Happy birthday, Alvon

For Sunday, September 21, 2008


A good friend, Alvon Johnson, turned 57 last week. That was cause for celebration. He’s also recently engaged to marry the lovely Karen, his long-time sweetheart. That furthered the cause, so we invited them to our house for a birthday party.

Many readers should already know who I’m talking about. For a majority of music lovers and blues fans in the Bay Area, the name Alvon is synonymous with “Wow. I can’t stop dancing!”
Alvon is a local blues musician who has spent his life performing with industry legends like the Drifters, the Shirelles, Bobby Day, Otis Day and the Knights, Jimmie Rodgers, and the “Master of Drums” Babatunde Olatunji.

Now he has his own cluster of musicians, Alvon and the All-Star Band, who travel around the calendar, around the Bay Area. He performs at night clubs in San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo, Calestoga, Benicia, Tahoe, Paris, Rome, Singapore, Australia, wherever music is needed. One night he might have four All Stars backing him, and other nights, depending on the venue, he might have 16.



My wife and I and Gino have been big Alvon fans for over a decade. Thank you, teacher friend Ed Muscolino, for taking me to my first Alvon performance many years ago. Alvon plays now at the Chris Club at least once a month. When he’s there, we’re there.

So, how did Alvon and I become such good friends that he celebrates his birthday and his engagement at our house? Well, it happened one night.

Alvon made a guttural sound in a song that reminded me of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, so during the break I asked him if he knew any Screamin’ Jay songs. He confessed he didn’t, but said he had “a rare video of one of Screamin’ Jay’s performances in Paris.”

I was out of my seat, beside myself. I’m crazy intrigued by Screamin’ Jay. I have all his music, but I’ve never seen him alive or on film, except for a cameo in a Jim Jarmuch movie, Mystery Train. “I’d love to see it.”
“Come by my house. I give you a copy.” I did. It was the most amazing theatrical performance I’ve ever seen, complete with smoking skulls and Jay’s Constipation Blues toilet on wheels. Gino and I watched it at three in the morning.

So, Alvon and I became friends, and he and Karen came to dinner. Gino cooked. The Kittrells came over, teacher friends. Carl is a musician.

Dinner talk:

“Alvon, I’m worried about the blues. Does it have a future? I went to the B.B. King Blues Club in Nashville a few years ago and it was acid rock. I went to John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom Room in San Francisco this summer and it was Manhattan Transfer. We used to go to the Chris Club every weekend. Now the weekends are garage bands and metal. What’s going on? Is the blues dying?”

“Diehard blues fans are growing older,” was his take on it. “They don’t go out clubbing much anymore. Younger crowds have their own preferences. Blues Clubs are everywhere, but they can’t survive on a calendar of strictly blues.”

“You seem to stay busy. Are you content with your current success?”

“I’m happy, but never content. I always want to play bigger gigs. Corporations are hiring me now for private parties. I enjoy those because they pay well and the crowds appreciate my music. I also like playing overseas. The blues is popular in France and Italy. One club in Paris paid to fly us over, we spent two weeks, and I played one hour. That was nice.”

“So, where is your favorite place to perform?”

“It’s not a place. It’s the connection with the crowd. When I play a song, and the crowd responds by following me into it, I can feel that. It’s the greatest feeling in the world.”

“So if you booked more big shows, would you stop performing so often?”

“No way. I love playing. Playing is practice. If I went several weeks without performing, my fingers would fumble. I prefer being on stage as much as possible.”
“Do you have an agent?”

“Nope. Don’t like agents. Musicians who work for agents are subcontractors. The agent takes half the money for booking the show, then splits the other half with the musician.”

“So, what’s in store for Alvon and the All-Stars?”

“I’m starting a new organization. It’s called Caring Musicians. When someone wants to book a benefit, like the Katrina Relief Concert I played at the Majestic, they won’t have to make a dozen phone calls to book a dozen bands. They will make one call to Caring Musicians, and I’ll find them all the talent they need. Been working on that for a while.”

“If I wanted to retire and open a blues club, what would make it a success? A comfortable green room?”

Alvon shook his head. “Have a good backline. Amps and drums. Electronics. Bands will come. Gino, that was mighty fine shrimp stew.”

To see a great picture of Alvon at his best, buy a CD, find a show or book a show, visit www.alvon.org