APHC: Special Guests

Special Guests
Saturday, October 2, 1999

Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1928, rhythm-and-blues singer Ruth Brown started singing at the local church, where her father was choir director. In 1945, she ran away from home to hit the road with singer-trumpeter Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married. After a stint singing with big-band leader Lucky Millinder, Brown found a job at the Crystal Caverns, a Washington, D.C. club operated by Blanche Calloway, sister of Cab Calloway. Brown's appearances at the Crystal Caverns landed her an audition with the newly formed Atlantic Records, and in 1949, her recording "So Long," became Atlantic's second-ever hit. It was followed by more chart-toppers such as "Teardrops in My Eyes," "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean," "5-10-15 Hours," and "Lucky Lips." By the mid-'50s, "Miss Rhythm," as she was also known, had become one of the biggest-selling black female recording artists, and her star continued to rise until the '60s, when she came home one day to find that the younger of her two sons didn't know who she was. She decided to walk away from the spotlight to become a fulltime mom. In 1976, Brown's old friend, Redd Foxx, convinced her to move to L.A. to play Mahalia Jackson in Selma, a civil-rights musical that Foxx was producing. Re-entering the performing world, she won a Tony Award for her role in the musical Black and Blue, and played a feisty deejay in John Waters' cult film Hairspray. Brown was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, and in 1990, her hometown re-named a street in her honor: it's now known as Ruth Brown Avenue. Brown's much-publicized legal battle with Atlantic Records over back royalties led to an amicable settlement that established the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which provides financial help to artists form the '40s, '50s and '60s. Her latest CD is A Good Day for the Blues (Bullseye Blues & Jazz/Rounder Records), which includes "Cabbage Head," a risque song her father sang when she was young...and out of earshot of her mother. Joining Brown tonight are Bobby Forrester (keyboards), Ben Brown (guitar), and Akira Tana (drums).

Barbarito Torres was born Bárbaro Alberto Torres Delgado in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1956, and was already extremely proficient on the laúd (lute) by the age of ten. He began accompanying his father, and started his professional career in 1970 with Higinio Mullens' band, Serenata Yumurina. After a three-year stint in the military, where he played in both the marching band and the army's jazz orchestra, he toured Cuba with Siembra Cultural (later renamed Grupo Yarabi). By the time he settled in Havana, Torres was well known among the best lute players and his services were in high demand. He became a member of the Orquesta Cubana de Cuerdas, before serving as music director for the legendary queen of the musica guarjira, Celina Gonzalez and her Grupo Campoalegre. In addition to working with Gonzalez, with whom he performed until 1995, Torres formed his own group, Piquete Cubano. He has been prominently featured in recordings by The Afro-Cuban All Stars, as well as on the 1997 Grammy Award-winning Buena Vista Social Club, which inspired Wim Wenders' 1999 documentary film of the same name. Torres' latest CD, Havana Cafe (Havana Caliente Records), features some of the legendary Cuban musicians featured in that film. Performing with Torres tonight are: Nilso Arias (guitar/vocals), Onelio Arias (tres), Sonia Pérez Cassola (vocals), Pio Leyva (vocals), Robin Martines (trumpet), Victor Martinez (vocals/contrabass), Conchita Torres (vocals), and Pedro Vargas (percussion).