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Michael Cala
Blues journalist and media producer
About Me
Michael Cala has been writing and photographing professionally for
most of his adult life. For the past 10, he has been a writer-producer
and photographer for Internet content and multimedia for ad agencies,
nonprofits, and a major New York City medical center. He also co-
produces traditional music concerts.
This past year has involved managing a self-initiated fundraising
project to buy and maintain a headstone for jazz and blues pioneer
Mamie Smith, who had lain in an unmarked grave on Staten Island since
her death in 1946 -- 68 years ago! Mamie's wild success with her
Crazy Blues in 1920 -- the first-ever recorded blues by an African
American woman -- encouraged record companies to break the race
barrier and start recording African American blues and jazz singers.
Thanks to Mamie, by 1926 hundreds of now-famous blues and jazz artists
-- from Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong to Robert Johnson and Blind
Lemon Jefferson -- were recorded by companies who would not have done
so had Mamie not sold over 75,000 copies of Crazy Blues in a single
month.
I've raised money to put a down payment on a headstone for Mamie, and
now we need additional funds to shore up her grave and establish a
maintenance fund at the African American cemetery where she is buried.
The Mamie Smith crowdfunding project is live on Indiegogo right now
(until July 12, 2014) at http://igg.me/at/mamie3
In addition, on July 20, we're having a day-into-evening live blues
event that's really got some buzz on social media. To find out more,
go to
https://www.facebook.com/mamiespage and click on the BLUES FOR MAMIE
poster.
Conbtributing on INDIEGOGO, coming to the event, and sharing this
information with friends is a great way to support this cause.
In addition to the Mamie project, I've also been writing for the newly
constituted Blues Music Magazine, which arose, phoenix-like, from the
conflagration of its former iteration as Blues Revue (for which I
wrote from 2000-2012). Two recent features I wrote are a longish
profile of blues pianist Marcia Ball and her bass player Don Bennett,
and a look at the youngest blues band ever, the Homemade Jamz Blues
Band.
My Jazz Story
I love jazz because...it moves me. I was first exposed to jazz through my father when I was a toddler. I met [musician name]... The best show I ever attended was... The first jazz record I bought was "Holloway" My advice to new listeners...keep listening and turn that radio dial Or whatever else you have in mind.