John
Lee Sanders can sit in front of a piano and bring
the smoke from a Texas BBQ, A New Orleans Street
Parade, and the Soul of the Mississippi Delta,
all in one set. He's an
Emmy nominated
Composer, and winner of three
2009 Canadian Music Awards. His songs,
voice and film scores have been heard on
CBC Radio-Canada Live, Network
Television, Commercials for giants of industry
such as
Apple Computer, Nissan &
Wal-Mart. He is beginning to headline blues and
Jazz festivals across Europe and Canada, his
music is crossing over into mainstream pop
culture.
The European Press has credited John Lee for bringing the blues into the 21st Century with it's deep lyric content, and fusing the best in Pop, Jazz, Country, Gospel, New Orleans Street Rhythms, Funk, Soul and Rhythm & Blues. John Lee will be bringing his music to the Vancouver 2010 Blues Festival, during the height of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
The European Press has credited John Lee for bringing the blues into the 21st Century with it's deep lyric content, and fusing the best in Pop, Jazz, Country, Gospel, New Orleans Street Rhythms, Funk, Soul and Rhythm & Blues. John Lee will be bringing his music to the Vancouver 2010 Blues Festival, during the height of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
John Lee is a
quadruple threat vocal/instrumentalist on Piano,
saxophone and guitar. Since 1995, he’s
released 9 CDs, a live
concert DVD, and over
120,000 hits on Youtube music
videos. His
recent 2009 New Years Eve Show was rated the
#2 event across Canada by the Toronto
Star!.
His 2004 Hit, “Foreclose on the House of
Love”
was nominated for Blues song of the year, reached
#9 on the charts, and helped acquire a Grammy
nomination for Marcia Ball. His 2009 single,
“Christmas with the
King”
about an imaginary meeting with Elvis, received
15,000 downloads in 2 days from a special
promotion from the Vancouver Province Newspaper.
He spent his youth in the Mississippi Delta, the
swamps of Louisiana, & the plains of Texas,
immersed in the wealth of jazz, country, blues
and gospel music that have become the DNA of
North American pop music for over fifty years.
The deeply intertwined roots in music of this
gifted piano, sax and vocal performer/composer
have found inspiration in some very interesting
places. John Lee’s grandmother played piano in
the silent movie theaters of Memphis and lived a
few short blocks from
Stax
Records,
the birthplace of American soul music. His
mother’s first cousin played trombone
with
W.C. Handy, “father of the
blues”,
and encouraged John’s music early on.
He
met Elvis Presley and his folks in Memphis in
1957, when Presley bought his first house a few doors
down from John Lee's Aunt and
Uncle. Gladys and
Vernon Presley took little John Lee in for a
tour of the house, and sent him on his way,
inspired that a boy could grow up to be
President or a Rock star.
John Lee and Vernon Presley, 1957
His childhood
encounters with the likes of Elvis and Dr. Martin
Luther King are part of the landscape that
influenced this gifted performer and composer. At
twelve years old, John Lee was billed as
“Birmingham’s answer to Little Stevie Wonder”. He
received a music scholarship and studied
saxophone, guitar and piano, which led to a
degree in composition from the prestigious North
Texas State University. While abroad studying
painting and music in Rome, he was introduced to
Professor Longhair and Dr. John at the Montreux
Jazz Festival, which awakened his passion for New
Orleans piano.
In 1975, when John Lee’s equipment truck broke down on the way to a gig in Austin, Texas, an up an coming Stevie Ray Vaughan put John and the band up at his home, and re‐energized his life long love of the blues.
In 1975, when John Lee’s equipment truck broke down on the way to a gig in Austin, Texas, an up an coming Stevie Ray Vaughan put John and the band up at his home, and re‐energized his life long love of the blues.
Acting on an
invitation from the drummer from the Doobie
Brothers, John Lee
headed west in 1977 to the San Francisco Bay
Area, where he signed a major label deal with
Rod Stewart’s Riva
Records, and a
production contract with Narada Michael
Walden, the most
successful producer of the 80s & 90s,
creating mega hits for Mariah Carey, Whitney
Houston and Aretha Franklin. He became a top
west coast session player, performing live and
in the studio with icons such as Stevie
Wonder, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Page of Led
Zeppelin, Huey Lewis, Chuck Berry, just to
name a few. John Lee was the music director
for many years with Long John Baldry, holding
down the keyboard spot formerly held by Elton
John
John Lee now lives
in Kelowna British Columbia with his wife Judy,
and when not touring North America and Europe, He
produces film and Television Music, and records
solo recordings in his own recording
studio.
Contact
johnleesanders@gmail.com
250 448 0902
130-1876 Cooper Rd. Unit 138
Kelowna, BC, Canada V1Y 9N6
New
Years Eve, Kelowna BC 2009
