Judy Blair

Judy Blair (born December 29, 1948) is an American musician, singer, piano and Hammond B3 organ player, a composer of jazz, blues, rhythm & blues and boogie music. She is a Hammond organ virtuoso whose musical career began in the United States in the 1960s and continues in France where she has lived since 1994. She has recorded four solo albums.

Biography

Beginning Judy Blair was born in East Texas to a family of Scottish Irish and Native American origins.

She learned to play piano by ear at a very early age and was already playing piano at the Baptist Church alongside her cousin by the time she was 6 years old.

At the age of 8 or 9, she began lessons with Mrs Louise Powell (who also played by ear and helped her to develop this ability as well as teaching her to read music).

When she was 11, she joined her first band, a group of young (13 years old) local jazz musicians, and together they won first prize at "The Battle of the Bands", a competition held in Shreveport, among other places, living the life of a nomad, as it was easy at that time to have a "sit down" music gig and stay in a place for a month or two or longer.

French period In 1994, Judy Blair moved to Southwest France, settling in the Quercy region near the city of Cahors in the Lot. which all include some of her original material. In 1997, she recorded and produced an album in France called Les Couleurs du Noir et Blanc on which she plays solo piano and sings ballads and American Standards. In 1999, she recorded The Other Place in Dallas (Texas) in collaboration with her brother, Donny Blair on which she sings and plays piano and Hammond B3 along with her brother Donny Blair (guitar), Abdu Salim (tenor saxophone), Christian " Ton Ton " Salut (drums) and guest artist Lucky Peterson (vocals, piano, Hammond B3 on 2 of the songs). All the songs on this album were written by Judy and one was co-written by Lucky Peterson.

Blair performs at numerous concerts as a solo artist as well as with different musical formations, especially in France (3 times at Jazz in Marciac in 1995, 1998 and 2006, in S.W. France (Lot).

She played two evenings of Blues & Rock as a member of the band "Gary Brooker and Friends" Gary (vocals, keyboard), Andy Fairweather Low (guitar and vocals), Dave Bronze (bass) and Paul Beavis (drums) at Le Vigan in August 2013.

She played in duo (vocals, piano) with the late Serge Oustiakine (bass) at Albas Jazz in the Lot earlier in 2013 (June). On Valentine's Day (February 14, 2014) she played a solo concert in Lherm (in the Lot).

On May 7, 2014, she teamed up with François Bréant (composer, keyboard player, vocalist & producer) to play for charity again for the Rotary Club of Cahors. This concert was dedicated to music from the sixties and all benefits went to medical research for children's kidney disease.

Personal life She is the sister of jazz guitarist Donny Blair.

Blair is married to Jack Lestrade, a French American watercolor artist

Discography Les Couleurs du Noir et Blanc (1997) The Other Place (1999) Close Encounter (2000) Sunshine (2005)