Proudly part of the Tallinn Fringe Festival.
Performer: All-star lineup
Genre: Music,
Language: Estonian, English
Duration: 150 min
Age suitability: 6+
Tickets: from 25€
Exactly one hundred years ago, in a shabby hut among the cotton fields of Mississippi, the future King of the Blues, B.B. King, was born. To mark the great man’s centennial, Estonia’s finest musicians gather for a concert at the Salme Cultural Center in Tallinn.
On stage, side by side, are Estonian blues legends and today’s stars. All of them are inspired by B.B. King’s legacy: to be brave and free in their art. Ivo Linna, Laura Põldvere, Jan Uuspõld, Sissi, and Jarmo Reha join forces with the cream of Estonian blues to offer surprising and emotionally rich interpretations from B.B. King’s repertoire. The guitars of Raul Ukareda and Vilho Meier cry and laugh like Lucille herself, Jason Hunter’s horn section gets the party going, and the stalwarts of Estonian blues — Rene Paul (keyboards), Argo Toomel (bass), and Peep Kallas (drums) — lay down a solid foundation. Everything is in place for unprecedented improvisation, wild humor, sing-alongs, joy, tears, and pathos. Especially since the proceedings are kept in check by the master of ceremonies, singer, and B.B. King’s authorized envoy for the night — the blues dame Kaisa Ling.
We will summon the spirit of the King of the Blues just as biographer Charles Sawyer describes a B.B. concert: “Every seat in the house is taken, and the aisles are jammed with clubgoers dancing, laughing, and boozing. This audience and this nightclub are almost timeless. It could just as well be 1939 at Jones’s nightspot in Indianola, Mississippi, or 1950 at Club Handy on Beale Street in Memphis, or the Apollo Theater in Harlem around 1960.”
Even if it is Estonia.
Even if it’s the start of the school year.
Even if it’s just an ordinary Tuesday.
B.B. King turns 100 only once. And we’re celebrating.
16.09 “B.B. King’s Century”
Tallinn Salme Cultural Center
Concert starts at 19:00,
doors open one hour earlier
The concert is in two parts with an intermission.
#TallinnFringe2025