Big Jay McNeely

I spent this past weekend in San Francisco and Sacramento, up to my earballs in amazing music. Thursday night I went to the Top of the Mark in San Francisco and saw my new favorite band Stompy Jones. Friday I saw the Hollywood Combo play a huge swing dance in Sacramento. Then Saturday it was back to SF with the Hollywood Combo, featuring the incomparable Steve Lucky on the keys, playing with 82 year old honkin' sax legend Big Jay McNeely. The Hi Rhythm Hustlers, an excellent new SF rockabilly band, opened.

EPIC. Absolutely epic weekend.

Click here for photos.







I'm uploading photos and videos and writing show reviews as fast as I can, but wow... hard to keep up!!

I should mention who the Hollywood Combo was made up of for this show: Mark Tortorici on vocals and harmonica, Tommy Harkenrider on guitar (he fronts an excellent western swing band called the Hi Lo Playboys), saxes were Jim Jedeikin of Royal Crown Revue and Dave Crozier, formerly of the BSO, veteran bassist and radio guy Freddie Johnson on upright and electric bass, and Johnny Palmer, who played with James Intveld and a ton of other bands, on drums. Over the weekend I got to spend a lot of time with these guys, as well as Chris Binnings and the Stompy Jones guys, and Steve Lucky and Carmen Getit (got to dance with both Steve and Carmen - wish somebody had gotten some photos of that!!) In addition to being fantastic musicians, they're all fun people with great stories to tell.

man okay next time youre in Sactown lemme know in case I happen to be home

Thanks for the video, Andi - Big Jay brought the goods!

I finally have my review online. I could've written about 10 times as many words, Big Jay McNeely told me a ton of great stories. I do have more video to upload as time permits!