VICTOR WAINWRIGHT AND VANESSA COLLIER TO OPEN READING BLUES FEST

The 7th annual Reading Blues Fest, presented by Berks Arts, will open with a dynamic double-header featuring keyboardist Victor Wainwright and saxophonist Vanessa Collier on Friday, Nov. 22, in the DoubleTree by Hilton Reading Grand Ballroom.

Starting at 8:00 p.m., Wainwright and Collier and their respective bands will treat fans to a memorable, high-energy evening of great blues.

Vanessa Collier

Born in Texas and raised in Maryland, Vanessa Collier has released six albums and amassed 12 BMA nominations with four wins.

Renowned as a sax player and singer/songwriter, the 29-year-old Collier was also among the top three finalists in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, and in 2016 reached the semi-finals of the International Blues Challenge.

When asked how she got into music, Collier replied: “My mom played flute in high school, and she is very musical, even though she stopped playing. She has a great musical sense, and she’s still the one I run my stuff by. And we always had music in the house -- Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, B.B. King, and all the pop of the ‘90s.”

As the oldest of four girls, Collier was close to her mom, Beth Vermeer, a professor of accounting and tax. They took beginning piano lessons from the same teacher when she was 8.

“I loved music and played piano all the time,” said Collier. “But my teacher used to hit my hands a lot and I didn’t want any part of that. I cried at every lesson, so I quit.”

Then, while watching the TV series “Two of a Kind,” she heard a saxophone being played by one of the characters and fell in love with the sound. So she joined the fourth-grade band at school and learned along with everyone else until the teacher recommended private lessons.

Her teacher was the late sax/clarinet/flute player Chris Vadala, who performed in the Chuck Mangione Quartet for two decades and was director of jazz studies at the University of Maryland School of Music.

“Chris was first call for everyone who came to the area -- B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ella Fitzgerald,” Collier said. “He was also first call for the National Symphony Orchestra for all three instruments.”

She studied with him from seventh grade until she was a freshman in college. He exposed her to all kinds of music and taught her technique, but also showed her “the joy of sax; he always had a giant smile on his face when he played.”

During her senior year at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she majored in sax performance and music production/engineering, Collier had an opportunity to sit in with the great blues guitarist Louis Walker at a club in Philadelphia.

After two songs (when sit-ins usually bow out), Collier started to leave, and Walker said: “Where are you going?” She wound up playing the entire second set. Walker invited her to join his touring band.

While she finished her last year of college, she toured with Walker on weekends throughout the East Coast, including stops in Berks at Gerald Veasley’s Jazz Base and the Crowne Plaza and Building 24 Live in Wyomissing.

After graduating from college, Walker took her on a four-week tour in Turkey.

“He taught me a lot about how to structure your business,” she said. “He’s very good at reading an audience and structuring sets to keep the audience involved.”

In 2014, she released her debut album, Heart, Soul and Saxophone, and did her first national solo tour, performing during the Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest and the Reading Blues Fest. 

When she was recording her second album, Meeting My Shadow (2017) on the German label Ruf Records, she met guitarist Laura Chavez through the record executive.

“Laura is one of the best that’s out there,” she said, “She always listens to where you’re going and knows how to support it, and that’s a rare thing.”

Laura now is a full-time member of Collier’s touring band, which also features Byron Cage on drums and Scot Sutherland on bass.

By the time 2020 came around, and the world locked down because of COVID, Collier was ready to take a much-needed break to regroup.

“Personally, a lot of my life had fallen apart,” she said. “A personal relationship had ended; I lost my dog; and I didn’t have the right people around me. I didn’t play music for seven months -- except for finishing her fifth album, Heart on the Line). I worked on a small organic farm near Philly. It was what I needed.

“With all the love in my heart for the people who suffered during that time, I have to say I was lucky. I had a chance to surround myself with people that appreciated me and lifted me up instead of constantly tearing me down.” 

When she picked her sax up again, she began doing duo shows once or twice a month with guitarist Arthur Nielsen, who has played for Shemekia Copeland for 26 years.

“It saved both of us,” she said. “It kept us both going.”

Her latest album, Do It My Own Way, released in September, is a celebration of the strength of women, particularly her mother, who has been going through a five-year legal battle with a major university over unfair labor practices resulting in the loss of her job, and a move to Columbia, S.C.

The last song, “Warrior,” honors her mother for her persistence (the suit was finally settled). “It’s so draining to have to hold up the world,” she said. “While writing this song, I kept thinking about the Martin Luther Jr. quote: ‘An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ It’s important for people to know this about my mom.”

Victor Wainwright

Victor Wainwright grew up in a musical family in Savannah, Ga., and began playing piano as a child. As a teen, he had his own ensemble, which backed Eric Culberson at the Savannah Blues Bar.

Wainwright earned a degree in air traffic control and psychology at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, then moved to Memphis for a job as an air traffic controller at the Memphis International Airport. But he continued with music, and in 2005 he released his first album, Piana From Savannah, launching a career that has resulted in six more albums, including his latest, Memphis Loud, released in 2020.

Wainwright sells out venues throughout North America, and he has won seven BMAs and in 2019 was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album -- Victor Wainwright and The Train.

“I cannot wait to perform at Reading Blues Fest again,” said Wainwright, who performed during the 2021 Reading fest. “I have a fantastic evening planned, filled with joyous music and uplifting spirit! With its impeccable atmosphere and terrific sound, this festival is truly a treasure and a wonderful place to celebrate the treasure that is live music.

“We cannot do this without you, so I welcome and invite you personally to help us along with our efforts of keeping piano roots, boogie, and blues music alive!”

To purchase tickets, and for more information on this concert and a complete schedule, visit www.readingbluesfest.com.