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 In the movie “Field of Dreams” Kevin Costner heard a
mysterious voice whisper, “If you build it they will come.” That, in a nutshell, is why I created “San
Jose Blues Week” (SJBW). A musical and
cultural artistic event that educates our community on a great
indigenous art
form, documents our own communities ties to the history of the blues,
showcases
San Jose’s own musicians, and demonstrates the importance of
maintaining venues
for our musicians to play. Without
venues to ply their craft not only do musicians lose a vital training
ground to
“hone their chops”, but if musicians find that our community will not
support
them they will go to communities that will creating a great loss of
creative
energy that San Jose will find hard to replace.
But please excuse me; I am beginning at the end. Allow me to take you back in time to the
roots of SJBW, which incidentally are my own roots in our community.
My Parents and I settled in the Cambrian
Park area of San
Jose in 1963 where my mother, reportedly, was
the
first African-American substitute teacher in the Cambrian
School District. One of our neighbors was Maurice Hardeman who
was the first African-American Superior Court Judge in Santa
Clara County. Growing up in the environment I did, I was
socially conscious and active at an early age. Whether
it was the farm worker’s movement, poverty,
hunger, you name it
my mother made sure that I was aware of what was going on in the world
and our
community. Growing up I was active in
athletics and student government. I was
named to the Santa Clara County High School All-Star team in 1977 and
great
things were expected from me.
However, I was afflicted with a mental illness,
schizophrenia that went undiagnosed for a number of years.
I spent over a decade homeless and without
hope. Yes, not only do I know the blues,
I lived the blues.
Once my schizophrenia was diagnosed and treated I
was able
to continue my pursuit of higher education and have received numerous
scholastic and community service awards. I
joined 90.5 FM KSJS in 1999 and created a blues
show that offered
opportunities for local musicians to get airplay. It
was around this time that I saw how I
could combine my desire to promote positive social change with my
talents as
broadcaster and event organizer.
 It was through my participation with Ted Gehrke and
the
Fountain Blues Festival (FBF) that I
got the
idea to create an entire week, SJBW, of events culminating with FBF
that would showcase our local musician, tell stories of the blues,
share the history
and heritage of the blues and blues performers in general, and of the
San Jose
blues scene and musicians specifically. In
addition, SJBW would introduce blues to new
venues and hopefully
introduce a new demographic to the FBF.
 I began slowly with just one event in 2005, Talking
Blues
that offered a scholarly discussion on the history of the blues and
featured
live performances by Tommy Castro, Rene Solis, Shane Dwight, David
Jacobs-Strain, Lara Price, and Laura Chavez. In
addition to the aforementioned performers the
panel discussion
featured KSJS Jazz Music Director Dr. Brad Stone, an esteemed San
Jose State
faculty
member Dr. Ethel Walker, FTB promoter Ted Gehrke, and me.
Brad Kava, radio and music critic from the
San Jose Mercury News was an unscheduled participant.
The entire four hour event was broadcast live
on 90.5 FM KSJS and on the internet at www.ksjs.org.
 The event was such a success that I was emboldened
to pursue
my goal of creating SJBW earlier than planned. In
2006 SJBW debuted May
9, 2006 with a “Guitar
Extravaganza” hosted by NiteCry guitarist
Rene Solis at JJ’s Blues Club (taped portion of the event were
broadcast on
90.5 FM KSJS). I was gratified by the
support of San Jose’s
blues
community and artist such as Johnny Cozmik, Maxx Cabello Jr., Randy
Hayes, Lara
Price, Laura Chavez, and Dennis Dove performed before an enthusiastic
capacity
crowd. SJBW featured performances
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night with the
Highlights
being the Tuesday night “Guitar Extravaganza”, Thursday nights
performance by
“The Woodleg Odds”, a very well respected Norwegian blues band, and
Friday
nights barn-burner with Shane Dwight.
 At the heart of SJBW is the official acknowledging
of our
blues musicians by the City of San Jose
during the Talking Blues event and onstage at the FBF and the inaugural
SJBW
would be amiss if it did not acknowledge the priceless contribution to
the arts
by the “Godfather” of San Jose
blues, harmonica legend Gary Smith. Each
year SJBW will acknowledge the contributions of a musician, club owner,
reporter, writer, who knows maybe even a fan for their contribution to
the
arts.
May 10, 2006 brought the Second Annual Talking Blues
event
and with the honoring of Gary Smith the panel focused specifically on
the
history of the San Jose blues scene. Other
panelist included Rene Solis, Steve Siacotis,
and Richard Palmer
from NiteCry, Lara Price and Laura Chavez from The Lara Price Band, San
Jose
Mercury News columnist Brad Kava, FBF
promoter Ted Gehrke and I. NiteCry
performed their new CD release “Back In Town” in its entirety and there
were
special musical performances by Lara Price and Laura Chavez. Once again, the entire event was broadcast
live on 90.5 FM KSJS and on the internet at www.ksjs.org.
I would love to see San Jose Blues Week grow to
become a
destination event for music lovers. One
of the benefits of the blues as witnessed at any blues festival but
specifically at FBF is that the
blues is a
music genre that can be appreciated by a wide demographic.
It is not unusual to witness at FBF
three generations of family members all enjoying the same music and how
often
can you say that?
Yes, I believe that if I build it they will come and
with
your help I can begin to build an event that our community can be proud
to call
its own.
Sincerely,
Ramon “Chef Ramon” Johnson
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