Word: tigrett
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Since then, Tigrett has moved quickly toward making the House of Blues as aggressively ubiquitous as the Hard Rock Cafe. There are HOBs in New Orleans and Los Angeles. A new franchise will open in Chicago later this year; a location is being scouted in New York City (already teeming with theme restaurants); and venues are being planned for Tokyo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Berlin. Can Puttaparthi be far behind...
...from the Los Angeles and New Orleans HOBs totaled more than $35 million last year. "If you watch Isaac at work, he's a genius--he looks rock 'n' roll, but he thinks Madison Avenue," says John Sykes, president of the music video network vh1 and a friend of Tigrett's. "He is building a quality brand--you come and hear the blues, buy a burger and a T shirt on the way out. That's pure Isaac. He's not a quick-buck guy. He thinks long-term, and he puts together very solid franchises...
Perhaps the sharpest criticism leveled against the clubs has been the charge that Tigrett is ripping off African-American culture. "The blues has been followed religiously by a small group of people for years who had more personal than financial gain from the music, and they stuck by it for years when it didn't make any money," says Mike Kappus of the Rosebud Agency, a management company that represents bluesmen John Lee Hooker and Robert Cray. "It's a very real, emotional music. If Isaac has a true love for the music, he has to be very careful about...
...surprisingly, Tigrett sees the situation differently. "The black community turned its back on the blues," he says. "Black intellectuals said, 'Blues, man, that's some rag-tag man singing on a front porch. That's poor self-image, singing in broken English.' And from 1963 to 1973 the black community abandoned the blues. The audience became white, and that was a tragedy." These are claims black and white blues lovers might question. But in an effort to show goodwill, Tigrett is trying to broaden the audience for the music he loves. HOB provides high-school seniors with college scholarships...
...Still, Tigrett seems to revel in being the bad boy of the blues, the Dennis Rodman of an authentic American musical form. "I came to the Blues Foundation symposium last year, and one of the lectures was titled: 'Isaac Tigrett, House of Blues: Devil or Angel?' " says Tigrett with a laugh. "And I went down there, and I said, 'I am the devil.' I said, 'I'm going to take this music and take it away from small-minded people who want to keep it in dirty little clubs. And I'm going to do what I do best...