Page 8 DTH Omnibus
Thursday September 13, 1990
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Hank Crawford does the blues
Culture and education blues
Y the Bull Durham Blues
mS Festival this year will
provide additional fund
. ing for the development
of a historic Durham church as a
cultural institute promoting under
standing of the African-American
experience in the U.S.
St. Joseph's Historic Foundation,
Inc., is in the process of developing
the Hayti Heritage Center as a facil
ity for both cultural and educational
programs in areas such as theater,
music, dance, literacy, community
economics and African-American
history.
Located in the St. Joseph's AME
(African Methodist Episcopal)
Church building on Fayetteville
Street, the center's first phase of res
toration is scheduled for completion
by January, 1991. Money from this
year's blues festival will be used in the
second phase of restoration and development.
thing Saturday at 9:45 pm
"We are in the process of finishing
the educational part of the center,"
said Fred Williams, a member of the
foundation's board of directors. "Part
of the funds from the blues festival
will be used for the sanctuary of the
church building, which will be devel
oped as a performance space for dance,
music ... whatever."
The foundation is aiming for a 1991
completion date in honor of the
church building's 100th anniversary,
Williams said.
Wyatt Closs, the project's director
of development, said the completed
education wing will house classrooms,
two art galleries and both dance and
art studios, as well as the administra
tive offices for the foundation.
"The second phase, we hope, will
be done during 1991 for the 100th
anniversary," Closs said. "We're cur
rently trying to raise about two mil
lion dollars for capital purposes ... Our
plans are definitely contingent on
whether we're able to raise the money."
000
It's the Bull Durham Blues Festival
By CHARLES MARSHALL
Assistant Editor
F
or two years, St. Joseph's
Historic Foundation has
hosted an annual blues
festival which has quickly
drawn national attention
and earned a reputation as an ex
traordinary display of proven blues
stars with a hearty dose of local and
regional talents.
The Third Annual Bull Durham
Blues Festival, co-presented by the
Durham Bulls, gets underway Friday,
September 14, at the Durham Ath
letic Park and will run through Satur
day, September 15. Sponsors this year
include the Music Loft, the Flying
Burrito and the city of Durham, as
well as media sponsors such as FOXY
1 07 -1 and The Independent Weekly.
Durham, the blues capital of North
Carolina, has patented its own guitar-oriented
brand of Carolina folk,
riding both the foot-stomping and
the sad and sentimental sides of blues.
The first festival, in 1988, drew more
than 3,000 people, despite rainy
weather, proving its instant popular
ity and the region's thirst for big-time
blues.
Some of the growing regional tal-
Both Williams and Closs said this
is the first year of the blues festival
that the Durham Arts Council has
not been a co-presenter.
"The Arts Council has decided to
bow out because of its own financial
woes," Closs said. "That places the
financial onus on us."
Williams said: "I think that we
were a part of a multi-group effort
when the festival began. Since that
time, I think we are the only body
that has continued our association
with the blues festival." The founda
tion has been a co-presenter of the
festival the three years it has been
presented.
The Durham Bulls are replacing
the Arts Council as co-presenters this
year.
Closs said, "It the blues festival is
an excellent example of the kind of
program we'd like to be doing on a
regular basis and can do, once we get
the center."
Alisa DeMao
ano.
ents appearing at this year's festival
include Charlotte native Nappy
Brown and Johnston County female
blues fab, Algia Mae Brown. An
other area favorite is the talented
Carter Minor and the Scott Sawyer
Blues Band, a regular attraction at
Pyewacket Cafe in Chapel Hill.
Some of the bigger names per
forming this year are Lonnie Brooks,
Johnny Copeland, Hank Crawford
and Saffire the Uppity Blues
Women.
Lonnie Brooks, touted as "one of
the most exciting talents in blues" by
The Washington Post, is noted for
his high-powered, energetic stage
shows and his eclectic blend of blues.
He twists Chicago- and New Orleans
style blues with sizzling old-fashioned
rock'n'roll for an uncanny combina
tion of swamp boogie and heavily
charged, rock-based blues. New Orleans-style
blues is a distinctively
Southern, swamp-boogie type of blues
that originated in the bayou and
helped propel the more popular
zydeco, cajun blues. Chicago R&B is
a harder, more soulful type of jazz
oriented blues that has a more urban
backstreet sound. Don't miss Brooks
dancing the night away. He performs
Saffire
:
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ovin'it
Friday night from 11-12 p.m.
Johnny Copeland is a smoother
performer who prefers longer solos as
he delivers a southwestern, Texas
style blues rhythms. Copeland has
also made his mark internationally as
the first blues musician ever to ven
ture into Africa, as well as penetrate
into Eastern Europe. Copeland, with
fellow blues greats Robert Cray and
Albert Collins, was awarded a
Grammy in 1986 for the Showdown!
album, which sold more than 1 00,000
copies. This effort put Copeland in
the national spot 1 ight and he has been
embraced by the blues scene inside
and outside of the U.S. Copeland's
showtime is 1 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women,
is a trio whose acoustic performances
have been known to whet the appe
tites of many fans outside of the blues
circuit. Hailing from Virginia, these
women quit previous jobs to enter
tain on the road using saucy, spicy
blues pumped with big vocals. Their
self-titled debut release is on Alliga
tor records and explores various
themes from a more feminine point of
view. These Uppity Women will go
on stage at 8:45 p.m. Saturday night.
Hank Crawford sports a jazz slant
the Uppity Blues Women, play Saturday
with a brassier sound, composed espe
cially of horns. His rhythm 'n'blues
talents have enabled him to bring his
unique repertoire to the aid of others
in the studio, delivering his sound on
recordings by the likes of B.B. King
and Lou Rawls. In 1958, Crawford hit
the big-time R&B circuit when Ray
Charles recruited him. Crawford re
mained on-board Charles' band until
1963. Throughout the 1960s Crawford
released a dozen albums. He returned
to his traditional horns and R&.B
sound on "Midnight Rambler" in
1983. Crawford performs at 9:45 p.m.
Saturday.
Very rarely do renowned talents in
music get together for a weekend
"jam." Durham is fortunate to host
such a high-powered event and de
serves thanks for bringing it to the
ears of the Piedmont.
Tickets for the event are $12 for one
day ($15 at the gate) amd $20 for both
days. Both shows last from 7 '12 p.m.
Children under 12 are admitted free.
Advance tickets are available at Record
BarTracks at Northgate and South
Square Malls, Poindexter Records, the
Durham Bulls BoxOffice.andSchoolkids
Records. More info? Call the Blues
Festival Hotline at (919) 560-2721 .
at 8:45 pm
"'AT
They kno
By RANDY BASING ER
Arts Coordinator
F-t f he blues are back in town.
I At least that's what
Nappy Brown, one of the
blues performers who will
bring his soulful blues style
to Durham Athletic Park for the Third
Annual Bull Durham Blues Festival
this Friday and Saturday, would say.
"Blues is a wonderful thing," Brown
said in a phone interview with the
Daily Tar Heel. "Blues can make you
happy or blues can make you sad. It
tells a story, and if you listen to it, it
may distract you from your problems."
Brown, born in Charlotte, N.C.,
began singing gospel with the Golden
Bells as a child and later joined the
Selah Jubilee Singers, who also re
corded rhythm'n'blues as The Larks.
But he made his big breakthrough
with the Heavenly Lights, when he
landed a recording contract with the
Savoy label. It was there he wrote and
performed "Night Time is The Right
Time," which went on to become a
major hit for Ray Charles in 1959.
"It felt good especially in my
pocket," Brown said with a laugh. "It
meant a lot to me that he ( Ray Charles )
would record it."
The blues have started to pick up
around the Triangle area, said Brown.
"Blues never dies," he said. "It is
always understanding. Teenagers are
getting into the blues because they
didn't get to hear it. Many people are
rediscovering the blues.
"Whites didn't get into the clubs to
hear the blues in the past," Brown
said. "TS
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