The free Westchester Music monthly, "More Sugar," celebrated its fourteenth anniversary with a blowout bash on Sunday 11/11/07 at the German-American Social Club in Putnam Valley, New York. For a paltry ten bucks, guests received a delicious, home-cooked buffet and live music by two great bands, The Hey Baby Band and The Bad Habits. Due to the large turnout, "More Sugar" publisher Tom O'Reilly plans to make this an annual affair.
The Hey Baby Band, an eight piece "brass and roll group," kicked off the event with a fourteen song set featuring the best of the 60's and 70's. The dance floor filled up immediately. Hey Baby coalesced in the late 80's and features front man Mr. Buddy Ox - Jimmy Ekizian on vocals, trumpet, percussion, harmonica; Bert Haspel on various saxophones, percussion, flute; Steve Kaplan on tenor sax; John Skip Langworthy on bass; Bobby Max Bauer on drums; Eddie Murphy on congas, bells, and jinglestick; Dennis Jarosz on guitar; and Piano Pete on the ivories, computer, singing monks, and comedic interludes.
The show opened with Otis Redding's venerable "I Can't Turn You Loose" featuring Buddy Ox flaunting his physique by wearing an Italian dock worker T-shirt. The rest of the set contained "Midnight Hour," by Wilson Pickett, "Lady Madonna" and "Slow Down" by The Beatles, "Evil Ways" by Santana, "Honky Tonk Woman" by The Stones, "Funky Broadway" by Wilson Pickett, "Satisfaction" by The Stones, "I Saw Her Standing There" by The Beatles, "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by The Temptations, "Southbound" by The Allman Brothers, "Got To Get You Into My Life" by The Beatles, "Domino" by Van Morrison, and finally "Vehicle" by The Ides of March. Many moments stood out -- the percussion, flute solo, trumpet solo, and guitar solo on "Evil Ways." Also "Honky Tonk Woman" with the outstanding harmony vocals, sax, keyboard, and guitar solos. The dancing sax players looked great on "Funky Broadway." The band shined with a dead-on version of "Southbound."
The Hey Baby Band features a multitude of talented musicians playing in harmony. MC'ed by the vivacious "Buddy Ox," these rabble rousers juked the joint.
Next up, The Bad Habits. While The Hey Baby Band swims in an ocean of exuberance, this four piece group rows a tight ship. Sounding very much like "The Beatles," they take pride in their sharp arrangements, attention to detail, and multiple lead singers -- everyone but the drummer. The group consists of John Lowe on drums, Jack Tschudy on bass and vocals (looking very much like Jerry Garcia), Guy Lowe on electric guitar and vocals, and Jimmy Coyle on acoustic guitar and vocals.
Right out of the box, The Bad Habits stunned the audience with a hard rock arrangement of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby." They followed with an original that had the crowd singing what sounded like "Nanu, nanu!" The rest of the set consisted of "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ-Top, "Getting Better" by The Beatles, "I'll Be There" by The Spinners, "Nowhere Man" by The Beatles, three originals (guessing at the titles: "The Rest of Us" and "Natural Selection", "Late at Night"), "Ooh Baby, Baby" by Smokey Robinson, "White Room" by Cream, "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles, and "Jingo" and "Black Magic Woman" by Santana. Highlights included all of The Beatles tunes as well as the originals.
The Bad Habits sport meticulous arrangements, spacious harmonies, and an overall beautiful sound.
What a great night. This event brought together entire generations, ranging from tiny babies to empty nesters. I would like to give a shout out to all the terrific people I chatted with -- Monica, Tom, Tom, Lynda, Dot, Dennis, Helen (birthday), Sylvia, and all of those whose names I never did catch!
©2007 Roger Zee