This is the 1st in a series of monthly Blues Blowout. You won't want to miss these!
Jules Leyhe might look like your everyday, average, unassuming guy, but he’s one of the world’s foremost blues slide-guitar players—so much so that even Premier Guitar magazine called his music “the best blues slide licks since Derek Trucks, maybe even Duane Allman.” Those might sound like some big boots, but this Oakland native not only fills them, he wears them out and has to order new ones. This year, he is showcasing a new blues series at the Sound Room, where Leyhe and his Family Jules Blues Blowout will be joined by local blues players from around the Bay each month. This month, they’re joined by singer, songwriter and saxophonist Nancy Wright.
Nancy Wright has called the Bay Area home for decades. Wright appeared on the Bay Area music scene in 1984 with the popular New Orleans Rhythm and Blues Band, Hot Links. Following a successful North American tour, Wright and Hot Links were tapped to perform with Swamp Boogie Queen Katie Webster, appearing on her Arhoolie Records release, “You Know That’s Right.” Wright and Webster also performed together at the Chicago Blues Festival and appear together on B.B. King’s album, “Blues Summit,” winner of the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
Wright spent the next two decades touring North America, Europe, and Asia with such artists as Elvin Bishop, Commander Cody, Johnny Adams, Earl King, Joe Louis Walker, and Maria Muldaur, and opening the top-grossing Jimmy Buffett Outpost Tour with harmonica player Greg “Fingers” Taylor. She recorded with B.B. King, Elvin Bishop, Joe Louis Walker, Little Charlie and the Nitecats, Mark Hummel and many others, and performed with top blues artists including Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Lowell Fulsom, Son Seals, and Ike Turner. “I have been blessed to play with and learn from so many wonderful musicians,” says Wright.
While blues remains the strongest thread in the tapestry of Wright’s music, in the late 90’s a new thread appeared. Gigs with local Hammond B3 organist Jackie Ivory (formerly with sax luminaries Junior Walker and Willis Jackson) rekindled her love of organ combo music. This led to working with monster Hammond star Tony Monaco in 2009 on her critically acclaimed debut CD Moanin’ which features a mix of soul jazz, blues, ballads, and boogaloo. Like Texas Tenors Arnett Cobb and Illinois Jacquet, and Chicago “Tough Tenors” Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, Wright works back and forth between blues and jazz comfortably.
Wright began performing with her own group while continuing to play and record with Bay Area blues and roots acts including The Blues Broads, Mighty Mike Schermer, Houston Jones, Lady Bianca, Steve Willis, Stan Erhart, and Macy Blackman. She received the 2013 West Coast Blues Hall of Fame Saxophone Player award. 2014 found her on the road again, touring in Europe, Canada and the US with Frank Bey and Greg Nagy. Wright received her fourth consecutive Blue Music Award nomination in 2020.
“One of the hottest blues sax players in the business, she is known for powerful, soulful, fascinating playing.”
– John Orr, San Jose Mercury News
“One of the best horn blowers in the blues business . . . a singer and songwriter of high order.”
– Lee Hildebrand, Living Blues
“A naturally bluesy voice . . . reminiscent in its approach to Ruth Brown and Dinah Washington . . . she doesn’t just sing the blues, she feels them.”
– George “Blues Fin Tuna” Fish, Blues Blast Magazine
Tickets at The Family Jules Blues Showcase