LØRDAG 21:00 – 22:15
| Bobby Rush | Vokal, guitar, harp |
| Kinneth Kights | Guitar |
| Joseph Banks | Keyboard |
| Bruce Howard | Trommer |
| Arthur Cooper | Bass |
| Erickia Henderson | Danser |
| Miss Love | Danser |
Den dobbelte GRAMMY-vindende blueslegende er medlem af “Blues Hall of Fame”, fem gange Grammy-nomineret, 13-gange Blues Music Award-vinder og B.B. King Entertainer of the Year. Han er med i 2020 Netflix filmen “Dolemite Is My Name” med Eddie Murphy i hovedrollen.
Bobby Rush (født 10. November 1933 har lavet plader i næsten 70 år og har mere end 400 optagelser, 75 udgivelser og nu 27 studioalbum til sit navn.
Efter at have vundet en Grammy Award for bedste traditionelle bluesalbum og en Blues Music Award for Årets album for sin studieindspilning »Porcupine Meat« i 2017 brugte han et år på at skrive sin opfølgning. I 2019, i en alder af 87, udgav han »Sitting on Top of the Blues« med 11 originale sange og vandt endnu en Grammy Award og en Blues Music Award. Rush er en af de sidste farvede bluesmænd, der dukkede ud af og triumferede i 1950’erne, 60’erne og 70’erne. Han har optaget for mere end 20 labels, lige fra Chess, ABC, Rounder/Concord records til Warner Brothers. I 2019 havde han en central rolle i den Golden Globe-nominerede Netflix film »Dolemite Is My Name«, den biografiske film om Rudy Ray Moore med Eddie Murphy som Moore. Rush startede i 2020 med udgivelsen af ”Dolemite Kid”, en single inspireret af hans ni år på turné med Moore, hans tid med Murphy og selve hitfilmen.
Men Rush, der fylder 88 år i november, er ikke færdig endnu. Med udgivelsen af sit album nye »Rawer Than Raw« fra 2020, en akustisk udgivelse, der hylder Mississippis rige blueshistorie, har Rush cementeret sit ry som en af de fremtrædende bluesmænd i verden. En af de sidste levende forbindelser til musikens strålende fortid og en inspiration for dens fremtidige stjerner.
Delvist inspireret af sine populære intime solokoncerter, har Rush i årene siden hans første akustiske album (med titlen Raw), i »Rawer Than Raw« Pladen indeholder et halvt dusin covers af nogle af deres bedst kendte sange gengivet i Rushs egen uforlignelige, akustiske stil, der er kendetegnet ved en klagende harmonika og en stampende fod for at bevare rytmen.
Bobby Rush blev født Emmett Ellis, Jr. uden for Homer, Louisiana, i 1933. Han begyndte at spille guitar og bluesmundharpe som 11-årig. Familien flyttede til Pine Bluff, Arkansas, i 1948.
Som teenager blev Rush professionel bluesmusiker og benyttede et scenenavn for at hans far (som var præst) ikke skulle opdage at han spille “Devils music”. Han sneg sig ind klubber og blues joints med et falsk overskæg. Den unge bluesmand blev ven med den legendariske slide-guitarist Elmore James og spillede blandt andet rundt i Deep South med James og Little Walter. Deres rejser introducerede Rush til andre blues-storheder i æraen, herunder Howlin ’Wolf og Muddy Waters.
Inspireret af deres fortællinger om den blomstrende Chicago-blues-scene, rejste Rush i 1951 nordpå til Windy City (Chicago). Der samlede han et band med en ung Freddie King på guitar. (Luther Allison kom med gruppen senere.) I årevis spillede Rush overalt i bydelen West Side og i de sydlige forstæder i Chicago, men det var først i 1964, at han fik sin debut med sangen “Someday”.
I 1971 brød Rush igennem på de nationale hitlister med “Chicken Heads”. I de senere år har sangen været med i Samuel L. Jackson-filmen Black Snake Moan og HBO-serien Ballers. “Chicken Heads”. I 1972 kom opfølgningen “Gotta Be Funky” og i 1974 udkom “Get Out of Here Part 1” på Warner Bros.
Rush Hour, et album fra 1979, skulle have gjort Bobby til en kæmpe stjerne, men det var ikke før år 2000, da musikmagasinet Rolling Stone udnævnte det som et af de bedste bluesalbum i 70’erne, at det endelig fik den opmærksomhed som fortjent.
I 1983 solgte Rushs “Sue” over en million. I denne periode etablerede Rush sit ry som King of the Chitlin ‘Circuit og spillede mindst 200 shows om året.
I det nye årtusinde fik Rush en mainstream-anerkendelse. Han fik sin første Grammy-nominering til sit album »Hoochie Man« fra 2000. Han blev atter nomineret i 2014 for »Down in Louisiana« og igen i 2015 for »Decisions«. I 2017 fik Rush sin første Grammy-sejr for sit 25. studiealbum, »Porcupine Meat«, med gæsteartisterne, Joe Bonamassa, Vasti Jackson og Keb ‘Mo’.
Samme år opnåede Rush den sjældne bedrift at vinde to Blues Music Awards for forskellige albums: Årets album for »Porcupine Meat« og årets historiske album for »Chicken Heads« En 50-årig historie om Bobby Rush. En karriere, der spænder over fire cd-samlinger, der omfatter 74 optagelser på 20 labels, som han lavede mellem 1964-2014, vandt også prisen Living Blues i 2016 for bedste historiske udgivelse.
I 2006 blev Rush optaget i Blues Hall of Fame. Han er også medlem af Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame og Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. I 2008 blev han hædret med en markør på Mississippi Blues Trail. I 2019 blev en gade “Rush Way” opkaldt efter ham i Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Takket være hans gode hukommelse og hurtige humor har Rush længe rangeret som en af bluesens bedste fortællere, en kvalitet, der ofte vises i hans live show såvel som i interviews.
Bluemandens karisma har også gjort ham til et godt emne for filmskabere. I 2003 medvirkede han i “The Road to Memphis”, en episode af den Martin Scorsese-producerede dokumentarserie The Blues, der blev sendt på TV-stationer overalt i verden. Han optrådte i 2014-dokumentaren Take Me to the River sammen med Snoop Dogg og Mavis Staples. Samme år var han med Dan Aykroyd i The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon for at optræde med to sange. I 2015 optrådte han i dokumentaren I Am the Blues. I 2019 kom ovennævnte Dolemite Is My Name.
Rush’s turneliste har omfattet nogle af de største musikbegivenheder rundt om i verden, fra Chaifetz Arena i St. Louis til Byron Bay Bluesfest i Australien, utallige europæiske engagementer, Fuji Rock Festival i Japan og New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Rush var den første bluesmand, der optrådte ved Den Kinesiske Mur, og fik ham titlen “China’s Ambassador of the Blues.”
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Two-time GRAMMY-winning blues legend, Blues Hall of Famer, five-time Grammy nominee, 13-time Blues Music Award winner, and B.B. King Entertainer of the Year, with cameo in the Netflix original Dolemite Is My Name starring Eddie Murphy.
Bobby Rush has been making records for nearly 70 years and has more than 400 recordings, 75 career releases, and now 27 studio albums to his name.
After earning a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album and a Blues Music Award for Album of the Year for his studio recording Porcupine Meat in 2017, he spent a year writing his follow-up. In 2019, at age 85, he released Sitting on Top of the Blues with 11 originals, earning him another Blues Music Award and Grammy Award nomination. Rush is one of the last Black bluesmen from the class to emerge out of and triumph in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. He has recorded for more than 20 labels, from Checker/Chess and ABC to Philly Int’l and Rounder/Concord. To cap off 2019 he had a cameo in the Golden Globe-nominated Netflix original film Dolemite Is My Name, the Rudy Ray Moore biopic featuring Eddie Murphy as Moore. Rush kicked off 2020 with the release of “Dolemite Kid,” a single inspired by his nine years on tour with Moore, his day working with Murphy, and the hit film itself.
But Rush, who turns 87 in November, is not done yet. With the release of his 2020 album Rawer Than Raw, an all-acoustic effort that pays tribute to the rich blues history of Mississippi, Rush has cemented his reputation as one of the preeminent bluesmen in the world, one of the last living links to the music’s glorious past, and an inspiration for its future stars.
Partly inspired by the popular series of intimate solo concerts Rush has made a mainstay of his concert calendar in the years since his first all-acoustic album (titled Raw), Rawer Than Raw casts a spotlight on five Mississippi Blues Hall of Famers: early acoustic blues greats Skip James and Robert Johnson, and Rush’s contemporaries on the music scene of the ’50s and ’60s, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Muddy Waters. One song “Dust My Broom” was written by Robert Johnson, but caught Rush’s attention after it was recorded by Elmore James. The record features a half dozen covers of some of their best-known songs rendered in Rush’s own inimitable, acoustic style, characterized by wailing harmonica and a stomping foot to keep the rhythm.
Bobby Rush was born Emmett Ellis, Jr. outside Homer, Louisiana, in 1933. He twanged a diddley bow before picking up a guitar around age 11, and his preacher father knew enough about a harmonica to pass along a few riffs to his progeny. The family relocated to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1948.
While still a teenager, Rush became a professional blues musician, adopting his stage name so as to not disrespect his devout dad. To sneak into clubs and juke-joints, the underage Rush fashioned a moustache out of matchstick ash. In Pine Bluff, the young bluesman befriended legendary slide guitarist Elmore James and played around the Deep South with him and harmonica ace Little Walter, among others. Their travels introduced Rush to other blues greats of the era, including Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters.
Inspired by their tales of the booming Chicago blues scene, in 1951 Rush headed north to the Windy City. There he assembled a band with a young Freddie King on guitar. (Luther Allison would join the group later.) For years, Rush gigged steadily around the West Side and in the southern suburbs of Chicago, but it wasn’t until 1964 that he made his recording debut with the tough downbeat blues “Someday,” on the small Jerry-O label.
After “You’re the One for Me” — a single for the Palos imprint that is so obscure a copy couldn’t be found for Rush’s 2015 career-spanning box set — Bobby’s recording of “Sock Boo Ga Loo” on the tiny Starville label was picked up by Chess Records in 1967, propelling the singer into the big leagues of R&B. “Gotta Have Money,” his funk-drenched ’68 single for ABC, and the Sonny Thompson-produced “Wake Up” the next year for Salem Records showed Rush had what it took and then some. (Another of his Salem sides from this period, the rousing “Just Be Yourself,” was recently featured in a memorable TV commercial for clothing manufacturer Bonobos.)
In 1971, Rush broke through on the national charts with the lowdown funk grinder “Chicken Heads” for Galaxy Records. In recent years the song has been featured in the Samuel L. Jackson film Black Snake Moan and the HBO series Ballers. “Chicken Heads” producer Calvin Carter put out Rush’s ’72 follow-up “Gotta Be Funky” on his own On Top logo and then sold Bobby’s contract to Stan Lewis’ Jewel Records in Shreveport, La. Lewis issued several Rush singles before Bobby made the major label leap in 1974 with “Get Out of Here Part 1” for Warner Bros.
Rush Hour, a 1979 album for Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International Records, should have made Bobby a huge star but didn’t receive its proper due until the 2000s, when Rolling Stone recognized it as one of the best blues albums of the ’70s. An encore LP was summarily shelved, and before long Rush moved back south to Jackson, Mississippi, which was fast becoming a last bastion of Southern soul-blues.
In 1983, Rush’s lascivious “Sue” on the LaJam imprint sold over a million records despite little mainstream airplay. During this period Rush established his reputation as King of the Chitlin’ Circuit, playing a minimum of 200 shows a year. He also cut a series of memorable albums for LaJam, Urgent!, Waldoxy, and his own Deep Rush Records.
In the new millennium, Rush made a late-career grab for mainstream recognition. He earned his first Grammy nomination for his 2000 album Hoochie Man. He was nominated in 2014 for Down in Louisiana and again in 2015 for Decisions. In 2017, Rush earned his first Grammy win for his 25th studio album, Porcupine Meat, produced by Scott Billington for Rounder Records/Concord Music with guest artists Dave Alvin, Joe Bonamassa, Vasti Jackson, and Keb’ Mo’.
That same year Rush accomplished the rare feat of winning two Blues Music Awards for different albums: Album of the Year for Porcupine Meat and Historical Album of the Year for Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History of Bobby Rush. The latter, a career-spanning four-CD collection encompassing 74 recordings on 20 labels that he made between 1964-2014, also won the 2016 Living Blues magazine award for Best Historical Release.
In 2006, Rush was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame and the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was honored with a marker on Mississippi Blues Trail. In 2019 a street “Rush Way” was named after him in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Thanks to his long memory and quick wit, Rush has long ranked as one of the blues’ best storytellers, a quality often on display in his live show as well as in interviews. Inspired by his first solo acoustic album, Raw, and performing more shows in recent years solo, which incorporate his masterful storytelling, humor, prolific guitar and harmonica playing, and soulful vocals, Rush introduced Bobby Rush: An Intimate Evening of Stories and Songs, a stripped-down performance that continues to provide a counterbalance to his bawdy full-band shows.
The blueman’s charisma and way with an anecdote have also made him a go-to subject for filmmakers. In 2003, he starred in “The Road to Memphis,” an episode of the Martin Scorsese-produced documentary series The Blues that aired on PBS stations nationwide. He appeared in the 2014 documentary Take Me to the River alongside Terrence Howard, Snoop Dogg, and Mavis Staples; that same year, he joined Dan Aykroyd on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon to perform two songs backed by The Roots, marking his first late-night television appearance. In 2015, he appeared in the documentary I Am the Blues. In 2019 came the aforementioned Dolemite Is My Name.
Rush’s performance itinerary has encompassed some of the biggest music events around the world, from Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis to Byron Bay Bluesfest in Australia, countless European engagements, the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, and closer to home, Bonnaroo and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Rush was the first bluesman to perform at the Great Wall of China, attracting an audience of more than 40,000 and earning him the title of “China’s Ambassador of the Blues.”
Bobby Rush… GRAMMY-winning blues legend, Blues Hall of Famer, 12x Blues Music Award winner, B.B. King Entertainer of the Year, and makes a cameo in the Netflix Original ‘Dolemite Is My Name’ Starring Eddie Murphy.
After decades of tearing up the chitlin’ circuit on a nightly basis with his sweaty, no-holds-barred funk fests, Bobby has thoroughly broken through to the mainstream. He won a long-overdue 2017 Grammy for his spectacular album Porcupine Meat and consistently tours the globe as a headliner. What’s more, Bobby’s newest album Sitting on Top of the Blues on his own Deep Rush imprint (distributed by Thirty Tigers) promises to further spread the news that this revered legend, well past 80 years of age even if his stratospheric energy level belies the calendar, is bigger and better and bolder than ever. In December 2019 – January 2020, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album and for a Blues Music Award for Best Soul Blues Album.
“I’m sitting on top of the blues. I’m a bluesman who’s sitting on the top of my game, proud of what I do and proud of who I am and thankful for people accepting me for what I am and who I am,” says the charismatic Rush. “I’m happy about what I’m doing and still enthused about what I’m doing. And I think we’ve got some good songs.”
His daddy was a preacher and knew enough about a harmonica to pass along a few riffs to his progeny, who twanged a diddley bow before picking up a guitar around age 11. The senior Ellis relocated his family to Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1948. When young Bobby went professional as a blues musician, he changed his moniker so as to not disrespect his devout dad.
He played with Delta blues guitarists Boyd Gilmore and Elmore James in Arkansas during the early ’50s before migrating to Chicago. There he assembled a band with an equally young Freddie King on guitar (Luther Allison came into the combo later). Rush gigged around the West Side and in the southern suburbs of the Windy City, but it took until 1964 for him to debut on record with the tough downbeat blues “Someday” for the Jerry-O logo. He encored with “You’re the One for Me” for the Palos imprint, a single so obscure that a copy couldn’t be located for inclusion on Omnivore Recordings’ award-winning four-CD box set Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History of Bobby Rush, which spanned his entire career to that point.