Introducing Jeff Dale’s Blues Quartet:

Take two highly trained and respected classical musicians and pair them with two seasoned blues players and you’ve got the Blues Quartet. This unlikely musical juncture is the brainchild of bluesman Jeff Dale.

“I know lots of musicians from all walks of life,” said Jeff. “I got to thinking one day about how it might sound singing and playing the blues on my guitar backed up not only by the traditional harmonica but adding the colors and textures of some other acoustic instruments, maybe even orchestral ones.”

Jeff reached out to Dane Little, cellist for the LA Opera, and ran the idea past him.

“Much to my surprise and delight” Dale said, “Dane not only was interested in giving it a go but recommended we invite bass clarinetist Phil O’Connor to join us.”

With no expectations Jeff, Dane, Phil and Geoff Mohan, harmonica player from the South Woodlawners, got together to play and realized right away they were all on to something.

“Classical musicians aren’t known for their ability to improvise,” explained Jeff, “but Dane and Phil understood the feel of the blues instantly and were drawing out sounds from their instruments that must have surprised the hell out of those instruments.”

The Blues Quartet plays Jeff Dale’s original music with covers of Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson classics thrown in the mix.

“This is the blues, the only music I know how to play” said Jeff, “but the blues never sounded like this before. It’s a big leap from the electric Chicago blues I play with the South Woodlawners but it’s an even bigger leap from what Dane and Phil do with the L.A. Opera.”

The Blues Quartet is a unique mash up of two different musical worlds, a sound defined by two blues players and two classical musicians who find common ground in the language of this original American art form. The Blues Quartet speaks the language of the blues fluently, with a unique accent.