Performance Videos - The Penang Blues Brothers

Here are three YouTube videos from the Penang Blues Brothers jam on Sunday. First up is the set opener Trouble, Trouble with James on vocals:

I've been listening a lot to Chicago blues tenor saxophonist J.T. Brown lately. J.T. is (somewhat) famous for having played with the influential slide guitarist Elmore James in the 1950's. He cut some sides in the 50's that are collected on the album Windy City Boogie on Delmark Records. J.T. died in 1969 and apparently his grave was unmarked until just last year when a benefit was held at a blues festival to raise funds for a headstone.

I've entitled the next tune Blues for J.T. in honor of J.T. Brown. I tried to get in a J.T. groove based on what I keep hearing in my head after listening to Windy City Boogie in the car so often...

The third video I've called Kim's Bb Boogie. Flip, Flop, and Fly is one of Kim's favorite tunes but his mike wasn't loud enough to hear the vocal so I think he gave up on singing and stuck to an instrumental instead. Jackie joined us on this one and played four choruses of hard blues which are pretty impressive improvising for a 15-year old. True to the blues tradition, Jackie's 1930's Zephyr had a bad spring so her axe had a rubber band wrapped around one of the keys.

I had a blast playing on Sunday. As mentioned in a previous post, I've wanted to do a Chicago-style electric blues band for a long time and this opportunity came together on a lark. I was out of town so Kim helped me arrange the musicians long-distance. James is the Little Penang Street Market's director but was a bit shy to perform at first. Tapa just happened to be in town. We had never played together as a unit which shows in some looseness but the blues feeling overruled and the set was relaxed, honest, rockin', and fun. Hopefully more to come. The musicians are Kim Gooi, harp; James Lochhead, keys and vocals; Bonny Jeremiah, bass; Ron Ashkin, tenor sax; Jackie Ashkin, alto sax; Tapa, drums; and Sid, guitar.