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Today’s MOST IMPORTANT AND NEWSWORTHY NEWSLETTER covers the award winning documentary movie “Born in Chicago” featured as a special headliner at SBSW and Lincoln Center. It's being released August 1 and it features Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, incredible footage from the Blues-masters like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, the “Chicago Blues Reunion,” Butterfield, Bloomfield, Musselwhite, and me as a critical part of the blues-rock revolution.  I’m also bringing special attention to a Chicago concert on October 22 featuring “Chamber Blues.”   And then there is the recording budget for “Symphonic Blues #6 for full orchestra and blues harmonica that will otherwise never see the light of day without the support of the community and sponsors.  None of this is about my "career."  It's about letting you know what I have to leave behind.

(Photo: Chihsuan of Chamber Blues and Me - by Marc Hauser)

Dear Cousins,

My mother, would always say; "Why don’t you toot your own horn?"  Now that she’s gone, and 80 years have also gone, I'm thinking; "Ok. It's time to toot my own horn." Now there’s a broader purpose.

AWAY FROM THOUGHTS

I don't know when I stopped trying to explain to people why symphonic blues and chamber blues is actually and factually wildly different from genres that have come before and not comparable to projects (so far) that currently combine two or more forms in different ways. (Toot toot).

At one time It was important for my career, to get this point across to arts venue managers and orchestra directors so they would have a compelling reason to present my work;  "As the gate-keepers of the world of arts we need to let this in, if not for any other reason than there is nothing like it in the world."  

And at one time it was important for potential audience members to understand this to inspire action. “Chamber Blues is coming to town. This is a singular opportunity to experience something that otherwise just doesn't exist.”   

Yes.  All that would be nice.  But in almost all cases when I begin to explain the differences, eyes just got glazed over.   So I gave up trying to explain.  After all, the music does it's work without explaining.  And it has the power to carry you away from your thoughts.  This is the magic.  Information can only get in the way.  So I hold my secrets close to my chest and accept what comes.

WHAT IS NOT KNOWN

Now I'm celebrating my 80th birthday (10/24/43) all year long.  I have unfinished work that I'm compelled to make available and leave behind.  So now with so little time I will share the secrets to help open eyes, ears, and hearts. You may as well read this so at least you will understand what is not usually understood.

A CORNER OF THE UNIVERSE

There are actually three hidden aspects that make Symphonic Blues and Chamber Blues so different than anything else  -- and therefore worthy of imminent attention. Toot. (1) There is the uncommon approach to the composing that results in a new experience, (2) the activation of the most extreme opposites of blues and classical expose a powerful and rare alchemy,  (3) all infused with an implausible history that places this in it's own corner of the universe. 

ONE: COMPOSITION

The compositional intention is to place blues and classical side by side where each genre maintains is own full character.  It's not a mix, a blend, a fusion, or crossover.  It's a juxtaposition. You can hear blues and classical chasing each other around the room. It’s not just a sonic and instrumental juxtaposition but a compositional juxtaposition. Neither blues nor classical is sitting in the back in a lounge chair.   The more common experience is a string quartet or orchestra playing blues or jazz. It’s not that. It's not a string quartet or orchestra "backing" a soloist or a group.  In fact that style presentation is so common that, we have to tell all our sound engineers that the strings should be mixed in front with the soloist because the strings "are always the soloists.” There is full attention placed on making sure the string quartet members are playing in a classical style even if they are playing non-classical phrases at times.  The classical flavors in these compositions are born out of my casual love of a certain aspect about classical music.  They are not derived by a concisious study of classical music and there was almost zero study of composition.  Chamber Blues has been compared to other projects, but so far I haven't heard much of this approach anywhere else.  Toot toot.

“The breadth and layers of this project are so stunning that I can’t recall hearing anything like this.” - ELMORE MAGAZINE

Here's a 6 minute example if you want to hear and see the basis of how this works.

TWO: OPPOSING FORCES

What can't be denied is the cultural and artistic opposites of blues and classical.  As an example of the acutely contrasting flavors, I was recording my first chamber music work for the first time in 1983 with a string quartet so I could get an idea of how Chamber Blues might work.  The string quartet members looked at the music and thought it was filled with errors. For instance, in the key of C there was an Eb against an E natural (two notes right next to each other) that would crash and clash in the context of very tonal music.  The major blues scale uses this Eb prominently where the classical scale uses the E natural.  It looked really bad on paper but the ear loved it. This is because the blues is heard more as melodic lines and these "funny" notes just pass across the classical structure and just seem right.  Classical music has a very strong harmony aspect.  In blues, the harmony is more coincidental. And they work together beautifully.

“… simply a thing of beauty … rarely do we associate blues and classical. Siegel has been doing that now for over five decades. Remarkably, he continues to make it work in astounding ways” - Independent Music Magazine - MAKING A SCENE

Sure, there are cultural differences

I won't expound upon the cultural differences between blues and classical, though part of the joy of these presentations is that they do bring diverse audiences together and do help break down the perceived walls between music genre.  I get to surprise people. What I will add is that the walls between different musical forms are illusions, created by our own superimpositions, on a form of nature that simply loves diversity.

“The combination of these two genres could be the greatest variation of all themes. By creating the 'potential' for a deeper enjoyment of music, Chamber Blues has the possibility to tear down the walls that keep music fans apart” - LIVING BLUES MAGAZINE

THREE: HISTORY

I explain the early history on my Kickstarter page in the 3 minute intro video.  It highlights the fact that my first steps into the world of music performance just dropped me out of nowhere - head over heals - to the feet of the Chicago blues masters. I was adopted and taken under their wings in regular all night gigs every week, at a famous blues club, where Jim Schwall and I were hired to be the house band every Thursday night from 9pm till 4am. 

“For groups like the Rolling Stones, names like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf were exotic inspirations. For Siegel-Schwall they were the guys that played with them on 43rd Street.” - LIN BREHMER (WXRT Radio)

Historic significance

The historic significance is highlighted in the movie “Born in Chicago” being released on streaming platforms Aug 1.  It includes me as a critical element in the blues-rock revolution!  Toot.  And it also features some ne’re do-wells performing and doing interviews like; Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, along with incredible footage and stories by the blues masters (Wolf, Muddy, Willie, Walter, BB, Buddy and Jr.) and some old friends like Steve Miller, Charlie Musselwhite, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield and my comrades from the Chicago Blues Reunion, Harvey Mandel, Barry Goldberg, and Nick Gravenites. 

At the same time, right out of the smokey taverns, steeped in the blues and still steaming, I was captured by Maestro Seiji Ozawa and composer William Russo, with a proposal to bring blues to classical music.  Seiji's intention was; "Classical music needs this spark and these different worlds need to be brought together."  So in an instant, it was out of the smokey rooms of Pepper's Lounge on 43rd street, Mother Blues and Big Johns on Wells street in Chicago, to the ornate concert stages of the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Boston, San Francisco, symphony orchestras and beyond, where audiences in tux and gown were along side fans in t-shirts and jeans. 

FOUR: OK FOUR

OK! There are four things. Just like any other artist, in reality we are all unique.  The thing we love about Bob Dylan is his dylan-ness, Louis Armstrong, his lewy-ness, John Prine, his prine-ness, Steve Goodman, his stevie-ness, Siegel-Schwall it’s siegel-schwall-ness.  My harmonica style, performance style, personality - that's my corky-ness. 

But it's examples ONE, TWO, and THREE, that make me say; "See if you can check out a performance of Chamber Blues if you have the chance or obtain the signed CDs.  And maybe you want to be a part of the Symphonic Blues #6 legacy."

David Amram (Leonard Bernstein’s assistant and composer in residence for the NY Philharmonic) understands; “I don’t need to be heard, but I have a bit of a responsibility to assure that the music I created can be heard.” In other words I must create the opportunity for you. And so that’s today’s “Most Important and Newsworthy Newsletter.”

Thank you for listening.

Cousin Corky

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