“This fellowship is an honor that provides the means for me to expand my Blues in Schools Program which I started nearly 50 years ago. It’s a big part of the legacy of my life’s work. In addition to my touring, recording and producing, I instruct both young and adult students around the world. Now I can increase the program’s outreach.”
Billy Branch
Ambassador of Chicago Blues, Billy Branch Teaching Turkish Members of Parliament about the Blues. Photo by Rosa Branch
Photo by Rosa Branch
Billy Branch at the Boston Celtics arena, 2023. Photo by Rosa Branch
Billy Branch Bringing the Blues to China since the Early Nineties.
Blues in Schools Performance in Seattle. Photo by Rosa Branch
Billy Branch playing with the Legendary Buddy Guy. Photo by Janet Mami Takayama
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Powerful, melodic, funky, jazzy, and contemporary.
Billy Branch (Chicago Blues Ambassador) is a highly decorated musician, educator and actor who takes his role as the Ambassador of the Chicago Blues seriously, teaching, “The Blues is my/our Biography.” He’s an Emmy Award winner, a 3-time Grammy Award® nominee, and a retired Grammy® governor. He’s won multiple Blues Music Awards, and Living Blues Critics’ Awards. Billy is a proud recipient of the Keeping the Blues Alive Awards for his dynamic, innovative Blues in Schools program that he created nearly 50 years ago. Branch was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame Museum in Memphis and his work is also in the Grammy Museum’s Woody Guthrie SONGS OF CONSCIENCE, SOUNDS OF FREEDOM installation. Branch is on the Board of Directors of both the Blues Foundation and the Little Walter Foundation. Branch is one of the last living bluesmen to have been mentored by the original blues giants like Willie Dixon, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Bo Didley, etc. He appears on over 300 recordings; fifteen under his own name. Branch has recorded with such luminaries as Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor, Johnny Winter, Lou Rawls, Taj Mahal, Keb’Mo, Kingfish, Shemekia Copeland, and Bobby Rush. He is the principle actor/narrator in the recently released epic audio drama “MojaSaga.com”, a comprehensive historical fiction spanning five generations chronicling African American music from Africa to present day USA.
Alligator Records’ CEO, Bruce Iglauer says, “After learning from the masters, he [Billy] developed his own instantly recognizable, signature sound- powerful, melodic, funky, jazzy, and contemporary.”
What does the Taproot Fellowship mean to you and how will it affect your practice?
This fellowship is an honor that provides the means for me to expand my Blues in Schools Program which I started nearly 50 years ago. It’s a big part of the legacy of my life’s work. In addition to my touring, recording and producing, I instruct both young and adult students around the world. Now I can increase the program’s outreach. My students learn music theory, Blues history, performance techniques and instrument skills. They learn the Blues is the soundtrack of American history, and that the Blues gave birth to jazz, rock, R&B, pop, hip-hop, gospel and country music.
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Delores Taitano Quinata
Bilembaotuyan Maker & Player
Hagatna, Guam
Lydia “Louise” Goings (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)
Cherokee Basket Maker
Birdtown Community on the Qualla Boundary (Cherokee, NC)
David Comingdeer (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma)
Cherokee Ball Stick Maker
Flint District of the Cherokee Nation (Stilwell, OK)
TJ Sgwaayaans Young (Kaigani Haida)
Haida Wood Carver
Hydaburg, AK
Van-Anh Vanessa Vo
Vietnamese Traditional Musician & Composer
El Cerrito, CA
Reba Jo Teran (Eastern Shoshone)
Traditional Shoshone Saddle Maker & Bead Worker
Fort Washakie, WY
Raymond Wong
Traditional Chinese Lion Dancer & Martial Artist
Chinatown, Washington, DC
Ramón Rivera
Mariachi Musician & Educator
Mount Vernon, WA
Omar Santiago Fuentes
Puerto Rican Troubadour, Improviser of Verse & Décimas
Hatillo, Puerto Rico
Manuel A Delgado
Old-World Luthier
Nashville, TN
Lani Strong Hotch (Chilkat-Tlingit)
Chilkat/Ravenstail Weaver & Textile Artist
Klukwan, AK
Kewulay Kamara
Mandeng Finah Poet & Storyteller
Jackson Heights, NY
Karen Ann Hoffman (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin)
Haudenosaunee Raised Beadworker
Stevens Point, WI
Inna Kovtun
Ukrainian Ethno-Singer & Folklorist
Portland, OR
Hamid Al-Saadi
Iraqi Maqam Vocalist
Brooklyn, NY
Elena Terry (Ho-Chunk)
Indigenous Chef
Wisconsin Dells, WI
Dena Jennings
Affrolachian Musician & Culture Bearer
Nasons, VA
Chum Ngek
Cambodian Musician & Ritual Artist
Gaithersburg, MD
Billy Branch
Blues Musician
Chicago, IL
Chef BJ Dennis
Gullah Geechee Chef & Cultural Bearer
Charleston, SC
Brett Ratliff
Traditional Appalachian Musician
Stamping Ground, KY
Bruce Bradley
Tap Dancer
Flint, MI
Annetta Koruh (Hopi)
Hopi Weaver
Village Bacavi, Third Mesa-Hopi land, Arizona (Bacavi, AZ)
Alejandro López
Chicano Muralist
Santa Cruz, NM
Wayne Henderson
Appalachian Luthier & Musician
Mouth of Wilson, VA
Willard John
Moko Jumbie Stilt Dancer
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Veronica Castillo
Mexican Polychromatic Ceramicist
San Antonio, TX
Theresa Secord
Penobscot Basketmaker
Farmington, ME
Stan Rodriguez
Kumeyaay Culture Bearer
Santa Ysabel, CA
Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto
Japanese Koto Musician
Oakland, CA
Shaka Zulu
New Orleans Black Masking craftsman & stiltdancer
New Orleans, LA
Sami Abu Shumays
Arab Musician
Queens, New York, NY
Roy & PJ Hirabayashi
Japanese American Taiko Musicians
San Jose, CA
Pedro Adorno Irizarry
Puerto Rican theater artist and director
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Ofelia Esparza & Rosanna Esparza Ahrens
Chicana Altaristas
East Los Angeles, CA
Meklit Hadero
Ethio-Jazz Vocalist & Composer
San Francisco, CA
King Khazm
Hip Hop Artist
Seattle, WA
Juan Longoria, Jr.
Conjunto Accordionist & Educator
Los Fresnos, TX
Jontavious Willis
Blues Musician
Luthersville, GA
Jesus M. Cepeda Brenes
Afro-Puerto Rican Musician & Folklorist
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Iris Brown
Puerto Rican Foodways & Agriculture
Philadelphia, PA
Gertie Lopez
Tohono O'odham Waila Musician
Tucson, AZ
Eva Ybarra
Conjunto Accordionist & Bandleader
San Antonio, TX
Dr. Dwayne Tomah
Passamaquoddy Language Keeper
Edmunds, ME
Deborah Gourneau
Anishinaabe (Chippewa) Culture Bearer
Belcourt, ND
Dani Pikolakitisaata Tippmann
Miami Plant Tradition-Bearer
Myaamionki (Fort Wayne, IN)
Bill Harris
Catawba Master Potter
McConnells, SC
Carolyn Mazloomi
Quiltmaker
West Chester, OH
Adrienne Benjamin | Amikogaabawiikwe
Jingle Dress Maker, Cultural Artist
Chiminising, Misizaagaiganing (Isle, MN)
Anwan “Big G” Glover
Go-Go Music Pioneer
Washington D.C.