A smashing moment for live jazz

I love it when I walk into a club just before the magic happens. Such was the case Saturday night at JD’s Bistro & Grille in Port Charlotte FL. The house band that evening tried something a bit different – and it was marvelous.


In this case, the band was pianist Matt Bokulic, drummer Patricia Dean

Patricia Dean

and bassist Dominic Mancini. Dean’s husband, the fine trombonist Herb Bruce was sitting in for the final set.

Dean, who sings as well as keeps time, got an idea the night before that she wanted to try out. As the band riffed its way through Dizzy Gillespie's classic hit “Manteca” (written by Gillespie, Chano Pozo and Gil Fuller), she sang the vocals to the 1966 Nancy Sinatra hit “These Boots Are Made for Walkin.’”
 
Smashes of this nature were something new for this venue – and for this band. With the reaction they received, it will be interesting to see if they try it again at some point in the future.

Dean told me she was unaware of Jacqui Naylor, a San Francisco-based singer who has made acoustic smashes her calling card. The technique involves singing a rock tune over a jazz standard – or vice versa.

Naylor’s many acoustic smashes have included "Summertime" sung over the music from The Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post," U2's"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for" sung over Miles Davis’s "All Blues" and "My Funny Valentine" sung over AC/DC's "Back in Black." I’m guessing Dean is going to check her out.

Dean, Mancini and Bokulic (or pianist Billy Marcus) had been filling in twice a week for the past month for vacationing singer Kitt Moran, who performs Wednesdays and Saturdays at JD’s with her husband Mike on piano and Dominic Mancini on bass.