HALL OF FAME
Blues star Russell Jackson among inductees
Russell Jackson has lived in Memphis, Chicago, Vancouver and Austin, but local blues fans could be forgiven for thinking Edmonton is his second home. Along with his versatile musical excellence, that enduring connection with the local scene is part of the reason the bassist will be welcomed Sunday into Edmonton’s Blues Hall of Fame.
“People there just love the blues,” he allows. “Edmonton has always shown its support for the blues. You’ve got a community of great musicians and it just keeps getting stronger and stronger.”
Jackson recalls his first visit here was as a sideman for B.B. King around 1982, and then again with The Silent Partners and Charlie Musselwhite in 1987. He relocated to Vancouver in 1991 after marrying a Canadian woman and first made it here fronting his own band in 1992 to play Blues on Whyte. Since then he’s been here at least several times most years, sometimes every other month.
“When I was first up here musicians came out to see me because I played with B.B. King. I got to meet a lot of younger guys and I watched them grow over the last 20 or 25 years. Some of them like Graham Guest and Jim Guiboche, I’d help them a bit and we would play together.”
His efforts mentoring and working with a few local players impressed people. Jackson actually hired keyboardist Guest to tour with him and Guest was invited to play on the bassist’s 1993 album The Alley Man. In turn, Jackson lent his talents to albums for Calgary’s Donald Ray Johnson (on Pure Pleasure) and to Edmonton’s Marshall Lawrence (on House Calls).
Jackson nailed his niche as a bassist in two contrasting extremes.
On the electric, he was one of the first players to borrow the popping thumb style from funk and bring it into blues. But he’s a strong adherent to the tradition of acoustic stand-up bass too. Originally inspired by Willie Dixon, he became known for his work on stand-up bass during his seven years with B.B.King and he’s still pulls out the big acoustic instrument regularly.
“People there always like the fact that I mix stand-up and electric (bass) in my show and kind of do what B.B. (King) taught me how to do. I wouldn’t play a show without my stand-up bass. There’s a lost history to the blues these days so I try to keep it real, to keep some tradition in it.”
Over the years he has played just about every permutation of African-American music but Jackson insists “I always keep a strong blues presence at the core of what I do and I love to pull out my stand-up bass and do a tribute to Willie Dixon or the south.”
Born in Memphis in 1954, raised on the Chicago blues scene, and based in Austin since 2014, Jackson is a 2016 inductee to Edmonton’s Blues Hall of Fame in the Legends category. Following his current tour to Brazil, he’s intending to fly in for the ceremony Sunday.
BLUES PERFORMERS
Harmonica man Rusty Reed is inducted into the EBHOF Performer category Sunday as a true veteran of the local scene. Initially inspired by harmonica giants Walter Jacobs and James Cotton, Reed has been playing-by-ear since his teens, heading up bands and opening for various touring blues stars over the years in addition to playing harp in the Folk Festival House Band.
While Reed will lead the live performances at Sunday’s HOF night with his all-stars, he grew to local notoriety heading up The South Side Shuffle during the late 1980s and 1990s. Fixtures of the local scene, they released their album Stairway To The Blues in 1987.
Guitarist Peter Banford from the Shuffle along with two deceased members of that band, much loved bassist Fred LaRose and drummer Linsey Umrysh, will also be inducted Sunday.
BLUES BUILDER
Peter North is well known to Edmonton music fans as a journalist (he spent time with both the Edmonton Journal and Edmonton Sun), broadcaster (CKUA, CBC), a tireless music promoter (Winter Roots Roundup, Front Porch Roots Revue), and more recently as artistic director of the Salmon Arm Roots Festival, so it’s only fitting that North is to be inducted in the “Builder” category Sunday.
This ceremony marks the third year for Edmonton’s Blues Hall of Fame. For further information and biographical notes see edmontonblueshalloffame.com.