Corky Siegel is known internationally as one of the worlds great blues harmonica players, blues pianist, singer and writer of unusual songs, a Chamber Blues progenitor and sole pioneer/composer of award-winning revolutionary works that weave blues and classical forms together.  He celebrates 58 years of performance, a co-founder of the popular Siegel-Schwall Band, and a Chicago Blues Hall of Fame inductee.  Corky Siegel has a catalogue of recordings on RCA, Vanguard, Alligator, and million selling blues/classical recordings on the iconic classical label Deutsche Grammophon.  At a young age, he learned his craft - personally - at the feet of such legendary first generation bluesmen as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, and Otis Spann and all the great blues masters he performed with beginning in 1965. In the earlier days of Chicago blues, he was an essential part in the blues rock revolution, and his surprising and continuing success in bringing together blues and classical audiences (with his symphonic and Chamber Blues recordings and performances) make him a pivotally unique figure in popular music history.
Randy Sabien, on jazz violin, is the “real thing” according to premier national Jazz critic Howard Reich. National Public Radio’s “Jazz Profiles” dubbed Randy; “The past, present, and future of jazz violin.” Down Beat Magazine’s annual critic’s poll voted him as; “Artist Deserving Wider Recognition.”  For Randy, the term Jazz Violin is little more than the name of the musical genre where his recordings are found. He regularly steps beyond the boundaries of what many think of as jazz, forging headlong into the worlds of rock, blues and funk. His career began with classical violin lessons, he soon picked up fiddling and from there it was only natural he would find himself playing along with his favorite rock tunes. Then at age 19 he was reborn with the discovery that you could play jazz on the violin. The resulting sound is swinging, rocking, rhythmic and bluesy with a fiddle that often plays more like a saxophone than a violin. There are shades of Duke and Miles and you can certainly hear the echoes of the great jazz violinists from the swing era but above all, Randy is a product of his time - someone who grew up playing the violin while immersed in the music of the 60s and 70s.
Hold on to your seat - it is just impossible to sit still when Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues with Randy Sabien starts swinging with foot-tapping fun with a nod to "keen phrasing in courteous respect to Stephane Grappelli."