Chicago BluesFest yesterday

[NightOfJoy]

I left my office for a couple hours yesterday afternoon with the intent to see Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin and Willie Smith play at the Front Porch stage. As Johnny Winter was headlining that night, I thought there was a chance that Winter might join them on stage for a Muddy Waters band reunion of sorts.

 

Well, I never got a chance to find out if Johnny joined Pinetop and the boys. I was strolling around from stage to stage, mainly people watching (who knew there was an Illinois chapter of the Hells Angels?! There was a couple of 'em there with colors flying) and killing time until Pinetop was scheduled to go on when I discovered a new stage was added to the Fest.....the Maxwell St. stage. It was tucked off to the side, close to Buckingham Fountain. What attracted me at first was the bluesy saxophone wailing away. I hung around, listening to this up-tempo band do their thang. I'd never heard of them before.....Piano C. Red. The lead singer, Piano Red, was an old timer, dressed in a bright red suit and was mostly paralyzed. Turns out, he was shot in a store robbery a few years and had only recently regained the use of his hands to play the keyboard again. And then I realize I knew the rhythm guitarist. He used to work for me as a forklift operator 10-12 years ago. I knew he was a guitarist that hung around the remnants of Maxwell St but didnt realized how accomplished he was (He was also the only person I've ever fired that the firing didnt "take". The man absolutely refused to accept the notion of being fired. Its a crazy world....).

 

So, this band was tight and hot! I've been going to BluesFest now for 24 years (this year is the 25th anniversary) and have seen a lot of good bands but this one really stuck out. I did a bit of research on Piano Red this morning to find this guy has played with many of the Blues masters from back in the day.....

 

"Blues pianist James Wheeler, also known as Piano "C" Red, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 14, 1933. At the age of twelve, Wheeler learned the basics of blues and boogie-boogie piano and just four years later moved to Atlanta, where he lived and performed for the next decade. It was in Georgia that he was given the name "Red," after the red suit he always wore on stage. The "C" (for Cecil, Wheeler's middle name) was added to differentiate Wheeler from another blues pianist from Georgia who went by the name Piano Red. Wheeler then relocated to Chicago and has lived there ever since. He performed with the legendary Count Basie Band at the High Chaparral in Chicago and appeared nightly at Joe Chamble's Club on 47th Street.

 

Wheeler was also a regular on the Maxwell Street blues scene, where many legendary blues performers got their start. In the early 1960s, Wheeler sat in with such greats as Elmore James, Eddie Taylor, Jimmy Rogers, Hound Dog Taylor and Sonny Boy Williams. He later played there with his own band, the Flat Foot Boogie Men. As the Maxwell Street Market area was threatened with redevelopment, Wheeler was active in efforts to help preserve the Maxwell Street Market and its longstanding role in the blues community. Even though the original market no longer exists, Wheeler and his band still play in and around the area, in addition to performing at other Chicago blues clubs.

 

Over the years, Wheeler has performed with many Chicago blues legends, including Muddy Waters, B.B. King, KoKo Taylor, Buddy Guy, Little Walter, and Junior Wells. He has also made recordings with Chess, Sound, Dawn, and Big Boy Records.

 

For more than forty years, Wheeler has worked as a cab driver by day and blues musician by night, and for this reason named his 1999 CD release Cab Driving Man. Because of his continued presence in the Chicago blues scene, Wheeler was featured in the June 1996 issue of Living Blues. Wheeler was also interviewed by Niles Frantz from WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight program.

 

Wheeler was shot and paralyzed during a robbery at a gas station in Chicago on March 23, 2006. (snipped from the historymakers.com"

 

It goes to show, you just never know.....

 

A bit more info.....apparently Piano C. Red and his band play at the Canal St market every Sunday......

[myboyblue]

Yea, I really wanted to check out the Blues fest this year but our schedule just won't allow it. Many, many great acts this year and it looks like the weather may cooperate over the weekend. That is very rare. If you have a chance, check out Tony Joe White on Saturday. He's great to see live. Swampy blues.

[John Smith]

Very cool story. Its such an other worldly feeling to see someone you once knew up on stage when you were not expecting them... Its happen a couple of times with me. And I kind of got mesmerized listening to and watching these people I didn't knwo were quite so talented.

[dannygutters]

I wanted to see Honeyboy Edwards yesterday but I didn't get a chance to get out there. Ah well, I think he is playing again later in the festival.