Concert Pics/Vids: The S.O.S. Band, Paradiso 02-02-2017
They played an energetic show at an almost sold out Paradiso. I filmed some with my phone, you can hear the guitar loud and clear because I was standing front row, just in front of Reggie :-)
For people who don't know The S.O.S.Band instantly but you were going out in the 80's and 90's: You probably know their music, they had many hits. Read more about them on Wikipedia.
9 years ago I was preparing the recordings for my third album "On Track". I invited Fred Wesley and Bruno Speight as special guests. Researching Bruno Speight on internet, I found out about The S.O.S. Band. Bruno Speight turned out to be a founding member of The S.O.S. Band, and Fred Wesley had written horn arrangements on their first 2 albums. Drummer Jamal Thomas replaced the initial drummer. Jamal plays on three S.O.S. albums. So, 3 persons I knew as being associated with Maceo Parker also previously had worked together in another band. Now, who's the guitar player in S.O.S. now? It's Reggie Ward, Fred Wesley's current guitar player. How did that come? In the 90's, Bruno Speight started to work with Bobby Byrd and later The J.B. Horns with Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker, a band which would turn later into Maceo Parker. So in S.O.S, the guitarist had to be replaced. Reggie Ward replaced Bruno. Later, when The S.O.S. band had a period with less gigs, and when "The JB Horns" (consisting of Maceo Parker, Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley) became "Maceo Parker", Fred and Pee Wee left the band and started their own bands under their name. That's when Reggie started playing with Fred's band. It's a small world. It sounds complicated but in the end it's not. They all played together.... Funny that all of them play on Saxify: Fred Wesley, Bruno Speight, Reggie Ward, Jamal Thomas. On the picture with the lovely Mary Davis, lead singer of The S.O.S. Band.
So the first time we played the music from Royalty For Real wasn't in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, but in Bengaluru and Mumbai, all the way in India in 2023!Here you'll see me play Au Privave, Classy Cats and Royalty For Real, together with Timothy Banchet (piano), Marius Beets (bass) and Sven Rozier (drums).Au Privave is a well-known blues by Charlie Parker which I often like to start with, almost like a soundcheck tune. Although most of the time a soundcheck is done I found out it's a good idea to play a tune everybody of the band knows very well so we all can get used to the sound of the stage, the presence of the audience and it also gives the sound engineer the chance to adjust microphones last minute. During the soundcheck, the sound of the room is significantly different because of the lack of audience. All that flesh and clothes work a little bit like a totally empty room versus a room with furniture and carpets, if you know what I mean :-)Acoustics are so interesting and full of surprises.. Anyways.. hope you like it! - They played an energetic show at an almost sold out Paradiso. I filmed some with my phone, you can hear the guitar loud and clear because I was standing front row, just in front of Reggie :-)For people who don't know The S.O.S.Band instantly but you were going out in the 80's and 90's: You probably know their music, they had many hits. Read more about them on Wikipedia.9 years ago I was preparing the recordings for my third album On Track. I invited Fred Wesley and Bruno Speight as special guests. Researching Bruno Speight on internet, I found out about The S.O.S. Band. Bruno Speight turned out to be a founding member of The S.O.S. Band, and Fred Wesley had written horn arrangements on their first 2 albums. Drummer Jamal Thomas replaced the initial drummer. Jamal plays on three S.O.S. albums. So, 3 persons I knew as being associated with Maceo Parker also previously had worked together in another band.Now, who's the guitar player in S.O.S. now? It's Reggie Ward, Fred Wesley's current guitar player. How did that come?In the 90's, Bruno Speight started to work with Bobby Byrd and later The J.B. Horns with Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker, a band which would turn later into Maceo Parker. So in S.O.S, the guitarist had to be replaced. Reggie Ward replaced Bruno. Later, when The S.O.S. band had a period with less gigs, and when The JB Horns (consisting of Maceo Parker, Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley) became Maceo Parker, Fred and Pee Wee left the band and started their own bands under their name. That's when Reggie started playing with Fred's band. It's a small world.It sounds complicated but in the end it's not. They all played together....Funny that all of them play on Saxify: Fred Wesley, Bruno Speight, Reggie Ward, Jamal Thomas.On the picture with the lovely Mary Davis, lead singer of The S.O.S. Band.
