The Medallion, Volume 48, Number 5-6, May/June 2011 Page: 13
19 p. : col. ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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I . ',,__ _
Omar Sharriff (at left) and Muddy Waters shared the sta
friendship in the early 1970s.
For most of the 1960s and '70s,
Sharriff toured regularly along the
West Coast, and, most memorably
across Europe where he was mobbed
by autograph-seeking fans who
"made (him) feel like the president of
the United States." He also released
several albums during this time underhis given name
(Dave Alexander)
before converting
to Islam, when
he took the
name Omar
Sharriff. By
the 1980s
and '90s, he
was playing
primarily in the
ge and an enduring San Francisco
Bay area and
eventually in
Sacramento, though the proliferation
of club DJs and a decline in
appreciation for blues-based piano
left him disillusioned.
When Sharriff received a phone
call from Texas musicologist John
Tennison in January 2010, he was
struggling to make ends meet.Tennison convinced Sharriff his
intentions were legitimate, and
Sharriff was welcomed home on
June 10, 2010 for a celebratory
concert as part of Omar Sharriff Day.
In February 2011, he permanently
moved back to Marshall, where he
receives a small stipend and an
apartment from the city while serving
as an artist in residence.
"I don't have to worry about
any of the bad stuff here anymore-
time has taken care of it. God bless
time," Sharriff says. "Everybody's
been so nice to me. I wouldn't have
believed it if someone told me in
1955 that one day there'd be an
Omar Sharriff Day in Marshall. It's a
different world, man."
This article was written by Andy Rhodes,
managing editor of The Medallion.TEXAS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
May/June 2011
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Texas Historical Commission. The Medallion, Volume 48, Number 5-6, May/June 2011, periodical, May 2011; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth309007/m1/13/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission.