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Jontavious Willis Studio Session

Jontavious Willis in the KNKX Seattle Studios.
Parker Miles Blohm
/
KNKX
Jontavious Willis in the KNKX Seattle Studios.

At 22 years of age, Jontavious Willis is already a formidable blues talent. Largely self-taught, he has highly developed skills at Delta and Piedmont guitar styles, as well as playing banjo and harmonica. In 2015, his talent got the attention of Taj Mahal and Keb Mo, who took him on tour and helped him fund and produce his latest release, Spectacular Class

Like his mentors, he brings a keen sense for history and for the earlier musicians who created the music we call blues. He says that blues is the foundation of most American popular music, including jazz, rock and rap.

This year, Centrum Port Townsend named Jontavious artistic director for acoustic blues. Centrum's Acoustic Blues Workshop happens July 26-Aug. 2, 2020.

His live set features a mix of originals and well-chosen covers, and this day he performed two of his own songs along with some blues standards.

KNKX Studio Sessions are recorded and produced live in our Seattle studios. Listeners may also subscribe to our Studio Sessions podcast with AppleGoogleTuneIn or Spotify

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John has worked as a professional bassist for 20 years, including a 15 year stint as Musical Director of the Mountain Stage radio program. John has been at KNKX since 1999 where he hosts “All Blues”, is producer of the BirdNote radio program, and co-hosts “Record Bin Roulette”. John is also the recording engineer for KNKX “In-Studio Performances”. Not surprisingly, John's main musical interests are jazz and blues, and he is still performing around Seattle.