Via Jeff Kazee: I WANT MY CTV!! Clapsy hosts Kazee, Conte, Seguso & Alexander playing Booker T & The MGs’ “Can’t Be Still”. There is no Day Off for the jam inclined. Special Guests: Stage Manager “(Norwegian) Hood”
It’s been a while, since I found that brown envelope in my mail. A very thoughtful friend over in NYC got me the debut record of a young, promising, talent, singer, songwriter and pianist… That’s been 1999, when this talent was about to join that band from across the river… a move which should make the young Kentuckian an honorary citizen of the great state of New Jersey – which has been made official and permanent just shortly after. Although he pretends to be still living in the city today – truth is, that he’s been living in recording studios of all kinds and on stages of all sizes ever since. Backing the greatest bar-band of all times and today’s biggest all American arena act (also from the neighborhood), jamming in the smallest hole in the wall and on (Inter)National TV. This Wizard of social media & Key Master of Cool is Mr. Jeff Kazee. And the record in that brown envelope has been No River, his debut as a solo recording artist.
John Kowalenko’s plan to bring together a crew of musicians and restaurateurs to raise money for cash-strapped East End food pantries is coming together.
The event, which will be held on August 3 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Principi farm in Amagansett, will feature a performance by a cast of serious musicians, all with ties to both East Hampton and to famous musical groups.
The group, calling itself the “Band of Brothers,” includes Simon Kirk from Bad Company, G.E. Smith from Saturday Night Live, John Conte from Billy Joel’s band and Jeff Kazee from Bon Jovi and Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes.
Local musicians will warm up the audience and surprise guests are expected.
“The show opens up with the Escola de Samba BOOM, who will open up coming through the audience, and will end up on stage and turn into the opening act with Bastards of Boom,” said Mr. Kowalenko. “Rob Camillio, out of New York, is a cross between Bruce Springsteen and B.B. King.
The Surf Dogs come on next—they’re a bit like the Ventures. Then will be Mamma Lee and Friends, and Danni D. She’s the new Madonna. She’ll have a couple of backup singers and dancers. All these musicians are donating their time, which is really cool.”
U.S. Representative Tim Bishop and New York City mayoral candidate John Finan are also expected to attend.
Jeff Kazee, Rich Pagano and John Conte perform Son of Your Father at The Bitter End in New York City during their ‘EE’ Early Elton show. A complete website and Facebook page is under construction.
“Rock n Roll Summer Cocktail Party”
Featuring Bobby Bandiera’s “Rock n Soul Revue”
at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center
Come celebrate summer, at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center’s first annual “Rock n Roll Summer Cocktail Party” featuring a special performance by the Bobby Bandiera Band. The event will be held on July 1st at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, 100 Grant Avenue, Deal Park.
‘LaBamba’ answers the call from Springsteen, Southside, Conan
By Ellen S. Wilkowe • Daily Record • February 8, 2009
His kids call him Dad, but to everyone else, Richie Rosenberg of Randolph is best known as LaBamba. Everyone except for his wife, that is.
“She calls me LB,” he said.
For the past 16 years, the man of one hat, one horn — a trombone — has found himself on the receiving end of Conan O’Brien’s jokes as a member of the show’s house band, the Max Weinberg 7.
“I don’t know idea why he picks on me,” Rosenberg said jokingly in a phone interview from — where else? — NBC in New York, where he tapes “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” almost daily from 2 to 8 p.m. “But from day one, there was always a camera on Max and on me.”
This year O’Brien will head west to take over “The Tonight Show,” and while an NBC spokesman would not reveal the band’s fate, Rosenberg said he will be going along — “a dream come true,” he said.
“I can only speak for myself and not the band,” Rosenberg said. “I just wish I didn’t have to leave this all behind.”
This, meaning New Jersey. “I’ll miss the Shore,” he said.
A conversation with Jeff Kazee about touring with BonJovi, writing with Southside Johnny, a brush with death, romance and riding the Blue-Bread-Truck… All of this talking took place between January and March 2006 in Queens, NY, USA – Luedinghausen, Germany and – virtually – many harbors in between..:
KB: Jeff, how are things going in Queens? The blizzard must have been a hit…
JK: Yeah, we got hit with 27 inches of snow-but guess what? I was in Miami Beach Florida the whole time! My wife was cursing me out left and right because she had to deal with it. My kids truly loved life-sledding and best of all… no school. I’m right in the middle of the Have A Nice Day Tour with BonJovi right now so I kind of get a free pass from domestic reality for a while… until I come home – then it’s Mr. Fixit with the old lady standing over me.
KB: Oh well, I’m glad for your kids and I also feel with your wife! We had some blizzard the weekend before the Jukes were scheduled in Osnabrück, never had that much snow since a century. It seems to me that you made some fair good choices regarding that. But I also see a point that the Bon Jovi tour crew had enough of flying under heavy weather! So how is the tour going?
JK: Ha, I assume you are referring to our brush with death when Bon Jovi’s charter jet overran the runway in Hamilton, Ontario. That was a bit scary – poor Bobby Bandiera, we had to carry him off the plane in tears. Seriously, it was a bit more unsettling when I saw the picture of the mishap in the news.
BFBS Radio 2 – Marc Tyley’s – CLASSIC ROCK
Bobby Bandiera – World Exclusive – Saturday 28 October
“Once again we showcase one of the many great talents to come out of New Jersey. He’s a superb guitarist who is equally at home in the Bon Jovi touring line up, playing on stage in front of 70,000 adoring fans, as he is in a packed and smoky club venue in Amsterdam, really letting rip with Southside Johnny and the Asbury JUKES. He is also a fine solo artist in his own right; he is Bobby Bandiera.”
(sound of pool balls clacking away in the background)
Marc: Now, nine o’clock in the morning, there I am in a German hotel/country club and ready to meet Bobby Bandiera, one of the finest guitarists to come out of New Jersey. and what do I find? He’s already up, he’s had breakfast and he’s playing pool. now THAT’S rock and roll! He’s just finished a massive world tour playing with Bon Jovi and now he’s back on the road with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. so how does he get his head around these crazy changes of life style.
Bobby: At the beginning of the day it’s what I do. in the middle of the day it’s what I do and at the end of the day it’s what I do. whether it’s on stage in front of 20,000 or 70,000 people with Bon Jovi, or small clubs that I do with Southside, or on my own. I bumped into Dave Edmunds while I was in London and there’s a possibility that I may come over and do a month this coming year with him. so we’ll see how that goes. but it’s just a great thing to be working and making a living at playing music, as I’ve always done, and hopefully it’ll go for the next fifteen years or so or, whatever I have left in life.
THE NEW JERSEY STAR LEDGER – BY JAY LUSTIG – Star-Ledger Staff – MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2005
SHORE GROUP PAYS TRIBUTE TO ROY ORBISON
“I gotta follow that?” asked John “Southside Johnny” Lyon with a look of mock-horror on his face, as he took the stage at Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre, Friday night.
He was exaggerating for comic effect, but still, he faced a daunting task. It was the first show by the newly formed Jersey Shore Rock and Soul Revue, and Bobby Bandiera, the Revue’s leader, had just finished singing a version of Roy Orbison’s 1961 hit “Crying” that Orbison himself would have been proud of. Audience members responded with a standing ovation, and some were still standing as Southside Johnny walked out.
THE NEW JERSEY STAR LEDGER – BY JAY LUSTIG – FEBRUARY 24, 2005
Lots of rock vocalists admire Roy Orbison, but few try to imitate him. It’s just too daunting a task. One of the exceptions is Bobby Bandiera, who has often covered Orbison’s soaring, almost operatic songs, and written tunes with a strong Orbison flavor.
Bandiera, a longtime member of Southside Johnny’s Asbury Jukes who also leads his own Bobby Bandiera Band, will front the newly formed Jersey Shore Rock & Soul Revue in a sold-out Orbison tribute concert, tomorrow night at Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre. Plans call for this new group, dominated by current and former Jukes, to continue to present occasional tribute concerts at the Basie in the future. Potential subjects include Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and The Everly Brothers.
Count Basie Theatre CEO Numa Saisselin came up with the idea for the project, but Bandiera suggested starting with Orbison.