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Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 19:30:14 +0200
From: "Luca R."
Subject: Sugar Blue TB everything? Really?

Hi everybody.
Starting from the end, this is the question:
are you really sure that Sugar Blue has always (ok, when he's playing) his
tongue on the comb, even when he's playing his superfast licks? Glenn W. in
his book mentions an interview where SB said he TB everything. I don't
know... these players say a lot of thing, will be true?
The question, using different words, is: is there a threshold value on the
metronome after which I must shift to pucker-only to be able to keep that
high speed? Or TB and speed can live together?

I see him last week in a wonderful concert (Castel San Pietro / Italy, with
Pinetop Perkins (89 the next July, 5th), E.Taylor Jr, Bob Stroger and Willie
Smith) where he plays also some beautiful acoustic stuff, where it was
strange for me to imagine a TB-approach. But even more on the electrified
superfast things, I was saying to myself "if this is TB, I have to review my
technique".

BTW, it was a little sad ((IMHO)^2) to hear the crowd ovations when he
holded the turbo-boost button in his mind to get that superfast licks.
Well, that's just me, and maybe it's equally sad that I've decided to
transcribe 24 bars grabbed with the tape recorder, just to wring an applause
at the next gigs...

[ FJM wrote
> I play holding right, cupping left but with
> numbers up.
SB too. Maybe 'cause he's on the high end 60% of the time]

[SB didn't come back on the stage to play two tunes as encore, so "Big Eyes"
Smith left the sticks
to another guy, took out an A harp, and played LW's Juke note-for-note, with
a surprising TBing *FAT* tone directly in the vocal mic cupped in his hands.
Wow! Many thanks Willie!]