What is the future of blues music?
Blues has been a vital part of American culture for over 100 years and is considered an essential forerunner to jazz, rhythm & blues, rock and hip-hop.
Mamie Smith’s 1920 recording of “Crazy Blues” is among the first recordings of what we might recognize as blues, although the form has roots to the 1800s.
Blues has changed so much in 100 years that Mamie Smith might not recognize modern blues. And in another 100 years, we might not recognize it either.
Two musician-producers, guitarists Jan Mittendorp and Charlie Beale, who KNKX features on Nu Blues, a new show catered to progressive blues, are each moving blues into new territory, and in two very different ways.
Mittendorp and ‘Bluestronica’
Jan Mittendorp, 66, who goes by the handle “miXendorp” is based in the Netherlands and has been touring around Europe since he was a teenager, playing acoustic blues, jazz, and electric blues. He often backs up American blues artists like Boo Boo Davis and Big George Jackson on their European tours.
About 20 years ago, Mittendorp heard a landmark recording by the group Tangle Eye. On it, they remixed early field recordings from the American South, adding new music and beats. Concurrently, artists like Moby and St. Germain were doing similar things with American blues recordings.
Mittendorp was enchanted by the possibilities.
“I just started fumbling around on my computer…all the repetitive grooves, they’re excellent for remixing,” he said.
He has been a production powerhouse, starting his own record label, Black and Tan Records, and has created hundreds of recordings that remix traditional blues into a form he calls “bluestronica.” Bluestronica describes what happens when traditional blues is mixed with modern rhythms and musical sensibilities.
“If somebody like Muddy Waters or Howlin’ Wolf had come of age in the ‘80s and ‘90s, they would probably play rap instead of blues,” he said.
Mittendorp has taken artists like bluesman Boo Boo Davis under his wing, giving him a new identity as a traditional blues artist who could also embrace a modern vision of the music. But, Davis’ transition to bluestronica faced some challenges.
“People looked at us as if we were completely crazy,” Mittendorp said. “A lot of people didn’t get it. A lot of blues fans are so serious about the music and are so busy keeping it alive that they’re killing it.”
Davis wasn't sure about bluestronica at first, until he saw the amount of record sales and royalties that were coming in.
“He started liking it a little bit more. And he really got a following,” said Mittendorp. “Thanks to his work in Europe, he was able to live in a house in America, because otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible."
Mittendorp recently rolled out a new website that he hopes will be a global meeting place for people interested in this unique blend of blues and modern sounds.
Beale and ‘Electro-blues’
Across the English Channel in Manchester, UK, 33 year-old producer Charlie Beale is also changing the sound of blues.
Rather than working with living blues artists, he has become an expert remixer of vintage blues recordings. He’s developed an extensive catalog on the London label Freshly Squeezed Music, calling his music “electro-blues,” another word that describes the melding of blues and electronica.
“When I was at University studying music, I first started to look back into guys like Robert Johnson and the old Delta blues style, like Son House. It sounds so raw, just a guy in a room playing his acoustic guitar,” said Beale.
At the time, Beale was in a blues-rock band and doing a lot of research into old school blues records, too.
“There was a little electro-swing scene going on at the time in the UK, and I thought ‘you know what? I love blues music, this is what I’m studying, and why not try to put two and two together,’” he said.
Beale then crafted new versions of early blues songs that preserved the essence of the original recordings while adding beats, samples, synthesizers and his own guitar.
An early career break came in 2015 when Freshly Squeezed released Beale’s first two remixes “Stop Breaking Down Blues,” a 1937 Robert Johnson song and “Brother Moses,” a Golden Gate Quartet song from 1945. From that launching point, Beale has been producing a steady stream of electro-blues, as well as his own original songs.
Beale tries not to go “too crazy” with the electronic stuff and works to pay respects to the original artist in his music.
“The overall goal for me is to hopefully get some young people listening to the blues and be like, ‘Ooh, what’s this guy? Who’s this singer? Who’s that sample?’ And they can look back at Robert Johnson or Big Bill Broonzy or Son House,” he said.
Beale has a new album, Steady Rolling, out April 17. Mittendorp’s newest release is called “Bluestronica nr 7.”
KNKX’s Nu Blues airs Saturday and Sunday from 9 p.m. to midnight and is also available On Demand.
