by Jesse Ziebart, Cultural Programs Manager

It’s a wrap! Thank you to everybody who showed up to BIMA’s first-ever MOJO Rhythm & Blues Festival! What a weekend and what a thrilling weekend of music and learning!

During the day, local blues artists Chebon Tiger and Tina Dietz drew steady crowds in the galleries, and blues documentarians and biographers Mark Hoffman, Jim Basnight, and Steve Franz shared their favorite blues tunes and presented fascinating & insightful programs on Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Chicago’s Maxwell Street. The evening concerts inspired three consecutive nights of standing ovations and if you attended any of these performances, you experienced the magic and wonder of world-class musicianship and true artistry. This weekend highlighted the rich Seattle music scene and celebrated a genre that shaped the last 100 years of popular music.

Tiffany Wilson kicked things off Thursday night with her smokin’ six-piece soul-funk extravaganza that had people singing along and on their feet, getting down with their bad selves in the aisles. Friday night, Tacoma singer-songwriter Stephanie Anne Johnson swept audiences away her magical and emotional original music, and everybody fell in love with her. After one song she commented, “Wow, you are an affectionate audience!” We love you, Stephanie! If Thursday was funky and Friday night was soulful, Saturday night was on fire.

Mark Pickerel & the Peyote 3 and Ian Moore & the Mescal 4’s sold-out Saturday night rock and roll show blew the doors off of the building. Featuring legendary Seattle musician, Mark Pickerel, blues virtuoso Ian Moore, and a band full of members of the Posies, the Shins, the Cops, the Screaming Trees, the Intelligence this night of music was an unrelenting wall of rock and roll that sunk its teeth in and never let go.

Keep that MOJO workin’! See you in 2020!