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Saturday, November 24, 2007 The SOPRO record label lives in a small Southwest suburb of Chicago. The SOPRO family of artists includes The Chicago Horns, Deb Seitz and The Sho’ Nuff Blues Band in its illustrious evolution.
Twice a year, at Easter and Thanksgiving, SOPRO’s Buddy Monaco brings his army of talent together for a full-on blues revue. The venue has been Tommy’s Place in Blue Island (another South suburb of Chicago). Tommy’s is an excellent live music venue with a great stage, and professional lighting and sound. At the same time, it is still a bar (as in tavern). There are so many blues acts I would love to see there, but the owner insists (all together now) “The blues doesn’t pay the rent.” Kenny Anderson, trumpeter was the man of the hour on this, the twenty-fifth anniversary revue, as he has been with SOPRO for the whole twenty-five years. Kenny is part of the famous four part horn ensemble The Chicago Horns. Kenny is joined by Bill McFarland, Hank Ford and Tony Ferraro.
Special guest Tallon “T-Man” Latz was worth trip all by himself. This eight year old from Wisconsin (which is also a suburb of Chicago) amazed the crowd with chops belying his youth. On a stage riser SOPRO made especially for him, T-Man matched the big guys lick for lick, and even sang some blues for us. Keep your eyes and ears open for this guitar slinger.
In recent years the backbone of the SOPRO bands have been Patrick Doody (drums), John “EADG” Falstrom (bass), “Hollywood” Johnny Cosgrove (guitar), Joey Drada (guitar) and Tony Caccitolo (percussion). Fronting the band in turn where Joe Jammer, Harpist Doug Lee and Chicago’s First Lady of the Blues, Deb Seitz.
It was fun watching Doug and Joe dueling with T-Man. There are some great pictures in the ChicagoBluesBeat.com gallery of the extra-tall Joe Jammer trying to get eye-to-eye with the boy wonder.
After backing up T-Man, Doug Lee stayed on to sing and play harp. My highlight of the evening was the Deb Seitz part of the show. Riverside Rob Draganski, who had appeared at the Easter SOPRO revue, was taken from us suddenly at only 22 year of age. Deb Seitz dedicated her version of “Summertime” to his memory. Between her impassioned voice and Tony Ferraro’s beautiful sax accompaniment, the SRO crowd was a collective goose bump.
Now you know the reason I look forward to Thanksgiving and Easter. Please have look at SOPRO’s catalog so you can take the above musicians home with you.
Friday, November 16, 2007 One of the Wonders of the Blues World is Buddy Guy’s Legends here on South Wabash. Blue Bella Records, also here in Chicago, hosted a CD release party at this landmark venue for Nick Moss & the Flip Tops on Saturday night. By my count this is young Nick’s sixth recording project and is titled Play Until Dawn. While Nick’s efforts have been progressively more contemporary, Play Until Dawn, is still pure, high octane Chicago Blues.
The party started with label-mates, The Kilborn Alley Blues Band doing a set. Fresh off their own recent CD release for Burn Down Chicago , Kilborn did an impressive job on the bluesification of the SRO crowd. Joe Asselin (harp), Chris Breen (bass), Ed O’Hara (drums), Josh Stimmel (guitar) and Andy Duncanson (vocals and guitar), still had a lot more in them before they turned the stage over to the Flip Tops. Whether by design or luck, Kilborn Alley seems to fit right in with the gritty, basic true Chicago blues sound that seems to define Blue Bella Records to this point.
Nick Moss & The Flip Tops is a group of talented, multi-instrumentalists who find ways to pay homage to their Chicago forefathers and yet express themselves through their various instruments. Nick can be found on guitar, bass, harp as well as excellent vocals. Gerry Hundt moves between bass, guitar, mandolin, harp and vocals. “Piano” Willie Oshawney is sometime found on the bass. Throughout all this change the heartbeat is drummer Eddie Kobeck.
I am not a CD reviewer, but as a fan, I have the latest product from both of these bands on regular rotation in my car. Noted blues writer and reviewer James “Skyy Dobro” Walker and his wife were in attendance, as were many other blues musicians who came to celebrate the release. Having four Italian brothers myself however, my favorite moment is when Joe Moss, Nick’s brother and mentor sat in for some sibling sounds.
Friday, November 9, 2007 There was no missing Biscuit Miller & The Mix at The Harlem Avenue Lounge on Saturday. As a certified blues fan, I am officially declaring Biscuit a Chicago Blues guy, although we currently share him with Indy. His career has taken him from Chicago, to Clarksdale to Minneapolis, to Chicago, etc. After a long stint as bassist in The Lonnie Brooks Band, I caught him with his Mix at the Slippery Noodle in Indy. That was five years ago, and I haven’t stopped talking about it since. He was off on the road again for another five years as Anthony Gomes bass man, but now we have him back. So in my mind, this was like a homecoming. Apparently, the Chicago blues community felt the same, as they showed up in large number with love and axes.
Biscuit’s Mix was Stan The Man on drums, Paxton Norris (Indy) on Telecaster, Chicago’s C.C. Copeland on keys and Biscuit on bass. Anyone of these players could have provided the energy, but they all did, which leaves me feeling hyper-caffeinated even now on Tuesday morning. All these guys can sing as well. One of their first tunes was Let’s Go Fishin’ (from the Come Together cd), and I knew right then that three sets would come and go in a flash. Now it gets surreal. Singer/bassist and all around performer Sam Cockrell shows up to welcome back his friend and co-recording artist Biscuit Miller. Biscuit passes his amp cord to Sam, and then C.C. Copeland leaves his keys and grabs his bass. Biscuit then referees a bass-off between Sam and the hyperkinetic C.C. This is great. No wait, Biscuit picks up his own bass and plugs in. C.C. Copeland, Biscuit Miller and Sam Cockrell in a world class bass jam. You should have been there! Guitar players get to do this all the time, but this was a night for us bass lovers. When they got done, I had to light up a cigar. No time for afterglow here at Harlem Avenue, as in come Big Ray (drums) and Toronzo Cannon (guitar) to show their respects to Biscuit. How about drummer Lenny Spatafore and even Mojo the washboard player? Big Ray and Toronzo sang and played us through a Sly medley that was awesome. Where were you? All I can do is tell you about it and show you some pictures, but next time I expect to see you there.
Thursday, November 8, 2007 Willie Davis & The All-Start Blues Band at B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted.
Saturday, November 3, 2007 This Saturday The Harlem Avenue Lounge played host to Carl Davis’ inaugural recording effort. The ten tune release of all self-penned songs is titled Someday (Tribute to the Kid) and is on the indie 212 Records label. This was a Chicago-style CD release party, with party being the operative word. No limos at the front door, which is good because the front door is in the back. Rather, musician friends stopping by after their own gigs, with instruments to join the party, and show brother Carl some love. Carl Davis sings his songs much like he plays his Les Paul, with clean, clear and meaningful lines. Carl has obvious R&B sensibilities and with a good measure of funk keeps his guitar chops subservient to the vocals. I especially liked “Bad Time”, but how can you not enjoy a song titled “Superman (Without the Tights)? His band on CD release party night, just as on the record, included Rudy Kleiner on bass, Anthony Tabion on keyboards and Mr. Lenny Statafore on drums. One of Davis’ mentors, Joe Moss was one of the first special guests to come up and grab the spare Les Paul. As usual, Joe lit it up. The wizard of all things musical, Shoji brought his harp instead of his guitar, and of course was amazing. What kind of blues party would this be without Toronzo Cannon? Enter TC in the last set with his left-handed Les Paul, instead of one of his trademark Flying V’s. In the crowd also were some “real photographers” and other friends of the blues including Herb Sollars and his friends, representing from The Columbus Blues Alliance (www.columbusblues.com), and Paul Parello from the Paul Parello Blues Power Radio Show (www.chicagobluesman.com). Look for The Carl Davis Band in person or on the web (www.carldavisband.com) and consider adding this effort to our collection. I did.
Friday November 2, 2007 Please check out the pictures from this master story teller and blues minstrel, Mr. James Wheeler from his visit to The Harlem Avenue Lounge. |
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