The Cadre + 19Jamuary 1999

Arts & Entertainment 1

Young And Old Favour Johnny

Or: “Out of the Horns of Babes”

By STEPHEN MCQUAID

On Friday, January 8, The Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra played at Myron’s. I’ve got to. say that this was just about the best concert crowd I’ve ever been a part of. The smoking wasn’t ap- preciated, but everyone was well behaved. The ages of the crowd members ranged from 19 up to people in their seven- ties, a healthy mix of young, middle-aged, and “old”. It was a great diversity. The sad thing is, all of the older folks showed up all of the younger, “hipper” folks there. The older ones could actually dance and swing to the music, which was the complete polar opposite of the gyrations that most clus- ters of young folks were do- ing.

OK, let’s figure this out. A swing band from Eastern Canada hasa lead singer from Newfoundland, they do clas- sics (Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher” was a good one), their own tunes, and cover the likes of Led Zeppelin. Should it work? No. Does it? Yes. In the past decade, horns have experienced a resurgence in mainstream music. Then Ska came back, now Swing. I hope Swing sticks around for a while. It’s great music and good clean fun. And with groups like this, Big Bad Voo- doo Daddy, and Colin James, it looks like Swing may be here for a while. The band is very young, but they’re also very good. I’m not sure if any are ready to become musical Senseis for other budding mu- Sicians, but they’re all quite talented. My only hope for them is that someone or some of them step up and produce some new quality songs. Their Original guitar player, and co- founder, is now out of the group. The lem is, he wrote almostall of theirsongs. With- out him, they could be in trou- ble, butthat remains to be seen.

They started fashionably

(pun intended) late, and were ready to continue their per- sonal vendetta on the feet of helpless dancers everywhere. The band started up, then Johnny hit the stage.

“Dance, Puppets! Dance!”

He didn’t actually say it, but he didn’t have to. It was understood. If anyone there wasn’t moving at least one of their extremities, they must have been clinically dead. Their lone female performer, the baritone sax player, was miss- ing, sothey lacked a bit of their lower-end sound, but it still sounded great. She was sick, or so their clarinet player (David Christensen) told me. They did a short set, then took a break before the grand finale set.

I got a hold of Johnny during the break, and we talked for a couple of minutes. After a minute or two, I mentioned that I did music reviews for the UPEI student paper. When he heard this, he gota look of fear or apology or remorse on his face, pulled his hair back over his head"as he said, “Oh shit! Man, we haven’t played since New Year’s Eve...” I quickly stopped his unnecessary apol- ogy and reassured him that they were puting on a good show. we arranged to meet afterwards and split. '

My impression of him? A very friendly, accomodating, outgoing guy, withan unhealthy addiction tochain smoking, and a love for a drink here and there.

The show was exceed- ingly fun. The band even leta couple of wackos up on stage to dance. That very short- haired guy in the striped shirt and his vertically challenged

| he was with seemed nice enough, but were a bit odd. They were hanging off of Johnny all night, like he was momma kangaroo and they wanted back in the pouch.

Johnny left early after the show, partially due to them, in my opinion, but mostly because he found it too loud there. He offered to do an interview back at his hotel room, or maybe back at Myron’s later, but my driver was already in the car by then, and | didn’t want to abandon her or my girlfriend, so I decided to decline his gen- erous offer. We shook hands and parted, so | struck up a conversation with one of the other band members.

The JFSOrchestra is a replica of Benny Goodman’s orchestra, and he played clari- net, so I decided I'd talk to their clarinet player, David Christensen. | wasn’t really expecting to interview any of them, sol didn’t have any ques- tions so we just talked about... stuff. We shot the breeze for a couple of minutes, both of us struggling to hear the other one. He like to listen to Radiohead, Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, all kinds of stuff, much like many of the other band members. In case anyone is curious, he uses VanDoren reeds.

I asked him,”Now that you’ re riding a renewed popu- larity of Swing music, are you trying to put any twists on it change it and do something new, trying to set yourselves apart from other bands? Like the cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Black Dog’, for example?” He replied, “No, we’re not try- ing todo anything really differ- ent, or change anything. And the Led Zeppelin cover just started out as a joke and it just ended up on the CD.” They’ ve played with the likes of Colin James already, I’ve seen Jeff Healy as a soloist in their horn section before, and Robbie Robertson co-wrote a song for them.

They’ ve just been in Bos- ton, New York, and are soon on their way to Los Angeles and the Bahamas, just to name

a couple of places, which Christensen seemed pretty excited about. If you missed them, too bad. It was a great time, and it only cost ten dol-

—

lars. They'll be back, though, sooner than later | imagine. As David said, “Watch out for us.”

Books...

| The Cure for Death by Lightning

_ By Gail Anderson-Dargatz

_ (Vintage Canada) I came across this exquisite | comes completely blended © novel as | browsed throu with myth, monsters and | the library stacks of supernatural elements. At | rong hse bene Ee teres the narrative is ing for to recipe/scrapbook k become absorbed with over iy Beth valor, where the the holidays. Iconsiderthe — temptingrecipes and quirky discover a stroke of luck,as home remedies are used to the book has slipped intomy mark the difficult passage | shifting list of absolute fa- _of time (if you’re wonder-

_ vourite reads. — ing, the cure for death by |

In describing the frame eelaatesbeakin vinnget

of the plot, it might sound —_ and water). In the process _ like atypical f-age: of defeating human and in- |

| a fifteen year old girl exists | on an isolated farm in rural | B.C. during the turbulent ) years of World War Il. Over _ the fourseasons of one year, | Beth Weeks struggles to | protect herself in a world _ full of cruel neighbours and _ odd peers, disturbed and vio- lent father, a mother who talks out-loud to her dead mother, and the usual some- times-scariness of love and _ the opposite sex. However, | the trick to the novel is that it transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. Dai farm chores take ona

and magic all theirown, ani- mals, humans and spirits become blurred classifica- tions, and the harsh realism of human behaviour be-

human forces, these little | elements of life become a_ guide and recipe-book to | navigating life without be- coming a victim. .

ribe it deservedly. ;

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