We had the opportunity to dine at Della’s After Dark in Brandon again last evening. The food is absolutely spectacular, and they have been working hard to support live jazz every Friday and Saturday. Recently, they added Thursday to the jazz menu with music from Fil Pate, who appears as Filoop, playing multiple guitar layers…
The Tampa Bay area has a vibrant music scene, but there is always room for more live jazz. There are some regular outlets, such as Tuesday nights at The Amsterdam in St. Petersburg. And sometimes, when it rains, it pours… jazz. There are three, count ‘em, three outstanding jazz events happening this Sunday, January 31st,…
Day Two (August 8) of the craziness began just as Day One did, at Della’s After Dark, with Fil Pate, performing as Filoop, looping his guitar and mandolin in beautiful style. I am truly amazed that jazz was the most recent of his musical genre acquisitions. He had another stellar first set before I had…
Owing to insanity, I embarked on a three-day tour of multiple-venue, multiple-performer nights. Honestly, it didn’t start that way, but it just seemed to blow up on me. The initial Friday (August 7th) plan was simple: I would go to Skipper’s Smokehouse to see Serotonic and the Legendary JCs. That was before I got a…
OK, Hometeam on three. One! Two! Three! HOMETEAM! The 3rd Hometeam New Year’s Rally is in the books. Great weather, great organization, great people, 27 musical performances (26 of which I liked). [Photos to follow.] I didn’t miss a note. I actually rolled in to the Maddox Ranch in Lakeland Christmas night and got a…
I was going to opine that there are two types of people who visit a bar/club such as Green Bench Brewery in St. Pete, but perhaps I’ll amend that to three. Type 1 folks are there to hear the music, period. Type 2 people are there to have a good time and don’t mind if…
Are we the only ones not over there?!? That was Wayne, co-host of WMNF’s In the Groove, the jamband show, greeting Linda and me as we arrived (late) at the Independent, a great, relatively new place on Florida Avenue in Tampa. I knew exactly what he meant, although there were plenty of patrons there, inside…
I love going to the Ale and the Witch in St. Petersburg. Great music, great beer, great atmosphere, cool plaza, food nearby, knowledgeable bartenders, dedicated owner, music 365 days a year (or almost), sometimes twice a day. What’s not to love? Bobby Lee Rodgers plays there often, which is fine by me. BLR plays all…
If, somehow, Florida got cut off from the rest of the world, there would, of course, be many, many problems. Music would NOT be one of them. OBJ demonstrated once again just how spectacular the music scene is here in the Sunshine State. We want for nothing, as witnessed by the 54 performances on three…
I have finally figured out what the problem is. There is WAAAAY too much great music out there. OK, it’s only a problem because I cannot get to it all. But this weekend, I made three more great discoveries (for me). On Saturday, at WMNF’s Groovefest 4 (hosted by Thor at Skipper’s), the Heavy Pets…