Ben Harper

Biography

Ben Harper starts to play of the guitar during her childhood in California and more especially of the acoustic guitar (called weissenborn, of the name of the German violin maker which manufactured the first at the beginning of the 20th century). In 1992, in company of a friend guitarist, Tom Freund, it records a first LP ( Pleasure and Pain ). This disc draws the attention of the producers, which leads it to sign a contract with Virgin Records to leave its first true album Welcome to the Cruel World which receives a very favorable reception.

It connects in 1995 with the album Fight for your Mind more mature and politically more committed. The general public really discovers it in 1997 after the exit of its third opus The Will to Live . It is also the revelation of the group which accompanies it: Innocent The Criminals , composed of Juan Nelson with low, Leon Mobley with the percussions and Oliver Charles with the battery whereas Ben Harper ensures the song and the guitar.

During the following years, Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals engage a world tour and many collaborations in particular with R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Radiohead or John Lee Hooker. Parallel to that, the members of the group change with the arrivals of Dean Butterworth with the battery and of David Leach with the percussions. 1999 sees the exit of Burn to Shine , of which the titles " Steal My Kisses" and " Suzie Blue" a great success meets. Little time after, the album live Live from Mars recorded at the time of the round with the group Dave Matthews Band receives a very good criticism.

Diamonds one the Inside , left in 2003, brings a musical diversification since Ben Harper approaches the Reggae and the Funk, with collaboration on two titles of Al Anderson and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. This disc marks also the return of the formation which recorded Fight for your Mind since Oliver Charles and Leon Mobley reintroduces the group and neither Dean Butterworth nor David Leach is present on this album. It is about the first album produced by Ben Harper whereas the four first were it by the friend of Ben, J.P Plunier. Oddly, whereas Innocent Criminals record an album with Ben Harper for the fourth time, they do not appear in the name of the album where only the name of Ben Harper appears, whereas they were it for the preceding album Burn to Shine . The exit of this album is followed of a world tour, at the time by which Innocent Criminals grow rich for the first time by a clavierist, Jason Yates, and of a second guitarist, Marc Ford, (former member of the Black Crowes) which succeeds Nicki P., which had appeared very briefly on scene with the group at the time of the concerts which preceded the round.

More recently, Ben Harper collaborated with The Blind Boys off Alabama to leave There Will Be has Light an album very directed towards the Gospel. This album leaves whereas Blind Boys already appeared some times on scene in the past with Ben Harper and Innocent Criminals to revisit some their songs in a style more gospel. In the beginning, the project consisted of a collaboration of Ben Harper and Innocent Criminals on certain songs of the future album of the Blind Boys off Alabama . But with the environment which emerged from this collaboration, they decided to record a complete album, under the name of Ben Harper. Once again this album is recorded with Innocent Criminals, but is enriched for the occasion by Blind Boys off Alabama who sings the harmonies.

The beginning of the round which follows the exit of There Will Be has Light is ensured by Marc Ford as a second guitarist, whereas Michael Ward (which recorded on certain titles with the group on There Will Be has Light ) ensures the second part of this round, in particular the round of summer 2005.

Ben Harper carried out three DVD: The first is documentary named Pleasure and Pain , same name as its first album carried out with Tom Freund. This documentary presents what is a round with Ben Harper and Innocent Criminals as well as the roots and a share of the philosophy of Ben Harper. The second DVD is live, Live At the Hollywood Bowl , the first live DVD of the group, carried out at the time of the round Diamonds one the Inside . The third live DVD and also album, Live At the Apollo , is recorded with the presence on scene of the Blind Boys off Alabama (in addition to Innocent Criminals). in Apollo Theater in Harlem in October 2005.

The family of Ben Harper also holds a store of music in the town of Ben Harper, Claremont, in California. Folk Music Center is also a museum of very famous musical instrument, and contains instruments of world origins as well as old string instruments. This store was created by the maternal grandparents of Ben Harper, Charles and Dorothy Chase, and are currently directed by his Ellen mother Drives out-Verdries. A scene of the DVD Pleasure and Pain is held inside this store.

Ben Harper married the December 23rd 2005 with the actress Laura Dern. It had two children with his wife: Ellery Walker, born on August 21st, 2001 and Jaya, born on November 28th, 2004.

Immediately after the nine months of round devoted to Both Sides off the Gun, Ben Harper and Innocent Criminals moved towards a Parisian studio, the Gang studio, to record Lifeline, in seven days, on a tape recorder of sixteen tracks Analogique.

Musical style

The style of Ben Harper is very related to her play of guitar. This last is based on sonorities of the guitars of mark Weissenborn and others Lap-steel and on the technique of slide . The guitar rests flat on the knees of the guitarist, cords to the top, and in fact any more the fingers make pressure on the cords, but a metal bar called Slide bar. Played in this way, the guitar acquires a its characteristic, the changes of note being carried out by slip, or " slide" , the variations are much more subtle than in the case of a standard technique. A similar sound can be obtained with the play with the Bottleneck that Ben Harper practices too. This technique of slide, inherited the Blues men of the Delta of the the Mississippi (and begun again by other white musicians as Ry Cooder) allied to a very particular voice poses the foundations of the " style Ben Harper".

The first albums of Ben Harper are thus based largely on acoustic recordings but Weissborn are sometimes electrified as on Ground One Down .

As of " The will to Live ", Ben Harper shows a great diversity in her play and the variety of musical environments of her pieces. This diversification is marked, for example, by a return to a play of guitar more " traditionnel" by which it pays homage to the Guitar hero be Rock years 1960-1970. For example, on a album EP, it takes again Voodoo Child Jimi Hendrix and in concert Whole Lotta Love Led Zeppelin.

Another important influence of Ben Harper is the Reggae. In addition to the many resumptions of Bob Marley that Innocent Criminals play on scene, Ben Harper recorded the piece " Coil Gonna Walk Out One Me" with legendary the Toots and the Maytals.

More recently, Ben Harper also played of other instruments in studio and round. One can thus hear it play of the Synthé-low on Bring The Funk , of which the sound evokes immediately George Clinton and more generally the Funk of groups like Sly and the Family Stone whose Ben Harper and Innocent Criminals began again on the scene of the Casino of Paris, the title Thankful Thoughtful .

In the film Standing in the Shadows off Motown , Ben Harper pays a homage vibrating to the music Soul of the Funk Brothers while interpreting with the screen I Heard It Through the Grapevine of Marvin Gaye.

The pieces of Ben Harper cover all the variations of the American negro music, on the basis of the Blues, and being prolonged until covering all the Musiques derived from this last: Folk, Rock'n'roll, Funk, Reggae ( With My Own Two Hands ), Gospel (with Blind servant boys off Alabama in particular), some accents of Hip-hop (the Happy box on Steeal My Kisses ), of the Drunk ( Sexual Healing ), and many other musical colors.

Discography

Albums

1992 : Pleasure and Bread
1994: Welcome to the Cruel World
1995: Fight for your Mind
1997 : The Will to Live
1999 : Burn to Shine
2001 : Live from Mars (live)
2003: Diamonds one the Inside
2004: There will Be has Light (with the Blind Boys off Alabama)
2005: Live At the Apollo (with the Blind Servant boys off Alabama)
2006: Both Sides off the Gun
2007: Lifeline

Individual

1994 - Like has King
1995 - Excuse Me Mister
1997 - Jah Work
1997 - Faded
1998 - Mama' S Trippin
1999 - Please Bleed
2000 - Burn to shine
2000 - Forgiven
2000 - Steal My Kisses
2003 - With My Own Two Hands
2004 - Diamonds one the Inside
2004 - So High So Low
2004 - Brown Eyed Blue
2006 - Better Way
2006 - Morning Yearning
2007 - Fight Outta You
2007 - In the Colors

Participations

Follow The Drinking Gourd (1991)
Big Extravaganza Blues!: The Best Off Austin City Limits (1998)
John Lee Hooker - The Best off Friends (1998)
Beth Orton - Exchange Reservation (1999)
Gov' T Mule - Life Before Insanity (2000)
One Coils - The Bob Marley All-Star Tribute (2000)
Jack Johnson - Brushfire Fairytales (2001)
Pearl Jam - 2001 Fan Individual Club (2001
The String Cheese Incident - One The Road: Noblesville, IN 07-13-02 (2002)
Marc Ford - It' S Butt Time (2002)
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow (2002)
The Blind Servant boys off Alabama - Higher Ground (2002)
Standing in the Shadows off Motown (2002)
Standing in the Shadows off Motown (2003)
Rickie Lee Jones - The Evening off My Best Day (2003)
Pearl Jam - Live At the Garden (2003)
Charlie Musselwhite - Sanctuary (2004)
Toots & The Maytals - True Coils (2004)
Willie Nelson & Friends: Outlaws and Angels (2004)
Sing-HAVE-Long & Lullabies for the Film Curious George (2006)
A.J. Croce - Cantos (2006)
G. Love' S Lemonade (2006)
John Mayer - Waiting One The World To Change Edition (2006)
Bonnie Raitt and Friends (2006)
John Mayer - Contiuum (2006)
Piers Faccini - Tearing Sky (2006)
Willie Nelson - Whatever Happened To Peace One Earth? (2006)
Stephen Marley - Mind Control (2007)
Culver City Dub Collective - Back (2007)

Videotex

2002 : Pleasure and bread
2003: Live At the Hollywood Bowl
2005: Live At the Appolo

See too

Internal bonds

Innocent The Criminals
Guitar lap-steel

External bonds

benharper.net - official site
ben-harper.com - French official site
swer.net - partially abandoned site but which remains a reference and a mine of information

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