Jazz & Blues Florida October 2023 Issue

BUDDY GUY

At age 87, Buddy Guy is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee; a major influence on such rock titans as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan; a pioneer of Chicago’s fabled West Side sound, and a living link to the city’s halcyon days of electric blues. He has earned eight Grammys, a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Grammy, 37 Blues Music Awards (the most any artist has Magazine Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Presidential National Medal of Arts. RollMagazine ranked him No. 23 in its “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

Though Guy will always and with Chicago, his story actually begins in Louisiana. One of five children, he was born in 1936 to a sharecropper’s family and raised on a plantation near the small town of Lettsworth, located some 140 miles northwest of New Orleans. Guy was just seven years old when he fashioned his first makeshift “guitar”– a two-string contraption attached to a piece of wood and secured with his mother’s hairpins.

In 1957, he took his guitar to Chicago, where he would permanently alter the direction of the instrument, first on numerous sessions for Chess Records playing alongside Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and the rest of the label’s legendary roster, and then on recordings of his own. His incendiary style left its mark on guitarists from Jimmy Page to John Mayer.

Guy’s career was revived during the blues revival of the late 1980s and early 1990s. His resurgence was sparked by Clapton’s request that Guy be part of the “24 Nights” all-star blues guitar lineup at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Guy subsequently signed with Silvertone Records and recorded his mainstream breakthrough album Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues in 1991. “He was for me what Elvis was probably like for other people,” said Eric Clapton at Guy’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

FROM A PHOTO BY JEFF SCIORTINO

GUY

THE LIVING BLUES LEGEND

LAUNCHES HIS DAMN RIGHT FAREWELL TOUR

induction in 2005. “My course was set, and he was my pilot.”

2012 proved to be one of the most remarkable years of Guy’s career. He was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contribution to American culture; earlier in the year, at a performance at the White House, he even persuaded President Obama to join him on a chorus of “Sweet Home Chicago.” Also in 2012, he published his long-awaited memoir,

doing all right. Just keep the damn blues alive.’ They all told me that if they left here before I did, then everything was going to be on my shoulders. So as long as I’m here, I’m going to do whatever I can to keep it alive.”

After a long and storied career, including numerous recorded collaborations with Junior Wells, Guy has titled this outing the Buddy Guy Damn Right Farewell Tour. But we expect to see new music from this legend for quite some time yet. More at buddyguy.com.

“ I’m always trying to make an album that someone accidentally plays where some kid hears it, picks up a guitar, and helps keep the blues alive.”

When I Left Home. His streak was still going strong through 2016, when Guy’s Born to Play Guitar won the Grammy for Best Blues Album, and he toured the US east coast as the opening act for Jeff Beck. Then 2018’s The Blues Is Alive and Well won the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. Guy’s most recent collection, 2022’s The Blues Don’t Lie, received a Grammy nomination in that same category.

A genuine American treasure and one of the final surviving connections to an historic era in the country’s musical evolution, Guy keeps looking to the future of the blues through his ongoing work with his teen protégé, Quinn Sullivan.

“I worry a lot about the legacy of Muddy, Wolf, and all the guys who created this stuff,” he says. “I want people to remember them. It’s like the Ford car – Henry Ford invented the Ford car, and regardless how much technology they got on them now, you still have that little sign that says ‘Ford’ on the front.”

“One of the last things Muddy Waters told me – when I found out how ill he was, I gave him a call and said, ‘I’m on my way to your house.’ And he said, ‘Don’t come out here, I’m

Alma Skye

Born and raised in Port St. Lucie, FL, Alma Skye started singing Celine Dion at age three, and grew up in choir and musical theater. In high school, she became interested in psychology and the way the mind and body work collectively. After graduation she explored a career in psychology while working toward her degree. But something always brought her back to music. “I’m still very passionate about mental health and music,” she says, “and have been finding ways to combine both of the passions in my music and writing to help people feel like they aren’t alone in whatever it is they feel challenged with.” In 2015 she started writing songs and poems, and connected with a vocal coach who opened some music industry doors. She now works with production companies that book live entertainment all over Central and South Florida, and she has collaborated with artists she’s met in the process. Skye is heavily influenced by R&B, soul and jazz music, having grown up listening to Destiny’s Child, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, et al. She fell in love with jazz music at age 12 – the first time she heard Billie Holiday. Then she expanded to artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Sarah Vaughan. Skye’s music then blends the soulful melodies of jazz and the infectious rhythms of R&B/soul with the vibrant flavors of Latin music. Find her on Facebook.

OCTOBER 11 -14 BLUE BAMBOO WINTER PARK

Mathis Lattin

He may be the grandson of NBA Hall Of Fame legend and two-time NCAA All American David “Big Daddy” Lattin, but Mathias Lattin’s decision to bring his talent to the stage and not the basketball court has already paid off. At 20 years old, Mathias Lattin won first place at the 2023 International Blues Challenge in the band category and was awarded Best Guitarist by the judges. Lattin is a product of the Houston ISD Fine Arts magnet program, and a 2020 graduate of the acclaimed Kinder High School for Performing and Visual Arts magnet program, Mathias was offered a scholarship at Boston’s Berklee College of Music – but the pandemic got in the way. Lattin rose quickly on the Houston scene, playing Jonn Del Toro Richardson’s blues jams when he was 13, and later joining Keeshea Pratt’s band. This emer young Texas guitarist names music legends B.B. King, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Albert Collins, and Wes Montgomery as influences. Trained as a jazz guitarist, Lattin incorporates that knowledge in his playing and songwriting. And his love for music is reflected in the soulful blues, jazz-inflected chords, and funky bass lines on his debut EP Let’s Start Here. Newly signed to Vizztone, Lattin’s debut album, Up Next, is due out October 27. The lead single, “Lose Some Weight,” is available now. Lattin and his band are hitting the road hard in support of the new record. He recently joined Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea Cruise as a special guest of Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, performed at the Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas, and he’s gearing up for additional high-profile appearances around the country. But first, Florida! More at mathiaslattin.com.

FROM A PHOTO BY RON FONTENOT PHOTOGRAPHY

Pedrito Martinez

Pedrito Martinez

OCTOBER

6

RITZ THEATER JACKSONVILLE

Matthew Curry

OCTOBER 6

HARD ROCK CASINO

TAMPA

OCTOBER 7

BLUES AND BREWS

ORMOND BEACH

OCTOBER 8

TWISTED FORK

PORT CHARLOTTE

OCTOBER 11

HEIDI’S JAZZ CLUB

COCOA BEACH

Following the release of 2014’s If I Don’t Got You and 2015’s Electric Religion, singer-songwriter Matthew Curry returns with the new EP Shine On. Curry continues to grow as a writer, and while all of his songs reflect his style and sound, no two sound exactly the same. Simply, he is a singer-songwriter and guitarist writing personal songs with elements of blues, rock, southern rock, and old school country. In addition to his solo appearances in the U.S. and overseas, Curry has toured with the Doobie Brothers, Steve Miller, Peter Frampton, Journey and others. “I’ve definitely learned a lot in doing this,” he says. “I’ve learned how the ‘big boys’ do it, and by that I mean a lot of different things: The production that goes into the shows, the energy and excitement that they put out when playing a live show, and many other things.” Curry’s hundreds and hundreds of dates have distilled a distinctive lineup of collaborators: bassist Tim Brickner, drummer Francis Valentino and rhythm guitarist Mike Nellas. The ensemble is billed simply as Matthew Curry, ditching the prior moniker The Fury as the group kept getting called The Furry, The Flurries, and well you get the idea. “When you hear a great blues or

Heather Thorn

Orlando-based xylophonist Heather Thorn holds a degree in Music Performance with a minor in Theatre from Ithaca College where she was a proud member of Gordon Stout’s marimba band for two years. In 2019, Thorn was featured with her band Vivacity as the headline act for the I Love Jazz International Jazz Festival in Brazil. She has been featured as a guest artist with Michael Andrew and Swingerhead, Carol Stein, the John Depaola quartet and as an opening act for the Glenn Miller Orchestra; in 2018 she gave a concert at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Thorn wrote and performed her musical stage show Nostalgia Radio Hour, featuring an original script with classic tunes from the 1920s-1950s, and characters inspired by the Golden Age of Radio. She also leads a jazz quartet at the Sea World Christmas Celebration and subs with the Walt Disney World Orchestra. Thorn has Jazz Festival and New Smyrna Beach Jazz festivals and community events all over regularly features jazz luminaries such as Adrian Cunningham and Ed Metz as guests. Her passionate interest in the history of xylophone finds her working with Bill Cahn on a project to digitize and preserve nearly 1,500 recordings of xylophone and percussion music from 1898-1929. Thorn has a private teaching studio, serves as a clinician in several schools, and has given master classes at Virginia Tech and the universities of South, Central and North Florida. More at xyloheather.com.

Betty Fox

OCTOBER

OCTOBER 19

With an extensive background in gospel and a lifelong passion for soul music, Betty Fox has come a long way from her southern roots to headlining festivals and captivating thousands with her raw swagger and unwavering talent. Once the 2015 representative of the Suncoast Blues Society, an International Blues Challenge Finalist, and five-time winner of ’s Best of the Bay, this soul-filled mama is still drawing crowds with her gut-busting blues. After honing her craft for 20 years, her most recent release Peace in Pieces as released in early 2020 and hit No. 1 on the Blues RMR charts in its third week. Recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL with living legends Spooner Oldham and Clayton Ivey, as well as a full horn section and backing vocals, Peace In Pieces has helped the dynamic quartet rocket into the Florida spotlight, playing at multiple notable music festivals including the Tampa Bay Blues Festival, and the country’s largest free music festival Springing the Blues. Betty has opened for such artists such as Mavis Staples, Lucky Peterson, Jimmy Thackery, Marcia Ball, Southern Hospitality, and The Meter Men. Since the pandemic, Betty has had twin boys and a little girl who are the loves of her life. As such, she is dedicating her next album to them. The October 19 event is a fundraiser for Fox to record her next album. More at bettyfox.net.