Category Archives: Blues Jam

Full House at Walter’s Blues Jam

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Walter Gentry’s Tuesday night jam was another packed evening on and off the stage.  Who ever said blues is boring hasn’t been to a San Diego jam!

Here we have Ray Zvetini playing guitar and singing an Albert King (and later Eric Clapton) cover song Crosscut Saw.  With him on stage are Doyle Thomas on guitar, Seth Webster on bass, Lisa Viegas on drums, Tim Sutherland on keyboard, Ray Brown on trumpet and John Brooks on sax.

Some of the musicians switched out and Ray Brown took over the vocals and belted out that great Commodore’s cover song Brick House.  Justin Fools joined in on harmonica, Fuzzy Rankins played the keyboard, Matt Taylor was back on drums, and I’m not sure who was playing the other guitar.  Seth was still on bass, John was on sax, and I didn’t catch who joined them on trumpet.  The sound got a bit loud, so it didn’t pick up too well on my mic.

Earlier that night, Somerset Barnard, visiting from Australia, was performing one of his own tunes Nobody’s Fault.  He was joined by Seth Webster on bass guitar, Johnny Vernazza on guitar, Matt Taylor on drums, Ray Brown on trumpet and John Brooks on sax.

San Diego Blues

San Diego Blues Calendar: May 5th – 11th

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Blues Calendar - May 5This coming weekend is the 3-day Gator by the Bay (Spanish Landing Park – across from the airport on Harbor Drive) event, featuring blues and zydeco music.  For more details and the huge lineup of bands, check out www.gatorbythebay.com.

Humphries seems to have shifted its calendar (at least for this month) to blues on Mondays, R&B on Thursdays and open mic R&B/soul/gospel/jazz/blues on Wednesdays.  Kona Kai (also on Shelter Island) is undergoing extensive renovations, so there is less blues on the island right now.

Patrick’s Pub is adding more rock to the schedule, which means fewer nights of blues on our calendar.  Yet House of Blues seems to be adding more nights of blues, and this week Catherine Denise out of Antonio, TX will be here with her award-winning blues playing.

Speaking of House of Blues… there is no Wednesday night jam this week.  But there is the 88.3 Jazz blues jam that night from 6:30-9 at Proud Mary’s (up in Kearney Mesa), which used to be in Little Italy.

Oh What A Night JammingOut at HOB

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Last night brought in a great crowd and another awesome mix of musicians at the JammingOut at HOB.  We just kept the video going as the night got better and better, and we only caught the last 2 hours of the 4 hour jam!  Most of these musicians have never played together, and often they don’t even know each other before going up on stage, so it isn’t always clean and smooth.  But everyone has a good time!

Local bass player, Shaaron Schuemaker, was singing Sam Cooke’s cover song Bring It On Home to Me in this clip.  She was joined by Jaz Jaszewski and Judd Austin on guitars, Steve Douglas on drums and Tom Safreed on harmonica, who was the recent winner of the BLUSD Spring Harpfest two weeks ago.  Congrats to Tom!

A member of the audience, Greg Loving from Indianapolis, then got up to join the folks on stage to sing cover song Falsom Prison Blues, to the delight of his other colleagues from out of town and the rest of us.  He was great!

New to the jam was Terry Padgett, who came in and sang cover songs Wish I Had a Nickle and Turn On Your Love Light, while playing guitar.  He was joined by Shaaron on bass, Nicholas Butterfield on guitar, Dennis Bucko on harmonica, and Bert Hammer (visiting from Canada) on drums.

Then Nicholas took over and sang Bill Wither’s cover song Use Me.

This was followed by Doyle Thomas playing guitar and singing his favorite Stevie Ray Vaughn cover song Pride and Joy.  He was joined by Junya Isogawa and Jacinto Castaneda on guitars, Fuzzy Rankins on bass (which is rare to see), and Jay Morris on drums.

And the night ended with Silky Sol (aka: Red Afro Queen) coming to the stage, along with Kevin Cooper on bass, Fuzzy Rankins and Mark Augustin  (host of the 88.3 Jazz/blues jam now at Proud Mary’s earlier in the evening) on guitars, and Michael Minor on drums.  They performed Jimmy Reed’s cover song Big Boss Man and then Aretha Franklin’s cover song Rock Steady.  Unfortunately both videos got cut off at the end, particularly the last video – ran out of memory taking so many videos 😉

San Diego Blues

Hummin at Walter’s Tuesday Blues Jam

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Here’s a clip from Walter’s weekly Chicken Wings Jam at Patrick’s Pub.  I’m afraid it’s a bit grainy and dark, but it captures Shaaron Schuemaker on bass and singing that great cover song You Got Me Hummin, along with “Harmonica John” Frazer on harp, Johnny Vernazza on guitar (not sure who other guitarist was), Matt Taylor on drums, Tim Sutherland on keyboard, Chuck Arcilla on the sax, and Phil Lozano on trombone.

San Diego Blues

Another Good Wednesday Night Jam at HOB

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We got a lot of video from last night’s jam, starting with Donna Larsen singing T-Bone Walker’s cover song Stormy Monday.  She’s joined by Doyle Thomas and Judd Austin on guitars, Tony Garrick on drums, and Avel (I think that was his first name…) on bass.

Later Victoria Wasserman sang Aretha Franklin’s cover song Chain of Fools, along with Jacinto Castaneda and Nicholas Butterfield on guitar, Dale Davis on bass and Michael Minor on drums.

And the evening ended as it always does with the house jam band back up on stage.  Here we’ve got Lafayette Falkquay and Doyle Thomas having some fun singing the great BB King cover song Every Day I Have The Blues together.  With them are Judd Austin and Junya Isogawa on guitars, Kevin Cooper on bass and Michael Minor on drums.

San Diego Blues

Talented Kids Show Up at Youth Blues Jam

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Once again some incredible talented young people (up to 21 years old) showed up and played together last Saturday afternoon at the monthly BLUSD Youth Blues Jam at the Gaslamp Speakeasy.

The host musicians are Leilani Kilgore (guitar – playing over her head in this video), Tyler Ray Davidson (guitar) and Malachi Johnson (on drums).  Joining them in this video is Victor franklin, who is playing the bass guitar.

In this video, Aidan Mooney, who is only 9 years old, plays the guitar with the older teens hosting the jam – and holds his own!!

San Diego Blues

Spaghetteria Blues Jam Moving North to Proud Mary’s

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I just learned that the Thursday night blues/jazz jam hosted by 88.3 Jazz KSDS Radio, which has been hosted by Spaqhetteria in Little Italy for quite some time, is moving to a new week day and place – effective THIS week.

The blues jam will now be on Wednesday evenings (6:30-9:30) at Proud Mary’s Southern Bar & Grill north of the city.  You can find it at 5500 Kearny Mesa Road (west side of 163 in the Ramada Inn).  This is also where the tried and true bluesman Tomcat Courtney plays every Thursday night, starting at 6pm.

 

 

San Diego Blues Calendar: April 21st – 27th

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Blues Calendar - Apr 21It looks like a fairly light week of blues around downtown.  Patrick’s Pub is now starting to host more rock bands, and Kona Kai is going to be closed for renovations for a while.

The blues jams are all still happening on Monday (Speakeasy), Tuesday (Patrick’s), Wednesday (House of Blues) and Thursday (Spaghetteria).

Mixing it Up at Wednesday Night Jam

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Each week a new mix of musicians shows up at the JammingOut & BLUSD jam (at House of Blues Voodoo Stage) and gets randomly assigned to get up on stage together.  Last night Bobby Hayse, from Indiana, came in and sang cover song Mustang Sally, along with Brandon Cerquedo on guitar (who did the solo in this clip), Doyle Thomas on guitar, Jim Holtz on bass and Tony Garrick on drums.

San Diego Blues

San Diego Blues Calendar: April 14th – 20th

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Blues Calendar - Apr 14

Another good week of blues jams and bands around town. Blues every night in the Gaslamp – at Patrick’s (and every night but Sunday) at the SpeakEasy.

There is also the Youth Blues jam on Saturday afternoon that is always incredibly good, and some of the kids that come in are as young as 9 years old.  This is an open jam for any young person who wants to come play some blues.

This may be Kona Kai’s last week of music out on Shelter Island before they shut down temporarily for renovations.