Aug 15 Mon Blues Guitarists Amy Madden, Ron Paris Blow Out Lucille Bar at BBKing's
The hottest spot in New York Monday night without question is a well kept secret from all except blues aficionados and the few tourists lucky enough to stumble upon it deep in the underground space of the great 42nd Street jazz/blues/rock/reggae/dance club B.B.King's ( http://www.bbkingblues.com 237 West 42St 997 4144), which is between 7th and 8th Avenue on 42nd, under its cinema awning amid the garish daylit power of the neon extravagance of the Big Apple entertainment mall whose central strip might seem to hold nothing but tawdry tourist attractions and services, from the sparkling Macdonalds housed in an old cinema to the Hard Rock Cafe to skyscraper hotels to the news strip necklacing the central Times Square tower, an area long abandoned by the New York Times to its funfair noise.
Well, wrong. The blues mountain peak I refer to is the Lucille Grill. Running into bass guitarist and blog virtuoso Amy Madden ( http://www.writerless.blogspot.com) on the crosstown bus on 96th and being apprised that her famous Monday session was going to be in full swing from 8pm to 1am at BBKing's intimate Lucille Grill, I dropped down there are 20 min past eight last night, walking through the surging crowds in Times Square.
Along 42nd Street towards 8th Ave on the north side, and down the BBKing stairs to briefly visit Yellowman performing in the big space post reggae dancehall loud enough to cover a nuclear explosion nearby. But a few steps across the way and down a few more stairs I entered musical pardise, bought a $8 beer and commandeered a ringside seat for what proved to be a blues blast that was still going strong when I left three hours later.
After rolling locomotive blues for two solid hours had warmed the crowd into a slow frenzy the trio was built up in a jam session with more musicians drawn to the late open mike - vibraphonist (Charles Thompson whose miniature silvery notes cut clear thru the drum and guitar roar, a guitarist straight out of the ad featuring the caveman, the great Joe Berger (646 537 1569), a Monday evening regular, and a splendidly round youthful Big Mama belting out the blues with the best of them - all together, a trumpeter too, in the finale which climaxed the evening for me. As an unexpected moment the open mike session was even led off by a young black singer from Rochester, Josh (585 503 8996) 23, singing "Falling in love with you is the best thing that Happened to me", his own tribute to a love lost to death.
But the reliable talent at Lucille on Mondays is the great basic trio - Alan Child's seasoned, generous drumming with Amy Madden's firmly throbbing, always interesting bass form a grounding of endlessly satisfying wrap around propulsion for the great Jon Paris's guitar and harmonica line and riffs, which Paris takes as far out as Jimmy Hendrix if he feels like it, yet never leaves the firm ground of classic blues form far behind. There are few players who can match his feel for and mastery of this classic music, which hand in hand with jazz is the greatest contribution America has made to world culture in the eyes of this Englishman, at least ( http://www.jonparis.com).
And all you have to do to hear this supreme entertaining soul food is to drop into the Lucille Grill any Monday night. No cover, no minimum, beer from $8 and food good enough if you're hungry. And a stage, bar and table layout which is the finest scale and shape for blues listening - and a bit of dancing, if you feel like it, see below - in the city.
The dancers are Josh the singer and Erica, whose favorite drink is a Mabylene (pictured), which at the Lucille bar is Absolut Wild Tea Vodka, St Germain eidenflower liqueur and Rose’s Lime Juice, she said later. Her husband is a guitarist, but she says her older daughter is the one writes very good songs.
Other visitors from faraway were anaesthiologist Augstein Svedahl and neurologist Kanna Svedahl from mid-Northern Norway, who like Erica had stumbled across this little musical paradise more or less by serendipity, ie a basic recommendation to visit BBKing’s, with no special instruction to make it Lucille’s Grill.
But that's the free ticket to look for at BBKing’s, at least on Monday nights. The food is no better than it should be, the Svedahl’s reported, but they agreed with everyone else there that the music is blues heaven.
Read MoreWell, wrong. The blues mountain peak I refer to is the Lucille Grill. Running into bass guitarist and blog virtuoso Amy Madden ( http://www.writerless.blogspot.com) on the crosstown bus on 96th and being apprised that her famous Monday session was going to be in full swing from 8pm to 1am at BBKing's intimate Lucille Grill, I dropped down there are 20 min past eight last night, walking through the surging crowds in Times Square.
Along 42nd Street towards 8th Ave on the north side, and down the BBKing stairs to briefly visit Yellowman performing in the big space post reggae dancehall loud enough to cover a nuclear explosion nearby. But a few steps across the way and down a few more stairs I entered musical pardise, bought a $8 beer and commandeered a ringside seat for what proved to be a blues blast that was still going strong when I left three hours later.
After rolling locomotive blues for two solid hours had warmed the crowd into a slow frenzy the trio was built up in a jam session with more musicians drawn to the late open mike - vibraphonist (Charles Thompson whose miniature silvery notes cut clear thru the drum and guitar roar, a guitarist straight out of the ad featuring the caveman, the great Joe Berger (646 537 1569), a Monday evening regular, and a splendidly round youthful Big Mama belting out the blues with the best of them - all together, a trumpeter too, in the finale which climaxed the evening for me. As an unexpected moment the open mike session was even led off by a young black singer from Rochester, Josh (585 503 8996) 23, singing "Falling in love with you is the best thing that Happened to me", his own tribute to a love lost to death.
But the reliable talent at Lucille on Mondays is the great basic trio - Alan Child's seasoned, generous drumming with Amy Madden's firmly throbbing, always interesting bass form a grounding of endlessly satisfying wrap around propulsion for the great Jon Paris's guitar and harmonica line and riffs, which Paris takes as far out as Jimmy Hendrix if he feels like it, yet never leaves the firm ground of classic blues form far behind. There are few players who can match his feel for and mastery of this classic music, which hand in hand with jazz is the greatest contribution America has made to world culture in the eyes of this Englishman, at least ( http://www.jonparis.com).
And all you have to do to hear this supreme entertaining soul food is to drop into the Lucille Grill any Monday night. No cover, no minimum, beer from $8 and food good enough if you're hungry. And a stage, bar and table layout which is the finest scale and shape for blues listening - and a bit of dancing, if you feel like it, see below - in the city.
The dancers are Josh the singer and Erica, whose favorite drink is a Mabylene (pictured), which at the Lucille bar is Absolut Wild Tea Vodka, St Germain eidenflower liqueur and Rose’s Lime Juice, she said later. Her husband is a guitarist, but she says her older daughter is the one writes very good songs.
Other visitors from faraway were anaesthiologist Augstein Svedahl and neurologist Kanna Svedahl from mid-Northern Norway, who like Erica had stumbled across this little musical paradise more or less by serendipity, ie a basic recommendation to visit BBKing’s, with no special instruction to make it Lucille’s Grill.
But that's the free ticket to look for at BBKing’s, at least on Monday nights. The food is no better than it should be, the Svedahl’s reported, but they agreed with everyone else there that the music is blues heaven.
