Diz ‘Honeybear’ Watson + Tony ‘Groco’ Uter

Event Information

Ace Records Artist Diz ‘Honeybear’ Watson, piano player, singer and entertainer, is a quintessential exponent of New Orleans style piano, and exuberant mix of Barrelhouse, Rhythm and Blues, Rock n Roll, and Boogie Woogie. He recorded the classic ‘Bluecoat Man’ for Ace Records in 1981, featuring the legendary Lee Allen on saxophone, and in 1995 cut ‘Tonky Honk’ with Big Jay McNeely. Diz has worked and opened for the likes of Chas and Dave, Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry, Alexis Korner, Axel Swingenburger, Dr. John and the Rolling Stones.

Charlie Hart (Producer of Bluecoat Man) comments : “Diz is a phenomenon, definitely the coolest of Yorkshiremen and a connoisseur of the exotic, his influences are Champion Jack Dupree, all the way to Abdullah Ibrahim. Diz gets the essentially multi-cultural nature of music better than anyone, having absorbed the blues from the inside.”

Accompanying Diz on most of his solo projects is the Jamaican legend Tony ‘Groco’ Uter on conga drums, just a mere 87 years old, he has played with just about everyone on the British Blues n Jazz and Carribbean scene, including Ronnie Scott, Dizzy Gillespie, Bob Marley, Rico Rodriguez and currently the poet Linton ‘Kwesi’ Johnson.

As Gaz Mayall says “Be there or be somewhere else, especially if you need proof that the spirit of Professor Longhair lives on.”