A BRIEF HISTORY - HOW CLASSICAL MET THE BLUES
For a more complete history see Symphonic Blues and The Blues Steal My Heart

"Chamber Blues was neither my idea nor my fault. It grabbed me and it won't let go!" - Corky Siegel

My greatest inspiration in my life has been the blues. What an amazing opportunity in 1966 at Pepper's Show Lounge in the south side of Chicago as a young musician blues lover to be part of the house band that hosted Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Willie Dixon, Hound Dog Taylor, Little Walter, James Cotton, Jr. Wells, Buddy Guy and all the great blues masters you can think of. What an experience to be taken under the wing of these people.

And then this Japanese fellow shows up in 1966 and wants my band - Siegel-Schwall - to jam with his band. His band was the Chicago Symphony and he was Seiji Ozawa. He explained that blues was the very spark that classical music needed. Traditionally classical music forms borrowed from the folk forms of the day. And what more important folk form is there then the blues? As a young conductor, early in his career, and considered to be among the top 10 in the world, all eyes were upon him. Now he is going to bring a hippy blues band on stage with him and the Chicago, Boston, and New York Philharmonic orchestras.

Understand, it was Seiji that was thinking out of the box and taking all the risks. We hired the talent of William Russo to work with Siegel-Schwall and create "Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra." (Read more about the story of "Symphonic Blues.")

Over the years as we performed together with many orchestras, and recorded 2 projects for Deutsche Grammophon, Seiji insisted that I pursue this juxtaposition of blues and classical. At first I wasn't interested. But that didn't matter, it pursued me. Eventually in 1983 I just fell in love with the idea. Took me long enough! In 1988 Chamber Blues gave it's first performances.

More About Chamber Blues:
Corky Explains
A Brief History - How Classical Met the Blues
The Way We Hear Music