Morgan Freeman will co-host RTÉ Concert Orchestra's blues collaboration

Morgan Freeman will join the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in continued celebrations of its 75th anniversary. The Delta Blues Project is on Sunday, June 11th, at O’Reilly Hall, University College Dublin.

Bringing the gritty and heartfelt sounds of Mississippi Delta Blues to the UCD Festival in June, a collaboration between the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and US-based jazz and blues impresario David O'Rourke, The Delta Blues Project features the music of blues greats.

Morgan Freeman will serve as honorary MC for the collaboration that will include Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker and BB King, as well as music from those inspired and influenced by the blues, such as Ray Charles and Eric Clapton.

Freeman is co-founder and co-owner of Ground Zero Blues Club, located in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the proverbial 'Birthplace of the Blues'. It opened in May 2001 and is located near the Delta Blues Museum. In the style of juke joints, it is in a repurposed, un-remodelled building. There is no proper decor to speak of. Mismatched chairs, Christmas-tree lights, and graffiti greet one everywhere. Blues fans in Clarksdale welcomed it as a place where local musicians have a chance to work regularly.

Morgan Freeman's blues club. Credit: Sun Herald

The first half of the concert will feature music by trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, recently voted ‘Trumpeter of the Year’ by the Jazz Journalists Association, and whose acclaimed new album, The Art of Intimacy Volume 2: His Muse, shot to Number 1 in the jazz charts earlier this year.

The second half of the concert showcases music from the Mississippi Delta, featuring blues vocalist and guitar player Anthony ‘Big A’ Sherrod. Sherrod is a regular performer at Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club, as well as legendary drummer Lewis Nash and award-winning pianist Caili O’Doherty.

The Delta Blues Project provides a unique opportunity to hear jazz and blues greats performed in new orchestrations by O’Rourke and helps introduce some of today’s finest American jazz and blues musicians to Irish audiences.