Music & Dance
Cephas and Wiggins
Washington, DC
Piedmont-style Blues
John Cephas and Phil Wiggins, leading exponents of the Piedmont Blues, first met in 1976 at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., where Cephas was backing pianist Wilber "Big Chief" Ellis and Wiggins was accompanying slide guitarist and gospel singer, Flora Molton. Along with Ellis and bassist James Bellamy, John and Phil formed the Barrelhouse Rockers, and, after Ellis' death in 1977, Cephas & Wiggins was formed.
John Cephas was born into a religious family in Washington, D.C. in 1930 and raised in Bowling Green, Virginia. His first taste of music was gospel, but blues soon became his calling. After learning to play the alternating thumb and finger-picking guitar style that defines Piedmont blues, John began emulating the recordings of music by Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake, Rev. Gary Davis and other early blues artists. Since teaming up with Wiggins, he has served as an ambassador of this singular American art form. Among his many endeavors, John serves on the Executive Committee of the National Council for the Traditional Arts and is a founder of the Washington, D.C. Blues Society.
Phil Wiggins was born in Washington, D.C. in 1954. He began his musical career with some of Washington's leading blues artists, including Archie Edwards and John Jackson, and attributes his harmonica style to his years accompanying Molton. His sound developed from listening to piano and horn players, as well as the music of Sonny Terry, Sonny Boy Williamson I, Little Walter, Big Walter Horton and Junior Wells. Phil also apprenticed with Mother Scott, a contemporary of legendary singer Bessie Smith. Besides being a renowned harmonica player, Wiggins is also a gifted songwriter and singer whose material has helped define the duo's sound.
In 1987, Cephas & Wiggins was awarded the W.C. Handy "Blues Entertainers of the Year" and "Best Traditional Album of the Year" and, in 1989, John Cephas was awarded a National Heritage Award Fellowship, presented by the National Endowment for the Arts each year to a select group of masters of the nation's traditional culture. The group performed previously in East Lansing at the 1999 National Folk Festival.
Links
www.cephasandwiggins.net
http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/fellow.php?id=1989_01
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