EZRA CHARLES

                                                     
                

Recorded Mar. 7, 2015 at Ovations Nightclub in Houston TX. "Nobody doesn't like boogie woogie!" is Ezra Charles' jumping-off point, as he weaves a fascinating history of this bouncing, jiving piano format. Peppering the dialogue with his own stories of personal interaction with the Masters, he performs many of the most famous standards of this genre as he explains the relationship between Blues, Jazz, Ragtime and what was originally called "Texas-Style Piano." Accompanied by his son Jakob on percussion, they re-create the excitement of this favorite piano sound from a century ago.

                                

Recorded at Saxon Pub, Austin TX, 4/16/2011. Ezra Charles is Houston's favorite keyboardist, winning the Houston Press Award for Best Keyboards six times, most recently in 2013.

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Singer/songwriter Ezra Charles is among Texas' top piano players, winning the Houston Press Readers' Poll seven times. At 14 he played with Johnny & Edgar Winter in his hometown of Beaumont TX. Moving to Houston, he founded Thursday's Children, widely regarded among the most influential Sixties Texas bands. Studying to be a blues piano master, he was mentored by Leon Russell, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Professor Longhair. Along the way he invented the Helpinstill Piano Pickup, an amplification system now used worldwide. Much of the impact of his band's live show comes from Ezra’s horn section: three dynamic girls who play trumpet, trombone and sax. His lyrics are autobiographical, and his horn arrangements draw from both the "Blue-Eyed Soul" bands of the Beaumont-Louisiana region, and the Houston big-band blues sound of the Duke-Peacock era that spawned Bobby Blue Bland and Gatemouth Brown.

Music played by the band consists primarily of Ezra Charles songs from their six albums released on their own label, Icarus Records: Design For Living (1989), Modern Years (1994), Drive Time (1996), Texas-Style (1998), Beaumont Boy (2001), and King of Texas Blues (2010), along with other original compositions and standards in their appealing horn-drenched rhythm & blues, boogie-woogie, Texas rock & roll sound.

The Houston Rockets chose Ezra Charles and the Works, as they were called back then, to be their official band for three NBA seasons, from 1993 to1996. They were a part of the home games in the Summit, playing throughout the games during pre-game, time-outs and half-time; as well as for pep rallies and victory celebrations in the Astrodome after both of the NBA championship playoffs; for the 1994-95 season, they were regularly seen in an MTV-style commercial announcing the Rockets road games carried on television weekly

Performing at clubs, concerts, media events, fund-raisers, and parties of every description, Ezra Charles and the Works have played private performances for The Rolling Stones, President George Bush and the 1990 Economic Summit, The NBA All-Star Party, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the 1992 Republican National Convention, and the 2010 Boy Scout Centennial Celebration in Minute Maid Park. In 2008 and 2009 they played festivals in Italy and South America, billed as Ezra Charles' Texas Blues Band. The Houston Blues Society chose them through competitions to represent Houston in the 2011 International Blues Challenge in Memphis TN.


             

Enjoy this complimentary video; A full Boogie-Woogie Piano Masterclass with the King of Texas Blues Piano himself, Ezra Charles.