blues duos of piano + one other instrument

[Leroy C]

TL;DR: Can you recommend any good duos consisting of piano and another instrument, in the blues genre (broadly construed is fine), other than the following (of which I obviously already know):

 

Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell

Charlie Spand & Blind Blake

Big Maceo Merriweather & Tampa Red

Peetie Wheatstraw & Kokomo Arnold

Memphis Slim & Michel Denis

 

Context: I'm an aspiring blues pianist; my spouse plays percussion (drums and mallets). I'm looking for some good inspiration for the two of us to do our own little duo thing.  The other instrument can be a melodic and/or chordal instrument (great inspiration for her mallet playing) or straight-up drums / percussion (set or auxiliary).  One or both members singing is cool, as is purely instrumental.  I will allow recommendations (so magnanimous of me!   ) of more than two if you think there's something about them that naturally fits what we're up to (e.g., three people, where one sings, one plays piano, one plays guitar).  

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

[JamPro]

Go for it.  For three years, I did a successfully blues duo with a harmonica player - keys and harmonic, and both of us singing.  We got a lot of gigs.  And as a duo, we could fit into pretty much any room, there was just two of us so we made more money than larger groups, because there was just two of us we could play nice and quiet for those restaurants that want that, and we had minimal load in/load out times.  Because the harmonica player couldn't really play bass or rhythm, I got to decide style and tempo for every song: I could play just about anything and the harmonica player would simply follow along.  We even did versions of "Ain't Misbehavin' and Cantaloupe Island", so really the sky's the limit.

 

Just start playing together - you will figure out the rest as you go along.

[Adan]

I don't have any recommendations, but I'm definitely going to check out your list.  Just the names alone have got me in a bluesy mood! (in a good way)

 

Piano and drum duo?  Hmmm, kinda hard for me to imagine drums without bass or a keyboard player playing bass patches.  Seems like if it's pure piano the drummer wouldn't have enough bass to latch onto.  Mallets seems a much better fit.  But who knows . . . I've seen I've seen drums/sax duos playing on the street that were rippin'.

 

Love that you're going on a musical adventure with your spouse.  Have fun and remember, the wife is always right (even when she's not).

[SamuelBLupowitz]

4 minutes ago, Adan said:

Piano and drum duo?  Hmmm, kinda hard for me to imagine drums without bass or a keyboard player playing bass patches.  Seems like if it's pure piano the drummer wouldn't have enough bass to latch onto.  Mallets seems a much better fit.  But who knows . . . I've seen I've seen drums/sax duos playing on the street that were rippin'.

This falls outside the "blues" arena the majority of the time, I'd say, but my dear friend, let me introduce you to The Dresden Dolls. 

 

 

[drawback]

I’ve had a sax player duo and it’s lots of fun, especially that you can pretty much go anywhere without having to communicate alternate chords and changing arrangements on the fly as you would with guitars and basses. I love the idea of a brushes on snare/percussionist with a piano. I also think violin would be great. I recall seeing one on the show Treme that really opened my ears to that possibility.

[Montunoman 2]

No specific recommendations either, but I think every band should start as a duo and add other instruments as needed or opportunities arise. Strive for both you and her to sound  great together and then adding any other instruments will just be icing on the cake! 
 

Since you have no bass, my instincts would to as our member drawback recommended, brushes and maybe light hand drums like canon or shakers. I think that could make transitions to mallets more musically smooth. 
 

Not blues, but Elton John did shows with just a percussionist backing him up. I wish I remembered the percussionist’s  name, but he was very skilled on the tambourine, mallets, tympani, congas, cymbals, gong. Very animated player. Maybe that would be a good source of inspiration for you both?

 

Best wishes on your musical journey! 

[Leroy C]

JamPro: Thanks for the encouragement!  That’s the eventual goal, to play out in small, quiet venues.  The missus is up for it: she’s played since high school, has a strong jazz background, plays with brushes a lot, which really fits well with the piano.  I still need to get a lot better though!  I came to piano late, and blues even later, so I have some catching up to do …

 

Adan: Yah, the classic blues I listen to is often solo piano or piano with someone else, but not usually bass.  The barrelhouse and boogie woogie piano styles take care of the bass lines nicely with the left hand.  As far as piano and drums, definitely check out the Memphis Slim and Michel Denis combo.  That’s my ultimate goal!  It requires some different drumming that the usual blues band, rock, or jazz styles, and we’re still figuring that out.

 

SamuelBLupowitz: Thanks, I’ll check that out.  Even non-blues stuff could still be handy to help us think about arrangements.

 

Drawback: Yes, the brushes approach is really nice so far.  Since traditional blues piano left hand takes care of the “rhythm section” part, it frees her up to do a lot of nice brush work on snare, ride cymbal stuff, etc.

 

BTW, if anyone is interested, here’s a couple of videos of us.  It’s not the straight-up blues I’m aiming for, just a couple of 80s tunes that I made blues-ish arrangements of for fun.  (I was inspired by Larkin Poe’s blues arrangements of a bunch of 70s and 80s tunes on YouTube over the pandemic).  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

(BTW: Is there a way to include links without the automatic preview?  I hate to be obnoxious about it ... )

 

[D. Gauss]

keys and drums. top 10 hit.

 

 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

1 hour ago, Montunoman 2 said:

Not blues, but Elton John did shows with just a percussionist backing him up. I wish I remembered the percussionist’s  name, but he was very skilled on the tambourine, mallets, tympani, congas, cymbals, gong. Very animated player. Maybe that would be a good source of inspiration for you both?

You are thinking of the great Ray Cooper, who shakes a tambourine and whacks the congas with more intensity than I've maybe ever seen from a human being. Their duo shows are inspirational -- the perfect blend of the intimacy of Elton's solo performance and the fire he gets when another player is egging him on.

 

 

[Leroy C]

D, Gauss: Cool, thanks!  That’s actually pretty blusey, I like it.  Sounds like he’s got piano and organ overdubbed, but I could arrange something like that with split / dual voices on my DP. 

 

SamuelBLupowitz: Dig it!  Elton’s the man, no doubt.  Auxiliary percussion is somehow even better than set when paired with piano.

[Leroy C]

While I'm here, I'm going to:

 

a) make a recommendation to myself, and

b) break my own rules. 

 

For a modern take on my premise, everyone should check out Veronica Lewis, a very talented young new(ish)-comer:

 

 

Technically, there's some saxophone in there, but it doesn't really add a lot to the sound for me, and the song would be just as good with her vocals and piano accompanied by the drums.

[Al Quinn]

Warren Haynes and Danny Louis have a bunch of duo videos on YT.

 

 

[Leroy C]

Al Quinn: Great stuff, thanks! I'll definitely check out more of them.