The Music of Bessie Smith by Fred Sokolow DVD. In the 1920s and 30s, Bessie Smith was the empress of the blues. Her passionate singing and performing style and her songwriting influenced all the blues and jazz singers that followed. Many of the songs she popularized, both blues and tin pan alley tunes, have become standards in blues, jazz, rock and pop music. Songs in this collection have been recorded by artists as diverse as Eric Clapton, Leadbelly, Billie Holiday, Chet Atkins, Bing Crosby, David Lee Roth, Big Bill Broonzy, B. B. King and Sam Cooke. They're great tunes for guitar pickers, and Fred shows you how to back yourself up singing them and how to fingerpick instrumental versions of six classics. With his explanations of the arrangements, split-screen, slowed-down versions of the songs, and with the tab and music in the PDF booklet on the DVD, youll learn how to play St. Louis Blues, Nobody Knows You When Youre Down and Out, Backwater Blues, After Youve Gone, I Aint Got Nobody and the sensational Send Me To the Electric Chair. The songs sound terrific on guitar, and with Freds instruction, the arrangements are easy to follow. A 1920s film of Bessie Smith singing St. Louis Blues is featured at the end of the lesson.
An easy going style and a nice voice contributes to the already professional video work (great close ups, split screens, etc) to make for excellent lessons. What makes this special is the fun of the songs.
Recently, Sokolow released "Bawdy Songs" (from the 20's and 30's) with all but one being tasteful and fun (one is not subtle and not one to play around children) and it was from this excellent DVD that he mentioned the songs of Bessie Smith, causing me to purchase this one afterwards.
The two go perfectly together.
The songs are fun to play, Intermediate level (late beginner for "Bawdy") and a blast to learn. "I Ain't Got Nobody" sounds great to play without singing, and Fred moves slow enough for the late beginner, but gives plenty of extras for the Intermediate.
Like "Bawdy", learning "Electric Chair" is as much fun as "She's Your Cook, but She Burns My Bread Sometimes" and has a way of catching an audience's attention, and the lessons provide months of solid instruction for the learner.
These two DVDs contain funny and clever songs, with great bluesy sounds and are perfect for solo acoustic or for bands.
Language: English
Year: 2011
Running time: 98 min
Quality: DVD5
Video: MPG2, 720x480, 30.0fps
Audio: AC-3, 256.0kbps, 48.0kHz 32bit, 2 ch
Booklet: Yes (PDF)
Size: 3.61 Gb
Fred Sokolow - The Music of Bessie Smith
I know about this problem. I've already contacted admin about it. He said that it's because of Google Search that integrated into the site. Google doesn't want to show some relevant search results. He will make another search option.
Thanks again, Gardy. I noticed that some items don't come up in searches. For example I couldn't get the Bawdy Blues to come up, although the Bessie Smith did.
That's why I was wondering if you had posted the John Miller DVDs of Mississippi John Hurt style guitar. I also noticed that there were two Fred Sokolow Jazz Standards for guitar DVDs posted but when I searched for them I found only Jazz Standards for Beginners. I could not find the other one, though it had appeared in the search a month earlier.
Again, I can't thank you enough for helping get all this music instruction out to people.
Yes, Gardy. MANY THANKS!!!!
Are you talking about this one?
http://faststrings.com/fred-sokolow-bawdy-blues-fingerstyle-guitar.html
Could you please re-list Sokolow's "Bawdy Blues" DVD? I'm missing the sixth part of the download.
Many thanks.