(Roughly) Daily

We recently lost an audio pioneer: Ben Manilla, an award-winning radio and podcast producer, audio entrepreneur, pioneering disc jockey, and broadcast journalism educator, passed away at the end of last month. In his long and storied career, he won awards (the Peabody, Columbia University’s Edward Howard Armstrong Award, RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Scripps Howard Award among others) for everything from Philosophy Talk (from Stanford University) to The Loose Leaf Book Company (with Tom Bodett).

But Ben had a long suit in programming about the Blues. His work with Martin Scorcese and the Experience Music Project helped lead the year-long, nation-wide multimedia event, “The Blues.” It included Ben’s thirteen-hour radio documentary, The Blues with Keb’ Mo’, the most widely distributed special in the history of Public Radio International (PRI). His long running Elwood’s BluesMobile with Dan Aykroyd (nee, House of Blues) was recently inducted into the Library of Congress.

Here in tribute both to Ben and to the Blues, the series’ induction ceremony at the Library of Congress:

(Image at the top: source)

* “The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits. It’s better keeping the roots alive, because it means better fruits from now on. The blues are the roots of all American music. As long as American music survives, so will the blues.” – Willie Dixon

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As we feel it, we might recall that it was on this date in 1997 that Bo Diddley, Keb’ Mo’, Buddy Guy, and a host of others performed at a tribute at the Kennedy Center to the “father of Chicago Blues,” Muddy Waters.