Memphis Minnie, haar chauffeur, een fles whisky en andere verhalen uit het blueshotel
Memphis Minnie, her chauffeur, a bottle of whisky and other stories from the blueshotel
In this performance, a mixture of music and text, Elsje en de Bluesmannen honor the early blues as it was played between 1900 and 1940. The scene is set in a hotel in a Southern state of the US. The granddaughter of the former owners flips through the scrapbook her grandmother kept and encounters the names of artists who used to stay at the hotel. To name but a few: W.C. Handy, Ma Rainey, Yank Rachell and Memphis Minnie. There are stories about them all that the grandmother told her grandchild or wrote down. It goes without saying that their songs - and many others - will be played as well. Some of these have become blues classics, others are little known. In any case it will become clear how much varied early blues was.
Elsje en de Bluesmannen are actress Elsje de Wijn and six (blues) musicians.
Elsje de Wijn, who plays the granddaughter, played in many theatre companies. She also acted in television series and movies.
The Bluesmannen are: Fons Duin (vocals), Chretien Felser (piano), Jan Boelo Niemeijer (percussion), Michael Rubinstein (string instruments), René Uhlenbusch (bluesharp) en Marten Wallinga (upright bass).