Doña is Keith Richards' boogie woogie "biiiitch!"
by Margaret Chrystall
SETTING pianos on fire and standing on top of them looked fun to a young Doña Oxford watching TV on her grandma’s knee.
Now known as the "goddess of soul" and "queen of boogie woogie", Doña also noticed something else as a youngster.
"It was men who got to do that, women seemed to play classical.
"Then I saw Joanne Castle – a blonde woman with a big beehive hairdo who played boogie woogie and ragtime. "And I remember thinking ‘I want to do what she’s doing!’."
Since then, Doña has moved from New York to Chicago and on to Los Angeles where she now lives.
Along the way, she’s turned her back on being a musical theatre actress to return to the music she loved as a youngster, including boogie woogie piano in her soul set which blends Doña’s original songs in a style between Gladys Knight and Tina Turner.
Doña has played with some big names – recording with Van Morrison and Ginger Baker.
She has also shared a stage with Keith Richards, both he and Doña fans of rock n roll piano legend Johnny Johnson, Chuck Berry’s pianist for 30 years.
An invitation to record with Van Morrison came after Doña played at the 70th birthday concert for Albert Lee – she’s supported him in the UK and Germany.
"Apparently Van was in the audience and the next day I was getting ready to go to France on tour – literally at St Pancras station with one foot practically on the train – when my agent rings to say Van had seen me and wanted to know if I could stay and record tomorrow."
Doña said: "Next morning it was me, Van – Roger Daltrey was coming along to sing later – and Ginger Baker was on drums.
"So first of all, I’m a girl in an old boys’ music club. I’m also the new person in the room, so I was very nervous.
"In walks Ginger Baker and we start to record.
"Van was very supportive, but when we took a break, Ginger Baker storms up to me and goes ‘You! All I hear in my headphones is you, you, you, so much piano’. I’m just standing there thinking ‘You have a volume knob to turn it down!’ – the recording engineer just rolled his eyes.
"But Ginger Baker has that kind of reputation, so it’s kind of a badge of honour for me!"
It was while joining her idol and mentor Johnny Johnson, that Doña found herself sharing a stage with Keith Richards.
"Johnny used to play in the Count Basie orchestra horn based and verything is in Eflat and B flat, horn keys.
"Guitar keys tend to be in E and A and not these odd flat keys, so for these rock n rollers like Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen, they started wondering why Chuck played everything in E Flat or thse horn keys. "It’s unusual.
"Then they started researching and realised that Johnny created those licks on the piano and Chuck had transferred them onto guitar and created this sound for the guitar – and created rock n roll.
"When the rock n roll hall of fame became a thing and Chuck Berry was the first inductee because he created rock n roll. But there is also a sideman category and all these legends like Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen and Bonnie Raitt said ‘Johnny Johnson needs to be in there!’.
"I became friends with Johnny," says Doña.
She laughs: "I stole his licks and imitated his style and he took me under his wing.
"But the night I met Keith Richards, Johnny had come to New York with his band and every time he came to play in this dinky little club, rumours would start that Keith was coming along to join Johnny for the gig.
"I was there because I love Johnny and he uses my keyboard when he comes to town.
"Suddenly Keith Richards shows up and it’s a slow night, quite empty in the place because it’s a Tuesday, maybe 20 or 30 people in the audience.
"But when Keith Richards walks in, everybody gets on their phones and within half an hour the place is packed.
"Johnny introduced me to Keith backstage, but near the end of the night, the show’s almost over and the guitar-player’s singing ‘Bye, bye, Johnny, goodbye’ – Johnny’s cue to tip his hat and walk off – but he stopped the band – with Keith too, he’d been playing all night.
Johnny said: ‘This is not fair, there’ve been two guitarists onstage all night, I want another piano player – come up Doña!’.
"I sat next to Johnny playing piano, then he got up as if to say ‘Watch my little girl play!’.
"I played a characteristic Johnny Johnson lick, Keith Richards recognised it, whipped his head around and saw me instead of Johnny, did a double take and let his guitar hang from his neck as he watched me, and then he smiled ‘You’re a biiitch, baby’.
"And when the song was over, he grabbed me and hugged me.
"It was just nice to be part of that night."
Doña loves the connection with an audience and she’s hoping her new single Step Up – about respecting each other – will connect people with taking responsibility to make the world better.
It’s a message she thinks might appeal to a presidential candidate ...
Doña laughs: "We’re working on getting it to maybe Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders."
Doña, America’s Goddess of Soul & Boogie Woogie, brings her British band to Mad Hatters, Inverness, tonight (Tuesday, April 26). More: www.donaoxford.com and on Twitter: @donaoxford
