March 23, 2020

On March 8, 2020 a very nice memorial tribute was held at Anodyne Coffee in Milwaukee to honor the Mighty Stokes who passed away several weeks earlier. Stokes was a major blues man in Milwaukee who influenced many people.

The last time I saw Stokes was at The Up and Under club on Brady Street about 25 years ago! Sad to say I never photographed him.

He influenced all the performers at this tribute for sure.

We stayed for a good portion of the night and got to see and hear some great music.

My good old high school mates Leroy Airmaster performed with Steve Cohen, Bill Stone, Marc Wilson and Dave Kasik doing some great music as usual.

Jim Liban and his blues combo played some rockin' blues with Perry Weber and Kurt Koenig. Milwaukee Slim even joined them for a while!

Stokes was smiling upstairs for sure.

Enjoy a look at the evening.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 8, 2019

On Monday, July 1, 2019, at Kochanski's Bar in Milwaukee, we celebrated Junior Brantley Day! Proclamation was even given to Junior from the city as the photos show.

A lot of musicians showed up to celebrate the night with Junior Brantley and it was fun.

Shortstuff, Leroy Airmaster and more came to celebrate!!! Some of these guys I grew up with and went to high school with!! They were a huge influence on my music tastes.

I will let the photos do the talking now. Enjoy

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Jammin' with Junior! An evening with Junior Brantley and a lot of friends on July 1, 2019 at Kochanski's.

July 22, 2013

A long time ago in 1971 when I was a junior in high school, my family moved across town. It was far enough away that I needed to attend a different high school. I lost all my friends!

I was mad, sad and buried my head into my love of photography and music! As I look back now, that move was probably one of the best things that happened to me in my youth!

One of my classmates was Steve Cohen. He had formed a band with some of our other classmates. The Stone Cohen Blues Band was it's name and they played some good blues.

The Stone Cohen Blues Band became Leroy Airmaster a little bit later and Steve was the leader playing harmonicas and doing vocals. Bill Stone plays guitar with Dave Kasik on the bass. Tom Wilson played drums for a while but Vodie Rhinehart is getting the job done now and fits perfectly!

The guys were influenced heavily by local bands The Ox and Short Stuff, and so was I!

Leroy Airmaster broke up for a while and since 2009 have been back together again. They are better and a little older now but it's all good.

The photographs here are from 1971 and from Summerfest this year where Leroy Airmaster opened for Jon Paris who opened for Buddy Guy on the Harley Davidson Roadhouse stage.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann