INTERVIEW: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy puts on its Santa hat for a holiday tour
Photo: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will bring its Wild & Swingin’ Holiday Party to the Tarrytown Music Hall, Dec. 8. Photo courtesy of the band / Provided with permission.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, which emerged from the Los Angeles swing scene in the 1990s, is still going strong three decades after the band members unleashed their unique brand of jazz, swing and rockabilly on a listening public that was all too eager to enjoy what they were giving out. They are consistent travelers of the road, bringing their time-honored tunes to adoring, dancing fans around the United States. This time of year, though, they often switch things up and get into the yuletide spirit with their Wild & Swingin’ Holiday Party tour.
BBVD is back on the road with its annual holiday tour, which makes a stop Sunday, Dec. 8, at the Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York. Fans should expect songs like “You & Me & The Bottle Make 3 Tonight,” “King of Swing” and “Go Daddy-O,” but also holiday fare like “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” “Frosty the Snowman” and “Run Rudolph Run.”
The remarkably tight-knit group has Scotty Morris on lead vocals and guitar, and Kurt Sodergren on drums and percussion. The two have known each other since the 1980s, and they are joined by veritable talents like Glen “The Kid” Marhevka on trumpet and Dirk Shumaker on double bass and vocals, among other musical artists.
“We’ve actually done four holiday shows already, which is hard to believe because Thanksgiving just went by,” Sodergren said about the preparations that are needed before a tour commences. “Our last one was in San Diego at a 100-year-old theater called the Balboa Theatre, so I took two weeks before the tour to rehearse. That’s really, really key for me because I have to know that I’ve done everything I can to prepare to enjoy myself, otherwise I’m just going to be a bundle of nerves wondering what could go wrong. So I like to get all those boxes checked beforehand, and I think pretty much everyone in the band feels the same way.”
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy draws from its two holiday records — Everything You Want for Christmas and It Feels Like Christmas Time — to build the setlist each night. They also don’t forget about the tunes that put them on the map in the 1990s, songs that brought them great fame, including a coveted spot during the NFL Super Bowl.
“We have two holiday records, and we draw on both of those pretty evenly,” Sodergren said. “We still do play our well-known songs that aren’t holiday-related, but I would say it’s about ¾ holiday music and then about ¼ some old classics that we like to play a lot. And we sort of mix them up in between there, and then Scott has some banter that he does, talking about where some of the ideas for the songs came from, introducing certain soloists and just talking about the band and our 31-year history and stuff like that. It’s kind of a mix of a lot of things, and it’s a lot of fun.”
The band relies on Joshua Levy, the piano player for BBVD, for the arrangements of their songs. He helps make the Christmas-themed tunes sound as if they were sonically meant for the swing era. That’s a tall feat.
“Josh, our piano player, has done the majority of our arrangements for quite some time, and he’s very, very good at what he does,” he said. “Yeah, a lot of these songs, you think about Bing Crosby tunes or Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole, and they just really lend themselves to that, if they weren’t already written for that style. We still like to put our blueprint on it, and then we also like to play some stuff that’s maybe well known but off-beat. … And then Scott’s written a few numbers as well that are sort of funny and maybe based on the rockabilly style. There’s a Chuck Berry cover in there, too, so it does come easily, I think. And then we like to put our stamp on it, too, so Josh and Scott will hammer out some arrangements that are kind of in the style of our band, which makes it work really well.”
A live Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert is often accompanied by dancing in the aisles, if the venue allows such enjoyment. The holiday show is mostly played in performing arts venues, which means the fun is more of the toe-tapping quality, which is perfectly fine for Sodergren. “A lot of families come, and there’s a lot of sitting,” the drummer said. “And I think even in some of those theaters, you need a cabaret license in order to have dancing, but people still find a way. There’s just people out there dancing all the time, and it’s pretty great.”
The cohesiveness of BBVD is something of a rarity. Many of their contemporary bands in the neo-swing era have come and gone, but the Daddy is still around, with most of the same members. Sodergren said he believes the reason for their longevity is because of mutual respect.
“It’s just the personality of everyone,” he said. “We just all really get along, and we really love what we’re doing. If there’s ever any conflict, we like to work it out rather than let it sit and stew. We really don’t have a lot of conflict in the band. I just think somehow we lucked into meeting a lot of people that are willing to make this thing work. I think ego can really get in the way, if you know what I mean. I don’t know, we have a saying, ‘Ego is not my amigo.’ It’s really all about working together, and it’s not just about one person. It’s about everyone coming together and really making this music what it is, and you kind of need that in order for a band to gel on stage. You can see if there’s tension between a band on stage, and I defy you to try to find that with us because we get along great. And if there’s ever any issues, we bring them up in a timely manner and work it out. It seems to serve us pretty well.”
That mentality allows Big Bad Voodoo Daddy to keep swinging into the future. They have survived and thrived for 30-plus years, and Sodergren and Morris continually thank the stars that they first met back in the 1980s. A spark was born that day.
“I met Scott probably in ‘88,” Sodergren said. “We had mutual girlfriends, and they thought we would get along. And they were right. Those girlfriends have long since gone, but Scott and I are really close. We live probably a couple miles from each other, and I definitely see them a lot. … It’s been, gosh, over 35 years I’ve known him. Before we even had a band, we used to play just guitar and drums. We were both in other situations, and so we couldn’t really have a band. But we would find time just to play together, and we always had a really strong connection. As soon as our bands fell apart, we got something going pretty quick.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is currently on its Wild & Swingin’ Holiday Party tour, with a stop Sunday, Dec. 8, at the Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York. Click here for more information and tickets.
