Morgan Freeman brings his iconic voice — and the blues — to Sonoma County show

By Dan Taylor, The Press Democrat

Morgan Freeman, with his weathered and resonant voice, is nearly as famous as a narrator as he is an actor. But according to the Oscar winner, there’s no special trick to it.

“I just talk,” he said in a recent phone interview from Gulf Shores, Alabama, where he owns a home.

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Freeman’s recorded narration is the centerpiece of “Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience,” a two-hour multimedia concert coming to the Green Music Center in Rohnert Park on Nov. 22.

“He does a beautiful job on the narration of this 100-year arc of musical history from the Mississippi Delta,” said Eric Meier, executive producer of the project, from Portland, Oregon, during a conference call that included Freeman.

When his schedule allows, Freeman also appears in person to deliver opening remarks, as he did last month when the program was presented at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

Eric Meier, executive producer of the “Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience,” left, and Morgan Freeman. (Courtesy of Ground Zero Blues Club Media)

“It’s a question of availability,” Meier explained.

“We have been told that he is available for our date, and will be here,” a Green Music Center spokesperson confirmed.

Freeman recalled the warm reception he received at the San Francisco event.

“They roared,” he said. “It was sort of overwhelming.”

“I think it’s an appreciation of what Morgan has done over his career,” Meier added.

One of Freeman’s landmark roles came in the 1989 film “Driving Miss Daisy,” in which he portrayed Hoke Colburn, a chauffeur.

“I did that show for 11 months off Broadway, then Warner Brothers offered me a movie,” the actor said.

Freeman has called the film’s score his favorite.

“I’m a music fan. The only kind I don’t take to is opera. I like blues, country and jazz. I don’t quite get hip-hop. I like the music, but I can’t understand the words,” he said.

“I was never a musician,” he added. “I played a horn in high school and, in the ‘60s, I picked up a guitar, but I never qualified as a musician.”

Still, on New Year’s Eve last year, Freeman performed a duet with soul legend Al Green, singing Green’s hit song “Let’s Stay Together” at the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The “Symphonic Blues Experience” project grew out of Meier’s involvement with that very club, which he joined as a co-owner in 2017. It was cofounded in 2001 by Freeman, Howard Stovall and the late Bill Luckett. The show is a hybrid performance blending Freeman’s narration, live music and cinematic visuals.

“We use video recorded at our club,” Meier said.

In Rohnert Park, the show will feature a seven-member blues band and an ensemble of 10 to 15 symphony musicians. Since debuting in 2022, the program has been presented in cities including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Kansas City, Nashville and Louisville. Last year, the show also made its way across the Atlantic to Austria, an appearance Freeman had to miss due to filming “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” in Budapest. The audience for the production is international, Meier said.

“There is a lot of interest in the blues throughout the United States and also in Central and Western Europe. And at our club in Clarksdale, a third of the audience on any given night is from outside the U.S.,” he said.

Get tickets ($71 to $161) and more information at gmc.sonoma.edu/morgan-freemans-symphonic-blues-experience.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at [email protected] or 707-521-5243. On X @danarts.

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