Bay Area Blues Society
African American blues
The Bay Area Blues Society is dedicated to the perpetuation of blues, jazz, and gospel as an indigenous American art form. Dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and representation of these American folk music and cultural forms as they took root in African-American communities, the Bay Area Blues Society is particularly active in the communities of Oakland, Hayward-Russell City, Pittsburg, Richmond, and Vallejo, which have deep roots in these musical traditions.
Supported with a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program in 2009, the Bay Areas Blues Society documented the contributions of living master musicians, Sugarpie DeSanto, Jimmy McCrackin, Johnny Otis, and Esther Mabry into oral histories, DVD performances, and audio files, contributing to the legacy of the development of the blues tradition that has thrived in the Bay Area since the 1940’s. Documentation will be available online as well as part of UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library online collections.
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