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World Beat,
World Class
Garrett and his pals have played around with everyone, of course. So what’s different about this trio? “Ronnie is a very well-rounded guitarist. He can play jazz, gypsy jazz in particular. He can play the s*** out of rock and roll,” Garrett says. “Steve brings a Latin influence to songs we’ve heard a million times, playing a full trap set and congas.” Often at the same time, I discover later in the evening. That Mardi Gras party appears to be going nonstop. The group’s opening sets at Cava Blue Bar do as much with the low-key approach as you could hope for—I mean, hold it down because people are still eating dinner, for Pete’s sake! Ferry’s hands-on percussion adds flavor to Curtis Mayfield’s classic It’s All Right. Thanks to the Beatniks’ fresh approach—and Levine’s guitar dynamics—King Harvest’s moldy oldie Dancing in the Moonlight is reborn as an anthem for fun seekers. There are some jazzy ballads and a significantly reworked version of Groovin’—the Young Rascals tune—that suggests strong jam band ambitions. The Beatniks’ palette includes current fare by Ben Harper and Jack Johnson along with the blues classics Big Boss Man and Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do. “We do a lot of obscure songs, too,” Devine notes, and somewhere between Roxanne and Unchain My Heart, I hear them play a slide guitar thing I don’t quite recognize, but everyone in the club is getting off on it. “This is a great gig,” Garrett says during a break. “It’s the newest, hippest club in town.” The Beatniks have been playing here for a few months, and doing the ladies night thing at Helenback—the Okaloosa Island hangout famous for its great pizza--on Wednesdays. And Garrett still finds time to play random gigs with Hubba Hubba—they performed at the Funky Blues Shack’s Tsunami Aid concert a couple weeks back—and fulfill his Monday night solo obligation at Hog’s Breath. But it’s still not enough. “I’m learning banjo now and some traditional and non-traditional bluegrass,” he says. “My brother (Jim) and I get together a lot, too. He’s got a group called 40 Dollar Mule. Their fiddle player just won the state championship in Orlando in the 13-18 age group.” “I just kind of put some names together,” Levine explains when I ask about the band’s moniker. Sensing my disappointment, Garrett draws my attention to the “world beat” portion of the name—the Latin and reggae songs, yeah, I get it. And the “beatniks” is sort of like hippies, but not old hippies, the guys are quick to add. Levine says he enjoys the freedom Cava Blue allows, and he’s paid his dues just about everywhere in the Pensacola area. “We can go off and improvise without contacting someone for approval.” The Dallas native’s guitar playing covers a lot of styles. “Jeff Beck, Santana, and Django Reinhart always inspired me,” he says. Garrett’s eyes light up at the mention of Beck—his Freeway Jam is perfect road trip music. “So much nuance, so hard to imitate,” Levine says. While he’s no pretender, Levine’s guitar synthesizer allows him to force “every sound under the sun” out of his well-played instrument. Once the dinner crowd clears out, the band gets to rock out a little more. And they do—a lot more—as a clique of dancing fools make their way to the floor during Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Down on the Corner. It’s a surprisingly easy transition to the reggae standard Jammin’—Levine, to his credit, does not sound like some white boy trying to sing Bob Marley. There is a funky number I didn’t recognize from Sly & the Family Stone’s Anthology, but the high-spirited song would have fit right in with Everyday People and Dance to the Music. Later, the indefatigable guys do Sly’s If You Want Me to Stay, highlighted by Levine’s unusual axe sounds. Comparisons to the great Carlos Santana come to mind as I experience Levine’s guitar virtuosity, just a hint or two at first before the trio roars through a well-received Black Magic Woman. They also do some Bo Diddley rockers and a furiously sung stab at Van Morrison’s Domino. Happily, Garrett has added the undeniable smooth groove class What You Won’t Do for Love to his songbook. (That song, a hit for Bobby Caldwell in 1979, has also turned up on the new Boyz II Men CD Throwback.) Cava Blue attracts a diverse crowd of youngsters and oldsters who seem to get along just fine even when they’re not dating each other. Certainly, all those great sounds coming from the stage help keep the peace. Despite the limited dance space, the Beatniks’ music is body-friendly regardless of what genre the band attempts. If none of these partygoers get down to business tonight, you can’t say it’s the band’s fault. SIDEBAR: WHO? New World
Beatniks: Steve Ferry (drums, percussion, vocals), Bill Garrett
(vocals, bass, acoustic guitar), and Ronnie Levine (vocals, electric
guitar). |
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“We
had a hell of a Mardi Gras party at Hog’s Breath.”
That’s straight from the hardest workingman on the local
music scene, Bill Garrett, talking about a recent gig by his latest
band. The New World Beatniks—“emphasis on world,”
the bassist-guitarist-singer notes—is rounded out by a couple
of stalwart players; guitarist Ronnie Levine (rhymes with divine)
and drummer-percussionist Steve Ferry.Copyright © The Beachcomber, Inc. 2003 - 2010. All rights reserved.