words & photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

Paul Shaffer sits in with William Bell

It was the Ponderosa Stomp's first night to shine at Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing (Thursday, 7/16). The Stomp presented Harvey Scales, the Bobbettes, and William Bell with Memphis' Bo-Keys. The show was presented 'revue' style with all the artists performing two separate sets. Soul, Funk and Disco pioneer Harvey Scales arrived in a purple suit and then took it up a considerable notch with a lime green outfit with gold shoes and later a red suit with all the trimmings. The Bobbettes presented their unique soulful and gritty girl-doo-wop, first killing off Mr. Lee (I Shot Mr. Lee) and bringing him back to life for the original version that sounded as clean and sharp as ever. Harvey Scales delivered spastic funk, dancing across the stage like and electrified lime green Frankenstein, whipping up the crowd with his sweat towel. William Bell delivered his trademark deep Memphis soul with style and integrity, later bringing Paul Shaffer to sit in on Otis Redding's 'Hard to Handle' - a musical highlight of the evening.

On Friday, the Stomp and Lincoln Center switched gears into high octane Rockabilly with The Collins Kids (double necked guitar prodigy Larry Collins and his sister Lorrie), Carl Mann (Sam Phillips recording artist) and Joe 'Ducktail' Clay (whose insane recordings with Mikey Baker are some of the hottest ever recorded), all backed by Deke Dickerson and the Eccophonics.

On Wednesday, The Bo-Dukes played a pre-Stomp show at Southpaw with The Sweet Divines. More pictures from Thursday below...

Continue reading "Ponderosa Stomp @ Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing - night 1 pics (William Bell, Paul Shaffer, Bobbettes, more)"

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

Some of the millions who bought and liked Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black," with its perfect Southern-soul arrangements from the New York band the Dap-Kings, might also have noticed that this music, recreated a few generations later, doesn't necessarily sound insincere. An aesthetic of directness, and a sober mania about craft, takes the edges off of posturing.

And so some of the musicians at the Southern-soul triple-bill on Wednesday night at Southpaw, in Brooklyn, went at their task like good-time scientists. The Sweet Divines, a girl group from Brooklyn, topped the bill. They're an outgrowth of the Dansettes, who sometimes sang backup for the Dap-Kings and folded in 2007. As the Sweet Divines they've added one more singer, making four: Ashley Vitha, Heather Wolfe, Pamela Quinn and Jennie Wasserman. In their version of pop classicism, what they seem to have in mind is the Sweet Inspirations, the vocal group that backed up Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, among others, and also worked as a stand-alone band...

...But the high point of the evening came from the middle act, and especially by musicians from the time and place being heavily referenced. The Bo-Keys, an eight-piece band, are Memphis's current answer to the Bar-Kays, the Stax record label's house band in the 1960s and '70s. (They were in town to take part in the Ponderosa Stomp festival, at Lincoln Center through the weekend.)" NY Times]

The Sweet Divines also opened for The Robert Cray Band at Prospect Park on Friday night (7/17). Pictures from the Bo-Keys' Lincoln Center show are HERE. More pictures from Southpaw below...

Continue reading "The Bo-Keys & The Sweet Divines @ Southpaw in NYC - pics "

Midsummer Night Swing 7/8 (more by Gabi Porter)

The first two nights of The Ponderosa Stomp at Lincoln Center, July 16th and 17th are part of Lincoln Center's Midsummer Nights Swing, taking place at Damrosch Park. Each night kicks off with a dance lesson at 6:30 and the music starts at 7:30. Thursday night features The Get Down, a night of soul music excellence featuring William Bell, Harvey Scales, The Bobbettes and the incomparable Bo-Keys. Friday night brings rockabilly to the forefront with the Best Dance in Town, in which New Orleans wild man Joe Clay, Sun Record's Carl Mann and the legendary brother/sister duo The Collins Kids throw down, backed by Deke Dickerson and his Eccofonics.

Sunday, July 19th, a tribute performance takes place at Alice Tully Hall in the Starr Theatre, in which a high-octane array of Stomp artists will pay musical tribute to the "Creole Beethoven", Wardell Quezergue. Quezergue, nicknamed by Allan Toussaint, has made musical history countless times as the man behind timeless hits like "Mr. Big Stuff", "Iko Iko" and "Chapel of Love". A genius musician, arranger and producer who is largely unknown outside of New Orleans, Quezergue helped shape the soulful sounds of the south into international hit records. The show features R&B icons The Dixie Cups and Robert Parker; soul greats Jean Knight, Dorothy Moore, Tammy Lynn, and Tony Owens; legendary New Orleans drummer Zigaboo Modeliste; New Orleans musician, producer, and session man Mac Rebennack (Dr. John); garage-music pioneer Michael Hurtt; plus Wardell Quezergue's Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, an all-star ten-piece band led by Quezergue himself in a rare New York appearance.

The Ponderosa Stomp @ Lincoln Center's first night, The Get Down, will be broadcast live on WFMU. The second, July 17th, will be recorded for a later broadcast on July 30th. Tickets for the events are still on sale.

More info on the Stomp and the full lineup of performers (or you can check out "virtual trading cards" for each), below...

Continue reading "Ponderosa Stomp @ Lincoln Center, on WFMU (July 16-19)"

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

Dr. Ike

"Before Kansas City was recorded by everyone from the Beatles to Peggy Lee, the song was first released in 1952 as K.C. Loving by an obscure Houston pianist named Little Willie Littlefield.

The single became a regional hit in the Los Angeles area, where Littlefield was recording for Federal Records, but it would be up to Wilbert Harrison, Trini Lopez, James Brown and Hank Ballard to turn Kansas City into a top 25 hit on the national pop and R&B charts. Littlefield remained a fascinating, mysterious footnote to pop-music history.

The annual Ponderosa Stomp festival in New Orleans exists to bring such footnotes to life. This showcase for the semi-legends of rockabilly, blues and R&B was founded eight years ago by Ira Padnos, a local anesthesiologist and record collector who goes by the moniker of Dr. Ike and favors thrift-shop fezzes and Indian headdresses atop his unruly bush of dark curls. His extravaganza has grown from a local bar to this year's two-night stand at the French Quarter's House of Blues, with 37 sets spread out over two stages.

And so, on Tuesday, the first day of the eighth-annual Ponderosa Stomp, there was the 77-year-old Littlefield, dressed in a dark-blue brocade blazer and grinning with delight beneath his comb-over." [Jazz News]

The Stomp is coming to Lincoln Center in July. More pictures from Day One of this year's New Orleans fest, Howard Tate (who has a NYC date of his own coming up) included, below...

Continue reading "the 2009 Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans - Day 1 in pics "