Blues and the Spirit IV
Symposium Participants
Keynote Speakers
Tricia Rose, Professor of Africana Studies and the Director of the Center
for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University, is an
internationally respected scholar of post-civil rights era black U.S.
culture, popular music, social issues, gender and sexuality. She is most
well known for her groundbreaking book on the emergence of hip hop
culture. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary
America is considered a foundational text for the study of hip hop, one
that has defined what is now an entire field of study. Black Noise won an
American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1995,
voted among the top 25 books of 1995 by the Village Voice, and in 1999
was listed by Black Issues in Higher Education as one of its "Top Books of
the Twentieth Century." In 2003 Rose published a rare oral narrative history of black women's sexual life
stories, Longing To Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy. In 2008, Professor Rose
returned to hip hop with: The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop-And
Why It Matters. In all her work, and with particular relevance to the Blues and the Spirit theme, Rose
dissects the ways in which the commercialization of black popular culture has shaped racial and gender
images, perceptions and policies.
Professor Rose was born and raised in New York City and spent her childhood in Harlem and the Bronx.
She graduated from Yale University where she received a BA in Sociology and then received her Ph.D.
from Brown University in American Studies. She has taught at NYU, UC Santa Cruz, and Brown. In
addition to her duties at Brown, Professor Rose sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation
and Black Girls Rock, Inc. and is serving as the Lund-Gill Chair at Dominican University during the Spring
2014 semester. Rose has been a CurrentTV contributor and has also been featured on MSNBC, CNN,
NPR and other national and local media outlets. More of her work can be found in Time, Essence, The
New York Times and The Village Voice to name a few. She encourages you to connect with her on her
website, www.triciarose.com, on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. As the Lund-Gill Chair, Dr. Rose is
teaching an undergraduate Honors Seminar in Spring 2014 on “African American Popular Culture.”
During her residency, she presented a public lecture on March 17. We are delighted that she will deliver
the keynote address for the Blues and the Spirit Symposium on May 31.
Lance Williams created Blacks on Blues in 1992 as a way of preserving and
venerating one of America’s greatest cultural resources. The intent of
Blacks on Blues is to encourage African-Americans to place a high value on
their rich cultural heritage. Blacks on Blues events and activities are
devoted to acknowledging and encouraging strong interest in the cultural
forms of the people of the African Diaspora. Blacks on Blues events feature
music, lecture, and multi-media in a two-hour interactive format. The series
is presented monthly in the greater Los Angeles area. A wide range of
topics has been covered over the years, and the presentations have been
well received in the community. The events average forty attendees and Dr.
Williams videotapes each presentation for archival purposes. He has also
videotapes artists to allow them to tell their stories as active presenters of
the Blues legacy. In the past year, Dr. Williams has developed a Blacks on Blues website
www.blacksonBlues.com. He also has a strong Facebook presence.
Dr. Williams was the first African-American student to graduate from UCLA’s prestigious Folklore and
Mythology graduate program. In the process he won one of the first two American Folklore Society
Ethnic Minority Fellowships. He also edited and published Blackfolk, a journal of African-American
Folklore while a grad student. He earned his Ph. D. from UCLA in Anthropology at the age of 27. With
numerous colleagues, he co-founded the Association of African and African-American Folklorists, and
shot What Time Is De Meetin’, the first African-American folklore documentary, in 1977-8.
Dr. Williams has taught at sixteen college and universities in southern California, including USC, UCLA,
Loyola Marymount, and the Claremont Colleges. He was Vice-Chair of the Afro-Ethnic Studies
Department at California State University, Fullerton in the 1970s.He has been a professional writer since
the age of 18. He has interviewed hundreds of artists including Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Koko
Taylor, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder. He wrote the lead article for
the legendary Wattstax concert for the Los Angeles Times, as well as the liner notes for the concert rerelease album. He has published over 300 articles on American culture and is the co-author of the music
industry study, The Anatomy of A Record Company. He previously served as Artistic Director of the
Quincy Jones Production Workshop, Artistic Director of Black Radio Exclusive Magazine and has done
various stints as a producer-host on numerous radio stations. He is an accomplished photographer who
has shot photos on four continents-including thirteen regions in Brasil; Malaysia, Senegal, South Africa,
The Bahamas, and many parts of the United States.
Dr. William’s multimedia presentation, Blues Didn’t Start at the Bandstand, will close the symposium
with a consideration of two equally important premises: a systematic appraisal of the “Music Has No
Color/Anybody Can Play the Blues” argument; and the need to develop a strategic plan, with action
steps, to continually preserve and protect the integrity and value of the music and continually
acknowledge and venerate the original culture that created and nurtured the Blues.
Presenters, Featured Musicians and Special Guests
Jazzii A is the CEO/founder of Jazzii Entertainment and Productions, journalist, producer, TV and radio
show host, Ole Hen for Blues artist Bobby Rush, manager for several recording artists, and the fourth in
the world to have a copyright on a dance, the Cha Cha Slide. Jazzii has been in
show business for 38+ years, working with various artists in the Gospel and
Jazz genres. In 2011, Jazzii became a columnist for the world’s oldest Blues
publication, Jefferson Blues Magazine, and in 2012 launched “N-Da-Kno™” her
radio segment that can be heard on WBOL 1560 AM, WAGR-Lexington ‘Hot
102.5 FM, KSIP 91.5 FM, WJUS AM1310 & FM 94.3, WDSV 91.9 FM, WNBN
AM1290, WVHB 105.3 FM, KMGC FM 104.5, WCLM AM 1450, Jus’ Blues Radio, Chicos Radio, SBR Radio,
Boogie’s Radio and her own Internet Radio Station WNDK. She also has her own TV show.
Julius Bailey, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Wittenberg University, is a
Christian existentialist, philosopher, cultural critic, social theorist, and diversity
lecturer. He is the author of Philosopher and Hip Hop: Ruminations on Post Modern
Cultural Form and has edited two volumes, The Cultural Impact of Kanye West and
Jay Z: Essys on Hip Hop’s Philosopher King.
Lincoln T. Beauchamp, Jr., aka Chicago Beau is a Blues artist, record producer, writer, and publisher. He
has made numerous Blues, Jazz and other genre recordings under his name and in
collaboration with other world class artists including Pinetop Perkins, Memphis Slim,
SunnyLand Slim, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Billy Cobham, and Archie Shepp. Beau is
Founding Editor and Publisher of Literati Chicago, Literati Internazionale, and the
Original Chicago Blues Annual, which has been translated into three languages. In
2010, he edited and contributed to the highly acclaimed work titled BluesSpeak,
published by the University of Illinois Press. Beau currently teaches teaching reative
non-fiction, and fiction writing classes at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois.
Cicero Blake is truly a living legend who began his illustrious career as a founding member of the Golden
Tones, a doo-wop ensemble that evolved into the legendary Kool Gents. His first
solo recordings can be characterized as soft Soul, but it was not until the mid-1970s
that he struck immortality with what has become his signature song, “Dip My
Dipper.” Despite recent health issues, Cicero continues to perform at Chicago clubs
where he is revered as a beloved elder statesman for the music.
Jimmy Burns is a singer, guitarist, and songwriter who combines his Delta roots with R&B and Soul to
come up with a sound uniquely his own. Born near Dublin, Mississippi in 1943, JImmy was fascinated by
music early on. He loved the sounds coming out of the church, and the Blues he heard on the streets.
Burns’ sang in church and taught himself how to play guitar while he was still in the
Delta. One of his particular favorites was Lightnin’ Hopkins. He was 12 when his
family moved to Chicago. Within a year he was singing with a gospel group called
the Gay Lites. Secular music also beckoned. Living on the Near North Side, he was
caught up in the music of The Impressions and Major Lance who would rehearse in
a park near his home. In 1959, at the age of 16 he joined The Medallionaires, an
established vocal group, and did some recording. He was also part of the folk scene
in the early 60s. He sang and played guitar at The Fickle Pickle, (booked at that time
by Mike Bloomfield), the Gate of Horn, and coffeehouses around town. As R&B turned to Soul in the
60s, he cut a few soul singles for the USA, Minit, Tip Top and Erica labels. He formed his own band in the
late 60s called Jimmy Burns and the Gas Company. The reality of raising a family however, cut short
Burns’ full-time musical career. Throughout the 70s and 80s he stayed close to home, continuing to play
clubs and concert venues around town. With the Blues never far from his soul, Jimmy returned to
playing full-time in the mid-nineties. He started out with a regular gig at Smokedaddy’s in Chicago, and it
wasn’t long before Bob Koester of Delmark Records signed him to record a CD. Leaving Here Walking
was a hit right out of the gate, winning Best Blues Record of the Year, from the National Association of
Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD), the French Academie Du Jazz’s Big Bill Broonzy Award, and
two W.C. Handy Award nominations. National and international tours followed, as Burns played to
enthusiastic audiences in clubs and festivals across the country, and in Europe, Canada, and Japan.
Mark Camarigg is Publications Manager and former Assistant Editor for Living Blues Magazine at the
University of Mississippi. Founded in Chicago in 1970, Living Blues has set the
standard for Blues journalism around the world. Mark, who joined the magazine
in 2003, is also a respected writer and researcher, an attorney and a committed
advocate for Blues and Blues musicians. He is currently co-editing a collection of
interviews with Blues musicians for the University of Illinois Press.
Rosalind Cummings-Yeates is a freelance journalist, blogger and arts critic specializing in travel and
culture. She writes "Sweet Home," a monthly Blues column for the Illinois
Entertainer. Her book, Exploring Chicago Blues: Inside the Scene, Past and
Present, was published by The History Press in April. Rosalind writes extensively
about the power and influence of Black culture on global society. She is an
adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago. You can read more
of her work on her web site, www.RosalindCummingsYeates.com and connect
with her on her blog, Farsighted Fly Girl.
Gil Cook is an Assistant Professor of English at Dominican University. Teaching in the English and Black
World Studies departments, his courses include “African American Literature,”
“Literature of the African Diaspora,” and “Black Women Writers.” He was a
contributor for Jay-Z: Essays on Hip Hop’s Philosopher King (McFarland Press 2011)
and has two articles under review with prominent literary journals. Now in his fourth
year at Dominican, Gil is a member of the Blues and the Spirit Symposium planning
team.
Steve Cushing, the host and producer of Blues Before Sunrise, has a long and multifaceted career with
Blues. His interest in the Blues began in high school and he has been collecting
Blues records for over 40 years. He combined his love for Blues with broadcasting
classes at Columbia College in Chicago. Steve began hosting Blues Before Sunrise
at WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station, in June 1980. The program went into
national syndication in September 1990. He served as the anchor for WBEZ's
national broadcast of the Chicago Blues Festival from 1986 to 1996. Steve also
pursues his passion for Blues as a professional musician and he has produced a
series of recordings by such well known Blues men as Magic Slim, Smokey
Smothers, Big Wheeler, Jimmy Lee Robinson and Lurrie Bell. He is the author of Blues before Sunrise: The
Radio Interviews and, most recently, Pioneers of the Blues Revival with the University of Illinois Press.
L. Stanley Davis is a noted clinician, historian, and specialist in Black Sacred Music with an emphasis in
Gospel and Black sacred music history and performance, and has taught at both
DePaul and Loyola Universities in Chicago. He served as Associate Editor of GIA
Publications’ African American Heritage Hymnal, and as a sales representative and
presenter for the company’s African American Church Music division at workshops,
conferences and annual conventions across the country. He co-founded Gospel Arts
Workshop, a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to the preservation,
production, and promotion of the Gospel music art form. The group’s trail-blazing
concert productions, O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, served as the catalyst and
primary model for the city of Chicago’s annual Gospel Fest series.
Barry Dolins has been promoting and supporting Blues music and musicians over the course of his
career. He retired in 2010 as the City of Chicago’s Deputy Director of the
Mayor’s Office of Special Events, where he captained the programming division
for Chicago’s largest music festivals including such signature events as the Blues,
Gospel and Jazz festivals as well as music festivals dedicated to Latin American
and Celtic culture. He currently teaches in Dominican University’s Department
of Music as an Adjunct Assistant Professor where he offers courses in the
History of Rock and Roll and Blues and jazz Appreciation. The Blues and the
Spirit Symposium recognized Barry’s many accomplishments and service by
presenting him with the 2010 Spirit Award.
Michael Frank is the Founder and CEO of the Chicago record label and management company, Earwig
Music Company, Inc. Over the course of his career, he has produced over 60
albums of Blues, jazz, gospel, and storytelling for Earwig Music and other labels.
He is perhaps best known as the manager, biographer, and global touring partner
of two-time Grammy winner David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards. He has also managed
the Blues/Folk musician Any Cohen and has performed on harmonica himself on
albums with David Honeyboy Edwards, Louisiana Red, Les Copeland, Tim Woods
and Albert Bashor. In 2008, Michael received the Blues Foundation's Keeping the
Blues Alive Award for Artist Management. In addition to his work at Earwig,
Michael currently serves as the Vice President of the Board of the KoKo Taylor Celebrity Aid Foundation.
Bryan Froehle is a Professor of Pastoral Sociology and the Executive Director of the Ph.D. Program in
Practical Theology at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, FL. He received his
Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Organization at the University of Michigan and served
as the founding director of the Siena Center at Dominican University until his
appointment at St. Thomas in 2008.
Paul Garon has written about the Blues for nearly fifty years. A co-founder of Living Blues Magazine, he
is also the author of The Devil’s Son-in-Law: The Story of Peetie Wheatstraw and
His Songs; Blues and the Poetic Spirit, Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie's
Blues (with Beth Garon); and What’s the Use of Walking if a Freight Train’s Going
Your Way: Black Hoboes and Their Songs. A new edition of Woman with Guitar
has just been published by City Lights Books.
Jeannie Holliday, who divides her time between Milwaukee and Chicago, possesses a distinctive voice
that ranges from a melismatic pop-Jazz flutter to a Soulful, Blues-inflected wail. A
rising Soul-Blues artist, her 2010 debut CD, You Can't Blame Me was recorded by the
Chicago-based Blast label
HoneyDew, aka Melon Green Lewis came by both her stage monicker and her vocation almost as
birthrights---she was named after her mother’s favorite fruit, and she grew up in
Chicago, surrounded by music. By the time she finished grammar school, she
already had her sights set on a musical career (her role models included such
diverse stylists as Koko Taylor, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, and
Chicago-based R&B vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/producer Shaquane Davenport).
In recent years, HoneyDew has become a favorite on the local and regional club
circuits, and she has also appeared on various festivals in and near the Chicagoland
are
Theo Huff is a young Chicagoan who has already had the opportunity to perform on stage with some of
the greatest contemporary Blues, Soul and R&B singers, including Koko Taylor,
Bobby Rush, Gene Chandler, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Willie Clayton,
Denise Lasalle, Garland Green, Darius Brooks, Albertina Walker, and Millie Jackson.
He is also an aspiring actor and has been affiliated with the Chicago Black Ensemble
Theatre since he was 14 years old. In 2009, he was named "Best Blues Act" by the
Chicago Reader.
Leslie Keros is a manuscript editor by day and a disc jockey by night. She is the host of Chicago Bound,
Messin' with the Blues, and Crossroads: Where Jazz Meets Blues for WDCB and
WHPK. She is a native of the Detroit area and has been steeped in music since
childhood, taking classical piano lessons from age 7 throughout her school
years, singing in youth and adult choirs, and attending fine arts camp every
summer until high school. She entered college intending to be a music major
but was seduced by English literature, a romance that eventually spawned a
career in book publishing. She can also be heard on Taintradio and Radio Free
Amsterdam.
Greg Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune since 1990. He cohosts the nationally
syndicated public-radio show Sound Opinions and is the author of several books,
including I'll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers and the March up
Freedom's Highway, Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, and
Wilco: Learning How to Die.
Sharon Lewis has steadily entrenched her status as one of Chicago’s true Blues Divas since her debut in
the early 1990s. Internationally known, she has performed at some of the
largest and most well-known festivals in the world including Lucerne,
Switzerland; Monterey, California and the Chicago Blues Festival. An
accomplished public speaker who talks openly about her own difficult life’s
journey and the spiritual and healing dimensions of the music, her biography
was featured in David Whiteis’ book Chicago Blues: Portraits and Stories. Her
long awaited Delmark produced CD, The Real Deal, released in October 2011,
has received rave reviews to further solidify her Diva status. Sharon and her
band, Texas Fire, hold down a Sunday night residency at Kingston Mines in Chicago and they have been
Blues and the Spirit favorites since the first symposium in 2008.
Brian Lukasavitz, Esq. (“The Blues Attorney”) is an arts and entertainment attorney with the Lukasavitz
Law Group, LLC, based in Minnesota. In addition to representing artists in a variety
of copyright, licensing and contractual issues, he is a consultant, Blues musician,
Blues-educator, author and radio host. He can be contacted at
[email protected] has written numerous articles discussing
intellectual property and musicians, including discussions of cases involving
creative rights of Robert Johnson, John Fogerty, Leadbelly versus John Lomax and
others.
Claudette Miller was raised during the sixties singing do-wop on the corner and praising God on Sunday
in the church choir. She used those experiences to color her voice and those experiences have become
her Blues. She received her first opportunity to display her talent on the stage
with the late Albert King. She has performed with or opened for such greats as
the late Tyrone Davis and Little Milton Campbell along with Billy Branch and
Lonnie Brooks to name just a few. She flows effortlessly through Jazz and Blues
with a repertoire that includes the stylings of Dinah Washington and Nancy
Wilson on the Jazz end with soaring renditions of Koko Taylor and Etta James on
the Blues end, infused with Gospel throughout. Over the course of her career
she has performed at all of Chicago’s major Blues venues; Kingston Mines, Buddy Guy’s Legends and
Blues Chicago (where she has a weekly Monday residency).
Regina Mullen is the owner of HarrietVinson, LLC, a multi-platform publisher of "interesting things,"
including Passway and AfroTrad Magazines. Passway Magazine explores Blues
aesthetics through the lens of music, art, culture and tradition. AfroTrad will explore
melodic, narrative and thematic music including fife and drum, country, hillbilly,
Americana, folk, spiritual and multi-cultural and traditional African-American music.
Regina, who earned a BA at Harvard-Radcliffe College and her JD at the University of
Michigan, is a mediator, arbitrator, attorney, photographer, writer, web
programmer, teacher and very proud parent.
Jim O'Neal co-founded Living Blues, America’s first Blues magazine in 1970, while he was a student at
Northwestern University. Jim and his ex-wife Amy van Singel co-published and edited the magazine in
Chicago for 13 years, until the publication was turned over to the Center for the Study of Southern
Culture at the University of Mississippi, along with a collection of records, Blues clippings, photos, and
memorabilia which helped form the world’s first Blues archive. O’Neal
continued to edit Living Blues until 1987, and now serves as founding editor and
occasional contributor. “The Voice of the Blues,” an O’Neal/van Singel
compilation of early Living Blues interviews with Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed,
John Lee Hooker, and other legendary Blues artists, was published by Routledge
in 2001. O’Neal was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis in May
2002. Jim has also written articles for Rolling Stone, DownBeat, the Oxford
American, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Defender, Melody Maker, Blues
Unlimited, Juke Blues, and other publications, and contributed chapters to
several books. He has produced more than 35 albums for the Rooster Blues and Stackhouse records
labels and written liner notes for many releases on other labels, including RCA, Epic, Atlantic, Ace,
Delmark and Alligator. He was voted Producer of the Year in 2001 in the Living Blues Critics’ Poll. Jim was
a member of the committees that founded the Blues Foundation in 1979, the Chicago Blues Festival in
1984, the King Biscuit Blues Festival in 1986, and the Sunflower River Blues Festival in 1988, and he
instituted and supervised the balloting system for the first W.C. Handy Blues Awards (now known as the
Blues Music Awards). In 2006 he began working with the Mississippi Blues Trail and currently serves as
research director for the Blues trail markers that are placed throughout Mississippi and in several other
states and Europe to document and honor the state’s many Blues artists and vast musical legacy. Jim,
who currently resides in Kansas City, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2011. The Blues community
rallied to his support with a fundraising campaign and several benefit shows. He responded well to
treatments and is approaching his Blues work with renewed determination, still producing records,
participating in Blues panels and seminars, selling rare records on the internet, and working on a history
of post-World War II Delta Blues.
Lynn Orman Weiss is a media consultant specializing in the entertainment industry, event marketing,
emerging artists, independent record and film releases, educational programming
for schools and adult continued learning. She also does pro bono work with nonprofits specializing in women and children issues, immigration, global educational
programming, alcohol and substance abuse recovery programs, Rotary
International (Polio Plus Campaign), intellectual property and artists rights. She
offers production resources including; video, photography, web design, writers. She
specializes in cross platform marketing through online television music producing.
Lynn has served on the Board of Governors of the Midwest Chapter of NARAS and is currently on the
Board of the KoKo Taylor Celebrity Aid Foundation and other non-profit boards.
Sterling Plumpp, Professor Emeritus in English and African American Studies at the University of
Chicago, is a poet who employs the imagery of Blues music and culture as the subject
matter of his work. He has written numerous books, including Hornman (1996), Harriet
Tubman (1996), Ornate With Smoke (1997), Half Black, Half Blacker (1970), and The
Mojo Hands Call, I Must Go (1982) and Home/Bass (2013). He also served as an advisor
for the television production of The Promised Land. Among his many acolades, Sterling
received the prestigious Carl Sandburg Literary Prize for poetry for The Mojo Hands
Call, I Must Go.
Sandra Pointer-Jones has written for Living Blues, Blues Access, King Biscuit Time, and other Bluesoriented magazines worldwide including Il Blues in Italy. She has done liner notes for
Evidence, Delmark as well as Earwig Records and is the former editor for the late
Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation. Sandra wrote the definitive history of
Delmark Records, which can be read on delmark.com. Her video-taped interviews
with Chicago Blues legends are part of the permanent collection at the Chicago
Cultural Center of the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. Her unique perspective
as a seasoned female African American writer has given her unparalleled insights into
the men and women behind the music that is the Blues.
Jamiah ‘On Fire’ Rogers and The Red Machine is a three piece power group representing the young
faces and future of the Blues. The band is comprised of 18 year old Jamiah on guitar and vocals; 14 year
old Jalon on drums and vocals; and 12 year old Kenyonte on bass and vocals.
The Red Machine has been together for three years. Members of the band
have played the Chicago Blues Fest, Taste of Chicago, Buddy Guy's Legends,
the 18th International Mont Tremblant Blues Festival, the Montreal
International Jazz Festival, and the Ottawa International Blues Festival. They
have opened for Ronnie Baker Brooks, Billy Branch and the Kinsey Report.
Jamiah ‘On Fire’ and the Red Machine continue to sharpen their music skills,
learn new material and expand their repertoire, as evidenced in their new
CD, Takin’ the Stage.
Patricia R. Schroeder is the McClure Chair of English and Coordinator of American Studies at Ursinus
College in Pennsylvania. Her publications include two books and numerous essays on
American drama, as well as more recent works on Blues culture. These include Robert
Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture (Illinois 2004), several
articles on Blues-based literature, and an essay on African American performers of
“coon songs.” Her study of three plays about Robert Johnson will appear in 2015. She
is currently exploring the Blues aesthetics of performance novelist Sharon Bridgforth.
Patti is delighted to be participating on a panel with her former Blues-lit student,
Dominican Assistant Professor of English Gil Cook.
The Scott Family represents one of Chicago’s richest and most diverse musical legacies. Kenneth ‘Buddy’
Scott is recognized as a legend on the Chicago club circuit. In the early 1960s, the Scott Brothers became
one of Chicago’s most in-demand session units and show bands. When bassist and bass singer Howard
Scott left the Scott Brothers to work as a standup vocalist, he
assembled a new group that eventually incorporated his other guitarplaying brother, Walter, and they became christened the Scott
Brothers World Band. The World Band eventually joined forces with
yet more family members, the Young Scotts, who included nephews
Jerome and Kenneth ‘Hollywood’ Scott to serve as Tyrone Davis’s backup band. When the Scott Brothers’ half of the contingent departed in
1983, Hollywood and the others re-christened themselves Platinum.
Walter’s versatile guitar work has graced countless Chicago Soul recording sessions through the years;
he continues to work with the Chi-Lites, among others, as well as fronting a
reconstituted World Band behind various
vocalists on local shows. Howard still sings
occasionally, and he has become an esteemed
mentor to young artists. Buddy, along with his
band, the Rib Tips, held down the show at Lee’s
Unleaded Blues on South Chicago Avenue for
many years; his wife, the late Pat Scott, was
usually the featured vocalist. He passed away in 1994. The Scotts, in
their various permutations, with a track record extending back over five decades, represent one of
Chicago’s most enduring and robust family legacies, and we are proud to honor them with this year’s
Blues and the Spirit Award.
Kenneth ‘Hollywood’ Scott hails from a long line of Chicago music legends. The late Kenneth ‘Buddy’
Scott is his father and Howard and Walter Scott, mainstays on the local Blues and
R&B scene, are his uncles. Hollywood, who led Tyrone Davis’s Platinum Band and
continues to front Platinum for Otis Clay, is a frequent and respected guitarist on
the Soul Blues circuit.
Peter J. Strand is a partner at the entertainment, media and intellectual property law firm Leavens,
Strand, & Glover in Chicago. His clients include content providers and content creators including media
companies, television and radio broadcasters, authors, songwriters, recording artists, musicians,
television and film writers, independent record labels, independent film producers and documentarians,
publishing companies, and production companies in various transactional and
litigation matters in the entertainment industry. In addition to contract preparation,
analysis and negotiation, Mr. Strand assists clients with protecting and enforcing
their copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights, licensing or
exploiting their creative works, acquiring and distributing content and selecting,
securing and protecting product and service names. Peter also provides pro bono
legal services to musicians, artists and arts organizations through the Lawyers for
the Creative Arts. In addition to his law practice, Peter teaches entertainment and
music law at Chicago Kent College of Law. Peter serves as a National Trustee of the Recording Academy
(Grammys) representing the Chicago Chapter. Before becoming an attorney, Peter played and recorded
as a full time touring musician with several bands including recording two albums for RCA/Millennium
Records.
Amy van Singel has been involved in the Blues scene for decades, most recently as a DJ at WERU FM in
Blue Hill, Maine, broadcasting under her Atomic Mama moniker. In 1970, she co-founded Living Blues
Magazine with several others who became prominent in Blues documentation,
history, criticism, and recording. She co-authored The Voice of The Blues:
Classic Interviews From Living Blues Magazine, winner of the ASCAP Deems
Taylor Special Recognition Award in 2003. Beginning with her early days as a
DJ in Chicago, she has interviewed many Blues legends, including Muddy
Waters, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, and Howlin' Wolf. The interview she
conducted with Howlin' Wolf as a 19 year old DJ for her Northwestern
University radio show became Living Blues Magazine's first cover feature.
Joyce ‘Cookie’ Taylor Threatt is the daughter of Chicago’s legendary Blues Diva, the late Koko Taylor.
Cookie is an assiduous supporter of the music and the musicians, especially in
her capacity as the founding director of the Koko Taylor Celebrity Aid
Foundation. The KTCAF is dedicated to serving a
wide range of prefessional development, medical and social service needs for
artists, entertainers and their families.
Gayle Dean Wardlow, collector, independent Blues researcher, historian and journalist, is a leading
authority on Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and the development of the Delta
Blues. Among his many publications is the book Chasin' That Devil Music Searching for the Blues, which was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of
Fame in 2006 as a classic of Blues scholarship.
David Whiteis, Ph.D. is an author and educator living in Chicago. He has written many articles on the
Blues and, in 2001, won the Blues Foundation's Keeping the Blues Alive Award for
Achievement in Journalism. His first book, Chicago Blues: Portraits and Stories, appeared
in 2006 followed by Southern Soul-Blues in 2013. He has taught for many years at the
college level and is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of
Sociology and Criminology at Dominican University and a member of the Blues and the
Spirit planning committee.
Walter Whitman Jr. is the President and Musical Director of the Soul Children of Chicago, Inc., a choral
group he founded in 1981. Participation in the group provides young people with the opportunity of
studying the history and techniques of a vast range of music modes such as
classical, Gospel, Negro Spirituals, hymns and anthems. The citywide youth choir
averages 70+ members between the ages of 7 to 17 years, with a waiting list of
over three hundred youth. Recognized as an award-winning cultural group, this
select choir of talented young voices is fast becoming "Goodwill Ambassadors"
for Chicago and role models for young people everywhere. Walter has recorded
and/or performed with some of the world's great artists including Rev. James
Cleveland, Tremaine Hawkins, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, Mavis Staples, Kirk
Franklin, Sandi Patti, Stevie Wonder, Darryl Hall, Gladys Knight and many others.
He has been musical director of such award-winning plays such as Godspell, Don't
Bother Me I Can't Cope and In De Beginning. He has also produced such mammoth productions as the
Soul Children of Chicago version of the famed Broadway musical, The Wiz, and his own special original
creation, From Generation to Generation.