RIP Paul deLay
LaserWolf
Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/03/paul_delay_local_blues_legend.html Paul deLay, the larger-than-life Portland bluesman who redefined the harmonica and its musical potential, died this morning at Providence Portland Medical Center from end-stage leukemia diagnosed just days before. He was 55."He was the most inventive harmonica player in the history of the planet," says John Mazzocco, who played bass with deLay for several years in the 1990s. "He was gifted -- he had incredible tone, but more important, he could look at things differently than any other harmonica player. He was the best in the world.""He was the best harmonica player in the blues world," says bassist Jimmy Lloyd Rea, from Baker City. "His big body -- mind, heart and soul -- was in every note he ever played."DeLay recorded a dozen albums in his four-decade career, won several music awards and was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award. He and his band toured constantly, and his last show was just last Saturday -- a benefit show at Klamath Fall's Ross Ragland Theater."What amazes me is the energy he brought to the show," says guitarist Pete Dammann, who played in deLay's bands for the past two decades. "He wasn't pirouetting onstage, but he was joking and yakking with the crowd, and he played hard. We did two long sets, and nobody had any idea anything like this was going on."Neither did deLay. After that show, Dammann says, deLay felt under the weather, presumably from bronchitis he'd suffered on the band's recent jaunt to Mexico for several benefit shows. But doctors found that deLay was suffering from leukemia so advanced that his organs began shutting down and he lapsed into a coma from which he apparently never recovered.Paul Joseph deLay was born Jan. 31, 1952 in Portland, where he lived all his life. In the early 1970, he and then-drummer Lloyd Jones and guitarist Jim Mesi formed an electric blues band called Brown Sugar and played to eager crowds up and down the West Coast. They laid the foundation for Portland's reputation as one of the country's great blues towns.Nineteen seventy-six saw the formation of the Paul deLay Blues Band, which toured hard for more than a decade. At the same time, deLay suffered from alcohol and cocaine problems. In January of 1990, deLay was busted for cocaine trafficking and eventually served time in the federal prison in Sheridan. But before that sentence, deLay cleaned up and started writing and recording his own music with a new band.While deLay was in prison, his band played on as the No Delay Band, and it was waiting when he got out. They went on to record ground-breaking albums such as "Ocean of Tears" and "Nice and Strong," and Evidence Records released his two post-bust albums -- evidence that whoever said there are no second acts to American lives had never heard of Paul deLay.http://youtube.com/watch?v=TsvMy7zlbOE
Comments
RIP
I could only find the one thing on youtube. The only instance I know of him singing a soul tune with a big band.
When both Paul and I were young men I would see weekly at Sak's Front Ave. I remember one night when his band traded sets with young Robert Cray's band. In those days Cray had a singing harmonica player named Curtis Salagado in his band. Made for an exciting night of blues.
Back then Paul didn't talk much on stage. When he did his mumble was hard to understand. I do remember one night him saying "She dared me to run naked down Broadway, she shouldn't aoughta done that.
Back then his band was lead by his mentor Jim Misi who was a flashy guitarist. Dave Stewart played the hammond b3 in the group. Later Peter Damman took over as guitarist and band leader. Peter was a more mature understated guitarist.
In the early 90's Howlin Wolf's guitarists Hubert Sumlin joined the delay band for a year or 2. Sorry I never saw any of those shows.
For decades the deLay band was a bar band with talent doing mostly covers. When he was busted for cocaine trafficing he got clean and serious about his music. He started writing. Before he went off to Federal Prison he released 2 cds of great music. In prison he had a band called American Standard, but his guitarists kept getting paroled.
I saw him a few times after the prison years. In some ways he was at his best. But he was so overwieght that his energy and his ability to sing and blow was limited.
A highlight in those later years was the times he joined Geoff Muldar and Fritz Richmond in a more acoustic setting.
The 2 cds, Paulzila and The Other One are his best. There are a slew of lps from the 80's and maybe even the 70s that worth a listen.
Didn't he tour every now and then? I know he recorded at least one CD with Chicago musicians.
I never saw him live, but I've got two of his Evidence CD's...can't remember the titles without looking over on the shelf (too tired!), but one was his first album after getting out of jail, and other was a straight reissue of two earlier albums (less a song or two that couldn't fit on a 70-minute CD). As a harmonica player myself, I was blown away. DeLay didn't play in the Little Walter style that most blues harpists take off from - he was actually closer to Stevie Wonder, believe it or not. An almost jazzy style that still seemed to fit with his bluesy compositions.
I used to see ads for his albums in blues magazines, and just going by the covers I naively figured, "ok, here's another jivey Vaughan Brothers wannabe." Then I received those two Evidence CD's in my mailbox at a magazine I used to write for, and immediately I knew different. DeLay was a hell of a singer, was an original harmonicist, and was an incredible songwriter as well. As much as me and Laser Wolf have bemoaned all the bullshit that has passed itself off as blues in the last 20 years, that's saying something.
My fave DeLay performance: Kid Ramos'"Say What You Mean, Baby," a 50's-styled Hank Ballard-ish R&B number that featured DeLay guesting on vocals.
I think those just may be the ones I have on that Evidence twofer. If so, I also recommend them.
I think those just may be the ones I have on that Evidence twofer. If so, I also recommend them.
Not sure about the lp with Chicago musicians. He did tour. The I5 coriddor non-stop, and the rest of the country.
His harp playing was very melodic and very original. In the obit Peter Dammon says he never settled for a cliche. I was always bemoaning the fact that his band had no one who could push him melodically. Local jazz musicians are always sitting in with Cray and Salgado and Norman Sylvester but I never saw them play with deLay. I think a local cat like Thara Memory or Dan Balmer could have challenged him to go to even great melodic hights.
I just heard Jon Mayer interviewed on the radio. Like many soulful or blues singers his singing voice was affected. I mean it bore no resemblence to his spoken voice. Pauls singing voice was the same as his speaking voice, very natural.
The video I linked to was a (local) celeberty big band tribute to Ray Charles and is not reflective of what he did with his band. It does give you a taste of his style. I can't find any vids of his band.
Pickwick are you in Chicago? I bet you could go down to the Jazz Mart and find some of his early records for under $6 bucks. Teasin is the one that the masters are lost.
It was called something like DeLay Does Chicago and featured my good friend Rockin' Johnny on guitar. (Johnny had three albums of his own, and two of them were on Delmark.)
That is odd. DeLay wasn't the typical lump-lump shuffle guy.
DeLay wasn't the first white blues guy who sang like he was gargling Drano, but you're right, he didn't have to strain to sound earthy. Several of his songs had some kind of spoken adlib somewhere - "Chalk & Roll" has him basically talking in rhythm (NOT rapping!) - and you could easily imagine him talking that-a-way in general conversation.
Yes, I live in Chicago, and no, I've never seen any of his '80s vinyl, apart from ads in old issues of Living Blues. Of course the CD's are easy to locate, but definitely not anything before that. Weird, since the used blues LP section at Jazz Record Mart and other places are filled with regional bands from the '80s who had an album or three (and the bands all either dress in zoot suits or in biker gear!). Even so, I've never seen the DeLay elpees.
Send me your address, I'll try to drop a couple in the mail. The record with Chalk and Roll is The Other One I think and that is the way he talked. He used some old fashioned mic to play the harp threw and when he was going for a more 50s Chicago vocal sound he would sing through it. Maybe he was singing through his amp when he did that. I'm not a gear head.