Ruth Brown

For immediate release:

R&B Legend Ruth Brown
Headlines the Luckman’s
Annual Winter Blues Concert

“Some songs that you sang years ago don’t mean now what they meant then. Ain’t nobody suffering that much right now. People making big, big money right now. Staying in fine hotels... They don’t have no cop putting a rifle on ’em and tell ’em they got to go back door to get some food.” — Ruth Brown

WHAT: Winter Blues with Ruth Brown
WHEN: Saturday, March 4, 2006, 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A.
5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032
TICKETS: $50/$45/$40. Available through the Luckman Box Office: (323) 343-6600, or Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.com.
PRE-SHOW: The University Club will be open for dinner, drinks, and appetizers, 5:30-7:45 p.m. Reservations are recommended, and may be made through the Box Office.
INFO: www.luckmanarts.org

LOS ANGELES – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ruth Brown will headline the upcoming annual Luckman Fine Arts Complex Winter Blues show. Brown is a Grammy®, Tony and W.C. Handy Award winner whose long career began with a string of chart toppers for Atlantic Records in the 1950s. Winter Blues will take place at the Luckman Theatre, Cal State L.A. on Saturday, March 4 at 8:00 p.m.

According to Ruth Brown’s bio, she was “the first rhythm-and-blues singer – every black woman before her was either a jazz, blues or gospel vocalist.” Brown added the element of rhythm, and throughout the 1950s, hit the charts with million-sellers including “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean,” “5-10-15 Hours,” “Teardrops From My Eyes” and “So Long.” When she fell from the limelight in the 1960s, she had to support her children by driving a school bus and scrubbing floors. Since the early 1980s, Brown has experienced a career renaissance, including a starring role on Broadway in Black and Blue, for which she won a Tony.

“There are a lot of persons who profess to be playing or singing the Blues,” says Brown, talking about her CD, A Good Day for the Blues (Bulleyes Blues), “and they are doing it from a different point of view. In the years when the real Blues artists were singing it, it came from a very personal place. They were going through all kinds of social injustices and the music had to be performed under real dire circumstances. Now, the Blues has been accepted as a very cultural part of society.... For me, any day that people are kind enough to give me their attention after having done this for 53 years, it’s a good day for the Blues.”

More Jazz at the Luckman
The Luckman Fine Arts Complex enjoys a reputation for presenting top-quality jazz and Blues programming in a state-of-the art concert setting. Upcoming events include two concerts during Jazz Appreciation Month — the Luckman Jazz Orchestra: James Newton’s “Suite for Elizabeth Catlett” (April 8 at 8:00 p.m.) and Interactive Jazz: William Roper/Purple Gums (April 9 at 3:00 p.m.). The 2005-06 schedule of Luckman Fine Arts Complex performances and gallery exhibitions is available at www.luckmanarts.org.

Pre-show Dining
The adjacent University Club restaurant is open before selected performances, including Winter Blues, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Reservations are recommended, and may be made through the Box Office at the time of ticket purchase.

Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 185,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds--reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Among programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, to be housed in the Los Angeles Regional Crime Lab now under construction. www.calstatela.edu