And, in all honesty, I had been conflicted about even goin' to the gig tonight (even after missing last week). Still reeling from the enervating after-effects of being sick. Cheryl remains under the weather and had to opt to stay home. I was still feeling so tired, and the prospect of trying to get back into it and get shots of the show and man the CD sales table was giving me major mixed emotions.
I'm glad I made the effort, though, and I gotta give a huge shout-out of props to our friend and Santa Fe regular Howard Adler for covering the CD table most of the night so I could roam and shoot.
I see The Palms in fact fixed the neon logo sign. Unbelievable.
But, the night would not be complete without the recurrent heartburn over the rest of the stage lights. We didn't get lights up till about 10 pm, after I had to ask the bar to call engineering to jerk the vendor's chain to bring the laptop in and fire up the grid. We were SRO by kick-off, and the crowd just kept growing thereafter into a wall-to-wall, elbow-to-elbow mass of peeps flippin' out over every song. The guys opened with the Earth, Wind, & Fire medley, which never fails to stomp an audience into exultant submission.
Wes Marshall subbed again ably for Gil Kaupp on trumpet. Thanks, bro'.
After the EW&F open, they dove right into Dave's awesome "What'cha gonna Do Wit' Dat Greazy Thing?" That tune has the absolute coolest funk-swing groove, man. Off the heels of that came Jerry's "Ev'rybody Wants to Love You." Wes's mute trumpet solo in that was right on the money. Below, Jamie and JJ diggin' Wes's ride.
Below, Jerry brought our bro' Bad Boy guitarist Dave Hart up to play chromatic harp in "Take My Heart Away." It was so fine. Dave took Jamie's ride section, and seriously threw it down.
I love that tune. Jerry also sang Dave's new original "Si Te Vas" tonight. A bunch of the "Mamma Mia" cast were sittin' front row center tonight. They looked shell-shocked at that tune, which got a roaring standing-O at the end.
Nice. Below, I shot this standing atop the CD sales booth in the back. Not kidding, the place was a crush tonight.
Rochon took an extended bass ride during "Ain't That Peculiar?" tonight. That was a first. And, totally over the top.
Below: I squeezed off this round from all the way in the back -- again, standing on the back of the CD sales booth.
Couple more pics.
Finally, our brother Sean from MOSAIC was in the house, and got drafted for duty in "Living For The City" at the end of the show. Way cool. THIS JUST IN
Rob just sent me this pic.
Our guys have the pinnacle gig in Vegas at the moment. We could not be more proud and grateful.
THIS WEEK
Tommy Alvarado's Slick Willie Orchestra hits the stage tonight at Just Jazz, 10 pm. Also, Wed - Sat, the incredible "Side Guys" (basically the Dave Sanborn band) will be at the Salute Lounge in the Palazzo, 9 pm till ... No cover, no minimum.
First, it's gonna be a great week coming up, starting with Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns this Monday night at The Palms. Then starting Wednesday March 19th we got Ricky Peterson and "Side Guys" through Saturday night at Salute Lounge in The Palazzo.
In Ricky's own words:
"The Side Guys" consists of yours truly and members from the David Sanborn Band. We're playing in Las Vegas at the Palazzo Hotel in the "Salute" Lounge. March 19-22 we'll be featuring St. Paul Peterson on Bass and vocals and a host of suprise guests. April 10-11from 9 PM to whenever! The fun will continue!Nicky Moroch on Guitar, Richard Patterson on Bass, Gene Lake on Drums and Me on Keys. Joey Finger and Howard Arthur are hangin' too. We have such a great time doing this because you never know who will show up. There are so many wonderful musicians in Vegas that pop in and sit in with us and you really never know who is in town doing a concert or whatever! They now know that this thing is happening and usually show up to listen or to play. It's a riot. Members of Geno Vanelli's band, Wayne Brady, Rocky Robbins, Larry Bragg, Tower of Power and Bett Midler's musicians just to name a few. Killin'!!
Oh, yeah!
OK, A RETROSPECTIVE: OVERNIGHT MUSIC SENSATION
So, on Monday the story broke about the Governor of NY, Eliot Spitzer, and what just had to be the most expensive Bootie Call this side of Kobie Bryant. Well, his thermonuclearly hypocritical ass is toast, and by now the butt of more jokes than Britney Spears, Bill Clinton, Paris Hilton, and George Bush combined. Leno, Letterman, Stewart, Colbert, and Kimmel could have furloughed all of their writers; the punch lines have been writing themselves.
And, it's been a PhotoShop bonanza as well. Below, just a couple of pics from a contest that the NY Daily News ran this week, LOL!
Well, NY Radio Station Z100 immediately and opportunistically put her tune "What We Want"in rotation (it's on her MySpace if you wanna hear it), and her MySpace page got something like 5 million hits the other day.
Is this a great country or what? Estimates are that her song downloads have netted her (or someone) in excess of $200,000 just since the story broke. Wow.
All I can say is, honey welcome to the music bidness. You're fixin' to learn about ways to get screwed that you never even dreamed of.
NOW, BACK TO SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE
How about some Al Jarreau?
Yikes. Freddie Washington on bass, Steve Gadd on tubs. Yummie.
BTW- don't forget to tune into Ric & Jackie's great Sunday morning 97.1 The Point Jazz Show tomorrow (online streaming link over in the links column).
Well, as most of you know, Cheryl and I weren't there, but here's what I've gotten from a couple of sources. First, our bro' Abe LaMarca subbed for Jamie. Man! that cat can sing.
Second, Dan Falcone was down with the bug, like us, and our Tom Delibero stepped up to cover most ably as usual.
Interestingly, it looks like they fixed some of the lighting, including the long-defunct neon logo. According to Santa Fe regular Greg Sinclair:
Bobby,
Last night's show was an adventure deep into the archives of the SF&TFCH book. The set list included You Need a Hero, Turn Your Love Around, and Negrita, which we have not heard for a little while. The look on Rochon's face when Jerry turned around and called You Need a Hero was priceless. Other stand-out moments from last night were Just Kidding, Soul Trilogy (featuring Andy Ebon), the trumpet feature on Negrita, and Dave Richardson's truly inspired soloing all evening.
We were graced with the presence of our two friends, Abe Lamarca and Tom Delibro sitting in. Thank you, gentlemen.
We had a nice crowd last night. Thank you all for coming.
I called the Entertainment Director last week to complain about the lights. They were all on, including the sign, with only two being intermittent. If LightJockey now interfaces with the rig, we can program some "scenes" for light design. Hmmmm...
That's all for now.
Feel better soon, Greg Sinclair
Thanks, Greg. I also got some on-the-scene tidbits from our bro' Dustin:
The coolest chick in the crowd was definitely Hazel Payne from A Taste of Honey (guitar/vocals), she still looks good! Danny and Jamie were out so Tom Delibero and Abe Lamarca. There were tons of cool cats in the crowd but I neglected to take any notes due to having a few guests with me (first timers!).
Everything else falls pretty much under the norm. Rochon blew a giant wad all over the crowd right at the beginning of the night, Phil and Rob both played a couple of Holy-Shit solos. The band busted out "You need a Hero" which they've not played in some time now. Jerry was exceptionally witty last night, he continued to bust all the wise-cracks we've been kinda missing since his "older" sibling's absence.
I'm sorry this is all I have but do what you can with it.
Get to feeling better, man.
I really appreciate the emails, y'all. Today is Wednesday, first day I been outa bed, and outa the house, in a week. Still feeling way wobbly, but definitely over the major symptoms. Now I have this pile of undone stuff I need to get after. Jeesh...
Slow blogging week. Sorry. My luck ran out back on Wednesday. I haven't been sick for years, but I got hammered this week by "flu" (or something). The whole enchilada: pounding head, fever, sweats, chills, intractable low back pain, sore throat, and dizziness. Man! I been in bed for three days now, and still feel like hell. Ugh.
MONDAY UPDATE
Cheryl and I remain down for the count, so I will not be at the gig tonight. I got up today, and while wobbly, thought I might be able to make the gig, but it's now 6:30 pm Monday, and I'm feeling like if I pushed the envelope too hard, I'll relapse and spend another week on my back. If anyone gets any cool shots (and/or thoughts) tonight you'd like posted -- with a byline, of course -- email 'em to me (bobbyg@bgladd.com)
Las Vegas Academy, World Jazz Studies Featuring Rudy Regalado and Chiqui Garcia March 7, 2008 7 p.m., $8.00, FREE SALSA! 315 S 7th St. Lowden Theater, corner of 9th and Lewis Directors: Patrick Bowen and Logan Biles
Known through the world as the Cradle of the South American Liberator, Simon Bolivar, Venezuela is also the birthplace of a true musical patriot, bandleader, percussionist, composer, and educator who is Hector “Rudy” Regalado, the commander in chief of the L.A. based Latin Jazz/Salsa big band known as Chevere.
Although he began his musical career at a very early age in his native Caracas, Rudy moved to Puerto Rico in the early 1960’s when he enrolled at Caribbean Island’s Casals Conservatory as a Percussion Major, while working at various clubs and hotels in San Juan. A decade later, the restless Venezuelan timbalero migrated to Southern California, where he joined the extremely popular Latin rock band called El Chicano. In addition to recording five albums with such East L.A. Musical Institutions of the 1970’s, Rudy has participated in a variety of sessions with the Zawinul Syndicate, Quincy Jones, Alphonse Mouzon, Carabana Cubana, and many others.
After spending 12 trumphant years with El Chicano, Rudy formed his own All-Star Big Band in 1983. Initially known as todos Estrellas, Rudy’s Orchestral Dream Team soon changed its name to Chevere. Chevere has preformed overseas in summer festivals in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Kuala Lampu, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Canada, and Puerto Rico, as well as throughout the European continent. In the United States Cevere has appeared at the PlayBoy Jazz Festival, L.A. Street Scene, Hollywood Dance Machine, Disneyland, Magic Mountain, Universal Studios, and the L.A. Forum to name a few. They have performed on The Tonight Show, The Nancy Wilson Show, American Bandstand, and the Jose Feliciano Special. In between tours they have created TV scores for Miller, Bud Light, Budweiser, Busch, Dr. Pepper, and the California State Lottery.
___________
Sounds like this will be a great event. The program:
Jazz I Ensemble Bemsha Swing, Thelonious Monk/Denzil Best I Will Miss You, Lynn “Doc” Skinner, arr. John Clayton Jr.
Jazz II Ensemble What Happens in Vegas, Greg Yasinitsky Rich’s Piece, Maria Schneider Paprika, Bob Curnow
Jazz III Ensemble Soupbone, John Clayton Mescalito, Oscar Meza Chambe, Oscar Meza Gozando, Oscar Meza Mr PC, John Coltrane/Rich Shemaria
Interesting night tonight. Powerful performance, slammin', very high energy. Place was packed by the time the band kicked off with the Earth, Wind, & Fire medley, which was particularly stompin' and energetic tonight. We had peeps in from Seattle, Julie Hill and her husband Andy Bryant, members of the Type A Band. They were dazzled.
Type A is the band that featured my long-time bro' Kurt Kolstad on tubs. Some of you may recall my posts about him (scroll down, 1st blog post, hear some mp3 cuts. Bad Boy). Kurt continues to battle his cancer, which has recurred. Send him some healing energy and prayers. Also in the house tonight were musical compadres Joe and Dennis from Kansas City. They'd made vacation travel reservations to come see the band on the 18th -- and then The Palms canceled the gig that night. But, they rescheduled to come hang. That's dedication. Jerry made 'em get up and sing at the end of the night on "We Are Nothing."
That was too cool.
If that shot looks a little funky, it's cuz the par cans blew during the middle of the show, leaving much of the stage area pretty dark. Only two of the four were working to begin with (arghhh!), but then they quit outa the blue.
The light grid -- such as it is -- is controlled by an old laptop running "LightJockey" software, the programming from which goes out a USB port via a cable that hooks into a Martin USB-DMX II interface box, and the XLR cable output of that drives the lights (pic below of the actual unit backstage).
Well, someone mislaid/lost/pilfered the DMX junction box and they don't have a spare, so they had to rent one from the Wynn, who charged them 100 bucks to rent the itty-bitty (but indispensable) unit, and two hundred more for the cat that delivered it.
Amazing. Look: give me the three hundred bucks, I'll bop over to Sam Ash or The Guitar Center, pick up six 500w pars, bring 'em back with the two I already own. Be back in an hour. So, that'll be roughly a 40 amp draw. We can just hang 'em and plug 'em into two std 20 amp AC circuits (rather than a skittish and frequently missing laptop).
Mission accomplished. Stage lit up nicely. This is not rocket science. I tried to get good shots, with mixed, mostly disappointing results (low usable percentage tonight), given the chronic light system SNAFU. Some relative keepers from the evening:
Really nice crowd tonight.They dug it big-time. Thanks to all the girls from the "Hats" show (and to Steven Lee, who's featured on my current podcast) for comin' to hang.
It's late, I'm gonna crash. Tired. More later. Mucho thanks to everyone who came tonight.
UPDATE: JOEL RICHMAN Bad Boy drummer Joel Richman came to hang last night, and told me he's available and looking for gigs. This cat play so fine.
But, the night would not be complete without the recurrent heartburn over the rest of the stage lights. We didn't get lights up till about 10 pm, after I had to ask the bar to call engineering to jerk the vendor's chain to bring the laptop in and fire up the grid.
Wes Marshall subbed again ably for Gil Kaupp on trumpet. Thanks, bro'.
After the EW&F open, they dove right into Dave's awesome "What'cha gonna Do Wit' Dat Greazy Thing?" That tune has the absolute coolest funk-swing groove, man. Off the heels of that came Jerry's "Ev'rybody Wants to Love You." Wes's mute trumpet solo in that was right on the money. Below, Jamie and JJ diggin' Wes's ride.
Below, Jerry brought our bro' Bad Boy guitarist Dave Hart up to play chromatic harp in "Take My Heart Away." It was so fine. Dave took Jamie's ride section, and seriously threw it down.
I love that tune. Jerry also sang Dave's new original "Si Te Vas" tonight. A bunch of the "Mamma Mia" cast were sittin' front row center tonight. They looked shell-shocked at that tune, which got a roaring standing-O at the end.
Nice. Below, I shot this standing atop the CD sales booth in the back. Not kidding, the place was a crush tonight.
Rochon took an extended bass ride during "Ain't That Peculiar?" tonight. That was a first. And, totally over the top.
Below: I squeezed off this round from all the way in the back -- again, standing on the back of the CD sales booth.
Couple more pics.
Finally, our brother Sean from MOSAIC was in the house, and got drafted for duty in "Living For The City" at the end of the show. Way cool.
THIS JUST IN
Our guys have the pinnacle gig in Vegas at the moment. We could not be more proud and grateful.
