Braun invited the audience to come up and gather around him while he played so they could see his hands. While a few brave people from the audience came up during the first half, the room was rearranged for the second half putting all the chairs in a semi-circle behind him while he played.
Mark "Mr. B" Braun played a free public concert at the Ovando School May 5.
Braun worked with the group of seven Ovando students for an hour and a half on Thursday, May 5. They shared some of what they worked on dancing to the music while Braun played. Each student also received 20 minutes of individual instruction on the piano with the lesson tailored to their age, interest and ability.
OVANDO - Mark "Mr. B" Braun gave new meaning to the term tinkling the ivories as he filled the Ovando School gymnasium May 5 with foot-stopping, piano rocking, get-up-and-dance blues and boogie-woogie music.
Sponsored by the Ovando School Cultural Enrichment Committee, Braun spent the day with the students and offered a free concert Thursday evening in Ovando. He also worked with students in Lincoln and Potomac and gave concerts in Lincoln and in Missoula over the weekend.
Braun calls himself an ambassador. He fills this roll not only as an entertaining musician but prefacing every song with wit and the ability to bring seven decades of boogie-woogie music history to life for those in attendance.
"When you are learning blues piano, really the only way you can develop a full personality and learn about this is by being around other blues pianists and learning from them. I was fortunate to learn from the greatest blues pianists. I was unbelievably lucky and I knew very closely guys like Blind John Davis, Sunnyland Slim, Little Brother Montgomery, Big Moose Walker," said Braun.
Braun kept the music lively and the conversation going as he opened up his performance to questions. After being asked about the regional differences in the style of blues piano, he choose a key and tempo and played a medley of styles including Chicago blues, New Orleans blues, bebop and Delta blues.
Brawn shared about a project he founded called Mr. B's Joybox Express, a traveling music show that teaches and raises money for arts and athletic education. He rode a custom made, 12-foot long tricycle with a mounted piano weighing 625 pounds, 1,840 miles, the entire length of the Mississippi from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to New Orleans in 2015. He will be doing a new project in 2017 that involves swimming while towing his piano. To follow his adventures visit http://www.joyboxexpress.com or find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joyboxexpress/
Reader Comments(0)