Vanessa Collier at the Hauberg Civic Center Mansion -- October 26.
Wednesday, October 26, 7:30 p.m.
Hauberg Civic Center Mansion, 1300 24th Street, Rock Island IL
A gifted blues, funk, and soul saxophonist/singer/songwriter who has won two Blues Music Awards from seven nominations, Vanessa Collier plays Rock Island's Hauberg Civic Center Mansion in an October 26 concert co-presented by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, her most recent album Heart on the Line a work in which, according to Rock and Blues Muse, the artist "stamps her own mark with bright and breezy production and, of course, a healthy dose of sax."
Dallas-born and Maryland-bred, Collier's interest in blues music started at age 11, when she played a saxophone solo over a blues progression in jazz band. She went on to earn dual degrees in Performance and Music Production & Engineering at Berklee College of Music in Boston, graduating in 2013, and at Berklee's commencement concert, Collier was invited to play alongside Annie Lennox and Willie Nelson. Collier also worked with Kathy Mattea, Bill Cooley, Patrice Rushen, and many more visiting artists during her four years at Berklee, going on to tour the U.S. and Turkey, and backing Joe Louis Walker during 2012 and 2013. In 2014, Collier issued her debut solo album Heart Soul & Saxophone, a recording that was declared "magnificent" on Dan Aykroyd's blues radio show and led to Collier enjoying a national debut tour in late 2014.
After her tour, Collier become a top-three finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, and reached the semi-finals of the 2016 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. A year later, she released her second album Meeting My Shadow, which boast eight original Collier compositions plus cover versions of U2's "When Love Comes to Town," Deadric Malone's "You're Gonna Make Me Cry," and the Sister Rosetta Tharpe-penned "Up Above My Head, I Hear Music in the Air." Its release resulted in Collier touring 12 countries and being nominated in for a Blues Music Award in the Instrumental – Horn Player of the Year category. She also won first place in the Lyrics Only category of the 2017 USA Songwriting Competition, and started becoming active in the Blues Foundation's "Blues in the Schools" programs.
In 2018, Collier was nominated in two categories at that year's Blues Music Awards – Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year and Instrumental - Horn Player of the Year – and released her third album Honey Up, which spent nine weeks on Billboard's Top Blues Albums Chart. The following year, she was nominated in the two Blues Music Awards categories she was up for in 2018. But this time she won Instrumental - Horn Player of the Year, and would do so again in 2020, the year that she released Heart on the Line.
Vanessa Collier performs at the Hauberg Civic Center Mansion on October 26, donations are encouraged for the free concert event, and more information is available by contacting the Mississippi Valley Blues Society at (563)322-5837 and MVBS.org.
