Reminder: no gig at the Palms this Monday night

Jerry Lopez is doing the Jimmy Kimmel Show this week in L. A., so The Lounge will be dark Monday night.
But, don't forget, the band will be back with a vengeance on the 31st, with the Marco Mendoza TRIO as featured guest artists. Be sure to spread word, it's gonna be excellent.

I went to Brendan's Pub in the Orleans last night to see the Cordle-Scott band (front line below: John March on guitar, Brad Cordle on vocals, Tim Scott on bass). Room was slow, which is a drag, 'cuz these cats are fine, fine players. They'll be back quite a bit through the end of the year (see Tim's web calendar). Check 'em out. Brad Cordle is a monster blues singer. Man! What a voice.


RONNIE FOSTER UPDATE

I dropped by The Artisan last night to see Ronnie and the guys. Well, Gabriel is out of town, so Ronnie called Joel Richman on short notice (below) to sub on drums. Great choice. Joel fit right in seamlessly, just like he'd been gigging with them all along. Cat really plays fine. They fried the first set, to major cheering. Michito Sanchez again sat in on percussion, too. Great night. The joint was packed.

Joel, along with the esteemed Tommy Alvarado, hosts the Sunday night jazz jam at The Hurricane, where you can routinely see and hear a stage full of A-list players. New cats in town: this is the place to go to meet & greet and show your chops. Speaking of fairly new players in town, last night while at The Artisan I met and hung with drummer and vocalist Ron Crews, who came to Vegas after a long show stint in Orlando. Great to meet you, Ron.

"Intermission"

OK, the band has usually begun the first show with the instrumental tune "Just Kiddin'" (the musical equivalent of gym rat stretching exercises, I guess, but, done with a 12-pack of Red Bull). Then, a few weeks ago they sprung a surprise on us mid-show in the form of a horn section "a capella" ensemble piece entitled "Intermission." Gil told me he'd bought the chart, which had been arranged by Michael B. Nelson, formerly of Prince (and many others; more on him and his crew momentarily). Well, the past two Mondays, the band has opened the night with it, then immediately segue'ing into "South American Sojourn." Definitely gets your attention, and sets the bar.

Today I asked Jerry if I could get an mp3 cut of it ASAP (had I been thinking back on Monday, I'da brought my laptop to the gig and asked Sonny to patch me into the board, and I coulda pulled it right onto disk). Well, Jerry promptly sent me back -

THIS MP4 FILE

(I am able to play it both in QuickTime and the iTunes player. You might have to save it to disk and then launch it in the right player if your browser chokes and spews garbage characters.)

I suspect this little cut is not The Fat City Horns (I don't hear the trombone), but just a mockup Jerry did for me to show the piece and transition. Trust me, they play it live right on the money and then some.

Michael B. Nelson? Jeesh. "Hornheads." Click the name, visit their website (particularly the Flash version if you have Flash capability). Recall the mind-blowing "Mosaic" sitting in recently? Hornheads are the horn ensemble equivalent. Wow. You can get their CDs via CD Baby. I am placing my order tonight.

Click this for some totally badass horn work of theirs.

____

jpeg note: I think I faded my graphic a bit too much (click the horn collage pic above at the top of the post to view in full). I simply Google'd "trumpet," "flugelhorn," "trombone," "alto sax," "tenor sax," and "baritone sax" respectively and saved a useful image sample of each. I then "cut" them out of their backgrounds one by one, threw about a 20% "soft edge" and 30-50% "transparency" effect on each cutout, dropped 'em all into a blank white background 1024 x 768 pixel "canvas," moved 'em around, drug in the "Intermission" jpeg I'd extracted from the PDF file Gil had sent me a couple of weeks ago, messed with it a bit -- fading it way down and tilting it, then dropped in a bit of "Broadway" font text which I hit with a touch of 3-D and a drop-shadow. Took all of about maybe 30 minutes. Just a quickie. I can do better. I'm using the ancient (and discontinued) Microsoft PhotoDraw on an old HP P3 Windoze 98 box. I think I'm gonna buy a brand new Mac (and Photoshop) and get real here. May go to Fry's this weekend and shop a while. Already priced the stuff at Apple.com.

We've now been written up by the L.A. Times blog

Check this out...

The Movable Buffet:
Dispatches from Las Vegas by Richard Abowitz

http://vegasblog.latimes.com/

Very nice of you. Great piece, Thanks, Richard!
and, thanks for taking the cool pic,
Sarah Gerke for The L.A. Times.

Without YOU, we are nothing

JUST CHECKING: WE NEED YOUR INPUT

I thought about handing out a paper & pen survey at the gig, and I may still do so (but that'd be kind of a hassle for everyone), but, I am asking all of you to respond here in the comments. You can do so anonymously. I know y'all are out there checkin' the blog. Please, give us some feedback:

1. What's your favorite Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns tune? (original or cover)
2. Would you buy a Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns t-shirt?
3. Would you buy a Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns baseball cap?
4. Would you buy a Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns poster?
5. Would you buy "Fat City Sauce" or "Salsa"? (assuming we made sure it was kick-ass good)
6. What other ideas would you recommend for "stuff"?
   
7. Have you bought the CD?
8. Have you bought the DVD?
9. If you had to pick just one, what tune would you like the band to work up?
10. Who are your other favorite artists?
    
11. Who would you like to see "sit in" as guest artist(s) with the band?
12. If we got "our own room," -- i.e., perhaps a "four-wall" deal where we were taking the sole financial risk, or even more of a traditional showroom gig where there's normally a cover, what would you be willling to pay in order to support this band?
13. Relatedly, what would be a reasonable fee to "become a member"? The idea being you'd pay for a membership card (annual?) that gets you in without a cover, but that you could loan to a friend when you couldn't make it? Is that even of any interest?
14. Is there anything you'd recommend for improvement?
    
15. What is your age?
16. Gender?
17. Do you live in Vegas?
18. If not, where do you live?
19. Also, if you're from out of town, how often do you come to see the band?
20. Answer any other question(s) I've failed to ask. Just whatever's on your mind when you think about this band. Without you, we are nothing. Talk to us.

UPDATE: TONIGHT AT THE GIG

So, Pepe is throwin' down big time during his drum solo in "We Are Nothing," and where are the guys? Partyin' in the dressing room...

Below: a bit of a different perspective, on the drum riser...

Rochon Westmoreland (below) leaves 'em speechless yet again.

Gabriel Falcon is a percussion machine! Below Gabe, Phil Wigfall lays into it. I am not kidding ya, you need to buy Phil's Solo CD, it is way, way excellent.

Below: Gil, Rob, and Jamie, respectively.

What a band! I got more pics, but I gotta crash now. More later. Remember, we want to hear from y'all, please give us your feedback (see above). Below, one last lick here: How 'bout I drop a little watercolor action on this front line shot? 'eh?

Coming soon, for the discriminating musical and gustatory Jones.

Like, yeah, of course, we'll do all the usual ancillary stuff: t-shirts, caps, posters, calendars, whatever. That's a no-brainer, ya gotta do all that. But, well...stay tuned, gonna get some recipes whipped up and packaged. Hmmm...How about our own microbrew product? "Santa Fe Cerveca [TM]"? (OK, imagination getting outa control here).

Don't forget: the healing resumes at 10:15 pm tomorrow night, July 17th at The Palms. Join us.
__________

RONNIE FOSTER GROUP NOMINATED FOR MUSIC AWARDS

A letter Ronnie just got. Yeah, bro'!!

Congratulations, Ronnie Foster.

On behalf of the Black Music Academy Association Of America, our Hall of Fame inductees, honorees, our programs and our supporters, we proudly inform you that you have been officially NOMINATED by our selection committee of music executives, radio station programmers, music journalists, fellow musicians and entertainers to receive a

BLACK MUSIC AWARD

Your nomination is a very special honor because your peers and music professionals hold you in the highest esteem in submitting your name for selection. We are especially proud because you have made a great contribution to the legacy of music, and through the BLACK MUSIC AWARDS everyone will recognize your accomplishments.

The LAS VEGAS SOUNDS OF SOUL MUSIC AWARDS will be held on Sunday, August 13, 2006 inside Cashman Theater in Las Vegas. This formal attire event will be one of the most exciting, informative, and gala activities in Las Vegas, as we roll out the red carpet for our nominees, honorees, special guests and celebrity hosts.

You have been nominated in the following categories:

BEST LOUNGE PERFORMANCE BY A SMOOTH JAZZ BAND

BEST JAZZ INSTRUMENTALIST OVERALL

More healing needed

I hereby move that all world leaders, in particular those in the intractably violent Middle East, be rounded up, brought under guard to Vegas, and remanded to sit and listen to Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns for 24 horns straight. Nothing else seems to be working.

This latest sad crap is too personal for me. My early '60's New Jersey high school garage band sax player, Mike ("Johnny and The Embers"), is now an eminent clinical psychologist who emigrated to Israel some 20 years ago. A couple of years ago he and his son Dov came to the States and visited with us here in Vegas. They are the nicest, loving people. Dov plays guitar and is way into music.

Dov (who doesn't look at all old enough) is now a tank commander in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). I watch the news now with great apprehension every day. He's just a kid.

Just to be clear: I am neither reflexively "pro" ar "anti" anyone over there (with the obvious exception of pukes like bin Laden and his posse). One of our dearest friends going back decades is an attorney of Lebanese descent. I am simply pro-healing, pro-peace. I posted this page several years ago as my nation prepared to invade Iraq. I am simply heartsick at the way we humans continue to treat each other when we fail to get our way.

Yeah, I know; it's complicated. Let there be healing, in each of us.

July 31st, Save The Date!!!

A message from Jerry Lopez

On Monday night, July 31st, Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns will present THE TRIO: Marco Mendoza, Renato Neto, and Joey Heredia as our guest artists.

They have been a source of inspiration to me and many of the Santa Fe band members for years! In fact, our presentations of the songs "Higher Ground," "Livin for the City," and "I feel good" are all songs that we took from their "Live at LaVeLee" Album and then adapted to our band. But the basic arrangements are theirs! And, the Michael Ruff arrangement of "Come Together" was originally performed and co-arranged by the TRIO, as well as Michael's song "We are Nothing" (Got me on my knees)! Marco and I go way back to the early 80's in Las Vegas and I've been close with Joey for at least 15 years now, as well as with Renato.

These three incredible musicians put out as much energy and as much music as all 14 of us in Santa Fe, and we want to share them with our awesome music-loving audience. We know that you will love them as much as we do. It's going to be a night to remember.

Marco, Joey, and Renato

Notes from BobbyG

My man Brad Cordle is appearing this week at Brendan's Pub in the Orleans with the equally awesome Tim Scott. Check 'em out! Brad is one excellent singer. Support these cats.

Smoothgroovers update:


Our UK friends have set up a web portal, see www.smoothgroovers.com. Yeah, very cool. I, for one, totally dig their philosophy:

The Smooth Groovers Review Podcast has been out since Oct 05. In addition to Smooth Jazz we love Jazz-Funk, Funk, Soul and Disco oldies and include these in our podcast too. Amazingly we get about 20,000 hits per month for our podcast - We're just some folks getting together for memories and more! ...

Life is too short, we need to respect each other and aim for harmony and equality.

People who believe that true celebrities are those that care for each other and who give service to humanity selflessly NOT ones that want their faces on the broadsheets or in glossy's showing off their mansions!

Those that agree that 'To become enlightened, we must first become a light'!

Lunchtime update:

Just got a nice email from one of our east coast Santa Fe fans (thanks, Bette). In her email footer is a link to the following, way worth noting:

www.rickymartinfoundation.org

"The Ricky Martin Foundation advocates for the well being of children around the globe in critical areas such as social justice, education and health." ... "As advocates of children’s rights we focus our work in benefiting this most vulnerable population around the world by supporting structured, equal opportunity initiatives that will secure children the right to be children, and provide them a more promising life."

P.M. Update

My good friend Steve Tuminello hipped me to a band comprised of some of his pals (incuding a cousin) from Louisiana, Stormy," now appearing at The Stardust through July 16th.

Shoot, let's go check 'em out and give 'em a Vegas locals' welcome. Laissez les bon ton roulette!

A brief policy suspension

I know, I know, I said 'no politics on the blog,' but this is just too funny (mp3 audio):

The GOP'er's Lament
(to the tune of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA")

Monday, July 10th, another special night

Tonight the healing continues, starting at 10:15 pm.. The incredible six-man a capella group Mosaic is coming to throw down as our special guests. Check out their awesome flash website, www.notaboyband.com.

Mosaic

Uhhh....duhh...blab...blub...Y'know, it's friggin' pointless to even try to describe the excellence of what I've just witnessed tonight. The band was ramped up to 'incineration.' The crowd was goin' clinical. And, Mosaic just leaves you shaking your heads and lexically-mangled speechless. You can't tell there are no instruments (hmmm...saves a lot of cash on axes and amps!). They sat in and treated us to three mind-bending tunes. A Category 6 vocal hurricane, these cats. They're here at the Flamingo with George Wallace through the 15th (I think). You simply gotta check their website. Then buy their CD. I know I will be doing so.

Below: nailed a pretty fair shot of the fabulous Johnnie Johnson whuppin' ass on guitar during "System of Survival." When Johnnie throws down that funk rhythm guitar, widespread cases of Happy Feets are inevitable.

A great night tonight. The two new Bill Champlin tunes, "Satisfaction" and "Same Old Song" were kick-butt intensely fine (that cat is my all-time hero).

Uh, Oh, I think I just got a new job

They asked. Repeatedly. You just can't refuse such a request. It's an honor and a privilege. We all want to world to come to know and love them as we do. I will bust bootie to make that happen.

RONNIE FOSTER UPDATE

Cheryl and I went to hang with Ronnie tonight at The Artisan, hooked up again with the delightful Taylor Marsh and her husband Mark. The band was smokin'. I'll put up a few pics in the morning. Michito Sanchez was sitting in on percussion tonight. A Major Bad Boy. Cat can really play. He has a cool website, too, check it out: www.percussiontracks.com.

Update: Below, Michito and Blaise (welcome home, dude) throwin' down last night at The Artisan:

PALMS UPDATE

Monday night, July 10th, with Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns is gonna again be wild. Mosaic will be sitting in. You gotta check out their website, to get an inkling of what you're about to experience. Spread the word, it's gonna be another over-the-top night brought to you by Jerry Lopez and the gang.

Yikes!

OK, look, I really am Mr. Walking Thesaurus 99.9th percentile Verbal Dude. When I first entered college at age 34 at Tennessee (16 years outa high school), I took the CLEP exam (College Level English Proficiency) and scored 45 points above the national 99th percentile (LOL! got me out of a year of Freshman English).

But, Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns LEAVE ME FUMBLING & SPEECHLESS! What a night! BobbyG gots a bad case of adjective atrophy, analogy amnesia, and metaphor miasma.

Ya gotta love it when your hopes and expectations are exceeded. We were SRO with people queuing up along the ramp railing 15 minutes prior to "lift-off" (props to the Space Shuttle just now on a safe launch, BTW):

Jerry wasted no time blowing us all away. After warming up the Fat City chops with "Just Kiddin'" he launched the band right in to "Living for the City." Man, that horn chart will rearrange your vertebrae and your brain cells! It was pedal-to-the-metal from there on, no letup. We were graced by the eminent presence of Mr. and Mrs. Cleto Escobedo, Jr. Cleto plays in the band on the late-night ABC Jimmy Kimmel Show, where his son (Santa Fe alumnus) Cleto Escobedo III is the Music Director. Theirs is a totally inspirational story of dedication and love. I am humbled to meet Mom and Dad (below, with Jerry).

Jerry had told me there would be some new material on tap. Wow. Bill Champlin's "Same Old Song" (from the "Burn Down the Night" CD) was brilliantly done. It's nice to see that they keep pushing ahead with new stuff, in light of their crazy busy show and production schedules, and what's really cool to me is that, in addition to new tunes, you'll hear places where they make little hip changes to existing arrangements. Continuous improvement -- and, to see whether you're really paying attention! For example, the horn ensemble setup to "South American Sojourn" (one of my CD favs) was new, and was beyond excellent. Gil told me that he'd bought the chart, which had been arranged by Prince's trombonist, Michael B. Nelson. He's gonna send me a PDF copy so I can post some of it on the blog.

5:15 p.m. update: Here it is, wow! Thanks, Gil...

Folks, these men are professionals. Do not try this at home. LOL!! This chart is written in D Major for trumpet, making it concert C relative (click the image to enlarge). Man, I used to play trumpet a bit, and I gotta tell ya, I'd have to be woodsheddin' this chart for months to get a handle on it. And, I'd have to be checkin' my skivvies after goin' for those E's above staff in measures 11 and 15. "Uhhh...Gil, tell ya what, I'll take the lower line, bro'..."

BTW- We also gotta give major kudos to Cirque's Marc Solis (Mystere) for subbing on bari & flute last night. Flawless.

My pics mostly sucked last night (I am no Bobby Black). There were problems with the light grid, and I could not get good focus hand-held in the lowered light. BTW- The amazing and totally sweet Christine LaFond of Replay came in to hang, and promptly got put to work again. And, she again brought the house down.

I wasn't the only one having tech headaches. In addition to the lighting woes, during the second show the power to the band's amps and the sound system failed completely in mid-song (geoscientists at Cal-Tech report getting Richter Scale seismic readings coming from Pepe's kick drum and Rochon's bass afterburner. I think we blew a breaker). What'cha gonna do? No problem. Jerry just calmly picked up his acoustic, sat on the front of the stage a la Kenny Loggins with Jamie and brother Lenny, and carried right on unplugged, doing "Come Back Home" to the subsequent standing-O delight of the hushed crowd.

A totally awesome night. We hope everyone has a safe and happy Independence Day. Major thanks to my new friend Taylor Marsh, nationally noted political blogger and talk radio host, for joining us last night ("Taylor, I TOL' ya...") and for giving us props on her blog this morning.

Finally, I gotta salute my ailing hero 90 year old Dad (and his fer-real Band of Brothers, all but him now departed) for his having given so much in defense of our American Independence (click the pic). Pop, I love ya (and, no, I am not your brother).

Coda

Some perhaps worthy closing thoughts today excerpted from the eloquent and perceptive words of writer Steven Pressfield, author of "The War of Art," apropos of the exhaustive (and seemingly commercially Quixotic) effort Jerry Lopez and his posse put into Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns:

The Artist’s Life

“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end, the question can only be answered by action.

Do it or don’t do it.

It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution Give us what you’ve got.”
__________

These exquisitely skilled musical artists and gentle souls make the world a significantly better place every time they mount the stage. They unfailingly Give Us What They've Got without reservation or ulterior motive. That's why I do the little I do for them, with no expectation of anything in return (and, trust me, I'm just gettin' started). The doing is my reward. And coming to know them and all of you that love their passionate, assiduously honed art, that too is my reward.

- BobbyG

The Vegas fireworks start TONIGHT!

Tonight, July 3rd, 10 p.m. in The Lounge at The Palms on Flamingo, it is gonna be crazy! Join us. Rumor has it there're some new arrangements in the mix.

WESTBOUND I-215 UPDATE:

OK, so I'm drivin' to the office this morning, and directly in front of me is a white pickup with the URL "www.bungeesex.com" in big, bold lettering across the tailgate. Something about "unlimited positions, weightless..." on the side panel as I drove past. Not even gonna go there ("...wow! that was fast, baby!"). Uhhh.hh...that's one web address I won't be checking at work.

Only in Vegas, jeesh. "Seven Deadly Sins, One Convenient Location."

Piddling around on the 'net while Jonesin' for tomorrow night

First of all, Bill Keffury gave me his card the other night when I saw him at Ronnie Foster's gig at The Artisan. Go to his internet radio station website, NiceNoise.net, download and install either the Winamp utility or the requisite plugin for Windows Media, and then click on "Listen." Yeah, man, very nice. I dig it.

Second, I was just Googlin' to see our our latest search results rankings. I tol' y'all that I was gonna own the search results visibility for the band over time. Well, six months into this blog all ya now gotta do is Google "Fat City Horns" (even without quotation marks any more) and our stuff always shows up on page one of Google search results. And I didn't pay a penny for this. (You can buy positioning on Google or the other search engines. Homie Don't Tink So.) Meta-tags, baby, meta-tags (reciprocal links help too).

So, this morning I simply entered two words -- "fat horns" (again, without quotes), just for grins. Yep, there's my Santa Fe Wikipedia entry right there on one page one. The point is, you wanna increase the likelihood of getting found with the fewest terms. Now, it oughta be obvious that "Santa Fe" alone won't do -- you'll get hundreds of pages of hits relating to the actual Santa Fe, New Mexico. Neither will "Jerry Lopez" do. I'd imagine that'd be sorta equivalent to "John Smith" in Whitey WASP World (although, y'know, I just tried it and, gratifyingly, Jerry's own site www.jerrylopez.com came up first. But, then there was nothing about Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns until page 5 of Google results).

OK, so, among the things I found using the terms "fat horns" is this cool blues band based in Iowa, "Fat Tuesday and The Greasefire Horns" ("fat" + "horns" in Google, LOL!):

Check the cat 3rd from the right. Their front dude, Jimmy "Midnight Cowboy" Pryor. He's gotta be 90 years old now according to his considerable bio on the website. My man, I salute you.

Check their mp3 music samples. It's pretty much straight-ahead blues (a bit funky too), very nicely done. Three piece horn section. I'd like to hook these cats up with my Nashville bud Jellyroll Johnson for a show out here sometime.
______

BTW- Tomorrow night at The Palms is gonna be off the Richter Scale, folks. We will be crammed with crazy fans gettin' healed.

P.M. UPDATE:

I been emailin' back & forth today with singer-writer Dianna Paige about us maybe getting together to work up some semi-acoustic stuff (I'm really itchin' to play and write again). Her end-domestic-violence charitable work with Artists for Change is extremely worthy. Please check out "The Goddess Within Project" and donate (buying the CD helps). Also, be be sure to check out Dianna's music samples on garageband.com. This tune "We Had It All Before" is really very, very nice (mp3 cut). My immediate reaction was "Basia!"

In Memoriam

Cheryl Lynn "Sissy" Gladd
June 4, 1968 - July 1, 1998

__________

Eight years ago today in Culver City, amid the most indescribable, numbing sadness, Cheryl, Nick, and I embraced our Sissy as she departed this life. Were she still around, I can guarantee ya she'd be on the Monday flights outa LAX to come and hang and shake that bootie at the Santa Fe gig.

Four weeks after she died, while packing up and cleaning out her little apartment in Hollywood one night (a place that had pretty much been my crib as well for more than two years), me and Johnny Walker Black scribbled out some reflective hip hop-ish lyrics...

Sweet Sissy Sue

She was Fire and Ice,
She was Sugar and Spice.
She was all things Naughty
And everything nice.
Hick-town ingenue,
So Hollywood hip,
She could Rock Your World
With a shot from that lip.

Sweet Sissy Sue,
We gonna miss ya, Girl.
A toast to you,
We hope you’re flyin’ high.
Things ain’t the same,
Wish we could kiss ya, Girl.
We sure do miss ya, Girl,
Sweet Sissy Sue.

She was Beauty times twice,
Picture perfect precise.
Had the ultimate plan
Known as rollin’ the dice.
She was hot jalapeno,
Angel cake and ice cream,
Daddy’s prodigal worry,
Ev’ry studpuppy’s dream.

Sweet Sissy Sue,
We gonna miss ya, Girl.
A toast to you,
We hope you’re flyin’ high.
Things ain’t the same,
Wish we could kiss ya, Girl.
We sure do miss ya, Girl,
Sweet Sissy Sue.

Sweet Sissy Sue,
We gonna miss ya, Girl.
Cheers from your crew,
We’ll see you bye and bye.
Never be the same,
Damn sure do miss ya, Girl, but
We won’t forget our Sweet,
Sweet Sissy Sue.

Words & Music by Bobby Gladd,
Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved.

______

Hold your loved ones close every day.
Nothing else is more important. Nothing.