Style: Juno Award Winner Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne
BOSS OF THE BLUES - GENTLEMAN OF THE BOOGIE WOOGIE
Description: Juno Award winning keyboardist/singer/songwriter KENNY "BLUES BOSS" WAYNE'S “Can’t Stop Now”, his third release on Toronto-based Electro-Fi Records, is abuzz with crackling Blues Boss originals, plus a pair of well-chosen covers, that embrace his elemental influences – high-energy boogie-woogie piano, rolling New Orleans blues and jazz, improv-heavy Kansas City swing AND vibrant West Coast jump.
The influence of rock legends Fats Domino and Johnnie Johnson play a key role on the record. Wayne is well known for his boogie woogie capabilities but as noted blues piano historian Barry Dolins observes, “Kenny’s piano work has more of a jump sound – a rock’n’roll base versus a strictly blues base.” Dolins, who has coordinated the Chicago Blues Festival since 1984, says “It’s a sound influenced by Amos Milburn, Bill Doggett, and Johnny Otis. There’s another instrument at which he excels: his richly warm and gritty voice. Oh, and he’s got a third vital element working for him: the look.”
“When a piano player’s got the three most important things – the playing, the voice, and the look – he’s the whole package. And that’s what attracts me,” says Wayne who himself favors boldly colored, French custom-tailored performance wear, such as the fuchsia-hued ensemble he sports on the new CD’s cover. Wayne notes that it was pianist Linton Garner, brother of “Misty” composer Errol, who hipped him to the power of the definitive sartorial statement.
Can’t Stop Now was recorded at studios in St. Louis, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver (Wayne’s longtime home), and Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon. Co-produced by the Isaak Brothers (owners of the Yukon studio) and Wayne himself, Can’t Stop Now features many of Kenny’s regular crew, Russell Jackson (bass), Dave “Hurricane” Hoerl (harmonica), Johnny Ferreira (sax), Theo Brown (drums) WITH A SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE BY the late guitar great Jeff Healey.
Read the full bio on kenny's Website
