Kent Burnside & the New Generation, 2 p.m.
"I
do some of my grandfather's stuff, but I up it a notch."
What's in a name? Quite a bit, if the name is Burnside. A name like that can open the door, but once inside, you still have to make a name for yourself. And that's what Kent Johnson Burnside, grandson of blues icon (and MVBS RiverRoad Lifetime Achievement Award winner) R.L. Burnside, is in the process of doing.
Currently living in Des Moines, Kent has assembled a band of topnotch musicians from across Iowa, including the Quad Cities. The New Generation is Kent Johnson Burnside (lead guitar, vocals), Jacob Best (drums), and Emmet Butts on bass, and from the Quad Cities Ren Olstrand on rhythm guitar and Rich Wilcox on violin and harmonica.Together they've been spreading the love, from the legendary Green Parrot in Key West to the world-famous Chicago House of Blues, and from Ground Zero in Clarksdale to festivals in Colorado.
The titles of his two most recent releases, Cotton Field Disco and Country Boy with City Dreams, hint that there might be something more going on than just the classic north-Mississippi stomp. The foundation for Kent's music is indeed those propulsive hill-country rhythms, but he often goes on to blend in hip-hop beats and elements of R&B. Imagine the grooves of Junior Kimbrough and T-model Ford, "gupped a notch" for the 21st Century.
If you never got the chance to see his grandfather, Kent Burnside can show you some of what you missed. And if you were fortunate enough to catch R.L., his grandson can show you something more.
- Steve Pedigo
Paul Geremia, 3:30 p.m.
For
more than 40 years, Paul Geremia has built a reputation as a
bluesman, songwriter, storyteller, scholar of early jazz and blues,
and one of the best country-blues finger-pickers ever with his tools
- six- and 12-string guitars, harmonica, piano, and a husky,
soulful voice. Combining his interpretation of the earlier music of
people such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie
McTell, Scrapper Blackwell, and Blind Blake, with his original
compositions, he has created a style of his own that has received
accolades in the U.S. and Europe.
Geremia's background isn't typical for a bluesman. He is a third-generation Italian American who, as he laughingly puts it, "was born in the Providence River Delta." During the '60s, Paul noticed that the music he had enjoyed playing on harmonica was now referred to as "folk music" and was enjoying popularity. He discovered the blues by seeing "Mississippi" John Hurt at a topical-songs workshop at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival along with Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and Pete Seeger. Soon, he found paying gigs in coffee houses and "basket houses" in cities and at college campuses and made occasional forays south and west in search of the music he loved and what gigs he could find.
During these years, Geremia crossed paths with people whose influences were beneficial to his development and understanding of the tradition. He worked as opening act for some of the early blues legends, thereby gaining an immeasurable depth of knowledge from people including Howard Armstrong, John Jackson, Yank Rachel, Son House, Skip James, and Howlin' Wolf. (Geremia says of Howlin' Wolf, "He was very tolerant of my enthusiasm," and showed him the proper fingering for a chord from Charley Patton's "Pony Blues"). He also worked with Pink Anderson, whose career he helped revitalize.
- From the artist's Web site
Big Pete Pearson & the Rhythm Room All-Stars, 5:30 p.m.
Big
Pete Pearson was born in Jamaica in 1936; he relocated to Texas with
his parents while he was young. He began his career at the age of
nine in Austin's east-side jukes playing bass. After playing a few
gigs in Phoenix in the late '50s, Pearson moved there a few years
later, eventually becoming the patriarch of that city's blues
scene.
The Rhythm Room All-Stars were founded by harmonica player, bandleader, and club owner Bob Corritore in 1991, as he opened his Phoenix blues and roots concert club called the Rhythm Room. This band's current lineup includes the spectacular Big Pete Pearson on vocals, Chris James on guitar and vocals, Patrick Rynn on bass, Brian Fahey on drums, and Bob Corritore on harmonica.
The dapper Big Pete Pearson always looks good in his trademark hat and pressed suits, and he has a commanding stage presence, waving his hands like a preacher, bouncing in rhythm with his band as he shouts the blues.
In the late '90s, Pearson retired to Maine, but his retirement didn't work out. "I didn't get the bug [to come back], but I couldn't get no air," Pearson told Arizona's Get Out. "Every time I turned around, [Rhythm Room owner] Bob [Corritore] was bringing me back! He'd say, 'Hey, Pete, I need you on such and such a date,' so I'd hop a plane and come right back."
Get Out added: "His 'retirement' lasted three years before Big Pete finally moved back to Phoenix for good."
- Amanda Coulter
AACM Great Black Music Ensemble, 7:30 p.m.
In 1962, Muhal Richard Abrams with the help of Jack DeJohnette established the Experimental Band to provide the opportunity for young Chicago musicians such as Henry Threadgill, Joseph Jarman, and Roscoe Mitchell to have their compositions and arrangements performed. In 1965, many of these same musicians met in the home of Kelan Phil Cohran to discuss the forming of an organization that would produce concerts and perform original music. As a result, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) was established as a not-for-profit organization. Over the years, the Experimental Band became known as the AACM Big Band. All AACM members were encouraged to participate in the big band.
For the 40th AACM Annual Celebration in Chicago in 2005, the AACM Big Band was renamed the AACM Great Black Music Ensemble; it was featured as the headliner for the celebration, with over 20 musicians performing. Since then, the ensemble has performed at the 2005 Chicago Jazz Festival and at a festival in Paris last February.
The Great Black Music Ensemble has performed the first two Sundays of each month for more than a year at Chicago's historic jazz club, The Velvet Lounge - usually with around 13 musicians because of the lack of performing space. On the IH Mississippi Valley Blues Festival Adler Theatre stage, the Great Black Music Ensemble will perform under the direction of baritone saxophonist and clarinetist Mwata Bowden. Among the outstanding AACM musicians who perform regularly with the ensemble and who are expected to perform here are tenor saxophonists Ari Brown and Edward Wilkerson, alto saxophonist Ernest "Khabeer" Dawkins, flutist Nicole Mitchell, trumpeters Corey Wilkes and Robert Griffin, trombonists Steve Berry and Isaiah Jackson, and vocalist Dee Alexander.
- Jimmie Jones
Billy Boy Arnold & Jody Williams, 9:30 p.m.
One of the foremost practitioners of classic Chicago blues, Billy Boy Arnold was born in Chicago on September 16, 1935. His wailing harmonica and soulful vocals are a perfect match for his streetwise songwriting. The combination of Delta-influenced blues with a more urban sophistication not only defines Arnold's sound, but was also a significant contribution to the early days of rock and roll.
Unlike the many blues artists who migrated to Chicago from the South, Arnold is among the first generation of bluesmen actually born and raised in the city. He fell in love with the blues at an early age and was moved by the records of John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. In 1948, Billy found out that Williamson lived nearby, and he set out to find him. Williamson took a liking to the young fan and revealed his trademark style of "choking" the harp to Billy. In the ensuing years, Arnold befriended many of the local blues legends; Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Minnie, Muddy Waters, Johnny Shines, Otis Rush, Little Walter, and Earl Hooker all played a part in Arnold's musical education.
In the early 1950s, he joined forces with street musician Ellas McDaniel (Bo Diddley) and played harmonica on the March 1955 recording of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man." Arnold then signed a solo recording contract with Vee-Jay Records and issued the original of "I Ain't Got You," later covered by the Yardbirds. In the late 1950s, Arnold continued to play in Chicago clubs, but as playing opportunities dried up, he pursued a parallel career as a bus driver, and later a parole officer. By the 1970s, Arnold had begun playing festivals, touring Europe, and recording again.
Jody Williams, as the first great string-bender on the Chicago blues scene, provided the stylistic bridge between B.B. King and T-Bone Walker (two of his principal influences) and Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, both of whom absorbed his innovations. As a key Chicago session guitarist during the '50s, Jody added the essential guitar fire to some of the era's greatest blues recordings: Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love," Howlin' Wolf's "Forty-Four," Billy Boy Arnold's "I Ain't Got You," and his own instrumental "Lucky Lou." You can hear echoes of Jody in Carlos Santana and Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green, and his impact extends to a legion of contemporary bluesmen.
Jody retired from music in the late 1960s. But in 2002 he emerged from retirement with the album Return of a Legend, which received a 2003 W.C. Handy Award for Comeback Album of the Year, and Williams was heralded by Living Blues readers and critics as "Best Guitarist" for that year.
- From JWBlues.com
