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A Blues Reunion: Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall
The Saturday, December 6, show is sold out.
Corky has agreed to extend the engagement with another show on
Sunday Dec. 7 at 4:30 PM at Third Avenue Playhouse.
Last updated December 3, 2003
Staff Report
Picture this: an elevator in 1965; one supposes the music wafting through the small speaker wasn't blues, and two
young guys size each other up. Music became the topic of discussion in that short vertical ride, and shaped the
lives of two people with the authority of a B.B.King lick from Lucile. The elevator encounter gave rise to a life-long
relationship between Corky Siegal and Jim Schwall - one that also led to the ascent into musical success and diversity
appreciated by millions of loyal fans.
So began the winding road of the Siegal-Schwall association - Jim on guitar and Corky on harmonica. Siegal recalls
in his stories about the early days that, "we stepped out of the elevator on the 5th floor, right on to a
street in Hyde Park with harmonica, guitar and a few tunes in hand - looking for a place to try our stuff."
Early on the two new-blues men met up with musical playwrights James Rado and Gerome Ragni, and the music flowed
- all ideas, as Siegal recalled, "The songs could be either coherent stories or nonsense songs from an infinite
flow of subject matter inspired by the signs and people that flew by us - from windshield to rear view mirror -
along Stoney Island Avenue."
It is all part of the education, and with the ending of the Rado-Ragni projects, Siegal and Schwall became regulars
at the Pepper's Show Lounge. Unbelievably they became the house band...this meant they'd back up the blues masters,
and one may recognize this as a doctoral training in the blues. Siegal writes, "Here we were, two young guys
learning about the blues from the ones who created it." It was Big Walters and Muddy Waters, it was Sam Lay
and Otis Spann - every emotional note struck a chord with Siegal and Schwall.
The lessons stuck: the bending of notes just so, the vibrancy of musical and vocal phrasing, the 'bottomless-breath'
of Corky's harmonica - it all stuck. The blues duo took off; a Vanguard Record deal, gigs in New York City (even
one on the same bill as Tiny Tim) where people were dancing on tables. Crazy times. Rado and Ragni were in New
York writing the hippie musical HAIR. In all of the American transformation the blues was the constant, and became
an important element to the musical forms that would follow. Journeymen blues smothered in stunning musicianship
and charged with energy and fun is the hallmark of these players.
And that's what a reunion brings to the stage, a taste of historical presence to lift the soul, the chance to put
it all in perspective or just let lose and dance. Because blues is really ageless - it is cross-generational, it
is a bridge that can hold everyone and lead from one generation's frame of reference to the backyard of youth.
Corky Siegal and Jim Schwall know this, and from that often unspoken knowledge erupts their own interpretation
of dynamic, living blues.
At 7:30 PM on Saturday, December 6
and at 4:30 PM on Sunday, December 7
Corky Siegal and Jim Schwall will perform their reunion blues at the Third Avenue Playhouse. All tickets are $15,
reservations at 920.743.1760. Find out more about TAP at www.thirdavenueplayhouse.com.
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