community weblog - [ AMRF Festivals and Concerts ]

Life, History, Music

The words, “Life, History, Music,” loom large on the AMRF letterhead. If you have any questions about what those words mean to us, look no further that the cover story in the October 1, 2008 edition of Detroit’s Metro Times on Little Sonny Willis, one of the performers in  this weekend’s 10^th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival at the Music Hall. See the pictures and read the article here.

We could ask for no better endorsement of our work than that of the Arts League of Michigan,  We thank the Arts League in general and President Oliver Ragsdale in particular for coverage of the Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival in his weekly column.

10 Years Young!

The Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival has always been about more than just presenting a great annual concert or two. From the beginning it was conceived as a vehicle that would bring great artists together so that their performances and stories could be captured on videotape. Just look at the poster on the left side of your screen.The goal is to document and preserve our musical and cultural heritage so that future generations will have an opportunity to understand it. This is the mission of the American Music Research Foundation.  

As we celebrate our 10th anniversary we can look back with satisfaction on the history we have preserved and even some history we have made. We have documented the music and stories of over 50 artists, including such seminal figures as Koko Taylor, Johnnie Johnson, and Jay McShann. (For a complete list visit the artists page of our website.)

In 2004 Maria Muldaur recreated the sound and look of the Classic Blues singers of the 20's with James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band, a performance that inspired the best selling album, "Naughty, Bawdy & Blue," and the title of our TV show and DVD, "Boogie & the Blues Diva."In 2006 we presented 22 artists on stage for a night of Big Band Boogie Woogie, including performances in which world renowned solo pianist Bob Seeley played with a big band for the first time. In 2007 we reintroduced Frank "Sugarchild" Robinson, who disappeared from the scene after having been one of the biggest stars of the day as a child in the 50's.

We have produced four public television programs that have aired over 600 times on close to 200 stations across the country. Five additional hours of programming are in production, and this year's Festival will result in two more.

Throughout our 10 years, our good friend John Collier has documented our festivals with his brilliant photography.
VIEW A PHOTOGRAPHIC RETROSPECIVE OF THE MOTOR CITY BLUES &BOOGIE WOOGIE FESTIVAL. 

For our 10th annual festival we are proud to present a particularly rich array of artists with deep roots in the Blues, Boogie Woogie, Gospel, and Soul. The on-camera interviews will capture over 600 years of history, from New Orleans to the cotton fields of Mississippi and Alabama and the Midwestern industrial centers of Chicago and Detroit.

The concerts themselves, to be held at Detroit's Music Hall  October 3rd and 4th, will undoubtedly be among the most memorable we have ever produced. Make sure you're there! 

TICKETS : $35/NIGHT GENERAL ADMISSION
$60 FOR A 2-DAY PASS
$75/NIGHT VIP TICKETS INCLUDE MEZZANINE SEATING, COMPLEMENTARY BUFFET, AND CASH BAR
AVAILABLE AT THE MUSIC HALL BOX OFFICE 313-887-8486
OR VIA TICKETMASTER.COM

Get tickets now!

THE 10TH ANNUAL MOTOR CITY BLUES & BOOGIE WOOGIE FESTIVAL

OUR BIGGEST FESTIVAL EVER!
AT THE MUSIC HALL CENTER IN DOWNTOWN DETROIT

Friday October 3 Doors 7:00pm show 8:00pm
Bob Seeley, Pinetop Perkins with Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Allen Toussaint

Thanks for Visiting at Jazzfest

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk to you about the American Music Research Foundation at the Detroit International Jazzfest Labor Day weekend.

The 10th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival is just around the corner and it's going to rattle the rafters at the Detroit Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts.

Friday night October 3rd is a piano blues bash with Bob Seeley, Pinetop Perkins with Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Allen Toussaint.

Saturday night October 4th brings Detroit's King of the Harmonica Little Sonny Willis with very special guest Eddie Burns, followed by Otis Clay and finally, the great Bobby Rush.

General admission tickets are just $35 a night, or $60 for a 2-night pass. VIP tickets providing mezzanine seating, a complimentary buffet, and a cash bar are available for $75 a night. Call the Music Hall Box office at 313-887-8486, or buy online from ticketmaster.

Make sure to use those postcards we gave you at the jazzfest for 10% discounts on tickets. And congratulations to the winners of our drawing for free tickets, Julie Evans-Zelinske of Dearborn and Patricia Walker of Detroit. We'll see you at the show!

The American Music Research Foundation is a non-profit dedicated the preservation, promotion, and documentation of American music, particularly Blues and Boogie Woogie, Gospel, Jazz, and Rhythm & Blues. As we celebrate our 10th Anniversary we can look back and see that, not only have we documented and preserved performances and oral histories of such artists as Jay McShann, Johnnie Johnson, Alberta Adams, and Red Holloway (for a complete list visit the artist page), but we have also made some history. We are working on some special events surrounding this year's festival - watch this space for updates! 

The 10th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival

It's our 10th anniversary and we're proud to present a particularly rich array of artists with deep roots in boogie woogie, blues, gospel, and soul at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Detroit.

General admission tickets are $35 each night, $75 VIP tickets provide you with mezzanine seating, complimentary buffet, and a cash bar. Available at the Music Hall box office (313-887-8500) and through ticketmaster.

For more information click here. or call toll free 1-866-270-5141.

10TH ANNUAL MOTOR CITY BLUES & BOOGIE WOOGIE FESTIVAL

The 10^th 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 and interviews with the artists will be recorded and used to produce nationally distributed programs for public television. For our 10th anniversary we are presenting a particularly rich array of artists with deep roots in the blues, boogie woogie, gospel, soul, and rhythm and blues.

Tickets are $35 each night for general admission, $60 for a two night pass. $75 VIP tickets include mezzanine seating, complimetary buffet and cash bar. Available from the Music Hall Box Office at 313-887-8500 and from ticketmaster .

FRIDAY OCTOBER 3

My First Boogie Duet by Charlie Booty

Our friend Charlie Booty passed away in February of 2008. In 2006 he wrote this article for us about performing his first boogie duet:

My First Boogie Duet
by
Charlie Booty

 Thrills and great moments sometimes come totally unexpected and provide “Cloud 9” experiences that are just as real decades later.  Don Ewell, a great jazz, stride and blues piano player, provided such an experience for me in a Memphis, Tennessee, club during a 1965 late-night after hours session.  Let me digress briefly to say that Don Ewell is famous for his jazz band, his stride and blues piano but is NEVER thought of as a boogie woogie player.  That is because he had to protect his source of income.  A player with a reputation as a boogie woogie player (in the 40’s through the 70’s) was not welcome in many venues.  Consequently, he didn’t play boogie woogie in public and became a “closet” player, visiting with Jimmie and Estelle Yancey many times during the 40’s when he was in Chicago, as well as listening to other South Side Chicago players.  In later years, after Jimmie died, Don recorded an album of blues with Estelle “Mama” Yancey.

 Back to the 1965 Memphis club event, Don was in town for a week, playing piano with a local pick-up band.  I was already a solid fan because of his recordings and was in attendance every night but had no idea that he ever played boogie woogie.  One night, after the show was over, the customers had gone and Don was at the bar talking with band members, I sat down at the piano and began playing some up-tempo boogie woogie.  Suddenly, Don came over, watched me a few seconds, then sat down on the piano bench and said, “Scoot over”.  I was taken aback but complied as he put his hands on the keyboard.  After a few choruses, he suggested that we do a slower boogie blues tempo and, next, a moderate tempo boogie.  Since this was a one-piano session, he indicated by hand motions and brief verbal directions, how to do the choreography and keep from tripping over each other’s fingers.  As we played, he would tell me when we were to take breaks.  At one break, he quickly said, “Move to the treble”, so I sprinted  to his right side and began playing the treble keys.  The band drummer, who had joined us on the first duet, kept saying, “Man, I never saw anything like that before.”

As Don and I walked back to the bar, I was bubbling over with praise and enthusiasm.  At one point I said, “Don, I never knew you could play boogie woogie!”   He gave me a big grin and replied, “Charlie, I don’t play boogie woogie.  You know that.”

In many later recordings Don proved that , not only could he play great boogie woogie styles, he also had a strong feel for the music.  He didn’t copy anybody but could play very authentic versions of the pioneer masters.  Despite the evidence, Don was never acknowledged as the great boogie woogie player that he was.

I am still honored, and humbled, by that experience.

Sugar Chile Robinson plays Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival

In 1945 Detroit’s Frank “Sugar Chile” Robinson lost a boogie woogie piano contest because he was too young to officially compete; he was six years old. By the age of eight he had performed with Lionel Hampton, played for President Truman at the White House, and appeared in the Hollywood movie “No Leave, No Love” with Van Johnson and Keenan Wynn. By the age of 12 he was one of the most famous entertainers in the country, regularly breaking box office records at theatres across the country and in Europe.

By the age of 15 Sugar Chile had all but disappeared and for the past 50 years music historians and boogie woogie affecionados have been asking, "Whatever happened to Sugar Chile?"

In 2003 Sugar Chile surfaced briefly for a performance at Southfield’s Millenium Theater. In 2006 his 1950 recording of “Go Boy Go!” was used in a television commercial for Dockers and the drumbeat in the boogie woogie community intensified, noting that he had been “spotted” in Detroit a couple of years earlier.

In early 2007 the Magic Bag’s Willie Wilson contacted Harwood to say that Sugar Chile had been booked for a festival in England and therefore might be willing to perform at the AMRF’s Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival. Harwood and Penney met with Frank Robinson a couple of weeks later and after a long exploratory conversation he agreed to perform and be interviewed on camera. His single condition was that he be allowed to bring his church choir. “That was then, this is now” is the way he described his set, which would begin with the boogie woogie piano he played in his youth and end with the gospel music he now plays in church.

On October 6, 2007 Frank “Sugar Chile” Robinson returned to the stage of Detroit’s Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, one of the first he had ever played on as a child. As he moved from the “then” portion of his set to “now” he answered the 50 year old question:

“I started out so young I really had no childhood...and I wanted to stop entertaining because I wanted a thorough education. I was raised in show business with a tutor. And the tutor taught school. So when he was in school teaching, all my friends were in school too...and when he came to the house they were out playing, and I was in school. I had to make a decision about whether to keep entertaining or to get an education. And that’s what I did. That’s the reason why you didn’t hear from Sugar Chile in a long time.”

Frank Robinson earned a PhD in Psychology from the University of Michigan and has lived quietly in Detroit  ever since. He will perform at the Rhythm Riot Festival in Cambor, England Thanksgiving weekend. The television program containing his performance and interview during the 9th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival will be released in 2008.

CONTACT: MATT LEE: MLeibow412@aol.com  248-584-3715

      TOP PHOTO: FRANK "SUGAR CHILE" ROBINSON AT THE 2007 MOTOR CITY BLUES & BOOGIE WOOGIE FESTIVAL.

PHOTO BY JOHN COLLIER (c)2007 AMERICAN MUSIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION 

BOTTOM PHOTO UNATTRIBUTED: SUGAR CHILE 1947

It's Festival Time!

"The best festival of the year!" Robert Jr. Whitall, Big City Blues

WE'LL SEE YOU AT MUSIC HALL!

Tickets $27, $37, and $47 from ticketmaster
and the Music Hall Box Office 313-887-8501

Gen2 Blues comes to Public Television

WATCH FOR IT ON PUBLIC TELEVISION
BUY THE DVD WITH 75 MINUTES OF BONUS FOOTAGE

Childhood is different when your father is a famous blues musician; if you follow in his footsteps you bring a different perspective on music and history to your own artistry.  This is what unites the performers in Gen2 Blues: Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival. Kenny Neal is the oldest son of Raful Neal, Tasha Taylor grew up on the road with her father, Johnnie “The Wailer” Taylor, and Bernard Allison learned his first guitar licks by copying father Luther’s records.  Special guest Tito Jackson broke father Joe’s rule to not touch the guitar but if he hadn't it might not have been the Jackson 5.
  
Backed by the Phantom Blues Band these stellar performers create a joyous celebration of the blues. This program was recorded at the Royal Oak Music Theatre during the 7th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Festival in October 2005.

Click here  for rough-cut 3-minute sampler

9th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival moves to Music Hall in Downtown Detroit

The American Music Research Foundation is pleased to announce that the 9th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival will take place in downtown Detroit at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts on Friday October 5th and Saturday October 6th. The performances will be recorded for public television.

Headlining on Friday night are Koko Taylor & Her Blues Machine. With two Grammies, eight Grammy nominations, and a record 24 W.C. Handy Awards, Koko Taylor is one of the most celebrated blues performers alive today. She got her big break from Willie Dixon, who produced her first hit, “Wang Dang Doodle” in 1966.

 The Tommy Castro Band is simply one of the most exciting live blues bands on the circuit today. Guitarist/vocalist Castro was voted 2006 Blues Artist of the Year by readers of BluesWax, the largest subscribed blues publication in the country. Texas’ Ruthie Foster has been compared to Aretha, Ella and a young Tina Turner. The Austin Chronicle writes, “Foster’s deeply soulful vocals dip into gospel and swing towards contemporary folk with R&B panache. When she sings a cappella, the heavens part.”  Finally, Ana Popovic was born and raised in Belgrade, but her soul resides in Memphis, where she has recorded three critically acclaimed albums. In 2003 she received a W.C. Handy nomination for “Best New Artist,” and in 2006 was nominated for six Living Blues Awards.

Saturday night’s performance celebrates boogie woogie and blues piano. Headlining is the bayou queen of southern boogie, long, tall, Marcia Ball. Her performances never fail to raise the roof and bring down the house. Deanna Bogart is as proficient on the saxophone as she is on the piano, and The Deanna Bogart Band serves up the energy of 30’s style boogie woogie with the contemporary blues of places like Memphis, New Orleans, and Chicago. Leon Blue may just be the finest blues piano man you’ve never heard, but only because he has spent most of his career as a sideman, including lengthy spells with The Ike & Tina Turner Review, Lowell Fulsom, and Albert Collins to name but a few. In the early 50’s, Frank “Sugar Chile’” Robinson was a child star, playing boogie woogie on record, on television, in movies, and on tour with Count Basie among others. He gave up the big time as a teenager to pursue other interests, which included earning a PhD, but he continues to play piano in the church, where the music is the same but you have to call it something different. Rounding out the bill is today’s teenage boogie woogie sensation, Maryland’s Matt Wigler. Matt has appeared on stage with Buckwheat Zydeco, Bobby Rush, Tab Benoit, Sir Mack Rice, and many others. His debut album, “Matt Wigler XIII” was produced by Deanna Bogart.

Tickets are $27, $37, and $47, available at the Music Hall box office and Tickemaster.

Four New Television Programs in Production

 

At the American Music Research Foundation we don’t just put on concerts, record them, and make TV shows of great performances. Rather, as a 501(c)(3) our mission is to connect all the dots, demonstrate the continuity between musical styles over time and geography, and break through the artificial barriers that package music, musicians, and audiences in separate boxes. 

 

We are producing four new 60 minute television programs from the 2005 and 2006 Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festivals and have created a new web page that contains samplers from these programs, as well as "Boogie & the Blues Diva," and "2003 Motor City Boogie Woogie & Blues Festival." Click here to go to the page, or click on the links below to watch the individual samplers.

Big Band Boogie Woogie  Big band music of the swing era was primarily for dancing, and nothing got dancers on floor like the eight-beats-to-the-bar boogie woogie beat. This program recreates the feel of those times and highlights the relationship between the blues, boogie woogie, and jazz. Performers include the 15 piece Paul Keller Orchestra, pianists Bob Seeley, Charles Boles, Mr. B., and Axel Zwingenberger, clarinetist Dave Bennett, saxophonist Red Holloway, guitarist George Bedard, and of course, the dancers. Watch the sampler!

Detroit Blues & Beyond The blues informs virtually all popular music in America, and Alberta Adams and Johnnie Bassett are acknowledged masters. Sir Mack Rice wrote some of the biggest R&B hits of all time, including “Mustang Sally.” Calvin Cooke is master of the "Sacred Steel Guitar," a tradition that comes from the Pentecostal Church and is heavily influenced by the blues. The Howling Diablos are a “rock band,” but their original music would not be possible without the blues. All of these artists are from Detroit. Watch the sampler!

Gen2 Blues The sons and daughters of blues artists have a unique perspective on the continuity of the tradition. Our performers include Bernard Allison, son of Chicago blues great Luther Allison; Kenny Neal, son of Raful Neal and a member of one of New Orleans' most prestigious musical families; Tasha Taylor, daughter of Johnnie “The Wailer” Taylor; and Tito Jackson of the Jackson 5. Performing with all of these artists is the Grammy-winning Phantom Blues Band. Watch the sampler!

International Boogie Woogie The American piano style called boogie woogie has spread around the world, and is particularly popular in Europe. This program puts on the same stage Germany’s Sylvan Zingg, France’s Philippe LeJeune, Toronto’s Michael Kaeshammer, and American expatriate Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, now residing in Vancouver BC.  Watch the sampler!

                
 

Funk Brother Joe Hunter Passes

Pictorial Review of the 2006 Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival

A Pictorial Recap of the 7th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival

2005 Festival Announcement