Murray Porter Band
The Yale Hotel is closing its doors. After more than 30 years of being the home of live rhythm and blues, the venue is seeing its last days of music.
Throughout the years singers and bands from all over the world have graced the stage at The Yale. But now with just a few days of music to go, you better get your groove on to buy some tickets.
What’s always made the Yale unique is that it has seen all types of Rhythm and Blues musicians, and this week features the Best of The Best of.
Catch the Best of Aboriginal Blues with Murray Porter Band, Bitterly Divine & Sean “Blues Puppy” Riquelme.
If you’ve never heard of Aboriginal Blues you’re not alone. The movement happened back in 1993 when Elaine Bomberry, manager of Murray Porter band, did a series of showcases in downtown Toronto’s Silver Dollar Room.
The series went from one show every four years to four shows a year. Bomberry and her husband Murray Porter are from the province of Ontario’s six nations and she wanted to showcase aboriginal blues musicians who didn’t have a venue to play at anywhere in Southern Ontario.
“As native people we own a part of the blues history,” says Bomberry. “From the start of what happened with African slaves running away from plantation owners and they would end up mixing with our [aboriginal] people.
Bomberry says that the early blues great like Muddy Waters and Big Joe Williams and Charlie Patton all have native blood in them, but it’s something that is rarely if ever talked about.
“Buffy Sainte-Marie is known to recognize that for sure you can feel the early [aboriginal] drum and rhythm in blues music,” says Bomberry.
“The drum is inherent in the blues. It comes from the ground and we feel that same heart beat…that something that is in traditional aboriginal music and rhythm and blues.”
Bomberry and her husband Murray needed a change of scenery six years ago and decided to head west where she says they were met with open arms.
“We knew that the Yale was the home of the blues [in Vancouver] and we’d just show up at jams and in three months we started being asked to be play,” says Bomberry.
“As soon as we knew, three months late we had an agent and through the aboriginal network, when they found out he was here, he started getting gigs across the province…it’s been pretty cool.”
The Yale is not closing its doors for good. Instead the club is closing for a year in order to preserve its heritage and make it earth quake and other disaster safe. But a party is a party and The Yale needs very little excuse to play some solid tunes.
Music Director of The Yale , Joe Luciak, decided it would be a great idea to have one final “The Best of Aboriginal Blues” show before the Yale goes away for a year.
“I’m a bit sad that the place is going away for a year,” says Bomberry, “but it’s worth the wait to come back to a rocking new place.”
Murray Porter
Be sure to catch this show before it goes away. Your last chance is on Saturday, November 19th; from 3 pm to 7 pm. Tickets are $10 advance and $14 at the door. Advance tickets are available by contacting The Yale at 604.681.9253 or on-line at www.theyale.ca. Tickets are also available through Tickets Tonight by phone at 604.684.2787 or at the Tickets Tonight booth located inside the Tourist InfoCentre at 200 Burrard St.
