Dave Sharp and Chris Kaercher to perform with Iggy Pop and The Stooges

April 18, 2011 - PRLog -- Sydney – 19th April 2011 – Effective Immediately – Founding members of Secret Seven, Dave Sharp and Chris Kaercher, will be performing with Iggy Pop & The Stooges!

Blue Pie is ecstatic to announce that Dave Sharp & Chris Kaercher, founding members of Secret Seven will perform with Iggy Pop and the Stooges in Ann Arbor, MI at the Michigan Theatre on April 19, 2010 at 8pm. Sharp & Kaercher will be members of the mini-orchestra (on upright bass and saxophone respectively) accompanying Iggy & The Stooges during this musical extravaganza honouring the legacy of guitarist Ron Asheton.

Although the 2009 death in Ann Arbor of guitarist Ron Asheton, from the pioneering punk band The Stooges, has been keenly felt throughout the music community, few have experienced the loss as personally as his brother and bandmate Scott Asheton.

“There are certain things you share close with your brother, and now and then I’ll think of something and I’ll think ‘I’ve got to tell Ronnie this,’ then I go ‘Oh s---,’” Scott Asheton said in a recent phone interview from his Florida home. “You get really close and you can talk about things you can’t talk about with other people. I miss that very much, besides the music.”

Asheton will return to his hometown for a sold-out benefit concert and tribute to his brother at the Michigan Theater Tuesday night, organized by his sister Kathy Asheton. The Stooges will headline, and funds raised will go to the Ron Asheton Foundation to benefit local music and animal charities, including the Humane Society of Huron Valley. “It’s not going to be a somber event. It’s going to be an uplifting event,” Asheton promised.

Besides Asheton (drums), the band will include Iggy Pop (vocals), Steve Mackay (sax), James Williamson (guitar) and Mike Watt (bass). Deniz Tek from Radio Birdman will play Ron Asheton’s guitar parts on some of the songs. Henry Rollins, spoken-word artist and front man of the 1980s punk band Black Flag, will act as M.C., and other special guests have been promised. Expect songs from “The Stooges,” “Fun House,” and “Raw Power.”

“Deniz learned playing the guitar from Ron. Deniz is probably closest to Ron’s style that you will ever hear from another guitar player,” Asheton said. Formed in 1967 in Ann Arbor, The Stooges, with their primal, energetic sound, are often considered the first punk rock band. Ron Asheton was lead guitarist on the Stooges' first two albums; for the third, "Raw Power," he was replaced by Williamson and shifted to bass. Ron Asheton is ranked at No. 29 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Given Ron Asheton’s fondness for his hometown, as well as the fact that The Stooges were founded in Ann Arbor, it’s fitting the concert be held here, his brother said.







FURTHER DETAILS ON THE SHOW:

Ron Asheton Tribute featuring Iggy and The Stooges
Who: With Henry Rollins, Deniz Tek and other special guests. Teenage musicians from the Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor’s teen center, will open, performing early Stooges songs.
What: Benefit concert for the Ron Asheton Foundation. Asheton, guitarist for The Stooges and an Ann Arbor resident, died in early 2009.
Where: Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St.
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday April 19.
Tickets: Sold out.
More Info: www.ronashetonfoundation.org/.

“(Ron) loved Ann Arbor very much - it’s the reason he didn’t leave. Everyone else would go to New York or California or Nashville — he was just happy to be in Ann Arbor. ... The band started there, that’s where we grew up, where we all went to school — we kicked it off on Halloween in 1968 at a private party — freaked everybody out.”

Rollins also chimed in, via e-mail: “The Stooges are one of rock music’s most essential elements. Without The Stooges’ considerable contribution, the punk and independent music scenes that came after would not have been the same. The music of The Stooges is that crucial,” he wrote.

We are very proud of Dave Sharp (Double Bass) and Chris Kaercher (Tenor & Soprano saxophones) who have both been accomplished and dedicated musicians on the Blue Pie Roster.

Dave Sharp’s Secret Seven is “World Jazz for the Jazz World”:
With the new full length CD “7” charting for national radio airplay in the CMJ top 30, Secret Seven transcends musical, national, and ethnic boundaries by re-interpreting, not fusing, influences from Africa, Asia, the Latin world, Blue Note Jazz, and that other planet, New Orleans.
Secret Seven features Dave Sharp on electric & double bass, leading a steady groove and laying the foundation for the band’s irresistible melodies. Native-Detroiter Sharp became devoted to Jazz at the University of Michigan and refined his chops under the tutelage of renowned bassist Herbie Lewis (McCoy Tyner, Cannonball Adderly, Les McCann) in San Francisco, and virtuoso bassist, composer and bandleader Marion Hayden (Straight Ahead) in Detroit. As bassist and composer for the modern jazz ensemble Spheres of Influence, and touring bassist for the seminal rock band The Melvins (Atlantic Records), Sharp has already made a mark on the national scene. Sharp lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he composes, records, teaches and performs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnEHA1MQUBI



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Blue Pie Productions represent a number of up and coming musicians from places all around the world including Africa, USA, UK and Canada. Styles of music vary from rock to country and soul to hip-hop.