Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: Mixed Plate

You can't map the development of today's popular music without starting somewhere near rhythm and blues musicians like Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf, who influenced the slew of skiffle bands in England that produced such legends as Eric Clapton or the Rolling Stones, who were followed by sound-bending greats, like Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix, who influenced ... well, you see the trend here.

To honor the hugely influential and soulful genre, Fernando Jones has brought his band and knowledge of the history and music of the blues. Headlining "The Hawai‘i Blues Festival" is Fernando Jones and My Band!, composed of Jones on vocals and guitar, Chip Ratliff on bass, and Patrick McFowler on drums. Additionally, Jones stops in Hawai‘i on his "Roots, Rhythm & Rights" tour, where he hopes to honor the values and vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. through the understanding of the music he loves.

Jones grew up around the Chicago blues circuit, closely trailing behind the examples of his two older brothers. Later in his life, he would combine his love for the blues with his teaching skills in academia and turn it into a collegiate teaching career. He is now a professor of blues music at Columbia College Chicago, where he is also the director of the only collegiate blues ensemble in the nation.

His reason for his active work in spreading the blues, for which he has garnered a "Keeping the Blues Alive" award from the Blues Foundation in Memphis, is that he believes that the music of the blues is compared to a secret society. For those who don't know it, they don't miss it. For those who do know it, they tend to fall in love it. Jones main goal: to get people in the society.

And for those of you who are already members and hope to play it, he adds, firstly, practice as often as you can. And secondly, Jones says, "Don't be so critical of your playing. You might have goals so far out that you miss the actual beauty of what you're doing."

Fernando Jones has already lectured at schools on O‘ahu and Maui as well as played several concerts through the blues festival. There will be, however, more opportunities to check out the festival at the public performances at the Ward Rafters in Kaimukī on Jan. 26 from 6 - 8 p.m. and Bar 35 in downtown Honolulu on Jan. 26 from 9 p.m. to midnight to conclude the Hawai‘i Blues Festival.

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