Pensacola Blues

Pensacola became an important early center of blues, ragtime, vaudeville, and jazz and later a regional cornerstone of the chitlin’ circuit, with the Belmont-DeVilliers neighborhood serving for many decades as an African-American business and entertainment district where touring blues, jazz, and rhythm and blues acts and local bands found a welcoming base. Pensacola was among the first cities to present blues singers on the theatrical stage, and before blues was widely recognized as a musical genre, performers including Ma Rainey and Virginia Liston appeared at the Belmont Theatre, a major vaudeville venue. Later venues in the area known as The Blocks included Abe’s 506 Club, the Savoy, Tom’s Tavern, Elks Lodge, Odd Fellows Hall, Club Rum Boogie, Harlem Club, Cotton Club, Saber Club, Bunny Club, Seville Quarter, The Fish House, and Five Sisters Blues Café, while Belmont Street businesses included WBOP radio and Gussie’s Record Shop. Mississippi-born artists such as B.B. King, Junior Parker, Sam Cooke, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, Tyrone Davis, Syl Johnson, Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle, Ike Turner, members of the Ike & Tina Turner revue, James Carr, and Big Joe Williams appeared in Pensacola over the years, and Pensacola performers often blended upbeat blues, jazz, pop, and rhythm and blues while also recording in Mississippi and elsewhere. Among those born in or based in Pensacola were Wally “The Cat” Mercer, Ray Sheppard, Harold Andrews, Ida Goodson, Corrie Davis, Bo Bo Edwards, the Rounders, Peggy Scott-Adams, Mighty Sam McClain, Edward Wyer, Paul Wyer, Billie Pierce, Benny Spellman, Susie Edwards, Baby Grice, Frazier Davis, Buster Bennett, Charlie Segar, James and Bobby Purify, Tasso Zachary, Gwen McCrae, David Washington, Slim Gaillard, Gigi Gryce, Herman “Junior” Cook, Don Shirley, Wally Mercer Jr., Maurice McKinnies, Willie Henderson, Walter Jackson, Earnest Stanberry, Vivian Lamont, Nick Blackwell, Erma Granat, Will Easley, and The Truth featuring Cat Rhodes.

Pensacola, Florida · United States