Hard Times - Heritage Blues Orchestra

JUNIOR MACK A self-taught musician, Junior Mack is a gifted vocalist and guitarist. He has been playing since the age of nine and is equally at ease playing acoustic and electric styles. Junior started out on the guitar playing gospel - his road map being the early music of the Five Blind Boys Of Alabama with George Scott, Linwood Hargrove with the Swan Silvertones, Pops Staples of the Staple Singers, and the great Howard Carroll of the Dixie Humming-birds. His other influences are the country blues of Lightnin' Hopkins and the big city blues of Freddie King and B.B. King. Junior Mack has worked and collaborated with many major American recording artists including: Jaimoe's Jasssz Band, The Allman Brothers Band, Derek Trucks, Robert Randolph, Dickey Betts, Chaka Khan, Magic Slim, Joe Louis Walker, Honeyboy Edwards, Phillip Walker, Lucky Peterson, Eddie Kirkland, Jeff Healy and others. BILL SIMS. JR. Born into and raised by a sharecropping family in rural Georgia, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Bill Sims Jr. is an internationally respected master of the blues. He began playing piano at age four and by fourteen he was playing professionally in a rhythm and blues group. A Warner Bros. recording artist, Mr. Sims is also an accomplished musical director and has lent his talents to many theater and film productions in New York and the United States. His film credits include Lackawanna Blues, Miss Ruby's House, American Gangster, and the recent Cadillac Records. He was also the subject of a critically acclaimed PBS documentary, An American Love Story, in 1999. Mr Sims currently lives in NYC where he mentors a new generation of blues and roots musicians. CHANEY SIMS A native New Yorker and the descendant of music makers from Georgia, Florida and Ohio, Chaney’s voice is steeped in field hollers, work songs, spirituals, blues, soul and R&B. She is dedicated to sharing the significance of these unique art forms; exploring their influence on her voice as a queer woman of color; and revealing a broad spectrum of the blues, roots music and the American songbook. Chaney has performed at venues around the world including: Rhino Jazz Festival, Aulnay All Blues, The Blue Note, Joe's Pub and Terra Blues. She has also had the privilege of sharing the stage with some of her mentors and muses including: her father Bill Sims Jr., the late Odetta, Phylicia Rashad, recording legend Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Guy Davis, Staceyann Chin, Climbing Poetree and Ganessa James. BRUNO WILHELM Placing the human factor at the heart of it all, and using music as a bridge between language and culture are the priorities of this highly-respected saxophonist, arranger and composer. At home in the jazz idiom, Bruno Wilhelm is a seasoned bandleader composer and arranger. He has led numerous original projects in straight-ahead and avant-garde Jazz. He composes and arranges for instrumentalists and vocalists across the musical spectrum including World, Hip-Hop and Rap as well as for theater and dance performance artists. He has also composed and played with various african artists in Western and Central Africa, and has worked as an arranger in classical music. He has collaborated with artists such as David Liebman, Chico Freeman, National Jazz Orchestra of France, Jean-Marc Padovani, Louis Sclavis and many others. VINCENT BUCHER At the age of sixteen, Vincent Bucher learned to play the harmonica. He was discovered playing in the Paris Metro by American master harmonica player Sugar Blue, who encourages him to play professionally. Vincent is quickly recognized as a harp player of extraordinary talent and begins accompanying blues greats including: Louisiana Red, Jimmy Johnson, Sonny Rhodes and many others. He records with French blues stars Bill Deraime and Patrick Verbeke, as well as pop and rock music star CharlElie Couture. For two decades, he led his own groups, and played extensively with Blues, Roots and World artists throughout Europe, Africa and the United States. More recently, Vincent toured with his own group as well as with the Franco-Malgache artist Tao Ravao, the Legendary Malian singer-guitarist Boubacar Traoré and other notable African musicians. Considered one of the most accomplished harmonica players anywhere, he is a singer, composer, songwriter and arranger who uses his unique versatility and experience to explore the kinship between African music and the Blues. KENNY "BEEDY EYES" SMITH Widely considered the top traditional Chicago-blues drummer on the scene today and son of legendary ex-Muddy Waters drum man Willie “Big Eyes’’ Smith, Kenny is currently the most sought-after blues session drummer in Chicago. Some of his recording credits—over 50 albums—and touring engagements include Pinetop Perkins, Homesick James, Buddy Guy, Chicago Blues: A Living History, Honeyboy Edwards, Henry Townsend, Jody Williams, Big Jack Johnson, Aaron Burton, Lurrie Bell, Dave Myers, Kim Wilson, Paul deLay, Junior Wells, the Legendary Blues Band and many others. Kenny's talents as a drummer are not restricted to any one style of music—he is equally as comfortable in other musical genres including R&B, Soul, Jazz. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Hard Times - Heritage Blues Orchestra

The grit of low-down country and urban blues to the bold brass of New Orleans; the hand-clapping, hustle and bustle of gospel to fiery postmodern, jazz-infused horn arrangements; the haunting cries of work songs to pulsating drums that reach back to the roots of it all—if you are lucky enough to hear the Heritage Blues Orchestra, you’ll experience this and more.

From the first of the twelve tracks on their debut album And Still I Rise, Junior Mack’s propulsive rendition of Son House’s Clarksdale Moan, Heritage Blues Orchestra unapologetically stomps onto the scene and digs in with both heels—taking us from Bill Sims’ hard-shuffling version of the immortal Muddy Waters classic, Catfish Blues, to the solemn dirge of Chaney Sims’ interpretation of Leadbelly’s Go Down Hannah to magnificent three-part harmonies against a slippery slide guitar in their head-nodding version of Get Right Church.

The group is driven by the powerful rhythms of Grammy-awarding winning blues drummer Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith; buttressed by the churning, precise and percussive rhythms of harmonica virtuoso, Frenchman Vincent Bucher; and ablaze with some of New York City’s heaviest horn players who have worked with everyone from Wynton Marsalis to Sting and Springsteen.

Heritage Blues Orchestra also boasts contributions from Bruno Wilhelm, the group’s highly esteemed tenor saxophonist and horn arranger. A native of France, Wilhelm is influenced by an extensive palette of jazz styles. Whether with ethereal musings or hard-hitting section work, his arrangements punctuate every song they touch.

This combined with Bill, Chaney and Junior’s collective history in jazz, R&B and gospel help articulate and underscore the Heritage Blues Orchestra’s striking voice. At the heart of the group is a broad spectrum of the blues and the longstanding musical mingling between America and Europe that brings together African-American music, Modern Jazz and Western European harmony.

Nowhere is the breadth of Heritage Blues Orchestra’s vision and reach better evidenced than on the album’s closing piece, Hard Times. This song, in 3 movements, demonstrates it all: the traditional call-and-response between a lone voice and guitar; a bewitching horn composition peppered with Miles Davis’ A Silent Way; and a final transition to a roof-raising funk jam that leaps out and shoves you onto the dance floor.

This group is an inspiring testament to the enduring power, possibilities and boundless beauty of African-American music. It drives us down Highway 49 from Clarksdale to New Orleans, journeys across the Middle Passage, takes us from chain gangs and juke joints, to orchestra pits and church pews, and even to back porches.

Their loving celebration of tradition gives rise to a new adventure in music with a singular sound. Please welcome the exciting arrival of the Heritage Blues Orchestra.
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