Doña Oxford

Doña Oxford was excited.  Oxford is known for being excited about her music, but this time she was excited because she had just introduced me to Ray Kurzweil at the NAMM 2016 Kurzweil electric keyboard booth where, the day before, Stevie Wonder had shown up, sat down at the keyboard Oxford  had just vacated and started to play for the assembled crowd.  But she was even more excited about the fact that later in evening she would be playing for Wonder at the Kurzweil Private party. “He touched my sweat on the keys! Stevie Wonder touched my sweat on the keys,’ she exclaimed, “and now I will be playing for him”. But that is a common story for Oxford, known to her legions of fans as the Queen of Boogie-woogie and the Goddess of Soul. Many, many greats have asked her to play for them on stage, in the recording studio and on tour.  Her keyboard chops (she also plays drums), her energy, her voice and her songwriting have been recognized over and over as one of the best in the blues/R&B and boogie world. She is so much in demand that on one of her European tours Van Morrison tracked her down at a train station getting ready to head to her next gig in the South of England and demanded that she stay in London that night and record with his band (she did). And the list goes on: Albert Lee, Roger Daltry, Elliot Randal of Steely Dan, Levon... Read More