Category Archives: Steve Douglas

Blues JammingOut on Wednesday Nights

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If you have been following this blog for a while, you know I often go to the JammingOut at HOB.  I can’t always get to the other jams around town, so I try to make it to this one as often as I can.  It’s always good and often there are newcomers to the jam who rock the night.  There were quite a few musicians there who I hadn’t seen before.

One of them was Maria Woodard, a jazz and Latin singer in San Diego, who got up and did a number of tunes.  Here she is singing the Fats Domino song Kansas City.  With her on stage was Rich Giglio and Doyle Thomas on guitars, Tom Safreed on harmonica, Dale Davis on bass and Steve Douglas on drums.

Nick Butterfield was back again, and he gave us an awesome performance of that great Creedence Clearwater Revival cover tune Born on the Bayou.  He’s joined by Rich on guitar, Dale on bass, Dave Good on saxophone, Richie Strell playing the accordion, Reggie Ford on drums, and I’m not sure who was playing the harmonica.  Enjoy!

Later, Harmonica John Frazer played and sang Steve Miller band cover song Your Cash Ain’t Nothing But Trash with Will Lovalot on guitar, Steve Welles on bass, and I believe it was Max on drums.

San Diego Blues

JammingOut at HOB Kicks Off 2nd Year

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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

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

Fun Night at HOB Blues Jam

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It was one of those quiet nights all across the Gaslamp with the threat of rain.  But while few people were out last night, the music still rocked.  At the House of Blues, the weekly jam brought in an interesting mix of musicians and sounds, and I got lots of room to dance!

The night started off with members of the JammingOut’s “house band” (Lafayette Falkquay on vocals – without his infamous guitar this time, and Kevin Cooper on bass guitar) along with Steve Douglas on drums, Junya Isogawa on guitar, Nicholas Butterfield on guitar, and Donna Larsen joining Lafayette on vocals.

Next Nicolas Butterfield sang John Mayer’s cover song Gravity, which always moves me.  Its a beautiful song.  Barry Farrar replaced Steve on drums for this part of the evening.

And then we had some jazz when Paula Mandell got up to sing Billie Holiday’s cover song Fine & Mellow, which was such a treat.  She has the voice for this song.

And last, Rebekah Ensley, gave us a beautiful acapella singing Kimbra’s cover Withdrawal.

Another Good Jam Night at HOB

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The JammingOut/BLUSD jam on Wednesday nights brings in new faces every week, and last night was no exception.  Bryan Whelan (on guitar) and Mellie Frances (vocals) showed up and they performed cover song, Thrill is Gone, with Irakli Aladash on bass and Steve Douglas on drums.