Nine Waters, No Tip - “To Go” – Live!
Kearney, Grams & Bronsdon – “To Go” – Live!
2001 Vitalegacy, LTD
SQ Issue: Summer
2002, Volume 12, Issue 3
Kearney, Grams & Bronsdon are:
Brenden
Kearney – piano; Steve Grams – bass; Kyle Bronsdon - drums
Kearney, Grams and Bronsdon’s
debut album “Nine Waters, No Tip” [Reviewed
in SQ Volume 11, Issue 1] entertained Lindy Hoppers and club owners alike with
it’s tongue-in-cheek title track and what have become favorites on the dance
floor…Their new CD, “To Go,” promises to become another underground classic
of the swing renaissance. – Press Release
This is the second offering from the
band known by dancers as the KGB Trio. You
will like this CD very much. KGB does a great
job on some of the better known songs like, One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer, This
Can’t Be Love, and a fun version of There Ain’t Nobody Here but Us
Chickens.
There’s some lesser known gems on
this CD as well. Yum, Yum, Yum and
their original Do Me a Favor are fun danceable tunes that you will like. My personal favorite is their instrumental, Nostalgia
in Times Square. It’s a slower tune
but the piano work is nice and it is fun to dance to it.
They also do a great version of Hendricks, Lambert & Rossi’s Gimme
that Wine, getting you going on one of their faster tempoed offerings on the disc.
There are a few that I didn’t
like as much. I Dream of Jeannie is a
Latin tune which in my book DQ’s it right away.
Just my bias acting up again. Big
Ten-Inch Record probably came off better live. It
didn’t cross over to the disc as good as it probably did live. It tends to get long and your mind starts to
wander. Forbidden Fruit is another
instrumental that is good to sit down and listen to but won’t give you the urge to
get on the dance floor.
Overall, this is a good CD to have in
your library. You’ll find lots of good
danceable songs that reflect their good musicianship and fun that KGB seems to have while
performing. The bummer is that this is most
likely their last CD. KGB Trio is breaking
up to pursue solo careers.
Bottom Line: To buy or not to buy….. BUY! If you do, here’s how:
KGB Trio – Nine Waters, No Tip
1999 Kearney, Grams &
Bronsdon
SQ Issue: Winter 2000 - Volume 11, Issue 1
Bass:
Steve Grams
Drums: Kyle Bronsdon
Piano: Drenden Kearney
Kearney, Grams & Bronsdon united in the summer of 1999 after leaving Arizona’s Kings of Pleasure, responding to swing dancers and jazz aficionados who voiced displeasure in the danceability and musicianship of most contemporary swing bands…Aside from their three-part vocal harmony and sensitivity to the dancers, much of their appeal is their onstage wit. “We take the music a lot more seriously than we take ourselves, says drummer Kyle Bronsdon – press release
You can tell that this CD was put together with dancers
in mind. Just about every song is danceable
to swing dancers. You can tell that these
boys want to have fun by their mixture of covers and their unique originals. Clues can be found in the second song and title of
the album, Nine Waters, No Tip, that these guys did their research on the dance
scene!
You’ll find gems in the aforementioned as well as Ain’t Gonna Be Your Monkey Man, Blues
for Pete, I’ve Got to be a Rug Cutter and Would-be
Hep Cat.
The latter has a funky ending but if you loosen up and roll with it, it’s a
fun tune about not gettin' the swing thing but sure likin’ the country thang!
Kearney’s piano is the best part of the CD. It is very melodic throughout and hints of Oscar
Peterson and Art Tatum. Good piano solos can
be found in Gotta Find My Baby, Stop
Boogie Woogie and Blues for Pete; as well as in the ballad, West.
The weakest part of this CD is the vocals. It doesn’t do their music justice. The singing is not necessarily bad but it
doesn’t equal the quality of the rest of the musicianship. There are times, though, when their harmonizing
comes together; such as in the numbers, Is
You Is or Is You Ain’t and I’ve Got to be a Rug Cutter. However
weak the rest of the vocals are, it doesn’t detract from the high marks this CD
deserves.
KGB Trio went out to make a CD that dancers would love. I think they did just that. You will like this CD even though none of these
guys will be confused with Joe Williams or Frank Sinatra!
Bottom Line: To buy or not to buy…..BUY!