Night Beat

Another great night of fun was had at the Sausalito Cruising Club Blue Monday jam session on Presidents day. The house band consisted of Joe Tate on guitar, Willie Riser on bass and Donny Kountz on drums. Don Bradley also assisted using a hand drum mad  from some weird plastic container. There was also some wonderful harmonica from waterfront local Diver Dave who assisted throughout the evening.

Jim Presta, Joe Tate Willie Riser and Donny Kountz

Also assisting was Jim Presta on the upright piano which was dragged over to the stage and had a microphone jammed between the sound board and the frame. This actually works pretty well and the piano can be heard along with the electric instruments. Jim lays down a mellow kind of New Orleans groove that works well with the mixed bag that Joe Tate plays.

The house band Don Bradley, Donny Kountz, Joe Tate, Willie Riser

Joe Tate played a nice set of songs culminating in “Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt,” which recounted the life and death of our greatest president. This old song was written by Mckinley Peebles to mourn the death of FDR. The song also outlines the importance of Abraham Lincoln in freeing the slaves. Tate says we’ll be hearing more of this rockin number.

The jam session started with Ken Markowitz singing some standard blues with Cole Tate adding some scorching solos. Cole then did a couple of original songs that were captivating in their simplicity. Next, Jim Swanee sang something like “Peace and love” with Cole, Donny and Willie doing the backing.

Drummer, Ron Roscano took over the drums and Suzie Olsen sang “Love Potion Number Nine.” At this point, Scott Sherman joined in on harmonica. Diver Dave let him use his mic and amp. Joe Tate handed Diver Dave another mic and we were treated to dual harmonica solos. This sounds like a harmonica that never runs out of breath as it weaves in and out from one melody to another.

Ray DiFazio, Cole Tate, Donny Kountz

Ray DiFazio brought his baritone sax which added a whole extra dimension to the sounds. Ray has a group “Scary Larry And The Monsters” and they are playing at the Seahorse Restaurant on Friday March 4 at 8:30.

Donna Dacuti treated us to some fine blues vocals and threatened to sing “Georgia” but no none knew the changes in her key. She will bring the chart next time. Lastly we had John “Oz” Gordon on guitar then Joe Tate closed out the evening with everyone singing “The Last Time” an old spiritual that was remade by the Rolling Stones.

The Blue Monday flyer

Blue Monday at the Sausalito Cruising Club is held every other Monday. The next one will be on March 7. If you want to attend or play, please RSVP to Joe Tate at 415 385 1606 or joebtate@gmail.com

To learn more about Joe Tate go to

http://xrl.in/4y57

or

http://www.theredlegs.com/JoeTate.html

Here’s a new video called Sausalito Girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBFRSqqAi8w

This entry was posted on February 23, 2011 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life, ukulele music with tags acoustic blues, Bay area music, blues, boogie woogie piano, fun finder, fun on the bay, guitar blues, guitar harmonica duo, harmonica blues, Joe Tate, music in sausalito, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito Cruising Club, waterfront. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.