made it!) and I have a facsimile of a poster advertiising a gig of his in Chicago showing a sketch of him playing a National Style O in the conventional position left-handed.
He played in both Vasterpol (sometimes tuned quite low) and Spanish tunings. My ears tell me that most of his Vasterpol work was executed is normal playing position and that he probably played flat in Spanish. This is based on my perception of his thumb work and the ease of playing when you try to play his songs, some of the moves in Vasterpol are incredibly quick but readily achievable with the guitar upright.
I'm interested to hear Michael's views on this as we'll never really know - Kokomo refused to have anything to do with the music industry when he was found by researchers in the 50's and 60's and there are no action photos, only the poster I mentioned above.
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 28, 2011 9:40:35 GMT
Hi Blueshome, I knew you would come in on a Kokomo Arnold discussion! I have always loved Kokomo Arnold's playing and for thirty years have dabbled with it, but in recent months I have put a lot of time and thought and discussion into his playing style. I too have seen the image of him with the Style 0, but I know that photos of people with guitars can lead us astray! The amount of people who ask me about the cover of King Guitar and the National archtop and which songs I used it on are often surprised that I do not own that guitar and never recorded with it. Listening to his recordings, he used more than one instrument and not always Nationals. I think he played left handed and very likely upside down using a knife or similar tool as a slide. The reason I think that he used a knife is because I am fairly sure he is not anchoring his hand in any way, and the combination of a knife and no anchoring gives him the speed to fly around the fretboard in his inimitable style. I am still not convinced that he ever did any fretting with his fingers. I know that it sounds like he does, but I 'think' he is doing it all with the knife. What intrigues me is that his style is very frantic and wild, and also extremely accurate. In some pieces he has the speed and accuracy of players like Bob Brozman. Something that really baffles me is that he never bangs the frets with the slide. This leads me to think of two possibilities, maybe both are happening - first that he may well have used a nut raiser or pencil or something to lift the strings, this would account for his amazing ability to play without banging the frets. Secondly, that by playing upside down he is using his thumb and first finger to play melody and his other fingers to play the rhythms, and that could account for two things >(1) his extraordinary flailing abstract rhythm style which is hard to define, and (2) his amazing power and clarity on the top strings and his runs across the strings from high to low when playing melody. He definitely played in both Spanish and Vastapol tunings and I have considered that possibly his Spanish tuning songs are played with the guitar held in a regular position, but still upside down. However, the more I have studied his playing I am now not convinced that he ever played with the guitar in regular upright position. In some songs that really baffles me, like Salty Dog for example where it sounds like he is fretting the 5 chord, however I still lean towards the lap style and that what we are hearing is a master unorthodox primitive folk musician in action. This is all just calculated guesswork as there are no descriptions or images of him. I have tried to track down if any blues historians or musicians were in the audience when he played a concert in Chicago in the early sixties, but so far I have not found anyone. I am sure that if any of the known historians were there, we would have known about by now. Can you imagine trying to work out how Jeff Healey or Elizabeth Cotten played guitar if we hadn't actually seen them do it. Nobody would work out that either of them played the guitar in the way they did. If I get some time tonight I will write some more about Kokomo, going into more detail about individual songs. Blueshome or anyone.....any thoughts on that lot?  Shine On Michael |
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Post by blueshome on Mar 28, 2011 16:49:20 GMT
Hi Michael.
Not too convinced by the upside down strings argument, it's not hard to switch a guitar without a compensated saddle to lefty and most guitars back then were straight. He clearly played both wood and resonator guitars on his recordings. The image I have is from the early 40's.
I believe he did fret with his fingers, particularly in Vasterpol, there are walkdowns behind the vocals, partial 1st position IV an V chords in there.
Whether a knife or a bottleneck we don't know, but I find a medium weight slide the way to go to get the speed without the rattles and still keep some vestige of tone (not his strongest suit always though).
I'm sure most of the Spanish stuff was lap style as there are virtually no finger fretted notes in there, as well as the fact that there are some barred chords (which don't occur in his Vasterpol pieces).
Way back in 2000 or 2001 I had a discussion with Sam Mitchell about Kokomo, he only really knew a couple of songs in D tuning but was convinced that they were played upright with a bottleneck.
I'm at the Euroweenie gathering next weekend and I'll ask Allan Jones (Professor Scratchy what he thinks too. He plays some KA and has a nice version of Wild Water Blues on his YouTube channel.
However he did it, Kokomo must rate as one of the top slide players ever and his playing represents a challenge to us to try and get somewhere near his sound, particular in respect of speed of slide manipulation, but more particularly in his timing where he swirches from straight to triple time on many songs. I must say I find the fast songs easier to play because of this - they are mostly straight.
Waiting to hear more from yourself and others.
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 28, 2011 17:50:50 GMT
Hi Blueshome, I have heard the musicians you have mentioned, plus you, me and a few more trying to play in Kokomo's style, and in my opinion none of us are playing like him. We can find the right notes and melodies and do good representations of the songs, but not with his speed, accuracy, rhythmic control, fire or attack. His playing is unique. I think the opposite to you; I think the Spanish stuff could be regular upright playing and the Vastapol lap style. In Spanish he never goes beyond the 12fret, in Vastapol he does. The bass runs and hints of chords are gettable lap style with either a slide or a knife. The knife with no anchor gives you the attack and the speed of flying around the fretboard from low to high, this works for me both lap style and regular. I also think it is possible that when he tuned to Spanish that he might have had two Gs on the bottom >GGDGBD, for example the 4 chord in tunes like 'I'll Be Up Someday' are on a low G string and sometimes he catches another string which is also a low G. He could be getting that run on a low D string, but I doubt it as it is too far away from the run that follows it. I also think it could be lap style because it is such an odd 4 chord. Well it is debatable as to whether it is a weird 4 chord, or a 4 to 5 chord and then back to the 1. The actual notes (if we are in Spanish in the key of G) are C / C# / D....and then back to a 1 chord bass run. He does that move a lot and I am not sure if he is thinking 4 or 4 to 5. He only does it on one string, the low G, the other strings are ringing a 1 chord which makes me think it is a primitive and very odd 4 chord. All this is just guesswork, but I think there is a strong possibility that he is playing guitars strung right-handed upside down. One thing is for sure, he is doing something that forms the basis of his playing style that I have never heard anybody else do and he uses more than one guitar. He doesn't sound to me like the type of person who would have been bothered about restringing guitars for left-handed playing. It is not uncommon for blues and folk singers from that time playing slide with various bottles, knives and nails, and it is not uncommon to see them playing upside down. So although I am not convinced, I do believe there is a possibility of these two things happening. He could be playing the bass runs with his fingers, it certainly sounds that way, but we are talking about a unique musician who was without doubt a master of playing his style of blues. His accuracy is amazing and I also think his tone is quite something. The timing changes, doubling up and tripling up is something that happened in early jazz much more than it did in blues. I think he is influenced more by 20s jazz than blues and what he ends up with is pure rock'n'roll. Just listen to 'Cause You're Dirty' and 'Busy Bootin' for examples of that. One interesting thing to do is to break the songs up into tune families, so all the Spanish ones like I'll Be Up Someday are together etc... But then he throws one at us like The Honeydripper with Roosevelt Sykes, and I'm on the floor! Like you, I can achieve acceptable versions of his songs, but I am really trying to understand and decode his playing style so I can pass it on to others, and it ain't easy! Good discussion Shine On Michael |
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Post by blueshome on Mar 28, 2011 19:07:45 GMT
Looks like we need to set some time aside at Bluesweek with the guitars, the records and a bottle of something in case all else fails.
The only way to get inside his sound is total immersion, listening to nothing else for a few days so you're not "polluted" by other sounds.
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 28, 2011 20:22:10 GMT
A Kokomo Arnold afternoon at BluesWeek sounds fine to me.
Total immersion - I do that when I am studying a musician's style. In February I listened to Kokomo Arnold every night over and over for probably three weeks. Currently it is Robert Johnson....AGAIN, but he is so wonderful that every once in a while I just have to immerse myself in his music.
Obsessed, Me, Never!!!!
Shine On
Michael.
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 28, 2011 23:46:51 GMT
In addition to my Kokomo ramblings..... These are ramblings because they are just my thoughts about how he played his amazing unique style. Another reason for my thinking that he is playing mostly, if not all, lap style with a raised action is based on the fact that he mostly tunes a tone or so lower than G and D, therefore the strings are pretty slack and yet with all that frantic playing he NEVER bangs the frets with the slide. He manages to be both fluid and percussive with his slide licks and some of his runs and endings are very lap steel sounding. The last 30 seconds of Policy Wheel is one of those. Most of his Spanish tuning playing is pretty much exactly the same in every song, but with little licks thrown in to make each tune different. I'll Be Up Someday and Mister Charlie are good examples of this. He is so quick with the bass runs and chord changes that the chords could be just one or two notes creating the effect of the chord. Kokomo only had a very small palette of licks that he weaved together and got the most out of, so he became VERY fluent with them. He was very relaxed and powerful with these licks and he knew exactly how to throw them around with great ease. There are many moves that make me think he is playing Hawaiian style with a knife or something similar. Listen to the moves in The Honeydripper for example. Also in some tunes there are some very straight bar technique full chords which are very awkward in the regular bottleneck style. All this is just calculated guesswork and I may be totally wrong, but that is what I 'think' is going on. We may never know for sure as so far there are no photos or film of him actually playing a guitar. ......more soon  Shine On Michael. |
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Post by blueshome on Mar 30, 2011 16:26:24 GMT
Looks like it's just you and me Michael!
We definitely need to get together on this and swap ideas. I'll spend some time ahead of Bluesweek getting it into my head again.
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Post by wolvoboy on Mar 30, 2011 20:11:10 GMT
Hi guys i,m pretty new to Kokomo Arnold but i'm hooked this guy was truly amazing,so i dont know to much about him and his playing style but this track i've put up (dirty Dozens)is brilliant somehow i get the feeling he was playing the guitar upside down just the way it sounds!, for me what is amazing about him is his vocals to play and sing like that is incredible.
wolvoboy
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Post by thebluesbear( al) on Mar 30, 2011 21:07:20 GMT
Hi
i just wanted to say im reading this thread with intense interest please keep going lots of food for thought
al
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 2, 2011 12:01:18 GMT
Hi Al,
I am still in there with Kokomo Arnold, but I keep changing my mind about how I think he played. Just as I am convinced he is playing a particular song lap style on a raised action guitar, I hear a note or run that makes me think it is a fretted note or run and that he is playing bottleneck on a guitar held in regular position. Then totally the opposite happens; I hear a song that I am convinced is bottleneck in regular position, but then I hear a lick or a run that just has to be lap style.
Of all the players I have studied and tried to decode their style to understand how they approached their playing, Kokomo Arnold is proving to be the most difficult. His playing is quite limited, he only uses and handful of licks and melodies, but it is the way he uses them and the fluidity in which he does it that makes his music so wonderful.
More soon.....
Shine On
Michael.
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 6, 2011 14:13:49 GMT
I am still in there with Kokomo Arnold.
.....more soon,
Shine On
Michael.
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Post by wolvoboy on Apr 6, 2011 14:21:20 GMT
Its a shame as there is no film of him playing,mind you there is no film of Robert Johnson either,maybe they only became famous after their deaths,How many more great musicans from that era were there,some probably we will never know about if there is no recordings of them
looking forward to more info....
wolvoboy
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 6, 2011 14:34:18 GMT
Hi Wolvoboy,
With most musicians from those times we do have quite a lot of information about their playing style. From listening to Robert Johnson and hearing recollections of people who saw him play and other players from that area in that time, apart from whether or not he wore picks, whether he tuned high or used a capo and what type of slide he used, we can form a fairly good mental picture of how he held a guitar and how he played it. But with Kokomo it is different as there are no photos, films or recollections of people who saw him play. Add into that the variables; left handed, possibly upside down guitar, lap style, regular bottleneck style, knife, fingerpicks, etc.......etc.... There are so many variables and his style and sound are VERY quirky and unusual. His playing is unique.
Shine On
Michael.
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Post by blueshome on Apr 6, 2011 16:01:52 GMT
One great thing is that he also recorded "folk blues" songs like Salty Dog, Bo Weavil, Shake that thing,etc. and quite a few blues with distinctive melodies not just the Kokomo and Milk Cow themes.
As to playing the stuff, I find the faster numbers a bit easier as the timing is simpler (exclude Paddlin' Madeline which even Sammy was only able to pastiche, albeit brilliantly).
(Spoke to Allan Jones at the weekend, an advocate of upright, bass on top, bottleneck FWIW. As you say we'll never know.)
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