Bruce Katz: Live! at the Firefly

Bruce Katz and company wade deep into territory where few present-day jazz bands dare go: the blues. More precise would be to say that other jazzers don't feel like they need to go waist deep in this essential music form. For a jazz organ trio to roll out a slow blues or early boogie number would seem a no-brainer. You know, something to keep the crowd on the dance floor. Recorded at The Firefly Club in Ann Arbor Live! at the Firefly (Brown Dog Music) showcases the band at their live best with Katz at the piano and organ. When they launch into Mingus' "Better Get it In Your Soul" there can be no mistaking the sign out front that night said 'jazz band.' This might be a good time to point out the word soul; the Bruce Katz band has that in abundance. Not since Jimmy Smith has an organ-led trio ventured forth with such passion and skill. The beauty of the soulful feeling shows up clear as day on "The Blue Lamp." Superb guitarist Chris Vitarello sounds uncannily like Duane Allman on "Jump Start"; elsewhere reminiscent of Larry Carlton. Up the middle, Ralph Rosen on drums and Rod Carey on bass are about are good as a 1-2 as you can find. "Crew of Two" sounds a lot like the fine work Katz did with Ronnie Earl on The Color of Love. Speaking of the boogie number, "Norton's Boogie" is one hand-clappin' foot-shufflin' gem not to miss.

The Bruce Katz Band (MySpace) appears at the Livery in Benton Harbor on Oct 22.

Tin Can Trust by Los Lobos

Too often a collection of songs is more important than the songs themselves. For their best batch of original tunes since 2001’s Good Morning Aztlan, Los Lobos lays this convention aside. The band stays in finest form when they keep things simple for us. All they need to do to uncork the magic is focus on uncomplicated song structures, revisit poignant themes with no-nonsense riffs, and it's all over before anyone knows what happened. Los Lobos writes songs that go beyond just sounding good, the contents of which are filled wide with relevance and imagination. Their songs tell a story of what it must be like to head off to the bank first thing with your tin can of coins and realize what you don’t have by the time you corralled a runaway quarter on the landing by the stairs. The song is deeper than just that; how cool to connect on multiple levels. Trust was pieced together from recording studios across the US; no big surprise given the band’s hectic road schedule. But instead of sounding fractured and bumpy, Tin Can sounds smooth and taut due to the strength of the writing. Their ability to tell clear concise stories lies seemingly within strands of T1 fiber optics connecting the start of history to present life. “The Lady and the Rose,” a song of faith and struggle is destined to find its way into their tradition-rich acoustic show. “On Main Street” is a groovy 70s sounding Saturday morning jaunt down to the bakery and hardware store for your wife. "Jupiter or the Moon" is like the vaunted creeper buzz. It hits you when you're least expecting. The blues have been the bed rock foundation of a 35-year career and on Trust the Lobos again find ways to bring that out: here it’s the Hammond organ work of Steve Berlin and guest Rev. Charles Williams. The cover of the Dead’s “West LA Fadeway” is heavy blues worthy of comparisons to the old-school hard hitting funk of Albert King and the modern-day guitar of Buddy Guy. Cesar Rosas is the blues linchpin and one of many links into fertile musical territory. With their broad vision grounded in the blues, Rosas and company take it from that important roots strain into many directions. Rosas, their most recognizable member, strikes again with a new cumbia (Yo Canto) and a fine addition to the “runner” portion of the live show, “Mujer Ingrata.” The beauty of all this is that “Do the Murray” could be the set-ending number for the first show on any Saturday night for countless house blues bands everywhere. How grounded and universal is that? When Los Lobos dives deep and out of sight it’s perhaps too much for us to grasp (27 Spanishes). Ordinary humans have to see things in black and white to believe just a little; they can’t just feel it like is required here. When they go a little shallower, just skimming the surface of profound, Los Lobos is still better than most any other band going. Except maybe the all-time house blues band in the sky.

Tin Can Trust is available for purchase at www.loslobos.org

Stone River Boys at The Livery (Benton Harbor) Oct 17

Look out now. Gettin’ all funky, bustin' a move in your cowboy hat and Tony Lama’s. Doesn’t sound quite right does it? But for Mike Barfield, singer with the Western-appareled Stone River Boys and formerly with the Hacienda Brothers, bringing the funk is all right and out of sight.
“I come from the funky side of things like the Stax records stuff,” said Barfield from a tour lay-over in Green Bay WI. “Even before the Hacienda Brothers I put out a record called 'Living Stereo' which was whole-hog R & B soul. Then I had my own band called Barfield which was a Cracker-like funk thing with no horns; just Hammond organ, guitar, bass and drums."

"So you see I’ve been doing this all along,” proclaims Barfield.
Barfield cites the cross-over sound of Memphis Stax soul blended with Louisiana swamp soul/blues and James Brown’s early R&B years as inspiration for what he’s doing now with SRB.
“I’m a big fan of Tony Joe White and his swamp sound. I got to open up for him once in Houston. Both Dave Gonzalez (guitarist with SRB) and I really like Jerry Reed. I consider Jerry to be funky. Not in the same way that you’d say funk since James Brown however,” said Barfield, a nationally known funky dancer himself.
“But Reed had that country swampy sound in his music," he continues. "Songs like “Amos Moses” may be a novelty song on the surface to some. But Reed's songs are really well done and well played; they’re great in their own right.”
As 2010 winds down the Stone River Boys are set to record new material and decisions remain about which way to proceed.
“We’re at the point now where we need to start working on our new record. We’re debating on what we’re going to do and where we are going to record it; we’ve been really busy on the road promoting the record we have (Love on the Dial) out now," says Barfield.

"It’s kind of a different world out there now and we're trying to figure out the best way to go about this release. The record business has changed so much in the last few years. Needless to say there are many different ways to go."

For their Oct 17 appearance at the Livery in Benton Harbor Barfield is almost sure to let loose with a version of the “The Struggle” an original from Love on the Dial.
“I was inspired by the old Marlon Brando movie The Wild Ones of all things. Though you’d never know it by listening to the lyrics," Mike said with a laugh. "

"There’s a scene where they're at this restaurant bar. This guy instead of asking the girl to dance, asks her if she wants to struggle. I always thought that was a great thing. It kind of turned into my passive political statement and dance,” Barfield said with a smile.

It’s great when you can get both ideas in at once, right? To be sure, there’s bound to be some funky struggling all up on the dance floor when the Stone River Boys hit town.

The Stone River Boys MySpace page. The band appears at the Livery in Benton Harbor on Oct 17 at 6 pm. More info at The Livery website.

"We Are Here" at San Chez Bistro for Art Prize 2010

The 2010 Art Prize entry of Grand Rapids artist Pamela Troyer is now on display at San Chez Bistro located at 38 Fulton W. The Aboriginal-inspired "We Are Here" acrylic on canvas painting is featured prominently above the bar in the restaurant. Please vote UP for "We Are Here" # 41931. Her art work is available for purchase at Art Prize. Here is an article from the Grand Rapids Press in which Troyer is quoted about the art sale at Devos Place coinciding with this years event.

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys at Billy's Lounge Sept 21

Big Sandy occupies a unique space as originator and survivor. The suave doo-wop crooner and debonair rockabilly front-man considers himself lucky to have lived through the swing music revival of fifteen years ago. He knows first-hand the excitement and frenzy of the hipster scene that reigned mighty from the mid-‘90s until the end of the decade. A pre-internet grassroots movement turned cultural happening if there ever was one. According to legend, it was Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys right alongside another instigator of the LA scene--the horn-fueled Royal Crown Revue.
“They were one of the bands that came up with us in the late 80s who started to make noise around town. I know there were quite a few other bands who, more or less, copied their style. Either that or they were heavily influenced by the Revue and wanted to get something going like that for themselves,” said Sandy.
“The Royal Crown Revue kind of created the scene here on the West Coast, in my opinion, as far as the swing thing goes. They started to attract a lot of dancers here in Southern California and up in San Francisco,” says Big Sandy (aka Robert Williams).
At first it was a tiny natural organic embryo of a small snowball.
“How it happened was kind of cool, an underground faction that built on itself. Other people took notice and it began to spread places,” says Sandy sometimes called Big Spanky in certain circles.
“We had our own thing going when swing started to boom. We got booked on shows with RCR, many times advertised as Swing Night. Suddenly the crowds doubled and tripled. Even though we didn’t quite fit into the mold of the time we were able to adapt a little bit to make it work.”
As the phenomenon began to take hold, Sandy found himself on the same bill with RCR at an LA club called the King King.
“The original place was one of the first clubs to actually pay us decent money. We started to bring people in and there were lines around the block. It felt like something was happening there.”
“At the same time up in San Francisco there was a group of guys who started to throw these warehouse parties. That began to attract all kinds of people. Regular kids started showing up in their 40s and 50s clothes. I think it was a big turning point,” notes Sandy.
“We’ve seen different little things come and go. Sometimes we’re able to fit in with them. We’ve tried to carve out something of our own so we’re not completely affected by trends along the way.”
According to Big Sandy today’s LA rockabilly scene remains vital. One of the more recent developments includes the participation of Latino youth.
“On the West coast there are tons of kids still coming into the scene and discovering it for the first time. A lot of them are good musicians who are starting to form bands now,” says Sandy.
“There is a record label out here called Wild Records who is starting to round them up. It reminds you that it’s living and breathing; still an ongoing thing.”
The version of the Fly-Rite Boys appearing at Billy’s on Sept 21 will be minus a seemingly integral part of the western swing sound: a pedal steel guitar.
“We’re back to just a four piece now. We’ve been playing without a steel guitar for about four years,” says Sandy.
Only the best can readily adjust.
“We had two-weeks off from a trip a while ago. Our pedal steel player was Canadian and he went home to Vancouver BC. While there he lost his passport. We had shows coming up and he couldn’t make it back in the states,” explains Sandy.
“We did some shows without him, kind of fumbled our way through that. Then he took his time getting his new passport and we had more and more shows without him.”
“Then it started to fall into place. I kind of liked the way it was feeling,” said Big of the stripped down tougher sound.
“It’s just another phase of the band. We’re kind of back to how we started--a little leaner" sayeth Sandy.
“I like it for now. We’ll see what happens next,” said Sandy with that famous grin.

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys wsg The Rhythm Dogs (GR) and featuring rockabilly DJ Del Villarreal (Ann Arbor) between sets. Doors:8:30 Show:9:00 (Big Sandy on first) $12 (at door) 21+

Deke Dickerson at Billy's Aug 17

Mottled are the rockabilly music fans at Deke Dickerson’s shows. In the house you’re bound to see tattooed swing dancers swirling alongside mascara-lined punk rockers standing next to assorted guitar nerds. No matter the lot, these are the demographics that seek out future guitar museum curator and rockabilly artist Dickerson.
“I’m sort of unique in the rockabilly scene that way. I tend to draw from all types of audience members. We get some of the psycho-billies, sure,” says Deke Dickerson.
“But we also see people from all walks of life: the college kids, the old people, and whatever else. We have a very diverse audience.”
“I’m always glad when I win them over and they become regular customers,” he adds.
Among his many talents Deke now writes feature articles for Vintage Guitar and the Fretboard Journal, plus a bi-monthly column for Guitar Player magazine. That’s not too out of step. Dickerson started college with an eye on a career in journalism.
“It’s kind of interesting, all these years later, that writing is what I wound up doing. I’ve been writing a lot lately and writing about things that I would have wanted to write about anyway if I had been a journalism major,” said Dickerson during nine-hour drive from Kansas City to Minneapolis.
“I’m not going to complain,” said Deke of the seemingly win-win situation he faces.
Roots music fans will have a win-win on their hands when Deke Dickerson and his four-piece Ecco-Fonics hit Grand Rapids on Aug 17. Deke’s current edition of the Ecco-Fonics band includes drummer Pete Curry of Los Straightjackets and Australian bassist Jon Flynn. Piano player Amy Hawkins of St Louis hooks up with the group just in time for their appearance at Billy’s Lounge.
“Amy is a great piano player. I saw her play when we were in St. Louis earlier this year and she sat in with my band. She plays with a jump blues band called Miss Jubilee and the Humdingers. I liked the way she played so I asked her to come on tour,” said Dickerson.
Here’s a bonus for those fans of surf music. Deke says with the inclusion of Curry they’re doing more from the surf catalog, songs they wouldn’t normally do. This bodes well for those folks already coming out to hear the belly-flop beach sting of GR’s The Concussions.
But Deke wouldn’t come all the way to town without a special surprise.
“Did you hear the news story about the guy who discovered he had diabetes after the dog ate his toe?” Deke asked me.
“I’m writing a song just for the evening in honor of Big Jerry called I Miss My Big Toe.”

Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Fonics wsg The Concussions at Billy's Lounge Tues Aug 17 9:00pm 21+ $12

TMGR Exclusive: It's Official. Organissimo no more.

TMGR is reporting that the end has really arrived for jazz jam-band Organissimo. Keyboardist Jim Alfredson continues to tour with Janiva Magness, which was widely publicized. Lesser known is the revelation that guitarist Joe Gloss was recruited by the The Order of Christ/Sofia religious sect and has moved out of state. Drummer Randy Marsh has reformed his group from the mid-90s, Blue Train, now called Big Organ. You may remember the Blue Train trio of Marsh, guitarist/vocalist Ricky Hicks, and Hammond B-3 whiz Chris Moberly from their regular weekday night gig at the former Rhythm Kitchen Cafe in downtown Grand Rapids. Big Organ sounded tight, focused, and bluesy at a recent hit on the patio of the Grand Rapids Art Museum.