The Bluesmasters

THE BLUESMASTERS

featuring BENNIE SIMS, CLIFF STARKEY, ERICH CAWALLA

Friday, November 17 / 11:30 a.m.
Jimmy Kramer’s Peanut Bar Restaurant

The Bluesmasters (also known as The Groovemasters) are three Berks County musicians who have achieved acclaim far beyond these borders: bassist/vocalist Bennie Sims, pianist/vocalist Cliff Starkey and saxophonist/vocalist Erich Cawalla.

Sims and Starkey have performed together for many years as founders of The Groovemasters, notably to kick off Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest each year. Cawalla has performed in recent years with Sims and Starkey in various gigs.

Sims, also a respected writer, producer and music director, has worked with artists like Al Jarreau, Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls, The Temptations, The Three Degrees, Tower of Power and Pieces of a Dream. Starkey has toured the world playing with top-shelf musical artists like The Three Degrees and Lisa Simone (daughter of Nina); has performed on “Good Morning America” and “The Rachael Ray Show;” and was the house keyboardist on “Emeril Live” on the Food Network for nine years. He was a member of Pieces of a Dream and has performed with many other top jazz musicians.

In 2005, Cawalla started The Uptown Band, headlining hundreds of shows in the Northeast. He teamed up with Sims for his first solo contemporary jazz release, “222 South.”

Cawalla’s first full-length solo album, “The Great American Songbook,” produced by Sims and released in May 2022, features original arrangements by Dave DePalma with a 17-piece big band with strings, featuring Cawalla as soloist on vocals and saxophone.