![\"SamTeichman\"](\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/SamTeichman.jpg\" "\\"SamTeichman\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nLast night was for Ronald McDonald House<\/a> of NY. If you want to get involved directly, with the NY chapter, here\u2019s their contact info:<\/p>\n Ronald McDonald House in New York City Each show has a theme. Last night it was a Tribute to the Blues Brothers. Sweet (both in theory, in advance, and in retrospect, now that we got to thoroughly enjoy it)!<\/p>\n The series is called Leave a Lasting Mark. The next one is on August 23rd<\/a> at City Winery<\/a>. It will be a different style, very special show. After that, they will return to the normal<\/em> format, at Rockwood Music Hall<\/a> Stage 2 (where last night\u2019s show was), on September 25th. That show will be a 3-hour extravaganza, paying tribute to The Last Waltz by The Band!<\/p>\n 24 musicians participated in last night\u2019s show (not unusual!). I\u2019ll mention every single one of them, but I will not attempt to enumerate the combinations or tell you which people were on which songs. I\u2019ll simply describe the evening in a few generalities. Here is the set list, just to put you in the mood. Every performer donates their time to these shows. That doesn\u2019t just include time on stage, but time rehearsing (except when they show up last minute, not having made the rehearsal, and still blow the audience away!). We gave them many<\/strong> ovations last night, but you can do so (in your head) as you read along\u2026<\/p>\n Who doesn\u2019t love the Blues Brothers? Who doesn\u2019t love Soul music? Who doesn\u2019t love brass sections? Who doesn\u2019t love high-energy live performances by dozens of people? If you raised your hand to any of those, leave now! (In starker terms, no soup for you<\/strong>!) Every song last night was packed with energy, delivered by top-notch musicians, with a passion for entertaining (clearly, they loved the songs they were performing). In the audience, a lot of head bobbing, foot tapping (and stomping), clapping (during the songs, to the beat). Of course, wide smiles all around.<\/p>\n One guy took it up a level, participating in much of the show from his seat. When we were called on to get up and Shake Our Tail Feather<\/em>, he did, very enthusiastically. It was fun to see him so in the spirit. Fun, with the exception that he sat opposite me at our table, and in getting up with so much gusto, spilled his wine all over my jeans and soaked the floor around my feet. Oh well, the price of joy isn\u2019t cheap. There were a number of band changes (shuffles, all done reasonably quickly\/efficiently). There were also a number of troopers who played on all songs (perhaps taking a break on one or two, but never leaving the stage. Sam had trouble getting a full horn section, so those that showed up did yeoman<\/strong>\u2019s duty and were on stage start-to-finish. Let\u2019s cover them first, giving them the credit they\u2019re due.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the horn section, left-to-right:<\/p>\n Matt Thomas<\/a> on alto-saxophone. You have to go down the page to see Matt\u2019s bio. Matt was far-left on (and off) the stage all night. He did a great job, including a few short solos. At the end (I think in the finale, if not, close to it), he was highlighted even more and tore it up.<\/p>\n Marcus Graf<\/a> on trumpet. Marcus did a superb job, with a number of short-burst leads. I would have enjoyed hearing him highlighted a bit more. At the end, Sam said that Marcus was a last-minute addition (they met yesterday), when someone recommended someone who recommended Marcus. Good job with the chain of recommendations! Mitch Marcus<\/a> on tenor saxophone. He took a couple of smoking leads and played wonderfully throughout. I had the sense that he was one of the leaders on stage, but that might have just been because of his central location.<\/p>\n Sitting behind the brass section and playing on all but one song was another late addition.<\/p>\n Dave Pollack (a.k.a Shaky Dave<\/a>) texted Sam at midnight (so technically, the day of the show) that he could make it. He absolutely killed it on the harmonica on every number. He took long, tasty leads. I was surprised that he didn\u2019t rub his lips off.<\/p>\n Sam was upset that he couldn\u2019t get a 5-piece brass section, including a trombone, but I\u2019m impressed with the last-minute additions of Shaky Dave and Marcus Graf, who along with Matt Thomas and Mitch Marcus created a big sound!<\/p>\n Everyone else, in no particular order. That said, I\u2019ll contradict myself immediately and list the female vocalists who didn\u2019t play any instruments first.<\/p>\n Stephanie White<\/a> on lead vocals. Stephanie was extraordinary<\/strong> (so I lied a bit about the order, I wanted to mention her first). Above, I linked Stephanie\u2019s name to her own MySpace page. She is also part of a duo called The Philth Harmonic<\/a> (actually, called Stephanie White and The Filth Harmonic). I already had them on my list to see, solely due to previously being impressed by her duo partner. Since he was a big part of last night\u2019s show, I\u2019ll save talking about him for later.<\/p>\n Crystal Durant<\/a> on lead and background vocals. She goes by the moniker DJ Crystal Clear6 (as you\u2019ll see if you clicked through). Another exceptional voice. She\u2019s the one that sang Shake Your Tail Feather, so I blame her for being good enough to get the guy across from me excited enough to actually shake it, spilling his wine on me in the process. Not cool Crystal, not cool<\/em>! Charlene Kaye<\/a> on lead vocals. Another serious winner! All three ladies (Charlene, Stephanie and Crystal) were new to me. All three impressed me to no end.<\/p>\n As Sam reminded us multiple times, everyone on stage is a creator of music, not just a musician. He encouraged us to check out each of them when they are performing their own stuff<\/strong>. I will Sam, I will! Ashley Lehmann<\/a> on lead and background vocals. I\u2019ve seen Ashley do background vocals before, but this was my first time seeing her take center stage. She also did more background vocals last night than the others. Like the first time I saw Ashley on background, she did a very good job. Unfortunately, she wasn\u2019t well matched for the song she sang lead on. That said, the song itself was still great, with the band nailing it like they did on every other number.<\/p>\n OK, I\u2019ll continue with the male singers who didn\u2019t play an instrument (hard to resist a theme).<\/p>\n Bryan Lazerus on lead vocals (no good individual music link). Another first for me. Great voice. I enjoyed his number immensely! I see from his personal profile that he\u2019s a guitarist, so perhaps some day I\u2019ll see a fuller picture of his talents.<\/p>\n Sean Lauder<\/a> on lead vocals. A number of people came dressed (partially) in Blues Brothers style. Sean came the closest, wearing a black suit, skinny tie and sunglasses. I don\u2019t know why he didn\u2019t complete the look with the hat. Perhaps he\u2019s a hair guy<\/em>. On to the lead singers who also played instruments. Thanks to a cheat-sheet from Sam, these will mostly be listed in the order in which they appeared, but keep in mind that the ones above were interspersed among these!<\/p>\n Jeremiah Birnbaum<\/a> and Scott Stein<\/a> opened the show, alternating verses singing lead. Each of them is amazing in their own right, and I think they have more than one collaborative project together, but I know them best (together) as two of the five people in The Ramblers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jeremiah sang first and played lead guitar (on that and a number of other songs). He also sang lead on Rawhide, filling in at the last minute. He didn\u2019t play guitar on that number. In fact, he asked Sam to find a guitarist and Sam let that slip through the cracks. In real-time, another performer jumped up and did a great job without having known he\u2019d be asked to do so (I\u2019ll get to him shortly, and refer back to this).<\/p>\n I know I already said Jeremiah is amazing, but I wasn\u2019t specific about last night. Great voice, great guitar playing, yes, last night too! Scott Stein is an incredible keyboards player. When he sings with the Ramblers, I really like his voice as well. I wasn\u2019t as kind about a song he sang at the last benefit, but last night he was totally back on track. So, he has a really good voice, but it has to fit the material to really work. Last night, it did!<\/p>\n His keyboard play was exciting. When he took leads (a number of them), the horn section crouched down so people could see the magic more clearly (he was buried in the back of the stage).<\/p>\n Craig Greenberg<\/a> sang lead and played keyboards and electric guitar. He was great on all three, with the latter (guitar) being the one on Adam Minkoff<\/a> on lead vocals (twice), electric bass and guitar. I just wrote about Adam on Saturday, after seeing him perform as part of Scott Chasolen<\/a>\u2019s trio on Friday night. I lamented in that post that I never get to see Adam sing lead, because his headlining sets typically start a midnight or later!<\/p>\n What an absolute treat getting to see\/hear him sing lead last night. He\u2019s wonderful, and I will now need to nap on nights when he\u2019s performing late, so I can stay up (at least once). I\u2019ve already written a couple of times about how good he is on the bass. Last night was my first taste of him playing lead electric guitar.<\/p>\n Since he was singing, he started out mostly playing rhythm. But, when it came time for a solo, he was fast, clean and excellent. A multi-talented individual! I had never met Adam before, so I hung around an extra minute to find him and tell him how much I enjoyed his singing.<\/p>\n As if the above weren\u2019t enough, he cracked us up a number of times with his extremely dry (and quick) humor, in response to some of Sam\u2019s introductions. I won\u2019t do justice to anything he said, so I won\u2019t try.<\/p>\n Robbie LaFalce<\/a> on lead vocals, drums and keyboards. I really enjoyed Robbie\u2019s piano play at the last benefit. I really enjoyed his drumming at the one before that. So, when he played the drums last night, and kicked arse, I had nothing to complain about.<\/p>\n Then he took it up from there. He sang lead while playing the drums (something I should stop being surprised at, but it\u2019s still hard to wrap my head around it, even though I see it more often lately). Excellent voice. Later, he joined Scott Stein and they shared<\/strong> the keyboards. Beautiful!<\/p>\n Robbie is the other half of The Philth Harmonic, and the reason they were on my list even before I knew who Stephanie White was. They will be playing an early show in Newark, NJ<\/a> this Thursday (8\/4\/2011). If you\u2019re in that neck of the woods, do yourself a favor and check them out.<\/p>\n Chris Kelly<\/a> sang lead and played electric bass. This was our second time seeing Chris, both at these benefits. Again, Chris did a good job singing and an even better job on the bass.<\/p>\n There was one final singer, but I will save him for later (so be sure to stick around<\/em>), because the finale requires a little section of its own.<\/p>\n Here are the rest of the musicians. Some sang background, some didn\u2019t. In any event, the fact that they are listed after the singers means nothing. They were an integral part of the show, just like the horns were!<\/p>\n Jeff Litman<\/a> on electric guitar. I\u2019ve written about Jeff a number of times, always glowingly. Last night can be added to that list. Very tasty leads when he was on stage.<\/p>\n Will Hensley<\/a> on electric guitar. My first time seeing Will. He sounded good, but I couldn\u2019t tell how much lead he was playing because he stepped back further than some of the other guitarists, so it was harder to follow him (visually).<\/p>\n Carlos Valdez on electric bass (couldn\u2019t find a good link). Carlos was incredible on the bass. His strap was really short (obviously by choice), so the bass was up against his chest rather than his belly. Didn\u2019t make a difference, his fingers were flying and creating beautiful bass lines! If you can\u2019t tell, it was my first time seeing Carlos.<\/p>\n Megan Cox<\/a> on keyboards. I didn\u2019t recognize her even though we\u2019ve seen her before. That was because she played violin (really well) at the Soul Revue Benefit<\/a>. Let\u2019s add talented keyboard player to her list of talents. I bet there are more gems awaiting my discovery!<\/p>\n Last, but absolutely certainly not least, the drummers! (I already told you how good Robbie LaFalce was!)<\/p>\n Dave Scalia<\/a> on drums. Another first time, most definitely not a last time! I love drumming and good drummers (there, I said it). Lois can appreciate a good drummer too, but she\u2019s not as obsessed as me. Occasionally she\u2019ll turn to me and say \u201cWow, he\u2019s good!\u201d, and that will be that.<\/p>\n Lois couldn\u2019t stop raving about Dave. If Lois is raving about a drummer, you can bet I don\u2019t need to pile on. Matt Arbeiter on drums (again, no good individual music link). Second time for us seeing Matt. Another excellent job, highlighted a bit more last night, so I was even more impressed.<\/p>\n Seth Faulk<\/a> on drums. Seth wasn\u2019t scheduled to play last night, though he\u2019s participated in a number of these benefit shows. Since he was in the house<\/em>, he was invited up. He played at least two songs (the last two I believe) and he was awesome<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Time for the encore, but first, a word from our sponsors. Before the show started, we said Hi to a few of the performers. One of them is the only one that hasn\u2019t been mentioned yet. I asked him what song he was singing and he said it would have to remain a mystery. Now I know why, he was the big finish<\/strong>, which included a surprise shout-out to me. For the finale, Sam invited everyone<\/strong> who performed during the evening to come up on stage. He remained there as well and picked up a tambourine, so we\u2019ll count him as well (you\u2019ll understand the point in a minute).<\/p>\n Bryan Dunn<\/a> sang lead and played electric guitar. I really wanted to see Bryan\u2019s set on Thursday and was reasonably sure I\u2019d be back from Ian Axel<\/a>\u2019s show in CT in time. Unfortunately, we got back too late. Having Bryan close the show was therefore a very nice treat. He sings wonderfully, plays the guitar wonderfully and is an all-around nice-guy (and no, he won\u2019t finish last! Hmmm, wait, he did finish last<\/em> at this show\u2026). For a while, there was a running joke on my blog. I would announce whenever a new record was set for number of performers on stage (at either Rockwood venue) at the same time. The record only counts when I\u2019m there and only by my personal count, even if I count incorrectly. It may sound arbitrary to you, but I assure you, it\u2019s completely scientific!<\/p>\n Sam has tried (in vain) to submit photographic evidence<\/strong> of more people on stage for shows that I\u2019ve missed. But, I won\u2019t be fooled. I know that agencies like the CIA and NSA routinely doctor photos, so it\u2019s my eyes<\/strong>, or your effort simply didn\u2019t happen\/count.<\/p>\n Since Sam called everyone back up, and remained on stage himself, the number of people on stage should have been 25 (count up the names above and you\u2019ll get 24, plus Sam). I am going to give full credit<\/strong> and call the record at 25<\/strong>! But, to be technically accurate, there were 22 people on stage. Matt Thomas was just off the stage to the left (though he wailed on the sax on this number, so he was an integral part of the song) with Matt Arbeiter and Bryan Lazerus just off the stage on the right. Safety first<\/strong> people, so I\u2019m giving them the credit, for not<\/strong> doing something stupid just to achieve a bigger record!<\/p>\n The played an outrageously good and fun rendition of Sweet Home Chicago. Thanks Bryan (and your supporting cast of 24 others!) for closing out an already great show with a bang!<\/p>\n We attend a ton of shows (the proof is in this blog). One of the people that we see nearly every time is someone taking photographs with a much better camera than Lois uses.<\/p>\n Manish Gosalia<\/a> is a professional photographer who takes extraordinary photographs of many of the musicians we love, both at live performances and at specific photo shoots. I\u2019ll rectify having not introduced myself the next time we run into each other, but in the meantime, with his permission, I\u2019m linking to a photo he took of the finale, from the balcony. Enjoy!<\/p>\n
\n405 East 73rd Street
\nNew York, NY 10021 USA
\nPhone: 212 639-0100
\nFax: 212 472-0376<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n (My jeans are in the laundry as I type this, thanks for asking!) <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n Her voice was strong and clear. More impressively, as the song got more feverish, it was climbing the scales. Stephanie kept hitting higher and higher notes, with the same power and clarity. When she hit the last few, I was worried for the dogs in the neighborhood and was equally surprised that humans could hear such a high (and clear!) sound. Wow!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n Anyway, he put on a helluva show, dancing and singing his heart out. The voice didn\u2019t impress like some of the others.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nRawhide<\/del> Hey Bartender, filling in seconds before the song started. He had to sit while playing the guitar, because Jeremiah is so tall that the strap made the guitar hang down at Craig’s knees.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n And, just in case you\u2019re wondering, yes, she was correct in her assessment! <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n