BLUES EXPLOSION FEAT. THE DYNAMIC MISS FAYE CAROL, FILLMORE SLIM, LADY BIANCA & ALVON JOHNSON

JaZzLine INSTITUTE presents Blues Explosion, a powerhouse lineup featuring four of the finest blues artists from the Bay Area and beyond. Get ready for blues, blues, and more blues as this slammin’ band and these legendary artists each raise the roof and let loose in their own unique style. Blues Explosion features four bona fide legends of the blues, including vocal powerhouse The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, iconic bluesman Fillmore Slim, the piano stylings and soulful vocals of Lady Bianca, and award-winning blues entertainer Alvon Johnson, backed by a 7-piece blues band guaranteed to keep the fire hot. An all-star assembly of blues talent this ferocious is a testament to Oakland's rich blues history, showcasing four legendary artists who have kept the bar sky high for decades with authentic, soul-stirring, down home blues that is sure to be a funky good time for all. Supported by the California Arts Council.

The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol is known as an icon in the Bay Area and beyond, highly regarded for her powerful voice, astonishing versatility, and gift of connecting with her audience. Equally at home in jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, funk, Latin, and hip-hop, she has developed her own authentic sound and unique delivery, delighting audiences young and old across the globe. After beginning her career with gospel music, Faye Carol made her name singing with Oakland blues and funk legend Johnny Talbot & De Thangs in the 1960s. She soon formed her own trio and gained fame in San Francisco's jazz, blues, and cabaret clubs of the 1970s and 80s. Over a 60-year career in music, this living legend has developed her own unique acoustic sound and style in Black Music - drawing from funk, blues, gospel, and straight-ahead swingin' - and cultivated an audience that remains as diverse as her uplifting music. She has maintained a high level of musicianship in her groups, mentoring some of the Bay Area's brightest young talent, including Benny Green, Marcus Shelby, and her daughter Kito Kamili. Her vocal proteges include international superstars Kehlani and Ledisi. Miss Faye has shared stages and studios with artists including Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Eric Gales, Albert King, Pharoah Sanders, Joan Baez, Bobby Hutcherson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Kirk Whalum, Gerald Albright, Gary Bartz, Twista, Mistah F.A.B., Houston Person, Pete Escovedo, and Robert Randolph. Also a dedicated educator, Miss Faye is the founder of School of The Getdown. She has been honored with the proclamation of a city-wide “Faye Carol Day” in the City of Berkeley and City of Oakland & inducted into the Oakland Walk of Fame, the Meridian Mississippi Walk of Fame, and the Pittsburg Entertainment & Arts Hall of Fame, and has received countless awards including the 2014 Bay Area Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Hero Award, Jefferson Award for Public Service, four Cabaret Gold Awards, Top Star Awards Entertainer of the Year, the Hewlett 50 Arts Commission, the Creative Power Award from the Walter & Elise Haas Foundation, and the Comcast x Black Joy Parade Icons Among Us Award.

A tall, lean man and flashy performer, Fillmore Slim is definitely one of a kind – a stylish dresser and self- professor whose vocal delivery and guitar stylings are rooted in the past, but his often humorous, occasionally self-deprecating delivery has a timeless appeal.

Jovial, pleasant, and now in his early 90s, his recording legacy isn’t anywhere near that of his peers – only nine albums at last count. And among some circles, he’s far better known for his other, former trade — as one of the most visible and notorious pimps in the U.S. and the subject of a major movie documentary.

Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Fillmore began learning about the blues at an early age. "I've lived the blues," he once said in an interview. "The blues is about picking cotton, working in the fields, living in the streets, and you know I did all these things."

In 1955, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career, playing by himself in the street and later starting a band called Eddy N and The Blues Slayers. During this time, he had a relationship with Etta James before she achieved her fame as a blues singer, and recorded a few 45 rpm records himself. His most successful record from this time was titled "You Got the Nerve of a Brass Monkey”.

Fillmore Slim's song writing talents and musicianship have garnered several awards, including being inducted into the Bay Area's West Coast Blues Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Lowell Fulson "Jus' Blues" Award in Memphis in 2011. Since his musical resurgence, Fillmore has found his largest fanbase to be in Europe, where he has played at the Zurich Blues Festival and the Blues Estafette in Utrecht, Holland, and France, among others.

Fillmore Slim, iconic bluesman and cultural figure, blends gritty life experience with soulful guitar and vocals, an enduring legend of the Bay Area.

Lady Bianca is a blues, gospel, and R&B vocalist/pianist, artist, and producer with roots in Kansas City, MO. Raised by a father who taught her Texas Blues piano as a child, Bianca's formal training began at age nine with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Her exceptional talent garnered her a full four year scholarship, and she went on to study music theory, composition, and received her operatic vocal and piano training. Bianca's first paying gig was at the age of seventeen with Quinn Harris & The Masterminds, and it was Harris who bestowed the title of Lady on Bianca as she was “so pure and conservative”. Since then, Lady Bianca has evolved into an icon in the San Francisco Bay Area and is widely known as the “Queen of the Blues and Gospel”. With her partner, Stanley Lippitt, she has amassed a catalog of over 300 songs, and has produced, arranged, and recorded 9 albums, including her recent release, “Lady Bianca Sings: Hold on a Little While Longer and Gonna Have A Mighty Good Time (2020), via her own label, Magic-O Records - Home of the Mighty Oakland Sound. She has performed, recorded, and toured the world with Frank Zappa, Sly Stone, Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, and Hall of Fame legends Bobby Bland, Willie Dixon, Etta James, Curtis Mayfield, Koko Taylor, and Joe Louis Walker.

Alvon Johnson is one of the most versatile musicians, singers, and entertainers on the music scene today. He travels the world singing and swinging jazz standards with big bands. He also gallops the globe performing the songs that he performed while working with the rock and roll hall of fame group, The Coasters. When he travels to Russia, he is referred to as the “King of the Blues” and the “Ambassador of the Blues”. His love and respect for the American Art form is shared by large and enthusiastic audiences all over the world.