Legendary blues vocalist and harmonica player Big George Brock will perform for the Jazz at Holmes series at 8 p.m. March 29 in Ridgley Hall’s Holmes Lounge.
In addition, Brock will host a blues clinic from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. March 29 in Tietjens Hall. The clinic will feature Brock, accompanied by a drummer, performing and talking about his life in music.
Both events are free and open to the public.
Brock’s visit comes as the result of a class project by Rebecca Dorrill, a political science major in University College in Arts & Sciences.
In 2006, Dorrill — herself a guitarist and songwriter — began filming “Double Shuffle, Delta Style,” a documentary about authentic St. Louis blues performers. The film, which Dorrill recently completed, focuses on Brock and also celebrates the musical and cultural legacies of important St. Louis musicians such as the guitarist Bennie Smith and the singer and pianist Henry Townsend.
Raised on a plantation outside Clarksdale, Miss., Brock began playing harmonica at age 8. He was deeply influenced by musicians Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Howlin’ Wolf, all of whom lived and performed nearby.
Brock’s life is the stuff of legends. Story has it Brock — an amateur boxer — once knocked out a young Sonny Liston and defeated a wrestling bear.
In the 1950s, Brock moved to St. Louis where he opened a series of popular blues clubs, including the 1,000-seat Club Caravan, which hosted shows by Waters, Ike and Tina Turner, Albert King and many others.
Though he has performed widely over the years, Brock did not begin recording his own music until the mid-1990s, when St. Louis’ Tee Ti Records released his debut album, “Front Door Man.” In 2005, Brock recorded an acclaimed follow-up, “Club Caravan,”for the Cat Head Presents label, which also released Brock’s “Round Two”in 2006. That same year, he was featured in filmmaker Damien Blaylock’s documentary “Hard Times.”
Brock has been nominated for three 2007 Blues Music Awards, sponsored by The Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tenn., in the categories of Instrumentalist-Harmonica, Traditional Blues Album of the Year (for “Round Two”) and Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year. Winners will be announced May 10.
For more information, call 935-4841 or e-mail staylor@wustl.edu.