Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990 TAG: 9005240024
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TRACY WIMMER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Their press release states it plain and simple:
"For everything you ever wanted to know about the blues, but didn't know who to ask, call The Blues Foundation Toll Free 1-800-727-0641."
"Like if they wanted to know something specific about Koko Taylor, we would refer them to Alligator" Records, Yvonne Tabron said from a Memphis phone. "Of course we do try to keep up with Handy."
Tabron laughed a low, throaty laugh. Something of a W.C. Handy expert, she happened to be sitting inside the late bluesman's house, now home to the The Blues Foundation.
Going into its 11th year, the foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to blues preservation and perpetuation. Few locations would be more suited to that goal, Tabron noted. In this tiny, white frame structure, the late father of the genre wrote some of the best blues the world will ever know - "St. Louis Blues," "The Yellow Dog Blues" and "Joe Turner Blues."
At night, Tabron and her band, The Tabron Family, just might cover some of his work at local clubs. But during the day, she fields questions on the hot line. So does the foundation's other employee, founder and director Joe Savarin.
Two years ago, Savarin decided to establish the toll-free number in hopes of bringing folks together to celebrate what he calls America's most original indigenous art form - the blues, which eventually helped spawn the genres of jazz, country, gospel and rock.
"More specifically," Savarin said by phone, "the hot line will introduce blues to a wider audience, make Americans - particularly black Americans - proud of the art form, and help blues musicians find their career niche in the American music mainstream."
The hot line is for networking.
And so far, it works.
Individuals, artists and often the major blues labels, such as Alligator, Flying Pig and Uptune, regularly call the hot line for blues information.
A lot of first-time callers are simply curious, Savarin explained, but if he and Tabron can keep the caller on the line long enough, they'll hang up wanting more.
"Once they've learned about us, the response is fantastic," Savarin said. "People just want to be part of the blues."
The Blues Foundation serves some 63 blues societies in this country and abroad. Roanoke's 3 1 BLUES Blues nearest group is the Piedmont Blues Society of Greensboro, N.C., Savarin said - adding that he would be more than willing to help Roanokers establish their own.
If they did, patrons could participate in the foundation's annual events: the National Amateur Blues Talent Contest, the International Blues Music Industry Conference and the Annual National Blues Awards Show, which presents the coveted Handy Award, considered the most prestigious music award among blues musicians.
Savarin, 58, got acquainted with the blues in 1958 after he was stationed at a Greenville, Miss., Air Force base. The first time the white Montreal native heard the music born and bred along the Delta, he fell in love. Reading and listening to every piece of blues material he could get his hands on, Savarin hoped one day to expose as many people as possible to the blues.
"All the time I kept trying to understand why the blues were kept out of commercial radio and why blacks weren't proud of it," he said.
Tabron agreed.
"I grew up thinking the blues was the devil's music - something I shouldn't be a part of," Tabron said. "But when I found out that Aretha Franklin's `Dr. Feelgood' was blues . . . well, I thought maybe this was something I should try."
The Tabron Family's talents eventually landed them the 1987 award for best blues act in Memphis, a contest sponsored by the foundation.
"And here I had been killing myself for years trying to play Top 40 on the keyboards," she said. "I never knew how easy it was to play the blues."
In recent years, Memphis - the nation's 15th largest city - has rediscovered its blues heritage. The Handy home was originally located at 659 Jennette Place, but the house later was moved to Beale Street, long lauded as the place where black musicians translated their Delta sounds into blues. Today the street has been rebuilt into a complex of night clubs, restaurants and galleries - all part of the changing blues image.
Traditionally censored on radio, the once "raunchy" blues stereotype is respected. With artists like Robert Cray, known to bluesmen as "the great blues hope," the pure form has been working its way back onto commercial radio in recent years.
Blues festivals around the country continue to break attendance records. While Roanoke has no blues festival per se, Koko Taylor's appearance last year at Festival in the Park drew one of the largest crowds ever in Elmwood Park.
Corporations are using the blues in their advertisements. Now, even the kid whose music socialization largely depends upon MTV can tune into the blues via a Levi's 501 commercial.
But Savarin considers the spreading of the word serious business. To become an affiliate society, local organizers must send a brief history of the organization, elect officers, incorporate and pay a $100 fee - and "a few other minor things," Savarin said. They must also agree to participate in national blues programs like the amateur contest.
Ever since The New York Times and USA Today ran the foundation's number in their papers last year, Savarin and Tabron have been swamped with calls. But be forewarned, if you want information mailed to your home, the fee is $25.
"We want people to take the blues seriously," Savarin said. "This is not just something where two or three people get together over a keg of beer and decide to listen to the blues."
by CNB