Coast to Coast with Big Mama Thornton
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- Date Submitted: 02/16/2010 09:12 AM
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Coast to Coast with Big Mama Thornton
Nat Dove
African American multi-instrumentalist Jazz and Blues Musician, Singer, Composer-Arranger, Producer, Historian, Educator and Author
Upon returning to Hollywood, after spending two years in Texas, studying at Prairie View University and Commonwealth College of Science. Dove's livelihood consisted of freelancing as a pianist and music arranger. Leading the house band at the California Club, conducting the band for such acts as Johnnie Taylor, Jerry Butler, Rudy Ray Moore, Papa John Creach and the like. After about a year, his old friend from his Houston days Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton offered him a chance to tour with her band: The Original Hound Dog Band. Dove accepted of course, and the band open for an extended engagement at the world famous Ash Grove Folk Music-Coffee House, as the house band. Then, to San Francisco where they shared the bill with the great Sammy Davis Jr. Barbara McNair , Milton Berle and Peter Lawford. The band performed at many of the local bay area venues such as The Jazz Workshop, Winterland Auditorium, Avalon Ballroom, Hungry I, Palace of Fine Arts, ETC.
After performing at many music halls and festivals all over the West coast of the United States. Dove and the band were invited to play the mecca of African American show business: The Apollo Theater in New York City. It was a dream come, true for Dove and the band. This was the last great blues show presented at that famous venue. The trip from Los Angeles to New York was an adventure in itself. The band decided to make a vacation out of the trip. They stopped and spent time in many of the major cities and hometowns of all the members of the band, from Los Angeles, California to New York City. This a great learning experience for Dove and the band. This tour if you will, gave the musicians an opportunity to connect with the pass as Big Mama Thornton had experienced it over a decade before. To Dove this was a tour with probably...
Nat Dove
African American multi-instrumentalist Jazz and Blues Musician, Singer, Composer-Arranger, Producer, Historian, Educator and Author
Upon returning to Hollywood, after spending two years in Texas, studying at Prairie View University and Commonwealth College of Science. Dove's livelihood consisted of freelancing as a pianist and music arranger. Leading the house band at the California Club, conducting the band for such acts as Johnnie Taylor, Jerry Butler, Rudy Ray Moore, Papa John Creach and the like. After about a year, his old friend from his Houston days Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton offered him a chance to tour with her band: The Original Hound Dog Band. Dove accepted of course, and the band open for an extended engagement at the world famous Ash Grove Folk Music-Coffee House, as the house band. Then, to San Francisco where they shared the bill with the great Sammy Davis Jr. Barbara McNair , Milton Berle and Peter Lawford. The band performed at many of the local bay area venues such as The Jazz Workshop, Winterland Auditorium, Avalon Ballroom, Hungry I, Palace of Fine Arts, ETC.
After performing at many music halls and festivals all over the West coast of the United States. Dove and the band were invited to play the mecca of African American show business: The Apollo Theater in New York City. It was a dream come, true for Dove and the band. This was the last great blues show presented at that famous venue. The trip from Los Angeles to New York was an adventure in itself. The band decided to make a vacation out of the trip. They stopped and spent time in many of the major cities and hometowns of all the members of the band, from Los Angeles, California to New York City. This a great learning experience for Dove and the band. This tour if you will, gave the musicians an opportunity to connect with the pass as Big Mama Thornton had experienced it over a decade before. To Dove this was a tour with probably...