Sep 20 2008
Spending Time with the Sad Salamanders
It’s tough, these days, to find people who are trying to perform jazz in the old-fashioned way. Too many modern jazz musicians want to make their music sound like the kind of thing you expect to be playing quietly in a hotel lobby or something like that. One group that is different is the Sad Salamanders and it’s time I introduced them here on this blog.
Yes, that’s them and their video from their album “Cigarettes and Fishnets.” I have gotten to know the leader of this group, Scooter Pietsch, and he has become a very dear friend. The Sad Salamanders were kind of the jazz “house band” for my previous jazz and blues blog. I want to bring them over here too.
Scooter and the Salamanders just want to play jazz the way it was meant to be played. Their album will blow the doors off of your car. They “rock.” Ok, this being jazz, I guess I should say they “swing.” Their music is the kind of music you would expect to find playing at a Hugh Heffner Playboy After Dark party back in the 50s. It’s raw and it’s fun and it harkens back to a time when jazz was THE music and it was fun to listen to.
I have an interview with Scooter that I intend to re-publish here. Stay tuned for that. I am hopeful that the Salamanders will have more in the near future, as well. I know Scooter is still producing new music.
I helped the Salamanders get on the playlist of radio station WDCB. It still remains my finest moment as a blogger. I am hoping that here, with this new blog, and maybe with less risk of cancellation, that I can help them achieve even more.
The world needs more Sad Salamanders.
