THE SHOWROOM SESSIONS: Streaming LIVE from Piedmont Piano Company
Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88’s
Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88’s have been the torchbearers of a great American blues musical heritage for three decades. Taking their inspiration from the great jump n’ boogie outfits of the late 40s and early 50s – like the bands of Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris, and others – they breathe fresh life into the music that gave birth to rock n’ roll, while forging their own brand of music they call “rock-a-boogie.” Featuring Larry Vann on drums, Dave Somers on sax, Michael Warren on bass, Anthony Paule on guitar, and of course Mitch Woods on piano and vocals. Pour yourself a tall one, sit back in your favorite chair and boogie along with Mitch as he tickles the ivories on one of Piedmont Piano’s incredible selection of 88’s!
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Donations/tips accepted via paypal.me/mitchwoods88 or venmo.com/Mitch-Woods-6
“I’m an entertainer, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at a festival playing and singing the music I love and making people happy,” Woods relates. “Onstage is where I flourish. The music I love and the songs I write in the spirit of that music do make people dance and laugh. It all comes from the era of the late 1940s through the early ’50s — a soundtrack of jump swing, blues, New Orleans music and early rock ’n’ roll, and I love to go right to the roots of it.”
For Mitch Woods, those roots extend to his childhood in New York City, when he first heard boogie-woogie piano and fell for the sound and the instrument. And they’re delightfully exposed in A Tip of the Hat to Fats, which captures a percolating live performance at the 2018 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The Crescent City holds a special place in Woods’ heart, and since his first trip there in 1981, the sounds that still resonate in the Big Easy’s boulevards and bar rooms — from the echoes of foundational artists like Domino and Fess that linger in today’s music to the daily parade of brass bands and Mardi Gras krewes that fill the streets — have become an important part of his musical evolution.
It’s been 35 years since Woods made his debut album, Steady Date, which also appeared on the Blind Pig label. By then he was already a popular, hard-touring artist on the blues circuit, building a repertoire of his own songs as well as classics borrowed from the masters who fueled his musical passions.
Ever since the NYC-born Woods heard his African-American building superintendent’s cousin slam the keys boogie-woogie style, when he was just eight years old, he has chased the music like a dog after a rabbit. His stepfather bought him a piano and Woods began taking classical lessons at 11, and in his mid-teens he was assembling bands to play Greenwich Village clubs. While at the University of Buffalo, he met older musicians at jam sessions who turned him on to recordings of Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and other boogie and swing pioneers.
Woods moved to San Francisco in 1970 and was soon opening for Charlie Musselwhite, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and other well-established headliners. In nearby Oakland, he attended a performance by the godfather of jump blues, Louis Jordan. That night’s show and Woods’ subsequent appetite for Jordan’s music opened the rich vein of humor that runs through his songwriting.
In 1987, Woods embarked on his first major European tour. Since then, he has made a dozen albums and traveled ceaselessly. He’s been nominated for four Blues Music Awards: three times for Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year, while 2017’s Friends Along the Way was nominated in the Best Acoustic Album category.
Friends Along the Way is a superbly entertaining and intimate collection of duet and trio performances with a guest list of blues and soul who’s who, including Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop, Musselwhite, Ruthie Foster, and Maria Muldaur. Woods is also a favorite entertainer on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, holding court in the piano bar, where he’s known for showing up in his pajamas and staying at the keyboard till dawn. He is also a member of the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars, a musical component of Tab Benoit’s organization that promotes awareness of the need for coastal wetlands preservation.
Today, Woods splits his residence between San Francisco and New Orleans, but his real home remains the stage. “What I truly love doing most right now is touring the world playing festivals,” he declares. “I’m playing more festivals than ever before, and it’s perfect. People are there to have a good time and I get to make them happy — singing, telling stories and exploring the piano in every style of the blues that I love. What could be more fun?”