BENNY TURNER & DAVELL CRAWFORD TRIO
Saturday, November 19 / 10 a.m.
Waking Up to the Blues
BENNY TURNER &
DAVELL CRAWFORD TRIO
Free Event at the Penske Amphitheater
@ DoubleTree by Hilton Reading
Benny Turner
Born in 1939 in Gilmer, Texas, Benny Turner learned guitar from his mother and his older brother, the legendary bluesman, Freddie King. After the family moved to Chicago in the early 1950s, Turner became known as a bass player, starting in King’s band. He had a long career as a sideman, playing guitar with the Kindly Shepherds and electric bass with the Soul Stirrers (gospel), touring with R&B singer Dee Clark, and performing with King at major events, including the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival. Devastated by King’s death in 1976, Turner stopped performing for two years. Overcoming his grief, he joined bluesman Mighty Joe Young for eight years. He also performed as band leader and bassist for Marva Wright and the BMWs for 20 years.
In 2014, he began his solo career with the album “Journey,” a collection of original songs, on the Lancaster, PA-based Nola Blue Records label. He followed that with “When She’s Gone” (2016), “My Brother’s Blues” (2018), and “Going Back Home” with Cash McCall (2019). In 2017, he received the Jus’ Blues Little Milton Lifetime Bluesman Award and was inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame as a Blues Master. In 2018 he won a Blues Music Award in the instrumental/bass category, and a Global Music Awards silver medal for outstanding achievement for “My Brother’s Blues.”
Turner has also written an autobiography, “Survivor—The Benny Turner Story,” published in 2017 by Nola Blue Inc.
Davell Crawford
Pianist/vocalist Davell Crawford, known as the “Piano Prince of New Orleans,” is a musical chameleon, adept at multiple genres including jazz, R&B, blues, gospel, funk, soul, pop and roots music. As a child in New Orleans, he learned organ in Baptist and Catholic churches by watching and listening to the organists. He made his first public appearance at 7, performing Ray Charles tunes on a keyboard outside the famed Café du Monde. At 11, he became the youth choir director, pianist and organist for St. Joseph Baptist Church.
During his musical career, he has made a name for himself as a composer/arranger; founded the Davell Crawford Orchestra, the Davell Crawford Singers and other groups; and toured the world as an all-around entertainer. His influences include Fats Domino, Sarah Vaughan, Patsy Cline and Liberace (yes, really!). He carries on the tradition of great New Orleans pianists like Jelly Roll Morton, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint and James Booker.
His albums include “The B-3 and Me” (1998), “My Gift to You” (2013), “Piano in the Vaults, Vol. 1” (2016)—the first of a projected six volumes of solo recordings from 1998 to 2013; and, most recently “Dear Fats, I Love You” (2019).