Bruce Katz, renowned Hammond B-3 organist/keyboardist and five-time Blues Music Award nominee, and his Bruce Katz Band, embark on their ‘Get Your Groove!’ Winter 2019 U.S. Tour, with a local performance at Studio Unknown, 914 Easley Bridge Rd., Saturday, March 2. Showtime: 8pm. Tickets: $10. (advance), $15. (door). Info: https://www.facebook.com/Studio-Unknown.

Katz – whose stellar career includes stints with, among others, Gregg Allman, The Allman Bros., Ronnie Earl, and John Hammond,  was recently honored with his fifth consecutive nomination for the 2019 BMA (Blues Music Awards), the equivalent of the Blues Grammys: “Instrumentalist – Pinetop Perkins Piano Player;”which are voted on in May, in Memphis.

Bruce’s 2018 album “Get Your Groove!” (American Showplace Music) and “Journeys To The Heart of the Blues” (Alligator), his 2018 collaboration with famed blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker and harpist Gils Robson, both charted in the Top 20 Albums on the respected year-end Living Blues International Radio Chart.Journeys… also netted Katz two additional 2019 BMA nominations, “Album of the Year” and “Acoustic Album of the Year.”

Elmore Magazine writes, “On the traditional “Hesitation Blues,” Katz’s soulful organ riffs are reminiscent of Jimmy Smith a’s classic Blue Note sides. The Bruce Katz Band clearly loves making together—their creativity and inspiration make Get Your Groove! a joyous listen.” “Freight Train,’ a song on Get Your Groove!, was written by Katz in memory of late Allman Brothers drummer and close friend Butch Trucks, whom Bruce played with in Butch Trucks & The Freight Train, until Truck’s passing in 2017.

Reviewing a recent Bruce Katz Band concert, MusicFestNews reports, “The Bruce Katz Band just opened their big fall tour and stopped at The Blue Rooster in Sarasota with two dynamic sets of blues, jazz, rock, boogie woogie, and New Orleans-inspired magic. The title track from the new album was another Crescent City piano workout that bobbed and weaved and then shifted to an awesome ‘out’ ending.” Read the rest of Scott Hopkin’s review, here.

Last December, Katz teamed up with former Gregg Allman collaborators and members of the late Allman Brothers Band co-founder’s extended circle of musicians for “Playin’ Up A Storm,” a special tribute to Allman, at the iconic Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY. The tribute also featured guitarist Eric Krasno, former Gregg Allman Band members Katz and saxophonist Jay Collins, Bill Sims Jr., Manuel Quintana, Chris Vitarello, Brandon Morrison and Moses Patrou.

What The Media Is Saying About Bruce Katz

“Bruce Katz’s playing is like, if Django ran into John Coltrane, and they ran into The Clash, and then they ran into Ronnie Earl, that would be him!”

AMERICAN BLUES SCENE

“One of the most respected keyboardists on the blues circuit”

HERALD-TRIBUNE

“Hearing and seeing the Bruce Katz Band live is a special experience. They take you to church in the sense of the gospel experience of rising tides of emotion and jubilation. The sounds of the organ as played by Katz are extremely visceral, rumbling up from the floorboards, through your feet, into your stomach, and you are literally feeling the music.”

ROOTS, ROCK & BLUES – LIVE

Bruce Katz: Some Background

Bruce Katz’s music occupies a unique space where blues, soul/jazz, jam-band rock, and all aspects of Americana music collide into a style of original music all his own. As a performer, Bruce has been an in-demand sideman as well as leading his own band – playing and recording with many of the leading names in blues and roots music, appearing on over 70 albums with artists such as Ronnie Earl, John Hammond, Delbert McClinton, Gregg Allman, Duke Robillard, Joe Louis Walker, Little Milton, Maria Muldaur, Jimmy Witherspoon, Paul Rishell, Mighty Sam McClain, Debbie Davies, David “Fathead” Newman and many others.

Katz has a lengthy background in classical piano. After hearing a Bessie Smith record at the age of ten, he started teaching himself blues and early jazz on the piano. Bruce then heard boogie-woogie and swing music and continued his musical journey into more aspects of jazz and American roots music. He attended Berklee College of Music in the mid-1970s, studying Composition and performance.

For the next fifteen years, Katz performed with many of the leading musicians in New England, and played “on the road” for long stretches of time. After a particularly long stint of touring in the late ’80s with Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, Katz decided to come off the road and enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he earned a Master’s degree in Jazz Performance. It was during this time that he conceived of and started writing music that became the Bruce Katz Band.

In 1992, Bruce met Ronnie Earl, who soon invited him to join his band, The Broadcasters. During his nearly five-year stint with Earl, Katz toured the world and performed on six albums, writing and co- writing many of the band’s tunes, such as “The Colour of Love,” “Ice Cream Man,” and “Hippology.” The album “Grateful Heart” (Bullseye) won the Downbeat Critics Poll for Best Blues Album of 1996. The same year, Katz debuted his first solo album, “Crescent Crawl”, on the AudioQuest label. He released “Transformation” the following year. Just before the release of “Mississippi Moan” in 1997, his third solo album, Katz left the Broadcasters to concentrate on a solo career. At that point, the Bruce Katz Band began touring the U.S. and Europe, and has been his ongoing focus, in addition to his many other projects.

In addition to fronting the Bruce Katz Band, Katz has in the past performed with a Who’s-Who in the Jam Band/Blues/Rock world including the Delbert McClinton Band, Ronnie Earl, Big Mama Thornton, Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band, and John Hammond, the latter whom he still plays with on occasion. Katz has performed at, among many others, the New York State Blues Festival, Riverfront Blues Festival, and King Biscuit Blues Festival. Katz was a member of the Gregg Allman Band from 2007-2013, and in recent past toured as a member of Les Brers, which featured former members of the Allman Brothers. Katz has also played with Duke Robillard (2001-02), John Hammond (2005 – present), Gregg Allman (2007-13) and many other high-profile roots, blues and rock performers, while continuing to tour and record with his own band.

Katz teaches piano, Hammond organ and theory privately at his studio in West Shokan, NY. He also conducts Master Classes in Hammond B3 and Blues History, which he has done at various schools and music festivals worldwide.