Events / Press
Releases / MapleBlues
Magazine / Join TBS / Contact Info
BluesBook
Online / TBS Listserv / Links
/ Live Blues / Background
/ Marketplace
Blues
Meets Strings
Blues pianist/singer Curley Bridges, above, and cellist Kevin Fox, as part of a string quartet, are featured at Toronto Blues Society's classical-blues-fusion afternoon on March 13 at Hugh's Room from 1 to 6:00 p.m. Joining them are trumpet player Chris Whiteley, drummer Bucky Berger, stand-up bassist Victor Bateman and Karen Graves and Kathryn Sugden on violin and Johann Lotter on viola The afternoon includes the full band playing a selection of 10 of Bridges' songs, using Fox's arrangements, as well as other performances. Photo by Gary Collver
Blues and classical music are worlds apart, with blues bars and classical music venues seeming to exist in separate realities.
These two disparate worlds meet at an innovative classical-blues-fusion afternoon presented by the Toronto Blues Society on March 13 at Hugh's Room from 1 to 6:00 p.m. The event features blues pianist/singer Curley Bridges and cellist Kevin Fox. Trumpet player Chris Whiteley is the special guest and Fox performs as part of a string quartet.
The string players, including Karen Graves and Kathryn Sugden on violin and Johann Lotter on viola, will accompany Bridges and his trio, drummer Bucky Berger, stand-up bassist Victor Bateman and Whiteley. Using Fox's new arrangements, they'll play a selection of 10 of Bridges' songs from his recent Electro-Fi CDs Keys to the Blues and Mr. Rock 'n' Soul. "My approach is, I want Curley to be as comfortable as possible and for me to embrace what he does with the string quartet," he says.
The musicians will also perform without the band, and Whiteley and Fox will sing and play some of their own songs. Fox says: "There will be everything from full band, all the way to the other end of the spectrum, where you might have Curley sing with the quartet."
Classical musicians rarely improvise, but the classical-blues-fusion afternoon will feature the quartet doing just that. "Improvisation defines blues music and that is what separates it from classical," he says. "It shows that someone playing a classical instrument can improvise."
Fox hopes that the event will "convince and inspire cynics who think a string quartet wouldn't work with the blues."
A multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and singer, Fox grew up in Halifax and participated in what he calls a "phenomenal" music program during the 1970s and '80s in the city's schools. "I chose the cello thinking it was an upright bass," he says.
But even while Fox was immersed in classical music, including composing orchestral pieces, he played guitar and ukulele and wrote songs.
In 1986, he left Halifax to study composition at McGill University and by 1991 he had moved to Toronto, where he immersed himself into popular music. He has accompanied such artists as Sarah Harmer and Tom Cochrane, composed music for television and film and, recently, his debut CD, Come Alive, was released.
"I chose the popular world for the freedom that it offers," he says. The fact that popular music was open to improvisation appealed to him. Through improvising, "you become a master of an instrument and master of yourself," he says. "For me, there has to be an intense creative outlet."
Fox, 36, has been playing music since he was 10, while the North Carolina-born Bridges, who is 71, showed no interest in playing an instrument until after he was drafted into the army at 19. Bridges decided to learn how to play piano when he was exposed to the boogie-woogie styles of Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Piano Red.
After receiving a medical discharge from the military, Bridges got involved in the vibrant Washington, D.C., music scene, and in 1953, he helped trumpeter Frank Motley Jr. form Motley Crew, a swing jazz and R&B group. He performed as a vocalist, pianist and occasional trombone player and drummer with the band.
In 1954, Bridges recorded an arrangement of "Hound Dog" that influenced Elvis Presley's version two years later. "I was just fooling around in the studio and someone put it on tape. The studio wasn't right, the sound wasn't right, nothing about it was right. It was a two-track recording and sounded terrible," he says. But he thought Elvis' version was great.
With Motley, Bridges cut many songs, including "Are You Satisfied," "Crying All Alone," "Honey Hush," "Everybody Wants a Flattop" and "Rock and Roll Gotta Beat." The band was successful, performing regular gigs in Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto and Montreal.
In 1966, Motley Crew moved its base to Toronto. In the city, Bridges worked with different bands and, notably, guested on organ on an album with Jackie Shane, an androgynous soul singer who used to perform at the Sapphire Club. In 1981, Bridges moved to Barrie, Ont., and concentrated on solo gigs. After 26 years without recording, he signed on to the Electro-Fi label in the late '90s.
Bridges plays occasional gigs and festivals now, focusing on blues and R&B these days. He's worried about the health of the music and is "trying to keep the blues alive." He says blues is "dying out just like jazz did," but he believes there's still a market for it and optimistically sees the younger generation keeping it alive. "The jazz scene is coming along," he adds. "It's a slow process, but it's coming along."
Bridges expects playing with the string quartet at Hugh's Room to be "quite the thing. I'm a connoisseur of music. I can't play it all, but I like it all."
- Ruth Schweitzer
[Back to Maple Blues Magazine] [TBS Home]