Toledo singer Ramona Collins performing Tuesday in Temperance

The Monroe News
·2 min read

TEMPERANCE — Toledo singer Ramona Collins will explore the relationship between blues and jazz at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Bedford Branch Library, 8575 Jackman Road. She's calling the performance "When Jazz Meets Blues."

The concert is part of the Monroe County Library System’s annual Black History Month Blues series. Admission to all programs is free. The public is welcome.

"With a musical career dating back to the 1970s, Collins has explored musical styles including blues, jazz, pop, rock, Motown, rhythm & blues, soul and country," the library system said.

Collins has performed with jazz musicians and vocalists from Detroit, Ann Arbor and Toledo at clubs like Rusty's Jazz Café, Murphy's Place, Baker's Keyboard Lounge, Bert's Marketplace and the Bird of Paradise. She has toured nationally and played in New York City with pianist Johnny O’Neal. Collins actively supports the jazz and blues communities in Toledo participating in the Toledo Jazz Society and the Black Swamp Blues Society.

Collins
Collins

Joining Collins is her band featuring Sean Dobbins, Cliff Monear, and Dave Stearns.

Dobbins is an award-winning drummer who heads his own band, Sean Dobbins and the Modern Jazz Messengers. He is a professor of music in jazz studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Pianist Cliff Monear is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music and teaches at the Wayne State University School of Music. He heads his own jazz group, The Cliff Monear Trio. Dave Stearns rounds out the group on bass. A veteran on the southeast Michigan scene, Stearns played various styles, including jazz, blues, folk and rock. He has performed with Collins since the early 1990s.

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Monroe County’s 37th Annual Black History Month Blues series is presented by the Monroe County Library System, Monroe County Community College and the 2024 Blues Coalition of community partners: DTE Foundation, Monroe NAACP, Friends of South Rockwood, Friends of Carleton, Friends of Dorsch, Friends of Ellis, Friends of Ida and Friends of Bedford. This project is funded in part by the Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Michigan Arts and Culture Council.

The “Tuesday is Blues Day” concert series continues at library branches around Monroe County each week through March 5. All offerings begin at 7 p.m.

Other programs in the series:

  • Feb. 20: Danny Kroha, Ida Branch Library

  • Feb. 24: Big Gig! Monroe County Community College

  • Feb. 27: Zoom and her Band, Ellis Library & Reference Center

  • March 5: Harmonica Glazer and Harmonica Sah, South Rockwood Branch Library

For more information, visit mymcls.com.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Toledo singer Ramona Collins performing Tuesday in Temperance