Pablo casals4/10/2023 ![]() ![]() He had one minor hit with "Terraplane Blues," but his impact was largely regional and confined to the Delta. Johnson recorded again later that week, and then a final time in 1937 in Dallas. Two Originals Whose Stories Ended Differently The two hours of music put to wax that day, Elie says, "are as perfect a two hours of music as anyone has ever recorded." Robert Johnson had recorded eight different songs, with multiple takes of each one. 23, 1936, Pablo Casals had recorded two of Bach's cello suites. A language which is almost understandable word for word."īy the end of the day on Nov. ![]() "He's the one who made it into a language," Greenhouse says, "and that's what music is: a language which transcends all people and all parts of the world. He says that Casals was able to find something in the suites that no other musician had found before. But to Casals, they were music of the highest order.īernard Greenhouse (who also died this year, shortly after being interviewed) studied with Casals in Spain. Cellists considered them exercises, a way to learn to play the cello better. At that time, the suites weren't thought of as great works of music, or worthy of performance - they were too methodical, too logical, too cold. He'd discovered Bach's cello suites as a boy in Barcelona, in an old music store, and had been amazed that he had never heard of them before. It had the air of a hospital - technicians in white lab coats, the equipment stainless and polished.Ĭasals was 60 years old. Abbey Road was one of the most advanced studios in the world at the time. That same day, Pablo Casals walked into Abbey Road Studios in London. ![]() As author Paul Elie says, "In three minutes, Robert Johnson can sketch these incredible dramas of sin and redemption, struggle and loss, and you feel a world being drawn before your eyes." So he crafted his songs with tighter lyrics and narrative structure, and a greater sense of telling a story. Some earlier blues performers went into recording sessions and recorded a slice of a live performance meant to go on for 12 minutes - only to have the recording cut off partway through because they'd run out of wax.Īccording to Ainslie, Johnson had listened to a lot of 78s. His recordings were done on wax discs, three minutes per side. Johnson also knew how to put together a song. That expert playing - and the speed with which he developed his style - helped lay the groundwork for the later iconic myth: Johnson met the devil at the crossroads and sold his soul to play guitar. "He had mastered a way of playing that went far beyond what anyone else was doing in the Delta at that time. He tuned up his guitar and began to play. Johnson walked into the recording room and settled down, facing into a corner. "Johnson's session was sandwiched between a hillbilly band and a group of sisters who played Spanish guitar music," Ainslie says. Blues musician and writer Scott Ainslie lists them: "Gospel musicians, polka bands, string bands." The company had brought people from all over the country to record, and the range of artists in the hotel that day was startling. He had been brought there by Ernie Oertle, an executive with the American Record Company, which had refashioned a hotel room into a makeshift studio. "He was just a quiet man who played guitar."ħ5 years ago, Johnson walked into the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. Honeyboy Edwards, who died this year, not long after being interviewed for this story, says he first met Robert Johnson in those juke joints: "He wasn't famous then," Edwards says. But on that day, Pablo Casals and Robert Johnson each made recordings that would change music history. One was a cello prodigy who had performed for the queen of Spain the other was a guitar player in the juke joints of the Mississippi Delta. Two men, an ocean apart, each stepped up to a microphone and began to play. 23, 1936, was a good day for recorded music. ![]()
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