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October 2 2003 Salisbury Post Article

By Katie Scarvey, Salisbury Post

The availability of good live music, especially blues and jazz, is one of Salisbury's best-kept secrets.

The Rowan Blues and Jazz Society, however, would like to get the word out, and they hope that this year's festival will accomplish just that.

Headliners for this year's show are the well-known Piedmont blues duo John Cephas and Phil Wiggins.

The fifth annual Blues and Jazz Festival will be held at 313 S. Main St. in downtown Salisbury (the parking lot of the Rowan Health and Fitness Center) Saturday, Oct. 11, from noon to 11 p.m. Cephas and Wiggins will take the stage at 8:15 p.m.

Organizers hope that October Tour participants and theater patrons will stick around the downtown area Saturday afternoon and evening to relax in their comfortable chairs and listen to some good blues.

The festival started with local musicians volunteering to perform and has grown since then. The first year, storyteller Jackie Torrence teamed up with Bob Paolino to perform an excerpt from "Blues Story." Torrence will return this year to introduce blues greats Cephas and Wiggins, with whom she toured to perform "Blues Story."

Torrence met the bluesmen through her agent. On her way to a gig with Cephas and Wiggins -- she was a last-minute replacement -- Torrence discovered that the duo played a song called "Two White Horses." Coincidentally, Torrence had a story called "Two White Horses" in her repertoire. The three of them performed it that night.

"It went over big," Torrence says. The success of that experience inspired Torrence to write "Blues Story," which she debuted with Cephas and Wiggins in London and performed around the country.

"They're two fantastic musicians," she says. "I hate that I can't do Blues Story with them anymore. We had a good time doing it."

The duo has gotten the highest award in blues, the W.C. Handy Award, for their 1987 album, "Dog Days of August."

John Cephas, the older member of the duo, plays the guitar. "His voice has that long, country wail about it that makes you want to listen," Torrence says.

"And Phil, the harmonica player...he can do anything with that harmonica.

"Salisbury missed out on them last year," she says. "A lot of people didn't show up. I hope people will come out these year because they're incredible. They give a wonderful show."

Festival organizer Eleanor Qadirah, one of Salisbury's most fervent supporters of blues and jazz, helped organize the Rowan Blues and Jazz Society in 1999. Like Torrence, she believes that locals shouldn't miss the chance to see two living blues legends who are beloved around the world.

"I'd like Salisbury to realize what it has," Qadirah says. " We've got the makings of a major festival here to go along with the rest of the festivals."

People from out of the area often express amazement that the Rowan County festival is free to the public, she says. Blues and jazz festivals often charge thirty or forty dollars for admission.

Unfortunately, this year's event will probably be the last free festival, Qadirah says, unless local businesses become more committed to sponsorship.

The society is still looking for businesses and individuals to sponsor the stage, the sound system and the performers.

Also performing

Besides Cephas and Wiggins, there are plenty of other acts to keep the downtown parking lot jumping, including trumpet-player and singer-songwriter Joe Robinson of Clemmons.

Robinson began playing the trumpet at the age of 13, inspired by the sounds of Miles Davis and Chet Baker. He has played in a rhythm and blues band called Gore and the Upsetters and later, the Eliminators and the Bill Bright Jazz Quintet. Eventually, Robinson formed his own group, the Joe Robinson Quartet, which played frequently at the Cellar in Winston-Salem. That led to the release of his first CD, "Better Late than Never," an album of cover songs which received lots of local airplay in Winston-Salem as well as Raleigh/Durham. The interest that generated led to performances at several large blues festivals and a CD of original compositions called "Movin' On."

Tite Fit, a Charlotte-based band that plays "rockin' Texas Blues" will also be on hand, as will the Morganton-based band Bluesville, performing their distinctive brand of contemporary blues. Garrett ("Big Leg Hambone") Nowicki, the band's harmonica player, is from Salisbury.

Bluesville has performed for the summer concert series sponsored by Raleigh's Parks and Recreation Arts Program and at the Historic Morganton Festival. They've also played at the House of Blues at Myrtle Beach.

Band member Sandy Blair says that Bluesville tries to deliver "heartbreaking, home-wrecking, soul-searching, life-changing blues."

Cle Thompson, a native of Chicago who has developed a large following since she moved to Winston-Salem several years ago, will perform her brand of passionate, soulful jazz.

Reggie Buie, who has opened for The Manhattans and Kool & and the Gang, will also perform.

Performing at 1:30 p.m. will be the Salisbury High School Jazz Band, under the direction of second-year band director Brad Gulley.

"They're our only auditioned group," he says. Students try out in the spring and are assigned a chair based on their performance.

Improvisation is a focus, Gulley says. "Everyone does a solo at one time or another. I teach the basic framework, and we improvise almost every day."

Gulley inherited a small jazz program at the school and expects continued growth with committed leadership.

He credits the Knox Middle School band program, led by Sam Kyzer, with "lighting a fire" under his middle school musicians. Gulley intends to fan the jazz flames and keep enthusiasm strong at the high school level.

He also wants the community to know that his student jazz group is available and eager to play for community events.

The festival is sponsored by CCB, Days Inn, First Bank, F& M Bank, Sagebrush, the City of Salisbury, Granite Knitwear, Escape the Daily Grind, Carillon Assisted Living, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, the Rowan Health and Fitness Center, Club Zidis and Rowan Business Forms.

Vendors will be on hand to sell food and cold beverages.There will be turkey legs, funnel cakes, curly fries, corn dogs, blooming onions, barbecued pork and chicken, fried fish and cold beer.

Flags, bags, ethnic jewelry, clothing and glass items will be available. The Salisbury store Sista to Sista will have a booth of African art for sale, and festival T-shirts will also be available for purchase. The Rowan Blues and Jazz Society will raffle off a 1996 Mercury Sable during the festival.

For more information and VIP tickets, call 704-636-3277.

Those interested in volunteering to help with the festival should call Eleanor Qadirah at 704-636-2811.

The Salisbury High School Jazz Band will perform at 313 S. Main St. at 1:30 p.m.; Tite Fit Blues Band will perform at 3 p.m.; Bluesville will perform at 4:15; Joe Robinson, Cle Thompson, and Reggie Buie will perform at 5:30; and Cephas and Wiggins will perform at 8:15 p.m. There will be a jam session at Club Zidis following the festival.

Contact Katie Scarvey at 704-797-4270 or kscarvey@salisburypost.com.