Artist Biographies

John has played tenor sax for over thirty years in Chicago and Los Angeles. John plays soulful, blues as well as jazz. He recorded with Erwin Helfer on the W.C. Handy nominated I'm Not Hungry But I Like To Eat - Blues! (The Sirens Records SR5001) and with Earma Thompson on Just in Time (The Sirens Records SR5008). John frequently has gigs with Erwin and Earma and also leads his own band (which can be heard at Katerina's and Andy's). John's website is www.johnbrumbach.com.

John Henry Davis moved to Chicago as a child. He lost his eyesight when he was nine years old due to a tetanus infection. John learned how to play piano so he could earn money entertaining patrons at his father's speakeasies.

John was the staff pianist for Lester Melrose in the 1930's where he accompanied John Lee ‘Sonny Boy' Williamson, Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Memphis Minnie, and others. He also recorded for Vocalion. After his "rediscovery" in the late sixties he recorded for The Sirens Records, Red Beans, and a few European labels.

Katherine Davis grew up in Chicago, and began performing in 1979. Although she initially wanted to sing opera, her musical interests shifted to blues, jazz, and theater. Katherine is an entertaining performer. She has recently written and starred in an autobiographical theater production entitled "I Dream in Blues." In Nina Metz's Chicago Tribune theater review on February 10, 2006 she described Davis' performance as one that "... pulls you in with her haunting sweetness and utter lack of pretension." Katherine frequently performs with the Chicago Boogie Ensemble. When not performing, she is happily teaching the blues to children in Chicagoland public schools.

Jessy was born in Texas and discovered by the legendary gospel performer Reverend James Cleveland. Dixon's creative songs caught Cleveland's ear, and the gospel great performed and recorded many of young Dixon's songs, including "God Can Do Anything But Fail". Later, Jessy Dixon became a gospel star in his own right, and has performed at Radio City Music Hall, The Apollo Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, and on the Oprah Winfrey Show. With an active touring schedule, he frequently appears with Bill Gaither. He has over twenty recordings, including seven Grammy nominations and Jessy sings on several recordings by rock musician Paul Simon. Mainstream artists such as Amy Grant, Natalie Cole, Diana Ross, Randy Crawford, and many others have recorded his compositions.

You can read more about Jessy at www.jessydixon.com.

Sydne Evans lives on Chicago's south side. She has traveled extensively around the world carrying a ministry in song. In April 2003, Sydne sang at the historic Old St. John Methodist Church in the Wall Street district of Manhattan. Later in the spring she sang for the 89th Historical President's night on the campus of Hampton University in Virginia where Coretta Scott King was in attendance. Sydne is currently touring and bringing Praise and Worship Seminars to leading churches around the country.

In 2005 Sydne wrote a poetry book entitled Ivy, Roses, and Grapes on the Vine published by AuthorHouse.

Chris is a virtuoso keyboard player who has played with Kimberly Gordon for over fourteen years; he appears on Kimberly Gordon's Melancholy Serenade (The Sirens Records SR5009). Chris is better known for his organ playing with the Deep Blue Organ Trio featuring Bobby Broom and Greg Rockingham (they've recently recorded their second disc for Delmark). The influences of the great jazz organists, as well as church music and jazz pianist Errol Garner, can be heard in his soulful piano playing.

Pastor Gregory Donald Gay is the co-founder of Prayer Center Church of God in Christ, and younger brother of Evelyn, Mildred, and Geraldine (known as The Gay Sisters Trio). At six years of age, Pastor Gay appeared at Carnegie Hall with his sisters. His singing continues the Gay family gospel tradition.

The Gay family was honored by the Smithsonian Institute for their contributions and advancement of gospel music in America.

Geraldine Gay is best known as a member of The Gay Sisters Trio that recorded for Dolphin and Savoy Records in the late forties and early fifties. The Trio, which included Geraldine and her sisters Evelyn and Mildred, performed at New York's Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, the Astrodome, and the Bicentennial Celebration of the United States on the Washington Mall. In addition, the sisters sang at churches around the country, and have performed or recorded with some of the most influential artists of the 20th century, including Mahalia Jackson, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Dr. Thomas Dorsey, Clara Ward, Pops Staples, and many others.

In his book The Gospel Sound, Anthony Heilbut referred to Geraldine Gay as the "Errol Garner of gospel". Besides her jazz-influenced piano sound, her playing reflects her personality - down home friendliness with sophisticated charm.

For more information about the Gay Family please visit the following link:
www.myspace.com/donaldandgeraldinegay

Sunnyland Slim and Little Brother Montgomery mentored Chuck; he literally lived with these Chicago piano legends during the late 1970's and 1980's. Barrelhouse plays on 8 Hands on 88 Keys - Chicago Blues Piano Masters (The Sirens Records SR5003) and a solo disc entitled Prescription for the Blues (The Sirens Records SR5004). For more information on Barrelhouse check out www.barrelhousechuck.com Chuck is a blues historian and has a museum quality blues collection. Anyone who is interested in learning more about Sunnyland and Little Brother has to talk to Chuck.

Kimberly Gordon is a Chicago native. She spent a four-year stint in New York City, where Kimberly sang at The Village Vanguard and regularly at Smalls and Cleopatra's Needle.

In her hometown, Kimberly performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 1998 and she has performed at numerous clubs including The Green Mill, Jazz Showcase, Underground WonderBar, and HotHouse. She currently has standing engagements at The Green Mill on Sundays and Katerina's on Fridays.

D'Artagnon "Dart" Gunn is one of the most talented drummers in gospel music today. He has played with many great gospel artists including the late James C. Chambers and the Ecclesiastes Community Choir, the Chicago Mass Choir, and Calvin Bridges and the Chicago Praise Ensemble. Currently, he is the drummer at the Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church. Dart appears on In the Right Hands - Chicago Gospel Keyboard Pioneers.

Erwin Helfer has been playing piano and performing for over forty years. For many years, Erwin accompanied Mama Yancey, the wife of Chicago blues piano patriarch Jimmy "Papa" Yancey, and later recorded one album with her. He was mentored and influenced by Cripple Clarence Lofton, Billie Pierce, and Speckled Red. He recorded the latter two pianists on Primitive Piano for his Tone Records (reissued by The Sirens Records SR5005).

During the 60's and 70's, Erwin released two piano duet albums with his performing and recording partner of ten years, Jimmy Walker. On their first album, Peter J. Welding, one of the preeminent blues historians and scholars of all time, wrote that Helfer had "mastered the rhythmic and melodic subtleties" of the blues piano style. Helfer's recordings on The Sirens Records include I'm Not Hungry But I Like To Eat - Blues! (2003 W.C. Handy Award nomination), Heavy Timbre - Chicago Boogie Piano (with Sunnyland Slim, Blind John Davis, Willie Mabon, and Jimmy Walker; named one of the top 52 blues recordings ever by the Year of the Blues), 8 Hands on 88 Keys - Chicago Blues Piano Masters (with Barrelhouse Chuck, Detroit Jr., and Pinetop Perkins), St. James Infirmary (with tenor sax player Skinny Williams), and Careless Love (with John Whitfield and Avreeayl Ra). Careless Love is scheduled to be released in September 2005.

Please check out Erwin's website www.erwinhelfer.com for more information about Helfer and his availability for booking engagements and piano lessons. Thanks to Eiko Gallwas, one of Erwin's students and friends, for building him a beautiful website.

Ken Jackson is a gospel drummer from Chicago. Kendrick started playing the drums in his high school band. In the early 1980's, Kendrick was recognized by the late Dr. Jeffrey P. Radford, who encouraged and nurtured him as he performed with youth and young adult choir tours. Kendrick appears on Rev. Mason's Glory! Glory!.

Willie Mabon recorded for Chess Records (Aristocrat) from 1952 to 1960. He had several hits including Cripple Clarence Lofton's "I Don't Know" and Willie Dixon's "Seventh Son" (before Mose Allison and Johnny Rivers recorded it). He lived in France throughout the 1970's and 1980's.

Pastor Mason recently became the Pastor at St. Martin's Church at 5648 S. State St. Pastor Mason takes great pride in juggling three related professions all beginning with the letter "M": minister, mortician, and musician.

Reverend Mason's traditional and contemporary gospel piano playing is almost entirely self-taught. He can take a traditional spiritual melody and create a hypnotic groove. Ben Ratliff called Rev. Mason the Reverend of Funk in a review in the NY Times November 23, 2003.

Pinetop started out as a guitar player but he switched to piano after sustaining an injury to his arm. Early in his career he accompanied a number of well-known blues legends like Sonny Boy Williamson (on the King Biscuit Time radio program on KFFA, Helena, Arkansas), Robert Nighthawk (backed him on an early Chess session), and Earl Hooker (recorded together on Sun records in Memphis). In the late 1960's and 1970's Pinetop gained notoriety by recording and touring with Muddy Waters. In 1980, Pinetop became a member of the Muddy Waters alumni band called the Legendary Blues Band which toured and recorded under that name. He has recorded for a number of labels including Alligator, Blind Pig, Rounder, Telarc, and The Sirens Records.

In 2005, both the Recording Academy and the Blues Foundation gave Pinetop Perkins Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Grammy's and W.C. Handy Blues Awards respectively.

Born in a musical family in which both her parents and her six sisters played the piano, she began playing the piano at a young age. When only 15, she replaced Clarence Williams as Bessie Smith's accompanist. Her playing was later heard behind George Lewis, Alphonse Picou, and Ida Cox as well as the trumpet of her husband DeDe. Until her death, Billie often played at Preservation Hall in New Orleans with her husband.

Joe is a double bassist who studied at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and at Miami University. After leaving Cincinnati, Joe lived and worked as a jazz performer in Germany. In 2003, he moved to Chicago and joined the Kimberly Gordon Trio. Joe appears on Melancholy Serenade (The Sirens Records SR5009). He also leads his own group called Jeru.

James "Bat, the Hummingbird" Robinson spent most of his childhood in Memphis. James interest in music started when his father taught him to play drums and piano. In the 1920's he lived in Chicago where he played drums for Louis Armstrong at the Sunset Café. He also had musical ties with Chippie Hill, Eppie Moan, and Elzadie Robinson. He earned the name "Hummingbird" because of his tendency to hum or grunt while he played. In the 1930's Bat moved to St. Louis, where he eventually died. Although James never had a large following, his recordings on Vocalion and Gennet are noteworthy.

Nash Shaffer Jr. started studying piano at age six. By the time Nash turned fourteen he played on Chicago's "Jubilee Showcase" gospel TV show. Nash has recorded with the Albertina Walker (AKA the Queen of Gospel Music) for Savoy Records, as well as many other talented vocalists. In addition to his musicianship, Nash has kept traditional gospel alive by disc jockeying a radio program for the past twenty-one years (Sunday mornings on WCEV 1450AM from 5 to 7 a.m.). Honored with numerous awards for his music and service to the gospel community, he has served as the minister of music for many Chicago area churches.

Rufus Perryman's nickname is Speckled Red because he was albino. Like most blues and stomp players, Red was basically self-taught. His father steered him toward church music. When the family moved to Atlanta, Red became a full-time blues pianist. Soon his profession took him across the country, notably to Memphis, Kansas City, St. Louis, New York, and Detroit, where he was known as Detroit Red. He came in contact with Will Ezell and Charlie Spand in Detroit; Count Basie, Joe Turner, and Sam Price in Kansas City; and Walter Davis, Peetie Wheatstraw, and Jimmy Oden in St. Louis.

His first recording in 1929 was a tame version of "The Dirty Dozens," cut in Memphis for Brunswick. A year later, he re-recorded the "Dozens" with "Wilkins Street Stomp" in Chicago. Red all but disappeared from music during the depression until Walter Davis arranged a recording session for Red with Bluebird in 1938. Among the songs cut were "St. Louis Stomp" and "Doing the Georgia." In 1941 Red settled in St. Louis, working as a porter.

He became popular for a third time in the mid 1950's, when he made recordings for Erwin Helfer for Tone Records (reissued by The Sirens on the disc entitled Primitive Piano). The recordings not used on Primitive Piano were sold by Erwin Helfer to Bob Koester and released on Delmar Records (who later changed the name of his company to Delmark Records).

The influence of Claude Brown, composer of "Sweet Patootie," can be heard in Doug's playing. Doug spent his professional career in Chicago, often playing at memorable "house rent" parties with the likes of PineTop Smith, Albert Ammons, Clarence Lofton, and Jimmy Yancey. But Suggs' personal style kept his music from being overshadowed by these "bigger names." In the later years of his life, Suggs worked at Comiskey Park and the Merchandise mart as a porter, as playing jobs became scarce. His only recordings are on Primitive Piano (The Sirens Records SR5005). Also included on Primitive Piano is an interview conducted by Erwin Helfer.

Sunnyland Slim was born on his grandfather's farm in Mississippi and later became the Patriarch of Modern Chicago blues. While in Memphis in the 1940's he played with legendary blues artists Blind Boy Fuller, Ma Rainey, and Memphis Minnie. Following a path similar to other post-war blues musicians, Slim went North, where he accompanied Chicago blues bands like J.B. Lenoir, Big Walter, and Howlin' Wolf. For Chess Records, Sunnyland Slim recorded under his own name and also accompanied Muddy Waters on Muddy's early recordings. Sunnyland Slim also recorded for a number of small independent labels such as JOB, Hy-Tone, and Airway Records, which he also owned. Sunnyland was responsible for introducing Muddy Waters to the Chess brothers and for giving many blues musicians opportunities to play at gigs.

"Pianist Earma Thompson is recognized as the reigning queen of Windy City jazz. But for most of her career, she's played as a dependable side person. Now in her 80's, Thompson has just released her first album as a group leader.

Thompson has been a staple on the Chicago Jazz scene for more than 50 years. Growing up in Chicago, Earma attended DuSable High School where she was actively involved in the school's music department along with Dorothy Donegan and Thompson's future husband, tap dancer and drummer Marshal Thompson. While she was involved in the choir in high school, she honed her piano playing in her local church. She also attended college at the Chicago College of Music.

Earma married Marshal Thompson in 1943. Marshall was, at the time, part of a tap dance act, with Clarence Allen, called Peck and Peck, that toured with the likes of Erskine Hawkins and Duke Ellington. After a successful run, Peck and Peck disbanded, and Marshall began working a steady gig as a drummer at Chicago's Cotton Club. Earma joined him on piano soon after, and the two formed the core of the rhythm section for the house band.

The Cotton Club was a hot house for jazz in Chicago, and many major musicians, like Richard Abrams, Clifford Jordon and John Gilmore stopped in to talk about music or to sit in with the band. Thompson describes this period in her life as a true jazz education.

Thompson remained a dependable, though often unsung, side person, backing a number of jazz luminaries when they appeared in Chicago, including Billie Holiday, Joe Williams, Clifford Jordan, Billy Mitchell, and even Aretha Franklin. More recently, Thompson has been leading her own trio, treating jazz club audiences in Chicago to her elegant, blues-infused sound. In 2004, after years of playing and recording with other musicians, Thompson released her first CD as a leader, Just In Time [on The Sirens Records]."

Biography above used by permission from Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz website on NPR Earma appeared on Marian's radio program April 17th, 2005.

Jimmy worked as a janitor at a south side apartment building. He had a distinctive style and had a knack for playing slow boogies. He recorded two albums of solos and duets with Erwin Helfer: Rough and Ready on Testament and Blues and Boogie Woogie Piano on Flying Fish. He also recorded one album on Red Beans with the Sons of the Blues.

John Whitfield is one of Chicago's best bass players. He played piano and the French Horn before switching to the bass during his senior year in high school. He has been playing professionally for forty years; he toured with Peggy Lee and Billy Eckstine, accompanied popular singers such as Pearl Bailey and Sammy Davis Jr., and recorded with many jazz greats including Joe Henderson, Barry Harris, John Young, Willie Pickens, and Jodie Christian. For The Sirens, he plays on Earma Thompson's Just in Time, the gospel collection In the Right Hands - Gospel Keyboard Pioneers, and Erwin Helfer's Careless Love (which will be released September 2005).

Detroit toured and recorded with Howlin Wolf during the 1970's. In the 1960's he recorded for Bea & Baby; he also has recordings on Alligator, Blue Suit (3 CD's), The Sirens Records, and Delmark. Throughout his career, Detroit Jr. has written many great songs such as "Call My Job", "Money Tree", "I'm So Unhappy", "If I Hadn't Been High", and others.

Skinny is a Chicago tenor sax player. Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster influenced him. After spending time soaking up jazz in the Crescent City, Skinny earned an impressive musical pedigree by graduating from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Professionally, Skinny has taught saxophone at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, led dance bands, and played with a variety of musicians ranging from the gritty Chicago blues harmonica legend Jr. Wells to the soulful Ohio Players. He's worked with comedian "Bernie Mac" and he has performed with B.B. King and Buddy Guy.

He plays at Navy Pier weekly, and he also performs with Erwin Helfer at Katerina's about once per month. Previously, they played many gigs together and their work is documented on St. James Infirmary (The Sirens Records SR5006).