Hella Piano Night

Join in on the piano fun at Lakeport’s Soper Reese Theatre on Saturday, March 24, at 7:00 pm, and be ready for a fast paced concert featuring the Bay Area’s top soulful piano masters who will cover everything from boogie woogie to blues, funk, and New Orleans soul. Featured pianists are Lady Bianca, Tommy Thomsen, Sarah Baker, Macy Blackman and Wendy DeWitt. Tickets are $25, 20 and $15. All seats reserved. The show is a concert format; the dance floor will not be open. Tickets are available at soperreesetheatre.com or at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, Monday-Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Artists will be at five pianos across the stage, trading off leading each other and a rhythm section made up of the legendary Kirk Harwood (who played with Norton Buffalo and Roy Rogers), and Pierre Archain on the upright bass. The show brings together highly acclaimed piano players who know how to touch your heart and stir your soul. Lady Bianca toured with Sly and the Family Stone, Frank Zappa and Van Morrison, including an appearance at Royal Albert Hall in London. She has recorded with Taj Mahal, Van Morrison and Merle Haggard. Her own label has released six CDs of works by Bianca and her husband and writing partner, Stanley Lippitt. She is also honored in the Blues Hall of Fame. Tommy Thomsen spent years performing around world and is an inductee in six different Western Swig Hall of Fames. He’s recorded with Norton Buffalo and original members of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, and he’s got the stories to prove it. His album “Western Jazz,” produced by Norton Buffalo, is a classic. Macy Blackman moved to the Bay Area to teach musicology at UC Berkeley, arriving from New York City where he played piano and cornet on the oldies circuit until his friendship with New Orleans drummer, Charles “Hungry” Williams, put him solidly in the New Orleans camp. He formed the Mighty Fines in 2003, and with saxophonist Nancy Wright, has done five CDs, and is one of the top bands in the Bay Area. Sarah Baker comes to you steeped in the musical traditions of Memphis, Muscle Shoals, and Nashville. Her music bears the marked native authenticity of blues, Rock, Soul, and Country that is identified with this remarkable creative region. As a bandleader, she toured throughout the Northwest and the Southwest, receiving rave reviews from Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland to Denver, Albuquerque and San Diego. Presently she leads the band, Sarah Baker and the Cake, records, composes, writes songs, and serves as a performance coach for many young artists in Sonoma County, California. Wendy DeWitt toured with Hank Ballard, performed with Otis Rush, and played throughout the U.S. and Europe. For 15 years she produced The Queens of Boogie Woogie show, and is producer of the San Francisco International Boogie Woogie Festival. Since moving to Ukiah, Wendy and husband Kirk Harwood have been heavily involved in the local music scene.