‘My mission is to keep it alive:’ Blues legend makes his home in Kelowna

The sweet sound of blues has been echoing across the Okanagan since a Juno Award-winning blues master decided to set up residence in Kelowna.

Kenny (Blues Boss) Wayne is an American blues, boogie-woogie and jazz pianist, a singer and songwriter who has travelled the world performing upbeat, energetic music.

“I started from the church,” Wayne said. “I think people just basically want to have a good time and dance, and that’s kind of what the blues have always been.”

The 75-year old artist, always attired in a brightly-coloured zoot suit, was born in Washington. He’s also lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans and Vancouver.

“The good thing about blues is usually you get your due at your senior age,” Wayne said.

And true to his word, he’s not stopping any time soon. The musician has just released his latest album, Inspired by the Blues.

“Those are the songs I’ve written over the years to present to all of you,” Wayne said. “It tells you a little bit about my inspiration.”

The Blues Boss, along with local musician Sherman (Tank) Doucette, has started a School of Blues evening at the Rotary Centre for the Arts most Thursday evenings.

“We talk about different songs, the artists, where the blues is heading, how we started. It’s not quite a jam session, but we do have a lot of guests come in,” said Wayne. “And sometimes we grab a lot of the young kids in the jazz session and bring them up to play with the old folks.”

Some of the musician’s accolades include a Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year in 2006, a recent Juno nomination for Best Blues Album in 2018, and being inducted into the Boogie Woogie Hall of Fame in 2017.

The public is invited free of charge to listen to Kenny (Blues Boss) Wayne at the School of Blues every second, third and fourth Thursday of the month, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Rotary Centre for the Arts.