When Billy Branch and Lurrie Bell take the stage of SPACE in Evanston on Thursday night, listeners will hear something increasingly hard to come by these days: traditional Chicago blues.
In an era when all manner of pop- and rock-driven sounds get labeled as such, Branch and Bell will be carrying a banner for the fundamentals of the music.
They’ve played together in various contexts for 40 years, and their personal histories are bound up with the roots of the genre. Branch early in life toured with Willie Dixon and went on to record with Honeyboy Edwards, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater and Koko Taylor, among others. Bell, son of harmonica legend Carey Bell, emerged a blues-guitar prodigy in his own right, eventually touring with Taylor and recording several admired albums.
The opportunity to hear them together in a superb listening room such as SPACE is not easily passed up.
"We’re basically performing traditional Chicago blues songs, and sometimes we’re telling a few stories in between about our experience and tenure together," says Branch, 65.
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"But you’re getting a very good representation of traditional Chicago blues. And as remarkable as that might seem, it’s becoming rarer and rare, because the trend now is everything has become kind of a hybrid.
"Which I have to admit, I find myself in that category as well."
Times, tastes and audience expectations change, of course, and no one can succeed artistically by producing the same work through the decades. Yet there’s something to be said for championing the eternal verities of an art form, especially when you’re as closely linked to its identity as Branch and Bell.
"We’re going to do some of the old stuff that we usually do together when we do a duo," says Bell, 58.
"Basically, we do the 12-bar blues. We keep it simple, and we stick to the foundations of the music."
In 1977, Branch and Bell founded the Sons of Blues, a band that’s still the centerpiece of Branch’s work and keeps him busily touring the globe. And though it’s true, as Branch says, that various musical influences now course through his art, his duets with Bell enable him to burrow into the sound, performance practices and repertoire that launched his career.
"We’re exemplifying the styles and the songs that define Chicago blues, which of course had its heyday in the 1950s, when the blues was responsible for most of the African-American hit music during that era," Branch says.
"It was the blues that you were listening to on the radio. So you were hearing Muddy Waters and Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson and Bo Diddley and on and on.
"We are playing those songs in those original styles."
Yet when you hear Branch or Bell performing this repertoire, there’s nothing nostalgic or retrospective about their approach. The fervency of their vocals, the fearsome power of Branch’s harmonica and the fluidity of Bell’s guitar work reaffirm the notion that great musical languages never really go out of date. If Gregorian chant well sung can convey austere beauty even today, then mid-20th century Chicago blues can express profundities that transcend ever-changing musical fashion.
Thus when Branch and Bell take on songs of Little Walter, Dixon and Williamson — as they plan to do in their SPACE show — we’ll be getting about as close to the original meanings of this music as is possible in live performance at this late date.
Partly this owes not only to these musicians’ long careers in the blues but also the distinct chemistry they share.
"It’s hard to explain," says Bell, who’s up for a Grammy Award for best traditional blues album for "Can’t Shake This Feeling" (Delmark Records).
"When I play, I play by ear. When I listen to Billy, he inspires me, and I get creative. And I imagine he does too.
"What I’m trying to say is when I’m doing my set, and we’re trading licks and everything, everything comes together for some reason. It’s hard to explain how it happens. That’s the bond that you get with each other."
Branch credits the felicity of their musical partnership to the nature of Bell’s gifts.
When they began working together, "Lurrie was 19 years old," recalls Branch. "He was a prodigy.
"His skill was far beyond his age. He played with the dexterity and depth of someone much older than he was.
"I used to say that Lurrie made me play things that I didn’t know I could play. Because his skill, his musicianship was at such a high level, and it just inspired."
You can hear as much on one of their early collaborations, "Billy Branch, Lurrie Bell & The Sons of Blues: Chicago’s Young Blues Generation," a critically applauded album cut in the early 1980s, each musician taking flight during solos.
"We recorded this album probably in less than eight hours, and we didn’t think much about it," says Branch. "We just did what we did — all traditional songs.
"Looking back on the musicianship, it’s one of my favorite albums of all time. It was so magical. It attested to the chemistry, as well as the skill level of Lurrie. He just has almost a magical ability."
So does Branch, as anyone who has heard perform him can attest.
As for the state of the blues today, the two men hold slightly different perspectives.
"A lot of people think that the blues is so much bigger in Europe," says Branch. "It’s not necessarily that it’s so much bigger, but it’s promoted on a much higher level."
So far as Bell is concerned, "Man, everywhere around the world people appreciate the blues."
Though the heyday of the 1950s is long past, the classic sound endures, at least when Branch and Bell are at work.
The Billy Branch & Lurrie Bell Duo play at 8 p.m. Thursday at SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave., Evanston; $15-$23; 847-492-8860 or www.evanstonspace.com.
Howard Reich is a Tribune critic.
hreich@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @howardreich
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