Ravinia 2023 Issue 4

BOB HAKINS (BISHOP); DANNY CLINCH (MUSSELWHITE) I I ; I I ELVIN BISHOP Born in Glendale, CA, in , Elvin Bishop grew up on a farm in Iowa before resettling in Oklahoma at age . He got hooked on the blues listening to late-night R&B radio as a teenager, and once Bishop realized that many of his favorite records were coming out of Chicago, he used his National Merit Scholarship to get closer to his blues heroes by enrolling in the University of Chicago. Abandoning the physics studies that nom- inally brought him to the campus, Bishop turned to blues music full-time under the wing of Little Smokey Smothers (though it wouldn’t be until ’s at’s My Partner! that they would record together). A er Bish- op met fellow Chicago student Paul Butter- eld, they began sitting in with Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. ey formed the Paul Butter- eld Blues Band in and cemented the groundbreaking group with their eponymous debut record in . With East/West in , the band hit an all-time high, then a er ’s e Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw , Bishop decamped to the West Coast and became a regular at the Fillmore Auditorium alongside Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and B.B. King before going solo. His career took o on the Capricorn label with ’s Let it Flow —fea- turing his first charting single, “Travelin’ Shoes”—followed quickly by ’s Juke Joint Jump and Struttin’ My Stu , which hit the top when “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” cracked the top ve early the next year. Bish- op returned to his blues roots on ’s Big Fun with Alligator Records; more tongue-in- cheek originals followed on ’s Don’t Let the Bossman Get You Down! and ’s Ace in the Hole , and ’s e Skin I’m In high- lighted serious guitar chops. Can’t Even Do Wrong Right ( ) marked a reemergence on the label just before Bishop entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Butter eld band, and Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio ( ) and Something Smells Funky ’Round Here ( ) preceded his latest, Years of Blues with Charlie Musselwhite. Elvin Bishop was twice a guest on broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion live from Ravinia—in and —and tonight makes his rst full concert appearance. CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE Originally from Mississippi, Charlie Mussel- white grew up in Memphis when the electric blues and rockabilly genres were just coming together to form rock and roll. Holding odd jobs around town, he became steeped in the music along the way, eventually following it (and work) north to Chicago, where he began sitting in with artists like Little Walter and Shakey Horton, as well as taking in Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, and oth- ers. Musselwhite appeared on albums by Tra- cy Nelson and John Hammond, even doing a duet with Horton for the Vanguard label’s Chicago/ e Blues/Today series, before cut- ting his own album on Vanguard, Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite’s Southside Band , in . A er the success of the Paul Butter eld Blues Band, Musselwhite’s album became a mainstay on San Francisco radio, so he moved roots to the City by the Bay and struck up regular gigs with great guitarists, from Harvey Mandel and Luther Tucker to Freddie Roulette and Fenton Robinson to up- and-comers Robben Ford and Junior Watson. In addition to the dozens of solo albums he’s recorded since then, Musselwhite has also been a guest on numerous recordings, such as Bonnie Raitt’s Longing in eir Hearts , the Blind Boys of Alabama’s Spirit of the Centu- ry , Tom Waits’s Mule Variations , and INXS’s Suicide Blonde . He also appeared in the lm Blues Brothers alongside B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Koko Taylor, and other blues legends as the ctitious Louisiana Ga- tor Boys. A Blues Hall of Famer since , Musselwhite has won Blues Music Awards over his career, and in he won a Gram- my Award for Best Blues Album for Get Up! , a collaboration with Ben Harper, whom he reconnected with for ’s Grammy-nom- inated No Mercy in This Land . DownBeat named his team-up with Elvin Bishop, Years of Blues , the Best Blues Album of the Year, and a er decades on the West Coast, he resettled in in his native state to record his latest collection, Mississippi Son . Charlie Musselwhite first performed at Ravinia in and last appeared in . MARTIN THEATRE 7:30 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 2023 1:00 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 2023 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP, conductor In order of vocal appearance: MATTHEW POLENZANI, Tamino TIFFANY CHOE, First Lady ASHLEY DIXON, Second Lady TAYLOR RAVEN, Third Lady JOSHUA HOPKINS, Papageno KATHRYN LEWEK, Queen of the Night † CHRISTIAN SANDERS, Monostatos † JANAI BRUGGER, Pamina KATELYN LEE, First Spirit † RACHEL BLAUSTEIN, Second Spirit † STEPHANIE SANCHEZ, Third Spirit † DAVID LEIGH, Sarastro ADAM LAU, Speaker † PETER SCOTT DRACKLEY, First Armored Man † EVAN BOYER, Second Armored Man DIANA NEWMAN, Papagena APOLLO CHORUS OF CHICAGO STEPHEN ALLTOP, director JAMES ROBINSON, stage director † IRENE DELGADO-JIMÉNEZ , asst. conductor / coach LAURA MUÑOZ MARTÍNEZ DE ARENZANA, asst. conductor / coach / rehearsal pianist DAN SOKALSKI, stage manager RACHEL GAROON, asst. stage manager MOZART e Magic Flute ( Die Zauber öte ) Overture Act One – – Act Two Sung in German with English supertitles; Dialogue in English Performance translations provided by Kim P. Witman, by arrangement with Wolf Trap Opera † Ravinia debut Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Featured Sponsor e Negaunee Foundation and Sponsors Don & Susan Civgin , Winnie & Bob Crawford , and Betsey & Dale Pinkert . RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE