HENRY MANX
El hombre de blues "Mysticssippi", Harry Manx, ha sido llamado un "vínculo esencial" entre la música de Oriente y Occidente, creando cuentos musicales que unen la tradición del blues con la profundidad de las ragas indias clásicas. Ha creado un sonido único que es difícil de olvidar y deliciosamente adictivo para escuchar.
Harry forjó su estilo distintivo al estudiar a los pies de los maestros, primero como un hombre de sonido en los clubes de blues de Toronto durante sus años de formación y luego bajo una rigurosa tutela con Vishwa Mohan Bhatt en India. Bhatt es el inventor del Mohan Veena de 20 cuerdas, que se ha convertido en el instrumento característico de Harry.
Harry tocó la guitarra deslizante durante muchos años antes de conocer a Bhatt en Rajasthan, de hecho, ya había estado viviendo en otra parte de la India durante muchos años, pero comenzó al principio bajo la tutela de Bhatt, desaprendiendo la mayor parte de lo que sabía sobre tocar un instrumento de diapositiva. . Aprendió escalas orientales y, finalmente, ragas, patrones musicales engañosamente complejos y regimentados que forman la base de la composición india. Aprender las voces de la música india es un arte sutil que viene con el tiempo. Harry pasó la mayor parte de doce años en India aprendiendo eso. Más tarde, Harry decidió explorar la conexión entre las ragas indias y las escalas de blues que finalmente condujeron al híbrido Indo-blues que se ha convertido en su estilo.
Nacido en la Isla de Man, Manx emigró a Ontario con sus padres cuando era niño. Comenzó a trabajar con bandas como 'roadie' a los 15 años y gradualmente se abrió camino hasta convertirse en el hombre de sonido habitual en el conocido club El Mocambo (blues) en Toronto. Allí trabajó con una gran cantidad de leyendas del blues. Harry admite que el blues todavía está en el corazón de gran parte de su trabajo. "Siempre he tenido un pie en el blues de esos días ... lo que obtuve de esos artistas es un ritmo. Eso es lo que me interesa particularmente es el ritmo, y esa es la forma en que toco blues ”. "Fui a Europa cuando tenía 20 años y comencé a ganar dinero como músico callejero", recuerda Manx. “He trabajado principalmente como músico desde entonces, aunque trabajé en teatro durante un tiempo. Fui una banda de un solo hombre con batería y platillos por un tiempo también. Fue realmente muy divertido "
El tiempo de Manx en India ha imbuido su música con una cualidad espiritual intangible. "La canción revela quién eres, es el vehículo para tu mensaje, tus ideas inspiradoras o tu historia", explicó Manx. “Como muchas personas, estoy interesado en mi propio desarrollo como persona y eso está representado en mis canciones, estoy buscando la verdad a través del arte y la espiritualidad. Mis canciones son una síntesis de todo lo que he absorbido, todas mis experiencias y lo comparto. Me alegra que signifique algo para la gente ".
"La música india mueve a una persona hacia adentro", explica. “Se usa tradicionalmente en ceremonias religiosas y durante las meditaciones porque te lleva a este lugar completamente diferente (ahora, aquí). Pero la música occidental tiene la capacidad de llevarte hacia afuera, hacia la celebración y el baile. Hay algunos ragas que suenan a blues, y hay formas de doblar cuerdas mientras se toca blues que suenan indios. Puede que esté forzando la relación entre las dos culturas musicales, pero sigo pensando que se hicieron el uno para el otro. Eso me lleva a más y más experimentación. El viaje ha sido genial hasta ahora ". Manx es un artista prolífico, lanzando 12 álbumes en un lapso de 12 años sin signos de detenerse. Ha recibido siete Premios Maple Blues, seis nominaciones a Juno, el Premio Canadiense de Música Folk en 2005 al Mejor Artista Solista y ganó el "Gran Premio Blues Canadiense" de CBC Radio en 2007.
Su lanzamiento original más reciente, "Om Suite Ohm", fue votado por el diario La Presse de Montreal como uno de los únicos 4 CD que se deben ver en 2013. La revista Guitar Player lo llamó "su trabajo más completo hasta la fecha". Mezcla melodías folklóricas indias con blues de guitarra de diapositivas, agrega un toque de gospel y agrega algunos ritmos convincentes. Es una receta que se vuelve fácil y te deja con hambre de más.
Harry Manx (born 1955) is a Canadian musician who blends blues, folk music, and Hindustani classical music. His official website describes his music as being a "blend Indian folk melodies with slide guitar blues, add a sprinkle of gospel and some compelling grooves and you'll get Manx's unique "mysticssippi" flavour." Manx plays the slide guitar, harmonica, six-string banjo, mohan veena and Ellis stomp box. He studied for five years in India with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. Bhatt is the inventor of the 20-stringed mohan veena, which has become Manx's signature instrument. He has released twelve albums in twelve years, and has his own record label Dog My Cats Records. He has received much recognition and many awards, including: seven Maple Blues Awards, six Juno nominations, the Canadian Folk Music Award in 2005 for Best Solo Artist, and CBC Radio’s "Great Canadian Blues Award" in 2007.
Manx was a nominee in the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards for his cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire".
Manx is a longtime collaborator with Canadian guitarist Kevin Breit and Australian keyboardist Clayton Doley.
Early years: Canada and Europe
Manx was born in 1955 in Douglas on the Isle of Man. His family moved to Ontario, Canada, when he was six years old. He started working with bands as a "roadie" at age 15 and gradually worked his way up to becoming the regular sound man at the well-known El Mocambo (blues) club in Toronto. He left Toronto in the late 1970s, when he was 20, to return to Europe and started making money as a busker and also found work at festivals as a blues lapslide guitarist and songwriter. He then moved to Japan, where he lived and performed for 10 years.
Japan and India
In 1990, while Manx was in Japan, he heard a recording of the Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. When Manx met Bhatt for the first time in Rajasthan, he had been living in another part of India for years. He became a student of Bhatt's and remained with him for five years. They travelled together in India and performed for large audiences.
Canada
In 2000, Manx moved back to Canada and set up residence in Saltspring Island, British Columbia and recorded his first Canadian album at the Barn Studios. This debut recording features 14 tracks of his one-man-band sound on the lap slide guitar, the Mohan Veena, the harmonica and vocals.
Family
Manx has a wife, Najma Manx, and together they have one son, Hector Oswald Manx. In a 2002 interview, in their house on Saltspring Island, Manx talked about the stresses of leaving his wife and son when on touring. "This guy here, he doesn’t care who I’m opening for," Harry said. "He just wants me home once in a while. It gets tough sometimes. We need to keep that connection all the time. We talk on the phone every day. You should see our phone bill."
Style
Manx's musical style has been called an "essential musical link" between the East and the West. His songs are "short stories that use the essence of the blues and the depth of Indian ragas to draw you in".
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Harry forged this distinctive style by studying at the feet of the masters, first as a sound man in the blues clubs of Toronto during his formative years and then under a rigorous five-year tutelage with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt in India. Bhatt is the inventor of the 20-stringed Mohan Veena, which has become Harry’s signature instrument.
Even though he had played slide guitar for many years before arriving in India, he started back at the beginning under Bhatt’s tutelage, even re-learning how to hold the bar. From there, Manx learned Eastern scales and eventually ragas, deceptively complex and regimented musical patterns that form the basis of Indian composition.
He spent three to four hours each morning practicing in Bhatt’s home before returning that evening for a jam session with the tutor, his sons and various other fellow musicians. “Sometimes I’d throw in some blues licks in the middle,” he says, “and everyone would fall over laughing and enjoying themselves. And I thought if I can get Indian people to enjoy Western music like that, then maybe I could get Westerners to enjoy Indian music, too.” Harry decided to explore this thread of connection between the two musical traditions.
His signature style follows in the footsteps of such pioneering work as that of Joe Harriott and John Mayer and their Indo-Jazz Fusions in the 60s, John McLaughlin’s work with Shakti in the 70s, and Ashwan Batish’s innovative Sitar Power debut in 1987. Manx’s Indo-blues hybrid seems destined to be the most universally appealing yet.
Born on the Isle of Man, Manx immigrated to Ontario with his parents when he was six years old. He started doing sound at age 15 and gradually worked his way up to becoming a regular sound man at the well-known El Mocambo club in Toronto, where he worked with a slew of blues legends. While Manx doesn’t consider himself to be a blues artist per se, he does admit that blues is at the heart of much of his work. “I’ve always had one foot in the blues from those days … what I got from those artists is a groove that’s fairly similar to theirs. That’s what I’m particularly interested in … the groove, and that’s the way I play blues today”
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