From the Globe News Desk
Photos by Z'ma Wyatt

The grand ballroom of the Hilton Oakland Airport was the place to be Sunday night when the Bay Area Blues Society hosted its annual West Coast Blues Hall of Fame & Awards Ceremony.

The annual show honors blues, jazz and gospel artists for their contributions to music. This year’s inductees included a broad array of greats who have helped to keep the blues alive. Eighteen artists were inducted into the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame, and the Bob Geddins Lifetime Achievement Award — which recognizes those who have most influenced a generation of musicians — was presented to Globe Associate Publisher and Managing Editor Eleanor Boswell-Raine and Carolyn Crawford from UC Berkeley’s Oral History Department.

Some of this year’s inductees included notables such as Bobby Freeman, Larry Graham, Belva Davis, Steve Miller, Pete Escovedo, Lu Vason, Opal Nations, Don Robey, Nate James, Ed Howard, Art Lassiter, Ephesian Church of God In Christ, Bobby Webb, James Levi, Billy Pigrum, Vernon and Jewell, Lunnell and Carl “Good Rockin” Robinson.

The annual event raises funds for ongoing programs including the Blues in the Schools program, which uses local blues musicians to teach the history of the blues to students and provide instruction on the playing of musical instruments.