| Blues man Elmo Preston has trvaled and performed all over the world but Chicago is where he learned to play and Hyde Park is where he want's to stay Preston and his band just recently performed at Nichols Park rounding up the parks concert series. A native of Puerto Rico, Preston played reggae, calypso, jazz and salsa before he came to Chicago in 1971 for a short while. After his arrival,he became heavily intermixed with the blues scene and he have since worked with such blues greats as Big Time Sarah, Lonnie Brooks, Sugar Blue, Johhny Dollar, Albert King, Son Seals and a host of others. "I begged them to teach me. The blues men treated me real nice, it didn"t matter that I was Puerto Rican," |
| Local blues man's music so hot it sizzles |
| Preston said. Preston got the oportunity to cultivate his crsft as a blues musician when he began playing with the house band of the famous Chicago blues club, Kingston Mines. The vocalist, guitarist, bass player and composer said part of what he enjoys about being a musician is the finished product. "I like to compose a song and then hear the song being played and then listening to the audiences enjoying the music," he said. Preston has just in the last year returned to Chicago after a four year stay in Philsdelphia and has recently completed a tour in the caribbean. "We went to St. Croix, St. Thomas and Puerto Rico. It was relly nice all the people on the beach having. |
| wrote most of the music and arranged the horns. He added " playing the blues is real hard work and the hardest part is making it look easy." |
| a good time," said Preston about performing in paradise. Preston has a new CD in sores and it's entitled These Blues is Killing me. He also |
| by Monique Smith |
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| page 8 hyde park herald, wednesday, august 16, 2000 |
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| Elmo Preston, second from left and the mem-bers of his band on their latest CD released by Irreg- ular Records |
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