The name of Karen Carroll and The Mississippi Grave Diggers has already welded together and become a phenomenon in the european blues life! Suggestive interpretation, cloudless cheerfulness and tempestuous playing characterize the full-house concerts of the band. The forceful sound grabs attention, and the polished character playing gives an extraordinary pleasure even to the choosiest fans. By amalgamating traditional black rhythms with roma swing and bebop, folk blues and youthful grooves, the Mississippi Grave Diggers give an unmistakable jazz and world music flavour to contemporary blues. It makes unique the joy music of traditions created by the band, crossing continents, then fusing on local stages.

 

Karen Carroll, „the black witch” is considered one of the most authentic singer in contemporary blues. When she takes her place on stage, she catches the audience with the first sound of big city blues, pulling them unawares into the magic of the pleasant shuffle pulsation. Strumming her guitar charmingly, the quinquagenary woman tells real stories with the voice ringing from the deepness of her soul, with every words of her texts.

 

 

 

 

 

The music of Karen Carroll roots in the world of the untainted black blues of the southern states and the gospel. Her music, full of special, unique tastes and feelings from the traditional Delta and Chicago blues to the rhythmic world of black jazz and funk, shows everything that is black music. Her vocal style ripened in the microclimate of her unique family of musicians. She mixed family traditions with the musical motives arising from her personality. She was brought up and took wing by the musical experiences of her mother, Jeanne Carroll, and made her first professional performance with the band of her blues mama. Robert Allen and Nate Griffen taught her to play guitar, and it is owing to them that she performed with, among others, Lonnie Brooks, Albert King and the Freeman Bros. She also appeared before the public with Katie Webster and Lurrie Bell. Beside the gospel remaining from her childhood, she has embodied the real black blues sound. Her interpretation is characterized by the special Delta sound. She has conveyed the blues with elementary strength, at the same time subtilely and authentically. In the summer of 2008, she performed at the invitation of B.B. King at the Chicago Blues Festival, then returned to Europe to appear as the star guest of the major Hungarian festivals with her permanent touring band, the Mississippi Grave Diggers.

 

 

 

Blues harpist, composer, corinthian. A well-known figure of Budapest night and blues life. His style is characterized by the combination of the traditions and newfangled playing. He interprets a colourful musical world with Hungarian feeling.

In his youth, he hitch-hiked all Europe, with a blues harp already in his pocket. In 1989, he became a member of the Ölveti Blues Band and played street music with them in western countries’ squares. In 1990, he joined one of Hungary’s most famous blues band, the Takács Tamás’s Dirty Blues Band and toured with them for two years. He then walked through the blues pubs of the United States, and collected experiences by playing together with different authentic performers.

Returning from the United States, he founded his band playing the Delta blues of the twenties, Dr. Valter and the Lawbreakers. They spent 13 years together, walking through the clubs of the Old Continent from Serbia through Holland to Finland. In 1999 he founded the Mississippi Grave Diggers for which he sought after authetic musicians and singers appropriate for special tasks. Between 2002 and 2007, he appeared with Big Daddy Wilson, and since 2007, with a big stage lineup, original compositions and Karen Carroll, he has brought new colour to the palette of international blues.

 

During his career he has played together with: Champion Jack Dupree (USA), Sugar Blue (USA), Steve James (USA), Joe Sass (USA), Big Lucky Carter (USA), Bob Brozman (USA), Sharrie Williams & Wise Guys (USA), Lazy Lester (USA), Big Daddy Wilson (USA), Ron Ringwood (USA), Jeanne Carroll (USA).

 

 

 

He has counted among the grand masters of violin in the world of jazz. He comes from a musician dynasty both on his mother’s and father’s side. The musical past of his family has been certified by encyclopedias, music sheets, recordings, awards since the 1800s. From 1991, he learned the art of jazz violin playing for five years in France, from the French violinist Didier Lockwood. Since coming home he has tried himself in numerous bands and musical worlds beside jazz, in folk-rock, and has even had heavy-metal on his palette, but his real love has remained Gipsy swing. Owing to this, through the integration of old Gipsy swing and modern bebop jazz as well as the common work with Andor Oláh, he got into the world of blues. His violin playing, using various effects and pizzicato playing, also replaces masterfully the function of solo guitar. He has played together with such outstanding musicians as Joe Murányi, Dave Samuels, Sam Rivers, Mike Stern, Béla Szakcsi Lakatos és Kálmán Balogh.

 

 

He is the youngest member of the band, learning at the jazz faculty, brought up on comtemporary grooves, and by his dynamic and modern playing style he contributes to the Mississippi Grave Diggers’ playin that unites the different sounds of generations, the contemporary interpretation of traditional blues rhythms. The young musician has played in different formations for years, looking for his unique way characterizing him, in which the blues is already not a simple stop-point but the basis he can always return to.

 

 

 

He is a lover of Hammond organ, jukebox, old instruments and organs. He chose the organ by the influence of Deep Purple as well as Emerson Lake and Palmer, and it was the impact of Ray Charles that pulled him into the world of black music. Variegation and respect for the traditions characterize the sober-looking young musician whose playing is nevertheless full of explosiveness. His instrument and the music it can convey is an endless excursion for him with bold improvisations and experiments taking him to further discoveries.

 

 

 

He got acquainted with the music in his early years, he learned to play trumpet and drums at the age of eight. He began to play bass guitar at 13, brough up on early Deep Purple and Iron Maiden records. Later he was influenced by other genres, too, mostly funk and jazz. All this variegation has shown up in his playing to this day, as he is familiar with the blues, etno, acid jazz, funk, fusion, swing, Latin and, from the „harder” musical world, rock, progressive rock and metal. That is why in his style the former’s sensuality and melodicity is mixed with the latter’s dynamics, strong character, sometimes inexorability. He keeps together perfectly the playing of the members of the Mississippi Grave Diggers coming from different musical fields and meeting in the blues. But he also increases the value of the performance as a solist with his inexhaustible capabilities and virtuosity.