Alvin Draper
Alvin Draper
Person
About Alvin Draper
To listen to Alvin Draper, is to truly feel in the presence of one of the great original Blues men. He speaks it, lives it and definitely plays it. In his music you can hear the authenticity of the living Blues, its heart and soul. But don’t be fooled, just when you feel like you’ve time-traveled into the 60s and 70s and must be listening to some down home Blues in the South, you hear his highly original and futuristic sounding solos in the middle of a classic standard. Alvin has a particular style of picking his strings when he solos, he adds complex sounds, that resemble computer sounds, more like experimental new Jazz and his strings begin to speak a new language. And then he blends it all right back in, that’s when you realize you’re in California and it’s the 21st century. Alvin Draper has the music lover’s attention every second. Alvin Draper was born in Lubbock, Texas, but raised in Goree Texas, where his mother lived. They had a big café where everybody who worked on a farm would go on the weekend, to have good time from Friday through Sunday. Alvin was just in diapers when the musicians in town came around to the café to play. Almost incredibly, most of the musicians were related to his grandparents. Lightin’ Hopkins was his grandmother’s nephew and Alvin’s dad was a great guitarist and vocalist. His name was Richard Draper. He taught the musicians that came through a lot of stuff, so Richard Draper was pretty good, one tell by just taking a look at some of his pupils: Sonny Boy Williams, Little Walter, T-Bone Walker, Gate Mouth Brown, John Lee Hooker, and many more that Alvin has forgotten, or couldn’t think of at the moment of being asked tons of questions for his bio. Alvin remembers that his father followed his mother wherever she decided to go, and she was no stranger to the cotton fields. By the time Alvin was seven years old the family wound up in Lubbock, Texas. When Alvin was in eighth grade his parents split-up and his mother moved to Amarillo, Texas. Alvin’s dad insisted to keep the kids. Alvin, his brother and two sisters stayed with their father who then abandoned them when Alvin was still only in eighth grade. At the age of fourteen he had to drop out of school to take care of his siblings, he worked at an auto shop and would play his guitar in nightclubs. He loved his music, but says he didn’t rely on it too much because times were hard and one didn’t get paid very much for gigs, so he always kept a 9-5 job. Alvin married his first wife at the age of 18, and moved to Palo Alto, CA. in 1968. His wife passed away in 1975. Alvin played all over the Bay Area Peninsula, and his first band was called Alvin and the Challengers. Alvin has played with many well-known legendary musicians, to mention a few: Sam Cook, Little Willie John, T-Bone Walker, Bobby Bland, Etta James. His major musical influences were: James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Jimmy Reed, and Tyrone Davis. Alvin’s mom kept the young Alvin in church most of the time, and pretty much all day on Sundays. As an adult he didn’t go very often but did play gospel music and attended church every now and then. One of the churches he attended was Zion in East Palo Alto, where the preacher asked him to play for the Lord. Alvin considers himself to be spiritual, and he believes that when he plays music people are healed whether it’s at church or in the nightclub. And as Alvin says: “If I know you guys love it, I’m happy too!” In 2000, Alvin met his current wife Edith at JJ’s Blues in San Jose, where he’d started to play. They got to know each other, became friends and were married in 2002. However, in 2004 Alvin began to lose his voice, and by late 2005 it was completely gone. A tumor had been discovered in his left vocal chord, and he had to undergo chemotherapy. Alvin says: “I almost died 3 times, but I feel good. I’m back to playing my guitar and singing and a new recording will be available soon.”
Taken from Last.fm
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