THE MAGIC OF THE BLUES has never faded. The structure is very simple – just three chords running across twelve bars – and the shape follows the way a traditional story is supposed to work, with a clear beginning, middle and end. In the last four bars of a classic blues, back comes the ‘home’ chord the song started out with. Almost every kid in the Western world who picks up a guitar or tinkles with a keyboard learns a blues in the first few weeks – countless teachers and instruction books start right there, with one of the easiest and yet most expressive musical structures there is.
But Gareth Williams wasn’t a beginner, he was learning the blues when he already had several years of classical piano practice behind him, and was notching up his Grade exams. He was also growing up in a household in which jazz was often on the turntable, including great swing pianists like Oscar Peterson. So he had quite a lot more material at his fingertips and in his head to bring to that simplest of all songs, the blues.
