Wolfe performs a ‘melting pot’ of music
Although his tunes come from a blues base, fans of rock and psychedelia won’t be disappointed
Various appellations have been attached to the music of Todd Wolfe over the years. The New York-born guitarist-bandleader is sometimes hard-pressed to explain it himself.
“I came up with the term blues-adelic,” he laughs, “but it’s really a melting pot of different stuff.”
While Wolfe’s tunes usually originate from a blues base, fans of rock and psychedelia won’t be disappointed. The lineup might ultimately be more significant because the trio he brings to the Blues On Whyte room this week — featuring veteran drummer Roger Voss and young up-andcoming bassist Justine Gardner — has been likened to the classic power trio formation.
“It’s one way to economize out on the road. If I had it my way I would add a percussionist at least, but the trio seems to work. You still have that space to stretch out and do things. It’s easier to spread the focus to each person and define who’s doing what and to make it interesting that way. I grew up listening to that,” Wolfe says.
Like so many others, Wolfe took his early inspiration from the British Invasion, including the power trio Cream, Led Zeppelin and others, discovering most of the top bands through his older brother’s record collection. He got his first guitar at 13, “saw oodles of shows” and was playing in garage bands before he was even out of junior high.
Even after his own bands made it into the clubs, Wolfe worked backing singers Carla Olson (The Textones) and Sheryl Crow, associations that found the guitarist based on the West Coast from 1990 to 1994. After some bad luck in collective projects, Wolfe finally formed a new group and started recording under his own name in 1999. Since then he has put out seven albums on indie labels, including several trio sets. The last project, Todd Wolfe Band
Live (2010), stitches together trio dates from Pennsylvania and Germany, filmed for DVD but also released on CD, showcasing a slightly different version of the trio but the same rocking blues bent on original tunes.
Bassist Justine Gardner, the new ingredient in Wolfe’s current trio, was just 23 when they met at a jam session last year. He likes the fresh energy and grooves she brings.
“It’s given us some new blood, a kick in the butt, and made things a lot more fun.”
The Todd Wolfe Band plays the Commercial Hotel’s Blues On Whyte through Saturday night, including an appearance at the Saturday afternoon jam.
Kenny Wayne’s maple blues
Vancouver keyboard wizard Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne may have been born in America, but he’s the first to admit his own relationship with the blues has taken hold in Canada.
How appropriate then that his latest bit of recognition was a Maple Blues Award, given out just a couple of weeks ago in the Best Keyboard category. That’s actually his fifth Maple trophy, along with a nomination for the Pinetop Perkins Award from the American Blues Music Association, and a 2006 Juno among a long list of other honours.
“This is actually where I got my start in the blues,” Wayne notes. “As I was growing up I was listening to a lot more gospel music. I had heard the blues piano players but I didn’t really start listening to all those guys until after I moved to Canada.”
Wayne credits greats like Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Johnnie Johnson, Amos Milburn and Charles Brown for his principal education in blues keyboard along with some jazz influences. Before he settled in Vancouver in the early 1990s he spent his career in gospel and more popular music streams, living in New Orleans, San Francisco and Los Angeles, working with the likes of Sly & The Family Stone.
All this becomes more pertinent when you consider Wayne’s latest recording, An Old Rock On A Roll, released last summer on Stony Plain Records.
“It reaches back to kind of spice things up with a little bit of gospel in the rhythms.”
On the advice of producer Duke Robillard, Wayne chose to slow down the tempo a little from the sometimes frantic pace of the boogie-woogie piano stylings he’s best known for, to make things a little easier to dance to. Robillard’s guitar and four horn aces from Roomful of Blues added to the fun with a menu of original tunes.
When Wayne returns to play here this weekend he will focus on the new album, but he promises there will still be some of the flashier stuff for the older fans.
Guitarist Yuji Ihara and reedman Gregory Edmunds fill out the band when Kenny Wayne plays the Yardbird Suite (102nd Street and 86th Avenue) Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $18 for members, $22 for guests, in advance from Ticketmaster (855-985-5000) or at the door.