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Concert to benefit Kooper's "It Can Happen" Berklee Scholarship Fund and Perkins School for the Blind
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Al Kooper
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BOSTON, January 14, 2004 — Rock music icon and former Berklee professor Al Kooper has been central to so many prime rock moments across the past four decades (appearing on twelve of Rolling Stone magazine's recently named "500 greatest albums of all time") — from Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird." Now Kooper has another party in the works — his own 60th birthday celebration.
Kooper will mark the occasion with a benefit concert with his band, the Funky Faculty (all Berklee faculty members), with whom he has toured internationally for several years. Kooper was on Berklee's Music Production and Engineering faculty from 1997 to 2000. In 2001, he received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from the college. On Saturday, January 31, 2004, Dr. Al and the Funky Faculty, along with special guest pianist Tony DeBlois and a few surprises, will hit the stage at 8 p.m. in the wheelchair-accessible Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, in Boston. For more information on this and other concerts, visit the Berklee Web site.
Tickets are available at the BPC box office (in person only) for $15, $25, and $35, with special Golden Circle seats at $75. (Student discount tickets are available, two per student with a valid ID, at $10 off each ticket price.) Tickets are also available from TicketMaster, 617-931-2000.
Proceeds from this event are designated for Al Kooper's "It Can Happen" Scholarship Fund for Berklee students with disabilities, and for Perkins School for the Blind. The concert will be recorded and videotaped, with plans for a DVD available for onsite release.
"What better way to celebrate one's ascent in life," says Kooper, "than to jam with friends for the benefit of those not as fortunate as ourselves? In 1998, I started a scholarship fund for students with disabilities who wished to attend Berklee. In 2001, I permanently lost 2/3 of my sight and had an unrelated brain tumor removed. I am adjusted to my sight loss and totally recovered from my surgery, and I feel it was a message to me from on high to keep assisting those with talent and physical disabilities. Perkins School for the Blind helps 40,000 people in New England and around the globe lead independent lives in the face of physical obstacles. If we can lend a hand to help Perkins and Berklee continue to make a difference in the lives of so many people, we should take every opportunity to do so. I wish to thank Lee Berk, Rob Rose, and Berklee for all their assistance in making this concert happen, and for assisting me in starting my scholarship fund."
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Tony DeBlois
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Pianist Tony DeBlois, who graduated magna cum laude from Berklee in 1996, will be a special guest performer at the January 31st concert. Blind, autistic, and a musical savant, DeBlois was the subject of a 1997 CBS television movie-of-the-week, "Journey of the Heart," which starred Cybil Shepherd.
The Funky Faculty includes Berklee faculty members Bob Doezema (guitar), Daryl Lowery (sax), Jeff Stout (trumpet), Tom Stein (bass), and Larry Finn (drums).
"It Can Happen" Scholarship Fund
Al Kooper's "It Can Happen" Scholarship Fund was established in 1998 in an effort to support adaptive technology for physically challenged Berklee students. "I want to do what I can to make sure that anyone who has the talent and perseverance to begin a music career at Berklee can do that," Kooper said. "Simply put, now we can make it happen." Contributions to Al Kooper's "It Can Happen" Scholarship may also be sent to Berklee College of Music, ATTN: Marjorie O'Malley, Office of Development, 1140 Boylston St., Boston, MA, 02215-3693. (Please indicate the scholarship name on the check.)
Perkins School for the Blind
Founded in 1829 as the nation's first school for the blind, Perkins School for the Blind, located in Watertown, Massachusetts, has been and continues to be a source of inspiration and opportunity for people across the nation and the world who are blind, deaf-blind, or with multiple disabilities. Perkins provides its students with the tools and knowledge to chart a course toward each individual's maximum level of independence, rich in experience and overflowing with potential. Spanning over 175 years, the history of the school is a testament to this claim.
Al Kooper
Al Kooper's most recent appearance for a Berklee audience was at the college's Ninth Annual Encore Gala in October, where he and his friend Dennis Montgomery III, assistant professor at Berklee, performed a song they wrote in honor of retiring President Lee Eliot Berk — "Musical Fortress: The Lee Berk Song." Montgomery, who wrote the music, performed lead vocals, accompanied by a stage full of students from his Berklee Reverence Gospel Ensemble and the Berklee City Music program. Kooper wrote the lyrics – among them, "…Lee Berk's name backwards is a musical acronym, so he went right to work in the school they named after him." Kooper and the Funky Faculty also performed at the event. The Gala benefits Berklee City Music, a program created by Lee Berk to provide free music education to talented urban youth.
Kooper was an Associate Professor of Music Production and Engineering at Berklee from 1997 to 2000. (In 2001, the college presented an Honorary Doctor of Music degree to him.) "I felt it was time to give some of this knowledge back, and I chose Berklee because the student talent level is the highest in the world," said Kooper. "They're gonna completely 'get' what I'm teaching and I really can't ask for anything more." His History of Record Production class drew upon his extensive knowledge of the medium from over four decades of successful participation and apprenticeship.
Kooper has recorded and released fourteen solo albums and has played as a keyboard sideman with countless musicians, including Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones ("You Can't Always Get What You Want"), The Who, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and B.B. King. He has appeared on many of Bob Dylan's best-known albums, including "Blonde on Blonde" and "Highway 61 Revisited," recording and performing with Dylan off and on for the past 30 years.
As a producer, Kooper is responsible for discovering Lynyrd Skynyrd and producing their first three albums. He has also produced The Tubes, Nils Lofgren, B.B. King, and numerous others. Among his scores for film and TV are contributions to the soundtrack for the John Waters film, "Cry Baby," as well as scoring the groundbreaking "Crime Story" TV series. Kooper has written a monthly column for the pro audio magazine EQ and has contributed to Rolling Stone, Goldmine, Discoveries, and Live magazines. His celebrated 1977 autobiography was revised and reissued in 1998 by Billboard Books.
In 2001 Columbia/Legacy released Kooper's career-spanning retrospective Rare & Well Done: the Greatest and Most Obscure Recordings, 1964-2001. The two-disc set includes 33 tracks and over two-and-a-half hours of music. The Rare disc features 18 unreleased gems from Kooper's vaults, plus his long out-of-print first single from 1965. The Well Done disc features Kooper's collaborations with The Blues Project; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Mike Bloomfield; Stephen Stills; Shuggie Otis, and many others; plus the best tracks from Kooper's solo albums. Both discs were digitally re-mastered under Kooper's supervision.
For more press information, members of the media may contact:
(Also see: www.alkooper.com)
Toni Ballard
Office of Public Information
Berklee College of Music
tballard@berklee.edu
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