WASHINGTON PHILLIPS

   Dentro del Holy Blues, ( Blues religioso ) , dentro de lo que es la tradición Gospel destacamos a uno de sus pioneros   WASHINGTON PHILLIPS promocionado en su momento por la discográfica COLUMBIA, como cantate de gospel básicamente aunque ocasionalmente también se dedicó al Blues. 

 La víspera del día en que Blind Willie Johnson inciió su debut en la grabación ( 3 de diciembre de 1927 ), otro destacado artista de música religiosa efectuaba también su primera grabación gracias al mismo viaje de selección que efectuó la Columbia a Dallas. Washington Phillips cantaba con una  voz dulce que carecía de la justificada rabia de Johnson ( Blind Willie ) , y la extraña dulcimela ( llamada dulceola o dolceola ) que tocaba producía una música matizada por una inocente cualidad etérea, bastante diferente de la rugosa terrenalidad de Johnson. Pero como Johnson, Phillips utilizaba el medio discográfico para hacer comentarios sobre su mundo, sobre todo que afectara a las cualidades morales de sus creyentes. Enumeraba muchas de las ausentes en The Church Needs Good Deacons,que iba dirigida a los diáconos lascivos ( All that of them is fittin' for /Is to round at night : Para todo lo que están capacitados algunos de ellos , es para salir de noche ) .Lo que aún era peor a los ojos de Phillips era la escición de los cristianos en sectas rivales creyendo cada una que sus elegidos serían los únicos habitantes del cielo.                                                                                

                                                                                                       
               


                                                                                                     
                               

Washington Phillips was a pioneering gospel performer in the 1920s. Born January 11, 1880 in Texas, Phillips recorded sixteen songs, some of which amount to highly specific and detailed gospel sermons. The songs were recorded between 1927 and 1929 and feature Phillips' voice self-accompanied by an instrument that sounds like a fretless zither. This instrument, which has been variously identified as a Dolceola, a Celestophone, and a Phonoharp (and also is considered by some to be an instrument entirely home-made by Phillips) creates a unique sound on these recordings that makes them immediately recognizable. Phillips died September 20, 1954 in Teague, Texas, at the age of 74.

             

George Washington "Wash" Phillips (January 11, 1880–September 20, 1954) was an American gospel and gospel blues singer and instrumentalist. The exact nature of the instrument or instruments he played is uncertain, being identified only as "novelty accompaniment" on the labels of the 78rpm records released during his lifetime.

He was born in Freestone County, Texas on January 11, 1880, the son of Tim Phillips (from Mississippi) and Nancy Phillips (née Cooper, from Texas).

People who knew him as an adult recalled him as standing about 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) or 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) tall, and being "stocky" or about 180 lb (82 kg); and that he was a snuff-dipper. He farmed 30–40 acres (12–16 ha) of land by the settlement of Simsboro near Teague, Texas. He was described as a "jack-leg preacher" – i.e. someone not necessarily an ordained minister, who would attend regular services at churches hoping for an opportunity to preach, but who would more often address spontaneous gatherings in the street, or set up their own storefront churches.He was a member of Pleasant Hill Trinity Baptist Church in Simsboro, but is also known to have attended the "sanctified" St. Paul Church of God In Christ, and the St. James Methodist Church, Teague. His song "Denomination Blues" criticizes sectarianism in organized religion and hypocritical preachers. His uncomplicated and sincere faith is summarised in the last two lines of that song:

It's right to stand together, it's wrong to stand apart,

'Cause none's going to heaven but the pure in heart. And that's all.

In 1927–29, he recorded 18 songs for Columbia Records in a makeshift recording studio in Dallas, Texas, under the direction of Frank B. Walker. Six of those songs were the first and second parts of three two-part songs, intended for opposite sides of one record. Four songs were unreleased at the time, and two are thought to have been lost.

On September 20, 1954, he died of head injuries sustained in a fall down a flight of stairs at the welfare office in Teague. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Cotton Gin Cemetery, six miles west of Teague. His wife Marie outlived him.

Some sources give his birthdate as c. 1892 and/or his date and place of death as December, 1938 in Austin State Hospital. Research has shown that that was a different Washington Phillips, the son of Houston Phillips and Emma Phillips (née Titus); he too farmed near Teague.

Some sources (notably, some AllMusic entries) refer to him as "Blind Washington Phillips". There is no suggestion in better sources that he had anything less than perfect sight.

A photograph in the Louisiana Weekly of January 14, 1928 shows Phillips holding two fretless zither-like instruments. That date lies between the second and third of his five recording sessions. The instrument in his right hand has been identified as a Celestaphone and that in his left as a Phonoharp, both manufactured by the Phonoharp Company; in both cases with the hammer attachment missing (the instruments as sold were a type of hammered dulcimer)

In the 1960s, Frank B. Walker identified Phillips' instrument to musicologist and author Paul Oliver as a "dulceola", saying that "nobody else on earth could use it except him". Before a recording session, Phillips would spend half an hour or more assembling it. It has often been assumed that Walker meant a dolceola, but that cannot be so: the dolceola was manufactured, sold, and recorded commercially, and did not need assembly before use. It seems more likely that the name "dulceola" was coined specifically for unusual instruments made by Phillips himself from broken discarded ones.

The aural evidence suggests Phillips strummed and plucked the strings of his instrument, and did not hammer them. Some listeners have claimed to discern differences between the instruments he used in different songs.