“AMAZING” (NPR MUSIC) MUSIC MAKER BLUES REVUE’S LA DEBUT AT SKIRBALL CENTER’S SUNSET CONCERT SERIES FEATURING “MORE THAN CONVINCING” (NY TIMES) ROBERT FINLEY, JB'S ALUM ROBERT LEE COLEMAN, AND DEEP BLUESMAN ALABAMA SLIM

Music Maker Relief Foundation is pleased to announce that The Music Maker Blues Revue’s Los Angeles debut featuring, Robert Lee Coleman, Robert Finley, and Alabama Slim will be performing at the Season of Sunset Concerts series, August 18th, at 8:00 pm. NPR Music has called the Music Maker Blues Revue “exciting... amazing... great stuff.”

The Music Maker Blues Revue consists of artists such as Robert Lee Coleman, Alabama Slim, and Robert Finley, each of whom will perform at the Skirball Center. The “more than convincing” (NY Times) Robert Finley is a creative artist from Bernice, Louisiana that specializes in “roots soul” and is known for his live performances and is a recent signee to Big Legal Mess, which will put out his debut album ‘Age Don’t Mean a Thing’ this fall. Robert Lee Coleman is a legendary guitarist, from Macon, Georgia, that is known for playing with great artists such as Percy Sledge and James Brown. Alabama Slim is a gifted blues singer who grew up singing the blues with his grandparents and is known in the states and abroad for his album 'The Mighty Flood,' that features blues guitarist Little Freddie King. The New York Times predicts that the Sunset concerts will “showcase an intriguing mix of artists devoted to cultural exchange and preservation.”

More info, photos, video on Robert Finley: http://nicklosseaton.blogspot.com/search/label/robert%20finley

More info, photos, video on Robert Lee Coleman: http://www.musicmaker.org/artists/robert-lee-coleman/

More info, photos, video on Alabama Slim: http://www.musicmaker.org/artists/alabama-slim/

The Music Maker Blues Revue is a thriving band created in the early 1990s as back up for legendary artists such as Guitar Gabriel, Ironing Board Sam and Beverly “Guitar” Watkins. The Blues Revue’s performance represents Southern musical traditions ranging from Jazz to Blues, Boogie Woogie and Soul. After quickly becoming a powerhouse band of their own right, they have collaborated with artists such as Etta Baker, Macavine Hayes, Robert Lee Coleman, Pat Cohen, and many more.  This amazing band has performed all around the world from the United States, Argentina, Australia, Europe, and Guatemala.  Music Maker founder Tim Duffy stated: “ The Music Maker Blues Revue is a powerful, entertaining, set of the greatest blues musicians you ever heard.”

Sunset Concerts is a free music series that has been presented in Los Angeles, CA, at the Skirball Cultural Center,  since 1997. These concerts include alternate folk-rock, West Afriran blues, Brazilian samba/jazz, Colombian funk fusion, Southern boogie, and Middle Eastern rock music.  These concerts will take place every Thursdays from July 21 to August 25. Other performers/ performances include Thao and the Get Down Stay Down (July 21th), Songhoy Blues (July 28th), Thalma de Freitas (August 4th), M.A.K.U. Soundsystem (August 11), and Shai Tsabari and the Middle East Groove All Stars (August 25th). Doors open at 7:00 pm and have limited seating for first-come, first served.

Music Maker Relief Foundation, Inc. is a tax exempt, public charity under IRS code 501(c) 3. Music Maker aims to keep our Southern culture vital by directly supporting senior  (over 55) American roots musicians in need, expanding their professional careers, and assisting Next Generation artists in the development of their professional careers. Since the organization’s founding in 1994, Music Maker has assisted hundreds of musicians who represent the traditions of Blues, Gospel, Old-Time String Band, Jazz and more. Music Maker’s programs ensure the talents of these cultural treasures are accessible so that our rich musical heritage can be shared with the world and preserved for future generations.

MUSIC MAKER RELIEF FOUNDATION REVUE JOINS GLOBALFEST AT WEBSTER HALL JANUARY 17

REVUE INCLUDES JAMES BROWN/PERCY SLEDGE GUITAR VIRTUOSO ROBERT LEE COLEMAN; NEWEST BIG LEGAL MESS RECORDS SIGNEE ROBERT FINLEY; AND DEEP BLUES ARTIST ALABAMA SLIM

The Music Maker Relief Foundation – the non-profit organization which assists southern, traditional musicians who live in poverty, many of them elderly – is bringing a revue to Globalfest January 17 at Webster Hall. Last year, Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times that the festival was “full of fusions both geographical and temporal: local and far-flung, old and new.” He continued, “What fortified nearly every performance was the sense that the music still comes from some place like home.” MMRF was the subject last year of 20th anniversary profiles on NPR Weekend Edition and PBS News Hour. Music Maker Relief Foundation mission video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BznOarcpGaM

The Music Maker Relief Foundation Revue will consist of:

+ Robert Lee Coleman of Macon, Georgia played guitar for Percy Sledge from 1964 to 1969. In 1970, James Brown hired him for his new band, “the JBs.” Robert’s guitar is featured on Brown’s album “Hot Pants”, including the songs “Revolution of the Mind,” recorded live at the Apollo Theater & “Make It Funky” from the “Soul Classics” LP. He was most recently the subject of features in Gibson.com and Premier Guitar Magazine. Paul Reed Smith personally gave him a custom guitar. Hear music from his Music Maker Relief Foundation album ‘One More Mile’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpI2B8nrrqk

+ Robert Finley is the most recent addition to Big Legal Mess Records (Fat Possum) and his live performance energy can put anyone into a trance. Hailing from Bernice, LA, Finley enlisted in the US Army and served as an Army Band Director when he was younger. After his service, he worked as a carpenter and until recently his work provided enough income for him to get by. Unfortunately, his deteriorating eyesight has led to the loss of his carpentry career. Finley's music is as strong as ever though, and when Music Maker head saw him performing on the street at the King Biscuit Festival in Helena, AR, he signed him on the spot. He is making his NYC debut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOGMbOre8YE

+ Alabama Slim says, “I grew up listening to the old blues since I was a child. I spent summers with my grandparents who had a farm. Them old folks would get to moanin’ while they worked, and I just started moanin’ with them. That’s where I learned to sing.”  Slim grew up playing in juke joints in Alabama and moved to New Orleans in the ‘60s. Since joining MM, his music has been felt at performances in the States and abroad. Music Maker assisted him in relocating back to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He has released two albums on Music Maker and performed at Lincoln Center. Hear music: http://www.musicmaker.org/artists/alabama-slim/

The bandleader includes “Lil’ Joe” Burton, a trombone player who spent sixteen years with BB King before becoming Junior Wells’ bandleader. Albert White performed with Piano Red in his band Dr. Feelgood & the Interns for over thirty years and has played with Ray Charles, Joe Tex, and many others.

WHO: Robert Lee Coleman, Robert Finley, Alabama Slim
WHAT: Music Maker Revue at Globalfest
WHEN: 7-8pm, January 17, 2016
WHERE: Webster Hall, NYC
TICKETS: $45, http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6308625&pl=webhall

For more info on Globalfest, please go to: http://globalfest.org/

TIM DUFFY LAUNCHES TOUR AS HARDCOVER BOOK “WE ARE THE MUSIC MAKERS” IS OUT THIS WEEK ON NAUTILUS PRESS

Music Maker Relief Foundation founder and head Tim Duffy will tour with his new book We Are The Music Makers! Preserving the Soul of America's Music, out this week on Nautilus Press. The book consists of 144 pages, featuring the stories of little known southern roots musicians and Duffy’s own photography. This book was released as a celebration of the non-profit organization’s twentieth anniversary.

Duffy said, “I have learned to see the world I live in, as it is, that is my point of view. I strive to see through my own eyes not the memory of what others have seen. I do not venture out of my own community of musicians I have worked with over the last 30 years. I am very uncomfortable photographing people that I do not know. Combining my greatest passions of folk musicians and photography has been a trail I have never veered. Knowing this world inside out from years of association helps me give the photographs a greater originality and authority and the "feel" of which you cannot convey without the lack of knowledge. I let the intimate knowledge I have the Music Maker artists, speak for itself."

Select stops on the tour will feature Music Maker artists:

+ John Dee Holeman – This NEA National Heritage Fellowship award
winner has recorded with Taj Mahal.

+ Little Freddie King – This multiple New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest
and Ponderosa Stomp veteran is one of New Orleans’ reigning bluesmen.

+ Alabama Slim grew up playing in juke joints in Alabama and moved to
New Orleans in the ‘60s.

+ Major Handy is a Zydeco musician and blues accordion player who was
born in 1947 in Lafayette, Louisiana. His past gigs include playing
guitar with Rockin’ Dopsie’s band for 12 years and with Buckwheat
Zydeco’s original lineup for about a year.

September 19 - The Regulator, Durham, NC (w/ music by John Dee Holeman)
September 24 - Burwell School, Hillsborough, NC, (w/ music by John Dee Holeman)
September 30 - Quail Ridge Books & Music, Raleigh, NC (w/ music by
John Dee Holeman)
October 13 - Square Books, Oxford, MS
October 14 - Otherlands Coffee Bar, Memphis, TN
October 15 - Lemuria Books, Jackson, MS
October 16 - Maple Street Books, New Orleans, LA (w/ music
from Little Freddie King and Alabama Slim)
October 17 - Garden District Books, New Orleans, LA (w/ music from Major Handy)
October 18 - Louisiana Music Factory Tent at Crescent City Blues and
BBQ Festival, New Orleans, LA

Recent events have included a museum exhibition, Lincoln Center performance. The new 2CD set ‘We are the Music Makers’ comes out September 30. The New Yorker recently ran a playlist of Taj Mahal’s favorite songs from the Msuic Maker catalogue.

Barry Mazor’s feature on Music Maker Relief Foundation ran last month in the Wall Street Journal.