Side Door Summer off to a sold-out start, with a big weekend of blues, Latin jazz and spy music coming up!

Our Side Door Summer got off to a rockin’ good start with sold-out shows featuring Coo Coo Ca Choo, the hands-down best ’60s rock band ever, and Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin, and his tight-tight band and a string of hits.

Both shows had the crowd on the their feet – dancing during the sets and with a standing ovation at the end.

The Side Door is dark this weekend, since we have some rental shows on our mainstage, but it returns with a bang on the last weekend in June. The lineup features three don’t-miss shows:Friday, June 29, is the return of the blues guitar master Sarasota Slim. His last show was completely sold-out and he’s back with a great band in an intimate concert setting.

On Saturday, June 30, we feature a brand new Latin Jazz band, La Lucha, featuring some of our favorite jazz musicians including Alejandro Arenas, bass; Mark Feinman, drums; and John O’Leary, piano. Special guests are Jun Bustamante, vocals and Austin Vickrey, sax. They are celebrating the release of a new CD.

And we close out with a very big show on Sunday afternoon at 3. This one is so big – we’ve moved it upstairs to Hough Hall. It is License To Thrill – a show featuring theme music from the spy movies and television shows including James Bond and Austin Powers films, Mission Impossible, Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Prisoner, Get Smart and other favorites.

The 18-piece Helios Jazz Orchestra directed by David Manson, will be joined by vocalists Denise Moore, Bryan Hughes & Andrea Manson.  If you haven’t caught Helios at the Palladium you are in for a musical treat. These are powerful, horn-driven arrangements. Don’t fight the Sunday afternoon heat, come inside for a cool afternoon of Spy Music!

We’ve got lots of other great bands and artists coming up – including a Blues Blowout weekend in July, featuring the St. Pete Blues Allstars on Friday,July 14,  the Backtrack Blues Band CD release party on Saturday, July 15, and “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” star Chris Thomas King bringing his blues trio in on Sunday, July 16 at 7.

For details and tickets for all the shows and more, visit www.mypalladium.org

Helios Jazz Orchestra with Bryan Hughes

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Musicians making The Palladium their choice for live recordings

Our audiences already know that the Side Door Cabaret is the best listening room in the bay area. Musicians know it too and our downstairs room is quickly becoming THE place to record a live CD. 

Palladium favorite Nate Najar (www.natenajar.com) was the first one in the pool, recording his Live at the Side Door CD, two years ago. This fall, three other CDs are being released. Denise Moore and Then Some (www.denisemoorejazz.com) recorded their History of Jazz show last spring and are releasing the CD with a party in Tampa Saturday night at the old jazz club, 442. We’ll be celebrating the release at the Side Door early in 2011. 

 Guisando Caliente (www.guisandocaliente.com), the great Latin Jazz band, recorded their birthday party show earlier this year at the Side Door. They will be showcasing that album on October 21st when they appear with the Brazilian group O Som Do Jazz  (www.osomdojazz.com) as part of our Latin Jazz Celebration.

And Sandy Atkinson and the True Loves (http://www.sandyatkinson.net/disc.htm), who appeared as part of our Hammond B3 Summer Spectacular, will be releasing a live CD of that show, on Friday, Oct. 15 in the Side Door.

And I recently received a copy of a live DVD recorded last fall at the Side Door featuring the great San Francisco jazz guitarist, Mimi Fox. Check Mimi’s website (www.mimifoxjazzguitar.com) for details on that project. 

Expect the hits to keep on coming. Upstairs, in Hough Hall, we’re installing a new state-of-the-art sound system, complete with Pro Tools recording capability. So expect a lot more Live at the Palladium projects in the coming months and years.

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Creative Loafing cites Palladium as part of St. Petersburg’s arts boom!

Creative Loafing columnist Peter Meinke, who is also the Poet Laureate of the City of St. Petersburg, featured the Palladium in his most recent column. Meinke was writing about the arts boom in St. Petersburg and comparing it another artsy burg – Provincetown.

To read the entire column follow this link: http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=1143791

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Jazz and blues highlight Palladium’s Hammond B3 Summer Spectacular

The venerable Hammond B3 is a musical instrument claimed equally by blues, rock and jazz musicians. The wonder of the B3 is that it has its own distinct sound when used in each genre. 

Up in Pinellas Park we’re blessed to have perhaps the world’s top Hammond B3 provider, Keyboard Specialties. When Eric Clapton wanted a B3, he called Paul Homb, the longtime owner of Keyboard Specialties. Their instruments – perfectly maintained and serviced – are in demand for concerts and music festivals around the country. 

This year we’re partnering with Keyboard Specialties, along with the Suncoast Blues Society and the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association, to present four great shows featuring the Hammond B3. All shows are at 8 p.m. and prices vary, so check our website. 

Here’s a listing of the shows: 

Fri, July 9    –   Kickin’ the Blues with Sandy Atkinson & The True Loves at the Side Door Cabaret. The show features Dean Germain on the B3, plus an all-star band. Sandy is recording a live album that night. 

Sat, July 10    The Battle of The B3s – Blues vs. Jazz. The show features the Organic Trio, a great Sarasota-based jazz band with strong r&b influences and The Voodoo Trio, featuring Lee Pons on the B3.

 Fri, July 23 – B3 Jazz Master Stan Hunter and his Trio. Stan has toured the U.S. and Europe with some of the great names in jazz and has highlighted our Battle of the B3s shows the past two years.  

 Sat, Aug 21  – Hammond B3 Showdown, N’awlins Style. Direct from New Orleans the Palladium presents the Joe Krown Trio, featuring keyboard master Joe Krown on piano and B3, plus Walter “Wolfman” Washington, on guitar, and Russell Batiste, on drums. Joining them on a second B3 are “Papa” John Gros, of Papa Grows Funk and Dave McCracken of Donna The Buffalo.  Showtime, 8 p.m.

For tickets and more information, visit www.mypalladium.org.

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How Blue Can We Get?

The Palladium is recognized as Tampa Bay’s best venue for live jazz. But in the past year, we’ve become home to some of the best blues shows as well. 

Damon Fowler, Roy Book Binder, Dr. John, The Sauce Boss, and boogie-woogie piano legend Bob Seeley are among the great blues acts we’ve hosted this season. And Friday we’ve got another big blues talent taking the stage.

Sean Chambers, a local player with a national reputation, will bring his hot guitar and his trio to our Side Door Cabaret. Sean in touring in support of his new CD, Ten ‘Til Midnight, on the Blue Heat Records label.  The new disc showcases the powerful style which earned him critical plaudits from a host of magazines, including Europe’s Guitarist Magazine, which listed Sean as ‘one of the Top 50 Blues Guitarists of the last century.’

I don’t have to tell you that most local blues clubs leave a lot to be desired in comfort, sound and sight lines. You get all three in our Side Door Cabaret, plus a dance floor!

Sean Chambers appears in the intimate Side Door Cabaret on Friday, March 19, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 advance and $15 at the door. They are available online at www.mypalladium.org or by calling the Palladium box office at 727 822-3590.

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Roy Book Binder – Travelin’ Man

What you remember about a Roy Book Binder performance is his mastery of delta blues guitar, his knowledge of the genre and its now-legendary performers, and, his dry wit.

I first heard Roy in the early 1980s playing at a new-age, vegetarian restaurant north of USF called the Sprout House. The building’s beams formed a pyramid-shape, which made the whole place a new-age power spot. Roy is not a new-age, Sprout House kind of guy, but on this night the place was packed. Everybody was listening and laughing, except one  baby boy, who kept crying and fussing, as his mother tried to soothe him.

Roy continued to play until he could take the crying no longer. He stopped mid-song and probably stroked his trademark moustache.

“You know,” he said, “If this wasn’t a vegetarian joint, I say we boil that baby. ”

The Mom leapt up and whisked the baby outside and Roy went back to the doing the music the way he learned it from his mentor, the Rev. Gary Davis.

I doubt any babies will be crying on Friday when the  Travelin’ Man stops by the Side Door Cabaret for the first time. Roy lives here, but seldom plays in the area. Last year he played two sold out shows at the Craftsman House Gallery on Central Ave. This year his only bay area appearance is at the Side Door. This show will likely also be a full house.

My advice: get your tickets early and leave the baby at home.

Roy Book Binder appears Friday, March 5, at 8 p.m. in the Side Door Cabaret. Tickets are $20 in advance and $22 the day of the show. For tickets and info visit www.mypalladium.org or call the box office at 727 822-3590.

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