An unheralded trend in the blues is the heartfelt effort being made by a core of young black intellectuals and musicians to rekindle an enthusiasm for the music among black listeners. The problem they address is obvious, as any patron of south- and west-side clubs can attest, and as attendance at the annual Chicago Blues Festival makes all too clear: the blues remains alive largely by virtue of an enthusiastic white audience who have adopted it as a combination of party music and a glimpse into the folk wisdom of a rich heritage that’s not their own. There’s a solid core of black fans, mostly middle-aged and older, who maintain an interest, but a blues musician who wants to make a decent living playing in traditional styles must usually “shoot for the other side of the fence,” as Bo Diddley once wryly put it.
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In recent years, a loosely knit coterie of black Chicago artists and writers have made it their mission to give the blues its due as a living art form. A major component of this mission is to educate the younger generation about the music’s heritage. Harmonica player Billy Branch spends many of his days teaching blues to schoolchildren through the Urban Gateways program; writer Julio Finn has chronicled the imagery and poetry of the blues in fiction, music, and essays; the DuSable Museum has sponsored blues and blues-related performances and exhibits during the past several years.
Perhaps the most distinctive facets of Beauchamp’s work have been his academic and literary activities. As long ago as 1969 he was a writer/artist in residence at the Sorbonne in Paris; he has given lectures and workshops at the University of Maryland and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and his resume lists radio, theater, film, and television appearances as both performer and lecturer in the U.S., France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Senegal. His most recent position was as an artist in residence at Albany State College in Albany, Georgia.
The band is a typical Chicago Beau aggregation. Guitarist George Freeman is an eclectic instrumentalist whose credits include appearances with Gene Ammons and Charlie Parker as well as soul giant Jackie Wilson. Bassist Cecille Savage is a native of France whose experience has run from the aggressive blues-rock fusion of harpist Sugar Blue to the straight-ahead sounds of the late Chicago traditionalist Coleman “Alabama Junior” Pettis. These days she’s building a solid reputation as one of Chicago’s most exciting young jazz bassists, approaching both straight-ahead bebop and free-form improvisation with equal amounts of musicality and inventiveness. Ajaramu, another whose resume spans both blues and jazz, will be holding down the bottom on drums. His credits include stints with Ammons and Jack McDuff, as well as blues harmonica great Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson no. 2). Special guest will be guitarist Wilson Ramsey, who studied under Delta blues master Big Joe Williams and will provide the roots to anchor the flowering improvisations of his colleagues.
