Randy Cohen (English version)

I met my friend Randy Cohen, his delightful italian wife Stella and his dog Willy back in 2013, he had cooked the famous crawfish dish New Orleans’ style (very spicy, but washed down with a cool beer, it’s excellent!). He told me about his atypical life, showed me his amps repair workshop while talking about Italian cuisine.

He is a great musician with his own style. When I came back in April 2018, he had organized a jam night at his house and played with Big chief Alfred Doucette, what a great night!

He gave me recently an interview, so I let you read it to discover more about his life, passions and music…

“I have been chasing the music all my life. It is my passion, and, more than anything in my life, it is what keeps me alive. Making a living, of course, is a burden I've had to bear all my life. Money has never been the first thing for me; I am just so happy to be alive, and to make music, but one does have to eat.......

   For me, playing music that I have no love for has never been an option. The classic rock gigs on Bourbon Street (or mainstream blues gigs, for that matter) are a turn off for me and i refuse to do this. So, there are a few different musical genres I do pursue that will put food on the table. Right now I’m doing more straight up slide guitar Delta Blues, that’s what they really like up there in Mississippi, and that is one of my two favorite styles. Almost nobody else does it, they might call it " Delta Blues", but very few actually do the Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and Howlin' Wolf, and I have always loved this. I have a cool take on John Lee Hooker too. I do not do rock guitar versions, but these songs that tell stories of romance and love lost are what moves me. You have to "mess it up" your own way and put yourself into it! This is my passion, it seems right to me. 

   Right now, I’m working a lot with my one-man band, because it’s a problem bringing a band around, and, also, for the most part, they don’t know how to play this Delta Blues. It always seems I have to start from scratch to get new musicians to play this particular type of Mississippi/Chicago Blues right; it’s a special swing that’s kind of lost in American music now and people do love it. I do like the one-man band. It is so intact and complete by itself, but for a large concert audience, a band is definitively better. it is hard to get those guys to play it right. This music is so different, and to do this, I need guys who are ready to get very physical with their instruments.

       Another style I have cultivated, and it is a band style, is based on my love of the music of T-Bone Walker. Playing T-Bone Walker and swingin' jump rhythm & blues is the most fun you can have standing up! T-Bone is the reason I play guitar today, and I have been able to let him live through me.  It is the most interesting sound I have ever heard.......

    

        In order to not have to take those schlock gigs I mentioned before, I have pursued another passion, and that is old school vacuum tube electronics. I have been doing amplifier repair since I was a kid. In my thirties, I opened a shop in San Francisco and I learned a lot about different kind of amps and old technology. I have a room full of of equipment and parts that I have accumulated over the years. I put an ad on Craig’s List, and in the phone directory, and they call. There is a guy that used to do this here in New Orleans and he stopped. I’m expecting some more business now, and I need it!. And there are always musicians and amateurs who try to do repairs, but they do a bad job, they don’t have technical skills, so people turn to me, because I have both technical skills and i am a musician. I know what these amplifiers are supposed to sound like! I am real good at this...

    I used to live in San Francisco, California where I had the repair shop, but I travelled to Oakland, also known locally as the "East Bay", to play almost every night. That’s where my friends were, and there was a great blues scene there. I took my guitar and amplifier and I hit different bars to play with various musicians. Oakland was like a university for me. I played with some great vocalists, and, for some reason, I always ended up playing in bands with great jazz and soul organ players.  They all seemed to like me 'cause of my solid, strong rhythm guitar work. I got to play with some of my heroes too; Little Frankie Lee, Johnny Heartsman, Bobby Webb, Jackie Ivory, Deacon Jones and many others........

    I’m thinking about using “The Bluesonics” for the name of my new band. "19th street Red" is so associated to the street here in New Orleans, because I used to play all the time on the street. It has been real hard to break into the club scene here. The street has been very good to me though. That’s how I met Stephane and the MNOP in 2008 and 2009, and he brought me to France. That’s why I have these European connections. I did play the streets all over, in California, the Mid-West, the South, and Europe, and i've played outside many sporting events too. Many thousands of people know me and support me. I want to do more touring again. I had so much adventure in my life, right now I’m in the house a lot, working on electronics. I do go off  to Jackson, to Clarksdale (Mississippi), and I have little tours, yes, but I used to travel all the time in my van, it was an incredible freedom, like being a gypsy.

I would love to play more in Europe, I was based in Bellagio, Italy and I played a lot there on the street too. I want to be brought to Europe for something good; it’s difficult to get gigs and festivals, but that's what I need. It’s been four years now since I've been over there. I especially loved my time in Dordogne. I made many friends and I miss them.........

   I came up in DC when I was young. For some reason, I could understand the blues. I heard BB King and Louis Armstrong and got into the blues before I was 10. I was collecting records, living in Washington DC, where I grew up, and there was a large black community, so I was looking for clubs where the blues was being played. I had a weekly gig at this bar called "Alva's Lounge" , and I ended up playing with these older black musicians. this was while I was in my twenties. Then I moved to California, where I started to be involved in the Oakland Blues scene. I started playing with all these great blues guys. one of them was Louis Madison, who wrote the song “Please, Please, Please” for James Brown back in 1955. This guy was fantastic. James Brown even came down to the club looking for him one night! It was a great blues scene in Oakland, California; the music was amazing! Later, I met this couple from Chicago who played the streets in San Francisco. We'd all go out with a full band twice a day and play in the financial district. They were legendary; Juliette Valentine and Bruce Brooks, "The Chicago Brother and Sister Blues Band". We'd sometimes earn hundreds and hundreds of dollars in a few minutes! Unfortunately, they self-destructed after a few years (drugs and alcohol problems). That’s why I started my one-man band. I became "19th Street Red" and then moved to New Orleans in 2002. 

   Now? I’m playing every Sunday and Monday with my good friend and bass player extraordinaire, B.J. Harvey. He played with Irma Thomas for 26 years! His dad and he toured with Professor Longhair when he was a just a teenager!. we have a bunch of great drummers we use; it's a great little group.

I also tour, through Mississippi, mostly. I've just been to Bentonia, to play the blues festival there. Man, it was good! I love to go to Mississippi: Jackson, Clarksdale, Rosedale, Gulfport, Natchez, Vicksburg, these are all great places...”