At fifteen years old, the Monterey Bay Blues Festival remains faithful to traditional blues but has imaginatively interspersed a variety of related musical influences. Friday, July 23rd, opening night showcased the dynamic duo of Ashford & Simpson, Motown legends. The opening act, Deborah Coleman, is on the cutting edge balancing blues and rock in her guitar and vocal style. Coleman's command of her instrument and emotional vocal delivery was well-appreciated on this occasion. Her performance of the slow blues tune, "The Dream," was highlighted with an explosive guitar solo. Coleman is deservedly becoming a star on the blues circuit.
Jazz-blues was well represented by the
next act--Hank Crawford 
and Jimmy McGriff (Photos by Ricky Richardson).
Crawford is undoubtedly one of the most bluesy saxophone players to grace
the world! McGriff is equally steeped in the blues on the Hammond organ
and presented a powerful exhibit of his soulful groovy style. The show also
featured guitarist Wayne Boyd with his wonderful George Benson style vocals.
This Jazz-inspired blues performance captivated the blues congregation.
The extravaganza presented by Ashford & Simpson was met with wild enthusiasm
by the audience. This fiery duo brought out all the stops--Nickolas Ashford
outfitted in a sexy slinky top and sequin pants and Valerie Simpson sporting
a short, tight sequin dress. This was a love fest retrospective of their
soul-fed hit tunes. The crowd loved it!
Sista Monica appeared on the main stage on Saturday afternoon sporting a
new blond short hair style and attitude! Monica is a gifted composer and
put on a blistering show with her testifying gospel-infused vocal style.
Monica's repertoire included straight down-home blues, tunes from her new
CD, "People Love the Blues," and the rousing tune, "The Sista
Don't Play." Sista Monica can be sweet but she is mostly sassy and
this day, she displayed the whole range of emotions in a rollicking performance.
Little Jimmy King is a festival favorite and his showy performance included
the crowd-walk and explosive guitar work along with his fiery vocals. The
Neville Brothers show filled the stage with the best of New Orleans funk
and a dancer with umbrella prancing to the music. Outstanding was Charles
Neville on saxophone--bluesy and soulful--and Aaron Neville with his sensual
vocal style, a knock-out on "Amazing Grace."
The Saturday evening show started out with Lucky Peterson, who is equally
skilled on the organ and guitar along with his gravely vocal style. This
day, he was definitely in good form, crowd-walking and wowing the audience
with his sizzling guitar licks. Barbara Morrison lent a Jazz flavor to her
versatile performance, sultry and scatting with her powerful vocals. The
Johnny Otis Show got everyone in a dancing and singing-along mood with Otis'
brand of rhythm and blues and star-studded revue, featuring the sensational
vocalist, Jackie Payne with his blues style and the wild guitarist and vocalist,
Gail "Little Bit" Muldrow. This was just the ticket for a Saturday
night show. Legend Little Milton, closed out the evening with his solid
soul-blues show.
Sunday showcased women in blues. Candye Kane opened up the afternoon show
with her raunchy bad-woman vocal style and suggestive stage antics. Trudy
Lynn, dubbed as Houston's First Lady of Soul, gave us lady-like brass with
her rich range of vocal dynamics and melodic bluesy vocals. On the tune,
"Loose Lips," Lynn gave a warning and presented an imaginative
arrangement on "Shake Rattle N'Roll." Dorothy Moore, in her fifth
appearance at the Monterey festival, filled in for the ailing Ruth Brown..
Moore's soulful vocal style is knowing and her rendition of "Funny
How Time Slips Away" was aching and wise. Of course, what would a performance
of Moore's be without "Misty Blue," her big hit and she did not
disappoint. Shemekia Copeland burned up the stage in the next act--this
twenty-one year old is just sensational! Copeland may be young in years
but she exhibits great wit and maturity on stage with her style of down
and dirty blues. Copeland turned up the heat on the tune, "Turn Up
the Heat," from her CD of the same title, got soulful on the slow tempo
tune, "Ghetto Child," then got the audience dancing with sawdust
flying on "Let The Good Times Roll." This was absolutely a riveting
performance.
There were so many fantastic performances on the Main Stage that I missed
a great deal of the music on the outer two stages, but managed to catch
the wonderful duo, Cephas & Wiggins, with their Piedmont country-blues
style. Cephas on guitar and vocals and Wiggins on harmonica and vocals were
inspiring with their soulful traditional blues.
Also managed to catch the wonderful Pat Wilder, guitarist and vocalist, who appeared on the Garden Stage along with Billy Dunn on keyboards in an excellent show of down-home blues. Wilder is definitely a talented musician and it's good to see her getting recognized.
The atmosphere at this festival is so fun-loving
and the Directors have done a commendable job of keeping the blues tradition
alive. Furthermore, the venues make the artists accessible to the fans unlike
too many other festivals. It's always reunion time, seeing longtime friends,
sampling the delicious food, and even great shopping. I love this festival--it
is blues at its best.
by Dorothy L. Hill
Back to
Contents Page
Jazz Now Interactive
Copyright Jazz Now, August 2000 issue, all rights reserved
jazznow@sbcglobal.net
