The Wednesday night residency program at Dick’s Den will finish 2016 on a high note with a December program led by guitarist and educator Tom Davis. Davis, who leads his own groups as well as playing with Pete Mills, Vaughn Wiester’s Famous Jazz Orchestra, and more, has assembled a varied schedule for his second time in the residency’s driver’s seat. As is often the case with each month’s residency, Davis is seizing the opportunity to showcase his diverse interests and talents, as well as his skilled group of collaborators. Each Wednesday’s show will run from 9pm to 1am, and the cover is $4. Keep reading for info and thoughts from Davis on each week’s performers:
Tom Davis: “Wednesday, December 7th: This is the Ohio Swingtet, a drummerless swing quartet featuring Jay Miglia on reeds, Zakk Jones on rhythm guitar, and Nate Smith on bass. Lots of Benny Goodman/Charlie Christian kind of stuff, as well as Johnny Smith, Jimmy Giuffre, and others.
December 14th: The great saxophonist Pete Mills and I have been sharing band members for awhile now, and tonight we are joining forces! We’ll be playing original tunes from both our books as well as some from the Kenny Burrell/John Coltrane collaboration. [Mills is assembling the rhythm section for the group.]
December 21st: The Broadstreet Lineup will return to the Dick’s stage for this installment. Since the last time, we’ve added a great singer [and trumpeter] – Zach Olah. Drummer Ryan Folger is now studying at the University of North Texas, so we brought another great drummer on board – Seth Daily. [The band also features Davis on guitar/vocals, Nate Shaw on keyboards, and Greg Wolfram on bass]. We do old school funk by groups like War, Sly Stone, Donny Hathaway, lesser known people like the Outlaw Gang and Starfire, and instrumental jammy jams by Scofield, Deodato, and others.
December 28th: For this installment, I’m switching things around and not playing jazz at all…I’m bringing the band I’ve been in the longest (off and on for some 12 years or so!), Willie Nelson Mandela. We play covers, mainly sticking to a very strictly curated repertoire of lava lamp classic rock for the soul. For this very special night we’re focusing more on the nag champa jams we like, and more specifically, we’ll be playing Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and bringing my sister Melanie on board to sing the female parts! Besides that we’ll be playing hits and b-sides from Bob Seger, Tom Petty, Steppenwolf, Steve Miller, Aerosmith, and even Michael Jackson. The band is: Nate Shaw (keys, vocals, percussion), Zach Mayo (guitar, vocals), Andrew Fredrick (bass), Brian Moore (drums), me (guitar, lapsteel, percussion, saxophone, vocals), and special guest Melanie Davis (vocals on Dark Side of the Moon). It will be worth coming at the very least to see us all squeeze on to the Dick’s stage!”