Watercolor

The Continuing Story of the Blues in the 21st Century

30 Years Pioneering Latin Music

DJ Lubi (aka Lubi Jovanovic) is one of the UK's top soul/funk/latin music DJs and promoters and is celebrating 30 years in the game this year! From his Bradford roots spinning jazz/funk/soul music at Bradford Universities’ Subway Bar and Checkpoint West Indian Centre in 1982, he single-handedly started the Latin music scene in Yorkshire. As part of the DIG! Family, he was instrumental in putting Leeds on the map during the acid jazz era, bringing such names as Gilles Peterson and Mr Scruff to the city for the first time as well as promoting hundreds of top flight gigs at venues such as the Underground and the Wardrobe ….. Roy Ayers, Maceo Parker, Eddie Palmieri, The Blackbyrds, James Taylor Quartet, Carleen Anderson & Bobby Byrd to name a few. He has produced 40 compilations of Latin music for half a dozen labels and spent 10 years writing for world renowned global jazz/ roots magazine Straight No Chaser. Today, he still plays across the UK and Europe and this March drops his 40th compilation CD, "Beginners Guide To Salsa Vol. 4, a series which has sold over 100,000 copies since it hit the scene in 2003.

In the 30 years between 1930 and 1960 the Blues evolved and changed almost out of all recognition, from Son House to Muddy Waters, but from a distance we can see that it was the same music. Now, in the 21st century we can see that it’s evolving again - it can be hard sometimes to see where it is as the form keeps changing and evolving and growing, and the music is played in different places. The music from the 21st century that has the same function and feel as Blues may not necessarily be called Blues - but when you find it, you know it. You feel it, it makes sense, and it’s right. DJ Champion’s thundering electro-digital ring-shout ‘No Heaven’ is no less apocalyptic in tone and execution than the howling 1930s Son House tune it takes its title and lyrics from, and is found buried in the 2010 console game ‘Borderlands,’ as well as in dark, tiny clubs full of people pressed together in city centres, high on cheap spirits. The Blues is alive. 40 year old people don’t look or sound the same as they did on the day they were born or when they were 5, 10 or fifteen years old. But it’s the same person, they just become more sophisticated and go to different places, do different things, wear different clothes and speak a different language. The Blues is like that - it evolves and grows and flows onward to new shores. The Blues is a changing thing: it’s not immediately obvious where it is or what it is. Think about Adele - “Rolling in the Deep” is Blues straight and simple and that’s international, it’s everywhere. Think of Seasick Steve - he packs out festivals all over the world. Look at Jack White, that’s BLUES he’s playing in front of 20,000 people with a drummer for company, just like T-Model Ford or R.L. Burnside - that’s a song from 1941 he’s singing when he opens up with “John The Revelator.” In every city there are groups of people - black and white, young and old - are going along to 40s & 50s nights and burlesque evenings and the Blues is alive and its heart is beating, right there. People get up and dance to it and participate in it so it’s a very intimate, organic, intense and loud affair. You can go to Leeds or Sheffield or Manchester and it’s all going on - acoustic and electric, in the heart of communities and at festivals of all sizes - slightly disrespectful, slightly frightening and slightly crazy, there’s the Blues shaking its head, stamping on a stage and raising Cain around the best-looking, most naked and most dangerous women in the house. The Blues are alive and well and living in a venue near you: rumours of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

30 years on, he is still doing what he loves doing the most and doing it at the top level; playing and promoting live music.

Andrew Kniveton

Tom Attah and DJ Lubi will be performing live at the premiere HowDo Presents: Worldwide Rythmn & Blues @ the Balanga Basement Cafe Bar Thursday 29th March - 8pm til 1am £3 on the door

By Tom Attah

Tom Attah is a performing Blues musician who has appeared all over the UK, including Glastonbury 2011 and Blues Autor Du Zinc in France. His EP “The Living Bluesman” is available now. You can find Tom at www.tomattah.com, through MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

43