Sun

11/21/2010

4:00pm

Jazz

Boogie-Woogie in the Afternoon

Sold Out

• $- Sorry, this concert is SOLD OUT

• Bob Seeley, piano
• Lluís Coloma, piano
• Matthew Ball, piano

Event Details

Three generations of boogie-woogie pianists meet on a Sunday afternoon at the KCH Steinway: celebrated Detroiter Bob Seeley, Catalan pianist Lluís Coloma and Matt Ball, Seeley’s student who has become a presence in the area.

NOTE: This concert is SOLD OUT

Bob Seeley

Detroiter Bob Seeley is arguably America’s greatest living boogie-woogie pianist. The 77 year-old pianist has been a fixture at the piano bar at Charlie’s Crab in suburban Troy, Michigan, where he has entertained the locals and visiting dignitaries for 30 years. Seeley has played Carnegie Hall several times and most of the major venues throughout Europe. Well-versed in classic blues, Seeley worked for a while as accompanist to Sippie Wallace, the great blues vocalist who was rediscovered in the 1980s and would eventually be nominated for a Grammy. He also had a chance to chauffeur and play piano for none less than Art Tatum, who reportedly was duly impressed with the music of the relative youngster.

Lluís Coloma

Born in Barcelona, Lluís is one of the most in-demand boogie-woogie pianists in the Spanish blues scene. Considered a specialist in the genre, he has been awarded “Best Catalan Musician 2003” and “Artista BluesCat 2006.” Lluís has given conferences and masterclasses on the history of blues and boogie-woogie piano, being one of the few pianists in Spain able to recreate the original style of this genre. He is often invited to play at European blues and boogie-woogie piano festivals where he stands out for his originality and powerful performances. From the beginning, this great pianist has developed a personal touch in boogie-woogie, creating his own compositions on a number of recordings: "Remember" (Omix Records 2002), "Boogieology" (Rosazul Discos 2005) and "Lonely Avenue" (Swing Alley 2006). In his CD "Boogie Portraits" (Swing Alley 2008), Lluís recorded duets with great blues and boogie-woogie pianists, including Carl Sonny Leyland, Barrelhouse Chuck, Mitch Woods, Bob Seeley, Mark “Mr B” Braun and Frank Muschalle. Recently Lluís has recorded his first live CD, "7 Nights at Central" (Swing Alley 2009) during a week of concerts at Café Central in Madrid. In this CD, Lluís’ trio sounds full of complexity and feeling after more than eight years playing regularly around the world.

Matthew Ball

Described as “the Gen-X arrival to this uniquely American art-form,” by The Ann Arbor News, Matthew Ball is a graduate of Oakland University and The University of Detroit School of Law. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in both Music and History, as well as a Juris Doctorate in Law. He trained classically at Oakland University with the internationally renowned classical pianist Flavio Varani, a graduate of The Paris Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music as a Harold Bauer Award winner. Matthew’s first public performances as a pianist include a back to back appearance with the Pontiac-Oakland Symphony in ’92 & ‘93 as winner of their annual young artist competition, followed by a distinguished ’94 appearance as OU’s representative artist in a concert tour hosted by The Steinway Society, as well as a chamber performance abroad at The International Chamber Music Academy of Aub, Germany. He is a MaTilDa award winner, a Stanley Hollingsworth Scholarship recipient, and an alumnus of the Interlochen summer piano programs. Licensed as an attorney of Michigan in ’98, Matthew practiced law only a short time when in the fall of ‘01 he attended a Motor City Boogie-Woogie Festival that would re-shape his life. Awestruck by the performances he saw that evening, and discouraged with law, Matthew left his career as an attorney to become a blues and boogie-woogie performing artist. To get there, he would seek out the help of Detroit’s ambassador of boogie-woogie, Bob Seeley. A living link to the genre’s pioneer artists, Seeley initially refused to teach Matthew. But after a year of prodding and with the recommendation of a longtime Seeley colleague-in-boogie named Michael Przybylski, Seeley would eventually accept Matthew as his pupil. By 2005, a watershed occurred when Matthew was welcomed to perform at The 11th annual Cincinnati Blues Festival, where he headlined alongside some of the same performers he had first been inspired by. Since then, Matthew has maintained an active performing career as ‘The Boogie-woogie Kid,’ with notable appearances throughout the Midwest and Michigan including The Sky Hempy Keyboard Performance Series, The Jazz’n on Jefferson Festival, The Woodward Dream Cruise, Borders Books & Music Showcase, and The Milliken Auditorium of Northwestern Michigan University. He has performed two televised concerts for Oak Park Public Television and Clawson TV, has been featured on ‘WDRQ Detroit Underground’ as well as ‘WFYI The Blues House Party,’ and has presented educational clinics to the area’s leading piano pedagogy institutions including, The Oakland Piano Teachers Forum, The Metropolitan Detroit Musician’s League, and The Ann Arbor Area Teachers Guild. Finally, Matthew maintains a teaching studio in Clawson for both classical and jazz piano. He is most proud to have been instrumental in the success of two recent pupils attaining university scholarships to study music formally at the university of their choice.