Eric Bibb
Eric Bibb (born August 16, 1951 in New York ) is an American blues musician and singer-songwriter who appears almost exclusively with an acoustic guitar (and hat) and has been nominated several times for the Handy and Blues Music Award . His style of music, in which he often uses fingerpicking techniques, mixes acoustic blues with folk , gospel , R&B and soul . He is the son of folk singer and actor Leon Bibb , with whom he also recorded two albums.
biography
Childhood and youth
As the son of Leon Bibb Eric grew up in New York in a musically influenced mainly by folk music environment in which he, among others, with the musician friends of his father - as Pete Seeger , Bob Dylan and Odetta - and his uncle, the famous jazz - pianist and Composer John Lewis , had contact. His godfather, the artist and civil rights activist Paul Robeson , Eric dedicated in 2006, along with his father, the album Praising Peace - A Tribute To Paul Robeson .
After starting to play folk guitar at the age of 7 , he also learned singing and other instruments such as double bass , concert guitar and piano from the age of 13 at a high school with an artistic and musical focus .
In his youth, Bibb was strongly influenced by the pronounced folk scene of the Greenwich Village of that time and still does not necessarily see himself as a blues musician, but emphasizes that he does not see much difference between folk and blues. At the age of 16, he was finally accepted as a guitarist in the regular backing band on his father's television talent show Someone New . During this time he was musically influenced by his uncle John Lewis, who had worked as a jazz musician with Miles Davis and would later play for a long time in the Modern Jazz Quartet , and brought him mainly blues music .
A little later he also played guitar for the Negro Ensemble Company and began studying Russian and psychology at Columbia University .
Beginning of the solo career
However, Bibb left the United States in 1970 without a degree and went to Europe, where he still mostly lives today. Via Paris , where he came into contact with Mickey Baker , who inspired him to play the guitar by Robert Johnson , he moved to Stockholm . There he dealt mainly with the blues from the time before the Second World War and performed regularly with his own compositions. In 1972 his first LP called Ain't It Grand was released in Sweden . In 1980 Bibb finally returned to New York to continue his career as a professional blues and folk musician. After moderate success, he returned to Sweden in the mid-1980s, where he worked as a music teacher, but continued to perform on the side and was involved in Stockholm's world music scene. More of his LPs were released from the 1970s to the 1990s with various Swedish music labels, mostly with the independent label Opus 3 . Bibb sometimes collaborated with other American musicians based in Sweden, such as the blues mandolinist Bert Seivert or the gospel singer Cyndee Peters . He also worked as a songwriter for other artists on behalf of BMG .
First successes and commercial breakthrough
Bibb got more public attention in the mid-1990s, among other things through a joint appearance with Corey Harris and Keb 'Mo' at the London Blues Festival 1996. His albums Spirit & The Blues from 1995 and Good Stuff from 1997, both with the participation of the Needed Times -Band, again showed clear gospel and folk influences. These LPs were his first, which - with a delay - were also released in the USA.
His collaboration with Taj Mahal and Linda Tillery on the 1997 CD Shakin 'a Tailfeather , a compilation of songs for children, was awarded a Grammy nomination.
In the following years Bibb, who is considered to be an excellent live musician, toured regularly through North America, Australia, Europe and performed there for example at the Glastonbury Festival , at WOMAD and in the Royal Albert Hall ; in North America he toured with Ray Charles , Etta James , Robert Cray , John Mayall and Robben Ford, among others . Further CD releases, with guest musicians such as Pops and Mavis Staples , Bonnie Raitt , Ruthie Foster , Odetta , Guy Davis , Charlie Musselwhite , Bill Lee , Mamadou Diabaté and Taj Mahal, followed. Live recordings of his concerts have been published in various band line-ups on the CD An Evening with Eric Bibb and the double CD Live à FIP .
From 2005 onwards, Bibb finally achieved a commercial breakthrough in the USA. The studio albums A Ship Called Love (2005), Diamond Days (2007) and Get Onboard (2008) sold well and each achieved top positions in the Top Blues Albums category on the Billboard charts . Songs from these CDs were used in the film Gospel Hill and in the TV series The District .
His album Booker's Guitar , released in January 2010, was dedicated to the blues legend Booker White , with the album's title song of the same name recorded on a resonator guitar from the 1930s that White is said to have heard. The 13 original compositions on the album, supplemented by an interpretation of the folk traditional Wayfaring Stranger and the cover version of Blind Willie Johnson's Nobody's Fault But Mine , are predominantly inspired by the acoustic, classic delta blues of the prewar period, but interpreted in a modern way in the Bibb style. In contrast to his last studio album Get Onboard , which was recorded with a number of different musicians and instruments, his singing and guitar playing is only supplemented on a few songs by the harmonica playing of Grant Dermody. The album reached number 1 in the Top Blues Albums category on the Billboard Charts and earned it numerous good reviews and two nominations - in the categories of Best Acoustic Blues Album and Best Acoustic Blues Artist - at the 2011 Blues Music Awards .
Eric Bibb is married to a musician and has a daughter, Yana, who is also a musician.
Discography (selection)
Albums
- Ain't It Grand (1972)
- Rainbow People (1977, repeatedly re-released on CD)
- Olikalikadant (1978), with Cyndee Peters
- Golden Apples of the Sun (1981)
- Hello Stranger (1983), with Bert Deivert
- Spirit & the Blues (1995), with the Needed Times band
- Good Stuff (1997), with the Needed Times band
- Me to You (1997)
- Home to Me (1999)
- Roadworks (2000)
- Just like Love (2000)
- Painting Signs (2001)
- Natural Light (2003)
- A Family Affair (2004), with Leon Bibb
- Friends (2004)
- Sisters & Brothers (2004), with Rory Block and Maria Muldaur
- Just Like Love (2000)
- Livin 'Lovin' & Doin ': Retrospective
- Eric Bibb, a Retrospective (2006)
- Praising Peace - A Tribute To Paul Robeson (2006), with Leon Bibb
- Diamond Days (2007)
- An Evening with Eric Bibb (2007), live album - recorded March 2002 in Sydney , Australia
- Get Onboard (2008)
- Spirit I Am (2008)
- Live à FIP (2009), two live sessions from 2008 with different band members, recorded on the Paris radio station FIP
- Booker's Guitar (2010)
- Troubadour Live (2011)
- Deeper in the Well (2012)
- Brothers in Bamako (2012), with Habib Koité
- Jericho Road (2013)
- Eric Bibb and the North Country Far (2013)
- Eric Bibb in 50 Songs (2014), 3-CD compilation (2003-2013)
- Blues People (2014) with Taj Mahal , The Blind Boys of Alabama , Guy Davis , Popa Chubby and Glen Scott, among others
- Blues Detour (2014)
- Lead Belly's Gold (with Jean-Jacques Milteau , 2015)
- The Happiest Man In The World (with North Country Far and Danny Thompson , 2016)
- Migration Blues (2017; nominated for a Grammy in the category Best Traditional Blues Album )
- Global Griot (double album, 2018)
DVD
- Live at the Basement (2007), recorded in March 2002 in Sydney, Australia
- Up Close with Eric Bibb (2005), recorded in 2005 at The Basement music club in Sydney, Australia
Others
- Guitar Tab Songbook, Volume 1 (2015; CD + DVD + CD-ROM)
Web links
- Literature by and about Eric Bibb in the catalog of the German National Library
- Eric Bibb in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official website of Eric Bibbs
- Entry on Eric Bibb in the All Music Guide
- Extensive discography by Eric Bibb
- Eric Bibb's profile on allaboutjazz.com
swell
- ↑ Eric Bibb Plays 'Booker's Guitar'. In: npr.org. February 19, 2010, accessed January 5, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Profile of Eric Bibb at allaboutjazz.com, accessed on August 18, 2010 ( memento of the original from July 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b https://www.allmusic.com/artist/eric-bibb-mn0000186484/biography
- ^ Eric Bibb Profiles. (No longer available online.) In: blues.about.com. Archived from the original on December 3, 2014 ; Retrieved January 5, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/artist/eric-bibb-mn0000186484
- ↑ a b Get Ready to ROCK! Interview with acoustic guitar player and songwriter Eric Bibb, May 2008. In: getreadytorock.com. Retrieved January 5, 2015 .
- ↑ JazzTimes. dated Sept. 1999, ISSN 0272-572X , Volume 29, No. 7, p. 69. Restricted preview in the Google book search
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/spirit-the-blues-mw0000602508
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/good-stuff-mw0000034084
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/artist/eric-bibb-mn0000186484/awards
- ↑ Downbeat February 2010 p. 35
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/bookers-guitar-mw0001955871
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/bookers-guitar-mw0001955871/awards
- ↑ Blues Music Awards Information ( Memento from July 31, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: blues.org
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bibb, Eric |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American blues musician and singer-songwriter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 16, 1951 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | new York |