blues missing link

Subject: blues missing link
From: GUEST,guest mick
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 08:47 AM

I heard some time ago that there was speculation about a missing link in the history of the blues- a figure of the status of ,say, Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters - who had been hugely influential but never recorded and whose name had been lost. Does anyone know anything about this ?

Subject: RE: blues missing link
From: PoppaGator
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 09:01 AM

Probably more than one individual would fit that description -- very many more than one, indeed.

The blues didn't spring up out of nowhere when recoding technology first reached the rural South. It developed from a gradual cross-fertilization, or mutual influence, or merger, of African vocal and drum music on the one hand and western song and instruments on the other.

We'll never know the names and stories of the individuals who gradually built this folk tradition over several generations.

Subject: RE: blues missing link
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 09:35 AM

I think the amazing thing is that so many blues artists were recorded at all, thanks to the blues craze, a couple of producers, and Alan Lomax.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: blues missing link
From: freda underhill
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 09:56 AM

Robert Johnson idolised Lonnie Johnson and sometimes introduced himself to newcomers as "Robert Lonnie, one of the Johnson brothers. His biggest influence was said to be from an unrecorded bluesman named Ike Zinneman. After a year or so learning from Zinneman, Johnson had acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of his instrument, an ability to sing and play in a multiplicity of styles, and a very carefully worked-out approach to song construction, keeping his original lyrics with him in a personal digest. No recording of Zinneman's work is available, so he may be your man!

Subject: RE: blues missing link
From: freda underhill
Date: 13 Jan 04 - 09:37 AM

..surname also spelt zinnerman.

you can find a photo of him at

http://lion.zero.ad.jp/~zau70206/z-r1103rj-devil-1c.html

Subject: RE: blues missing link
From: GUEST,guest mick
Date: 13 Jan 04 - 10:42 AM

Thanks Freda ,will check link out ..........mick