I will be teaching intermediate/advanced blues piano with an emphasis on walking blues, Louisiana Creole, boogie woogie and rhumba patterns. You can take either or both sections of this class.
Bruce Sunpie Barnes is a New Orleans musician, book author and ethnographic photographer. Sunpie is also the Big Chief of the Northside Skull and Bone Gang one the oldest Afro-Creole carnival groups in the United States, which began its traditions in 1819. He is a19-year member of the Black Men of Labor Social Aid and Pleasure Club and the band leader of the popular New Orleans musical group Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots. His latest book and cd project is entitled Le Kèr Creole (The Creole Heart) which he co-authored with Rachel Breunlin and Leroy Etienne.
Sunpie is a former National Park Service Ranger photographer, former high school biology teacher (30 year), former college football All-American, and former NFL football player (Kansas City Chiefs). Bruce Sunpie Barnes’ many careers have taken him far and wide. He has traveled to 53 countries playing his own style of what he calls Afro-Louisiana music incorporating blues, zydeco, creole jazz, gospel, work songs, Caribbean and African influenced rhythms and melodies. He is a multi-instrumentalist, mastering accordion, harmonica, and piano along with rubboard, talking drum, and dejembe. He learned accordion from some of the best Zydeco pioneers in Louisiana, including Fernest Arceneaux, John Delafose, and Clayton Sampy. Along with his musical group Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, he has performed at festivals and concerts across the US and around the globe. Sunpie has currently recorded 7 critically acclaimed CDs with his compositions featured in 19 Hollywood film productions.
In addition to this musical work he is also a former member of the Paul Simon Band that embarked on a 58-city world tour “Paul Simon and Sting Together”, which span 39 countries (2014,15 and 16). In 2018 Latin Super Star Carlos Vives invited Sunpie along with the Louisiana Sunspots to perform with him at the 51st annual Vallenato Festival in Valledupar, Coloumbia. Film acting has also been a important part of his busy career. Sunpie’s work has appeared in such Hollywood productions as Point of No Return, Deja Vu, Under Cover Blues, Jonah Hex, Treme, The Big Easy, Skeleton Key, Heartless, The Gates Of Silence, Odd Girl Out, Regis and Kelly, George Lopez and NCIS New Orleans.
He is deeply involved in New Orleans parade culture and co-authored the 2015 critically acclaimed book “Talk That Music Talk” – Passing On Brass Band Music In New Orleans “The Traditional Way”. Over 300 of Sunpie’s photographs are featured in this book. Sunpie is also the co-author of Le Kèr Creole a 128-page book on Creole language and music that is accompanied by a 15 song cd. In the art world Sunpie’s photography has appeared in publications such as African Arts, Art in America, Smithsonian Folkways, Washington Post, South Writ Large, and many others. Exhibitions include the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Musical Home Places at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, Bywater Biennial II, “In Company of San Malo” Louisiana State Museum at the Cabildo, and Prospect 5 “Call To Spirit” Ogden Museum of Southern Art.