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Bay Area playwright, vocalist and educator Pamela Rose is thrilled to be bringing her acclaimed musical “Blues Is a Woman” to San Francisco’s Peninsula for the first time.
About a decade ago, she had a standing singing gig in Half Moon Bay, where she loved the amazing scene and community of coast-side blues lovers.
“I hope that they will remember their old buddy Pamela Rose used to be at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company on Sundays and come on out to this show,” she says.
“Blues Is a Woman,” onstage Saturday in Pacifica presented by Pacifica Performances, is no ordinary show. Detailing the rise of female blues musicians in the 20th century (from Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Etta James, Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt and more), it’s a unique and powerful multimedia presentation: A lively concert is bolstered by entertaining, informative conversational narration and mesmerizing videos packed with historical images (photos, ads, posters) and film footage.
Created by Rose and dramaturg-director Jayne Wenger, “Blues Is a Woman” debuted in 2016 in the East Bay, enjoyed a theatrical run in San Francisco in 2017 and sporadically has been on various Bay Area stages since.
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Joining lead vocalist Rose this week is a solid lineup of veteran Bay Area musicians: Pat Wilder on guitar, Daria Johnson on drums, Kristen Strom on saxophone, Ruth Davies on bass and Jennifer Jolly on piano.
Rose began writing the piece with Wilder in mind: “I used to go hear her in bars in the ’90s and I thought she was great. She has this very raw, really legit, Delta style that’s hard to find in guitarists, man or woman, and I love the way she thinks and she’s funny as all get out.”
After Rose met drummer Johnson and realized she is equally adept at singing and comedy, Rose says, “I completely rewrote the script I had because I couldn’t give her enough lines to do.”
Saxophonist Strom, a multi-instrumentalist who’s played jazz, soul and pop with numerous groups, has branched out for this presentation. Rose says, “I’ve got her now singing a couple of blues numbers in the show and she kills it every single time.”
Upright bassist Davies, whose extensive resume includes tours with the late West Coast bluesman Charles Brown and Elvin Bishop, appeared in “Wild Women of Song,” Rose’s revue celebrating female Tin Pan Alley artists.
Pianist Jolly, the ensemble’s newest member, who, like Rose, teaches at the California Jazz Conservatory’s The Jazz School, replaces Bay Area stalwart Tammy Hall due to scheduling conflicts. Rose calls Jolly “the real deal” who “has studied it all.”
Education has become an adjunct to “Blues Is a Woman,” adds Rose, noting that it has led her to lecture for learners over 50 in courses offered by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at University of California, Berkeley.
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“There’s always so much more,” says Rose, who resists the temptation to stop the technically complex “Blues Is a Woman” in the middle, and say, “Oh, listen, let me give you 10 more minutes.”
Still, the power and appeal of “Blues Is a Woman” stem from the talent, spirit and resilience of the profiled artists, particularly the progenitors.
Rose says, “Blues is an idiom that came from these Black women in the South before 1920 who were singing and creating these songs in what were just a step up from minstrel shows, and it became so popular. Those are the women they eventually put on records, and those records were such a sensation that this music spread all over the planet.”
That the women were fiery and independent, with the message that they were “gonna do what they want” remains empowering today, especially when listeners understand their original context.
Rose’s fantasy for the next phase of “Blues Is a Woman,” she says, is not to be appearing in it herself: “I’m so proud to be the writer, that’s good enough. I would love to see a young cast. I think it [should have] interesting, young Black women.”
“Blues Is a Woman” is at 7:30 p.m. Oct 26 at The Hall, 1220 Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica. Tickets are $23 at (650) 355-1882 or www.pacificaperformances.org.
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