The legendary blues-rock harmonica of Magic Dick and the innovative blues-drenched guitar and voice of the young phenom Shun Ng combine at the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland on Saturday March 21 at 8:00 pm. Admission is $20.
The MainstayBlues series of blues concerts starts with the combination of a legend and a rising star. The music is a soulful blues performed by arguably two of the top musicians on their respective instruments, music that rocks and yet is thoughtful as each bulds off the other.
Born in 1945 in New London, Connecticut, Magic Dick arrived in post-war America to the Atomic Bomb, World Peace, Bebop and Rhythm & Blues. While in his sophomore year at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts he met J. Geils and Danny Klein and became a founding member of the J. Geils Blues Band in 1968. By 1969, the band had moved to Boston and joined forces with Peter Wolf, Stephen Jo Bladd and Seth Justman.
In 1970, the J. Geils Band recorded their first of nine albums for Atlantic Records and toured incessantly, filling clubs and stadiums and jamming with many of the blues greats including Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells and James Cotton. The band developed a reputation for ‘getting crazy’ blowing audiences away with their high-energy style of rhythm & blues and rock & roll. Magic Dick’s innovative harmonica playing was a strong distinguishing sound for the band. Kurt Loder in Rolling Stone called Magic Dick, “the most innovative harmonica player of his generation.”
A series of five albums for EMI America followed culminating in the Platinum album Freeze Frame, released in 1981, which ascended to #1 on the Billboard album charts, spent four weeks there, and remained on the charts for a total of 70 weeks. The album’s first single, “Centerfold,” spent six weeks at #1 in Billboard. Freeze Frame’s title track followed “Centerfold,” peaking at #4.
Subsequent to The J. Geils Band, Magic Dick performed as a guest artist harmonica soloist for Patty Smyth, Debbie Harry, Full Circle, The Del Fuegos and Ryuici Sakamota, among others. In 1992, Magic Dick and J. Geils formed the band Bluestime featuring Magic Dick on harmonica and vocals and J. Geils on guitar. In recent years he has toured with a reconstituted J. Geils Band without J Geils. In the past year he has done a number of concerts with the young blues phenom, Shun Ng.
In speaking about the formation of the duo, Magic Dick said, “From the moment I first heard Shun Ng’s CD “Funky Thumb Stuff” I knew that a manifest musical collaboration was about to happen. Shun’s sound simply made me feel very alive and induced in me a synchronous alignment of musical DNA as if it was his intention as well as mine all along! I helped it along by asking his manager, Ralph Jaccodine to introduce us at his office. A long and enlightening conversation happened on that day of our first meeting and now we are a duo and I couldn’t be more delighted.”
Shun Ng was born in Chicago, Illinois and was raised in Singapore where he struggled with the educational system. He turned to gymnastics and competed nationally at the age of 10. He gave that up at age 14 after discovering the guitar. As a dyslexic, letters and numbers didn’t make much sense but music did and he devoted himself to the study of the blues.
After attaining his associate’s degree in Music & Audio Technology, he served his mandatory National Service and went into the Singapore Armed Forces where he spent two years working as an arranger and band guitarist for a combo band. As his style developed, he caught the attention of guitar-making genius Jeffery Yong. Yong endorsed him as an artist and hand-built him a signature guitar. Although Shun had little industry experience, Yong invited him to play his guitars at international guitar festivals such as the Montreal Guitar Show, Osaka Guitar Show and the Singapore Guitar Show.
In January 2012, Shun released his debut album “Funky Thumb Stuff” which garnered him national recognition in Singapore and beyond. “Funky Thumb Stuff” also came into the attention of veteran Fingerstyle Guitarist, Tuck Andress of Tuck & Patti, who said he was “dazzled by his technique and captivated by his guitar groove” and went on to describe Shun’s singing as “well beyond his years yet with the innocence of a child.” Also in 2012, Shun Ng was accepted to Berklee College of Music and awarded a scholarship from the college. In his second semester, he was selected to be on Berklee’s prestigious Artist Diploma program but he also attracted the attention of the well-known Boston-based manager Ralph Jaccodine and after two semesters, left Berklee to sign with Ralph Jaccodine Management.
In 2013, his new video, “Get On With It” came to the attention of 27-time Grammy award winning producer Quincy Jones. After seeing Ng perform live, Jones said, “When you see Shun Ng, you won’t believe your eyes nor your ears — he belies all stereotypes, all premonitions. I was simply blown away by both his soul and his science — his creativity and his uniqueness is astounding.”
About the duo, Shun Ng says, “we wanted to make music in a way that no one had quite done before while remaining grounded in our roots. Magic Dick brings a powerhouse attack with ferocious precision and a killer groove to this duo. I have great respect for him, he has seemingly done it all, but is still constantly trying to push the boundaries of music and chase the best in himself, a true artist. To be working with a true Boston legend is a real privilege.”
Ng was nominated for “International Artist of The Year” for the 2013 and 2014 Boston Music Awards. He is also passionate about social justice and serves as the Director of Music at The Amber Initiative, a non-profit organization that deals with issues of social injustice around the world. He also works closely with the Next Step Organization’s program, SongStudio, whose mission is to empower young people with life-threatening illnesses to envision positive futures, develop strong coping skills, and share their experiences through music.
The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
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