Where Were You Anthony Geraci

• 1 Where Were You 06:04
• 2 Brooklyn Boogie 03:17
• 3 All's I Got Is You 03:14
• 4 Caterpillar Dance 04:26
• 5 Rockin' Til Dawn 03:01
• 6 Say La-Ti-Da 03:37
• 7 Flowers For Marianne 04:45
• 8 Even A Fool's Right Once In Awhile 03:15
• 9 Stop Sneaking Around 03:40
• 10 Breaking Bread 03:29
• 11 Oobiedoobie Man 03:22
• 12 Suite: Blues 04:17
• Total Runtime 46:27

Info zu Where Were You

Anthony Geraci is one of those musicians whose career, in itself, tells the story of contemporary blues. A pianist with an instantly recognisable touch, a subtle composer and a long-time collaborator with the greats, for over four decades he has embodied a rare musical elegance, nourished as much by tradition as by an insatiable curiosity.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Geraci began studying classical piano at a very early age before turning to the blues and jazz, drawn in by the emotional power of Muddy Waters, Otis Spann and Big Maceo. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, he became one of the pillars of the Boston scene in the 1980s, co-founding Sugar Ray & The Bluetones, a band that achieved cult status for its musical rigour and absolute respect for the language of the blues. At the same time, he joined Ronnie Earl’s Broadcasters, with whom he recorded major albums and honed a style characterised by restraint, breathing space and depth.

His career has been a succession of prestigious collaborations with Big Walter Horton, Carey Bell, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, Duke Robillard, Monster Mike Welch and so many others. Anthony Geraci is not merely an exceptional sideman; he is a sonic architect, a musician who knows how to listen, leave space, and enhance the voices and guitars around him. For the past decade or so, he has also pursued a critically acclaimed solo career, garnering numerous nominations at the Blues Music Awards and the Grammy Awards.

With ‘Where Were You’, Anthony Geraci has released a deeply personal, almost introspective album on Delmark, which explores time, absences, and the traces left by encounters and losses. The title itself sounds like a hanging question, addressed as much to the listener as to life itself. From the very first bars, we recognise Geraci’s signature style: a warm piano, never showy, yet with formidable emotional precision. Here, the blues is not a stylistic exercise, but an intimate language. Anthony Geraci plays as one tells a story, with nuances, pauses and silences that matter just as much as the notes.

The album navigates between several moods, featuring bluesy ballads where the piano takes on an intimate, almost narrative quality; more energetic tracks, driven by an impeccable rhythm section and guest vocalists such as Sheryl Youngblood and Barrence Whitfield, who add depth without ever stealing the limelight; and, finally, instrumental pieces that reveal the full subtlety of his composition.

Anthony Geraci isn’t trying to impress; he simply seeks to move the listener. And he succeeds, particularly in the tracks where his playing evokes the fragility of an Otis Spann or the nobility of a Charles Brown. You sense an artist who knows the history of the blues inside out, but who refuses to set it in stone. He moves forward, he explores, he questions.

The Delmark production, true to its aesthetic, showcases the warmth of the piano and the band’s dynamics. Nothing is over-mixed, nothing is artificial; you feel as though you’re in the room, just a few metres from the keyboard.

What strikes you about ‘Where Were You’ is its coherence. Each track seems to respond to the one before it, as if Geraci were unravelling an invisible narrative thread. There is nostalgia, yes, but never any self-indulgence. There is virtuosity, but always in the service of emotion. There is blues, but a blues that is alive, breathing, and rooted in the present.

The artist has produced one of his most accomplished albums here, a mature work that could well become a landmark in his discography. For fans of piano blues, it’s an absolute must-have. An album that doesn’t seek to be spectacular, but offers something far rarer: musical truth.

Anthony Geraci, piano, Hammond organ, vocals
Barrence Whitfield, vocals
Dave Specter, guitar
Barrett Anderson, guitar
Jon McDonald, guitar
Mario Perrett, saxophone
Anne Harris, violin
Rodrigo Mantovani, bass
Tom Terry, bass
Sheryl Youngblood, drums
Nick Toscano, drums
John Medeiros Jr., drums
Pooky Styx, drums

Anthony Geraci
is a two-time Blues Music Award (BMA) Winner from The Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN for Instrumentalist-Piano/Pinetop Perkins Piano Award. He has 18 personal BMA Nominations as well as a Grammy Nomination for Super Harps I (Telarc). Anthony has toured world-wide for over 40 years with Ronnie Earl, Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, The Proven Ones, and his own band The Boston Blues All-Stars, which were nominated 3 times for Band of the Year by the Blues Foundation. He has recorded with traditional blues artists such as Bob Corritore, Willie Buck, Welch/Ledbetter, Charlie Musselwhite, Teeny Tucker, Sugaray Rayford, Zora Young and many more. He has also toured with Otis Rush, J.B. Hutto, Hubert Sumlin, & Big Joe Turner. He has played piano backing up Big Mama Thorton, Chuck Berry, & John Lee Hooker. Anthony has had the honor to sit in with Muddy Waters and B.B King.

“It’s been said often that one’s reputation is determined by the people one picks as friends and collaborators. If true, then count Anthony Geraci as one well respected musician. In his performance of various piano styles, Geraci presents listeners with a concise history of the piano in American roots music.” -Art Tipaldi – Editor, Blues Music Magazine

Anthony R. Geraci (born 1954) is an American blues and jazz pianist, organist, singer and composer. A keyboard player with a professional career in excess of 40 years, Geraci has played on stage with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Chuck Berry, Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner, and Jimmy Rogers, and has recorded work with Big Walter Horton, Ronnie Earl, Big Jack Johnson, Zora Young, Sugaray Rayford, Debbie Davies, and Kenny Neal among others. Geraci’s work has been nominated for a Grammy Award, and he has had numerous Blues Music Award nominations. In addition to his work with others, Geraci has released eight albums in his own name.

He is an original member of both Sugar Ray & the Bluetones and Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters.

Anthony Geraci was born in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. He was raised in a home without any musical connection but decided at the age of four that he wanted a piano. This unusual request was rewarded with the acquisition of an old upright piano costing $25.00, and Geraci started taking piano lessons. A few years later, a Kimball baby grand piano was purchased by his mother, as Geraci’s playing proficiency grew. He had lessons at the Neighborhood School of Music, where at the age of 16, Geraci and a schoolfriend heard Jimmy Rogers recording of “Chicago Bound” (1954) which shaped his destiny. Geraci went on to graduate from the Berklee College of Music with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and then from Skidmore College with a Master of Arts degree in jazz studies. In the early 1970s, Gerachi relocated to Boston, Massachusetts and began immersing himself in the local blues and jazz scenes. Around 1974, Geraci was the opening act for a week of performances by Muddy Waters. He commenced playing with Jerry Portnoy and Bob Margolin when they were not touring with Muddy Waters. Through that connection he was approached by Michael “Mudcat” Ward and Ronnie Earl, and they jointly undertook gigs in both Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. Their drummer, Neil Gouvin, then brought Sugar Ray Norcia to attend one of those performances, and the original line-up of Sugar Ray & the Bluetones was formed. In the early days of the group, they backed several touring Chicago blues musicians such as Big Walter Horton, J. B. Hutto, and Hubert Sumlin; plus had a gig backing Junior Wells in Westerly, Rhode Island. In the late 1970s, the group also recorded a four-track single for Baron Records, with “Oh Baby” as the lead track. Otis Rush was a fan of the recording. Over this period, the Bluetones also backed Memphis Slim for a few concerts in the Boston area.

In 1984, Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters was formed, with Geraci a founding member. Geraci continued to work in both the Broadcasters and the Bluetones, then in 1992, he was also an original member of the Blue Monday All-Star Band at the first House of Blues in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1994, the album Take It from Me, billed as by Little Anthony & Sugar Ray Garcia, was issued by Tone-Cool Records. Superharps was an album issued in October 1999 that featured four harmonica players; James Cotton, Charlie Musselwhite, Billy Branch, and Sugar Ray Norcia, with piano accompaniment by Geraci. It garnered a nomination in the Best Traditional Blues Album category in 2001 for a Grammy Award.

In 2005, Geraci recorded and released, The Gift on Sunset Jazz Records, which was followed by Wake Up (2008). The jazz-tinged collection, Serendipity, was the next, issued in 2011. In addition to recording, Geraci maintained an educational schedule and taught for over 12 years at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont. He has taught at the South Shore Conservatory in Massachusetts since 2012. His 2015 album, Fifty Shades of Blue, was released by Delta Groove Productions. It earned Geraci multiple Blues Music Award nominations for ‘Best Song’, ‘Best Album’, and ‘Best Traditional Blues Album’, with Geraci getting an individual nomination for the ‘Pinetop Perkins Piano Player’. The album’s title of Fifty Shades of Blue reflected the differing blues elements in the recording. Traditional Chicago blues was reflected in the ballad sung by Norcia, plus another sung by Michelle “Evil Gal” Willson. Other vocalists included Darrell Nulisch with a slow blues track, whereas an up-tempo blues was sung by Toni Lynn Washington. The instrumentals sent a nod to Freddie King on “In The Quicksand, Again,” plus a tribute to the recently departed Boston blues pianist, David Maxwell. Monster Mike Welch provided guitar work on several tracks. In addition to a slew of Blues Music Award nominations, Fifty Shades Of Blue was also nominated for Traditional Blues Album of the year by Blues Blast, got a four-star review rating in DownBeat magazine. The album was credited to Anthony Geraci and the Boston Blues All-Stars.

For his next album, Why Did You Have to Go, Geraci penned “Baptized in the River Yazoo” and “Why Did You Have to Go” in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Geraci stated “there’s something in the air down there.” The album was recorded in two distinct locations and incorporated many of the musicians that Geraci had worked with over the years. This included the original line-up of Sugar Ray and the Bluetones all performing on two tracks on the CD, “My Last Good-Bye” and “Times Running Out”. It was the first time the combination had recorded together, since the four-track single produced in the late 1970s.Again the recording attracted a slew of nominations for various Blues Music Awards with six in total, the most nominations for any artist in 2019. However, none of them won the title.

In July 2020, Daydreams in Blue, was released on Shining Stone Records. The album contained a dozen tracks. Ten were Geraci originals, augmented by a reworking of Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine‘s “Jelly, Jelly”, plus one co-written by Brennan, Peter Wolf and Troy Gonyea, “Dead Man’s Shoes”. Personnel included Dennis Brennan (vocals and harmonica), Jeff Armstrong (drums), Michael “Mudcat” Ward (bass guitar), Troy Gonyea (rhythm guitar) who accompanied Geraci (piano), whilst guest musicians Walter Trout and Monster Mike Welch added lead guitar parts. Unusually Geraci himself handled the vocals on the track “Tutti Frutti Booty,” the first time he had sung on any of his recordings. The poignant song, “Ode to Todd, Ella, and Mike Ledbetter”, remembered friends and family. Daydreams in Blue peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums Chart.

In 2022, Geraci signed with Blue Heart Records for release of Blues Called My Name.

Over the past decade he has fronted various performing groups. These include Anthony Geraci and the Boston Blues All-Stars; the Proven Ones that featured Kid Ramos, Willie J. Campbell, Jimi Bott and Brian Templeton; and Little Anthony & The Loco-Motives.

Geraci has performed at many festivals including the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), and Montreal International Jazz Festival (Canada).

Anthony Geraci and the Boston Blues All-Stars were a 2021 Blues Music Award nominee in the ‘Band of the Year’ category, whilst Geraci himself was nominated for the sixth consecutive time in the ‘Instrumentalist Piano (Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Award)’ category. The ceremony took place on June 6, 2021, and saw Geraci finally rewarded as that year’s Pinetop Perkins Piano Player. Geraci won his second ‘Pinetop Perkins Piano Player’ citation at the 2023 Blues Music Awards.

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