{"id":266,"date":"2009-11-10T09:09:32","date_gmt":"2009-11-10T14:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/2009\/11\/blues_lyrics_write_to_win\/"},"modified":"2011-04-28T16:33:24","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:33:24","slug":"blues_lyrics_write_to_win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/11\/blues_lyrics_write_to_win.html","title":{"rendered":"Blues lyrics: write to win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For tickets to Jazz at Lincoln Center this weekend or a dvd of Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson performing live, try writing a blues. How hard can it be?<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>&#8220;Minutes seem like hours, hours seem like days,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>Seems my baby would stop her lowdown ways&#8221; &#8212; Muddy Waters, &#8220;Country Blues&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>\u00c2\u00a0&#8220;Woke up this morning, looked &#8217;round for my shoes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>You know I had those mean old walkin&#8217; blues&#8221; &#8212; Robert Johnson, &#8220;Walkin&#8217; Blues&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>&#8220;Whoa, oh tell me baby<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>Where did ya stay last night? An&#8217; why don&#8217;t ya hear me cryin&#8217;?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>Whoo hoo, whoo whoo,\u00c2\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>Whoo who. . . &#8221; &#8212; Howlin&#8217; Wolf, &#8220;Smokestack Lightning&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div>Ok, I&#8217;m asking for more than a couplet from entrants in this contest to score a pair of tickets on Nov. 14 to hear either saxophonist Maceo Parker, soloist with James Brown, Ray Charles and P-Funk <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\">OR<\/span> Wynton and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with pianists Geri Allen and Geoff Keezer celebrating the life of Mary Lou Williams, <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\">or<\/span> the newly released Wynton &#8216;n&#8217; Willie dvd. I want three to five choruses of an original blues lyric, or a blue prose poem 100 to 150 words in length.\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But that&#8217;s all. And the challenge might be a way for those who accept it to touch base with their basest hard feelings, get &#8217;em out in the open and in the process move towards resolution. That&#8217;s what the blues do: let the blues expressor objectify their sorrows or demons, hold them at a distance far enough to take a good look and figure out the next step.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>&#8220;Bad luck and trouble been my only friend<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>Been on my own since I was ten<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>Born under a bad sign, I&#8217;ve been down since I began to crawl<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>If it wasn&#8217;t for bad luck, I wouldn&#8217;t have no luck at all&#8221; &#8212; Albert King, &#8220;Born Under A Bad Sign&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>&#8220;When you get good lovin&#8217;, don&#8217;t you spread the news.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>When you get good lovin&#8217;, don&#8217;t you spread the news.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>&#8216;Cause those gals will double cross you,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\"><p>And leave you with the empty bed blues.&#8221; &#8212; Bessie Smith, &#8220;Empty Bed Blues&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Entrees to the Maceo\/Mary Lou\/ Wynton &amp; Willie blues contest will be judged for originality, \u00c2\u00a0<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; \">moodiness, vivid imagery, compression and, of course, bluesiness. Entrees must be submitted in the comments box of this blog no later than midnight EST on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Get yr blues on, folks &#8212; give it a try. Winners to be published this coming weekend; watch this space.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardmandel.com\" target=\"blank\">howardmandel.com<\/a> <br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/JazzBeyondJazz\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe by Email or  RSS<\/a> <br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/archives.html\" target=\"_blank\"> All JBJ posts <\/a><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/w.sharethis.com\/widget\/?tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&amp;charset=utf-8&amp;style=default&amp;publisher=6ed88875-2235-4b29-aaa3-60183b0bcbcc\"><\/script> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For tickets to Jazz at Lincoln Center this weekend or a dvd of Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson performing live, try writing a blues. How hard can it be? &#8220;Minutes seem like hours, hours seem like days, Seems my baby would stop her lowdown ways&#8221; &#8212; Muddy Waters, &#8220;Country Blues&#8221; \u00c2\u00a0&#8220;Woke up this morning, looked [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[577,580,575,578,573,574,576,579,571,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"tag-albert-king","8":"tag-bessie-smith","9":"tag-blues-lyrics","10":"tag-howlin-wolf","11":"tag-maceo-parker","12":"tag-mary-lou-williams","13":"tag-muddy-waters","14":"tag-robert-johnson","15":"tag-willie-nelson","16":"tag-wynton-marsalis","17":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-4i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":267,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/11\/midnight_est_deadline_blues_co.html","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":0},"title":"Midnight (EST) deadline, blues contest entries","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"November 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Prizes of Jazz at Lincoln Center tix for this weekend and dvds of Wynton Marsalis with Willie Nelson for the best blues lyrics or prose poem will be determined at 12:01 tonight (11\/11\/09). Several stunning (!?!) efforts have been received -- via the comments box below -- but I'm not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":265,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/11\/jazz_at_lincoln_center_ducats.html","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":1},"title":"Jazz at Lincoln Center ducats, Wynton-Willie dvd giveaways!","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"November 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Readers of this blog can win 2 tix for JALC's November 14 shows by Maceo Parker or the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra playing Mary Lou Williams, or autographed Wynton-Willie Nelson Play Ray Charles dvds. But in keeping with the inherent value of these prizes, I'm making the contest creative, not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":271,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/11\/wynton_le_chevalier_marsalis.html","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":2},"title":"Wynton le Chevalier Marsalis","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"November 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A survey in my latest City Arts column\u00c2\u00a0of the music of trumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis, in the jazz spotlight for 25 years. Founder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, educator, activist, humanitarian, winner of a Pulitzer and multiple Grammies, Wynton stands tallest in my book when he just\u00c2\u00a0plays jazz.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":296,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/02\/the_blues_in_nyc.html","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":3},"title":"The blues in NYC","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"February 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"My column\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/NYCblues\u00a0in City Arts - New York's Review of Culture, focuses on America's deep, dark musical strain as it is today in a blues-challenged city. It doesn't mention that Wynton Marsalis is the world's greatest blues trumpeter, as he proved last night playing \"bread and butter\" from the Count Basie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":375,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/01\/prince_plays_the_blues_-_choco.html","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":4},"title":"Prince plays the blues &#8211;  Chocolate Drops, Wynton, Clapton, too","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"January 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The blues is big-time pop again -- processed to a triumphant apotheosis by Prince at Madison Square Garden\u00a0as I detail in my new City Arts column\u00a0-- (but did it ever go away? Here's the Artist with James Brown and Michael Jackson in 1983)\u00a0 \u00a0-- reinvigorated in acoustic revivalist and hybrid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":268,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/11\/winners_and_their_blues.html","url_meta":{"origin":266,"position":5},"title":"Winners and their blues","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"November 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Winners of this blog's first Blues Lyric Contest are suitably\u00c2\u00a0troubled -- and all get Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson\u00c2\u00a0Play the Music of Ray Charles DVDS to ease their weary minds. All have expressed regrets they can't get to \u00c2\u00a0Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts of Wynton and the Lincoln Center Jazz\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}