DAVID KOLKER & MELVIN SPARKS

You just never know what's going to happen every Tuesday night at the Baggot Inn in New York City's West Village. A few hundred insiders all know that from 10pm to 1:30am, while David Kolker works his Stratocaster over like a man posessed, the mystifying Isamu playfully punches and claws his saxophone riffs into the audience as the deep lines of bassist Tim Luntzel, the milky groove of Leslie guitar and lapsteel guru Paul LeFebvre, and the subtle yet powerful groove of drummer Tony Mason fill the intimate Baggot Inn at 82 West 3rd Street. Sometimes other horn players show up. Sometimes harmonica players. Sometimes other singers. Sometimes other guitarists. Sometimes all of them at once. Sometimes the World's Most Recorded Drummer and "Father of Modern Drumming", Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, is sitting behind the drums. Last night, another legend joined Kolker onstage for a set of music that defied categorization - Melvin Sparks added his boogaloo flavor and founding acid-jazz pickings to Kolker's blues howls and riffs... and the place went off.

The night started as usual at 10pm in typical fashion as Kolker and the band casually dropped into their musical splendor, unraveling the instrumental "Uke-Lai-Lai" as fans quickly found their place to take it all in. Tonight, Kolker regulars Bill Fergus brought along his trombone, trumpet, and French horn and Elizabeth West-Doton brought her trombone as well to keep the brass power going while Isamu and his sax ventured into some of the wildest and most far-reaching lands you'd think music could go. The band worked through versions of mostly Kolker originals and songs from the band's CD, entitled Tuesday - ripping through "Recognition", howling through "Said That You'd Love Me" and "Girl I Miss You," and dropping the high-energy "Penny Song." Starting to feel some unity and groove, Kolker really started to let his guitar go and the intertwining guitar/sax jam that builds to the last verse of this song resembled an explosion.

As the tables stopped shaking, the band then let out a version of Hendrix's "Little Wing" that contained a Kolker guitar solo that gave the whole room a huge shared goosebump. Sighs of pleasure could be heard after each of the song's sections. Kolker started to flirting with reverbed-out volume swells and heart-tugging notes with his knobs prompting the normal reaction of half the audience smiling with eyes closed and the other half watching bug-eyed and jaw dropped wondering how he does it.

The goosebumps were shaken off as the band crept into a version of the New Orleans heavy "Mystery Van" - there was a drum solo by Tony Mason and bass solo by Tim Luntzel in this one that caused people to yell out loud at random times. Cymbal tings and bass drum punches came out of nowhere and Tim's bass grooves just couldn't get any deeper. This inspired the rest of the band to take their solos and try to outdo each other. What a display of musical craftsmanship. New song "What's Yours is Yours," led by Paul LeFebvre's thick directional riffs, brought the set to a fiery end.

Then Mr. Melvin Sparks walked in and absorbed the set-opening instrumental "Groovy" and bluesy "Move Along" before hoisting that hollowbody treasure, a beautiful vintage Gibson L-5, over his shoulder. Time to have a new kind of fun. They kicked it off with the Meters' "Cissy Strut" that segued into Ray Charles' "Hard Times", back into "Cissy Strut". During this onslaught of music, Mr. Sparks was merely warming up, giving the music a totally new feel as his signature rhythmic stylings literally grabbed the place in its hands. The second he hit his first note of a solo, which he flooded with a reciprocating quick tease of the Flintstone theme, the place got giddy with delight. The band dove into a tune inspired by some guitar noodling that Melvin was doin right after "Cissy Strut" - a sort-of "Boogaloo Groove in C" which the band immediately locked onto to further the cause. [It's worth mentioning here that bassist Tim Luntzel and drummer Tony Mason play together in the band Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout. So, at this point in the night, they are giddy to be playing 'da boogaloo with the master of the genre Melvin Sparks on guitar.]

Mr. Sparks feverishly unloaded a bouncing boogaloo attack complete with a solo that shows why he is the legend he is today. He spiritually set up a musical trampoline for Kolker and the band to have fun with - to which Kolker ran with as he snuck in a unusual version of his normally more bluesy original "I Met a Girl" on top of the boogaloo groove. Kolker would drop blues bombs over Sparks' groove only to be pulled back by Melvin's dueling acid-jazz laced pickings. It turned playful as this colorful jamming led to teases by Kolker of "Ring Around the Rosie" as Melvin would answer with a solo that started with a "Three Blind Mice" melody and took off running with his solo with a "Johnny B. Goode" lick. This was one of most exhilarating and smile-inducing sections of music I've witnessed in my busy 15-20 shows per month schedule of all kinds of music.

Getting the Boogaloo out of their system, Melvin stayed onstage as Dave unleashed his signature blues epic, "Two Sides of the Same Coin." This time it was Kolker who graced the audience with one of the more moving guitar solos anyone has ever heard as he built and built and built his passion into a fireball of grinding madness and releasing soaring chords. Then Melvin, who strummed along smiling, decided to leave us with his own blues-stylings!! He stepped into his own grinding progression to honor the blues and honor the blues he did......yet in a way that only Melvin could!

Probably one of the best sets of music to go down anywhere.

Third set turned into the typical late night Baggot Inn Kolker experience which saw guest guitarist John Caban take lead on a few songs including "Doctor in the House," and a guitar-switching act between Kolker and Caban as guest singer Gavin Degraw crooned Martin Sexton's "Can't Stop Thinking About You." Kolker and the band threw in a raw, piercing stomp through Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign" to end the show, leaving a whipped, battered audience in smiles. Another Tuesday night ruled by Dave Kolker and the band came to an end leaving us six days to recharge for next Tuesday.

Dave Kolker and His Amazing Band will not only be at the Baggot Inn every Tuesday night (and the show is free...can you believe that??), but will be opening for Melvin Sparks and HIS band at the Stanhope House in Stanhope, NJ on Saturday night, July 14th and sitting in for a few with Melvin at Melvin's gig at the Lion's Den in NYC on the 12th! Seeing a legend like Melvin Sparks play with the next big thing in Kolker is too much to pass up. Hope to see everyone at these shows and at the Baggot Inn any Tuesday you want your ass whipped by music!

Have a safe and joyous summer of music everyone. See you "there."

Greg Rice in NYC
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