Big Allanbik

Emerging in Rio de Janeiro during 1992, the Big Allanbik blues band issued its debut recording, Blues Special Reserve, the following year. Its sophomore release, Black Coffee (1994), arrived at the Nescafé and Blues Festival in São Paulo, where Robert Cray, Lonnie Brooks, Otis Clay, Ronnie Earl, Robben Ford, and Eric Burdon also appeared. Two years afterward the group traveled to the United States, performing at the Blue Note in New York, NY, and at Tobacco Road in Miami, FL. While in Chicago they shared bills with Duke Robillard at Buddy Guy's Legends and with Lonnie Brooks at the Chicago Blue Note. Their third album, Batuque y Blues (1998), produced by Bob Stander, blended Brazilian percussion with classic rock and blues. That same year the band played four times at Metropolitan hall in Rio on the night Steve Winwood and B.B. King appeared, delivered shows at the Palace and other leading nightclubs in São Paulo, and staged a concert at Parque do Ibirapuera on the same day Johnny Rivers attracted more than 70,000 people.