Jazz & Blues Florida January 2022 Issue #JazzBluesFlorida

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TAS CRU: BROKE DOWN – A true blues eclectic who refuses to let his music be bound to just one blues style, Tas Cru boasts a repertoire of more than 80 original songs from multiple albums and dozens of crowd-pleasing classics. His songs testify to his reputation as a bluesman who is accomplished in most every style of blues.

Based out of Central New York, Cru performs in multiple formats ranging from solo acoustic to a six-piece backing band. He sings and plays a wide variety of guitars – at home on electric, acoustic, resonator or cigar box – and he’s known to sprinkle in a bit of harmonica from time to time.

Following four albums since 2014 (You Keep the Money, Simmered & Stewed, Memphis Song and Drive On) Cru presents his latest: a double “quasiacoustic” album Broke Down – Busted Up. Tas provides lead vocals on most of the 11 cuts while accompanying himself on acoustic and resonator guitars. He’s joined by Anne Harris on fiddle and Mary Ann Castle on mountain dulcimer. Castle co-wrote three of the songs, duets with Cru on one track and handles lead vocals on another.

Dave Liddy (grand piano), Garry Loiacono (slide guitar), Andy Hearn and Ron Keck (percussion), and Mike Lawrence and Bob Purdy (acoustic and electric bass) round out the topnotch ensemble.

Cru was honored with his first Blues Music Award nomination in 2018 with Simmered & Stewed. That album and the two that followed were all recipients of the Syracuse Area Music Awards (the SAMMY’s) for best blues recordings. For 11 continuous years pre-pandemic, he and his Band of Tortured Souls took up residence at Memphis’ world-famous Rum Boogie Café every January during the International Blues Challenge to host the IBC’s premiere jam.

He’ll be back there this month!

In his early bands, Cru was introduced to the great Sun Records sound and the country blues that later served as a counterpoint to the rock-blues he idolized as did so many young aspiring guitar players of his time. Unlike his talented brother and sisters, he did not pursue music in school. His first foray into the blues came after leaving the US Navy when he was asked to join a band formed by a former

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JANUARY 24 SEVILLE QUARTER PENSACOLA

JANUARY 25 PARADISE BAR & GRILL GULF BREEZE

JANUARY 27 ENGLEWOODS ON DEARBORN ENGLEWOOD

JANUARY 29 ARTS GARAGE DELRAY BEACH

– BUSTED UP shipmate. Delray Streeter was an Arkansasraised bluesman with boundless bravado and attitude but rather limited singing and even lesser harmonica skills. This partnership, though short-lived, proved to be very influential as Streeter’s repertoire tended toward the older, rough-hewn country blues.

Cru’s schooling in country blues later served him well and is heard in his original songs along with the Sun Records and, of course his rock-blues influences.

In addition to his better-known albums is the 2009 release Even Bugs Sing the Blues, an album of original blues music for kids.

In 2016 he recorded a blues album for dog lovers and kids called Doggone Blues that turned into a three-book series featuring the dog characters from these songs (dogssungblue.com).

This Blues Foundation Keeping the Blues Alive award recipient (2014), brings his Blues Education programs and workshops to festivals, schools, and hospitals everywhere he travels. In 2019, Tas began his affiliation with United By Music North America; a program serving differently challenged young adult musicians. “Working with UBMNA has brought me back to why I began playing music in the first place – for the pure joy of doing so,” Cru says.

It looks like a number of changes are in store.

A letter from Cru to his fans on his website refers to a rebanding away from The Tortured Souls, new intimate solo and duo shows (in addition to his 4-7 piece electric road band), and an intriguing hint: “Look for another new album in 2022… and this one is going to be totally different from anything I have shared in the past, and as always it will be all original.” More at tascru.com.

JANUARY 30 EARL’S HIDEAWAY SEBASTIAN

JANUARY 31 FUNKY BISCUIT BOCA RATON

FLORIDA TOUR CONTINUES IN FEBRUARY – SEE WEBSITE

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S P O T L I G H T JANUARY 15 PINECREST GARDENS PINECREST

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Joe Dyson

Spirituality has been a major theme in drummer/composer Joe Dyson’s work. He started playing music in his family’s New Orleans church at just two years old. Dyson was soon placed in the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp where he studied with the late, great clarinetist Alvin Batiste, and his longtime bandleader and mentor, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison. He went on to graduate from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and earned a Presidential Scholarship to his alma mater Berklee College of Music. After releasing three full length albums with longtime friends The Bridge Trio, Dyson’s 2021 solo debut Look Within blends elements of gospel, jazz, R&B and other elements to create a luscious spiritual soundscape. Dyson has shared the stage with Ellis Marsalis, Jon Batiste and Pat Metheny, among others.

As a musician, Dyson has traveled the globe extensively, and he has appeared on more than 30 albums, including Dr. Lonnie Smith’s All In My Mind, and Christian aTunde Adjuah’s Grammy-nominated Emancipation Procrastination. Dyson appeared on the HBO hit series Treme, in the documentary Been In The Storm Too Long, and can be heard on the movie soundtrack to Rachel Getting Married.

In 2012, Dyson created an annual benefit concert, Christmas in Treme, at his family’s church, with proceeds funding outreach programs. Dyson has taught and lectured throughout the U.S. and Europe, and is an Adjunct Professor at Tulane University.

For this event he’ll be sitting in with Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra. More at joedyson.com.

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Biscuit Miller

The Mix is a sometimes-changing cast of players, but bassist and front man Biscuit Miller is consistently known for his highenergy shows and blazing million-dollar smile. After a mutual friend introduced Miller to Sonny Rogers in 1982, Rogers taught Miller a lot about playing basic blues. They recorded “They Call Me the Cat Daddy,” which won Rogers a Handy Award for Best New Artist. Miller went on to play with other respected blues artists until he received a phone call requesting him as a one-night fillin. That one night lasted for over ten years as Miller became the permanent bass player for the Lonnie Brooks Band. In 2000 he formed Biscuit and The Mix and completed his first studio recording Come Together. Miller could frequently be found sitting in with blues guitarist Anthony Gomes, and he was soon asked to join the band full time. He spent the next five years touring with Gomes, and they released five CDs: Unity, Sweet Stringin’ Soul, Long Way Home, Music is the Medicine, and Live at the Triple Door. By 2009 Miller was fronting his own band, touring the country and gaining respect as a front man and bassist alike. In 2012 he was awarded his first Blues Music Award following the release of his second studio recording, Blues With A Smile.

His 2016 release Wishbone brought Miller even more success and a second BMA in 2017.

Following the independent release Live at the North Atlantic Blues Festival, Miller’s latest CD is 2019’s Chicken Grease. More at biscuit miller.com.

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S P O T L I G H T JANUARY 29 JAZZ FEST POMPANO BEACH

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Magela Herrera

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FROM A PHOTO BY JOSE MANUEL ALCONCHEL

As a member of Mezcla – one of Cuba’s leading jazz and fusion groups – Magela Herrera developed her incredible instincts and keen musical chops from 2004 through 2011. In 2010 she was nominated for Best Solo Flute by the New York magazine Jazz Corner for the tune “Quien tiene el ritmo” on Mezcla’s album I’ll See You in Cuba. The recording was also nominated for Best Album. Herrera has shared the stage with an extensive list of acclaimed international artists, and has performed at festivals, jazz clubs and venues worldwide. Her adventure-filled road from holding court with Mezcla to her emergence as a solo performer and bandleader included living in Norway while gigging there and earning Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Jazz Performance from the Norwegian Academy of Music. This was a major shift in mindset from her early days studying classical music at the Conservatory of Music in her native Havana and earning her first Bachelor’s degree in classical music from the Instituto Superior de Arte.

Herrera’s move to Miami and immersion in the city’s vibrant jazz, R&B/funk and electronica scenes continues to have a strong influence. For the past year Herrera has been a regular member of the emblematic Florida Hip hop/funk/afrobeat and electronica band Spam Allstars. Her own quintet released their long-awaited debut album Explicaciones in 2019. Featuring word-class musicians such as pianist Tal Cohen, guitarist Greg Diamond, drummer David Chiverton, and bass players Nestor del Prado, and Dion K Kerr, Explicaciones received rave reviews. More at magelaherrera.com.

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S P O T L I G H T JANUARY 2 JOHNNIE BROWN’S DELRAY BEACH

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Bobby Nathan

Native New Yorker Bobby Nathan picked up a guitar in grade school and hasn’t yet put it down. By the early 1970s, Nathan was touring the U.S. with his now-wife Joanne Georgio in the band Strawberry, playing Top 40 and backing up The Chiffons, The Crystals, Dion and the Belmonts and others before becoming the house band at New York’s Max’s Kansas City in 1974.

The Nathans opened Unique Recording Studios in 1979, and hit records began pouring out, including seminal hip hop and music from New Edition, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, James Brown and Diana Ross, among many others. In 1983, Nathan opened the world’s first Midi recording studio, Midi City. He worked as a consultant for Yamaha for the entire DX synthesizer line, and was the first to promote sampling as he worked building sound libraries.

Nathan was also a columnist for Keyboard Magazine, Mix Magazine and Record Engineer and Producer Magazine. In 1990 Nathan formed Total Recall, a nine piece group made up of studio musicians who had recorded at the studio, to play clubs in the New York City area. The next year Nathan formed The Memphis Soul Review, a group that recreated the sound of the late 1960s/early 1970s R&B. In 1993 the ninepiece Bobby Nathan Blues Band was playing sizzling Texas rock and blues… with a horn section. Today, the constantlyevolving Bobby Nathan Band is comprised of Nathan on guitar and vocals, Joanne Georgio Nathan on Hammond and vocals, Clutch Reilly on bass, Gary Utah on vocals and James Benard on drums. More at bobbynathanband.com.

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S P O T L I G H T j a z z JANUARY 12 AMATURO THEATER BROWARD CENTER FORT LAUDERDALE

Shelly Berg

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FROM A PHOTO BY DANIEL AZOULAY

Steinway piano artist and five-time Grammynominated arranger, orchestrator, and producer Shelly Berg has earned three Grammy nominations in the Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) category with jazz singerlyricist Lorraine Feather and international superstar Gloria Estefan. His fourth nomination was as co-producer of Gloria Estefan: The Standards. His fifth was as co-arranger of “I Loves You Porgy / There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” from the album Rendezvous (2018) featuring jazz singers Clint Holmes and Dee Dee Bridgewater with The Count Basie Orchestra. He hosts the monthly radio show Generation Next on Real Jazz Sirius XM, and serves as music director of The Jazz Cruise and artistic advisor for the Jazz Roots series at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center. His latest album, Gershwin Reimagined: An American in London, features the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. An award-winning educator with more than 40 years of leadership in higher education, Dr. Berg is the Dean of the Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, a position he has held since June 2007. He was previously the McCoy/Sample Professor of Jazz Studies at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and a past president of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE).

In 2003 he was honored as Educator of the Year by the Los Angeles Jazz Society and in 2002 received the IAJE Lawrence Berk Leadership Award.

This Gold Coast Jazz Society trio performance, titled “A Gershwin Top 20 Celebration,” features drummer Dafnis Prietro and bass player Carlo De Rosa. More at shellyberg.com.

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S P O T L I G H T b l u e s JANUARY 28-29 CULTURE ROOM FT LAUDERDALE JANUARY 30 JANNUS LANDING ST. PETE

Alastair Greene

As Alastair Greene’s prolific and acclaimed career heads into a third decade, he JANUARY 31 arrives at a new, yet familiar KING CENTER destination. Following a 2018 MELBOURNE live album that celebrated the 20th anniversary of his Alastair Greene Band, the singer-songwriter/ guitarist returned with an inspired 2020 solo collection, The New World Blues. Greene received a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied for two years, before returning to his native Southern California in the early 1990s. He formed the Alastair Greene Band in 1997 and subsequently released eight solo albums (including two live sets and a compilation record) over nearly 20 years. An in-demand guitarist and vocalist, Greene toured with the Alan Parsons Live Project from 2010 through 2017 (an appeared on four of their albums), as well as stints with Starship featuring Mickey Thomas and most recently, Sugaray Rayford.

In 2019, Greene signed with Tab Benoit’s Whiskey Bayou Records label. With Benoit on drums, and bassist Corey Duplechin, the three formed a classic power trio, recording nearly the entire album live in Benoit’s studio. Featuring funky, swampy grooves and flights of muscular guitar, Greene delivers an album stirred by touchstones such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, yet perhaps most often guided by the roadmap of Gov’t Mule and that band’s synthesis of The Allman Brothers Band’s improvisational firepower and the raw, strippeddown electric blues-rock of Cream.

More at agsongs.com.

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S P O T L I G H T CLASSIC JAZZ ON TWO PIANOS (WITH PAOLO ALDERIGHI) JANUARY 27 SOUTH FLORIDA STATE COLLEGE WILDSTEIN CENTER AVON PARK

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Stephanie Trick

A classically trained pianist, Stephanie Trick began playing piano at age five. By high school, her piano teacher had exposed her to early jazz, and the syncopation and swinging rhythm piqued her interest. While in college, it became clear to Trick that she wanted to pursue stride and classic jazz styles professionally. With a swinging approach inspired by second-generation stride pianists such as Dick Hyman, Ralph Sutton, and Dick Wellstood (as well as the original Harlem ticklers, James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, and Fats Waller), Trick was the 2012 recipient of the prestigious Kobe-Breda Jazz Friendship Award, and has performed in many parts of the U.S. and Europe in a variety of venues and festivals, including three appearances (2008, 2010, and 2014) at the International Stride & Swing Piano Summit in Switzerland.

Trick frequently performs with her husband, acclaimed pianist Paolo Alderighi, making fresh arrangements of songs from the Swing Era in a four-hands piano duo, and they have recorded four albums together. In 2014, they played for the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival. Trick also enjoys accompanying Grammy-nominated lyricist and vocalist Lorraine Feather in a show that features the music of stride piano composers set to original lyrics by Feather. Trick has recorded ten albums and one DVD. Her solo Live CD was awarded the New Talent Prize 2011 by the Hot Club of France. More at stephanietrick.com.

FESTIVAL UPDATE

JANUARY 28 • POMPANO BEACH Pompano Beach Jazz Festival FEBRUARY 4 • CLEARWATER Blues On The Block MARCH 4 • ZEPHYRHILLS Pigz in Z’Hills BBQ & Blues MARCH 5 • BOCA RATON Festival of the Arts MARCH 11 • BONITA SPRINGS Bonita Blues Fest MARCH 26 • APOPKA Apopka International Jazz Fest MARCH 26 • TALLAHASSEE Backyard Blues @ Blue Tavern

CLICK FOR OUR COMPLETE JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVAL LIST!

INFORMATION WAS CORRECT AT TIME OF POSTING Send updates to Charlie@JazzBluesFlorida.com 16

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S P O T L I G H T JANUARY 14 LINCOLNVILLE CENTER LINCOLNVILLE

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Mama Blue

Enjoy the sweet and sultry sounds of Mama Blue as the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center (LMCC) kicks off a new season of Jazz at the Excelsior 2022 in St. Augustine on Friday, January 14. Jacksonville native Mama Blue (Sarah Sanders) kicks off the series. Mesmerizing whether singing a capella or with a live band, her soulful voice, inviting stage presence and signature flower in her hair combine to give each listener the feeling of having their own personal songstress. She is a graduate of the Douglas Anderson School of the Performing Arts and Jacksonville University where she studied vocal performance and drama. Sanders’ range from sultry soul, classic jazz and even a little gospel has made her a favorite for LMCC audiences. Mama Blue and her crew have performed at festivals from Springing the Blues, Dancin’ in the Streets and Porch Fest in Jacksonville, to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, and at events and nightclubs across Northeast Florida and beyond. The LMCC is returning to live performances after a COVID 19-induced hiatus, which interrupted its jazz series in March 2020. The venue is inside the historic Excelsior High School, first built for Black students in 1924. It is currently undergoing Phase I of a historic preservation project. The second story “Excelsior Room,” site of the jazz series, will have seven performances from January through April. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $25. If you’ve ever been to a Mama Blue show, you know she’s not to be missed!

More at mamabluesings.com.

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