MUSINGS & RAMBLINGS

Gail Bowers and I laughed about her son Michael saying, “How come you always go watch Dad play?” when this is only the second time she’s been able to get out. I was able to assure her that this won’t change as they grow older. Generalizing from single cases is a feature of the adolescent as well as the child. I admit I prolonged the conversation, Gail somehow manages to be simultaneously witty, six feet tall, and large eyed elfin.

My wonderful friend of several years was there on a farewell date to the latest Peter Pan who’d tried to kidnap her to be Wendy, Mother of Lost Boys. Their body language became forbidding as the evening went on.

The highly competent and managerial Liz DiGiorgio, presently booking the VSB and looking to reopen DG’s Club somewhere around Napa, deftly corralled me and we talked about teenage children, why I’m not writing much these days, my son the punk rock drummer and what to take for the resulting headaches, and a variety of other things. Liz was wearing a tropical weight and sized halter top that I suavely studied with scientific objectivity, determining once again that she definitely was a member of Order Mammalia. Liz studied me in turn and seemed satisfied of her continuing complete control over my brain function while sending brain waves at me, “Write, Rolf, Write!”

Organist Chip Roland responded to my question as to why I’m now seeing him listed as Chip Roland Conden, “That’s my real name and I’m trying out using my whole name to see what happens.” You got it, Chip.

As the earlier comedy show wound down, peering through the glass from the side dining room into the showroom showed tables and chairs on the dance floor. A gentle question to the always-helpful Diane Torres cleared up that they were going to move them off the floor. Around me old blues fans were laughing, “We’ll move them ourselves.”

Shauna the Nuclear Blonde and Linda were there on Girls Night Out and effervescent as always. People kept arriving and the Bar began to fill. Then the comedy show ended and other blues friends emerged for some fresh air. Jami was fun teasing and Dennis was laughing. Kent and Jane Fossgreen smiling, mingling, and talking as they seldom get to do when they are setting up for a show.

Going outside for a smoke as the band disappeared behind the closed curtain for their set up while the chairs were moved off the floor, I peered down the street and true to her legendary ability to arrive at a show right at start time came Mo from a parking space that had opened up just for her. In her matter-of-fact way she said, “Chairs on the dance floor?” “Nope, they’re moving them off.” “All Right.” Good, now the show could start.

“Shuffleupagus” started the show right off with fun in a great “opener.” It’s typical of Volker that rather than use a classic warhorse instrumental for the classic opening display of the band’s talents, he just wrote his own. Also typical with Volker it’s a killer, showing off the bands ensemble sound and the talents of the members. The audience settled themselves in and had a good watch of the band as many members moved out on the dance floor and the natural order of the blues show asserted itself. The Last Day is particularly good for Blues Shows as the tables and chairs and wall benchs are up on a raised surrounding platform. It’s one of the best dance floors around, nicely laid wood that lets you do shuffle, slide, and spin moves. By the end of “Shuffleupagus” the front line of dancers moved up into the fan of light close to the stage and was ready to boogie. Mo was right in front of Volker and ready to dance.

Not messing around on song selection Volker went into his classic “In your Arms.” Being Volker he’d changed the intro again and did a wildly discordant slide guitar intro that somehow made sense. They then proceeded to get to the ecstatic place with the song that Volker fans long for. The band was “On” right from the beginning. Volker went stratospheric with his solo and the dancers packed the floor. Volker is a master of slide playing in his own particular “F” tuning on a Fender Jaguar. His lyrical gift flows in slide playing too. It’s a long, long way from the recycled Elmore James licks so often heard.

Off the new CD it was “Soul Salvation” and the Volker reforging of horn band soul. The VSB low toned horn section of Carl Bowers on Trombone and Tenor Saxophone master David Schrader did powerful horn lines despite being turned down in the house mix unlike the usual practice. The dancers were going, getting out on the floor, and Mo was beginning to jump up and down and raise her fist in the air.

Great solos by Chip and Carl Bowers were a highlight of the mordant “The Dance Goes On.” Chip was really doing wild things with the sounds that the organ can produce and Carl made his trombone stutter and growl. Volker switched to his low toned baritone guitar and joined in the growling, cranking, and wild noises.

“I’ve seen the devil, she’s got pretty green eyes,
Chestnut filly, what a wild, wild ride…..
And the Dance goes On... OoooHooo…the Dance goes On.”

One of the great new songs, “Downtown Living” highlighted Chip Roland Conden’s organ parts; Chip could really be heard with the Last Day sound system. The horn parts sounded great and I was struck with Volker’s ability to write songs and arrangements with the notes of the chords carried by different instruments so that the song is seamless and the band totally involved inside the song. True “part” playing with switchovers and progression resolutions coming from three and four places at once. This band has the horses so that the chords can be complex and the scale lines moving in a complex weave. Subtle power is the only phrase that fits the complex interior evolutions of the arrangements.

Slowing the roll a bit Volker went into the filigree intro of “Sometimes I Wonder” followed immediately by it’s syncopated slow pounding rhythm and tough horn blare. Volker floated up on top sounding alternately tough and lyrical. Volker really broke loose on the telecaster. Since he was forced to switch from a singing Les Paul to a cranking Telecaster he’s been a good bit more back to his old “roadhouse rhythm” thing and away from the stratospheric flight solos that used to drive a lot of us wild. This night he had all the rhythm chops, and the high ecstatic flight of melody was back full force. Mo was swaying in front with her arms raised and her Buddha smile on. Volker went up to about 40,000 feet and didn’t level off. It just went and went. Don on Bass was driving the engines.

Volker shyly said over the microphone, “Is everybody having a good time?” A chorus of agreement reassured him. Somehow I don’t think Volker’s gonna go for a red cape and a crown. Don on bass standing next to him always just grins when Volker does the “Aw, Shucks.”

“Almighty Dollar” was a lot of fun, with a loping shuffle feel that made this perennial more of a swing tune than it usually is. Chip got off a great solo and then Volker went sky high again and played so lyrically that Mo was about a foot off the dance floor.

Continuing the changes that all songs get in the Volker Strifler Band, “Hell and Purgatory (The Story Of My Life)” was done as a rhumba with more discords in the horn lines. David Schrader did one of his finest bop solos and drove the crowd wild. David is just a monster musician, by far the best tenor saxophonist in my neck of the woods.

Somewhere in here I was standing back on the dance floor out of the fan of light from the stage next to tenor saxophonist Jane Fossgreen. Volker took off on one of his solos and went into the incredible scale substitutions he uses to get the lyrical flights of his solos. Volker knows a lot of kinds of scales and seemingly can shift between them without thought or hesitation. Jane and I glanced at each other. “Oh God, I just love his playing,” she said. Volker then inserted a ‘mode’ into his solo, shifted to the diminished scale for a few notes and then into the major scale. All with his eyes closed and in perfect harmonic relation and flow to the chord progression the band was playing. “How does he do that?”

“Moving On,” a Volker classic, had almost everyone out dancing, it was packed in front of the bandstand. People were singing the words too. With it’s horn blare and insistent rhythm it really got us moving.

Then it was break time with Volker shyly saying, “We have to take a little break.” People streamed outside into the humidity of a rainstorm just passed. Talking with friends, everybody was way up with the music and having one heck of a good time.

They didn’t make us wait long for the second set and they just got better. And they opened with Volker’s new blockbuster ”Angel (Just like a rolling stone). ” Power and huge harmonics subtly layered on top of Chip’s organ part. “Just like a… Just like a … Just like a Rollin’ Stone.” Smashing drum parts from Gary Silva who was playing in synchronization with Don, blended into the songs. From that smasher right into the jazzy, almost lilting, “Struck by Lightning.” A wild Chip solo on a jazz progression had the horns really filling out the song. Yum.

Then the song that always drives everyone wild. A weird slide guitar intro into the familiar minor third vamp of “Spoonful” had people streaming out of their chairs and onto the floor. The song is a familiar classic, and yet greatly changed from the classic Willie Dixon/Howlin’ Wolf version. I sometimes think Volker’s found an extra note in the blues scale on the slide parts of the tune.

Then in one of those “You can’t make this stuff up” moments, Volker started his well known “Somebody Help Me”, the band came in a beat later, and…. Volker lost his place, came to a complete stop for a beat and a half… and the band stopped perfectly with him and started perfectly with him in place and on beat. My mouth was hanging open. I’ve never seen such a display of band “tightness” and psychic togetherness. It was like it was an inserted dotted quarter note rest between measures—and the band was with him perfectly. David and Carl and Gary were laughing, Don was grinning, Chip kind of half rotated his head.

Sonny Landreth’s “Congo Square (Voodoo Queen)” had ‘em out dancing hard to its great rhythm and bent harmonics.
“It might be superstition
But when I hear ’em in the night I say a prayer
It might be superstition
But when I hear ’em in the night I say a prayer
And that’s ’cause I respects tradition
Like the kind they carry on in Congo square
Congo square.”

Then it was Slow Blues time and

“Like it or not, Baby,
I’ve made up my mind,
Baby, there ain’t no use in crying
or wasting my time
I’ve had my share of being blue
Lord knows, lord knows
I’m falling out of love with you”

Again, it was Volker finding new places to go on the guitar, it was magical.

“Wake Up, Wake Up (Ting a ling)” and “You’re Bad[?]” continued on the roll and many people were gathered at the sides of the stage just watching the band weave the spell. Then they really bent my mind with the Peter Green tune from my days in the Haight Ashbury “Albatross.” Deep, thick and harmonic, it was like a space journey to another planet. What a change up. They got me again.

Powerful rhythm was next with “Doggin’ It.” People were dancing like crazy.
For the last song it was the Volker Classic “(Is this) Love” with its driving horn lines and stutter turnaround over a descending, then ascending vamp. God, they were tight and seemingly could do anything and make it look smooth, even jagged stuff.

Volker announced, “Well we have to stop now, that’s it, we’re done.” We were laughing at the Volker shuffle footed apology. People immediately started stomping their feet and the horns were laughing as they slowly headed toward the back of the stage. Carl was grinning at Volker and Chip was acting like he was taking down his equipment in very slow motion. A spent Volker said, “Oh alright.” And they were back on station and surprised me with a number I’d never heard before. A swinging raggy jazzy number with hot changes, it was great and I want to hear it again. Asking about it as I shook hands with the band, I discovered it was a new one, and they’d played it only once before. This band is so tight!

After handshakes and hugs the audience streamed out into the cold night complete and filled. There was nothing left to discuss, it had been a great show.