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Boogie Boy fires up the crowd
June 4, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
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ONLY half hour after his first song, Boogie Boy has already fired up the house and urged everyone to stand up and move to the music. Everyone got up, cheered, sang and danced for more than an hour. Boogie Boy charged into the crowd, jumping from chair to chair and waving his microphone.
Boogie Boy is 64-year-old Belgian Paul Ambach, a legend in R&B, jazz and soul. He's also a pianist who has accompanied big names like B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, The Kinks, Lionel Hampton, Alvin Lee and others.
His Belgian band includes his old partner Toto on drums, his son N8N (Nathan Ambach) on vocal and guitar, Tobias le Compte on guitar and Leslie de Vries on bass.
"The older I am, the more successful I am," Boogie Boy tells Shanghai Daily after his show in the Hangzhou International Information Exchange Center (HiCenter). He adds that his world tour schedule is filled through this October.
Last week he and the band were touring China, also performing in Shanghai and Beijing. Most of their songs are original.
The China leg of the tour was organized by de Vries, a Belgian expat living in Hangzhou and working on cultural exchange between Belgium and China.
Boogie Boy is also a concert promoter in Europe, and as popular as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King.
Music is in Boogie Boy's blood: his Polish grandfather was a klezmer musician and his father was a famous opera singer. Young Ambach found his passion in jazz, blues, R&B and soul.
He started to sing in music houses when he was 17 and has performed at prestigious festivals like the North Sea Jazz Festival and Jazz Montreux.
Boogie Boy also has a passion for audience interaction and really gets into it, literally. In Hangzhou, after he got everybody out of their chairs, he waded into the audience, jumped about, sang and danced with the crowd.
That's not unusual. Once, before a crowd of 300,000 fans at a music festival, he did the same thing ordering everyone to stand and put their hands in the air. He then proceeded to jump in and Boogie Boy was passed around the arena and back to the stage.
Since the 1970s Boogie Boy has also been a concert promoter, establishing his own company, Make It Happen, which has promoted many stars, including Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones and U2.
In 1997, the government of Flanders awarded him with the title of Cultural Ambassador for his contributions to culture.
In his 50s, Boogie Boy sold the company in 2001 and decided to do what he loves the most: singing and touring.
"The power of music is stronger than any power and does not have a negative part, and I want to express this power and bring the message of music to the audience," he says.
His son N8N is a rising star and an independent singer, composer and DJ. His song "Baby Blue" received more than 280,000 clicks on Youku.com, Chinese' equivalent of YouTube.
"Music is a universal language, and I believe China is a great market to explore, with a influence bigger than Europe," he says.
The most important thing in his career is performance and he calls his funky soul style delivered with a bluesy voice "raw soul."
The young Ambach plans to work soon with renowned American record producer and Grammy Award-winner Scott Jacoby.
Hangzhou is attracting more and more foreign musicians. Last month, the city's annual Xihu Music Festival drew the British band Sacred Mother Tongue, American band Mercury Rev and others. In October the West Lake Music Festival will kick off with many stars from abroad.
Boogie Boy is 64-year-old Belgian Paul Ambach, a legend in R&B, jazz and soul. He's also a pianist who has accompanied big names like B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, The Kinks, Lionel Hampton, Alvin Lee and others.
His Belgian band includes his old partner Toto on drums, his son N8N (Nathan Ambach) on vocal and guitar, Tobias le Compte on guitar and Leslie de Vries on bass.
"The older I am, the more successful I am," Boogie Boy tells Shanghai Daily after his show in the Hangzhou International Information Exchange Center (HiCenter). He adds that his world tour schedule is filled through this October.
Last week he and the band were touring China, also performing in Shanghai and Beijing. Most of their songs are original.
The China leg of the tour was organized by de Vries, a Belgian expat living in Hangzhou and working on cultural exchange between Belgium and China.
Boogie Boy is also a concert promoter in Europe, and as popular as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King.
Music is in Boogie Boy's blood: his Polish grandfather was a klezmer musician and his father was a famous opera singer. Young Ambach found his passion in jazz, blues, R&B and soul.
He started to sing in music houses when he was 17 and has performed at prestigious festivals like the North Sea Jazz Festival and Jazz Montreux.
Boogie Boy also has a passion for audience interaction and really gets into it, literally. In Hangzhou, after he got everybody out of their chairs, he waded into the audience, jumped about, sang and danced with the crowd.
That's not unusual. Once, before a crowd of 300,000 fans at a music festival, he did the same thing ordering everyone to stand and put their hands in the air. He then proceeded to jump in and Boogie Boy was passed around the arena and back to the stage.
Since the 1970s Boogie Boy has also been a concert promoter, establishing his own company, Make It Happen, which has promoted many stars, including Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones and U2.
In 1997, the government of Flanders awarded him with the title of Cultural Ambassador for his contributions to culture.
In his 50s, Boogie Boy sold the company in 2001 and decided to do what he loves the most: singing and touring.
"The power of music is stronger than any power and does not have a negative part, and I want to express this power and bring the message of music to the audience," he says.
His son N8N is a rising star and an independent singer, composer and DJ. His song "Baby Blue" received more than 280,000 clicks on Youku.com, Chinese' equivalent of YouTube.
"Music is a universal language, and I believe China is a great market to explore, with a influence bigger than Europe," he says.
The most important thing in his career is performance and he calls his funky soul style delivered with a bluesy voice "raw soul."
The young Ambach plans to work soon with renowned American record producer and Grammy Award-winner Scott Jacoby.
Hangzhou is attracting more and more foreign musicians. Last month, the city's annual Xihu Music Festival drew the British band Sacred Mother Tongue, American band Mercury Rev and others. In October the West Lake Music Festival will kick off with many stars from abroad.
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