Posts Tagged ‘live music’

May 9th 8pm, Freede Little Theater @ Oklahoma Civic Center Music Hall

This will be the Robben Ford Trio with Travis Carlton, son of Larry, bass guitar and Toss Panos, drums

May 10th Masterclass/clinic Open to the public limited seating available.

ACM@UCO Performance Venue 323 East Sheridan Ave

The Clinic will be open to the general public with very limited seating tickets available through Ticketstorm.com

Students of ACM will be the guests of The Oklahoma Blues Society limited to the first 50 to sign up contact your teacher or administrator.

The class will focus on the basic building blocks of music theory, chord progressions, the use of voicings, listening and improvisation.
There will be an emphasis on the importance of the blues in building a strong musical foundation, as well as the understanding and usage of advanced harmony to add dimension to simple music forms and chord progressions. The guitar will be featured, but beginning and mid-level students of any instrument would
benefit from this class.

Robben Ford is one of the premiere electric guitarists today, particularly

known for his blues playing as well as his ability to be comfortable in a

variety of musical contexts. A five-time Grammy nominee, he has played

with artists as diverse as Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Witherspoon, Miles Davis,

George Harrison, Phil Lesh, Bonnie Raitt, Claus Ogerman, Michael

McDonald, Bob Dylan, John Mayall, Greg Allman and many others. (See

Discography)

Born in 1951 in Woodlake, California, and raised in Ukiah, Robben was

the third of four sons in a musical family. His father Charles was a

country and western singer and guitarist before entering the army and

marrying Kathryn, who played piano and had a lovely singing voice.

Robben’s first chosen instrument was the saxophone, which he began to

play at age ten and continued to play into his early twenties. He began to

teach himself guitar at age thirteen upon hearing the two guitarists from

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop. In

the late 1960’s, Ford frequented the Fillmore and Winterland Auditoriums

in San Francisco to see Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Cream, Led Zeppelin,

Albert King, B.B. King and all of the progenitors of blues. “It was an

incredible time for electric guitar,” Robben recalls.

On his interest in jazz, Robben says,” I fell in love with the sax-playing of

Paul Desmond and The Dave Brubeck Quartet, and before long found

Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, Yusef Lateef, Roland Kirk, John Coltrane,

Wayne Shorter, and of course, Miles Davis.” These influences have stayed

with Robben, playing a large part in his particular blend of jazz and blues

that define him as a guitarist and allow him to play in a wide variety of

settings.

After high school, Robben and his brothers Patrick (a blues drummer) and

Mark (a blues harmonica player) formed The Charles Ford Blues Band

(named after their father), and recorded for the Arhoolie label. Robben

(on sax and guitar) and Patrick went on to tour the U.S. with Chicago

harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite, again recording for Arhoolie.

Robben’s first attempt at forming his own jazz quartet was picked up by

legendary blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon, which brought Robben to L.A.

He toured the U.S. and Europe with Witherspoon and was seen by Tom

Scott and members of The L.A. Express, who were about to begin a

promotional tour with Joni Mitchell for her recording “Court and Spark.”

Robben was invited to play guitar on the tour and played on two

recordings with Mitchell and The L.A. Express. “The two years I spent with

Joni were the most formative of my musical life. Joni was just brilliant and very accessible, and the members of The L.A. Express became good

friends and teachers. It was great.”

Beatle George Harrison invited Robben to join him on his “Dark Horse”

tour of the U.S. and Canada, raising his musical profile even further.

Shortly after the two month stint with Harrison, Robben moved to

Colorado to take a much-needed break from music and to study with

Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa. In 1977, he was approached by

Elektra Records, which produced his first solo recording “The Inside

Story” with a group of musicians who went on to become The

Yellowjackets.

Elektra closed their doors in the early 1980’s, leading to a time of

uncertainty.  Robben moved to San Francisco to be close to family and his

early musical history. Soon his career would take another upward swing,

recording and touring with Michael McDonald, securing a recording

contract with Warner Brothers Records, and meeting his soon-to-be wife,

actress Anne Kerry. After moving to New York with Anne, he was called to

play with musical icon Miles Davis. “Producer Tommy LiPuma played Miles

my work with the Yellowjackets, then three days later, Miles called me

personally to join his band. Shocking!” Robben lamented having to leave

Miles after only six months because of recording commitments with

Warner Brothers, but was told by Miles that if he ever wanted to come

back, “just come back.”

Robben’s 1988 release for Warner Brothers, “Talk to Your Daughter”

brought his first Grammy nomination (Best Contemporary Blues

Recording) and he started touring the world under his own name. Still

based in New York, he backed David Sandborn on the television show

“Night Music,” in which Sandborn hosted a variety of musical acts.

Robben toured with Sandborn in 1990, then moved back to southern

California shortly thereafter to be closer to his own band.

After leaving Warner Brothers, Robben signed with Stretch/GRP records,

where he finally found a real home for his creativity, recording three CDs

for them with his band “The Blue Line” (Tom Brechtlein on drums and

Roscoe Beck on bass). After a very fruitful eight years, Robben disbanded

the group and recorded two more CDs for the label which had then

become Stretch/Blue Thumb: “Tiger Walk” (an instrumental recording

produced in New York with Keith Richard’s rhythm section) and

“Supernatural,” his most accomplished work up to that point as a

songwriter.In 2000 Robben was invited to tour with Phil Lesh and Friends on a cobill with Bob Dylan, reuniting him with Billy Paine and Paul Barrere of

Little Feat, as well as drummer John Molo. “This experience gave me new

respect for Jerry Garcia as a musician and songwriter. The songs and

musical context were pure pleasure–real guitar music!

When his contract expired at Stretch/Blue Thumb, Robben signed with

Concord Records, the largest independently-owned record company at

the time. In 2002, he released “Blue Moon” and in 2003 “Keep on

Runnin,” a recording full of the 60’s blues/R&B feeling with which he

grew up. His third release for Concord was entitled “Truth”. “I feel this is

the best work I have done in terms of a solo recording. It is my most

realized work as a songwriter, and I feel like I am reaching higher ground

as a guitarist. “Truth” represents the blues as they are today; some of the

songs are sociopolitical in essence, but not without humor, and the

musical setting is fresh.”

Robben’s fourth release for Concord, Soul on Ten” is a “live” recording

performed in San Francisco. “People had been requesting a live recording

for years and I had the right band, music, and venue to pull it o”.” The

CD also includes two studio tracks which feature Larry Goldings on B3

organ and John Button on bass.

Most recently (2010) Robben released “Renegade Creation,” with a group

of musical friends who have played in di”erent combinations and

contexts over the years and decided to focus on a project together

recording for Mike Varney’s Shrapnel label. This is a rock band, Robben’s

first, and the results have people talking: “Dare I say everyone who hears

it, loves it!” The other members are guitarist Mike Landau, bassist Jimmy

Haslip and drummer Gary Novak.

Robben has been touring the world o” and on with the legendary

guitarist Larry Carlton, the two producing “Live in Tokyo”, and an

“unplugged” DVD from Paris. Collaboration seems to be the current M.O.

– projects with John Scofield, Michael McDonald, and touring and

recording with fellow Miles Davis alumni saxophonist Bill Evans, as well as

Randy Brecker and Rolling Stones bassist Darryl Jones.

Robben also collaborates with his wife Anne on various musical projects

including her recent CD “Weill”, which Robben produced on their own

Illyria label.

2007 was an eventful year for 79th Street Sound Stage. I had an opportunity to book acts in a small club and one of the many acts I had that year was BX3 which included Stu Hamm, Jeff Berlin, and Billy Sheehan. These three guys are on a lot of people’s lists of top 10 bass players but what made that show even better was the following night I had Robben Ford along with his long time Bassist Roscoe Beck the following night. Roscoe is on my list of all time bass players.

A few months later Joe Bonamassa celebrated his 30th birthday at the club and he had recently added Carmine Rojas to his line up.  Carmine first came to my attention as David Bowie’s bass player on the Let’s Dance album and then followed him through he days with Rod Stewart.

2011 will add two more bassists to my been there done that list that would be included in the top ten bassist’s list of most people. Victor Wooten and Stanley Clarke. Appearing this March 9th at the Bricktown Events Center for a special co-bill featuring both bassists with their own bands. Should be interesting mix of Jazz and Fusion.

 

July 22nd, 2010

Oklahoma City Limits

Tickets

About Walter Trout -

“People ask me if they should call my music blues or rock, I tell them they can call it ‘Fred’ if they must have a label.”

That remark, along with the exclamation that “the blues shouldn’t be a museum… the music ought to constantly expand and be alive,” have been expressed again and again by Walter Trout during his 35+ year career. With the release of FULL CIRCLE, the statements hold true as Trout and his musical friends demonstrate their appreciation of all shades of the blues genre. The album reflects Walter Trout’s remarkable story, from his humble beginnings as a sideman in many a blues legends’ band through his rising solo star, arriving as one of blues music’s beloved interpreters. Read the rest of this entry »

 

Saturday April 17th, 9 pm

Oklahoma City Limits

Tickets

For Johnny A., the guitar has held a lifelong fascination, her six strings exerting a powerful influence and addictive beauty since the first time he held them. The pursuit of this musical lady with the perfect shape has driven his years - shaping the course of his life – taking him places he never could have imagined. Through inspiring moments of ecstatic improvisation, deep contemplation and inevitable gaps of frustration it has been a stormy affair with a tempestuous hollow-body lover, but the marriage has been nothing less than remarkable.

Johnny A. is widely regarded as one of America’s finest contemporary guitarists. Gibson thinks so – their Custom Shop designed a Signature Edition guitar per his specific requests which, when it was marketed in 2003, placed him in an exclusive club that included legends like BB King, Wes Montgomery, Chet Atkins, Joe Perry, Pat Martino and Les Paul himself. The public thinks so too - Johnny A.’s latest works have sold many thousands of copies as well as being his personal best. The most recent CD’s - 2004’s Get Inside and 1999’s Sometime Tuesday Morning, are the critically acclaimed solo culmination of a lifetime of learning, sharing and bonding in a long parade of bands and players.

As a bright-eyed six-year old in Malden, Massachusetts, Johnny became fascinated with the drums, a habit his father encouraged by buying him a kit. There were lessons and the Jr. High School marching band, but as fun as the skins were, he realized that their melodic capability was quite limited. Rhythm had taken a backseat to melody and since the most melodic instrument in any 60’s beat group was guitar, those six-strings now began their inexorable pull on Johnny A’s life. Once the four “mop-tops” from Liverpool dropped like a bomb from Ed Sullivan’s studio into his living room in 1964, his course was set.

A $49 Lafayette Electronics guitar became Johnny A.’s first girlfriend. A humble beginning for sure, but his mom was no fool and wanted to be safe if this ‘guitar thing’ just turned out to be another passing teenage phase. It wasn’t. Johnny saw the Beatles at Suffolk Downs outside of Boston in 1966 and their magical presence sent the impressionable lad into a blur of activity – sweeping up hair and doing odd jobs at his aunt’s salon to save up the 88 bucks needed to buy a Vox Clubman guitar. Then, of course, he had to have a Gretsch too. No, this was no passing phase.

Fate leaned in and dealt a tough one when the active 13-year old developed a curvature in his spine and suffered massive and painful muscle spasms as a result. Doctors put Johnny in a full body cast for 14 months and eventual body brace for two years to immobilize his back and neck during treatment. As much as this terrible handicap limited the schoolboy in his activities, it didn’t stop him from playing. In fact, the condition actually forced Johnny to improve his skills since he could no longer look down at his fingers while forming chords and picking.

In high school he was freed from the cast, graduated and then went on to a semester and a half at Boston’s Berklee School of Music. Ironically, Johnny had no interest in attending even one of his guitar lessons at the prestigious school - they taught textbook Bebop, while he had moved onto the latest sounds: Progressive Rock and Jazz/Rock Fusion. The instructors preached Lester Young, but Johnny grooved on Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin, King Crimson and Return to Forever featuring Bill Connors and Chick Corea. He bid adieu to Berklee and schooled himself, both at home and in Boston’s hippie-era club scene at places like the Ark and Boston Tea Party.

In amongst going to see Ten Years After, Steppenwolf, Edger Winter’s White Trash, Rhinoceros, Spirit and dozens more, Johnny put together his own group called Squanty Roo. They might not have blazed a trail to Budokan, but they did play the Fusion sounds that the guitarist was digging on. After that it was a short pilgrimage to San Francisco to absorb some counterculture and do a brief stint with percussionist Mingo Lewis.

By 1975 Johnny A. had worked out of his progressive phase and hungered to put together a basic rock outfit with the energy of Aerosmith and the melodic fascinations of the Beatles. It was the pre-punk period and Boston was about to become a hotbed of local talent and a leading city to support the brand new wave of bands and attitude. Johnny formed the group The Streets, a leather-clad unit on the ground floor of hard rock that embraced the sounds of 60’s British Invasion pop. When Boston’s punk scene finally climbed out of a handful of dingy rock and roll basements with its first wave of rock recruits for the brand new era, The Streets were there, scoring a major local radio hit with the song “What Gives.”

Eventually, personnel changes killed The Streets, but the guitarist formed other bands – Johnny A.’s Hidden Secret and Hearts on Fire, a unit featuring his wife Beth on vocals. With a sound that drew from country-western twang but rocked solid, Hearts on Fire preceded Maria McKee’s Lone Justice and pioneered a distinctive place within Boston’s thriving mid-80’s local scene. Competing in the 1986 edition of WBCN-FM’s annual Rock and Roll Rumble spotlighting two dozen of the year’s best up and coming bands, Hearts on Fire blazed a trail all the way into the finals, becoming recognized truly as one of New England’s finest and brightest hopes.

But Johnny broke up the group instead after realizing that their direction had become “calculated” and “not honest.” Disillusioned after reaching so far within the band format, he began playing with other artists like former Derek and the Dominos keyboardist Bobby Whitlock before hooking up with legendary J. Geils Band front man Peter Wolf. Johnny stayed with Wolf for seven years, playing on his albums and co-producing one of them – 1996’s Long Line, as well as supporting the charismatic singer onstage around the world. During this period, in 1994, the Gibson Guitar Company first recognized Johnny’s talents, announcing that the company was officially endorsing his fruitful career.

But once again Johnny A. felt he had taken a direction and pursuit as far as he could. The idea began to take hold that he should return to a solo direction – this time creating an album of melodies and music that swirled about in his head. Even though it didn’t seem as if there was any commercial potential in the move, that wasn’t the point – Johnny needed to bring this project to life and it wouldn’t resemble anything he’d been involved in the past. Peter Wolf and Johnny A. parted ways and the guitarist began recording tracks for his new experiment – an album of music made merely to satisfy his own muse with no commercial constraints whatsoever.

The result was Sometime Tuesday Morning, a solo instrumental guitar album that Johnny A. released on his own label for his own enjoyment plus that of a few intrigued friends and family members. But the warmth of its guitar tones and allure of melody made Sometime Tuesday Morning much more – it made the album a surprise hit. After gigs Johnny began selling dozens, then hundreds, and eventually thousands of copies out of his car trunk. The attention led to a re-release and distribution deal with Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label and an ever-widening circle of high-prestige gigs with the likes of B.B. King, Robert Cray, and Jeff Beck plus an appearance at Eric Clapton’s “Crossroads Guitar Festival” in 2004. That success gave Johnny A. the confidence to assemble his second instrumental tour de force called Get Inside, another critically acclaimed album that traveled even deeper into the richness of guitar texture and melody. The release once again garnered national radio airplay and inspired another round of touring commitments and personal appearances. An instructional guitar DVD has followed plus plans for his newest project – a live CD/DVD featuring special guests and new material. It has been a long way from that first $49 guitar to Gibson’s Johnny A. Signature Edition (Metallica’s Kirke Hammett recently bought one), but it’s been a fruitful journey. Johnny A. is still doing what he loves to do the most - play guitar and create music, and he’s still getting better at it all the time.

Monte Montgomery February, 27th 8 pm

Oklahoma City Limits

Special Guest: TBA

Named as one of “Guitar Player” magazine’s “Top 50 All-Time Greatest Guitarists” and the only artist to win the “Best Acoustic Guitar Player” at the Austin Music Awards seven years straight, Monte Montgomery is world-renowned for his dizzying fretboard wizardry. Guitar hero status aside, Montgomery is also a multi-dimensional songwriter and storyteller as well as a talented arranger and remarkably soulful vocalist. He is one of the very few living guitar gods able to synergize technical shredding with deep soul connection in his songs and performances. Austin City Limits producer Terry Lickona describes the musician perfectly, “Monte Montgomery blows people away. There is no other way to describe it.”

Tickets

Nov 16th Charlie Musselwhite Tickets   Blues is tough,” Charlie Musselwhite explains. He could just as easily be talking about himself. Described by the San Jose Mercury News as, “the second coming of Led Zeppelin, with Tom Waits on vocals,” Charlie and his band embody the direct and timeless power of the blues. Charlie continues to deliver that hi-wattage intensity on stage, testifying to the truth of living in real America night in and night out. Whether it’s the rough river town of Memphis of his childhood, the rough South Side Chicago juke joints where he cut his teeth as a performer or the disillusioned Twenty First Century New Orleans, Musselwhite’s music still speaks - loud and clear - to the soul with passion and grace. When Charlie released his first record, 1967’s defiant Stand Back, the country was in the midst of an unpopular war and entering the slipstream of rapid cultural and political change. Fast forward four decades and not much has changed. Neither has Musselwhite’s musical wanderlust nor his creative ambition. His hunger to explore new sounds and possibilities resulted in an acclaimed 2007 collaboration with alt-rock institution Eddie Vedder on the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack to the film Into The Wild. Vedder’s haunting vocals and Musselwhite’s aching harp strains added to the movie’s already powerful story. Charlie recalls the sessions as a mutual admiration society. “It was great. Sean Penn was there, too. They were fans and knew a lot of my records. We hit it off right away and had great rapport.” Charlie describes this give and take between himself and performers from other generations and different genres as, “a conversation.” It is an ongoing one that has been a key reason why his music remains so vital. “Every situation has something to offer and can spark new ideas,” he explains. “Something new comes out of it.” Musselwhite sums up: “It’s like… I know what I know. What do you know that can make things even more interesting?” Charlie also finds inspiration in diverse cultural experience. An avid traveler, Charlie loves to investigate all music “with feeling / music from the heart.” He and his band go wherever the gigs are - including China, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Brazil. Even though Charlie has already racked up thousands of miles on tour buses and still spends a great deal of time away from his current Sonoma County, California home, he still books tour itineraries that would wear out performers half his age. Charlie finds that these journeys allow him, “to get beneath the surface of the place.” These treks reinforce Musselwhite’s belief in music’s universality. No matter that they were half a world away from the American stages that gave birth to the genre, Charlie remembers hearing, “people playing blues in their own way, their own version.” Like some Jungian archetype, Musselwhite calls this a global “music of lament from the heart,” with, “different takes,” from country to country. Musselwhite’s most recent album, 2006’s critically praised Delta Hardware (released by Peter Gabriel’s Real World imprint), runs a wide emotional gamut from the hip-shaking boogie of, “Church Is Out,” to the haunting Katrina lament, “Black Water.” Charlie’s electric brand of roots music, drawing equally from rock and blues traditions, permeates the disc. But, in addition to the traditional, Delta Hardware finds Musselwhite stretching out and exploring new sounds, including bits of samples and drums loops. When asked if he is writing any new material, Charlie replies, “I’m constantly working on new stuff. It’s an ongoing process.” As if touring the globe, releasing acclaimed albums and embarking on major collaborations wasn’t enough for Musselwhite’s to-do list, he even found time to act in his first feature film, Pig Hunt. A bold, jarring and independent slice of horror dubbed, “cinematic punkabilly,” Pig Hunt isn’t for the faint of heart. But, for Charlie, whose part was created specifically with him in mind by script writer Robert Mailer Anderson, the shoot was, “Very professional… fun, serious work.” Musselwhite was born in the Mississippi - the cradle of the blues. He spent his formative years in another musical hothouse, Memphis, Tennessee. Fortuitously, he arrived during its burgeoning postwar ascent, a vibrant cross-pollenization of down-home country, swinging jazz and soulful R&B. Charlie remembers, “I just figured every place was like Memphis. In the neighborhood, I could take a walk a couple blocks in any direction and come across some guys playing blues, hillbilly, gospel or rockabilly literally on the front steps, or in the yard. You could hear the music, and follow the sound.” Some of the young hotshots just getting their start in the city’s nightclubs at the time were Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. Charlie often found himself at Elvis’ parties or watching Johnny and Tommy Cash styling through the Memphis streets. Heck, Johnny and Dorsey Burnette lived right across the street from Charlie. Slim Rhodes lived only a couple blocks away. Music had sunk its teeth deep into Charlie, but economic necessity made him move to Chicago in the mid 60’s. Now on his own as a young adult, Musselwhite looked for a good job and a better life. But, inevitably, the South Side scene, filled with legendary players like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker, drew him in. Soon, Charlie was living in the basement of Delmark records with Big Joe Williams and meeting the era’s greats. Musselwhite’s prodigious talent and laidback attitude soon won him a place at their sides both on stage or sharing a bottle in the alley out back of the bar. During the course of the remarkable career that followed, Musselwhite has collected a treasure trove of awards and accolades, including 18 W.C. Handy trophies, and six Grammy nominations. Amazon.com named Delta Hardware the best blues album of 2006. Musselwhite has also been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Monterey Blues Festival, the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and a prestigious Brass Note plaque on Memphis’ Beale Street (prominently placed outside B.B. King’s Club). The latest in this list is the Mississippi Trail Marker on the square of his birthplace, Kosciusko Mississippi. However, probably more meaningful for a true bluesman like Charlie has been the love and respect from his fellow musicians, which he has received in spades. The artists that Musselwhite has worked with reads like a veritable Hall of Fame honor roll: In addition to Eddie Vedder, Charlie has collaborated with Tom Waits, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Gov’t Mule, INXS, Mickey Hart, George Thorogood and personal friend and best man at his wedding John Lee Hooker. Ultimately, though, for Charlie Musselwhite the thrill and challenge of engaging an audience fuels his artistry. “It’s about the feeling, and connecting with people,” he explains, “And blues, if it’s real blues, is loaded with feeling.” Charlie continues that, “it ain’t about technique either, it’s about truth, connecting to the truth and communicating with people.”             “

 

 

 

  Ana Popovic

Appearing live at Oklahoma City Limits Saturday night June 20, 2009

Ever since her debut album was nominated for a BMA for best new artist in 2003 American’s have embraced this Belgrade Serbia native, who now resides in Amsterdam, Ana Popovic will be making her first Oklahoma appearance Saturday June 20^th at Oklahoma City Limits 4801 South Eastern.

 

Ana is yet another European heavily influenced by American blues artists but melds with her own Jazzy style developed listening to her fathers record collection filled with western popular music. Although she played professionally in Eastern European festival at an early age she came in to her own after moving to Amsterdam to continue her studies in graphic design. There she formed a Dutch band and became a fixture on the local music scene. She was signed to Ruf records and from there her career took an international course.

 

She is now touring in support of her newest release Still Making History on American label Delta Groove records. She has been lauded by such publications as Guitar Player Magazine “Ana is a superb singer and songwriter who can flatpick fluid jazzlines, and deep string bends with SRV-style and emotion.” She stands poised to shake your foundations.” Guitar One magazine.

For the second time Ana and her European band are invited to play at the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise. On high sea Ana jams with Susan Tedeschi, Larry McCray, Bob Margolin and many more. Ana is part of Robert Radler’s guitar documentary ‘Turn it up’ aka TONE, about the worlds best guitars and guitar players.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is 79th Street Soundstage’s new home on the web. While the site has been launched and is here for public consumption over the next few days we will be putting the finishing touches on the information here.

Information on upcoming concerts being promoted by 79th Street Soundstage, backline equipment rentals, and soundstage (rehearsal hall) availability is being updated continuously.

Let us know what you think about the new site by dropping us a line here —- contact us.

Thank you.