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The Official Publication of the Sacramento Blues Society February-March 2012 Volume 33; Issue 1

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I recently had the opportunity to ask Twanna a few questions about her Dad, Ike Turner, and how he fit into her life. Here is what she told me. My mom and Tina were friends in high school in St Louis. They would go to the club together to see Ike Turner perform there. My mother did not tell me he was my dad until I was 11 years old. We would watch him and Tina on shows like ‗The Ed Sullivan Show‘ and

she would say, ―That‘s your dad, right there.‖ I didn‘t meet him until I was 28, when he came to Vallejo to perform. I heard he was performing in Vallejo, at a club called Talk of the Town, and I went down to see him during the day. I met with his Road Manager at the club as they were setting up for that evening‘s show. I said I was Ike‘s daughter and I‘d like to meet him. He stated my father was at the hotel and he would be seeing him later. He asked me to write down information about my mother so he would recognize her. He would give it to my dad at the hotel. He would make sure I got an opportunity to speak with him if I came back that night When my ex-husband Arnie and I came back that night it was standing room only in the club. We were standing at the back of the club when we saw the band bus pull up. After a few minutes, we saw my father‘s Road Manager. I was apprehensive to approach him, so Arnie went over to talk to him. I noticed the look on Arnie‘s face and walked over to see what was said. His Road Manager told me Daddy stated he did not have a daughter in California. I became very emotional and began to cry. The Road Man-ager realized I was sincere. He told me that he did not give the note to my father, as he was not sure I was not some kind of nut. He was protecting my father. He said by my reaction he could see I was sincere, to re-write the in-formation and he would take it to him on the bus, so I did. He took it, and everyone on the bus pulled back the cur-tains to look out of the window. The Road Manager jumped off the bus and said ―This is like a friggin‘ movie.‖ ―Ike wants to clear the bus so he can talk to you.‖ The Road Manager took us onto the bus. We took a seat and waited for my Dad to come out from behind the privacy curtain. When he did, I looked up and said to myself, ―Yep, that‘s him, that‘s the man I saw on television.‖ We all sat there for what seemed an eternity in silence. I finally asked, ―Do you know a woman named Pat?‖ He said, ―Yes.‖ I asked him if he remembered fathering a child with her. He said yes, again. I told him, ―I‘m that child.‖ He had me stand up and turn around. Since I was blessed with the same assets as my mother, he stated, ―Yep, that‘s

Talking with Twanna Turner - By Jan Kelley; photo by Bob Cosman

Pat.‖ He gave me a big hug and gave us a tour of the bus. His Road Manager came on board the bus and said it was time to go on stage. My Dad replied that he had not seen me in 28 years, so have the band continue to play. His manager obliged, but a few minutes later he came back and said he really needed to get on stage. So we went into the club with his arms around me and we were seated at a table near the stage. Half-way through his first set, one of the Ikettes announced there was some-one very special in the audience. She invited me up to the stage and introduced me as my dad‘s daughter, and ex-plained that we had met for the first time in 28 years. I felt so validated by this. He could have denied everything, but instead, he welcomed me with open arms and introduced me to the world. I performed with my father twice. Once in Suisun, CA at an establishment called ―Zowies‖ and the other when he was playing at the San Francisco Blues Festival. We per-formed ―Proud Mary‖ at ―Zowies.‖ At rehearsal for the per-formance, he wanted me to sing the song like Tina, and I wanted to sing it the way I felt it. I attempted to convey this to my father, but he would have no part of it. So at re-hearsal, I sang ―Proud Mary‖ like Tina, but at the gig, I sang it like I felt it. I received a very positive review from John Hildebrand, the music critic for the ―San Francisco Chronicle.‖ The entire review can be read on my website. My father told me this; when you are performing a song, you are telling a story. You need to be genuine when tell-ing the story because the audience will know if you are not. With Blues, it is something you live, tell a story with it & feel it from deep down. It needs to be genuine. I like to mix it up with various types of music.. I do not regret the past at all. My father showed me that he cared by acknowledging me, and I understood the lifestyle he had. I was always grateful for how I was raised by my mother. My father gave me advice and lots of encourage-ment. I have half-sisters and brothers; 2 sisters & 3 broth-ers on my dad‘s side and 1 sister & 2 brothers on my mother‘s. I was the only one by my mother and my father. Several of them are in the entertainment business. The book ―I Tina‖ The movie, ―What‘s Love Got To Do With It‖ was based on the book, ―I Tina, and the book does not contain many of the accounts portrayed in the movie. I believe my father was grossly misunderstood by Disney‘s portrayal of my father.

I am currently married to Brian Sweet, the bass player in

my band. We live in Folsom and raised four children. My

goal in life is to represent my father‘s legacy…the musi-

cian, the legend, the musical genius…and also to let all

those who will listen, to know who he was as a father,

grandfather, and great-grandfather. Yes, he was human...

Volume 33; Issue 1 February-March 2012

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V o l u m e 3 3 ; I s s u e 1

I'd also like to report that SBS held two successful fundraisers for our IBC solo/duo act of the Used Blues Duo. They brought in lots of special guests and enough money was raised for the duo to get to Memphis, sleep comfortably, eat and play the BLUES. Good luck to Sean and Gary! Go to www.blues.org to follow all of the

International Blues Challenge competition.

Due to the change in leadership on the board and new committee chairs, I'm sorry to report that there aren‘t any immediate events to tell you about, but mark your calendars for 2012 BMA nominated Tab Benoit, below. Stay tuned and be sure to check back to www.sacblues.com on a regular basis to see updates and

announcements.

February-March 2012

President’s Notes— Liz Walker

thought to how you can contribute to your blues society. There are new committee chairs with new energy and ideas. They‘re

going to need your help.

Before closing I‘d like to acknowledge the passing of one of SBS‘s recent Hall of Fame inductees. Omar Shariff passed away in his hometown of Marshall, Texas on January 8th, 2012. All those who attended the membership party Dec 4th had an opportunity to hear Omar as he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

RIP, Omar.

When you see me out and about, please introduce yourself and say hello. I‘m looking forward to a year full of growth

and great blues!

Hi there. I‘m Liz Walker and your board just elected me president of your society for the coming year. Many of you will recognize the name from other pages of this publication as I have been around in one capacity or another for a while. It‘s a new year with many new faces on the board. I‘m looking forward to getting to know and work with each and every one. I‘d also like to take this opportunity to send a big THANK YOU to the past board members. These are all volunteer positions and it‘s wonderful that so many people take the time from their

lives to work for the blues society.

As we‘re just getting started for the year there isn‘t much to report. I can say that the board has some very (at this time) general plans to work on expanding our membership, bringing more benefits to our members and working within the arts community of Sacramento. So please give some

What’s Happening –Liz Walker

Carrera Productions Presents

An Evening with

TAB BENOIT

with guest Mumbo Gumbo

Friday, May 25 At Three Stages

Folsom Lake College

2012 BMA nominated Tab Benoit is a unique and amazing

blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and is the number

one Cajun music export from Louisiana .

Special guest Mumbo Gumbo will add their special musical stew

containing soul, Zydeco, folk, blues, rock, Cajun, and country to

this exciting show.

Doors/Reception 6:30 PM; Show 7:30 PM

Tickets $20, $30, $40, $40 Premium

Portion of proceeds benefits Folsom Lake College Foundation

& Sacramento Blues Society: Blues in the Schools Program

SBS ended the year with a wonderful membership party at the VFW Hall on December 4, 2011. Delta Paul opened

the evening with some great foot stomping front porch blues, followed by the high energy of the Karen Lovely

Band. Elections were held and new board officers elected. Our Hall of Fame induction included two very special treats. First was the opportunity to speak long distance with Omar Shariff in Texas. He was so thrilled to receive

the honor. Then, lo and behold a little later in the evening our very own Hall of Fame inductee, Ms. Lena Mosley,

joined the band for a ripping rendition of her signature song, Mustang Sally. The floor was packed with love for Lena! The chili was hot and the blues was cool, and

everyone had a great time.

The Sacramento Blues Society (SBS) is a

501 (c) (3) nonprofit arts organization. We

promote blues music in our community,

teach the history of the blues as a part of our

country‘s heritage in our schools, and pro-

mote local and national artists in our area.

We are looking for some assistance to help

us grow. Please consider donating toward

our ―need list‖. And it is tax deductable!

We need:

Rent-free office space

New SBS banners/signs

Volunteers to assist in music events

Grant-writers and fundraisers for Blues

in the Schools program

Newsletter articles of interest to the

members

Art/photography to feature on the

newsletter cover

Committee members

Your ideas to bring more music to the

area

Wanted!

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V o l u m e 3 3 ; I s s u e 1

On Valentine's Day, l920, Mamie Smith stepped to the acoustical horn in the Okeh Company re-cording studios, shouted out "That Thing Called Love" for the disc spinning behind the curtain in the next room, and made his-tory with the first recording by a black woman vocalist.

"That Thing Called Love" was not authentic blues, but its immediate success led to a second recording by Smith of "Crazy Blues." This recording, a true blues, sold 75,000 copies in the first month and opened the door to a genera-tion of leading vocalists who came to be known as the "Classic Blues" singers. In the decade that followed, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter and many other great women vocalists, who had already trans-formed the blues from a local folk tradition into a performing art, now established it in the broader popular culture. The blues women ushered black culture into the American mainstream, "indelibly recreating a world of black experi-ence and making visible the lives and aspirations of mil-lions of black Americans," in the words of Sandra Lieb, biographer of Ma Rainey. Reaching its peak during the birth and growth of the re-cording industry, the music of these women forms an irre-placeable but little-known chapter in the history of popular culture. It encompasses many traditions--

Black minstrelsy

The spread of traveling black entertainment through

out the rural South and Midwest

The 1920s cabaret scene in the northern cities

The emergence of women as popular performing art-

ists. The Classic Blues made a significant contribution to the development of jazz and blues as mainstream popular music, and to the eventual discovery and recording of male country blues singers who would later become "classic" in their own right. And these blues bore witness to critical social changes experienced by black Americans in the first decades of this century -- the Great Migration northward, World War I, and the early years of the Depression.

Background to the Blues (1700-1865) No one knows who named the blues or when, but their

February-March 2012

origins reach back directly to early Afro-American work songs and the spirituals of black Christians, two forms of

music which historically have expressed the early black experience in America. In the course of adapting to a Euro-American culture, black musicians and singers borrowed from Scottish bal-lads, Methodist and Baptist hymns, Western traditions of instrumental accompaniment, and popular American mu-sic of the vaudeville stage. Weaving these diverse elements into the fabric of surviv-ing African vocal and musical traditions over the course of many generations, they fashioned a distinctly new music

that would be given the name "blues." Africa survived in the music of early black Americans and was passed down to the blues in distinctive ways that set it apart from Euro-pean musical traditions. For example --

Improvisation

Emphasizing rhythm over harmony

Using significant tone or changes in pitch

to change meaning

"Call and response" singing

Emphasizing lyrics and vocal expression with instru-ment imitating voice and vice versa

Plantation Songs and the "Devil's Music"

American slaves perpetuated the value of music as an essential and meaningful accompaniment to everyday ac-tivities as well as significant happenings within the com-munity. In her history "The Music of Black Americans," Eileen Southern identifies three types of plantation songs in which the African tradition of using music on all occasions and of classifying the music according to function was most clearly reflected --

Songs that accompanied religious gatherings

Songs of harvest celebrations

Songs that accompanied the work of men and women

in the fields. The work songs may offer the best example of how African rhythms survived to resurface later in the blues: Oh, Lawd, I'm tired, uuh Oh, Lawd, I'm tired, uuh To the improvised work songs -- the shouts and "field hollers" that accompanied plantation labor,

Early Blues Women—As Adapted By Jan Kelley

Calliope Film Resources. "The Classic Blues and the Women Who Sang Them." Copyright 2000 CFR. http://www.calliope.org/blues/blues.html. January 2012

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V o l u m e 3 3 ; I s s u e 1 February-March 2012

Early Blues Women—Continued from page 4

communicated between workers, and expressed personal feelings of the moment -- American slaves introduced what would be later recognized as the distinctive sound of the blues. In addition to the falsetto whoops, hollers, and field cries, there was now the sound of sorrow, mournful ex-pressions of sadness and weari-

ness, sometimes lightened with a wistful irony. The mournful tone of work songs also found expression in the spirituals, the long, slow chants that sounded forth from religious gatherings. Articulating deeply felt emotions that later gave soul to the blues, these songs just as often voiced the spirit of assertion and survival that gave sup-port to the slave community, and they added a more me-lodic character to the music. As African religions were supplanted by Christianity, blacks adapted their religious music as well, keeping American words to hymns and incorporating melodies but changing the rhythms, harmonies, and stresses of speech and adding the traditional "call and response." The same blue notes and stop times that were later emphasized in jazz can all be found in this early religious music of American slaves. Beyond the music of work and worship, there was "the devil's music" -- the fiddle songs, juba dances, and corn songs of harvest season. Outlawed by church elders, this was music that entertained. It was this "devil's music" -- the secular music of pleasure and entertainment -- that carried the blues beyond the plantation culture and into the larger community during the years following Emancipation.

Emancipation, the Country Blues, and Women Vocalists (1865-1900) Emancipation brought social changes for black Americans that were reflected almost immediately in their music. With the new freedom to move about and the need to find em-ployment there came a fuller life, beyond the field and the church that needed expression. In the 1870s there were thousands of black migrant work-ers and wanderers -- almost always men -- on the move throughout the South, singing their ballads or "ballits," shouting out hollers and moans, calling jigs for Saturday night dances and parties, and generally providing the "devil's music" for community occasions. It was during the next two decades of social transition that

the blues began to be formalized. Still expressive of black Americans' personal experience and feelings and using imagery that was generally rural, the songs of these traveling men nevertheless now began to reflect new complexities of a free life -- leaving home, traveling the rails, looking for new kinds of work, the im-portance of money to the freed man. Different from the more functional work songs or religious spirituals, this was secular music performed primarily for pleasure, for the group or for oneself. The country blues singers (as they are now called) ac-

companied themselves on guitars, banjos, harmonicas, or homemade instruments including axes and hammers. With the increased use of instrumental accompaniment, the evolution towards "performance," and the spreading of

local versions of songs over a wider area as the singers traveled from place to place, a standardization of the songs began to occur. It was during this time that the country shouts and "ballits" were formalized into the 12-bar, three-line, repetitive stanza structure now recognized as the "classic" blues form.

When a woman gets the blues she hangs her head and cries, When a woman gets the blues she hangs her

head and cries, But when a man gets the blues, he grabs a train and flies. Out of this era, it was the woman vocalist who emerged to move the blues toward professionalism. In contrast to the male country blues singers, women made up virtually all of the performers who created the Classic Blues. For African American women, singing the blues in public be-came a professional way of earning a living, not a way of easing labor or a means of personal expression. These women began to find work as entertainers, not like the solitary country singers following the migrant work cir-cuit, but with the traveling minstrels and vaudeville shows and the Theatre Owners Booking Association (TOBA) -- a theatrical circuit at the turn of the century that kept black performers constantly on the move from Florida to Texas and from Oklahoma to Mississippi. An established avenue of em-ployment for blacks, the traveling shows provided mobility for new generations no longer tied to the plantation, offered women a rare alternative to working as domes-tics, and promised a kind of glamour and recognition not pos-sible before. Continued page 6

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Blues In the Schools! - By Liz Walker

V o l u m e 3 3 ; I s s u e 1

The Thirty Third Board of Directors for your Sacramento Blues Society was elected in December and they selected officers at the January meeting. They are fresh with new ideas and enthusiasm!

The 2012 Elected Officers are:

Liz Walker—President

Dave Alcock—Vice President

Charlene Metzler–Secretary JohnE Sandwich—Treasurer

Jan Kelley-Parliamentarian

2012 Board Members at Large are:

Kristen Dahl

Kim DuVall

Tammie Madill

Skip Murphy Rick Nolan

Zane Toberer

February-March 2012

2012 Committee Chairs are:

Events/IBC Competition —Skip Murphy

BlueNotes! —Vj Anderson, Jan Kelley, Co-Chairs

BITS —Cynthia Jaynes, Liz Walker, Co-Chairs

Membership/Volunteers —Zane Toberer

Merchandise/Concessions/Graphics — Rick Nolan

Gene Chambers Musicians Emergency Fund (CMEF) —

Kim DuVall

Web —Kristen Dahl

Public Relations —Liz Walker

Calendar/SacBlues News —Willie Brown

Board of Directors Meetings are:

2nd Tuesday of each month; 7:00 PM SMUD Building, 6301 S Street, Sacramento, CA.

All SBS members in good standing are

invited to attend.

We're coming into the busiest time of year for BITS. Our Artist in Residence after school programs will be starting soon at Rosemont and West Campus High School and we hope to expand the program into the north area. We're looking for a compatible school site. This is the program where the students really get a chance to play the blues and then strut their stuff at the annual benefit. It's always so much fun to watch them play a "gig" (remember the young girl with the saxophone from last year? Awesome.) What's even more fun is to see some of our "BITS kids" out playing at the jams around town. We're keeping it

alive!

Yolo County Arts Commission has invited us back for another round of concerts/lectures. This time we've incorporated another song lyric writing contest. Soon we'll have another baby blues song to add to our compilation

(we have three so far.)

Thanks to a generous donation from Carrera Productions, we've drawn up a plan to do some broad outreach to

some school sites all around the Sacramento region. Bringing in a duo to (hopefully) 8-10 schools/programs will bring the blues to so many more

students.

Next big project for the BITS committee is to put together a standardized curriculum and we're looking for people to work on this ad hoc committee. We've got some promotional materials now (have you seen the new BITS shirts?) and with a curriculum we'll be in good shape to go after some larger grants. One step at a time, right? Rome

wasn't built in a day.

2012 is the year of the dragon, all fire and power. Looks

like BITS is on the way!

Meet Your New Board of Directors

Early Blues Women—Continued from page 5

Along with comics, dance routines, wrestlers, ragtime players, wire-walkers and cake-walkers, women blues singers were hired to play the small towns and plantations that dotted the South. It was an important tradition for the Classic Blues women, providing their apprenticeship as professional performers. The Classic Blues singers Rosa Henderson, Ida Cox, Clara Smith, Bessie Smith, and

of course Ma Rainey all came up by this route. And it was their rise to public recognition that proved so critical to the history of the blues, bringing it to the threshold of main-stream culture.

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V o l u m e 3 3 ; I s s u e 1 February-March 2012

The beer was cold, the chili was hot and the music raucous; all the right makings for the 32nd annual celebration of the Sacramento Blues Society (SBS). The

party started at 4 pm in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 67 Hall on Stockton Blvd. in Sacramento on De-cember 4. As members made their way into the hall, finding seats in the crowded room, they were greeted by the singing of IBC runner-up guitarist Delta Paul doing

a solo act.

Getting right down to business, Events Chair Liz Walker took the stage to announce the 2011 Hall of Fame Inductees. Walker made a phone call to Hall of Fame inductee Omar Shariff, currently in Texas, and put him on speakerphone to tell him of his award. A long-time favorite in the music world, Shariff, now age 73, said ―I‘m over-whelmed.‖ (Editor‘s Note:

Shariff passed away on January 8, 2012).

Promoter Mike Balma was not present to accept his honor, but his name will be displayed with the other induc-tees on the Torch Club Hall of

Fame (HOF) wall.

Kim Chambers, widow of Gene Chambers, who was one of the first to be inducted into the HOF, graciously accepted the award on his behalf. She established the ―Gene Cham-bers Musicians Emergency

Fund‖ through the SBS, which assists musicians in need from the Sacra-

mento area.

Blues icon Mick Martin stepped up on stage to present a Hall of Fame trophy to Lena Mosley,

describing how he first heard her sing ―Mustang Sally‖ when she was a teenager. ―This is my Grammy, ya‘ll,‖ Mosley told the crowd. ―I don‘t ever want to hear anyone but Lena sing ―Mustang

Sally,‖ Martin said. And sing it she did, later joining The Karen Lovely Band

on stage. ―Lena isn‘t just a singer, she‘s an enter-tainer,‖ commented blues musician Gary Mendoza,

sitting in the audience.

Blues lovers filled every inch of the dance floor, moving to the swinging beat of Mosley‘s signa-ture song. Even lifetime member Carrie Benson, who just turned 80, got up to dance when Mosley began her song. ―I‘ve been a SBS member since the beginning and I come to the party every

year,‖ she said. ―I‘m glad to see young people here to keep it alive.‖ Other dancers agreed with Benson, saying the music is always good here. Lucy Kataoka, a two year SBS member, and Greg Dixon, a new member, are both long time blues lovers. ―It‘s good to see the inductees get r e c o g n i z e d , ‖ s a i d Kataoka. ―The Blues So-ciety is a good organiza-tion,‖ added Dixon, lead-ing Kataoka to the dance

floor.

So the crowd danced on as Karen Lovely belted out the blues and turned it into a jam when she was

joined on stage by Kyle Rowland and

his harmonica.

Chili, beer and blues; it's an American heri-

tage!!!

SBS Membership Party: An American Heritage

By Nan Mahon ; Photos by Bob Cosman

Delta Paul

Willie Brown & Charlene

Metzler

Lena Mosley & Mick Martin

Victoria Boisvert & Zane Toberer

Kim Chambers & Kim DuVall

Karen Lovely

Lena Mosley

Valerie Simpson & Mari Lou Onweller

Bo Ely & Kyle Rowland

Roni Cook and SBS merchandise

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The Sacramento Blues Society (SBS) is one of the oldest

blues societies in California, founded 1979, and Is a 501 ( c ) 3

nonprofit corporation formed to preserve and promote blues music as an art form.

SBS has kept the blues tradition alive in the Sacramento area by promoting t

he local blues music scene and bringing internationally renowned artists to the region.

SBS is an affiliate member of The Blues Foundation, and provides educational opportunities

for young people with The Blues Foundation’s “Blues In The Schools” Program.

SBS produces and mails a newsletter, “Blue Notes” Bi-Monthly

(six times a year) for our membership.

V o l u m e 3 3 ; I s s u e 1 February-March 2012

In Memory of Omar—By Valeriejeanne Anderson

As a small child, I grew up around music. My mother‘s mom loved to dance, and had stacks of big band and opera 78‘s. Often when she was supposed to be babysitting me, we went dancing at the Santa Monica Ballroom. Mom‘s father played guitar and sang to us, usually old folk tunes that had a moral or were humorous. My father‘s family was Spanish, and every get-together involved lots of guitars, lots of dancing and lots of liquid libation. When my parents divorced and my mother remarried and moved away from family to the Central Valley, I missed the music, and the radio became my constant companion. The valley music was mostly country-western, and I became a fan of Bob Wills and Patsy Cline. And to this day, I need music in my life. I‘m not choosy, most any genre will do. A good thing, as I married a ―Jazz Snob‖. He truly believed that if it was not improvised, it was not really

music, and I adapted.

Years later, I found myself and my family back in the Central Valley. Our family was good friends with another family, a musician and his wife with five kids, like us. Mel had a jazz combo that played on a circuit along Highway 99 from Bakersfield to Redding, with side trips to the coast and to Tahoe/Reno. We would get spur of the moment invitations from Mel or Mandy to come on over, they had an interesting visitor or guest for dinner, and we were honored to be in their social circle. We had dinner with Wilma Rudolph and our son joined a group of youngsters wrestling on the floor with Archie Moore in two of those many fantastic invitations. And we were privileged to share time with many, many musicians, both famous and infamous. Oh, how I now wish I had been into photography – but I do

carry those memories in my mind.

Late one Saturday morning the phone rang. ―Got time for a couple of starving musicians?‖ Mel said. Don assured him we had time, and room at the lunch table, too. He brought along a tall, thin man with a perpetual scowl and long tapering hands. He introduced us to Dave, a musician from the Bay Area who was ―temporarily

relocating‖ to the Valley for awhile. Don and Dave got into a discussion on music and bridge, of all things. Something about mathematical formulas and stuff over my head! Then Dave went to the piano and demonstrated his point. Suddenly the children burst back into the room to see what was happening. Our son, age 7, wanted to know ‖How do you do that?‖ And Dave was hired to teach piano. Don also wanted to learn, so Dave was there for a couple hours a week. Alas, Dave went back to the Bay Area and we moved to Hermosa Beach for job promotions

and lost touch.

A few years later we were on our annual trip to Monterey for the Jazz Festival, and saw that an artist named Dave Alexander was playing on the main stage during the Saturday afternoon Blues segment. Was that the Dave we knew? It certainly was! We were glad to see he was being

recognized.

When our employment took us to San Francisco, we asked around, but no one knew of a Dave Alexander. In the ‗80s I took a promotion to Sacramento, and one of our daughters came with us. She attended college and worked at Sam‘s. She called us one night and said, ―Come down here! I found Dave

but his name is changed. Now he is Omar Shariff, and he plays even better.‖ So we became followers of his career until we retired to the Monterey area in 1990, but heard he

was still in Sacramento.

After my accident, my family brought me back here so they would be close by. As I healed, I got involved with

the Blues Society and followed Omar‘s career again.

Omar was a complex person always searching for some elusive portion of his life. He had an internal turmoil that made him not want, but need to create music. Although he tried other ways to make a living, that need to create music and be on stage kept pulling him back to the uncertain life of making music. When his anger or frustration got strong, neighbors beware! He would pull

Continued page 9

Vj

9

Thanks to our Business Members (listed below)

for supporting our efforts to entertain and educate the community with blues events and music programs.

V o l u m e 3 3 ; I s s u e 1 February-March 2012

Thursday Night Jam at Po Boyz—By Dennis Moffett

I attended a Jam on December 29th at Po Boyz in Folsom that was hosted by a fellow named Roharpo. As usual,

Brenda, the owner of Po Boyz, was in attendance and greeted me at the door. I had never heard of Roharpo, so

I was taking a chance on this Jam. I brought my axe and

was ready to jam.

As the music started, I suddenly realized that the blues music I was hearing was some of the best I have heard in a long time. This Roharpo group was ―tight‖ and real funky. I felt this music was over my head, so I put my axe back in my car and sat down to enjoy the music. As the set progressed, they called Kyle Rowland, our Blues in

the Schools Harp player, up to jam and the next thing I know my foot was tapping and I was looking for someone

to dance with. This music was GREAT!

I found out that the wonderful sound coming from the ―B3‖ sounding organ was being played by a musician named Bobby Jones. Bobby has just come home to Sacramento after being on the road with a band. Boy, this guy could play the organ. He could also sing. There was also a very funky good bass player named Wayne Brown. He, with the help of Brian Colquin and Ron Carson, were laying

down a very funky beat.

I had a wonderful time listening to this music and I want all of the Sacramento Blues Society members to be aware of what Brenda is doing on Thursday nights at Po Boyz in Folsom. Of course, you can also have a great southern dinner and have good drinks to make your experience one

of the best music nights you could expect.

Hope to see the Sacramento Blues Society and all blues

lovers in the area support this Thursday Night Jam!

out a drum set, set it up outside and wail away! He seldom smiled, unless it was while he was creating something that pleased him while using those tapering hands on the keys of a piano or organ. He left Sacramento for ―home‖ in Marshall Texas, and was well received. See http://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132963070/boogie-woogie-born-in-the-backwoods-of-america

Omar—continued

While Omar was noted for his boogie-woogie, he could, and did, play anything from classical to pop. Some of his jazz interpretations were woven with imagery and enchantment. He was a great talent and we had the privilege of experiencing his music. Goodbye, Omar, you will be missed.

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Northern California Blues Festival

e-mail:

info@norcalbluesfest.com

Website:

http://www.norcalbluesfest.com

313 Laurence Ave.

Kansas City, Mo

64111

1-888-BLUESIN’

www.bluescruise.com

Please Patronize the following Businesses and venues

that Support your Blues Society with their membership

Louie’s

Cocktail Lounge

3030 Mather Field Road

Rancho Cordova CA

95670

916-262-9151

louiescoctaillounge.com

11

V o l u m e 3 3 ; I s s u e 1

New Member Bands receive a Free Business card Ad copy in the first Blue Notes Following your

membership date and follow-up listings while a Band Member, a link from our website to yours

and any announcements and offers to Musicians received on our website.

Al Zaid & Classic Soul 916-627-8627 www.gigsalad.com/al_zaid_classic_soul_band_ sacramento Andy Keene & Kinda Blue 916-799-1544 ajkeane3@aol.com Chicken & Dumpling www.chickenanddumpling.net 530-753-5265 or 530-902-7209

Coyote Slim

408-838-0456

bluesman@coyoteslim.com

www.coyoteslim.com

Delta Wires

Prima Management 510-814-0872 info@deltawires.com Gail Jo & the Criminals of Love Gail Bischo—916-729-4238

gjwb944@yahoo.com

Gary Mendoza Band 916-599-9947 www.garymendozaband.com Johnny “Guitar” Knox Dave Croall & the Soothers 916-455-6349 rightdave@hotmail.com Midnight Mind-Katie Knipp Solo singer/songwriter http://www.katieknipp.com/ (415) 272-7581 katiek4604@comcast.net

O Street Jumps

Dan 916 -944-7292

Cari 916-725-4889 Packard Slim www.packardslim.com Russell Blues Band

Clint Marrs, Vocals & Guitar 530-307-1709 crmarrs@crmarrs.com

February-March 2012

Snake Alley Tommy Ing—707-495-4779 tboneblues@att.net www.snakealleyband.com Spotted Dog Rockin’ Blues Revue Greg Gartrell—916-332-5417 raulduke52@sbcglobal.net www,spotteddogmusic.com Steve Foster Band

916-276-9170 Stevefosterband @comcast.net The Blues Vandals

916-384-7457 bluesvandals.com Used Blues Band

Sean McGroarty 916-204-9800 Sean@myifp.com Val Starr & the Blues Rocket Val Starr 916-765-0162 JohnE Sandwich 916-225-0209 www.bluesrocket.biz

Thanks to our Business Members (listed below)

for supporting our efforts to entertain and educate the community with blues events and music programs.

The nominations for the 2012 Blues Music Awards are in, and the

ballot is out and voting closes March 1.. If you are interested in

checking out the nominees, go to:

http://www.blues.org/bluesmusicawards/nominees.php

Blues Music Awards Voting Open Now!

The Blues Music Awards are universally recognized as the high-

est honor given to Blues artists. The awards will be announced at

ceremonies in Memphis on May 10.

If you are a member, please vote!

12

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U. S. POSTAGE PAID SACRAMENTO, CA PERMIT NO. 2149

Blue Notes! is

The official bi-monthly

Newsletter of the

Sacramento Blues Society.

Co-editors

Vj Anderson & Jan Kelley

Send information for the

newsletter to

editor@sacblues.com

or mail to

Editor,

P. O. Box 60580

Sacramento, CA 95860-0580

Not a Member?

Join on our website

www.sacblues.com Current calendar, news, past

newsletters and more!

Kathie Lambert, lover of the Blues, has produced shows, promoted events, booked bands, and written articles and interviews. Now retired, she is mainly focusing on visual art. ―Visual artists often work along the peripherals of en-tertainment—poster graphics designers, lighting and spe-cial effects technicians, CD cover designers, to name only a few. Thank you to the Sacramento Blues Society edito-

rial staff for including visual art in the newsletter.‖

The cover is an excerpt from a paint-ing of and for Buddy Davis, playing with East Wind recently at Thunder Valley. If you are interested in a paint-ing of your band, contact Kathie at klambertart@yahoo.com. And when you see her in the back of the room sketching out her next painting, say ―Hi‖.

P. O. Box 60580

Sacramento, CA 95860-0580

Our Cover Artist