Blue Tribute

In 1993 I saw Henry Kaiser at a rare record store show in New York City. A friend of mine who owns this store told me that It was something I strongly encouraged to go see. I had a friend who was older then I was who jumped at the chance to go to this show and went with me. I had no idea what to expect, he did not know either. He had a ton of his albums and he could play any number of them. As of this post he has over 100 albums out their where he either plays on or put out himself. He only has one career retrospective called Playola where it was sent to radio stations and to other places. I happened to get it on Ebay for a cheap price of $10.00. It now sells for way over that and is still hard to find. I have been offered a ton of money for by people who love his music like I do.

Henry's a musician with great taste in whatever he does. I never saw a musician with great skill on guitar. He appreciated his musical background and where the music needed to go. When I heard other albums that he put out I could see that his direction was unique. The music was wonderful and great and made me get more and more interested in his music. What I did not know was that his guitar playing started later then most. He started when he was about twenty. He picked up the instrument pretty easy.



My friend who went to the show was a huge fan of Henry Kaiser and on the way down he explained that Henry could change the dynamic of any album he was on. He could learn a style or genre and put a fun and unique idea to the artist he was working with. His great gift of understanding the music of world or even people like Capt. Beefheart or Derek Bailey. He could pick up on any sort of musical flavor. He even picked up on musical sounds from different parts of the world and added them to his guitar playing. Henry Kaiser's restless creativity unearthed many new and unconventional electric guitar techniques during these years, and he combined these innovations with a strong sense of logic and concise development, often aided by sophisticated sound-processing devices.

In the 80's he was fascinated with the music of the Grateful Dead. The music there was always something he wanted to explore. The free improving style became his trademark. There is even two albums he works with some impressive musicians as Fred Frith(Henry Cow), John French (Capt. Beefheart) and Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention). They made two albums together and those are wonderful and unique to listen to because they mix all types of styles and genres.



In the 90's he decided to explore the electric side of Miles Davis and more Grateful Dead. With the death of Jerry Garcia he realized that a major important figure was gone. He, as he mentioned in an interview did not want to capitalize on a tribute, but more as an appreciation of Jerry's legacy. Henry pointed out even more was the fact that Jerry sometimes gets lost as a great song writer. The Grateful Dead image tarnished that idea.

In the album I selected Eternity Blue the music of the Grateful Dead takes a new and wonderful spin. The music is fresh and fun and has some really cool guest people such as Tom Constanten and Bob Bralove and also a wonderful piano player in Marilyn Crispell. The music of the Dead and Jerry Garcia are here in great force. The even 30 minute "Blues For Allah" is unique and wonderful. There is even wonderful Bob Bralove and Kaiser tribute to Jerry. The music here is great and fun and you too should check it out. Enjoy!!