“Blues connects with all people who can feel sorrow and joy. The best way to fight off feeling the blues is to listen to the blues. The best blues music combines technique and feel. A person can learn how to play blues licks, just like a person can learn to play classical music from sheet music.”

Jeff Dale: What It Is? Blue Wave Blues!

Jeff Dale is an award-winning songwriter and performer, born and raised on the south side of Chicago. Having played all over the United States, he also reaches international audiences with recentshows in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Central America. The City of Los Angeles presented Jeff Dale with a Living Legend Blues Award to honor his 40 + years of performing and writing original roots music. Before he could shave, Jeff was exposed to the music and live performances of Hound Dog Taylor, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Koko Taylor and many more practitioners of Chicago blues. Jeff’s long blues lineage includes accompanying legendary performers such as Pee Wee Crayton, David “Honeyboy” Edwards the last of the original Delta bluesmen, and Lowell Fulson. Finding tapes from a show Dale did with Fulson back in 1983, led to the 2021 release of Lowell Fulson Live! With Jeff Dale & The Blue Wave Band, which garnered so much airplay. Dale has collected tales and advice in his travels through the world of the blues, being in the company of greats like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Willie Dixon, Etta James, Albert King and Clifton Chenier.                                       (Jeff Dale / Photo © by Joy Neely)

After releasing two albums of original material in the ‘80s with the Blue Wave Band, (winning a Best New Blues Band award and a Cashbox Feature Pick), Jeff reinvented himself in the 2000s with The South Woodlawners. Recently, released the 40th Anniversary Edition of 5 song Mini LP “WHAT IT IS”. Jeff Dale says: “Back in 1985, my band back then, The Blue Wave Band and I went into the storied Capitol Records Studio B and recorded our first Mini LP "What It Is." For almost 40 years I had thought that the original 2" master tapes were lost to history, only to find out late last year that a former band member had been storing them all these years. I had long wanted to remix the record which sounded contemporary in the 1980's with the producer's use of 80's effects on the vocals and instruments, but dated ever since. It was great to find out that those effects were on separate channels and that the raw, tight and live sound of the band was preserved! “What It Is" introduced my songwriting to the world, even though the band and I had been sloggin' it out on the club circuit for many years prior.”

Interview by Michael Limnios                        Archive: Jeff Dale, 2019 interview

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process?

When I first start writing songs as a teenager, much of what I wrote was long and meandering both musically and lyrically. It reflected my thought process at the time. Over the years and a thousand songs later, I started writing with much more precision. When I perform, I can tell which songs work better in a live environment and I’m constantly reshaping my sets, always seeking a more perfect blend. What has remained the same in my music creating process is the way that songs come together in my head, line by line. What’s changed is my ability to edit!

Currently you’ve one re-release of Blue Wave Band celebrating the 40th anniversary of “What It Is”. How did the idea of Blue Wave Band come about? Do you have any interesting stories about the making of album “What It Is” in 1985?

In the late 1970’s I was playing solo gigs around L.A. in coffee houses and restaurants. I was a big fan of the late great Chicagoan Steve Goodman, and I tried to emulate his one-man live approach, mixing humor with folk and blues music. I did enjoy doing what I was doing but I was missing my hometown of Chicago and listening more and more at home to all my Chicago blues records. When my best Chicago pal Lightnin’ Dan Sonenfeld moved out to L.A. as well, the lightbulb above my head went off. I wanted to trade the acoustic gigs I’d been playing for an electric blues band. Danny’s playing always reminded me of another Chicago lad, Mike Bloomfield and the first version of the Blue Wave Band was formed in the classic Chicago two guitar, harmonica, bass and drums line up. Over time we added horns and then eventually dropped the harp. I loved writing songs that featured the horns. The Blue Wave Band and I were playing tons of gigs and one day in 1985, my friend Bones Ramos called me up. He was then an assistant engineer at Capitol Records studios in Hollywood. He told me that he could get the recording hours he needed to become a full-time staff engineer if we were willing to come in at midnight and record with him through the night. It was a thrill to be in such a storied studio even though it was an all-nighter. Young people can pull that stuff off though!

“My own early journey with the blues was a process. First, I heard the music on recordings. Then I experienced blues music in a live setting. Then I had working blues musicians from Chicago’s south side teach me how to play a bit.” (Photo: Jeff Dale & The Blue Wave Band are Jeff Dale, Phil Munsey, Steve Primo, Lightnin’ Dan Sonenfeld, Granville “Little Danny” Young, Pete Zifchak)

What has made you laugh and what touched you from Blue Wave Band era?

That was the thing about the Blue Wave Band. We laughed a lot and often. From the late 1970’s to the early 1990’s, we spent a lot of time together and it was a joy. All of the many gigs with blues legends like Lowell Fulson, Pee Wee Crayton, Etta James, Long Gone Miles, Margie Evans and Smokey Wilson as well as with our contemporaries like William Clarke, James Harman, Coco Montoya and many more informs who I am today. It was an amazing period of my life. There’s was so much laughter over the years that it’s impossible to get to it all here but in regards to the “What It Is” 40th Anniversary Edition, when we recorded the album title track “What It Is,” on first playback as we all were listening intently, the tape accidentally slowed down in the bridge right as we were singing the words “my skin” so that it sounded like a long dragged out “moyyyyyyyyyyy shkinnnnnnnnnnn” Not only did the whole band crack up when that happened, to this day I can’t hear that song without thinking of that moment and laughing!

What moment changed your music life the most? With such an illustrious career, what has given you the most satisfaction musically?

Two things changed my music life the most. First, seeing Hound Dog Taylor perform up close and personal when I was a young teen. That was when I knew which creative path I wanted to follow. Secondly was any time that the originators of the music encouraged me to keep doin’ my own thing. It steeled my resolve to keep creating. I get satisfaction from every step in the creative process. Ideas turning into music, performing the music to a live audience, recording the music, it’s all very soulful as it’s all about making connections.

Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues? What's the balance in music between technique (skills) and soul/emotions?

There are times that I feel blues music is in danger of becoming a 20thcentury relic. If it’s meant to go the way of Charleston dancing or cha-cha-cha music or teenage death songs from the late 50’s and early 60’s, that would be a crime against humanity. Blues connects with all people who can feel sorrow and joy. The best way to fight off feeling the blues is to listen to the blues. The best blues music combines technique and feel. A person can learn how to play blues licks, just like a person can learn to play classical music from sheet music. The best blues musicians like the best classical musicians FEEL the music and translate those feelings as best they can to the listener.

“When I perform, I can tell which songs work better in a live environment and I’m constantly reshaping my sets, always seeking a more perfect blend. What has remained the same in my music creating process is the way that songs come together in my head, line by line. What’s changed is my ability to edit!” (Photo: Jeff Dale & The Blue Wave Band with the late great bluesman Lowell Fulson)

How has your experience with the “golden era” of blues influenced the way you compose and perform today?

As I get older, I truly am more and more grateful to the wonderful originators of this music for accepting me for who I am and allowing me to play the music that they invented. I am compelled to write songs in this style. Its in my soul but it wouldn’t be so deeply ingrained if it wasn’t for all the musicians who came before me and introduced me to the magic. Especially indebted to the giants of this music who encouraged me to keep doing what I do. I write what’s on my mind which is what they told me to do. I try my best to honor them onstage too. Pee Wee Crayton and Lowell Fulson would never take the stage in jeans and a t-shirt, so I don’t either. I often throw one of their songs into my set of originals just to be able to speak their names to the crowd and remember them.

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

My own early journey with the blues was a process. First, I heard the music on recordings. Then I experienced blues music in a live setting. Then I had working blues musicians from Chicago’s south side teach me how to play a bit. Then I started a deep dive into more recordings and seeing more blues artists perform. I was hooked and hungry for more information. I think this for the most part, holds true for most fans of the music. You hear it and it resonates somehow, and you want more. The best songs are timeless. Blues music doesn’t need to be reinvented like pop music. I feel like my own music is relevant because it comes from my current thoughts and feelings but are the sentiments in “The Thrill Is Gone” or“Blues With A Feeling” any less relevant today than when they first came out?Blues music spoke to me as a teenager, through the melodies and through the performance. All it took was the opportunity to hear it. Just need to figure out how to get blues music out of the tiny niche box it’s been in for too long and allow a wider public to experience it. I’ve had plenty of younger folks in my audiences that hear it and get it and they’re probably experiencing it for the first time.

“As I get older, I truly am more and more grateful to the wonderful originators of this music for accepting me for who I am and allowing me to play the music that they invented. I am compelled to write songs in this style. Its in my soul but it wouldn’t be so deeply ingrained if it wasn’t for all the musicians who came before me and introduced me to the magic.”

(Jeff Dale / Photo © by Joy Neely)

You’ve worked in many different settings, from clubs and studios to open air festivals and juke joints. How do you navigate between these different worlds? 

Well, the biggest difference is that songs that might work well in a smaller setting don’t always translate live to a much bigger audience. I adjust my set lists based on the venue as well as what I feel like playing that night. The desire to perform, no matter the size of the audience is what drives me onto the stage. I’ve played in some pretty ridiculous places over the years, tiny stages, giant stages, no stages and on and on. If there are folks that want to have fun with me and dig some blues, they’re gonna get a Jeff Dale show!

Jeff Dale Blues - Home