Popa Chubby plays the music of Jimmi Hendrix at the File7 DVD recorded live 19 novembre 2006 at File 7 (France) Full Concert - Tracks List: 1/ Voodoo Chile 2/ Come On 3/ Maniac Depression 4.
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Theodore Joseph 'Ted' Horowitz (born March 31, 1960 in The Bronx, New York City, United States), who plays under the stage name of Popa Chubby (a play on the slang idiom 'pop a chubby', meaning to get an erection), is an AmericanRock / Electric blues singer, composer, and guitarist.
![]() Life and career[edit]
Popa Chubby live at Leverkusener Jazztage 2016
At age thirteen Horowitz began playing drums; shortly thereafter, he began listening to the music of the Rolling Stones and started playing guitar. Although he grew up in the 1970s, Horowitz was influenced by artists of the 1960s, including Jimi Hendrix and Cream, among others. In his early twenties, although he mainly played blues music, he also worked as backing for punk rock poet Richard Hell. Horowitz first came to public attention after winning a national blues talent search sponsored by KLON, a public radio station in Long Beach, California, which is now known as KKJZ. He won the New Artist of the Year award and as a result was chosen as the opening act at the Long Beach Blues Festival in 1992. Horowitz played more than 200 club dates a year through the 1990s.
In 1994, Horowitz released several albums on his own Laughing Bear label, including It's Chubby Time and Gas Money, before he obtained a recording contract with Sony Music/Okeh Records. Booty and the Beast, his first major-label album, produced by Atlantic Records engineer/producer Tom Dowd, who worked on recordings for artists such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Wilson Pickett, was released in 1995. In 1996, a live recording of Horowitz's was released, Hit the High Hard One. Two years later, One Million Broken Guitars was released on Lightyear Records; Brooklyn Basement Blues followed in 1999.
In 2000, Horowitz signed with Blind Pig Records and released How'd a White Boy Get the Blues? in 2001. It turned out to be a slight departure from Horowitz's usual musical direction, incorporating elements of contemporary pop and hip-hop.[citation needed]The Good, the Bad and the Chubby, released in 2002, was an example of the development of Horowitz's songwriting skills and included the 9/11 commentary 'Somebody Let the Devil Out'. Blind Pig released a collection of early Horowitz recordings, The Hungry Years, in 2003. A year later, Horowitz released Peace, Love and Respect.
Two albums previously available only in France – Live at FIP and Wild – were compiled by the Blind Pig label and released as Big Man, Big Guitar in 2005, followed by Stealing the Devil's Guitar a year later. The Fight Is On, was Horowitz's first studio album after a two-year hiatus. It was released in February 2010 on the Provogue label in Europe, and Blind Pig in North America. A world tour followed.
In 2008, Horowitz and his ex-wife Galea, recorded Vicious Country, which was released on the Dixiefrog label. Vicious Country was chosen as 'Record of the Week' by the French Canal+ television station in March 2009.[2]
In 2015 he released Big Bad and Beautiful, a two disc live CD recorded in France with Dave Keyes on Keyboards and Francesco and Andrea Beccaro Bass and Drums. In 2016 he released The Catfish on French Verychords Label and on PCP Productions in North America. This record yielded both the 3D animated video of the title track by Laurent Mercier of Callicore, and the tribute Blues For Charlie.
In 2017 he released Two Dogs again on Verychords for Europe and PCP North America.
In 2018 Eagletone Custom released the Popa Chubby Tribute Stratocaster a replica of his ‘66.
In 2019 Verychords will release a limited edition 2 cd Anthology “prime cuts” chosen by Popa Chubby.
Popa Chubby made his Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival debut on 14 July 2019.[3]
Current line up includes Tom Curiano – Drums, Paul Loranger- Bass, Dave Keyes- Keyboards, as well as a recurring cast of musicians and Mary Beth as merchant sales rep and Chubby's main squeeze.
Discography[edit]
DVDs[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Popa_Chubby&oldid=940156986'
BiographyThe ever-prolific Popa Chubby returns with a new CD of hard-hitting rock ‘n’ roll, Deliveries After Dark, a collection of balls-out Blues/Rock played with reckless abandon, no apologies, visceral and heavy, with a few surprises thrown in – such as the theme from “The Godfather” rearranged as a surf guitar instrumental, and the spacey and evocative “Woman In My Bed Dub,” a reggae tune as thick with smoke as a Kingston club. Elsewhere, Chubby indulges his need for speed with the road-raging “Deliveries After Dark,” and revved-up boogie of “Sally Likes To Run,” while “Let The Music Set You Free” lays out Chubby’s philosophy over a swaggering, rock solid riff. With Deliveries After Dark, Popa Chubby continues to rule the road with his high-octane ax work and uncompromising, in your face attitude, resulting in a supercharged mix that spits fire at every turn.Born Ted Horowitz, Popa Chubby is a true native son of the Big Apple. He grew up in the neighborhood immortalized in Robert DeNiro's film 'A Bronx Tale.' His early memories of hearing the jukebox in his parents' candy store playing the hits of early Sixties soul and R&B and the neighborhood teens flocking around it made a lasting impression on him. 'When I first heard Freddie King my world was turned upside down. I was 19 and this older cat in the neighborhood played me the Just Pickin' record and I was knocked out cold. I thought, 'Man, that's what I wanna be when I grow up.' In 1990 the Popa Chubby Band was born. The name was taken from an impromptu jam with Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic. 'He was singing a song called 'Popa Chubby' and he pointed at me.' The name captured the essence of what his music has come to represent. 'Popa Chubby basically means to get excited. The core of my music is about excitement. I think music should make people feel alive.' In 1994 Popa signed a recording deal with then recently resurrected O-Keh Records (Sony Music), lured by the prospect of working with Tom Dowd, longtime Atlantic Records engineer/producer, whose recordings by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, the Allman Brothers and others are legendary. Booty And The Beast was released in 1994, and the single, “Sweet Goddess Of Love and Beer,” soon swept the country and became a summer radio hit coast to coast in 1995. Creative differences left Popa a free agent in 1996, so he began releasing albums on his own label. On the advice of Dowd he went to Europe, where his first two CDs were released as a collection by the French Dixiefrog label. The record was an instant success and left Popa touring nonstop. The energy and showmanship of his sets earned him critical and commercial acclaim overseas, and in fact, he's become a huge star in Europe, where he appears on the covers of magazines and routinely sells out major venues. In May 2000, Dixiefrog released How'd A White Boy Get the Blues? in Europe. Looking for a domestic label that would understand his unique approach to the blues, Popa brought the album to Blind Pig Records, which released this seminal blues-rock concept record in August of 2001. It uses electric and acoustic guitar blends, drum loops and electronics to show how close the blues, hip-hop and R&B really are. Calling the CD 'a fresh take on the genre,' Billboard said 'If Muddy Waters was a modern blues artist, then Popa Chubby is a post-modern bluesman.' The Good, The Bad, and The Chubby followed in 2002, featuring thirteen brand new compositions reflecting, in Popa's words, 'Love, Life, Betrayal, Diesel, Jet Fuel, Marriage, Murder, Stress and Passion!' At the time, Popa's recording studio was about a half a mile away from the World Trade Center, and he wrote the opening track, “Somebody Let The Devil Out,” in reaction to the September 11th tragedy. All Music Guide said the release was 'one of the strongest, most distinctive modern blues albums of 2002.' The next year Blind Pig released a collection of Popa's early work entitled The Hungry Years, drawn from several out-of-print albums Popa had released on his own label in the early 90's and including three previously unreleased tracks. 'From the bowels of Greenwich Village to the Upper East Side, New York from 1991 to 1996 was my very own Rotten Apple!' Living Blues offered, 'Batten down the hatch before putting this on the stereo - this ain't your granddaddy's blues.' In the election year of 2004, Popa Chubby came up with his lyrically edgiest record yet, one of the most topical and important records of the year - Peace, Love, and Respect. Twelve tracks of hard-hitting, politically inspired songs that run from upholding First Amendment rights in the hard-thumping shuffle “Un-American Blues,' to protesting the plight of young people dying for the lust of oil and power in “Young Men.” 2005 saw the release of a live CD and a DVD, Big Man, Big Guitar. As Popa described it, 'I basically gave Blind Pig free rein to choose the material for Big Man, Big Guitar and was very pleased with their choices. They really put the focus on my guitar work, the roots of my music and the energy we generate on stage. I think they not only captured the best of me as a guitar player and performer today but also included some of those seminal selections that influenced my career from the very beginning.' Stealing the Devil's Guitar arrived the following year, and was Popa Chubby's most guitar-centric studio album to date. As the Philadelphia Inquirer put it, 'Truly a bluesman for the new millennium, Popa Chubby has an abiding affection for the tradition but uses it only as a springboard for his distinctive style.' In 2007, Popa unleashed Electric Chubbyland, a live collection celebrating the work of Jimi Hendrix. Relix magazine said “Chubby’s searing guitar work is exceptional, and his vocals evoke the spirit of Jimi. Chubby unleashes some of the fiercest string bending this side of Electric Ladyland. Tribute albums are a dangerous lot, but Electric Chubbyland is a safe, enjoyable, mesmerizing listen.” Long requested by Chubby’s rabid fan base, the albums managed to capture, as Chubby put it, “that special spark of energy that only happens between the audience and performer. I love playing Hendrix with my own spin. Loud and proud for all the people!' Those same fans will undoubtedly welcome Deliveries After Dark, Chubby’s latest collection of jet-fueled originals. “I have gotten back to why I started playing music to begin with,” says the masterful guitarist. “The excitement and the feeling of raw power. All I can tell you is you need rock and roll in your soul and I am the man in control. The Blues are alive and well and Rock and Roll will never die! Are you ready to rock?” ![]() Comments are closed.
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