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BIG POPPA E
| Genre: Singer/Songwriter Management and Representation: Regional Artist Relations and Representation for blues artist, Big Poppa E. We take care of scheduling & tour management, logistics & booking directly through the regional booking agent: Ms. Darlene Lopez at djdar@blueatheart.com 954-829-4173 |
Composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Big Poppa E is a prominent and influential
figure in the late 20th century blues and roots music. Though his career began more
than four decades ago with American jazz, he has broadened his artistic scope over the
years to include music representing many varied genres.
Born Mutasim Ra'id Faisal in New York on May 4, 1948. His father was a jazz pianist,
composer and arranger of Caribbean descent, and his mother was a gospel singing
schoolteacher from Louisiana. Both parents encouraged their children to take pride in
their diverse ethnic and cultural roots. His father had an extensive record collection and a
shortwave radio that brought sounds from near and far into the home.
Early in his childhood, the young musician learned to play the tenor and alto sax,
trombone and harmonica, and he loved to sing. He discovered his father's guitar and
became serious about it in his early teens when a guitarist from Mississippi moved in next
door and taught him the various styles of Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, John
Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed and other titans of Delta and Chicago blues.
New York in the 1950s was full of recent arrivals, not just from around the U.S. but from
all over the globe. "We spoke several dialects in my house – Southern, Caribbean,
African – and we heard dialects from eastern and western Europe," Poppa E recalls. In
addition, musicians from the Caribbean, Africa and all over the U.S. frequently visited
the Faisal home, and Poppa E became even more fascinated with roots – the origins of all
the different forms of music he was hearing, what path they took to reach their
current form, and how they influenced each other along the way. He threw himself into
the study of older forms of African-American music – a music that the record companies
of the day largely ignored.
Musi, as he was affectionately called, studied economics at Syracuse University in the
late 1960s and later law at the University of Chicago. Inspired by a dream, he adopted the
musical alias of E and later was crowned "Big Poppa E" by one of Miami's top promoters,
DJ Oski. After graduating, he headed west in to Los Angeles, where he worked as a
studio musician for the next 15 years for numerous high-profile studios, including Bolic
Sound, Motown West and Sussex Records. Around this same time, Poppa E also mingled
with various blues legends, including Koko Taylor, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, and
Sleepy John Estes.
This diversity of musical experience served as the bedrock for Poppa E's first three
recordings: Southern Style: blues Sessions (2006), Mississippi Reminiscence (2007) and
Five Long Years, A Tribute to Carey Bell (2008). Drawing on all the sounds and styles
he'd absorbed as a child and a young adult, these early albums showed signs of the
musical exploration that would be Poppa E's hallmark over the next few years.
In 2008, Poppa E carved out a unique musical niche with a string of adventurous
recordings, including Blues A Healer, Crossroads and Anthology du Blues. In 2008,
Poppa
E's version of Terraplane Blues was nominated by the International Academy of
Independent Artist for Best Blues Song of the Year and his album, Blues Healer was
nominated for Best Blues Album of the Year by Cash Box Magazine.
Poppa E's recorded output slowed somewhat during the 2010 as he toured relentlessly
and immersed himself in the music and culture of his new home in Miami. Still, 2010
saw the well-received release of Big Poppa E Live in 2010, as well as his celebrated
children's album, Children's Classics on the Black Owl Music label.
Poppa E is headed back into the studio in early 2011 to work on a new projected aptly
entitled, Bootleggers Blues. As the title suggests, this twelve-track set marks the fortieth
anniversary of Poppa E's rich and varied recording career by mixing original material,
chestnuts borrowed from classic sources, and songs written by a cadre of
highly talented guest artists from around the globe.
"The one thing I've always demanded of the records I've made is that they be listenable
and danceable," he says. "If the record is danceable, it's listenable, it has lots of
different rhythms, it's accessible, it's all right in front of you. It's a lot of fun, and it
represents where I am at this particular moment in my life. This record is just the beginning
of another chapter, one that's going to be open to more music and more ideas. Even at
the end of forty years, in many ways my music is just getting started."
figure in the late 20th century blues and roots music. Though his career began more
than four decades ago with American jazz, he has broadened his artistic scope over the
years to include music representing many varied genres.
Born Mutasim Ra'id Faisal in New York on May 4, 1948. His father was a jazz pianist,
composer and arranger of Caribbean descent, and his mother was a gospel singing
schoolteacher from Louisiana. Both parents encouraged their children to take pride in
their diverse ethnic and cultural roots. His father had an extensive record collection and a
shortwave radio that brought sounds from near and far into the home.
Early in his childhood, the young musician learned to play the tenor and alto sax,
trombone and harmonica, and he loved to sing. He discovered his father's guitar and
became serious about it in his early teens when a guitarist from Mississippi moved in next
door and taught him the various styles of Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, John
Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed and other titans of Delta and Chicago blues.
New York in the 1950s was full of recent arrivals, not just from around the U.S. but from
all over the globe. "We spoke several dialects in my house – Southern, Caribbean,
African – and we heard dialects from eastern and western Europe," Poppa E recalls. In
addition, musicians from the Caribbean, Africa and all over the U.S. frequently visited
the Faisal home, and Poppa E became even more fascinated with roots – the origins of all
the different forms of music he was hearing, what path they took to reach their
current form, and how they influenced each other along the way. He threw himself into
the study of older forms of African-American music – a music that the record companies
of the day largely ignored.
Musi, as he was affectionately called, studied economics at Syracuse University in the
late 1960s and later law at the University of Chicago. Inspired by a dream, he adopted the
musical alias of E and later was crowned "Big Poppa E" by one of Miami's top promoters,
DJ Oski. After graduating, he headed west in to Los Angeles, where he worked as a
studio musician for the next 15 years for numerous high-profile studios, including Bolic
Sound, Motown West and Sussex Records. Around this same time, Poppa E also mingled
with various blues legends, including Koko Taylor, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, and
Sleepy John Estes.
This diversity of musical experience served as the bedrock for Poppa E's first three
recordings: Southern Style: blues Sessions (2006), Mississippi Reminiscence (2007) and
Five Long Years, A Tribute to Carey Bell (2008). Drawing on all the sounds and styles
he'd absorbed as a child and a young adult, these early albums showed signs of the
musical exploration that would be Poppa E's hallmark over the next few years.
In 2008, Poppa E carved out a unique musical niche with a string of adventurous
recordings, including Blues A Healer, Crossroads and Anthology du Blues. In 2008,
Poppa
E's version of Terraplane Blues was nominated by the International Academy of
Independent Artist for Best Blues Song of the Year and his album, Blues Healer was
nominated for Best Blues Album of the Year by Cash Box Magazine.
Poppa E's recorded output slowed somewhat during the 2010 as he toured relentlessly
and immersed himself in the music and culture of his new home in Miami. Still, 2010
saw the well-received release of Big Poppa E Live in 2010, as well as his celebrated
children's album, Children's Classics on the Black Owl Music label.
Poppa E is headed back into the studio in early 2011 to work on a new projected aptly
entitled, Bootleggers Blues. As the title suggests, this twelve-track set marks the fortieth
anniversary of Poppa E's rich and varied recording career by mixing original material,
chestnuts borrowed from classic sources, and songs written by a cadre of
highly talented guest artists from around the globe.
"The one thing I've always demanded of the records I've made is that they be listenable
and danceable," he says. "If the record is danceable, it's listenable, it has lots of
different rhythms, it's accessible, it's all right in front of you. It's a lot of fun, and it
represents where I am at this particular moment in my life. This record is just the beginning
of another chapter, one that's going to be open to more music and more ideas. Even at
the end of forty years, in many ways my music is just getting started."