Blue Apple Blues (B.A.B.) Festival aims to crash beyond tried and true formulas by offering the blues scene fresh sounds and a new approach, fully revealing the deep microtonal language found in blues classics while inventing the mindbending “notes-between-the-notes” blues standards of the future – by some of the finest and hippest New York City blues artists. Audiences are sure to be impressed by the vitality and variety of talent offered at this event and will be intrigued by the cutting edge aesthetic, bringing blues out of the swamp and onto the NYC pavement. Innovation tempered by time honored tradition lies at the heart of B.A.B. Fest.

Presented by FreeNote Music and spearheaded by microtonal guitarist and composer Jon Catler, and vocalist, Babe Borden, Blue Apple Blues (B.A.B.) Festival will happen at Crash Mansion, 199 Bowery @ Spring Street, New York, NY – Thursday, April 3^rd, from 7:30pm – 1am, on the lower east side of Manhattan, featuring blues artists Willie McBlind (led by Jon Catler), Terraplane (led by Elliott Sharp), Hugh Pool, and Stone Crazy Blues Band (led by Chris Morda). This melting pot of progressive blues artists will culminate in a performance by the 13 O’Clock Blues Band, a collaborative effort of the above artists which breaks new ground in the field, melding mysterious blues overtones and rhythmic patterns into what promises to be a hypnotic and rousing finale.

Blues journeyman, Hugh Pool, opens the show with his spellbinding, high octane bluesmanship. Pool has traveled from Japan to Germany, and here in the U.S. has played arenas from B.B. King in NYC to Pittsburgh Blues Festival – over the years he has shared the spotlight with blues greats like Johnny Winter, John Mayall, Leslie West and Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin. “Hugh Pool is a Brooklyn cowboy, if there ever was one. This wildman from Williamsburgh has been up and down these highway roads across America, many times now gracing audiences with his fancy fret work and his self-described psyche-delta stomp” (New York Press)

Stone Crazy Blues Band, which springs out of the Pacific Northwest blues scene in Seattle, follows with its engaging mix of classics and fresh originals. “SCCB…has a strong musical personality unlike that of any other blues band anywhere. At the core is Morda’s strikingly creative and fluid use of electric guitars—standard, slide, slide lap, and the Twelve Tone Ultra Plus.” (Frank-John Hadley)

As the evening heats up, psychedelic electric Delta blues band, Willie McBlind, whose debut CD Find My Way Back Home was released in 2007 with cover art by legendary 60’s poster artist Victor Moscoso, will take the stage with its powerful live show. Willie McBlind is fronted by Jon Catler, world renowned master of Harmonically tuned guitars, and Babe Borden who launches blues singing into a new realm with her multi-genre 3-octave soaring vocals. The band has been catching the attention of blues DJ’s and critics across the U.S. and abroad, with critical acclaim hailing from as far afield as Belgium and Poland. Frank-John Hadley of Downbeat gave Find My Way Back Home a shining three-and-a-half star ovation in the January 08 issue, describing the music as… “stunning.”

Elliott Sharp brings in his pioneering blues band Terraplane to headline Blue Apple Blues Festival. A favorite of the NYC Downtown music scene for decades, Sharp and the members of Terraplane have been around the planet, making waves wherever they venture – in one of their recent European performances at Teatro Manzoni in Milan, joined onstage by Hubert Sumlin, the band received a rousing response from a packed house of 1,000. “Even when Sharp is using effects and extended techniques, or the band is playing something different than a standard blues sound, the feeling of the blues is never lost – it’s all about feeling and Sharp’s got that. This recording is a lot closer to the real spirit of the blues than a truckload of Stevie Ray Vaughan wannabes.” (Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide)

This collection of dedicated artists has been seriously honing their craft as blues musicians for years – they are seasoned players who forge ahead in pursuit of new ideas and are far from resting on their individual laurels. As the night takes off, the cumulative synergy summoned by these artists will be palpable and shouldn’t be missed by true music lovers who want to hear something exciting and revolutionary that taps into true blues/rock spirit.

For B.A.B. Festival updates, contact FreeNote Music at freenote@earthlink.net or go to www.microtones.com.

Publicity Contact: Babe Borden, freenotemusic@gmail.com
Phone: 212-580-0602
FreeNote Music
2350 Broadway, Suite #240
New York, NY 10024

Following a lengthy struggle with cancer, Healey passes away on the eve of the release of a new blues rock album (His First Blues Album in 8 Years)

Jeff Healey, arguably one of the most distinctive guitar players of our time, died today (Sunday March 2, 2008) in St. Joseph’s Hospital, Toronto. He was 41, and leaves his wife, Cristie, daughter Rachel (13) and son Derek (three), as well as his father and step-mother, Bud and Rose Healey, and sisters Laura and Linda.

Funeral and memorial arrangements are pending.

Robbed of his sight as a baby due to a rare form of cancer, retino blastoma, and he started to play guitar when he was three, holding the instrument unconventionally across his lap. He formed his first band at 17, but soon formed a trio which was named the Jeff Healey Band.

After his appearance in the movie Road House, he was signed to Arista records, and in 1988 released the Grammy-nominated album See the Light, which included a major hit single, Angel Eyes. He earned a Juno Award in 1990 as Entertainer of the Year.

Two more albums emerged on Arista, with lessening success as the ’90s passed. Various “best-of” and live packages were released, and he recorded two more rock albums, before turning to his real love, classic American jazz from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s.

By then, however, Healey was an internationally-known star who had played with dozens of musicians, including B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and recorded with George Harrison. Mark Knopfler and the late blues legend, Jimmy Rogers.

A family man with a three-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter he preferred to stay close to home. “I’ve traveled widely before – been there and done that,” he told friends, determined to avoid the lengthy, exhausting tours that marked his life in his twenties and early thirties.

A long-running CBC Radio series saw him in the role of disc jockey – My Kinda Jazz was a staple for a while, but in recent years he had hosted a programme with a similar name on Jazz-FM in Toronto. A highlight of his broadcasts was always the use of rare — and rarely heard — music from his 30,000-plus collection of 78-rpm records.

As his rock career wound down as the millennium came, he recorded a series of three album of early jazz, playing trumpet as well as acoustic guitar in a band he called Jeff Healey’s Jazz Wizards. The most recent was It’s Tight Like That, recorded live at Hugh’s Room in Toronto in 2005, with British jazz legend Chris Barber as guest star.

At the time of his death he was about to see the release of his first rock/blues album in eight years, Mess of Blues, which is being released in Europe on March 20, 2008 and in Canada and the U.S. on April 22. The album was the result of a joint agreement between the German label, Ruf Records, and Stony Plain, the independent Edmonton-based label that has released his three jazz CDs.

Mess of Blues was recorded in studios in Toronto, with two cuts recorded at the Jeff Healey’s Roadhouse in Toronto and two at a concert in London England. The backup group on the upcoming CD – the Healey’s House Band – played with him regularly at the downtown Roadhouse, and at a previous club bearing his name in the Queen-Bathurst area.

Early last year, Healey underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissue from his legs, and later from both lungs; aggressive radiation treatments and chemotherapy, however, failed to halt the spread of the disease.

Despite his battle with cancer, he undertook frequent tours across Canada with both his blues-based band and his jazz group; he was set for a major tour in Germany and the U.K. and was to be a guest on the BBC’s famed Jools Holland Show in April.

Remembered by his musicians – and his audiences – for his wry sense of humour as well as his musical playfulness, Healey was a unique musician who bridged different genres with ease and assurance.

For further information, please contact:

Canada:
Richard Flohil
416 351-1323 / 416 997-4788 rflohil@sympatico.ca

Holger Petersen
Stony Plain Records
780 468-6423 holger@stonyplainrecords.com

Europe
Thomas Ruf.
Ruf Records
011 49 (0)36087 / 92200 ruf@rufrecords.de

United States
Mark Pucci, MP Media
770-804-9555 mpmedia@bellsouth.net

The aforementioned programming is entirely based around Blues Education and encompasses live performances, teaching, history, and the promotion of this uniquely American art form here in Detroit.

The Carl Cabarello Band
Stoney Mazar And The Westsiders
The Christy Howard Band
The Alligators
2007 Detroit Blues Challenge Winners – The Front Street Blues Band