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Michael Cala
Blues journalist and media producer
About Me
Michael Cala has been writing and photographing professionally for most of his adult life. For the past 10, he has been a writer-producer and photographer for Internet content and multimedia for ad agencies, nonprofits, and a major New York City medical center. He also co- produces traditional music concerts. This past year has involved managing a self-initiated fundraising project to buy and maintain a headstone for jazz and blues pioneer Mamie Smith, who had lain in an unmarked grave on Staten Island since her death in 1946 -- 68 years ago! Mamie's wild success with her ”Crazy Blues” in 1920 -- the first-ever recorded blues by an African American woman -- encouraged record companies to break the race barrier and start recording African American blues and jazz singers. Thanks to Mamie, by 1926 hundreds of now-famous blues and jazz artists -- from Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong to Robert Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson -- were recorded by companies who would not have done so had Mamie not sold over 75,000 copies of “Crazy Blues” in a single month. I've raised money to put a down payment on a headstone for Mamie, and now we need additional funds to shore up her grave and establish a maintenance fund at the African American cemetery where she is buried. The Mamie Smith crowdfunding project is live on Indiegogo right now (until July 12, 2014) at http://igg.me/at/mamie3 In addition, on July 20, we're having a day-into-evening live blues event that's really got some buzz on social media. To find out more, go to https://www.facebook.com/mamiespage and click on the “BLUES FOR MAMIE” poster. Conbtributing on INDIEGOGO, coming to the event, and sharing this information with friends is a great way to support this cause. In addition to the Mamie project, I've also been writing for the newly constituted Blues Music Magazine, which arose, phoenix-like, from the conflagration of its former iteration as Blues Revue (for which I wrote from 2000-2012). Two recent features I wrote are a longish profile of blues pianist Marcia Ball and her bass player Don Bennett, and a look at the youngest blues band ever, the Homemade Jamz Blues Band.
