You could say that Mark Hummel's career in the blues is rooted in ignorance. Just not his own.
A
few years ago, Hummel's reviews of books about harpist Little
Walter and guitar legend Mike Bloomfield were published. "The main
reason I started writing," he said in a recent interview, is
because so many writers "didn't seem to have a whole lot of
knowledge about the music." Now the noted West Coast harmonica
player in the trademark porkpie hat has broadened that desire to
educate as a contributing writer to the online blues magazine
BluesWax (http://www.blueswax.com), where he especially enjoys
interviewing musicians whom he thinks deserve more recognition.
Calling himself "a closet musicologist," the 50-year-old Hummel said, "You really have to go to the source; you have to learn who the originators of the music are. ... It's frustrating to be into a music like this [blues] for so long and find so few people that really care about where it comes from, who originated it, what it's about. This is African-American music that was created here in the United States. It's one of the few things we can lay claim to, but blues is probably the most disregarded music that's out there. ...
"There's a real misconception about blues," he continued, "that it's a downer, slow, or real depressing music. [But] it has as many colors as the rainbow in it in terms of style."
Mark Hummel & the Blues Survivors will perform at the Redstone Room at the River Music Experience in Davenport on Thursday, August 17. They're promoting their new album, Ain't Easy No More, which reflects the band's overall style of mixing it up from a base of traditional Chicago blues and the "jazzier, jumpier" West Coast blues. "I want people to bring their dancing shoes," Hummel said.
The CD isn't in stores yet, but it will be for sale at the show. Featuring Hummel's vocals and harmonica throughout, Ain't Easy No More is up-tempo and danceable, and a testament to Mark's "love of different styles of blues from the 1940s through the 1970s." Mark's characteristic harp phrasing - like lead (not rhythm) saxophone - and subtle reverb tone combined with a strong dose of swing play front-and-center in the tight Survivors' sound. The album title comes from a Hummel-penned song, "The Big Easy Ain't Easy No More," a broadside about the post-Katrina Crescent City done as a New Orleans-style-R&B shuffle.
The disc jumps out of the gate with Ray Charles' "Get on the Right Track," followed by Muddy Waters' "She's Got It" with harmonica reminiscent of Little Walter. Next is "Another Heartache" - another Chicago-type 12-bar blues so authentic-sounding that you'd never guess Hummel wrote it. The album holds to that "real deal" standard with nine more songs, including three more originals, two tunes by Eddie Boyd, a jazzy version of Jimmy McCracklin's "I'm to Blame," and "Stop Now Baby" by Rice Miller (Sonnyboy Williamson), with Mark's harp sounding just like Sonnyboy.
But Mark didn't start out emulating Sonnyboy's style. He began on harmonica when he was in high school in Los Angeles, after hearing blues-rock performers such as John Mayall, Cream, and Paul Butterfield. Then he did his homework and traced their influences back to Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Little Walter, and Sonnyboy - and he was hooked on the blues. By the age of 19, he'd moved up north to the Bay Area of California.
The first harp player Mark saw live was Sonny Terry, the blind partner of Brownie McGhee, and soon he was recording and touring with them as well as booking their gigs. Brownie became a mentor, as did guitarist Lowell Fulson and Bay Area bluesmen such as Henry "Cool Papa" Sadler.
In 1980, Mark started the Blues Survivors; they released their first album, Playing in Your Town, in 1985, and have been touring ever since. Mark also played with piano icon Charles Brown, and in 1992 with Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters' onetime guitar player. "I learned all his songs - all the Little Walter [harmonica] parts on his records," Mark said.
The first electric blues harmonica players Mark heard live were Charlie Musselwhite and James Cotton, both of whom he later recruited for the Blues Harp Blowouts that he started in 1991. "The real thrill is that these are people that, when I first started playing, I was literally sitting with the records and learning their licks note by note," Hummel said.
The Blues Harp Blowouts showcase a who's who of contemporary blues harmonica players. Over 15 years the list includes, besides Musselwhite and Cotton, Jerry Portnoy (sideman for Muddy Waters), Lee Oskar, Magic Dick (of the J. Geils Band), Rick Estrin (of Little Charlie & the Nightcats), Kim Wilson, Huey Lewis, Carey Bell, Billy Boy Arnold, Rod Piazza, Gary Primich, Paul DeLay, Snooky Pryor, Johnny Dyer, James Harman, and the late Sam Myers. Mark does all the booking for the Blowouts, coordinating artists' schedules with club dates, as well as acting as bandleader and promoter.
This man likes to work - or actually, to play. After the Davenport date, Hummel will be doing a Blues Harp Blowout tour on the East Coast for the first time. "It's a lot of work," he admitted, but it's worth it to introduce audiences to so many styles of blues from such virtuosos, including himself, and it's thrilling when audience members thank him for fantastic shows. "Playing live is the only reason you do it," Mark said about the work involved in setting up the Blowouts. "That's the only thing I live for."
Mark Hummel & the Blues Survivors will appear at the Redstone Room on Thursday, August 17. Doors open at 8 p.m. with the show starting at 9. Admission is $8. The Mississippi Valley Blues Society's Steve Pedigo will feature Hummel's new album on his KALA radio show from 5 to 7 p.m. the night of the show, at 88.5 FM.
To listen to the Reader interview with Mark Hummel, visit (http://www.qcspan.com).
