Oh What A Night JammingOut at HOB

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

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

Tuesday Night Turns Into Lafayette and Friends

Every Tuesday night Lafayette Falkquay and his blues band plays at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy.  On drums is Billy Wear and on bass is Ronnie Baumslater.  This Tuesday he was also joined by harmonica player, Doug Camphuis (who played with Lafayette a number of years ago), doing one of Lafayette’s signature cover songs… Black Cat Bone.

A former drummer also stopped in to play with the band, Frank Alverez, and here he is playing with other friends who came in that night: Fuzzy Rankins on guitar and Ms Silky Sol (Red Afro Queen) as they perform cover song Rock Me Baby.

And later on Ronnie took over the mike to sing Skin Tight.  Not exactly blues, but rounded out the evening perfectly.

San Diego Blues

San Diego Blues Calendar: April 28th – May 4th

Blues Calendar - Apr 28Summertime jazz is happening again at the Westgate Hotel up on the pool deck, and while this isn’t blues (as a rule), Whitney Shay will be singing there on Friday night before her quartet plays next door later on at the US Grant.

For those of you who love to swing dance to blues…  this week we have lots of swinging blues around the downtown.  Tuesday night at Humphrey’s and at Henry’s Pub, and Wednesday night at Tio Leo’s.

Charles Burton Blues Band – Special Guest at HOB Jam

The JammingOut blues jam at HOB on Wednesday nights (7-11p) now features a local band about once a month, and last night it was the Charles Burton Blues Band.  This is a fun band with a loyal following of local swing dancers (next Tuesday night he’ll be playing at Henry’s Pub which has Swing Tuesdays, and he’s often at Tio Leo’s on Thursday nights).

I’m pleased to finally have video of Charles and some of his band members.  Last night they performed a number of songs, including this cover song Stranger Blues, which is on one of Charles’ many CDs.

And here is Charles singing his rendition of Sweet Potato Pie, which is also the name of his latest CD. You can hear more sample tunes on the CD by going to TUNES on this site.

San Diego Blues

Another Good Wednesday Night Jam at HOB

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

Annette DaBomb’s Soulful Blues & Jazz at the SpeakEasy

Every Thursday night you can hear this beautiful lady’s voice at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy (from 9p-1am), singing a mix of blues and jazz.   I absolutely love her voice, and I’m thrilled to finally get some good video clips from her weekly gig.

Annette is joined with her Bomb Squad band members… Tony Peterson on drums, Doug Brunelle on bass (as well as the clarinet and flute), and Alan Zundelevich on keyboard.  In this video, the band is performing cover song Got My Mojo Workin.

For Billie Holiday fans, Annette will melt you as she sings this cover song All of Me.

And in this last video, Annette and her Bomb Squad are performing Eric Clapton’s cover song Further On Up the Road.

San Diego Blues

Talented Kids Show Up at Youth Blues Jam

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

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

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).