Page 68 - Sonoma County Gazette March 2018.indd

“copping licks” from the great guitar players of that era.
Moving to Chicago in 1957, he signed with Chess Records for a ten-year stint,
Mar 3 ~ Healdsburg Community Band 50 local musicians who get together for the joy of making music. Free, 730p Raven Performing Arts Theater, 115 North St., Healdsburg, 415-407-5474, Stu Matlow, healdsburgcommunityband.org/, stuartmatlow@gmail.com
Mar 3 ~ Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra $5-$20, 3p Green Music
backing up Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, Little Walter, and Howlin’ Wolf. During the 1960s heyday of blues/rock, Guy connected with popular play- ers like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. He said he doesn’t know why. “I was just
makin’ records behind Muddy. I didn’t have no hit records.” People like Clap- ton and Beck, both of whom he got to know personally, were listening to Guy’s guitar behind the major blues artists of the time. “I was just havin’ fun in the studio with those guys and that blessing came to me from above somewhere.”
Jimi Hendrix followed him around with a reel to reel tape recorder and once cancelled one of his own performances to see Guy play. “I didn’t know who the hell he was,” Guy said. Eventually, during Hendrix’ last years, they had conver- sations and jammed together on stage.
My Kind of Guy
Auditions
Mar 3 - Jun 1 ~ Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Music Programs - Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra, performs regularly in public concerts throughout the year. 707-546-7097, ahutchinson@ srsymphony.org, srsymphony.org,
Mar 17, Apr 14, May 19 ~ “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” ~ The Freedom Jazz Choir Signups. Free Rehearsals 12- 3p, Hilliard-Comstock Middle School, 2750 West Steele Lane, Santa Rosa, healdsburgjazzfestival.org/Freedom- jazz-choir-2018
By Date
Mar 1 ~ Santa Rosa Symphony Young People’s Chamber Orchestra ~ Working without a conductor this student ensemble delights with their level of musicianship and attentive collaboration with one another. $10, 7:30p Cloverdale Performing Art’s Center, 209 N. Cloverdale Blvd., Cloverdale, cloverdaleperformingarts.com/young
Mar 2 ~ Wavelength – Featuring Kevin Brennan paying tribute to Van Morrison. $15, 730p Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 South High St., Sebastopol, 707-829- 4797, sebarts.org/
Center at Sonoma State University, 1801 East Cotati Avenue, Weill Hall, Rohnert Park, 707-546-8742, srsymphony.org/ EventDetail/116
Mar 3 ~ Razzmatazz Presents The Red And Black Ball ~ Dancing to recorded Balkan and international favorites. $5, 7 - 10p, Monroe Hall, 14 West College Ave., Santa Rosa, traditionalfun.org
Mar 4 ~ Dan Crary, Bill Evans
and Wally Barnick -Americana Masters - Cutting edge bluegrass, folk and Americana music, $25, $30, 3p Occidental Center for the Arts, 3850 Doris Murphy Court, Occidental, 707- 874-9392, occidentalcenterforthearts.org
Mar 4 ~ Young People’s Chamber Orchestra - Nautilus Music The Spiraling, Cyclical Nature of Music, The Phoenix Theater, Petaluma 3p srsymphony.org/
Mar 4 ~ Mini Concert featuring Dirty Cello and Duo Allegra - Eclectic mix of fine music from all over the bay area and beyond. $7-$10, 2p - 3p, Museums of Sonoma County, 425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa, 707-579-15, museumsc.org/ events/?eid=3223
Mar 10, Apr 14, May 12 ~ Monthly Blues Session Continues ~ Cloverdale Arts Alliance. All-star lineup of local musicians. $5 , 7p - 930p, The Cloverdale Arts Alliance, 204 N. Cloverdale Blvd, Cloverdale, 707-894-9044, Lisa Brew- Miller, lisa@cloverdaleartsalliance.org
Mar 10 ~ Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Ensembles Showcase Concert - Weill Hall, Green Music Center 3p $15- $20, , srsymphony.org/Education- C o m m u n i t y/ T r a i n i n g - Y o u n g - Musicians/Youth-Ensembles-Concerts
MUSIC cont’d on page 69
Buddy Guy, born George Guy in 1936, had a Louisiana childhood with his share- cropper parents, receiving grade school learning in an old three-classroom Baptist church. The family couldn’t a ord a radio. Not many people had access to a guitar. Guy’s only exposure to one occurred annually at Christ- mas, when a guitarist would come to his father’s house. Eventually, Guy constructed a two-stringed instrument from household objects, including his mother’s hair- pins.
“I wanted to do some- thing a country kid didn’t do,” he said in our 2013 phone interview, an honor for me. “I didn’t ever think
I was gonna be successful.
I didn’t learn nothin’ from the book, and nothin’ from school. I got it from someone else,” he said, talking about
Mar 3 ~ Claudia Villela & Kenny Werner
- $25, 7p, 625 Sexton Road, Sebastopol, 707-829-6718, concert@sonic.net
But, Guy said, he never let that go to his head. “People look at you like you’re supernatural, but I’m still the little boy who used to pick cotton from sunup to sundown and didn’t know who Muddy Waters was until I was 17.”
Guy’s accomplishments include six Grammys, 28 Blues Music Awards, induc- tion into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Presidential National Medal of Arts. Rolling Stone magazine lists him at #23 among all-time great guitarists.
Sixty years past Louisiana, Guy isn’t done yet. Motivating much of what he does now is what he calls “keepin’ them blues alive.” He feels that the blues tradition is being lost, saying “It’s very scary.”
He disagrees with people who say the blues is too sad, claiming they don’t understand it. “Whenever we go play, there’s lots of smiling faces.”
Guy, honored in a performance at the White House for President Obama in 2012, said “Coming from pickin’ cotton in a cotton sack to pickin’ guitar in the White House. What else can you ask for?” Of all his honors, “The White House is the one I never dreamed of. This is gonna carry me the rest of my life.”
Buddy Guy appears Mar. 18 at the Luther Burbank Center
Photo by Josh Cheuse
68 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 3/18
Mini Concert at the Museum of Sonoma County featuring Dirty Cello and Duo Allegra