Jab-o’s Band Gives the Red Bar a Touch of Blue…and Jazz…and Funk…
By Chris Manson July 13, 2006 Issue

I swore I wouldn’t ask the great drummer John “Jab-o” Starks—the driving force behind the Red Bar Jazz Band for more than 10 years—about his work with James Brown. Never mind that Starks put his stamp (and stomp) on some of the greatest tracks in rhythm and blues history — Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine, Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing, The Payback, and countless others. Everyone asks Starks about the Godfather of Soul, but I would not.

“So, do you and James Brown still keep in touch?” I blurt out after the band’s exciting opening set, to which he simply responds, “No.” But he does still get on well with Clyde Stubblefield, another percussion phenomenon from Brown’s Super Bad era. Together they often tour overseas as the “Funk Masters.” There’s a picture of them hanging behind the bar, if you can see it through the sprawling Thursday night crowd.

“I’ve played with some of the best in the world,” Starks says, referring to legends like B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland. “I don’t care if you know my name. I just want to play good music.”

And that he does—along with the three other fantastic players who make up the Red Bar Jazz Band. Larry Payne on standup bass, guitarist Wayne Burkholder, and woodwind ace Chuck Swartz are all outstanding on their individual instruments and collectively. The current lineup—together for the past six or seven years—opens with a mellow jazz number I don’t recognize featuring Swartz on flute and impressive soloing by everyone else. It’s good music in the “traditional” jazz sense. Nothing far out, but you can’t argue with that steady groove. A bunch of little kids sit around the performers’ corner, enraptured by a lively tune that features Swartz’s vocals and honking tenor saxophone.

This band really catches fire and keeps the flame burning all night. Obviously, Starks can dish out the propulsive beats, but he also wraps some big-hearted vocals around the great Louis Armstrong tune What a Wonderful World. The guitar player sings, too — a funky R&B number I don’t recognize. I half expect Starks to start pounding away on the drums hanging from the ceiling in addition to his own modestly sized kit.

The Red Bar decor seems all-inclusive — NASCAR, Tex Avery, and so-called “American Poet” Jim Morrison enshrined on the walls, windows, and ceiling. The band, despite its moniker, reaches out to all kinds of music lovers, too. “I listen to everybody,” Starks says. “You learn something from everybody. I love to play country; I love to play all of it. Sitting here playing with these guys five nights a week, this is my base gig right here.” Session work still beckons. His good friend Sheryl Crow wants him to play on her next album.

Starks met Swartz—“one of the best musicians I’ve ever played with,” Starks says — in Mobile years before they formed this band. “This is the best gig we’ve had. No hassles. The owner doesn’t open his mouth about how to play. He says, ‘You play the music, I’ll run the restaurant.’”

Starks swears by Remo heads and MEINL cymbals. He endorses Yamaha drums and Vic Furth sticks. He has plenty of room to boast—you’ll find his name high up on nearly every list of “Best Drummers” — but doesn’t. Starks also disdains putting labels on music—in other words, you either feel it or you don’t. “If it has a groove and a good rhythm, I like to hear it!”

Saxophonic Hymns from the Heart
I’m not inclined to like smooth jazz or lite jazz or whatever it is they’re calling it these days, but saxophonist Michael J. Thomas has a definite edge over the mostly anonymous musicians who inhabit that genre. He has personality. Even if you’re not a believer, you cannot deny the quality of Thomas’ horn-playing skills on his new CD Hymns: Music for the Soul. He stays pretty close to the familiar melodies of such standards as Amazing Grace and Rock of Ages, but gets a little wild on What a Friend We Have in Jesus. And his ability to play funky shines through on O Happy Day. The production is excellent throughout, avoiding icky slick. The arrangements are never so busy as to overshadow Thomas’ playing. Not that anyone would want to try.

Chris Manson’s Sitting In Traffic Playlist
Johnny Cash: American V: A Hundred Highways (Lost Highway)
Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs: Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (Shout! Factory)
Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere (Downtown)
Sonic Youth: “Rather Ripped” (DGC)
Johnny Cash: Personal File (Columbia/Legacy)

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