Two of my favorite local bands were playing last night just a block from each other in the Gaslamp. Fuzzy Rankins blues band was at Patrick’s Pub and Whitney Shay (with her jazzy blues trio) was at the SpeakEasy which had a packed house. No surprise with Whitney there!
Before Patrick’s got too crowded, I was able to get this video of Fuzzy doing his funked up version of Muddy Water’s great cover song Got My Mojo Working. His band members last night were Ronnie Baumslater on bass and Michael Minor on drums.
Then I went over to the SpeakEasy to catch Whitney singing, Jodie Hill on bass and Marley Waak on the drums. Everyone was having a great time.
As readers of this blog know by now, I’m a regular at the JammingOut at HOB (House of Blues Voodoo Stage in the Gaslamp) on Wednesday nights.
Last night Carrie Shannon, who I’ve never heard before, got up and sang a sassy ZZ Top cover song, Tush. On stage with her was Nicholas Butterfield and Junya Isogawa on guitars, Kevin Cooper on bass, David Lewis on harmonica and Edward Cleveland on drums.
Later Will Lovalot performed that great Freddie King song Big Legged Woman, along with David Damaso (and then Lafayette Falkquay) on guitars, Harmonica John (Frazer), Dino on trumpet, Kevin Cooper on bass and Michael Minor on drums.
Every Wednesday night, “JammingOut at HOB” hosts a blues jam that has developed a wonderful following in its first year, and this past Wednesday they celebrated their 1st anniversary downstairs at the House of Blues. It was a fun evening, and here are some videos I got – the lighting wasn’t great so its a bit dark and grainy, but most of it is good.
Here is Dona Aguinaldo, one of a number of wonderful female vocalists that night, who got up to sing Etta James’ cover At Last. Wow! I just wish the lighting had been better… On stage with her (and doing their own jamming solos) is Bob Sortillon (standing next to her) and Rich Giglio on guitars, Tom Safreed on harmonica, Dave Lindgren on bass, and Steve Douglas on drums. Bob, Rick and Dave also each sang some great songs, but the videos didn’t turn out.
Then Christine Gilardi performed Bonnie Rait’s cover song Love Me Like a Man. She rocks it with Somerset Barnard on guitar, Tom Safreed on harmonica, Yasha Susoeff on sax, Victor Franklin on bass and Michael Minor on drums.
Afterwards Victoria Wasserman got up with them and nailed it with that so familiar BB King (amongst others) cover song Stormy Monday.
Somerset Barnard, visiting from Brisbane Australia for a few weeks, got us up and dancing to another favorite, Got My Mojo Working.
And to end the evening we had Len Rainey, a favorite local bluesman, take the stage and sing, as only Len can do it, the cover song Kiddio. He’s joined by Doyle Thomas on guitar, Kevin Cooper on keyboards, Michael Minor on drums, David Lewis on harps – as well as Steve Lang. Again the video is a bit dark, even after lightening it up as much as I could.
The final song brought Lafayette Falkquay on the stage to join Len on bass, and they had a fun exchange as they performed Slow Down Baby together.
I only captured a bit of the evening. We also had a number of brass players (more sax, trumpet and trombone), and other performers who made it a special anniversary evening.
Next week the jam is back upstairs, but it starts 2 hours later at 9pm (for just this week).
San Diego Blues
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 😉
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.
Wednesdays are one of my favorite blues nights of the week and usually starts at the JammingOut (www.JammingOut.net) and BLUSD (www.blusd.org) blues jams on the free stage at House of Blues. Last night was a full house of musicians who got up to play throughout the evening and an audience of locals and visitors.
Christine Gilardi took the lead and rocked the house singing and playing guitar to the great Etta James cover song The Sky is Crying in this video. She is accompanied by Neil Jones on lead guitar, Junya Isogawa on guitar, Kevin Cooper on bass and Rene Wooley on drums.
We don’t hear reggae too often at this jam, but Rosalie Thomas showed up with her steel drums and delighted us with the UB40 cover song I Want to Make You Sweat. Also on stage was Michael Minor on drums, Kevin Cooper on bass (and vocals) and Ray Zvetina on guitar.
The JammingOut BLUSD jam at House of Blues was hopping last night, and as usual there were lots of local musicians who showed up to jam. You never know who will be there, and last night was a real treat to have two members of The Saxations quartet in the house. Playing the sax were Leilani Vidal and Michelle Maynard, who joined Doyle Thomas on guitar and vocals, Chris Cooper on keyboard, Irakli Aladash on bass, and Michael Minor on drums to perform cover song Unchain My Heart.
