Bman's Blues Report

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Meeting My Shadow by Vanessa Collier and it's quite good! Opening with dark, slinky, Poisoned The Well , Vanessa Collier has a great sound as a lead vocalist and her clavinet work on this track and especially her haunting flute work on track one is intoxicating. I really like the bass line by Lenny Bradford and Nicholas Stevens' drum work. Excellent opener. On R&B track, Dig A Little Deeper , Laura Chavez created a cool traditional guitar rhythm and Collier adds her solo sax work to the horn work of Marc Franklin on trumpet giving the track a bit more punch. When It Don't Come Easy has a smooth southern blues rock featuring Chavez on electric guitar and resonator guitar and getting some of the best vocal warmth from Collier. Rock n roller, Two Parts Sugar, One Part Lime features a bit more of Collier's solo sax work with her vocals and some nice piano work by Charles Hodges.  Soul track, You...

I just received the newest release (April 21, 2015), Day Into Night , by Tad Robinson and it's smokin! Opening with smooth groovin' Soul Lover , Robinson shows just how much soul he has with has solid vocals joined by Caleb Green and Christal Rheams and understated horn work of Kenny Rittenhouse (trumpet), Liesl Whitaker (trumpet), Antonio Orta (tenor sax) and Bill Holmes (trombone). On Call Me, Kevin Anker on keys and Benjie Porecki on organ set a nice groove and Robinson takes a smooth ride vocally. He really does have the groove and delivers like a master (think Al Green). Lonely Talking has a great feel and the masterful guitar playing of two of my favorite contemporary guitarists, Anson Funderburgh and Johnny Moeller. This isn't your typical Texas guitar shootoff but a real soulful sway with honest tasty riffs playing against the beat. Excellent! He's Moved On opens with Bill Holmes warm trombone sound and Robinson keeps his vocals attack on the down low. Now...

Yesterday the Common Ground On The Hill Music Festival began wrapping up two weeks of workshops, lessons, and jams. The prime purposes of Common Ground are cultural diversity, musical education, and promotion of the American roots art forms, particularly music and dance. Of course, at the heart of all this is blues music. Whether sawing out a hoedown on a fiddle, a zydeco two-step on accordion or ripping up a mean blues break solo on a National Steel guitar, the blues is always present while not always front and center. My day started out with a set by Scott Ainslie . He played a National Steel throughout his whole set, once using a paper napkin to use as a damper to get the sound he wanted when blending sad blues lyrics with an upbeat guitar line straight out of Nigerian Juju music! In addition to some original tunes his set was accented by Robert Johnson tunes and stories. He did Come On In My Kitchen in the David Bromberg style. And after telling the story of the "Sun...

Born in Annapolis, Maryland, BILL DICEY began playing harmonica at age 8 when his father handed down his first Hohner Marine Band harp. Harmonicas were scarce at that time, so Bill learned to play his one harp in five different keys. Learning from the street musicians, young Bill used his talent to attract customers for his shoe shine business. Early influences on his technique included saxmen David “Fathead” Newman and Clifford Scott, and blues harp greats Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and later on Little Walter. Associations with Sonny Boy and Buddy Moss helped him in developing a style uniquely his own. Bill teamed up with Buddy Moss in the late 60’s for many sessions which included engagements at colleges and clubs throughout the South, when Buddy turned over the reins of command, Bill brought the “Atlanta Blues Band” to New York City. Widely know and respected in the Blues world, Bill has performed with, opened for or recorded with a breathtaking array of talent including ...

Don Abney (John Donald Abney; March 10, 1923 in Baltimore, Maryland – January 20, 2000 in Los Angeles, California) was an American jazz pianist. Abney studied piano and french horn at the Manhattan School of Music, and he played the latter in an Army band during military service. After returning he played in ensembles with Wilbur de Paris, Bill Harris, Kai Winding, Chuck Wayne, Sy Oliver, and Louis Bellson.[1] He had a sustained career as a session musician, playing on recordings for Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Oscar Pettiford, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, Eartha Kitt, and Pearl Bailey. He also played on a large number of recordings for more minor musicians and on R&B, pop, rock, and doo wop releases. After moving to Hollywood, he worked as musical director for Universal Studios/MCA. He appeared as a pianist in the film Peter Kelly's Blues behind Ella Fitzgerald. Additional credits include recording and arrangements for the film "Lady Sings The Blues....

James Hubert Blake (February 7, 1887 – February 12, 1983) was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as, "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find A Way", "Memories of You", and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie! featured the works of Blake and opened on Broadway in 1978. Blake was born at 319 Forrest Street in Baltimore, Maryland to former slaves John Sumner Blake (1838–1917) and Emily "Emma" Johnstone (1861–1917). He was the only surviving child of eight, all the rest of whom died in infancy. In 1894 the family moved to 414 North Eden Street, and later to 1510 Jefferson Street. John Blake worked earning US$9.00 weekly as a stevedore on...

For a player who rates only three lines of biographical information in one major jazz reference book, Jerome Darr had an incredibly versatile and prolific career, showing up on sessions from blues to bebop and even strumming a few arpeggios behind Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. He was one of many fine players to hail from Baltimore and his first major professional affiliation was in sort of a jug band, the Washboard Serenaders. The guitarist was a member of this group from 1933 through 1936, a tenure that included a well-received European tour. Jazz researchers find great, glaring holes in Darr's activities from this point, either picking back up on him in the classic jazz context of Buddy Johnson's band in the early '50s, or wondering about his involvement with the much more modernistic Charlie Parker during roughly the same period. The guitarist was not hiding in a closet during the '40s, however: he simply focused on work as a studio musician during an era wh...

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, guitarist, recording engineer, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band The Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical composers such as Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern along with 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands; he later switched to electric guitar. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I...

Joe Turner (November 3, 1907 – July 21, 1990) was an American jazz pianist. Joseph H. Turner was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. One of the masters of the stride piano style associated with Harlem, New York City, Turner got his first big musical break in 1928 with his hiring by the Benny Carter Orchestra. He also played with Louis Armstrong. After World War II, he settled in Europe, living in Paris from 1962. He played at La Calavados, a nightclub situated on the Champs Elysees until his death from a heart attack in 1990, at the age of 82 A rare French TV gem from the Sixties featuring two greats: Joe Turner born in Baltimore, 3 Nov 1907 died in Montreuil, France, 21 July 1990 (not to be confused with his great blues singer namesake "Big" Joe Turner), a dazzling stride pianist who played with all the greats in Harlem during the Twenties, Louis Armstrong amongst them, and the great "Champion" Jack Dupree (1910 - 1992), the embodiment of of the New Orle...

Originally out of Silver Spring, Maryland, Danny moved to Austin, Texas and cut his teeth on the Crawfish circuit playing with singer-pianist Marcia Ball. He then worked with Zydeco king Clifton Chenier and his Red Hot Louisiana Band with whom he recorded the Grammy Award winning Album, "I'm Here" in 1980. Relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981 he continued to freelance and eventually teamed up with the legendary singer and pianist Charles Brown. Danny served as guitarist and musical director for Charles Brown from 1987 until Brown's death in 1999. He has played on numerous CD's and sessions with Charles Brown, Clifton Chenier, Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker, Van Morrison, Ruth Brown, Etta Jones, John Clayton, Teddy Edwards, Gerald Wilson, Donald Fagen, Dr. John, Little Milton Campbell, John Hammond Jr. and many others. Danny is the featured guitarist on the Van Morrison produced John Lee Hooker album, "Don't Look Back" which won two Gra...

When BOBBY RADCLIFF’s first album on the revered Black Top label hit record stores all over the world, critics declared him the next in a long line of guitar heroes. Jazz-lovers awarded him a coveted five-star review in downbeat, New York rockers took him to heart for his edgy energy, and blues fans everywhere knew their favorite music was alive and well. Long before all that, it was the time he spent in the sixties with “Magic Sam” Maghett that bound him forever to the raucous mixture of deep blues and flashy funk that defined the sound of Chicago’s West Side. After running away from a suburban childhood in Chevy Chase, Maryland, at the tender age of seventeen Bobby sought out the guitar master who had changed his life on record. With the help of Bob Koester, Bruce Iglauer, and Jim O’Neal (the blues trinity at Chicago’s legendary Record Mart), he found his idol in Cook County Hospital recovering from a minor stroke. Although he was a little shocked that anyone would come so far si...

Born 7 August 1917 or 1918, Salisbury, Maryland Died 15 April 1991, Newark, New Jersey Born in Maryland, but raised in Norfolk, Virginia, Frank Culley was a pioneer of the R&B tenor saxophone in the post-WW II period. He demonstrated how the instrument could be an exciting component in the emerging R&B sound. Culley began learning the tenor sax at the age of 10 and made his first professional mark playing with Johnson's Happy Pals around Richmond, Virginia. He formed his own R&B group in the mid-40s, recording for the Lenox label in NYC and backing Wynonie Harris on King. In 1948, he was signed by the fledgling Atlantic label and led its first house band, backing the early stars of R&B as well as recording some thirty tracks under his own name, always featuring his band's superb pianist, Harry Van Walls. Culley's first release on Atlantic, "Coleslaw", was a # 11 R&B hit in 1949, coupled with a wild version of the Lionel Hampton number "Cen...

Joe Turner (November 3, 1907 – July 21, 1990) was an American jazz pianist. Joseph H. Turner was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. One of the masters of the stride piano style associated with Harlem, New York City, Turner got his first big musical break in 1928 with his hiring by the Benny Carter Orchestra. He also played with Louis Armstrong. After World War II, he settled in Europe, living in Paris from 1962. He played at La Calavados, a nightclub situated on the Champs Elysees until his death from a heart attack in 1990, at the age of 82 If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”

I just received Live at the Temecula Theater featuring the Dennis Jones Band . Dennis is a young axe slinger with a tight backing made up of Michael Turner on Drums and Sam Correa on Bass (both on vocals). The band opens with Kill The Pain , a blues rock track with the underlying rhythm of a Jeff Beck like track (solid) and featuring Jones out front with his honey burst Les Paul. Jones has a very versatile voice and has mastered the guitar quite well. His vocal styling is definitely influenced by Jimi and certainly not a bad choice. His riffs, played in a modern style have their roots in the delta. Next up is Him Or Me , which actually has the construction of a Hendrix track but of course is totally original. Jones seems to prefer Bogner amplification for his dirty sound and Fender Blonde Vibrolux Custom for his clean channel. This is a cool song with again a blues rock feel there are definitely some Jimi influenced riffs on this track. Jones, now on a sunburst Stratocaster with a ros...

Barry Baughn - Guitar Vocals Bob Gross - Bass Vocals John "Mad Dog" Ruiz - Hammond B3 and Piano Larry Mitchell - Drums Paul Carman - Sax Stan Watkins - Trumpet If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”

Born in Annapolis, Maryland, BILL DICEY began playing harmonica at age 8 when his father handed down his first Hohner Band Harp. Harmonicas were scarce at that time, so Bill learned to play his one harp in five different keys. Learning from the street musicians, young Bill used his talent to attract customers for his shoe shine business. Early influences on his technique included saxmen David "Fathead" Newman and clifford Scott, and Blues harp greats Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson ( Rice Miller), and later on Little Walter. Associations with Sonny Boy and Buddy Moss helped him in developing a style uniquely his own. Bill teamed up with Buddy Moss in the late 60's for many sessions which included engagements at colleges and clubs throughout the South, when Buddy turned over the reins of command, Bill brought the "Atlanta Blues Band" to New York City. Widely know and respected in the Blues world, Bill has performed with, opened for or recorded with a breathtakin...

Bea Booze (May 23, 1920 – 1975), often credited as Wee Bea Booze, was an American R&B and jazz singer most popular in the 1940s. She was born Muriel Nicholls in Baltimore, and made her name as a singer in Harlem. She was signed by Decca Records to cover the songs and emulate the style of Lil Green, and, under the guidance of Sammy Price, first recorded in 1942. Her version of "See See Rider Blues", first recorded by Ma Rainey, reached # 1 on the R&B chart, after which she was billed as 'The See See Rider Blues Girl'. As well as singing, she played guitar in performance and on many of her recordings. Later in the 1940s, Booze recorded as a jazz vocalist with the Andy Kirk band, which featured trumpeter Fats Navarro, and also with a jazz quartet that included saxophonist George Kelly and organist Larry Johnson. She retired from the music business in the early 1950s to settle first in Baltimore and later in Scottsville, New York, although she recorded with Sammy ...

I just got the new Nighthawks release called Damn Good Time and that's exactly what it is. This recording will be released on May 15 by Severn Records fresh off of their first ever Blues Music Award from the Blues Foundation as Acoustic Blues Album of the Year in 2011. The recording opens with Too Much, a classic loping blues tune which demonstrates why the Nighthawks have been around for such a long time with their tight band, vocal harmonies and cool harp work. Who You're Working For is a rockin' tune with straight crankin' solos from Paul Bell on Guitar and Mark Wenner on Harp. Bring Your Sister is a real rocker with great harp tones and and the vocal harmonies that you have come to expect from the band. Minimum Wage , a thought provoking song, turns into a pretty cool swing jam with laid back soloing from Bell and Wenner. Georgia Slop is sure to get everyone bopping around. Night Work , another loping blues slinger has a cool feel to it and the ever present pun...

Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival 2012 If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”