Bay Area Blues Society

"Blues Is Alright With Me"

Blues is a music form that has often been misunderstood. It was an idiom with a spirited following of rebel music lovers, who, not afraid of going against the grain (or groove), filled blues clubs...jook joints...on Fridays and Saturday nights. The fans were often urban and rural working class Black folks in Chicago, Kansas City, Memphis...and Oakland, who found listening and dancing to blues a relaxing and enjoyable way to unwind after a week of  hard work.

But in the 1950s when such genres as rhythm and blues and rock and roll grew and gained popularity, a popularity based largely on borrowing from blues, which had began to wane until it was revisited, revitalized in the 1960s and 1970s by such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and the Beatles.  These performers, who along with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Elvis Presley, readily acknowledge their success to blues greats like Chuck Berry, Little Richard and James Brown.

Eleven years ago, the Oakland based Bay Area Blues Society was founded by blues professionals and volunteers who love the music. The Society's goals were to nurture, publicize, elevate and perpetuate blues through community education and assistance to bluesmen and women (e.g., proper management and representation, contract negotiations, health care, marketing, promotion). As stated in B.A.B.S mission statement, Oakland with it rich blues heritage, is an ideal location for a Blues Society because it has always been a bedrock for the music.   It has been the place where such artists as B. B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Richard, James Brown, Jimmy McCracklin, Charles Brown, Lowell Fulsom, Lou Rawls, and Sammy Davis, Jr. made a name for themselves in the Bay Are playing such venues as The Continental Club, Slim Jenkins, The Rum Boogie, and Payne's Place.

To express appreciation for, and to celebrate, elevate and pay homage to blues greats, the Bay Area Blues Society established a List of Living Legends (see below) and a Blues Hall of Fame.   For the last five years (going on six), during the ever popular Heritage Festival B.A.B.S has inducted talented, richly deserving blues people, including Ruth Brown, Percy Mayfield, Elmore James and Bobby Bland, into the Blues Hall of Fame.  Recent Festival participants have included The Cottonfield Blues Band, Nicole Fournier and the Big City Blues Band, Zakiya Hooker, the talented daughter of John Lee Hooker, and the Blue Society's All Star Caravan.  The Caravan also performs throughout the Bay Area, including in benefits, and provides blues education.

The Bay Area Blues Society is doing very fine and necessary work--is elevating blues to its rightful place as a rich, vital music form.  B.A.B.S is performing a highly commendable job as it strives to see to it that blues and blues musicians are afforded the dignity and respect they deserve.


Bay Area Blues Society
408 13th Street, Suite 512
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 836-2227


Click here to check out Bay Area Living Legends.

©L'cinda Scott-McCall