Band Returns for a Swinging Night of Tom Waits & Original Tunes

 By Sally Deering

Girl groups are a rare breed of women doing their own thing in the male-dominated music world; they create their own unique sound and groove just as cool as the boys.

Vicki Kristina Barcelona fits those stilettos perfectly – a girl group with its own style, doing music their way. The three singer/songwriter/musicians – Amanda Homi (percussion), Rachelle Garniez (accordion/guitar) and Terry Radigan (guitar) – sing original tunes they wrote and a Tom Waits†repertoire. They perform throughout the Metropolitan area and are returning to the back parlour at Fox & Crow on Thursday, June 22 at 8 oâ€clock for another show.  

And we lucky to have them back in Jersey City.

Along with the Brooklyn-based bandâ€s original tunes, VKB will devote most of the evening to Tom Waits†songs the band has deconstructed and reinvented in their own style. For instance, their rendition of “Temptation” is a sexy, hip-swiveling snake dance of seduction. Waits would be proud.

They are terrific musicians, too. Radigan is an intense, high voltage guitarist and Garniez strums a ukulele-banjo, blows a kazoo and a deftly handles a big-ass accordion so beautifully, she could make a dove cry. Homi, the dark-haired percussionist and a highly-trained vocalist plays lots of interesting percussive instruments throughout the show including a Washboard Tie.

On a recent Monday, Homi took a moment from a rehearsal where she was learning a new instrument – the Gnibri – to talk about how the band hooked-up and what their future plans are.

RVO: How did you get the name VKB? Are you all fans of Woody Allenâ€s movie?

AH: I have to admit; it was my idea originally. I was tossing around a lot of names. For an eclectic female trio, you think of so many names. It seemed to fit.

 RVO:  There seems to be a true camaraderie on stage. Are you friends offstage?

AH: Yes. We get along great. Our last excursion upstate, we were even laughing in the grocery store. Terry and Rachelle are both fantastic women – talented, funny and smart.

RVO: You are a terrific percussionist. I bet you can make beats out of anything. Whatâ€s the weirdest instrument youâ€ve ever played?

AH: Weirdest instrument? Iâ€m learning a new one as we speak. It has three strings and itâ€s a fretless instrument. I wish I knew the correct name for this. (The Gnibri).  I bought it in Morocco, which has some wonderful instruments. I do study percussion and instruments all over the world. I like to be authentic as much as possible.

RVO: How do you collaborate? Do you rehearse often?

AH: We meet up as often as we can. Everyone travels and has different agendas. Weâ€ll meet more often if we have an upcoming gig. I think collectively, itâ€s such a huge repertoire, weâ€ve kind of honed ones we really like to do the most. When a song is not getting there, weâ€ll try to make it work. A lot of arrangements get changed. Some of the songs, we really like it. We do Chicago, but it never felt right, and recently we hit on the right groove and feel. I think at this point, the ones that we stick with, and keep in the set are the ones we constantly want to do.

RVO:  Will you be putting out a CD soon?

AH: We have yet to officially put out a CD. This configuration with Terry and Rachelle, weâ€re only together for over a year. Weâ€re recording very soon.

RVO:  Can you talk about how you mesh your originals with Mr. Waits†tunes?

AH: At this point, it depends on the length of the show. Weâ€ll do two originals each, but focus on the Tom Waits material.

RVO: Do you prefer intimate venues like Fox & Crow?

AH: We feel very comfortable in an intimate setting. Part of performing in a theater setting is to make the audience feel as if itâ€s intimate.

Terry Radigan

 RVO: You have a great singing voice; are you professionally trained?

AH: Actually, I am a professional singer. The percussion thing, I donâ€t consider myself a professional percussionist.

RVO: How would you describe the VKB sound?

AH: I would say weâ€re eclectic. I think thereâ€s a looseness which I really like: always keep a groove and an arrangement. That looseness; itâ€s like falling off a cliff and catching yourself. You want to be confined to your arrangements and you carefully worked them out, but when you perform it, you want to be able to veer a little way off that. Iâ€m a fan of gypsy music. Thereâ€s a very high skill-level musically, but at the same time you have passion and a danger-be-damned, devil-may-care feeling. Collectively, when we tap into that, I think weâ€re at our best.

If you go

Thurs, June 22, 8-10 pm

Vicki Kristina Barcelona band

Fox & Crow/In the Parlour

594 Palisade Ave, JC

(201) 984-2775

www.foxandcrowjc.com

 For info on the VKB band:

vickikristinabarcelonaband@gmail.com

The post GIRL GROUP GROOVES first appeared on River View Observer.

 By Sally Deering

On Palisade Avenue in the Jersey City Heights, a colorful neighborhood pub “Fox & Crow” serves all-American burgers, cocktails shaken & stirred and a root beer float that could land Junior in the principalâ€s office. On weekends, the backroom “Parlour” with its own bar, and family-style tables becomes a small club with a dazzling array of singer-songwriters, bands, and spoken-wordsmiths.

More hippie than dippy, Fox & Crow (named for the owners, Arthur and Sarah Johnsonâ€s daughter Rebecca who loved the nursery rhyme) Fox & Crow opened in February 2015, and has since become a cool neighborhood go-to place for tasty American dishes, knee-bending cocktails like the Sly Fox and the Shy Fox and lively entertainment. On a recent Saturday night, Vicky Cristina Barcelona – a three piece all-girl group that performs Tom Waits†songs knocked the socks off the audience.

“Our family loves to eat and drink, and have a good time,” Rebecca says. “We wanted to create an atmosphere that was warm and welcoming, serving wholesome food at decent portions without pretensions. We also wanted to replicate the pub atmosphere you find in Europe, where the entire family is welcome, from babies to dogs. We wish we could also welcome dogs, waiting for New Jersey to change its ways!”

 Fox & Crowâ€s pub menu is tasty and minimal with several appetizers and a dozen or so sandwiches (and a salad) to choose from. Starter/Munchies include Hand Cut Pub Fries, and Wings served Chili, BBQ, Buffalo, and Jabanero & Honey-style, and Artâ€s Nachos with a choice of cheese, jalapeno peppers, pico de gallo, sour cream or black beans.  ($6-$8)

Burgers take center stage and come in lots of variations including Old Blue (blue cheese), California Club, and Black Bean. For seafood lovers thereâ€s the Krabby Patty with Asian slaw; the Spicy Crow, fried chicken with chipotle mayo and avocado; and the Cheese Me Please Me grilled cheese with Gouda, Gruyere-Cheddar on sourdough bread. The Mariner, sesame-crusted pan-seared tuna with ginger soy sauce is also a popular dish.  ($11-$15). Thereâ€s a beet salad, too. ($12)

For those looking for something sweet with a little kick, the (alcoholic) Root Beer Float is made with “Not Your Fatherâ€s Root Beer”, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream ($10).

“The menu has grown with us,” Rebecca says. “We have had input from talented chefs, friends, and family. Brunch is the collaborative product of my mother, and local resident and New York chef Ben Kurst and expertly prepared by our in-house chef Marcos Mendoza. Brunch is special as Sunday breakfast has always held a special place in my family’s week. When home for holidays, we all gather at the kitchen table and dad will make his signature eggs, bacon and home-fries. The dish ‘Artie’s Breakfast†on the brunch menu is a nod to him.”

Weekend Brunch also features Locals Only pork roll, egg, cheese, and home-fries; Fox & Crow Burger with fried egg, bacon, cheddar; Smoked Salmon Hash; Savory or Sweet Ricotta Toast, Avocado Toast; and, French Toast ($8-$14). Modcup Coffee is the house coffee ($2); and Mimosa, Bellini or Bloody Mary cocktails keep things fizzy. ($4-$6)
The kitchen stays open late; Sunday through Wednesday till 11:30 pm; and Thursday through Saturday till Midnight. The bar has a huge choice of beers and cocktails. The Parlour presents live entertainment, and a monthly Spoken Word series hosted by James Ruggia and RNA. Curator Margo Parks of Jersey City scouts the talent and books the performers.

 Itâ€s been two years since Fox & Crow first opened and in those two years, itâ€s grown a lot, Rebecca says. When her family decided to become restaurateurs, the whole thing came together without much maneuvering.

“We did not spend months scouting a space, the F&C albeit a tremendous amount of work, was quite a serendipitous venture,” Rebecca says. “My father acquired the property and had the option to lease the bar or take the business on himself. I have experience in branding and interiors, my partner Rowen works in hospitality, and my mother and father possess an innately hospitable spirit having come from large families and raising their own. The majority of people we knew from the neighborhood we had met in Modcup coffee, the market, or venues downtown. We felt at home surrounded by bohemian and ingenious spirits. We decided to take a chance, combine our efforts and create the Fox & Crow.”

 If you go

FOX & CROW Pub & Parlor

594 Palisade Ave, JC

(201) 984-2775

www.foxandcrowjc.com

Mon- Wed, 5pm-12am; Thurs-Fri 5pm-3am

Sat 11am-3am; Sun 11am-1am

Sat & Sun Brunch starts at noon

Read another story about Fox & Crow

The post BOHEMIAN, INGENIOUS SPIRITS  Fox & Crow– JC Gastropub for Cool Foodies first appeared on River View Observer.

 

 

By Sally Deering

Acappella groups – four or five guys singing harmonies with no back-up band – bridged the gap between 1950s Doo-Wop and 1960s rock and roll, but until now, little has been written about that time in music history when teenagers harmonized on street corners, inside subways and underneath train trestles searching for the echo that gave them their sound.

Abraham Santiago grew up in Jersey City and remembers the days he sang tenor in The Concepts, a street corner acappella group of fellow students from Ferris High School in Jersey City. Santiago, who now resides in Chicago, took his memories of those days and collaborated on a book and documentary about the acappella era with Steve Dunham, an acappella enthusiast and music producer in Las Vegas with a mammoth acappella record collection and a passion for singing street harmonies.

 “Acappella Street Corner Vocal Groups:  A Brief History and Discography of 1960s Singing Groups,” (Mellow Sound Press, Chicago,167 pgs;) chronicles every street corner acappella group ever recorded from that time like  Joanne and the Heartaches, the Royal Counts and the Persuasions; and the record companies that produced their songs, like Snowflake, Relic and Catamount. The documentary, “Street Corner Harmony: The Missing Link in Rock and Roll History,” narrated by record producer Wayne Stierle delves deeper into the singers’ lives and the genre of acappella music. Both the book and the documentary are touchstones to a bygone era, the time between the 1950s and 1960s, when musical tastes shifted to British rockers like The Beatles and short-haired teens singing acappella became as old-hat as the Hi-Fi record players that spun their songs.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 “In 2004 I began thinking about why no one ever wrote about the acappella era or the Golden Age of Acappella as some call it,” Santiago says. “I starting writing it, but I’m not a good writer so I asked around and I found Steven Dunham. We hit it off really well considering I didn’t know him and he didn’t me. We started working together and in 2006 the book was published under Mellow Sound Press. In that same year a native Jersey City music critic Jim De Rogatis who lives in Chicago reviewed our book for the Chicago Sun Times. The following year the book was reviewed by Soul Patrol.com and we won an award.”

 Originally from Brooklyn, Dunham resides in Law Vegas where he owns the record company Street Corner Entertainment and sings with two acappella groups, The Chaperones and the Emerald Dreams, whose songs are part of the documentary’s soundtrack. Dunham says he collaborated with Santiago because he believed the history of acappella recordings of that time needed to be preserved and so far, no one else had done the job.

 “We wanted to preserve the traditional street corner singing in the northeast in that time period,” Dunham says. “We felt it was an important piece of rock and roll and American history to preserve this genre before it was completely forgotten about and the memories passed away.”  

The Way it Wa-a-as  

Back in the early 1960s, when Santiago sang with The Concepts, he and his buddies, lead singer Amed Valentine, baritone Ed Rivera and first tenor Juan Perez were always on the lookout for the right backdrop for their acoustic sound. When they weren’t harmonizing on Jersey City street corners, they sang under train trestles and in subways, too.

 “We were always looking for the echo, the hallmark of that elusive dream to make it big,” Santiago says.  

The Concepts sang R&B/Soul songs they imitated from African-American singing groups of the 1950s. That was the standard for how they wanted to sound, but what they really wanted was the opportunity to record their songs, have them played on the radio and sold in record stores.  

“Today anyone can make a recording at home, press out a CD and sell it,” Santiago says. “In the 1960s you couldn’t do that. A record company had to hire and record you and you became part of that record company’s label.”  

The Concepts recorded for Catamount and Cat Time labels and their songs were produced by Stan Krause who owns a record shop in Journal Square in Jersey City. Krause recorded many groups including the Persuasions, one of the best known acappella groups in history, Santiago says. 

“Independent record labels recorded various groups from Jersey City and other surrounding urban cities like New York,” Santiago says. “Those recordings were played on the radio and immediately, the birth of acappella came into existence. Before long acappella shows were attracting large audiences at the State Theatre in Journal Square and the Palace on Newark Ave in Jersey City and in Hackensack and New York. It just exploded and a new pop genre was created. It was a small niche within the music industry.”  

Dunham says many of the acappella groups weren’t taken seriously in the music industry and yet they have influenced groups of the past forty-five years as well as the collegiate acappella circuit. Even shows like NBC’s “Sing Off” where acappella groups of all ages and backgrounds compete for a recording contract owe their success to the guys singing on street corners back in the day.

 “If it wasn’t for the 60s acappella groups, this type of singing would never happen,” Dunham says. 

 Too young to have experienced the first wave of acappella singing, Dunham, now in his 40s, was just 11 years-old when he became interested in acappella singing. It was the late 1970s and he and his buddies would harmonize on his Brooklyn stoop, singing classics like “In the Still of the Night,” and songs by the Stylistics.

 “Street corner singing is a neighborhood thing,” Dunham says. “It’s not just about the music; it’s about the culture of the northeast. It was a way of expression similar to how rap and hip-hop started.”

 Both Santiago and Dunham are pleased with the reception to the book and are discussing a sequel with new information they’ve discovered since publishing it. Santiago would also like to have the documentary shown in Jersey City, the place where acappella music began for The Concepts and other acappella groups that came and went over the years.

 “For teenagers in Jersey City and along the corridor that stretches from Boston to Philadelphia, singing was their favorite past-time,” Santiago says. “Guys didn’t play soccer or basketball as we do now, they would get together and sing. It was a way of connecting with each other and to potentially connect with a person of the opposite sex. If you could sing and you were in a vocal group you were cool.”

 To purchase “Acappella Street Corner Vocal Groups,” and or the DVD call QP Distribution at 888-281-5170 – or send an email to qpdistribution@skyerock.net (The book is $10; the DVD is $14.95, plus shipping and handling.)

to read more about these 1960s Premiere Acappella groups of the 1960s visit www.beaudaddy.com

 

 

The post Searching for the Echo-Book and Film Shine Light on 1960s Street Corner Acappella Groups first appeared on River View Observer.