Interview with Blues guitarist Chris Beard. An interview by email in writing.

Dear readers, get to know more about our US/EU Jazz – Blues Festivals and the activities of our US/EU Jazz – Blues Association in the capitals of Europe, we will soon publish program for 2024, enjoy in the August – Brussels, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Sofia, new addreses this year, also in Amsterdam, Budapest.

Jazz Blues: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How exactly did your adventure take off? When did you realize that this was a passion you could make a living out of?

Chris Beard: – I grew up in Rochester, New York and I began playing guitar at age 5 in what came to be called the House of Blues, our house. The music playing in our house was the music of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy and Booker T. The first song that I played was Green Onions by Booker T. & the MGs. I developed my passion for the guitar as the guitar became my go-to for whatever I was going through at the time. As a bonus, it provided enjoyment.

Some 30 years ago, Ronnie Baker Brooks said to me…”Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make a living as a musician!” It can be hard and the road can be treacherous but playing the guitar and the nightlife that is involved, is my life…and I love it!!

OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Festivals 2023

JB: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?

CHB: – I started out learning traditional blues, geared toward guitar, listening to Luther Allison, Buddy Guy, Albert King and more. Then Motown came along and now I’m hearing a more R’nB, more rhythmic or funk guitar sound. Then guitarists like Johnny Guitar Watson became prominent. All of these sounds influence a young man. My new album has a variety of styles … traditional blues, contemporary blues …

JB: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?

CHB: – I regularly work the musical scales on my guitar. I listen to the work of other artists for education. I take vocal training lessons, always trying to improve my voice.

JB: – Have you changed through the years? Any charges or overall evolution? And if so why?

CHB: – I continue to be open-minded, broadening the base skills on guitar beyond traditional blues. I enjoy a mix of styles…traditional blues, contemporary blues, R’nB.

Why? It is what I like to play and hear. I like to excite an audience with different moods. Change is good, they say! I represent the past, the history, but I also want to move forward.

There could be talk or advertising about your CD

JB: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

CHB: – Musicians can study, go to school to perfect writing and reading music. But when it gets to communicating with audiences … if you put ‘intellect on the left side of the stage and ‘soul’ on the right side of the stage, I feel that ‘soul’ will win the day. You need a feeling to talk to other people’s ‘souls’.

JB: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emotion they long for?

CHB: – Oh, yeah. That is extremely important to me. Communicating with the audience is what I work for.

JB: – How can we get young people interested in jazz when most of standard tunes are half a century old?

CHB: – When a young person asks me to recommend blues players to listen to, I send them back to the masters…T-Bone Walker, Guitar Slim, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters. And the things that they sing about…got no money…my girl cheated on me…it’s all the blues. But those ideas/problems are still pretty much the same with the addition of what is going on in society at large, world politics or right in their own community. So the issues are expanding, but so has the style in which blues music is presented. New audiences get the best of both worlds.

JB: – John Coltrane once said that music was his spirit. How do you perceive the spirit and the meaning of life?

CHB: – Music is a spirit and it is universal. Music can get a message across when language may fail to do so. The meaning of life is about building a good life, then leaving a legacy, passing down your good works.

JB: – If you could change one single thing in the musical world and that would become reality, what would that be?

CHB: – My new reality would be a place where music could stand for itself with more appreciation for what music can do, with more opportunity to share music with everyone.

JB: – Whom do you find yourself listening to these days?

CHB: – Albert King, Buddy Guy, Christone Ingram, Eric Gale, Joe Bonnamassa. I follow guitar players, obviously, but also listen for the message in their music.

OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Association 2023

JB: – Let’s take a trip with a time machine: where and why would you really want to go?

CHB: – My time machine would take me to a session, sitting with Albert King and learning every lick that he knows, just soaking up the blues. Or, be in a room with BB King, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan and just talk about the blues. A bit of heaven.

JB: – So far, it’s been me asking you questions, now may I have a question from yourself…

CHB: – Do you enjoy artists such as myself?

JB: – No, never, you’re trash as well as the music you deliver!!!

 

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Interview by  Elléa Beauchêne