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Sugaray Rayford
Caron Nimoy "Sugaray" Rayford (born February 13, 1969) is an American soul blues singer and songwriter. He has released five albums to date and been granted three Blues Music Awards. Rayford's 2019 album, ''Somebody Save Me'', was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Blues Album category. In 2010, ''Living Blues'' magazine noted that "Sugaray is a first-rate blues artist with a deep-running, church honed soulfulness." His latest album, ''In Too Deep'', was released on March 4, 2022. Biography Rayford was born in Smith County, Texas, United States, and sang at the age of seven in the Bethel Temple Church of God In Christ in Tyler, Texas. He also played the drums there, but his childhood was poverty stricken with his mother dying from cancer early in Rayford's life. “She suffered and we suffered,” Rayford said. “Then, we moved in with my grandmother and our lives were a lot better. We ate every day and we were in church every day, which I loved. I grew u ...
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Montreal International Jazz Festival
The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal ( en, Montreal International Jazz Festival) is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 artists from 30-odd countries, more than 650 concerts (including 450 free outdoor performances), and welcomes over 2 million visitors (12.5% of whom are tourists) as well as 300 accredited journalists. The festival takes place at 20 different stages, which include free outdoor stages and indoor concert halls. A major part of the city's downtown core is closed to traffic for ten days, as free outdoor shows are open to the public and held on many stages at the same time, from noon until midnight. The "festival's Big Event concerts typically draw between 100,000 and 150,000 people", and can occasionally exceed 200,000. Shows are held in a wide variety of venues, from relatively small jazz clubs to th ...
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International Blues Challenge
The International Blues Challenge (IBC) is a music competition run by the Blues Foundation. Notable blues artists that have competed in the IBC over the years also includes Fiona Boyes, Eden Brent, Michael Burks, Tommy Castro, Sean Costello, Albert Cummings, Døvydas, Larry Garner, Zac Harmon, Homemade Jamz Blues Band, HowellDevine, Richard Johnston, Julian Fauth, Super Chikan, Susan Tedeschi, Southern Avenue, and Watermelon Slim. The 1994 event in particular had a lot of talent as Susan Tedeschi, Michael Burks (who won the Albert King Guitar Award) and a 16-year-old Sean Costello competed, although none of them were the eventual winner. History The competition began in 1984, then named the Blues Amateur Talent Contest. The idea was to give amateur or up and coming musicians a chance to be discovered and get a foothold. In 1986, the event was renamed the National Amateur Talent Contest and 17 bands competed. Prior to 1993, the IBC had a rule that performers had to make l ...
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Sugar Ray Norcia
Sugar Ray Norcia (born Raymond Alan Norcia, June 6, 1954, Stonington, Connecticut, United States) is an American electric and soul blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known for his work with his backing band, The Bluetones, with whom he has released seven albums since 1980. Biography Norcia started to play his harmonica based blues at high school. Once Norcia had relocated to Providence, Rhode Island, he formed the Bluetones which secured a residence as the house band at a local nightclub. They backed touring acts, such as Big Walter Horton, Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner and Roosevelt Sykes in nearby clubs. During the latter part of the 1970s, the band backed Ronnie Earl before he departed to join Roomful of Blues. Norcia's solo recordings included the EPs ''Sugar Ray and the Bluetones'' (1979); ''Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters featuring the Sensational Sugar Ray'' (1982), plus a couple of releases on Rounder Records, ''Knockout'' (1989) and ''Don't Stand In M ...
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Christoffer Andersen
Christoffer "Kid" Andersen (born 15 January 1980) is a blues guitarist from Herre, Norway. By age 11, Andersen had gained the attention of Norwegian blues guitar teacher, Morten Omlid, who steered him towards traditional blues music. In 2001, at age 21, Andersen moved to the United States, joined blues frontman Terry Hanck's band, and quickly became a figure on the West Coast blues scene. Andersen later played in Charlie Musselwhite's band and got a Blues Music Award (formerly W.C. Handy Award) for best contemporary blues album for Charlie Musselwhite's ''Delta Hardware''. Then, when Little Charlie Baty retired from touring, Andersen took his place as guitarist in the Nightcats, and the new name of Rick Estrin & The Nightcats was formed. Andersen has also done extensive touring with Elvin Bishop on the Red Dog Speaks Tour. He is married to American Idol contestant Lisa Leuschner. They currently reside in San Jose, California where Andersen is CEO of Greaseland Studios. In 201 ...
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Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson (born January 6, 1951) is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman for the Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s, "Tuff Enuff" (which was the group's only Top 40 hit) and "Wrap It Up." Career Wilson was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1951, but he grew up in Goleta, California, where he sometimes went by the stage name of "Goleta Slim." He started with the blues in the late 1960s and was tutored by people like Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, Albert Collins, George "Harmonica" Smith, Luther Tucker and Pee Wee Crayton and was influenced by harmonica players such as Little Walter, James Cotton, Big Walter Horton, Slim Harpo and Lazy Lester. Before he moved to Austin, Texas, in 1974, he was the leader of the band Aces, Straights and Shuffles in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the band released one single. In Austin he formed the Fabulous Thunderbirds with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan. They became the house ...
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Delta Groove Productions
Delta Groove Productions is an American blues record label in Van Nuys, California, United States. The label was founded by Randy Chortkoff ( Rand Jay Chortkoff; 1949–2015), a producer, concert promoter, and harmonica player. Chortkoff's biography Chortkoff died on May 5, 2015, while awaiting a liver transplant and sentencing on multiple criminal felony fraud charges, including cheating investors of over $1,400,000 in a phony movie investment scam. In 2016, Chortkoff's co-defendant Sam Braslau was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in Lompoc, California. Co-defendant Stuart Rawitt previously pled guilty and was sentenced to five years in federal prison. Both co-defendants were ordered by the US Court to pay restitution of $1,600,000. In February 2017, the Chortkoff Estate was ordered by the US Court to pay $153,400 in disgorgement and $12,615 in prejudgment interest in the civil matter with the SEC. Overview and history The label started with blues by musicians from L ...
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The Heavy Pets
The Heavy Pets are an American jam band based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, renowned for their funk, jazz and reggae-infused brand of rock and roll. Officially formed in 2005, the band tours nationwide and appears regularly on the summer music festival circuit. Currently, the group is composed of guitarists Jeff Lloyd and Mike Garulli, keyboardist Jim Wuest, bassist Chris Patsis, and drummer Jamie Newitt. In 2010 they released their second studio LP ''The Heavy Pets''. The album was dubbed a "Top 10 Album of 2010" by ''The Huffington Post''. Early years Original members Jeff Lloyd, Mike Garulli, Jesse Margiotta, and Joe Dupell befriended each other at Goshen Central High School in upstate Goshen, New York. Garulli was in a hardcore band named Strep Nine when he met Lloyd. Together the quartet formed Anthem, the first iteration of their band loosely named after the 1938 ''Anthem'' Ayn Rand novella because they were still interested in Rush. The group practiced under several more ...
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Judge Joe Brown
''Judge Joe Brown'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show starring former Shelby County, Tennessee criminal court judge Joseph B. Brown. It premiered on September 14, 1998 and ran through the 2012–13 television season for a total of fifteen seasons. Joe Brown was the second highest paid daytime television personality behind ''Judge Judy'' during the time the show was running. During the entirety of its series run, Brown was the longest serving African American television arbitrator; this record is now held by Greg Mathis of ''Judge Mathis'', which premiered the year after Brown's program (still on the air into its 24th season as of 2022). ''Judge Joe Brown'' ran in first-run syndication and entered into its 15th and final season on September 10, 2012, also regularly airing in high-definition for the first time beginning in that same season as well. Production history Judge Joe Brown is the first African-American man to preside over a courtroom television ...
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Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ...
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Portland Center Stage
Portland Center Stage at The Armory is a theater company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Theater productions are presented at The Armory in Portland's Pearl District. Portland Center Stage at The Armory was founded in 1988 as the northern sibling of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. It became an independent theater in 1993 and in 1994 Elizabeth Huddle became producing artistic director. Chris Coleman took over in 2000 as the company's fourth artistic director. In 2018, Marissa Wolf was named the fifth artistic director and Cynthia Fuhrman named Managing Director. The company began a capital campaign in 2004, and in 2006 moved into The Armory, which includes two theaters, a bar and restaurant, a costume shop, production facilities and office space. Portland Center Stage at The Armory produces at least ten productions annually between September and June, and productions include musicals, classical, contemporary and premiere pieces. Portland Center Stage ...
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It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues
''It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues'' is a musical theatre, musical written by Charles Bevel, Lita Gaithers, Randal Myler, Ron Taylor (actor), Ron Taylor, and Dan Wheetman. It was originally produced at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts and later presented by the Crossroads Theatre, in association with San Diego Repertory Theatre and Alabama Shakespeare Festival in New York City at the New Victory Theatre, Lincoln Center, and Broadway's Ambassador Theatre (New York City), Ambassador Theatre, where it garnered five Tony Awards, Tony Award nominations, including Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Musical. The musical traces the history of "blues" music with more than three dozen songs. Ron Taylor acted as singing narrator. It was directed by Randal Myler with movement by Donald McKayle. ''It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues'' started as a Denver Center Theater Company school touring show in circa 1994. The Denver Center production played at the Arena Stage (Washington, D.C.), in Nove ...
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Musical Theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the musical theatre w ...
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