NAT RIDDLES
Malauradament tornem a parlar-vos d´un altre music que ja no está entre nosaltres, l´harmonicista Nat Riddles (nascut a Nova York 4 febrer 1952 a 1911 agost de 1991) era conegut en els cercles de blues de Nova York per les seves actuacions al carrer amb el guitarrista Charlie Hilbert en el duo "El Cafe del carrer". , Gaudir de cert éxit a la época compresa entre finals dels 70's mitjants dels 80's.Va ser un poeta de forma lliure en les paraules i en la música. Va morir de leucèmia el 1991, i no hi ha material d'arxiu conegut del que es realitza al carrer. Un àlbum d'actuacions en directe amb Hilbert va ser llançat pòstumament, el 2007.
This cut is from "The Art of Nat Riddles," with Andy Story and Charlie Hilbert on guitars. (Spivey Records, LP-1039). Engineered and produced by Len Kunstadt. A great blues/jazz historian and a very good man.
Nat Riddles (4 February 1952 – 11 August 1991 was a blues harmonica player who played an important role in the New York blues scene during the late 1970s to mid-1980s. Born in Bronxville, a Westchester County suburb of New York, he was educated at Brooklyn College and the Pratt Institute. In the early 1980s, he became known in New York blues circles for his street performances with guitarist Charlie Hilbert as part of a free-form duo that he labeled 'El Cafe Street.'
Riddles performed with Larry Johnson and Odetta as well as Hilbert. He recorded several albums with Johnson (one produced by Len Kunstadt for Spivey Records, one produced by Horst Lippmann) and a solo album on Spivey entitled The Artistry of Nat Riddles. He also contributed several cuts to a Spivey series of LPs entitled New York Really has The Blues.
Riddles died of leukemia in August 1991 in Richmond, Virginia at the age of 39.
In 2007 the Modern Blues Harmonica record label issued a compilation album of Riddles, entitled El Cafe Street Live!
The late Nat Riddles, Bronx-born harmonica player who recorded with Larry Johnson, Odetta, and others, blows harp in a series of alternate takes for a Richmond, VA show entitled "Blues TV." Riddles, who died of leukemia in 1991, was at the center of the same East Village blues scene during the 1980s that produced The Holmes Brothers, Popa Chubby, Little Mike and the Tornadoes, Ron Sunshine, Joan Osborne, Blues Traveler, and The Spin Doctors. He regularly gigged and jammed at Dan Lynch and Nightingale and, on warm summer evenings, could be found working the streets around St. Mark's Place with various pickup combos referred to collectively as "El Cafe Street."
For a new double CD of Nat Riddles's street blues harmonica playing, please visit:
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