Jazz & Blues Florida March 2023 Issue

BEN RICE

For the last eight years or so, Ben Rice has been impressing audiences around the Northwest and winning awards for his vocals and guitar playing. With original music that blends Delta blues, soul, rockabilly, jazz and funk into a rootsy stew, Rice stunned audiences at the 2014 International Blues Challenge with his raw, emotional delivery of his version of “Key To The Highway.” On his second consecutive trip to the IBC, he made the finals in the solo/duo category and was awarded the St. Blues Guitarist award for best guitarist.

Rice began investigating the blues and its history at an early age. Starting with B.B. King and going through the various regions and time periods, he is inspired and influenced by historical figures like Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and Big Bill Broonzy. Rice was also influenced heavily by his parents’ record collection, from Al Green to Alice Cooper, Teddy Pendergrass to Marshall Tucker. He spent his college years studying Jazz Guitar at the University of Oregon as well as classical music while also playing in the Celtic Folk ensemble and Mariachi group on campus. His experience with and knowledge of numerous disparate musical styles contributes mightily to the unique sound of his originals, and his eclectic arsenal includes resophonic and homemade cigar box guitars.

His international stage debut in 2014 was a huge step forward in his career from being a regional act in the northwest U.S. to a national and international touring artist. It came between the release of his 2011

& THE HUSTLE

all-original debut Pour Me Some Whiskey and 2015’s Live at the Purple Fox Loft, recorded at Purple Cow Vineyards and Fox Farm in Newberg, OR.

The winner of Blues Blast magazine’s 2019 Sean Costello Rising Star Award, Rice’s recent albums continue to exhibit his explorative nature. 2018’s Wish the World Away was nominated for three 2019 Blues Music Awards, including Acoustic Album of the Year. 2020’s Out Of The Box is a collaboration with RB Stone where all of the songs were made with cigar box guitars. His latest, 2021’s Shake a Hand captures a late-night New Orleans jam session featuring vocalist

Saeeda Wright, drummer

Eddie Christmas, bassist

Kennan Shaw, percussionist

Jimi Bott, harmonica player

Mitch Kashmar, and keyboardist

Ben Partain.

With music deeply rooted in traditional blues while still being fiercely original, guitar playing that earns labels like “fearless,” “inventive” and “powerful,” and his direct and surprising vocal delivery, Rice is equally at home fronting his electric band as he is captivating a crowd solo with his acoustic resonator guitar. The trio opened for ZZ Top on their most recent Pacific Northwest tour, and Rice has been on the Florida touring A-List since bringing his band to play the Bonita Blues Festival in 2015. His subsequent two performances at this beloved festival make him one of the few that had return shows, and most likely the only band to perform three times.

The Hustle is an expansion of the trio that Rice has been playing with for the last decade. Adding instruments and singers offers a broader sonic palette, and he has tapped Portland arranger Dave Mills to help orchestrate his originals. The collaboration has yielded a powerful and compelling sound. Rice is also active in the blues community, at the International Blues Challenge and the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise as venue coordinator, showcase host/facilitator/participant and on stage guesting with music luminaries from around the world. More at BenRiceAndTheHustle.com

WITH ANNI PIPER

MARCH 16 & 23

CRAZY

UNCLE MIKE’S BOCA RATON

MARCH 17

BLUES & BREWS BISTRO

ORMOND BEACH

MARCH 18

WALDO’S VERO BEACH

MARCH 19

BLUES BASH AT THE RANCH

BROOKSVILLE

MARCH 21

TROLL MUSIC VENICE

MARCH 22

BLUE JEAN BLUES

FT LAUDERDALE

MARCH 24 & 26

CRAWDADDY’S JENSEN BEACH

MARCH 25

KILTED

MERMAID VERO BEACH

Charlie Bertini

Eager to play trumpet professionally, Charlie Bertini started his own dance band in the ninth grade. At age 19 he joined the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros Circus and toured for six years as first trumpeter and later as musical director. The circus relocated him to Florida where he began to playing stage shows with nightclub performers like Mel Tormé and Patti Page, and freelance engagements at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. Bertini has backed up artists such as Burt Bacharach, Liza Minnelli, Henry Mancini, Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, Aretha Frank lin and Ray Charles. He has played on network TV specials for Walt Disney World, Ringling Bros Circus, and several PBS music specials. As a recording artist, Charlie has seven solo albums, and he has recorded 13 albums with Bill Allred’s Classic Jazz Band. In addition, he has produced close to 100 albums for other artists, including Warren Vaché, Wycliffe Gordon, Harry Allen, Dick Hyman, Bucky Pizzarelli and The Glenn Miller Orchestra. He has performed in 45 of our 50 states, Europe and China. Bertini also served as executive director of the annual AppleJazz Festival in upstate NY, which ran from 1984 until 2014. As a teacher and clinician he has led workshops and lectures at universities and high schools, is an adjunct trumpet teacher at Osceola County School for the Arts, and teaches privately, while remaining one of the most versatile and respected trumpeters and producers in the industry. More at charliebertini.com.

Shaw Davis & The Black Ties

Formed in 2017 with Patrick Stevenson (bass guitar, vocals) and Bobby Van Stone (drums) and hailing from Pompano Beach, FL, Shaw Davis & The Black Ties are an incendiary fusion of progressive hard rock and roots rock that embodies the soul found within blues-rock icons of the 1960s and ’70s. After a steady dose of touring the U.S., performing more than 300 shows in a two-year span, the band has begun to carve their way into the national touring scene. Dubbed as one of the Top 50 Rock & Blues Artists You Must Hear In 2019 by Rock & Blues Muse, the group teamed up with Grammy-winner Paul Nelson (Johnny Winter) to record 2021’s Red Sun Rebellion. The album’s nine tracks include the lead single “Higher” and the trio’s take on the blues standard, “Rock Me Baby.” It came three years after the band’s second Tales From The West, which was nominated for three Independent Blues Music awards and debuted at No. 20 on the RMR Blues Rock chart. Their self-titled 2017 debut was followed by the 2018 live EP That year they represented South Florida in the International Blues Challenge. The trio has become a mainstay on the national club circuit and have performed alongside the likes of Blackberry Smoke, Walter Trout, and Blue Oyster Cult. More at shawdavisblackties.com

FROM A PHOTO BY DATFLYS CONCERT VIDEOS

Lucy Yeghiazaryan

American-Armenian vocalist

Lucy Yeghiazaryan has become a leading voice in American straight-ahead jazz by bringing the richness of her heritage together with her love for the ultimate American art form. She is a recipient of grants from the Doris Duke Foundation, Chamber Music America and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and has shared the stage with Houston Person, Terell Stafford, Bernadette Peters, and many more. Yeghiazaryan regularly works with the Emmet Cohen trio and can be found performing in and outside of the U.S. with regular appearances at Jazz at Lincoln Center and Birdland. Growing up in post-Soviet Armenia, Yeghiazaryan began listening to her father’s once-contraband collection of jazz records as a young girl. Before she ever learned to speak English, Yeghiazaryan was meticulously mimicking the sounds and styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. In 2002, the family immigrated to America, and Yeghiazaryan received a full scholarship to NJPAC’s Jazz for Teens Program. After graduating college, she moved to New York City in 2015 to pursue her singing career. A top ten finalist in the 2015 Thelonious Monk Competition, Yeghiazaryan holds a degree in World History in addition to being a skilled classical violinist. Her 2019 debut Blue Heaven was followed by 2021’s In Her Words. Her current release, Lonely House is Yeghiazaryan’s debut collaboration with fellow singer-songwriter Vanisha Gould. The collection of originals and carefully curated standards was made possible with support from NYC Women’s fund for Media, Music and Theater. More at lucyjazz nyc.com

APRIL 1

MAITLAND JAZZ AND BLUES FESTIVAL MAITLAND

Tyrone Vaughan

MARCH 11

MUSIC RANCH LAKELAND

The son of Fabulous Thunderbirds founder and guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, and nephew of legendary blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tyrone Vaughan grew up in Austin Texas’s then-exploding music scene. Muddy Waters gifted him his first harmonica and his Uncle Stevie gave him his first two guitars. Inspiration from his maternal grandfather led to Vaughan’s debut, 2011’s country-leaning blues-rocker Downtime. Vaughan was then invited to join Cyril Neville’s Royal Southern Brotherhood, with whom he recorded two albums, 2015’s Don’t Look Back and 2016’s The Royal Gospel. Neville and Vaughan spent two years on the road covering three continents and more than 15 countries. Vaughan has played with Billy Gibbons, Double Trouble, John Popper, Eric Gales, Derek Trucks, Robert Randolph Band, and many more. He was inducted into the Texas Blues Hall Of Fame 2019, and has a writing Grammy for “Without You” from Jimmie Vaughan’s 2001 Do You Get The Blues? album. In 2017, Vaughan teamed up with Malford Milligan, an Austin-area favorite since the 1980s who sang with

Gabrielle Cavassa

Vocalist-composer Gabrielle Cavassa continues to garner attention for her distinctive voice and intimate expression. She was crowned co-winner of the 2021 International Sarah Vaughan Jazz Vocal Competition, joining the ranks of such previous winners as Cyrille Aimée, Jazzmeia Horn and Samara Joy who is a double Grammy winner this year. Growing up in the San Diego suburb of Escondido, Cavassa heard “a lot of Frank Sinatra because my grandpa is Italian, and he just loved Frank Sinatra.” Her tastes soon broadened to include the likes of Nancy Wilson and Ella Fitzgerald from her parents’ jazz Christmas albums. But it was while attending San Francisco State College that Cavassa really started getting into jazz, going to live performances and collecting records. In 2017, Cavassa moved to New Orleans, quickly acclimating herself to the local music scene. She toured with Adonis Rose and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield. As a songwriter, she confronts challenging topics as though she’s sharing stark, intimate diary entries with the world. Her expression reflects influences ranging from Billie Holiday and Amy Winehouse to Frank Ocean and Italian opera. Cavassa’s 2020 critically-acclaimed self-titled recording debut, co-produced by Grammynominated artist and collaborator Jamison Ross, includes features from fellow genre-bending artists Braxton Cook and Ashlin Parker. Cavassa is set to release her second studio album later this year, a collaboration with keyboardist Ryan Hanseler. More at gabriellecavassa.com.

Robbin Kapsalis & Vintage #18

Since igniting the Washington D.C. blues and soul scene in 2013, Robbin Kapsalis and Vintage #18 have been racking up the accolades. In 2016, they represented the Central Virginia Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge, and immediately afterward began working on their debut release Grit. Their self-produced album reflected the band’s love of classic 1960s soul and blues, featuring a mix of originals as well as two interesting covers (ZZ Top and Bob Dylan). Grit debuted at No. 5 on the Roots Music Report’s Soul Blues Albums Chart and held the No. 1 spot for six consecutive weeks, and also Hit the Top 20 on RMR’s Blues Albums Chart. The band received their first industry nod in early 2017 - a Blues Blast Music Award Nomination for New Artist Album Debut. Their sophomore album, 2021’s Soul Shaker rode high on the Living Blues charts, and hit the Top 15 on Sirius XM radio’s B.B. King’s Bluesville Rack of Blues. Kapsalis’s mesmerizing performances in her trademark white boots with a matching fringe dress command attention – alongside her stellar band – offering audiences a repertoire that ranges from blues and soul standards to her scintillating originals. Her song “Poor Me” earned her a semi-finalist spot in the 2019 International Songwriting Competition, securing her status as a lyricist to watch. The combined experiences of her seasoned powerhouse trio of guitarist Bill Holter, drummer Alex Kuldell and bassist Mark Chandler include first-hand contributions to everyone from Chuck Berry to the U.S. Army’s Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. More at vintage18.net.

Peabo Bryson

Born Robert L. Bryson, world-renowned balladeer Peabo Bryson released his debut Peabo in 1976, having composed nearly all the songs. (Among the background vocalists? A young Luther Vandross.) Bryson had back-toback gold albums with 1977’s Reaching for the Sky and 1978’s Crosswinds before collaborating with Natalie Cole for 1979’s We’re the Best of Friends and Roberta Flack for the double-LP Live & More. He later re-teamed with Flack for the gold Born to Love album featuring the smash “Tonight I Celebrate My Love.” A few albums later, All My Love earned Peabo his first R&B No. 1 single with a remake of the late Al Wilson’s “Show & Tell.” He then hit the top of the R&B charts a second time with “Can You Stop The Rain.” Disney films produced Bryson’s two Grammys and two Oscars: 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast” duet with Celine Dion, and 1992’s “A Whole New World” duet with Regina Belle from Aladdin Bryson’s 1992 “We Kiss in A Shadow” duet with Lea Salonga hit No. 1 on the Classical Crossover chart from a new recording of The King and I score, and Bryson also sang on the smash 1993 Kenny G hit “By The Time This Night is Over.” Leading an initiative called The Choice, Bryson wants fans and advocates of classic R&B to actively support the genre. Collaborating with powerhouse producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Bryson’s latest album, 2018’s Stand For Love an anticipated and epic return to popular music by one of the indus try’s most gifted and cherished voices. More at peabo

bryson2.com

Mem Shannon

MARCH 12

Inspired by his father’s collection of blues records, Mem Shannon played both clarinet and guitar by the age of 15, but he didn’t get serious until he saw B.B. King. He spent several years playing in bands around his New Orleans hometown until his father died in 1981. Shannon took a job driving a cab in order to help his family pay bills, putting his music career on hold until 1990, when he started playing in local clubs again. He formed Mem Shannon and the Membership, and they played at the 1991 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. In 1995, Shannon’s debut album, A Cab Driver’s Blues, did well enough that he was able to give up cab driving the following year in order to make music his full-time job. Its success led to national media coverage from the likes of ABC World News, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, E! Entertainment Television, The New York Times and NPR. His song “S.U.V.” from his fourth CD, 2002’s Memphis in the Morning won Living Blues magazine’s Critics Poll Song of the Year. In 2011 Shannon and the band appeared on an episode of HBO’s New Orleans-based series Tréme performing “Who Are They” from their 1999 Spend Some Time With Me album. A regular on the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival for more than 15 years, Mem Shannon and the Membership have released six albums worldwide, and continue

Kim Waters

CENTER

Chart-topping saxophonist Kim Waters’ signature sound combines elements of jazz, R&B, blues and pop. His keen harmonic sense, tasteful and soulful phrasing and fluid melodic sensibilities have made him one the premiere architects of contemporary jazz. The Maryland-born Renaissance man has performed with or opened shows for Al Green, Isaac Hayes, Phyllis Hyman and Gerald Albright, among others, and with a career closing in on the four-decade mark, Waters is still inspired: “I have been recording for 35 years and I love it. It’s my passion and it is all that I’ve ever done. There are so many great young guns coming along that I have to stay at the top of my game! I am blessed that I was trained on the straight-ahead side of things which gave me a great foundation.” He has made it a trademark to harness the spirit of love in all of his recordings. “I think that everybody needs love. It’s something for certain that in today’s world, we need more of, and if we had more of it the world would be a better place,” he explains. Waters’ 25th CD, 2022’s That Special Touch features mostly originals, along with his takes on Adele’s No. 1 anthem “Easy On Me” and R&B singer Joe’s “If I Were Your Man,” featuring singer Raynard Gibson. Exuding a knowing confidence and cool calm, Waters’ steadfast approach has carried him to the top of the charts more than a few times and into the hearts of music fans all around the world. More at kimwaters.net.

Bywater Call

Meghan Parnell and Dave Barnes are the driving force behind Bywater Call, a powerhouse seven-piece Southern soul/roots/rock band out of Toronto, Canada. Since forming in 2017, the group have received Maple Blues and Independent Blues Award nominations, and have made waves on the Canadian festival circuit. Born out of a love for southern soul, blues and roots music and a passion to create a powerful and moving experience for listeners, Bywater Call is completed by Bruce McCarthy on drums, Mike Meusel on Bass, John Kervin on Keys, Stephen Dyte on Trumpet and Julian Nalli on Tenor Sax. Their self-titled 2019 debut remained at No. 1 on the Roots Music Report Canada Top 50 for 11 straight weeks, was featured as album of the month on the International Blues Broadcasters Awards chart, gained repeated Top 5 placement on the International/U.S. Rock Blues RMR, and Top 20 placement on the International/U.S. Blues RMR. Their highly-anticipated sophomore album, Remain, was recorded in just four days, and released in September of 2022. Filled with stories both deeply personal and imagined, this moving collection of songs highlights their exceptional talent as musicians, songwriters, and vocalists. The band has toured extensively through Europe, most recently in May and June of 2022, including a mainstage appearance at the Netherlands’ premiere blues festival Moulin Blues. Performances there have been praised in Dutch and German media, with references to Parnell as one of the best singers in blues and roots today. They will be returning to Europe later this year. More at bywatercall.com.