From the shores of Lake Michigan to the shadows of a saguaro in the Sonora desert, Bob Corritore’s route through the American blues landscape is an unlikely travelogue. Corritore, a Chicago native, has been the proprietor of the world renowned Rhythm Room in Phoenix, Arizona, for 20 years.  The valley of the sun had not been a hot bed of blues until the harp blowing Corritore swung into town two decades ago. Corritore has constituted a virtual one man blues revival in the desert and they've been raising the roof in Arizona ever since.

Bob Corritore is a triple threat in a business full of specialists. Besides being a nightclub owner, h is a bluesman and radio personality. He is a mean harp player firmly rooted in the Chicago tradition and hosts a weekly blues program Those Lowdown Blues on Phoenix’s KJZZ 91.5 FM Sunday nights from 6pm – 11pm (MST).

He has a 2010 album out on Delta Groove Records entitled Bob Corritore and Friends: Harmonica Blues. If you are Corritore, those friends just happen to be some of the greatest blues legends to walk the face of the earth. The album presents Corritore’s muscular Mississippi saxophone in various ensembles featuring these musical icons.  At 15 songs and 61 minutes, this generous helping of Chicago style blues is somewhat bittersweet in that several of the performers on this recording have left us in recent years. The record won a Blues Music Award earlier this year for Best Historical Album.

The album opens with a mid-tempo Chicago shuffle where Corritore’s harp meshes with Bob Margolin’s tasteful guitar lines backing the late great queen of the blues, Koko Taylor. The album ends with a tune sung by one of the greatest singers and guitar players ever to walk the face of the earth, Little Milton, who left us in 2005. In between you'll find performance by Robert Lockwood Jr., Pinetop Perkins, Henry Gray, Carol Fran and Bob's longtime musical colleague, Pete Pearson. 

The Rhythm Room is a “CenPho” blues hot spot and an important stop over for traveling musicians on their way to and from the West Coast. The desert oasis of blues is in the middle of the sprawling metropolis and has hosted virtually every imaginable blues act over the past two decades.

Bob Corritore’s Rhythm Room celebrated its 20^th anniversary last month. In the nightclub world that is like celebrating a bicentennial. Last month also marked the one year anniversary of Amanda’s Roller Coaster. Over a three day period the Rhythm Room hosted the largest and best harmonica talent ever assembled.  Players included Corritore as well as Paul Oscsher, Al Blake, Jerry Portnoy, James Harman, R.J. Mischo, James Cotton, Lazy Lester, Kim Wilson, Jumpin’ Johnny Sansome, Bharath Rajakumar, Steve Marriner, Billy Boy Arnold and others.  

Bob Corritore is a man who balances the seemingly disparate worlds of entrepreneur and artist. He is a college graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tulsa and a man who plays low down dirty blues. That is a welcome combination, not often found in the blues world.  On September 26^th,2007, the mayor of Phoenix declared it the official Bob Corritore day in Phoenix for his cultural contributions to the city. Keeping a career in the blues going for as long as he has and giving  great artists a place to play for 20 years in a blues outpost of sorts, is an incredible achievement. Anytime you are in the Rhythm Room, it is Bob Corritore day.