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Feature film, "TWENTY TO LIFE" |
John Sinclair: Poet, performer,
music journalist, award-winning radio programmer,
Record producer, former Professor of Blues History at Wayne State
University in Detroit ... ex-Chairman of the
White Panther Party, ex-manager of the MC-5,
ex-political prisoner ... Founding producer of the
Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, Executive Director of the Detroit
Jazz Center former Expansion Arts panelist for
the National Endowment for the Arts, now producer
of recordings for several labels in the USA, UK and
Japan, as well as syndicated radio programs and the annual "live"
broadcast from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival for WWOZ-FM in New Orleans, where his
"Blues & Roots" and "New Orleans Music Show"
are aired weekly ... Author of "Guitar Army"; "Music & Politics";
"This Is Our Music"; "Fire Music: A Record"; "Meditations:
A Suite for John Coltrane", and "We Just Change
The Beat" ... the legendary John Sinclair continues
to kick out the jams from his modern-day headquarters in New
Orleans. The Blues Scholars: Backed by his killer performance ensemble, the Blues Scholars, the energetic Professor of Rhythm & Rhyme delivers his intense "investigative poetry" with its themes of blues and jazz history and intimate personal episodes to the music of an all-star unit. Anchored by guitarist Bill Lynn (ex-Mojo Boogie) and drummer Michael Voelker (ex-Mustang Lightning), the Blues Scholars vary in size from a guitar-bass-drums trio to a full band featuring the amplified harmonica of Larry "Rockin' Jake" Jacobs (Maria Muldaur Band), trumpet star James Andrews (Treme Brass Band), mighty Marc Adams on the Hammond B-3 organ, and a horn section of whatever size the budget may permit. The music of the Blues Scholars is something else altogether -- a brilliant synthesis of blues and jazz styles and idioms forged by this stellar krewe of multi-dimensional players to accompany Sinclair's hard-hitting verse from his epic works-in-progress: "Fattening Frogs For Snakes -- Delta Sound Suite" and "thelonius: a book of monk", along with the monumental "Home to John Coltrane" suite and scores of odes from the poet's 30-year-high storehouse of poetry and performance verse. Sinclair's Blues Scholars were formed in Detroit in 1982 and named in honor of the Professor Longhair band that thrilled music lovers between 1949-1979. The New Orleans edition came together in September 1994 and has been featured at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (1995 and 1996), the Baton Rouge Blues Festival, House of Blues (New Orleans, Boston, Los Angeles), Slim's 333 Club (San Francisco), CBGB Gallery (New York), Kansas City Blues & Jazz Festival, and other venues from coast to coast. Their first CD, "Full Moon Night", was recorded "live" in New Orleans and released in 1995; their new release "Full Circle", was cut in Los Angeles in August 1996 with MC-5 guitarist Wayne Kramer and a four-man horn section led by trumpeter Charles Moore. |
