Mighty Mo Rodgers | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Maurice Rodgers |
Born | East Chicago, Indiana, United States | July 24, 1942
Genres | Electric blues [1] |
Occupation(s) | Musician, singer, songwriter, record producer |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, keyboards |
Years active | Mid 1960s–present |
Labels | Various including Blue Thumb |
Website | Official website |
Mighty Mo Rodgers (born July 24, 1942) [2] is an American electric blues musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, who has released eight albums to date. [1] He has been influenced by the work of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Bland, Eddie Boyd, Jimmy Reed, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Willie Dixon. [3]
Bonnie Raitt noted that "Mo Rodgers' music is a breath of fresh air in the blues/R&B world. He combines sly social commentary with a great funky sound. . . . I love his voice. He's a welcome original." [4]
Maurice Rodgers was born in East Chicago, Indiana, [1] He studied classical piano, but was more influenced by witnessing the blues acts that performed at his father's nightclub. In the mid-1960s, the music produced by the American record label Stax also affected his musical ambitions. In high school, Rodgers formed his first band, the Rocketeers. After entering Indiana State College, he fronted the Maurice Rodgers Combo. His love of playing keyboards led Rodgers to leave college and relocate to Los Angeles, California, becoming a full-time musician. [1]
He played the Farfisa electronic organ on Brenton Wood's 1967 hit "Gimme Little Sign". [1] [5] [6]
In 1973, Rodgers co-produced the album Sonny & Brownie (A&M Records), by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. [5] He also played keyboards on the album's cut. [1] Following a spell as a session musician, Rodgers moved into songwriting for Motown and Chappell & Co. He also worked as a record producer before returning to education and obtaining a philosophy degree from California State University, Northridge. [7] His first solo album, Blues Is My Wailin' Wall , was released in 1999 by Blue Thumb Records. The lyrics of several of the songs on the album present Rodgers's philosophical views of mankind. [1]
In 2000, Rodgers performed at the Notodden Blues Festival. His European excursions have included concerts at the New Morning nightclub in Paris. In 2001, he performed on the album Memphis, recorded by Jean-Jacques Milteau, which also included contributions from Little Milton and Mighty Sam McClain. [8] His own recordings continued with Red, White & Blues (2002); Black Paris Blues, a live album issued in 2004; and Redneck Blues (2007). His next release was Cadillac Jack in 2012. [9]
Rodgers appeared at the 22nd Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival in August 2014. [10]
In 2019, he toured with Baba Sissoko and performed at several European blues festivals. In 2017, they had jointly released the album, Griot Blues. [11] [12] [13]
Year | Title | Record label |
---|---|---|
1999 | Blues Is My Wailin' Wall [14] | Blue Thumb |
2002 | Red, White & Blues [15] | Blue Thumb |
2004 | Black Paris Blues [16] | Isabel |
2007 | Redneck Blues [17] | DixieFrog |
2009 | Dispatches from the Moon [18] | DixieFrog |
2012 | Cadillac Jack [7] | Waterfront |
2017 | Griot Blues | One Root Music |
2023 | Memphis Callin': Soul Music & the American Dream | Drinking Gourd |
Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee was an American folk and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.
Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr., better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments, often incorporating elements of world music into his work. Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.
Kevin Roosevelt Moore, known as Keb' Mo', is an American blues musician and eight-time Grammy Award winner. He is a singer, guitarist, and songwriter, living in Nashville, Tennessee. He has been described as "a living link to the seminal Delta blues that travelled up the Mississippi River and across the expanse of America." His post-modern blues style is influenced by many eras and genres, including folk, rock, jazz, pop and country. The moniker "Keb Mo" was coined by his original drummer, Quentin Dennard, and picked up by his record label as a "street talk" abbreviation of his given name.
Rod Piazza is an American blues harmonica player and singer. He has been playing with his band The Mighty Flyers, which he formed with his pianist wife Honey Piazza, since 1980. Their boogie sound combines the styles of jump blues, West Coast blues and Chicago blues.
Toumani Diabaté is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles. In 2006, the London-based newspaper The Independent named Diabaté one of the fifty best African artists.
Vann "Piano Man" Walls was an American rhythm and blues piano player, songwriter, studio musician and professional recording artist. He was a long-standing session player for Atlantic Records, appearing on hits by artists including Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown and The Clovers. Walls performed under a number of different names and is variously credited as Van Walls, Harry Van Walls and Captain Van. He led the Harry Van Walls Orchestra and also performed with Doc Starkes and His Nite Riders and as Le Capitaine Van.
Justin Alexander Adams is an English guitarist and composer who works in blues and African styles.
Baba Sissoko is a Malian percussionist.
Jean-Jacques Milteau is a French blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter, as well as radio presenter.
Mah Damba is a traditional griot singer. She comes from a family of griots: her father, Djeli Baba Sissoko, was a griot and her aunt, Fanta Damba, is also considered a top vocalist.
Ballaké Sissoko is a Malian player of the kora. He has worked with Toumani Diabaté and Taj Mahal, and is a member of the group 3MA with Driss El Maloumi and Rajery.
Sonny & Brownie is an album by the blues musicians Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. It was recorded at the Paramount Recording Studios in 1973, and re-released in 1988 with digital remastering by Rudy Van Gelder at the Van Gelder Recording Studio.
Alec Seward was an American Piedmont blues and country blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. Some of his records were released under pseudonyms, such as Guitar Slim, Blues Servant Boy, King Blues and Georgia Slim. His best-remembered recordings are "Creepin' Blues" and "Some People Say".
Red Earth is a 2007 studio album by Dee Dee Bridgewater. It carries the subtitle "A Malian Journey" to celebrate and explore her African and Malian ancestry. The album brought her the seventh nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards. On Billboard's Top Jazz Album chart it reached Number 16.
Preston Shannon was an American electric blues and soul blues guitarist, singer and songwriter.
Harrison Kennedy is a Black Canadian electric blues, R&B, and soul blues, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for being the lead vocalist on the Chairmen of the Board song, "Chairman of the Board", but has had a varied solo career since the mid-1970s. He was awarded the 2016 "Blues Album of the Year" Juno Award for his release, This Is From Here. It was Kennedy's sixth nomination for that Award. He is also a Blues Music Award, and multiple Maple Blues Award nominee.
A Long Way from Home is an album by blues musicians Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry released by the BluesWay label in 1969.
New Ancient Strings is a studio album by the Malian musicians Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko, released on 22 June 1999 by the British label Hannibal Records. The album comprises eight instrumental duets composed by Diabaté for kora, a stringed instrument of West African music. Diabaté and Sissoko are esteemed as the best and the second-best kora players of their generation, respectively. Their duets were recorded in a single live take within a marble hallway of Bamako's conference centre on the night of 22 September 1997, coinciding with Mali's Independence Day.
Kassé Mady Diabaté was a Malian singer, musician and griot. His soft and particular voice with deep undertones – an atypical characteristic for a griot – earned him the nickname "The golden voice of Mali". He is considered, together with Salif Keita, as one of the greatest Mandinka artists of his generation.
Blues Is My Wailin' Wall is the debut album by the American musician Mighty Mo Rodgers, released in 1999. Rodgers referred to his music as "nu bluez"; he was also working on a master's thesis titled "Blues as Metaphysical Music ". He initially released the album on his label, North Star Records, in December 1998. Rodgers supported the album with a North American tour. He was nominated for a W. C. Handy Award for "Best New Artist Debut".