Hornby Island Blues Workshop

Lester Quitzau’s skill as a guitarist and vocalist have won him growing critical acclaim and admiration over the past twenty years, whether as a solo performer, a member of the award-winning group Tri-Continental, collaborator with international recording artist Mae Moore, or The Lester Quitzau Trio. His music has evolved to be quite diverse, but he spent the first ten years of his career playing straight ahead blues. He has a deep understanding of the blues, and it's pretty much the foundation of whatever he does musically. His blues combines many different aspects, as he’s been studying country blues masters like Son House, as well as the aesthetics of jazz modernists like Bill Frisell. Lester has one foot in Mississippi Fred McDowell’s camp and the other is firmly situated in Jimi Hendrix territory. This versatility not only makes him one of the most open-minded blues stylists, he’s also showing the way into a very interesting future for the blues. What began with a solid blues apprenticeship in the funky working-class bars of Edmonton has grown into an eclectic and constantly evolving musical journey for the guitarist, who has always liked the honesty of the blues. Lester, a two time JUNO award winner master slide guitarist has been featured at many blues guitar/slide and song-writing workshops and enjoys teaching.