There's a lot of energy in their songs and they sound like they're having a lot of fun making the music. The antics from the band on stage on Saturday paid testimony to that.
The 100 Different Band Milestone
In May I reached the grand total of 100 different bands when I photographed Yola Carter at the Thunderbolt on a very memorable night that also included a great set by another new band to me - Newton Country from Bath.
The Age Old Question - To Colourise or Not
It's a question that's reared its head occasionally over time with me. And it's something I've mostly got my head around, but not completely.
My music photography work is well known now. People tell me my monochrome style is distinctive and recognisable. My style is based around a carefully thought-out recipe that I have devised using the Kodak Tri-X film stock emulator in Nik Silver Effects. I use this emulation as a base preset and then adapt it to suit my taste, adding sepia toning and vignettes occasionally. My taste has always been driven by the photography that I grew up loving in the music magazines that I read in my youth.
Kodak Tri-X film is always my go-to film stock when I work in that medium. It was used by all the greats of music photography and photo-journalism.
In the interests of diversifying I've started looking at colour again, and I'm actually quite liking it in certain situations. The problem I generally have with colour is that when you have a scene that has many colours in it, they can distract the eye from the subject of the scene. The colours may be non-complimentary and that jars with me. Also, there may be commonplace items in the scene, especially at gigs, that add nothing to set the scene and are just plain ugly. How many times have you seen a red fire extinguisher hanging on the wall to the side of a band? That will stand out strongly in a colour photograph and distract your eye.
Tone and pattern, form and texture on display
In monochrome, colours are rendered to various shades of grey. There is no clashing of non-complimentary colours when everything is shaded from black to white. Items in the scene are viewed based on tone and pattern, form and texture. Objects that are strong in these elements can be elevated in the scene. If the photographer has captured the moment well, these elements will make the scene much more visually interesting. If a guitar player is making shapes with their body, their form is going to register as a strong element in the image, and if they are wearing something with a strong pattern, that adds even more visual interest.
And as for that ugly fire extinguisher, it's that grey object that's still on the wall, but it has blended nicely into the black wall rendering it near invisible.
Having said all that, colour has it's place and I think this image taken last week of Sam Whitlock with The Montgomerys demonstrates that colour can be effective in certain circumstances when it adds interest without distracting from the scene.
I have found a range of analogue film emulators that I intend to work with from now on with my colour work. This is a Kodak Portra emulation which I like a lot. I'm hoping my colour work will become as distinctive as my monochrome work. Here's hoping.
Yummy uplights provide visual interest
If you have any comments, please leave them in the box below and let's have a discussion.
Adios for now Cajonisters...
The Cajon drum and the origin of the name - Johnny Cajon
People often ask me where the name Johnny Cajon came from. They say to me "So where does the name Johnny Cajon come from?" And this is what I tell them.
When I was a liddle biddy boy, my grandmother gave me a cute little toy. Silver bells hanging on a string, she told me it was my ding a ling a ling.
Actually, that's not what I tell them but it gave me an excuse to quote the great Chuck Berry - This was one of the first songs I remember hearing and singing along to.
For quite some time I've been interested in, and playing, various types of hand drums. I started on Djembe when I lived in Scotland and then continued when I moved to Bristol playing in various drum circles. I then moved onto playing congas and bongos when I became interested in Latin grooves. I love all those Afro Latin rhythms and I get a big kick out of the basic connection between the hands and a resonant surface, more so than with drum sticks.
Eventually, I moved onto playing a drum kit and it was when I was taking drumming lessons at Drumbank in Bristol that I got sight of my first cajon.
My cajon and one of my self-built 4 string guitars
At that time I had really gotten into rudimentary musical instruments and I had started to make my own 3 and 4 string guitars from basic cigar boxes and kits I bought in America and online. And here was the cajon, a rudimentary percussion instrument in the simple shape of a box.
I'm really into understanding how some musical instruments and styles of music have developed from a basic need for expression, and the use of simple materials, and how they have evolved into what we now take for granted and pay hundreds of pounds for, and sometimes even more. A lot of the historical stories associated with western roots music and the instruments on which it is played like the guitar and drum are born from hardship and tough times, normally slavery involving the African slaves who were exploited in the cotton, tobacco and sugar trades between Europe, Africa and the Americas.
In the case of the cajon, the story goes that the refined instruments that we see today evolved from the humble storage boxes that were used to transport the trade goods across the oceans to South America in those grim, hard days. The word cajon is a Spanish word that means 'crate'.
Without their normal drums, the African slaves took to improvising with what they could find. They would gather around these ordinary boxes and bang away their familiar rhythms. It wasn't long before the slaves' 'owners' banished these drums as they were considered a method used for, literally, drumming up support and communicating antagonism and hatred for their oppressors. This is said to be the beginning of the cajon drum.
2 string diddley bows in a market stall in Helena, Arkansas
After reading about the history of the cajon drum and also stringed instruments like the cigar box guitar and diddley bow, which share similar origins, the various quotes and myths about great art only coming from great pain and suffering made more sense to me. The people who played these early instruments despite the circumstances in which they found themselves could not have known what would become of these humble objects. They were just satisfying an urge inside and finding tools that they could use to express themselves and tell their stories through the natural basic human communication of song and dance.
The modern cajon is a much more refined version of it's humble beginnings. It has a sound hole in the back into which you can fit a mic pickup to boost the bass tones. It has a false, and sometimes decorated, front panel (like mine above), which you hit with your fingers on the corners of the box and your full hand in the centre. Behind the front panel, on the inside of the drum are horizontal snare wires. These wires rattle and buzz when the drum is hit on the corners.
There are three key tones , or notes, on the drum. You can hit the corners of the drum with the fingers to get a snare-drum-like tone, or you can lightly tap the corners with the finger tips to play ghost notes. Using a cupped full hand in the centre of the drum gives a rich, full tone like a bass kick drum.
The modern drum is very versatile as it can be played in an acoustic setting or mic'd and amped up for more volume. Sometimes you see them being played by guitarists like John Fairhurst who sit on them and use a standard kick drum beater to give a percussion voice to their acoustic sets.
It wasn't long before I bought my first cajon. I started playing it at the same time that I started taking photographs of local musicians in Bristol. One of the key players in my world at the time, who I photographed regularly, was a brilliant young witty harmonica player called Henry Slim who continues to be one of the hardest working and most authentic musicians I know. Henry invited me along to play my cajon at a couple of his acoustic sets at the time. In his dry wit and quietly spoken deep drawl he would introduce me as Johnny Cajon (sometime Johnny Cajones delivered with a comic guttural Mexican accent). The name Johnny Cajon was born and it has stuck around with me; it originated from affection and I kinda like it.
Working with Bristol 24/7
For the past few months I've been working with local Bristol music writer and critic Jonathon Kardasz (AKA Jerry Kornelius), to publish some live concert reviews for the Bristol 24/7 web site.
Jonathon's focus is on Americana, ie blues (my favourite), country, traditional rock n roll and folk music. The reviews, and previews, are a perfect combination of Jonathon's knowledgeable writing and my black and white images which nod heavily, in their style, to the era in which this music was first popularised.
During the time Jonathon and I have been working together, I have seen so many quality gigs at Bristol's smaller venues including, the Fleece, the Tunnels, the Thekla, the Trinity Centre, the Golden Lion and the Thunderbolt. April promises no let up with touring North American and Canadian artists such as Don Gallardo, Sam Outlaw and JW Jones playing alongside fantastic local talent such as The Montgomerys, Mike Crawford and the Various Sorrows and the John E Vistic Rock n Roll Soundsystem.
Please keep an eye out on the web site for more quality shows and gig reviews. http://www.bristol247.com/channel/culture/music
Here are some photos from recent shows.
