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Deanna Bogart at Callahan's Friday January 27th

Deanna Bogart is not our BFF at The American Music Research Foundation just because she raised the rafters at our 9^th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival in 2007. Nor because she was the Blues Music Awards Horn Instrumentalist of the Year three years running and has received 22 Wammies (Washington Area Music Association Awards) along the way.

It’s not because she’s a pianist who can boogie your woogie ‘till the cows come home, a vocalist who can make your hair stand on end, and a live performer who can singe that hair right off your head and make it grow back in the color of your choice in a single set.

It’s not because she was born in Detroit either, though that helps.  

Deanna Bogart is our BFF because no matter what the room she’s the hippest person in it, whether blowing a horn, tickling keys, singing, or just hanging out.

She’ll be doing all of the above at Callahan’s Music Hall this Friday night January 27^th. Trust us when we tell you that, if you go, you’ll have a new BFF too. Doors at 6:30, show at 8:00.

Allen Toussaint The Soul of New Orleans on DPTV Saturday Jan. 21 9pm

 Join DPTV's Fred Nahhat and the AMRF's John Penney for a special fundraising edition of “Allen Toussaint: The Soul of New Orleans” 9:00 - 10:30pm Saturday, January 21, on Detroit Public Television, WTVS Channel 56. 

Watch the first 5 minutes.

The program is the eighth in the Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival series produced by the American Music Research Foundation and the first to focus on an individual artist.

Toussaint is one of the most important musical figure to emerge from New Orleans in our time and yet a relative unknown because his accolades have come for work behind the scenes. He was cited as “the chief architect of the New Orleans sound” when inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1998. In 2009 he received the Grammy Trustee Award, given to "individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording.” This year he was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.

Because Toussaint performed so rarely, no one was quite sure what to expect when he played solo on a Steinway at Detroit’s Music Hall in 2008. But when he opened the show with “Java,” “Certain Girl,” “Mother-in-Law,” “Fortune Teller,” “Working in a Coal Mine,” and, “Get Out of My Life Woman,” the gasps from the audience were audible: “He wrote that too?” Toussaint wasn’t sure what to expect from the audience either, and he was obviously delighted by the reception. The result was a relaxed, joyful, and exquisitely intimate performance.

During the on-camera interview earlier that day at Cliff Bell’s Toussaint had been eloquent and expressive about growing up in New Orleans and the city’s musical heritage. The documentary built from this interview and the performance is extraordinary, and we hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.

DVDs are available at the AMRF’s online store.

Listen to John Penney's "Jazzfest Detroit" Saturday's 7-9pm on 90.9  WRCJ FM Detroit, a joint service of Detroit Public Schools and Detroit Public Television

Mike Montgomery

All of us at the AMRF are still reeling after the sudden and unexpected loss of one of our oldest and dearest friends. Mike Montgomery passed in his sleep sometime after midnight last Tuesday, June 22, 2011. He was 77 years young.

Mike was a world renowned authority on ragtime, early blues and jazz, and particular on piano rolls; he discovered a barn full of them as a teenager growing up in Chicago and was immediately smitten. Mike produced some 26 LPs and CDs, wrote liner notes for many more, and contributed hundreds of scholarly lectures and articles. You’d be hard pressed to find a CD or book or anything in any media published in the last 50 years having to do with ragtime that does not acknowledge Mike’s contributions.

To call him a “Scholar” however doesn’t do him justice. Mike was a Sage.  More than just knowledgeable, he was wise and enlightened, and since music was his avocation rather than vocation he led with his head and heart rather than his wallet.  Mike was more interested in sharing than he was with taking credit, content that his extraordinary contributions simply be disseminated whether acknowledged in a “Special Thanks” section or a footnote or not at all. He went out of his way to share his discoveries; a friend in Ann Arbor reminisced about how Mike showed up out of the blue one day bearing an envelope filled with information about the history of the building he lived in, hooting with delight as he revealed its contents.  All of us who knew and worked with Mike have similar stories.

Mike and AMRF Founder and President Ron Harwood were close friends and colleagues for many decades. Mike rarely missed a Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival, and his research provides fundamental underpinnings for the book on Sippie Wallace and the Thomas family that Ron is writing with the AMRF’s John Penney. Mike continued to make significant contributions until his tragic death. He was a regular visitor at Ron’s offices, where he was well known and well loved. “Make sure to bring Mike by to say ‘Hi’” was a common request.

At Mike’s Memorial one man tearfully recounted how his father had died when he was a youngster, and how Mike had become, in a very real sense, a father to him.  He went on to say that, after he had given a tearful and mournful eulogy for his father, Mike pulled him aside. “You are speaking in a minor key,” Mike told him. “You need to speak in a major key.” How brilliant, how Mike…

Though for many of us Mike Montgomery’s passing is almost more than we can bear, we can take some solace in the joy and wisdom he shared and that enriched our lives. That we could count him a friend is more than a precious thing, and when we speak of him, and sing of him, it will always be in a major key.

Allen Toussaint: The Soul of New Orleans

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD with 30 additional minutes of interview footage and a train-wreck boogie woogie featuring Toussaint with Pinetop Perkins Band, Michael Kaeshammer, David Maxwell, and Bob Seeley.

ALLEN TOUSSAINT: THE SOUL OF NEW ORLEANS

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Songwriters Hall of Fame
Grammy Trustee Award

Performing his songs: Java, Certain Girl, Working in a Coal Mine, Mother-in-Law, Fortune Teller, Get Out of my Life Woman, Southern Nights and more.
Click here for more information.

 $27.50 includes shipping and handling. Visit our online store or call 866-270-5141.

Click here for public television broadcasts in your area. Updated daily.

New from the AMRF: Allen Toussaint the Soul of New Orleans

TO OUR FRIENDS:

“Allen Toussaint: The Soul of New Orleans” is the eighth in the Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival series of public television programs produced by the American Music Research Foundation. Watch the first five minutes here.

Toussaint is one of the most important musical figures to emerge from New Orleans in our time and yet a relative unknown because his accolades have come for work behind the scenes. He was cited as “the chief architect of the New Orleans sound” when inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1998. He received the Grammy Trustee award in 2009, given to "individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording.”  This year he will be inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.

Because Toussaint performs so rarely, no one was quite sure what to expect when he played solo on a Steinway for us at Detroit’s Music Hall in 2008. But when he opened the show with “Java,” “Certain Girl,” “Mother-in-Law,” “Fortune Teller,” “Working in a Coal Mine,” and, “Get Out of My Life Woman,” the gasps from the audience were audible. “He wrote that too?”  Toussaint wasn’t sure what to expect from the audience either, and he was obviously delighted by the reception. The result was a relaxed, joyful, and exquisitely intimate performance.

During the on-camera interview earlier that day Toussaint had been wonderfully eloquent and expressive about growing up in New Orleans and the city’s musical heritage. The documentary we have built from this interview and performance is quite extraordinary, and we hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.

If you like what you see in the first five minutes, please share the video with friends, and let your public television station know that you want them to broadcast “Allen Toussaint: The Soul of New Orleans.

DVDs are available at our online store or by calling 866-270-5141.

New from the AMRF "Allen Toussaint: The Soul of New Orleans"

“Allen Toussaint: The Soul of New Orleans” is the eighth in the Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie series of public television programs produced by the American Music Research Foundation and distributed by NETA (ATNO 00H1, 60min, HD, feed on 4/25 @12noon ET).

 Toussaint is one of the most important musical figures to emerge from New Orleans but still a relative unknown because his accolades have come for work behind the scenes. He was cited as “the chief architect of the New Orleans sound” when inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1998. He received the Grammy Trustee award in 2009, given to "individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording.”  This year he will be inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.

 Because Toussaint performs so rarely, no one was quite sure what to expect when he played solo on a Steinway for us at Detroit’s Music Hall in 2008. But as he opened the show with “Java,” “Certain Girl,” “Mother-in-Law,” “Fortune Teller,” “Working in a Coal Mine,” and, “Get Out of My Life Woman,” the gasps from the audience were audible. “He wrote that too?”  Toussaint wasn’t sure what to expect from the audience either, and he was obviously delighted by the reception. The result was a relaxed, joyful, and exquisitely intimate performance. The capture was brilliantly orchestrated by award winning Director Mark Haney .

 During the on-camera interview earlier that day Toussaint had been wonderfully eloquent and expressive about growing up in New Orleans and the city’s musical heritage. The documentary we have built from this interview and performance is quite extraordinary, and we are confident that it will resonate with you and your viewers.

Watch the first five minutes of the program here 

If you have any questions or if there is anything we can do for you, please write or call anytime.

 Thanks,

John Penney
Director
American Music Research Foundation
30733 West Ten Mile Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48336
(O) 248-478-2525
(C) 248-798-5132
tunesailor@comcast.net
www.amrf.net

Requiem for Pinetop

It had always been our dream to have Pinetop Perkins play the Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival; he was the last of the great Mississippi bluesmen, and the story of boogie woogie is more than incomplete without his.

Pinetop was born in Belzoni, Mississippi, in 1913. He started in juke joints, spent three years with Sonny Boy Williamson on the original King Biscuit Time radio show in Helena, Arkansas, and then toured extensively with Robert Nighthawk and Earl Hooker. It was as an afterthought at a session with Hooker at Sun Studios in Memphis that he recorded his remake of Pinetop Smith’s classic “Boogie Woogie” in 1953 and earned his nickname. In 1969 Pinetop took the piano chair from Otis Span in Muddy Waters’ band, and in 1980 when that band broke up he and several other members formed the Legendary Blues Band. Pinetop went solo in the early 90’s and continued to perform through early last year.

Pinetop was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003, and received a Grammy for Lifetime achievement in 2005. In 2007 "The Last of the Great Delta Bluesmen" was the Grammy's Best Traditional Blues Album of the year. His last recording, “Joined at the Hip” with long-time partner Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, received the same honor in 2010. The Blues Music Awards (formerly the W.C. Handy awards) are the blues equivalent of the Grammy’s, and Pinetop won the best pianist award so many times (11 years in a row) that he was finally retired from competition and the award renamed for him.

Our dream came true at the 10^th annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival in 2008. It was bittersweet. Pinetop was 95 years old and physically frail, arriving at Cliff Bell’s for his interview in a wheelchair. He had lost most of the hearing in one ear decades before when Earl Hooker’s guitar amp pretty much blew up in his face at a gig on Chicago’s south side, and it had deteriorated further to the extent that our questions had to be relayed directly into his good ear by long-time friend and band mate Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. He had great difficulty answering any but directed questions, and his attention quickly waned.

But his spirit was indomitable, his smile lit up the room, and when we got him seated at the piano for the interview he simply began to play. There was power in his hands, and the music in his soul took a sledgehammer to the physical constraints the years had imposed on his body.

The afternoon also yielded one of our most cherished moments at the AMRF. Allen Toussaint was on the bill with Pinetop, and the tight production schedule allocated 90 minutes for his interview at Cliff Bell’s, after which he was to be hustled back to Music Hall for sound check while Pinetop was brought in for his interview. Toussaint cites Pinetop as a major influence on his music but had never met him, and when he discovered that Pinetop was coming he declined to leave until he had a chance to do so. It wreaked havoc on the schedule, but for those who witnessed the historic meeting of these two musical giants, and watched as they played four handed piano, it was not only magical but an overwhelming affirmation of the AMRF’s work that none of us will ever forget.

Pinetop’s band played a stellar set that evening, and Toussaint’s performance on solo piano was beyond astonishing (watch for “Allen Toussaint: The Soul of New Orleans” on public television this summer). At the end of the night all the players gathered on stage for the traditional “train wreck” finale, and during the bows Toussaint singled out Pinetop.

It was bittersweet, but at the end of the 10^th annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival, Pinetop Perkins had not only touched our piano; he had touched our hearts.

Pinetop Perkins died peacefully at his home in Austin, Texas, on March 21, 2011.

See Eddie Kirkland at Callahan's for Free

Eddie Kirkland performs at Callahan's Music Hall in Auburn Hills tomorrow, Saturday November 20th, at 8:00pm.

TODAY ONLY (FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19):
BE ONE OF THE FIRST TEN PEOPLE TO CALL BRANDI AT 866-270-5141 AND WIN A FREE PAIR OF TICKETS TO SEE EDDIE KIRKLAND AT CALLAHAN'S!! 

Detroit Blues Legend Eddie Kirkland at Callahan's

“Few if any organizations are as focused and committed to promoting and preserving our shared cultural heritage as the AMRF.  This is manifest through their efforts to create first rate opportunities for performers in premier circumstances, and to create a very finely produced archive of these performances in video format.  This kind of archive is invaluable and I would hope that every effort is made to help the AMRF achieve their goals.” Mark Braun, aka “Mr. B”

A New Look for the AMRF Website

'"The folks at the AMRF obviously care passionately about both the music and the musicians, and their work combines technical excellence on all levels with a huge measure of heart and soul…As a working musician, I can think of few efforts more worthy of financial support in the service of presenting and documenting our musical and cultural heritage." Paul Keller, 2006

Imagery is central to our work at the AMRF; listening to music with eyes closed can be a transcendent experience, but watching musicians create it – Axel Zwingenberger’s hands bouncing effortlessly across the keys so fast that all that the camera captures is a blur, or Koko Taylor prancing and growling through Wang Dang Doodle – takes music appreciation to an entirely different level. You can watch sampler's from all of our award winning television programs and DVD's on our redesigned website, www.amrf.net.

AMRF Fundraiser at Callahan's with Eden Brent

 "Eden Brent's boogie piano mixed with the whiskey-smoke of her voice is a vice to savor & in her huge playing and singing you can hear the ghosts of Mississippi in duet with the future of the blues." - Chip Eagle, publisher of Blues Revue

left: Bob Seeley and Eden Brent

JOIN US AT CALLAHAN'S MUSIC HALL AT 7:30 ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7 FOR A BOOGIE WOOGIE AND BLUES CELEBRATION AND AMRF FUNDRAISER WITH EDEN BRENT, THE BLUES FOUNDATION'S PINETOP PERKINS PIANO PLAYER OF THE YEAR. 

Advance tickets are available on Callahan's website or by calling 248- 858-9508.

Exclusive packages available only with donations to the AMRF at 866- 270-5141:
$125 donation: One ticket, dinner, and an AMRF DVD of your choice
$300 donation: Reserve a booth (seats six) and receive all six AMRF DVDs.

Join or renew your annual membership for $30 at the show and receive a DVD of your choice.
Make a $60 donation at the show and receive two DVDs.

Make a $100 donation and get two tickets to see Eddie Kirkland at Callahan's November 20th.

We Need Your Help

Over 10 years the AMRF captured the music and stories of 59 artists on state-of-the-art audio and video at our Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival. Last year we decided to breathe, and threw an intimate party with old friends at Callahan’s Music Hall. Sadly, there will be no 12^th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Festival.

The primary reason is money. We set ticket prices as low as possible and occasionally cover artist costs, but covering the astronomical costs of recording the shows depends on grants and the generosity of sponsors, members and friends. In this challenging economic environment we simply could not afford to produce the fest without cutting corners, and we decided that if we couldn’t do it right we wouldn’t do it at all.

We have plenty of work to do however, and plenty of costs to cover. Over the past five years we have used the footage in our archive to produce seven nationally distributed programs for public television. We provide them to stations for free in pursuit of our mission to keep the music alive. To date they have aired over 1,500 times and been available to over 200 million viewers across the country.

We are in the process of editing three new programs, and there are still dozens of artists in our archive whose music and stories have yet to be shared. The archive itself is aging and requires attention; the oldest tapes, which contain performances and interviews with such seminal artists as Jay McShann and Johnnie Johnson, are both analog and fragile. Digitizing them for the sake of preservation and sharing them with television audiences are high on our priority list.

The AMRF is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and we need your financial support to continue our important work. When you pay taxes you have little control over how your money is spent. When you make a tax-deductible contribution to the AMRF as allowed by law, you know that your money will be used wisely and frugally to enrich life by documenting, preserving, and sharing slices of our country’s cultural and musical heritage so that future generations will not forget.

To make a donation by check please Use this form. For donations by credit card, or for more information about the AMRF call 1-866-270-5141.

The American Music Research Foundation

30733 West Ten Mile Road

Farmington Hills, MI 48336-2605

Thank you for your support!

Deroit Blues Society Headstone Project

In 1911 Sylvester Russell wrote a eulogy for George Walker in the Chicago Defender, “See That His Grave’s Kept Green.” In 1927, two years before he died at the tender ago of 36, Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded the classic, “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.” Compliance with these requests is difficult when graves are poorly marked or not at all, and this is sadly the case for too many of the greats who made vital and lasting contributions to our musical and cultural heritage.

The goal of Detroit Blues Society’s headstone project is to properly and respectfully mark the graves of Detroit Blues Legends. The project began in 1997 by marking the grave of Son House. Others beneficiaries include Clarence and Curtis Butler (The Butler Twins), Calvin Frazier, and Big Maceo Merriweather.  This year’s goal is to provide headstones for “Mr. Bo” Collins and “Uncle Jesse” White. We urge you to support DBS’s efforts by attending one or both of their fundraising events, at Cliff Bell’s in downtown Detroit this Sunday March 28^th, and at Callahan’s Music Hall in Auburn Hills Sunday April 18^th.

Uncle Jessie White is particularly dear to us at the AMRF. He was a performer at our very first Motor City Boogie Woogie Festival in 1999, and we are blessed to have captured the performance and an interview conducted by Mr. B for our archives. During the tumultuous year of 1967 Uncle Jessie began hosting weekend long house parties and jam sessions at his home on 29^th Street in Detroit. The sessions continued through 1971 and are legendary for the local and national talent that passed through to play at the famous house. Uncle Jesse was a revered mentor and teacher to many and a fixture in the Detroit Blues scene. His 29^th Street Blues Band performed for 20 years at the Attic Bar. Uncle Jesse passed at the age of 87 on January 29, 2008.  

Mr. Bo was a fixture in the Detroit blue scene from the 50's through the 70’s, performing with Washboard Willie, Little Sonny Willis, Eddie Burns and John Lee Hooker among many others. His best known composition, 1966’s  “If Trouble Was Money,” was recorded by Albert King and Charlie Musselwhite among many others. Mr. Bo succumbed to pneumonia at the age of 63 on September 19, 1995. 

11th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival a success

For 10 years the Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival got bigger. Bigger stages, bigger venues, bigger bands, bigger names - double that when the fest expanded to two nights in 2005 – more cameras and bigger crews, bigger video trucks…and much, much bigger bills.

This year, it was time to breathe.

At the 11^th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival there were no cameras, no trucks, fewer cables, and you could count the crew on the fingers of one hand. We weren’t in a concert hall with 1701 seats and a proscenium augmented by a 30’ wide orchestra pit between the audience and the musicians. We were at Callahan’s Music Hall, where you can’t be much more than 50 feet from the stage or you’ll be in the middle of South Boulevard in Auburn Hills.

The artists were old friends already documented and brought back by popular demand; Kelley Hunt played for us at the Redford Theatre in 2003 and can be seen in our public television show and DVD, 2003 Motor City Boogie Woogie and Blues Festival. Jason D. Williams performed at the Redford in 2004 and appears in Boogie & the Blues Diva.

At this year’s two sold-out shows, audiences were treated to performances that were up-close and personal, in an atmosphere that can only be described as a good old-fashioned house party. You could see the sparks flying from Jason’s fingers, and the power of Kelley’s voice literally knocked you back in your seat.  

We cannot sing high enough praise for Callahan’s Music Hall. Since opening the doors two years ago, Callahan’s has become the blues club in SE Michigan. The folks there are in it for the music. Their priorities are to assure that the audience can see and hear and that the artists are comfortable. Their attention to both the house sound and the monitor mix on stage brings out the best in performers, and is a major reason why they too sing high praise for Callahan’s and return to the room again and again.

Sadly, our friend and master photographer, John Collier, was unable to attend this year. He was sorely missed. While we can’t match his artistry, we do have photographs. Enjoy the slideshow!  

Thanks to all for making the 11^th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Festival an unmitigated success!

4 Shades of Blues Now on DVD

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD!!!

The Blues come in many shades, from electric to indigo. In this live program four brilliant artists present 4 Shades of Blues. Grammy winner and undisputed Queen of the Blues, the late Koko Taylor & Her Blues Machine perform in the low-down, gritty electric style of Chicago. Texas’ Ruthie Foster explores the acoustic and gospel-tinged blues. Tommy Castro brings the funky side of blues honed in the San Francisco Bay area. Belgrade’s Ana Popovic is an electrifying guitarist who says, “I wanted to be too bluesy for jazz and too jazzy for blues.”

In addition to the complete program as seen on public television, the disc contains 35 minutes of bonus material presenting additional performances and interviews with the artists.

$25 includes postage and handling.  BUY ONLINE

OR CALL THE AMERICAN MUSIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION

 toll free 1-866-270-5141