Tuesday evening Erik-Jan Overbeek - known professionally as "Mr. Boogie Woogie" - brings his hard-driving, take-no-prisoners style of piano playing to the Academy Village.
An Arizona Daily Star review of an earlier performance described Mr. Boogie Woogie this way: "It only takes about 30 seconds of listening to 'the boogie woogie man' to know this guy belongs in America's most energetic roadhouses seven nights a week … heart patients are advised to check their pacemakers at the door."
Tuesday's concert, sponsored by the Arizona Senior Academy, is free and open to the public. It begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Great Room at the Senior Academy, 13715 E. Langtry Lane.
Arizona Senior Academy is located at Academy Village, an active-adult community located off Old Spanish Trail six miles southeast of Saguaro National Park East.
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Born on April 5, 1967, in the Netherlands, Overbeek began playing piano at the age of 8, studying classical music. At the age of 12 he got a job as a piano accompanist for dance classes. When he was 14 he heard Fats Domino on the radio playing "Swanee River Hop," and from that moment on, as he recalls it, his fate was sealed. He decided he was going to be a boogie woogie piano player.
"Fats Domino has always been one of my biggest musical influences and until this day I'm still convinced his band was the hardest swingin' rhythm & blues band that has ever existed," he wrote in a tribute album for the legendary New Orleans R&B singer.
During his 30-year career Overbeek has opened the stage for international giants of blues such as Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Van Morrison, Koko Taylor, Magic Slim and The Blues Brothers Band.
In 1990, Overbeek formed his own Mr. Boogie Woogie & the Firesweep Bluesband and toured internationally in England, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Corsica and Canada. Overbeek has recorded CDs and singles on his own Firesweep Records label.
He made his U.S. debut in Tucson in 2001, performing with blues hall of fame artist Lisa Otey.
If You Go
• What: Mr. Boogie Woogie in concert
• When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
• Where: Arizona Senior Academy Building at Academy Village, 13715 E. Langtry Lane
• Admission: Free; donations accepted
• Reservations: Recommended; email info@arizonasenioracademy.org or call 647-0980
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