This year’s festival edition includes legends Anthony Geraci and Popa Chubby, Ana Popović and a tribute to singer Etta James

The main attractions of the 26th edition of Blues Alive will include the essential legend of his generation, pianist, organist and singer Anthony Geraci, Serbian-American guitarist Ana Popović, New York guitar star Popa Chubby, world-famous Hammond organist Delvon Lamarr and his trio, and the leading representative of the acoustic country-blues school Jontavious Willis.

The festival will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of singer Etta James with a special block of American and British musicians and singers, and pay tribute to Jan Spálený in an afternoon concert.

The big news is the grand opening of the permanent exhibition of the Blues Alive Hall of Fame in the premises of the Regional Museum in Šumperk.

With nearly fifty years of professional musical career, pianist, organist and singer Anthony Geraci is one of the major legends of his age in the blues genre. “The open book of his experience includes such names as Muddy Waters, with whom he was engaged in a Boston club at the very beginning of his career, and with his regular bandmates Jerry Portnoy and Bob Margolin he formed one of his first bands,” says festival programmer Ondřej Bezr. With harmonica player Sugar Ray Norcia, he co-founded the still active band Sugar Ray & the Bluetones. Later, Anthony Geraci was at the cradle of another important blues band, Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters. “Anthony Geraci’s albums are stylistically very diverse, featuring straightforward blues rides in the Chicago vein and more sophisticated rhythm and blues compositions spiced with jazz techniques,” says Ondřej Bezr. With The Boston Blues All-Stars, he has been repeatedly nominated in the Band of the Year category at the Blues Music Awards, and Geraci himself regularly appears there in the Best Blues Pianists category.

Other big names in this year’s lineup include Serbian-born American guitarist Ana Popovic, winner of the visitor’s poll for favorite performer in the first quarter-century of the Blues Alive festival, New York guitar star Popa Chubby, and the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, led by the immensely talented composer and Hammond organ player who gives the band its name. “He’s a great fit with iconic guitarist Jimmy James and the great drummer Michael Duffy. The trio’s music moves between rhythm’n’blues, jazz, funk and rock,” says Ondřej Bezr.

Guitarist and singer Carolyn Wonderland is known to many music fans from the band of British blues legend John Mayall, but the Houston, Texas native has been on a solo career since the early 1990s. She can put fans of the Texas guitar rampage into a trance, but as a very talented songwriter, she can also captivate the listener who doesn’t demand strict adherence to the rules of the blues. “At the last Blues Music Awards she had two handcuffs on fire for her latest album Tempting Fate released on the prestigious Alligator label,” says Ondřej Bezr.

An equally respected figure on the contemporary scene is Jontavious Willis, a twenty-six year old Georgia native, a star of the acoustic country-blues school, a straight-line continuation of what figures of the caliber of Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ have excelled at in a global context. Both music veterans invited Willis to guest on their 2017 tour for their successful collaborative album TajMo, and two years later Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ produced Willis’ second and final album to date, Spectacular Class, which was nominated for a 2020 Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues Album category. Jontavious Willis will also perform in Veselí nad Moravou, Mikulov, Olomouc, Valašské Meziříčí, Jeseník and Chorzów in Poland as part of the Blues Alive Tour. The tour will include his guitar masterclasses with local musicians and the opening of the Roots of the Blues in the American South exhibition.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the death of one of the greatest soul and blues singers, Etta James. A special program in her honour, called Etta James Celebration, has been prepared by a flourish of American and British musicians and singers who will also be stopping in Šumperk on their world tour. “The band consists of keyboardist Bruce Katz and harp player Giles Robson. The singers Dana Gillespie, Robbin “The Soul-Shaker” Kapsalis, Alice Armstrong and Daria Biancardi will share the interpretation of such famous hits as At Last, I’d Rather Go Blind, A Sunday Kind of Love and Stormy Weather,” explains Ondřej Bezr.

Other international performers include the young Texan guitarist Ally Venable, the phenomenal American harmonica player and singer Dustin Arbuckle with his band The Damnations, Swedish blues-rockers Black River Delta and the increasingly well-known French trio Muddy Gurdy experimenting with the sound of medieval hurdy-gurdy in the context of Mississippi’s dark blues sound.

This year, the traditional Saturday afternoon concert will be dedicated to celebrating the birthday of one of the most important personalities of the Czech music scene, far from just blues: the eightieth birthday of Jan Spaleny. The birthday boy will play in the large hall of the House of Culture with his home band ASPM, but before that, as part of the Tribute to Jan Spálený programme, his songs will be sung in their own arrangements by many, sometimes perhaps even a little surprising performers, mostly one or more generations younger (Martina Trchová, Jan Fic, Jan Švihálek, Michal Němec, Martin Kyšperský, Petr Ostrouchov & Blue Shadows).

As is the custom, one of the bands that advanced from this year’s Blues Aperitiv talent contest (Dazed and Confused, Black Pin, Steven’s) will open the events in the foyer of the House of Culture in the early evening, followed by a block of last year’s winners on the main stage (The Peanuts, Levi, The Turtev Brothers).

Other festival stages will also be busy. The Jam Stage will feature, among others, the Italian acoustic duo Max & Veronica, while the Friday program in the Monastery Church will belong to Martina Trchová, Justin Lavash and Phil Shoenfelt with David Babka. There will also be the traditional Saturday morning screening at the Oko cinema, with a great biopic about Aretha Franklin called Respect. The T. G. Masaryk Library will host leading blues experts Jan Sobotka and Jiří Moravčík with their listening programmes.

The last wave of festival passes to the House of Culture and tickets for the accompanying events are on sale through the GoOut network and at the ticket office of the House of Culture in Šumperk. A limited number of one-day tickets are on sale at the ticket office of the House of Culture.

Categorised in: Nezařazené

This post was written by Štěpán Suchochleb