For the Record...

Abner Jay - Woke Up This Morning

Sometimes I feel like I’ve been desensitized with so much over exposure to music and the barrage of hype constantly being doled out by all the hype machines. New music burns hot and fast. But more importantly, all this shouting makes it hard to emphasize when something is truly great. It gets lost in an ocean of hyperbole.

I came across this album today by accident. I was really looking for something else. The album cover caught my eye and now I can say it is a good embodiment of its content. The sound holds up extremely well and maintains its relevance. Half the hipster bands in Brooklyn wished they sounded like this. It feels nice to be surprised like this again. This is the real thing.

“Jay was born in Fitzgerald, Georgia. His father and grandfather were both slaves in Washington County, Georgia. His grandfather was also a banjo player and imparted a vast repertoire of old-time and folk songs to Abner. He started playing in medicine shows when he was 5. In 1932 he joined the Silas Green Minstrels and would later go on to lead the WMAZ Minstrels on Macon radio from 1946-56, before going solo. He spent many years travelling the American South and playing concerts from his “converted mobile home that opened up into a portable stage, complete with amplification and home fursnishings”[1]. These concerts, as evidenced in his recordings, were often equal parts spoken word (jokes, philosophical asides, rants) and music. Common instruments on his recordings include harmonica, drum kit, a six-string banjo (that Jay claimed was made in 1748), and the “bones”, which were chicken and cow bones that had been bleached in the sun and used to create percussion. Jay’s song repertoire included field songs, Pentecostal hymns and minstrel  tunes. He once described himself as the “last working Southern black minstrel”. He also performed original material that was mostly secular, and subjects ranged from politics, relationships, war, the bible and depression. In later years he held a residency, playing shows and selling his LPs and cassette tapes at Tom Flynn’s Plantation Restaurant in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Anthony Braxton, renowned American composer and philosopher, called Jay an “American Master”“ -from wikipedia