10th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival will be hosted by the Detroit Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts on Friday October 3 and Saturday October 4.
The performances will be recorded and nationally distributed programs produced for public television. For its 10th anniversary, the American Music Research Foundation is presenting a particularly rich array of artists with deep roots in the blues, boogie woogie, gospel, soul, and rhythm and blues.
Friday night’s concert features three legendary pianists. New Orleans writer, producer, arranger, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Allen Toussaint was inspired by Professor Longhair and later Fats Domino. As a producer for Minit Records in the 60’s, Toussaint played a primary role in defining the New Orleans R&B sound. Pinetop Perkins is the last of the original boogie woogie and blues pianists.
Perkins spent 12 years playing with Muddy Waters before going out on his own. The Blues Foundation named him Blues Pianist of the year so many times that it eventually “retired” him from the award and named it after him. In 2005 he was given a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.
Finally, Detroit’s own Bob Seeley will return to the Festival to celebrate his 80th birthday. Seeley is revered around the world as one of the greatest solo boogie woogie players working today.
Saturday night’s lineup features artists who brought the musical sensibilities of the deep south to the industrial centers of the midwest. Bobby Rush began performing in the juke joints of northern Louisiana as a teenager. He moved to Chicago in the mid-50’s, where his bands included the likes of Freddie King, Earl Hooker, and Luther Allison. Rush calls his music “folk-funk,” deeply rooted in tradition but decidedly modern. Rush was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2006.
Otis Clay is one of the premier deep soul and gospel singers working today. Born in Mississippi, Clay began performing with such legendary gospel groups as the Pilgrim Harmonizers and the Sensational Nightingales. He moved to Chicago and launched a solo career as a deep soul singer with a series of hit singles in the mid-60’s. His raw, fiery vocals drive an energetic and danceable blend of soul, R&B, and Blues. “Little Sonny” Willis, “King of the Blues Harmonica,” is known for his hot, driving sound and is one of the most respected artists in Detroit. Willis began singing gospel and spirituals in church as a child in Alabama and became interested in the blues after his mother gave him a toy harmonica. He moved to Detroit in 1953 and has been performing in the city and around the world ever since. A very special guest on Saturday night will be Detroit’s Eddie Burns. Burns grew up in the Mississippi delta where his grandfather ran the local juke joint. He began playing harmonica and picked up the guitar after settling Detroit in 1948.
Burns worked as a member of John Lee Hooker’s band and backed him on the legendary recording, “Real Folk Blues.” He has been a fixture in the Detroit Blues scene ever since, with numerous recordings and international tours to his credit.
Tickets are $35 general admission or $75 for VIP seats, available from the Music Hall Box Office (313-877-3500) or at www.ticketmaster.com. The American Music Research Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and documentation of American music, particularly blues and boogie woogie, jazz, gospel, and R&B in order to provide a vehicle for future generations to understand the significace of our musical and heritage.
