They aren’t listed in the yellow pages along with the so-called “wedding bands” that perform mirror-perfect images of Top 40 songs. Most of them don’t have agents, and they can be a bit tricky to find. You won’t know the words to most of the songs they play, and sometimes they’ll be singing in obscure foreign dialects. But for those willing to leave the pop formula behind and save the big bands for the ballroom, rewards are large.
These bands offer songs about Baltimore— whether it’s a cover of “Streets of Baltimore” or a Latin tune called “Baltinimo” or the klezmer tune “Karols Villitzyaner Tantz” (Charles Village Dance). And nothing galvanizes a party like a really great, homegrown, dance band. Highlighted below are groups that can propel guests to shake a tail feather whether they are 8 or 80.
Hula Monsters
Party line: Don Ho meets Johnny Cash
This quintet of experienced sidemen shows up in Hawaiian shirts and offers a vast, fun repertoire running from luau to swing, with country-western, rockabilly, jazz and blues all thrown into the mix. It’s a tropical-swing-jazz-rock match made in Maui or, as the Hulas are fond of saying, “the aloha state of Maryland.”
Upright bassist Moe Nelson sets the aloha tone, with numerous Hawaiian tunes sung in island dialects. Originally introduced to the music by bandleader Dave Giegerich, Nelson went on to study it with Hawaiian nationals, some on the island itself. “I’ve really worked to learn the original, traditional music and get away from the hotel versions of it that you usually hear,” says Nelson.
Not long after conjuring mellow tropical dreams, Nelson might be flat on his back, his hula-skirted bass spinning between the soles of his boots while he slaps out “Shake, Rattle and Roll.”
Lead guitarist Dave Chappell, who also plays with R&B vocalist and icon Billy Hancock in Virginia clubs, is famous for his lightning-fast “chicken-pickin” guitar work, an aggressive country style.
Guitarist Mark Noone got his start playing for local punk icons the Slickee Boys, but he’s not afraid to play the ukulele. And San Francisco native Ben Holmes provides the zydeco and island rhythms on the drums.
Individually, band members have worked with everybody from Jerry Lee Lewis to Marvin Hamlisch, and their experience shows in a relaxed stage presence. “We’ve really liked doing weddings and things with diverse crowds because the swing stuff we do appeals to the older set,” says Giegerich. “And we are fun and goofy enough to appeal to younger people, too.” Yep. Masterful yet goofy musicians, danceable to the max.
Contact: Dave Giegerich, 410-465-2864; Web site: www.hulamonsters.com.
Charm City Klezmer
Party line: Rock the “simchah”
Ask Charm City Klezmer band leader and guitarist Michael Raitzyk how he came to play in a klezmer band and he laughs and says, “I married into it.” Michael’s father-in-law, CCK clarinetist Max Geller, has played in klezmer and jazz bands for more than 30 years. His wife, the band’s vocalist and keyboardist Judith Geller, who organizes social and cultural events for Jewish college students as director of graduate services for Hillel of Greater Baltimore, has mastered enough Yiddish to deliver the lyrics of this Semitic, Eastern European folk music with passion and conviction.
The sextet creates music for the simchah, or joyous occasion, which can be anything from a wedding to a bar mitzvah. The band has played many times at Tonic, a club on New York’s Lower East Side, and is included in a CD anthology of live klezmer music at the nightspot.
Given the band’s diverse influences, the dancing can take many forms. While Charm City treats the increasingly popular klezmer tradition with respect, it’s not afraid to break into an occasional James Brown tune, integrate a reggae rhythm into a horah (a celebratory circling dance), or break out the Cole Porter songbook.
Michael and Max’s longtime commitments to jazz (Raitzyk also leads his own jazz trio) bring a mastery of improvisation to even the most traditional Yiddish songs. The band’s public performances play to devoted dancers who are always ready to teach newcomers how to sway in graceful line dances or whirl in a folk-based circle dance. This is a high-energy group whose rich cultural hybrid plays well to any audience.
Contact: Michael Raitzyk, 410-243-2258; e-mail: ; Web site: CharmCityKlezmer.com.
Rumba Club
Party line: Jazz, Latin style
A nine-piece band that sounds like 12, Latin jazz giant Rumba Club has been proof positive of Baltimore eclecticism for 15 years. Their outrageous polyrhythms grow out of the traditions of salsa, Afro-Cuban and calypso. Those rhythms are revved up by the band’s signature brass section, and are flavored with jazz improvisation to create an irresistible swirl of sound, one that is earning the band a high profile nationally, with gigs at famous New York clubs, the Blue Note and Birdland. Several songs from recent Rumba Club CDs have made dashes up four different music charts monitoring air play or record sales in New York City, Miami and San Francisco.
Their last two CDs— “Espiritista 1999” and “Mamacita 1997,” both on the Palmetto label— were produced by famed Latin bassist Andy Gonzalez, who joins Rumba Club on the CDs. Jazz station WBGO out of New York named “Espiritista” one of the 10 best of 1999, and the music monthly Latin Beat described the band as producing “the finest dancing and listening music possible.” (A new CD, “Radio Mundo,” debuted last June.)
Sophisticated and urbane, the band offers dancing in many gears: from cha-cha and rumba to salsa and merengue. The three-man horn section plays a range of instruments including trombone, coronet, fluegelhorn and alto sax. And four percussionists bang on everything from bongos and steel drums to cowbells and African chekeres (fashioned from gourds and beads). Tim Murphy on keyboard and founder Josh Schwartzman on bass tie it all together.
“We were never planning on having a band,” says Schwartzman. “I used to live in New York and became really fond of Latin music, and wanted it for my 30th birthday party. So I wrote out the arrangements, hired musicians, and we played all night. We got a bunch of gigs out of that party and the work just kept coming; so we just kept going. We do a combination of two things better than anyone,” he adds. “We can be a good jazz band doing background music when people are eating and then become a great Latin dance band afterward.”
Contact: Michael Cherigo, 410-889-7530; Web site: www.rumbaclub.com.
Mambo Combo
Party line: Merengue in nylon knee socks
Back in the olden days (a.k.a., the early ’80s), when Baltimore performance artists were taking to the streets, a new band named Mambo Combo was house band to the avant garde. Eighteen years later, it still plays for the art crowd but can also boast dates at more conservative venues: the White House Easter Egg Hunt, for example, and society enclaves like Airlie Mansion in Virginia and the Maidstone Club in East Hampton.
The quintet’s music is still Latin and Caribbean dance music, played at nearly 100 gigs a year, with showmanship that reflects a love for Baltimore’s kitsch aesthetic. “When we first started the band we had no idea what we were doing— we knew we sucked so we put fake palm trees on the stage and painted mustaches on all of us and turned it into a performance,” says bandleader Bob Friedman.
The palm trees still appear occasionally next to band members in rayon Hawaiian shirts. On guitar and vocals, Friedman leaves the spotlight to percussionist Hoppy Hopkins. The slim Hopkins, sporting dark nylon knee socks, Bermuda shorts and a tasseled fez, frenetically navigates a huge stand-up percussion setup that includes three steel-sided drums, a snare or two, six or seven cowbells, wind chimes, cymbals and a high-hat.
But don’t let the camp fool you. Eighteen years later, these guys really know their music. Some have studied Afro-Cuban rhythms in Havana and on the Ivory Coast, spent years living and playing in St. Barths, or performed in numerous bands on both coasts. The infectious socas, sambas and tangos that result from their traveling studies are irresistible. “We played this hotel in Georgetown recently and even the El Salvadoran busboys were digging it. That’s when you know you are on the right track,” says Friedman.
If the party needs a jolt, ask for Mambo Combo’s trademark samba batucada, a Brazilian carnivale tradition that leads guests on a musical march into the street (or yard, or front hall or whatever), letting off whistles and beating on drums till the parade ends in a circle with the band in the center, collapsed to its knees in a dramatic, percussive crescendo. At that point everybody is going to need another cocktail, preferably one with an umbrella.
Contact: Bob Friedman, 410-889-4228 or 888-218-4240; fax: 410-889-0900; e-mail: ; Web site: www.mambocombo.com.
Junkyard Saints
Party line: Jumpin’ zydeco and honky tonk
Gumbo Junkyard got its start experimenting with the music of the Louisiana and Texas coasts, playing mostly zydeco, that raucous Creole dance music carried by guitars, accordians and washboards, but also New Orleans R&B, Tex-Mex and Mardi Gras funk. Then the band increasingly strayed “more into the Junkyard,” says founding vocalist, composer and accordion player Brian Simms. There was more swing, Latin and ska added to the Creole music.
Without abandoning the die-hard fans of zydeco dancing, the band took a new name, Junkyard Saints, and continued in new directions. The Saints perform more original material— much of it showcased on their newly released CD “Jes’ Like Your Mama Told You”— and add Latin influences from Los Lobos and Buena Vista Social Club, plus a bit of ska.
Whether it’s Deep South rhythms, or the multicultural mix, Junkyard Saints can bring the funky down-home appeal and danceability of a juke joint to your next backyard barbecue.
Contact: Brian Simms, 410-744-1668; Web site: www.junkyardsaints.com.
