Photo courtesy of Eddie Stout

Jackie Gray, a longtime fixture on the Houston blues scene, passed away Sunday, reportedly of lung cancer.

Details are sketchy, but by several accounts Gray had been ill for some time. He passed away at a local hospice facility.

As of Monday, no arrangements for burial had been made due to lack of funds. Rocks Off contacted Big Easy club owner Tom McClendon, who informed us that discussions were happening regarding the possibility of paying for Gray's burial via the Musician's Benevolent Fund, but as of this writing that could not be confirmed.

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Photo by Gary Sapone

Jewel Brown and Milton Hopkins at Houston's Continental Club, 2012

Blues artists -- like real, legitimate rhythm-and-blues players -- aren't in the headlines very often these days. But whenever they are, Rocks Off is both happy and proud to point out that unlike most other places, Houston still has quite a few of them, many of whom continue to do excellent work.

Those include local guitarist Milton Hopkins and singer Jewel Brown, whose album from last year, Milton Hopkins with Jewel Brown, is up for the Best Traditional Blues Album at the Blues Foundation's annual Blues Music Awards, which will be presented tonight at the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis.

Brown and Hopkins' album was released on Austin blues/gospel label Dialtone Records last May. Rocks Off wound up naming it as our personal favorite Houston release of 2012.

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Photos by Amanda J. Cain

Alicia Keys
Toyota Center
March 18, 2013

In concert, Alicia Keys projects such focus and command over her domain, the stage, it can be intimidating to witness up close. One would hate to be a backup dancer and step out of line.

But she can also perform with an exquisite vulnerability, the kind of whispery musical pillow talk better suited to jazz clubs and listening rooms than sports arenas. That she is comfortable expressing such intimacy in front of large crowds of people says a lot about why she has become a star.

Keys is certainly no stranger to corporate endorsements, TV appearances and magazine covers, but she has never really seemed to court pop stardom the way someone like Beyoncé has. She's never needed to. In her case -- an exceedingly rare one these days -- sheer talent is enough.

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Photos by Altamese Osborne

It started with tapping: a snare drum repeating itself, over and over again. An electric guitar followed, fighting to be heard over the incessant gnashing of drumstick against bass drum. A cymbal clashed with a piano's keys.

The caterers, setting up in another room, clinked glasses together, while above them, a looped video projected images of luxury onto the stucco walls.

"Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep," yodeled a production engineer into a microphone, a strange, we thought, way of testing its sound. (Whatever happened to good ol' "Testing: 1, 2, 3?")

We had arrived very early to The Bell Tower on 34th Street (normally a wedding chapel), getting ourselves a sneak peek to what would later be "Verses & Flow," a traveling music and spoken-word showcase presented by Lexus. Seeing how the luxury car maker's insignia was posted into every nook and cranny of the venue, that fact was not forgotten.

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www.ktsu.info

The late, great DJ Myron Anderson.

The late KTSU-FM 90.9 DJ Myron Anderson, who died last week following an unexpected illness, will be honored on Wednesday during two separate services.

The public viewing is scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday at Windsor Village United Methodist Church, 6000 Heatherbrook Dr.

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Myron Anderson, a three-decade-plus DJ at Texas Southern University's radio station, passed away on Thursday. He was 63 years old.

"Myron was a local radio legend and 32-year host of KTSU's popular Listening Back with Myron and Dave," reads a statement supplied to Rocks Off by Anderson's publicist, Danye' Roland.

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Myron Anderson

UPDATE (February 8, 11:30 a.m.): Anderson passed away Thursday evening. See the full obituary here.

February 5, 11:15 p.m. "The account of Myron's unfortunate health episode was not quoted to you accurately," writes Myron Anderson's publicist Danye' Roland. "Here are the facts as we know them."

"Myron was having a normal quiet Sunday at home with his family. During the evening Myron complained to his wife that he didn't feel well. After a short time, Mrs. Anderson thought it best to have Myron evaluated by a health professional. Myron was taken to a local health facility where he was hospitalized for observation and testing -- he's [sic] remains hospitalized at present and is currently being treated with the goal of complete recovery."

Additionally, Chris Tucker, who gave us a shout this evening, tells us that he wasn't present at the time Anderson fell ill and what he had told us earlier was based on "hearsay."

UPDATE February 5, 4:30 p.m. Danye' Roland, publicist for Myron Anderson and The Listening Back Show, has provided the following statement from the Anderson family.

Long-time DJ and host of the Listening Back Show, Myron Anderson will not be facilitating his show on Friday due to health reasons. Please keep Myron, his wife and his family in prayer and please continue to respect their privacy during this time. We are grateful for those loyal and loving listeners who have shown such great concern and compassion as they have sought information about Myron. We will continue to update the community on Myron's condition. Thank you all for your support and cooperation.

Sincerely,
The Anderson Family

(Original post below)

Myron Anderson, a veteran DJ of Texas Southern University's KTSU (90.9 FM), is on life support at an undisclosed hospital following a brain aneurysm suffered during a Super Bowl Sunday cookout.

Chris Tucker, a former KTSU DJ and a close friend of Anderson's, confirmed the news.

Says Tucker, "He was barbecuing on Sunday for the Super Bowl. He went out and rode his bike. When he got back, he told his wife that he wasn't feeling well and he started throwing up blood."

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Photo by Barry Sigman

John Egan at the Big Top, January 2012

John Egan has been brushing up on his networking skills, while working up his mojo for the world's leading blues competition.

"They told me I needed fresh business cards," says the solo Houston bluesman known for twisting barbed licks out of his silver hollowbody Resonator guitar. "It's totally counterintuitive to my approach to this thing, but I understand."

Next week Egan will compete in the solo/duo class of the International Blues Challenge, the Memphis-based Blues Foundation's annual contest. Prizes include a smattering of bookings at various blues festivals across the country and a "blues cruise," a "professional press kit," $2,000 cash and significant career advancement.

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Photo by Jasmine Lee Richardson

Wednesday DJ Sun, who has as good a claim as anybody we know on the title of Houston's Chillest Citizen, was kind enough to walk us through the first half of his brand-new (and first) full-length original album, One Hundred. Full-length is right, too: One Hundred stretches to 19 tracks, including a couple of remixes, but it all flows by in one richly textured groove layered with hip-hop, soul, funk, exotica, disco, reggae and a few surprises. Go listen for yourself.

Rewind:

DJ Sun's Guided Tour of One Hundred, Part 1

To go with his abundant guests (see part 1), Sun scored one more coup when New Jersey-based expert engineer Dave McNair agreed to master One Hundred. McNair's credits stretch into the hundreds, including artists as far away from each other as Buckwheat Zydeco and the Jonas Brothers, plus tons of Texas stuff (Old 97's, Jon Dee Graham).

Some years ago, the president of the Recording Academy's Texas Chapter at the time and McNair happened upon Sun's Monday-night gig at Cafe Brasil. Evidently they stayed in touch.

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Photo by Jasmine Lee Richardson

DJ Sun knows how to release an album right. For the past three months or so, the Houston turntablist, producer and radio-show host (KPFT's Soular Grooves) with an enviable address book and a local residency almost every night of the week -- not to mention a multiple Houston Press Music Award winner -- has been updating his Web site at soulargrooves.com with "One Hundred Days to One Hundred," all sorts of content related to his upcoming full-length and first release since the 2009 EP Para.

Rewind:

The Rocks Off 100: DJ Sun, Builder of Soular Grooves

Picking a couple of dates at random, on January 4 Sun wrote about his connection to the song "Memory Lane" from Nas's 1994 LP Illmatic, and his thoughts on critic Marc Anthony Neal's "Memory Lane" piece in the 2009 collection of Illmatic essays Born to Use Mics, which led Sun to ponder both sampling and father-son relationships. Sun spent part of his childhood in the South American country of Suriname, and on November 24 wrote about kaseko, a body-moving type of Caribbean music indigenous to that nation.

Saturday evening, Sun will officially launch One Hundred at CHA Champagne & Wine Bar (810 Waugh) with guest DJs DJ Melodic, Derek Jones and Marin Perna of Brooklyn Afrobeat band Antibalas (who now lives in Houston), as well as Tim Ruiz and Leah Alvarez performing One Hundred centerpiece "Heart Seed," and a video collage culled from "One Hundred Days" by Trevor Southard and Urban Circus.

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