Bman's Blues Report

The Jeff Rupert Quartet stands as one of modern jazz ’s most reliable forces for elegant, deeply swinging acoustic interplay. Guided by acclaimed tenor saxophonist and educator Jeff Rupert , the ensemble has spent decades perfecting a sound that honors classic post-bop traditions while introducing a highly polished, contemporary edge. Rupert’s robust, lyrical tone—reminiscent of masters like Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon —serves as the emotional anchor for an exceptionally tight rhythm section featuring pianist Richard Drexler , bassist Ben Kramer , and legendary drummer Marty Morell , a percussionist renowned for his iconic tenure with the Bill Evans Trio . Together, they approach jazz as a sophisticated conversation, prioritizing emotional depth, melodic clarity, and a flawless collective groove over avant-garde experimentation or sheer technical athletics. Across a celebrated discography that includes acclaimed releases like En Bop and Imagination , the group has continuously pro...

Ryland Cooder Born: Los Ageles, Ca. May 15, 1947 Genre Style: Rock, Blues, World Ry Cooder is basically the ultimate musical detective and a god-tier slide guitarist. Born in LA in 1947, he was a total prodigy, picking up the guitar as a kid and playing with blues legend Taj Mahal while he was still a teenager. By his early twenties, his incredible slide work was so respected that icons like the Rolling Stones and Captain Beefheart were calling him up to add some magic to their tracks. Instead of chasing cheap pop hits, Ry spent the '70s and '80s digging up forgotten musical treasures. He became a bit of a musical anthropologist, blending everything from Tex-Mex accordion and Hawaiian slack-key guitar to old-school gospel and dust-bowl folk. He also mastered the art of film scores, creating that famously haunting, lonely guitar soundtrack for the movie Paris, Texas . His absolute biggest moment came in 1997 when he went to Havana and helped put together the Buena Vi...

Eddie James “Son” House (1902–1988) poured more raw emotion into the Delta blues than almost anyone else. He spent his life torn between preaching in church and playing in rowdy jukes. Living in Mississippi during the 1930s and '40s, he became a massive influence on legends like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters . While he started out playing for local crowds at weekend house parties, House hit the international stage during the 1960s blues revival . Fans loved his intense, trance-like performances, aggressive guitar style, and powerful a cappella gospel singing. He first recorded with Charley Patton in 1930, and later did legendary field recordings for the Library of Congress in 1941 and 1942. House walked away from music in 1943 and moved to Rochester, New York, where young blues fans tracked him down in 1964. This "rediscovery" launched a major comeback career, leading to his famous 1965 Columbia album, Father of Folk Blues . He retired for good in...

When Kim Simmonds hooked up the first version of Savoy Brown back in London in 1965 , nobody could have guessed he was kicking off a sixty-year blues crusade. Simmonds lived his life on the road, taking raw Chicago electric blues and supercharging it into a heavy, high-octane boogie that basically drew the blueprint for British blues-rock . While the band never quite got their due back home in the UK, they absolutely conquered America on the back of relentless touring and killer FM radio staples like Looking In (1970) , Street Corner Talking (1971) , and the massive Hellbound Train (1972) . The group also doubled as a legendary revolving-door incubator for rock history—most famously when a chunk of the band split off in 1970 to form the arena-rock powerhouse Foghat . Through every single lineup change, Simmonds was the glue holding it all together, steering the ship for over 40 albums and even landing a #1 Billboard Blues hit with Witchy Feelin' in 2017. Now, the 14-track...