"Mr. Sipp, the Missippi blues belter who won the The B.B. King Entertainer of the Year trophy at the 2025 Blues Muisc Awards, opened up the festival's big Jimmy Lyons Stage on Day 2 of the this three-day festival at the Monterey County Fairgrounds and had fans thoroughly grooving along to his guitar-drenched tunes. "Can we turn this place into a juke joint real quick?" Sipp asked the crowd. "In a juke joint, they don't sit down. Get up! Everybody get on up!" He didn't have issue that command a third time, as people rose to their feet and acted as if they weren't in Monterey, but rather at Po' Monkey's or some other cool juke joint in the Mississippi Delta."
"Smith, who is blessed with a muscular singing voice and is an absolute beast on the guitar, brought a real party atmosphere to the often-quite-sedate Garden Stage area. It started with the beach balls - something you're presumably more likely to see at a Los Angeles Dodgers game than a jazz festival - which were tossed out into the crowd during, appropriately enough, the Albert King favorite "Let's Have a Natural Ball." Smith is a charismatic frontman, who just eats up the bright lights and big moments. Yet, he's also a generous one, providing plenty of space for his talented bandmembers - drummer Tim Richard, bassist Stevie Q, On Bass, saxophonist Noel Catura and pianist Scott Porter - to shine. Smith closed his winning set with a screaming version of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," which brought the guitarist, bassist and saxophonist down from the stage and out into the crowd for some prime boogie-woogie time with the fans."
Mr. Sipp, a Mississippi blues belter and 2025 B.B. King Entertainer of the Year winner, opened the Monterey Jazz Festival's Jimmy Lyons Stage with guitar-drenched, danceable tunes. He urged the crowd to treat the venue like a juke joint, prompting attendees to stand and groove as if at Po' Monkey's in the Mississippi Delta. Later, San Jose's J.C. Smith Band delivered a rowdy hourlong set on the Tim Jackson Garden Stage, tossing beach balls during "Let's Have a Natural Ball" and spotlighting bandmembers Tim Richard, Stevie Q, Noel Catura and Scott Porter. Smith closed with an energetic "Johnny B. Goode," engaging fans in boogie-woogie.
Read at The Mercury News
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