It’s a long standing part of every Jazz musician’s progression that they perform well known works by previous Jazz musicians. You’ll hear some wonderful reinterpretations as a result. That practice has spread to most other forms of music and probably gave birth to the tribute bands that provide music in so many pubs and clubs in the UK and elsewhere. Original musicians can’t be everywhere especially if they have moved on to the next level of consciousness and can no longer hold a guitar. So, we’re usually really pleased when their wonderful music is replicated reliably by a tribute band.
Sometimes, it’s not a straight copy. And we should be glad of that. Music should be about development and any song can be reinterpreted to show a new angle. The issue here is that a living original artist can find themselves being out of pocket. I hope that this is not case here as I look at a couple of alternative versions of one of the most popular tracks by British singer and rapper Estelle. I refer, of course, to her track American Boy.
Hands up time – I would not have even heard of Estelle unless something else drew her to my attention. That could have happened via my Good Lady or one of her friends or, as in this case, my Son. And even then it was via an indirect route. Alasdair introduced me to a young lady musician called Alice Ivy. So I listened… there was an interesting mix of songs of her own and I recommend tracking her down on YouTube to listen to things like ‘Howlin at the New Moon‘ and other tracks.
But in the mix was a live version of Estelle’s American Boy – Really very enjoyable…
…and very inclusive.
This was my introduction to Estelle but unfortunately the original wasn’t doing it for me and I searched other versions. That turned up a Texas lady playing in a traditional style with her band that I really enjoyed – I give you Carbon Lily…
I love both these interpretations – I think they stand above the original but without that original they wouldn’t exist, so credit where credit is due.
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