Shanachie Records presents a definitive portrait of the hugely influential folk blues icon Rev. Gary Davis in a comprehensive three-CD box set entitled Demons & Angels: The Ultimate Collection. Compiled by disciple and historian Stefan Grossman (who calls Davis “the Stravinsky of the acoustic guitar”), this sprawling set showcases the full stylistic range of Davis’ music, encompassing blues, gospel, ragtime, minstrel songs and other bits of Americana. The recordings were culled from over 100 hours of studio, concert and home recordings. Disc one, Slippin ’til My Gal Comes in Partner, documents concerts at Columbia University from 1958 to 1959. Disc two, I Am the True Vine, is comprised of rare recordings done at home from 1964 to 1966. And disc three, Twelve Gates to the City, intersperses spirituals like “Jesus Met the Woman at the Well” and “Lord, on Your Word” with secular numbers like “Cocaine Blues.” Rev. Gary’s eccentric genius shines brightly on this substantial box.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro