Staff, faculty get head start on Mondavi tickets, including those for Buddy Guy

by Dave Jones
August 13, 2010

Photo: Buddy Guy — Blues legend Buddy Guy is set to play the Mondavi Center for the first time: April 22, 1011.

Staff and faculty are getting their customary head start on Pick 3 and single-event ticket sales at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. And when those sales begin next week, there will be something extra to choose from:

A “just-added” event, one you will not see in the 2010-11 season brochure that came out earlier this year: a concert by blues legend Buddy Guy, scheduled for 8 p.m. April 22 in Jackson Hall. See below for more about Guy.

Pick 3 and single-event tickets for Guy and the rest of the Mondavi Center’s ninth season are due to go on sale to the general public on Aug. 23.

The head start for faculty and staff is Aug. 20 and 21 (the box office is closed Aug. 22).

Staff and faculty are entitled to a 20 percent discount on Pick 3 plans (three events of your choosing) and a 10 percent discount on single-event tickets.

To get the discounts, you must go to the box office — unless you have previously verified your employee status with the box office, (in which case you can order by phone), or unless you have a promotional code (in which case you can order online).

'Raw, blistering vocals and high-voltage guitar'

Guy’s career spans more than 50 years — and his music today is still as vital as ever. His latest album is Skin Deep — all original material, with guest appearances by fellow guitar wizards Eric Clapton, Robert Randolph, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks.

A Mondavi Center news release describes the 74-year-old guy as a pioneer of Chicago’s fabled West Side sound, a living link to that city’s halcyon days of electric blues, and a chief influence to rock titans like Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Rolling Stone puts Guy 30th on the magazine’s listing of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2008, at the age of 71, he made the Rolling Stone cover for the first time — in connection with “Stone Crazy,” ranked 78th among the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.

Guy received a National Medal of Arts in 2003 and a place in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. He is the recipient of 29 W.C. Handy Blues Awards, five Grammy Awards and the Billboard Magazine Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement.

His live performances are legendary, as illustrated by this New York Times review of his appearance in June of this year at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival: “Mr. Guy, the 73-year-old blues guitarist that no one should challenge … (showed) how to make (notes) signify pain, suspense, pride and rage rather than technical skill.”

As Guy’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame biography notes, “He’s renowned for his raw, blistering vocals and high-voltage guitar playing … employing feedback, distortion and extreme string-bending.”