Blues Artist John Hammond Makes White Plains Debut March 29th
Marking his 50th anniversary as a Blues recording artist, John Hammond is on tour with his newly released album “Timeless.” With show dates in Florida, Canada, Arizona, Washington, DC, and New York City, Hammond takes his tour for one night to the White Plains Performing Arts Center (WPPAC) on Saturday, March 29 at 8 p.m.
Hammond usually plays acoustically with a guitar and harmonica, and sings in a barrelhouse style.
Born in New York City in 1942, Hammond made his musical debut in 1962 at the age of 20 on Vanguard Records. In the 1990s he began recording on the Point Blank Records label. With his latest release of Timeless on January 21, 2014, he has made 34 albums.
Hammond earned one Grammy Award in 1985 for his performance on Blues Explosion, a compilation from the Montreux Jazz Festival also featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan, Koko Taylor and others. He has been nominated for four other Grammies, the most recent in 2010 for Best Traditional Blues for “Rough and Tough” released in 2009.
In 2011 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame of the Blues Foundation and in 2012 was an inductee into the New York Blues Hall of Fame.
It has been said in music industry reports that Hammond enjoys a strong fan base and has earned respect from the likes of John Lee Hooker, Roosevelt Sykes, Duane Allman, Willy Deville, Robbie Robertson and Charlie Musselwhite, all of whom have contributed their musical talents to Hammond’s records. In addition, there is a story that Hammond is the only person who ever had both Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix in his band at the same time, if only for five days in the 1960s when he played The Gaslight Cafe in New York City. To his regret, they never recorded together.
Hammond comes to WPPAC at the invite of White Plains resident Richard Cirulli who also brought comedy to the WPPAC and hopes to do more in the music genre with WPPAC in the future.
An associate of Cirulli’s, Abdur Rahim, a newcomer to White Plains is sponsoring this Blues event.
Tickets range from $25 for the last two rows, $35 for general seating, and $55 for show and post show reception.
For more information and to order tickets visit www.wppac.com or call 914-328-1600.
