Marin Academy Conference on Democracy

Iowa Blues All-Stars
at
Marin Academy - Friday, October 21, 2005
  

Check out the
Conference on Democracy Podcast
and the Iowa Blues All-Stars at:
http://courses.ma.org/Conference/Conference_on_Democracy.xml

Marin Academy will host California’s newest Poet Laureate Al Young and Marin Jazz artist and educator Dartanyan Brown. The performance October 21, 2005 will feature collaborations between Young and Brown as well as individual readings by Young and music from Brown.

   The engagement marks one of the first public performances in Marin by Mr. Young since being designated on May 13 as poet laureate of California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Al’s best known works include Bodies and Soul, Kinds of Blue, Things Ain’t What They Used to Be and Drowning in the Sea of Love.

A writer since age 22, Young, born in 1939, graduated from UC Berkeley about the time his first novel Sitting Pretty was published. His subsequent works have been popular worldwide translated into languages including Swedish, Chinese and Serbo-Croatian. In addition, Al has done numerous “musical memoirs” in the form of jazz reviews, album cover introductions.
 
 

When the Iowa Blues All-Stars take the stage Friday October 21 at Marin Academy’s third annual Conference on Democracy’s closing concert, you’ll experience the blues played by men who have lived them and loved them for over 250 years between them.

The engine that powers it all however is a 27-year-old drummer who plays with power and wisdom far beyond his years. Jaimeo Brown, and his father bassist Dartanyan Brown are the rhythm section supporting guitarist Ron Dewitte, organist Craig Horner and featured vocalist "Big Mike" Edwards. When Dartanyan Brown moved to San Rafael with his family in 1988 from central Iowa he and then-wife Marcia Miget were in the midst of raising two small children: 9-year-old Jaimeo and 5-year-old Marisha.

Flash forward 15 years and the kids are now working artists in the New York City but you know what they say about the family that plays together...

Jaimeo (pronounced jah-mayo) is taking time off from recording sessions with Mulgrew Miller to fly home for the weekend to see the folks and play American roots music with his father and Iowa musicians he grew up listening to and who have known him since he was born.
  Guitarist Ron DeWitte's first band was called The Tremolos when he was about 13 years old. They performed at the Iowa State Fair. Ron was later a part of the band, The Legends, which has been inducted into the Iowa Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This evolved into The American Legends, and then Wheatstraw.

Ron would go on to play in Headstone, a popular band in Waterloo. After a stint with the Country-Rock band Redwing, Ron joined The Linn County Band, which had been put back together by keyboardist (and IBHOF member) Stephen Miller after Steve moved back to Iowa following his tenure with Elvin Bishop. After Miller left again, Ron kept the band going, along with Miller’s replacement, Tom “T-Bone” Giblin, who later went on to play with Lonnie Brooks for many years.

Meanwhile, DeWitte would join up with Bobby Blue Bland for six exciting years. Of course, this band is now called Bob Dorr & the Blue Band. Ron has continued to perform with various lineups, in addition to working his day job at West Music in Marion for the last 14 years. His band performed at the annual Bluesmore Festival in Cedar Rapids, along with W.C. Clark.
"Big Mike" Edwards, of Des Moines, is a singer known over the years for his great, Gospel-trained voice, which he first developed as a 14-year-old with a children's church group. Influenced by classic Blues and Soul singers like Bobby "Blue" Bland, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, and Ray Charles, he started playing the Blues professionally at the age of 17 with the band Tuff Enuff in 1967. The band was a fixture at Gabe & Walker's in Iowa City for a couple years, and were unique at the time in that they featured a violinist.

The biggest show that Big Mike has ever performed at is the Wadena Rock Festival in August of 1970, which brought about 10,000 people to a farm outside of the little northeast Iowa town to see acts that included The Doobie Brothers, Sons Of Champlin, REO Speedwagon, Joan Baez, Poco, and The Flying Burrito Brothers.

In the '70s, Big Mike joined Midwest Express, which also featured Bobby Parker, Marcia Miget and Dartanyan Brown, becoming a fixture at Ernie's Urban Lounge for several years.
  







Marin Academy
1600 Mission Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94901
415-453-4550
415-453-8538 (fax)

 

 

Copyright © 2005, 2006, 2007 Marin Academy
Send comments or suggestions to podcast info.