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South Michigan Avenue An American Blues Band Non Illigitimis Carborundum |
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Charlie Sawyer cut his teeth on the blues of Slim Gaillard about the time he was cutting his teeth. Fats Waller and Charlie Christian played on the 78rpm turntable in the Sawyer house in Woodsville, NH. Little Richard first knocked him sideways into Rock&Roll, but it was Paul Butterfield's harmonica playing that made him a life-long blues fan. During the 1970's Charlie became friends with B.B. King and wrote a biography of the blues legend that was published in hardback and paperback in 1980 (Doubleday and Da Capo), and later translated to German (Hannibal Verlag, 1995). Charlie formed his first blues band in 1966 with drummer John Hoik. They had played together previously in a band called The Lunatic Fringe. When John and Charlie were reunited in the lineup of the 2120 band it was the renewal of a collaboration going back 40 years and spanning several rock and blues bands. In 2004 Charlie realized a life-long ambition by playing with B.B. King when B.B. was a guest at Charlie's course in History of Blues at Harvard Extension School [ www.urbanblues.org]. Peter "HiFi" Ward is the musician's musician, the guitar player's guitar player. He has played with all the area greats and many of the legends of our music, even sharing a stage one night with super star Eric Clapton. He was a member of The Legendary Blues Band formed from members of Muddy Waters' last band. It is as if his greatness is a secret among serious students of the instrument. Ronnie Earl said of HiFi's playing: "My favorite younger guitar player is Mai Cramer's husband Peter 'Hi-Fi' Ward...After Mai died I invited him to come to the Sit 'n' Bull and he played some of the most traditional, beautiful, not splashy blues guitar that I hadn't heard since I was seeing Louis Meyers with Muddy Waters." There must have been something in the water where Peter grew up in Lewiston, Maine. His brother is the famous blues bassist Michael "Mudcat" Ward. John Hoik, the 2120 drummer, played his first gig before the Beatles crossed the Atlantic in a band that was the inspiration for Arrowsmith. He is variously called "God Behind A Drum Kit" and "Shuffle King." No one plays a better double shuffle than John. Everyone who has played with him would agree. Allyn "Aldo" Dorr, the bassist in 2120, was recruited at the age of 15 to play bass for a high school band and promptly fell in love with the four-string way of life. Simultaneously, an opportunity to sit at the feet of Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry planted the blues seed deep in Aldo.s brain. Starting in the early 70s, Aldo gigged and recorded around New England and New York in an eclectic assortment of bands culminating in the early 80's with New England reggae favorites, Loose Caboose. With Caboose, Aldo recorded an album in Kingston, Jamaiaca and opened for Taj Mahal, Gil Scott-Heron, Bonnie Raitt, and Roomful of Blues before "retiring" in the mid-80s to raise a family. Inspired by his son's entrance into the music business in the late 90's, Aldo is back with the Smoothtone, his vintage Fender P-bass, adding his solid bottom-end backbone to the 2120 rhythm section. |