It wouldn’t be surprising if Deanna Bogart was feeling a little bit anxious right now.
This weekend, the Howard County based musician is playing what is arguably one of the more high profile gigs of her career.
“We’re calling it the ‘mother ship show’,” says Bogart of this Friday’s concert at the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick, Maryland.
It is, in fact, the centerpiece of an ambitious musical project. “I’m really nervous and very excited about it,” she confides by phone from her home in Woodbine.
For the past two years, she and her band have been followed around by a camera crew gathering footage that will be used in a documentary. Friday’s concert will play a central role in the production. The film will include footage of Bogart entertaining the troops in Kuwait and blowing her sax in Cairo, but the bandleader says it wouldn’t be complete without local footage of the place she calls home.
“Maryland is my musical birthplace. I wasn’t born here, but I’ve lived here for thirty years now.” Even though she’s now a nationally recognized figure on the blues music scene, having shared the stage with the likes of B.B. King and James Brown, Bogart hasn’t forgotten where it all began.
“Howard County, and Carroll, and Frederick counties kept me afloat in the beginning of my career,” she notes. “I have a lot of love for Howard County and to all my friends here who’ve been traveling this particular road with me.”
Fans who plan to come out to the concert can expect to see Bogart’s core band; guitarist Dan Leonard, bassist, Scott Ambush and drummer Mike Aubin, as well as a myriad of special guests that have played a part in Bogart’s long musical history.
While they’re at it, the band will also record audio for a live CD, which will be packaged along with the DVD when it is eventually released.
Originally from Detroit and raised in New York and Arizona, Bogart moved to Maryland in the early 80’s. Her first foray into the performing life was with the Maryland-based western swing group, Cowboy Jazz.
Next up was a stint as a horn player for Root Boy Slim, a popular D.C. based singer renowned for a rowdy blend of the blues, rock& roll, and R&B. By 1988, Deanna Bogart was ready to strike out on her own and has been fronting her own band ever since. Along the way she’s honed her impressive skills as a pianist and saxophone player, and has grown into a terrific singer and top notch songwriter.
Bogart’s music is a fusion of styles that is deeply rooted in the blues and boogie. Her finesse and performing prowess have not gone unnoticed. The musician has won well over twenty Washington Area Music Awards, and has been named the Blues Music Awards Horn Instrumentalist for the past three years running. She’s even taken on a new challenge; hosting a television show for HCC TV. The Howard Community College production, “An Evening With…,” explores the local and regional music scene.
But a resume does not define a life, and it’s the experiences and personal connections made along the way, that Bogart says she treasures most.
“I get to play with marvelous musicians who both inspire and challenge me and I get to travel to all kinds of places and meet all kinds of people.”
Not that her line of work comes without its sacrifices. A single mom, Bogart is on the road many weekends, playing nightclubs all across the country, and abroad. She’s also the band’s manager, and makes all the business decisions. If a printer in the office is broken or a band member misses a plane, it’s Bogart’s job to fix the problem.
“It’s a lot of work,” she acknowledges. But the tradeoff, she says, makes it all worthwhile. “I wouldn’t change it for the world. I remember being the sad homely girl when I was a teenager. But when I played the guitar, I felt free.”
That feeling of liberation remains with the musician to this day.
“I play for when that can happen,” she reveals. “It’s so wonderful. People who play music for a living are playing for meaning,” she continues. “You’re playing for what you need to give or get, or heal from. Within that, she says, comes the possibility for a transcendent experience. “Every artist has a different name for those moments,” she divulges. “Some call it being “in the zone” or “being in it.”
Bogart’s description is a bit more fanciful. “I call it Deannaland,” she says with a chuckle. “It’s that moment where all past and present and future pain and joy meet, so that it’s utterly synchronized with everything and nothing at the same time. I can’t imagine a better drug. You sort of forget that everybody is there and you’re lost in the music, yet at the same time you’re completely in communication with the people you’re playing with and with the music itself.”
It would be fair to say that a big part of Bogart’s appeal is her lively stage presence. Sure, she has the chops, but it’s also obvious that she’s having fun.
“I figure that if I’m excited and the band is excited, then the audience will pick up on that energy as well,” she says.
Thirty years into her career, how does Bogart manage to keep her act from becoming routine?
“I realized over the years that whenever I would rely on what worked, or what was comfortable or safe, that it was consistent; but it lacked any kind of creative spark or the sense of adventure that can happen when you’re willing to put yourself out there a little bit,” she reveals.
That’s when Bogart deliberately began to shake things up.
“I started to exercise my fearless chip,” she explains. “I would call out a tune that no one had ever played together before, or I would change arrangements on the spot. It became really fun and exciting for the musicians and me. As a live performer, and someone who makes their living doing live shows, I have to have that, or something starts to die a little bit inside. I have to throw myself and the band some curveballs. Everybody has to be on their toes, and that gives the potential for magic to happen. At least the possibility is there.”
A few months ago, Deanna Bogart woke up in the desert where she had traveled to celebrate her fiftieth birthday. She was surprised by how energized she felt on that morning.
“I didn’t expect to feel this way at this point in my life,” she confesses. “Oddly enough, I’m starting to feel like I just got up to bat. Now I’m thinking, where else can I take this, and what else can I do now? I have so much more to write about, and play about. Boy, what a great ride this is.”
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