NEWS RELEASE
MARIPOSA IN CONCERT
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Every year for the last eight years, area music lovers eagerly await the announcement of Mariposa in Concert’s (MIC) Blues & Gospel Show. The waiting is over. Tickets are now available for this annual sold-out show.
Orillia’s own JUNO award winning producer, Lance Anderson, is bringing another incredible lineup of all-star vocalists and musicians to town.
“The ninth annual Blues & Gospel Show hits the stage at St. Paul’s Centre on Feb. 8, 2020,” MIC Committee Chair Pam Carter said. “It’s always a sold-out show, so people are advised to buy their tickets as soon as possible.”
Tickets are $30 advance (all fees and taxes included) and are available online at mariposafolk.com or at the Mariposa Foundation office, 10 Peter Street South, Orillia. Tickets at the door will be $35. The show is on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020 at St. Paul’s Centre, 62 Peter Street North in downtown Orillia. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m.
Winner and multiple nominee for the Maple Blues Piano/Keyboard Player of the Year, Lance Anderson, is musical arranger and director of the show.
This year, Alabama-born, five-times Maple Blues Award, Keyboardist of the Year, pianist and singer David Vest, is coming from Victoria, B.C. to headline, along with guitarist and harp player Steve Marriner (MonkeyJunk) and, as is his custom, Lance will showcase a young artist.
This time the incredibly gifted Angelique Francis, will bring her soulful smoky vocals and bass playing to the St. Paul’s stage. This year we are pleased to announce that drummer Albaby Webster (Jeff Healey, Colin James, Amanda Marshall) will join this stellar cast.
David Vest is a five-time winner of the Maple Blues award for Piano Player of the Year. Born in Huntsville Alabama in 1943, David is an authentic southern-bred-boogie-woogie piano player.
His first Canadian recording, East Meets Vest, was named one of the best blues albums of 2012 by Holger Petersen of CBC’s Saturday Night Blues and earned a Maple nomination for Recording of the Year.
In 2014, newly signed to Cordova Bay Records, he released Roadhouse Revelation, which went to Number One on the Roots Music Report chart for Canada and won a four-star rating from Downbeat. 2016's Devestatin' Rhythm brought another record of the year nomination, and in 2018 Cordova Bay Records released David Vest, which led to a Songwriter of the Year nomination and David's fifth Maple Blues Award for Piano Player of the Year.
Ottawa-born Steve Marriner is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and record producer based in Toronto. He first garnered attention in the Ottawa blues scene in his early teens as a prodigy blues harp (harmonica) player.
Steve started playing harmonica at the tender age of 11 and was playing on stage a short time later. He won the Ottawa Blues Harp Blow-Off at age 14. With the win came an appearance on stage at the Ottawa BluesFest and a recording contract.
He also plays baritone guitar, electric guitar, piano, Hammond organ, upright bass and electric bass. Since 2008, he has been the front man, singer and one of two guitarists and harmonica player for the Canadian group MonkeyJunk. The band's album To Behold won the 2012 Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year.
Angelique Francis is a versatile and exceptionally gifted musician with talent that is way beyond her years. This multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist, multi-genre singer song writer and composer has wowed audiences across the globe with her electrifying performances, instrumental abilities and powerful textured vocals.
She is known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including Blues, Soul, Jazz, and Gospel. Angelique’s soulful smoky vocals and instrumental techniques are reminiscent of a bygone era, but with a unique and modern sensibility.
Within her vocal style, you can hear influences of legends like Big Mama Thornton, Koko Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith and many more. Her instrumental abilities call to mind Willie Dixon on bass, Sister Rosetta Thorpe on guitar, Big Mama Thornton on the harmonica and Aretha on piano. Her diversity, passion and love of music can be heard in all her original compositions.
Al Webster is one of this country’s busiest freelance drummers and is based in Toronto. He has played with Jeff Healey, Colin James, Amanda Marshall, Long John Baldry, Zachary Richard, Jack Bruce, Mavis Staples, Kim Wilson, Duke Robillard, Jaco Pastorius, Allanah Myles, Matt Minglewood and more.
JUNO award winning producer Lance Anderson returns once again to reprise his role as musical arranger/director behind Mariposa in Concert’s annual ‘An Evening of Blues and Gospel’ Show.
Anderson, who has been performing for 49 years, won the 2014 Maple Blues Award for Piano/Keyboard Player of the Year, and his new band Matchedash Parish has been nominated for two Maple Blues Awards for: New Artist/Group of the Year and Record of the Year (Saturday Night).
The Orillia resident has had a busy season with five touring shows, including his sold-out shows all across Ontario – The Last Waltz – A Musical Celebration of The Band; Mad Dogs and Englishmen – The Music of Joe Cocker and Leon Russell; Everyday People - The Music of Sly and the Family Stone; Woodstock: 50th Anniversary Maiden Voyage - The Music of Herbie Hancock and his theatrical presentation, Oscar Peterson – The Jazz Legend and the Man I Knew. Add to that an orchestral work that Lance scored called Queens of Soul that will be performed by the Windsor Symphony, featuring Shakura S’Aida in April 2020.
In 2015, Anderson and Kelly Peterson, widow of the late Oscar Peterson, co-produced a three-CD set of Oscar Peterson classics entitled Oscar, with Love. Anderson himself contributed two performances – Sir Lancewell, an original composition Peterson wrote for him, and O.P.’s Boogie, which Anderson wrote for Peterson based on some lines from one of the jazz legend’s solos.
Still one of the busiest producers and arrangers in Canada, Anderson looks forward to another year of projects, including a new CD by The Matchedash Parish, his new, large ensemble featuring Matt Weidinger. This group played to rave reviews at the Montreal Int. Jazz festival, Mont Tremblant Int. Blues Fest and the Kitchener Blues Festival in 2019.
Anderson is currently co-executive producer of the Boquete Jazz and Blues Festival and the Beaches Jazz and Blues Festival both in Panama and is Music Artistic Director for the Orillia Centre for Arts and Culture in Orillia.
The Mariposa Folk Foundation’s 2019-20 Concert Series is sponsored by Alleycats Music & Art, Apple Annie’s Café, Bell Chiropractic and Soft Tissue Centre, Cathy Cleary Design, Dapper Depot, Dentistry on West, Downtown Computers, Hog ‘n Penny Pub, Lavender Hills Farm, Mariposa Market, The Bird House Nature Company; Tim Lauer, Sales Representative, Royal LePage Real Quest Realty; Wes Trinier and Wildflower Farm.
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