March 1995
It is cozy and dim inside the small intimate supper club. A tiny dance floor beckons couples to swing and jitterbug. A young, hip crowd looks like they just crept out of the 1930s and '40s. On stage, a band plays. The singer complements the audience by sporting a rayon retro dress, a shiny black bob and thin, arched eyebrows. It does not matter that she is the only woman in a seven-piece band. She knows that Bessie, Billie and Dinah are there with her too.
"We're on a first name basis," jokes Lavay Smith, lead singer of Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, referring to her favorite musical mentors Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. Smith, 27, grew up singing but did not really focus on jazz until the age of 18.
Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers have revived the fading glamour of the '20s, '30s and '40s by performing classic music of the legendary jazz queens from bygone eras, packing local clubs.
The group's unique name comes partly from an old children's album and a famous blue-grass band, The Skillet Lickers, who played on the East coast in the '20s and '30s.
In addition to vocal compositions, the band also performs instrumental numbers by famous composers like Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. Not only do they draw material from the greats but several of the band members have played with the legends as well.
The band's sax players have jammed with such greats as Charlie Parker, Lionel Hampton and Gatemouth Brown, just to name a few.
Though Smith and her band are used to playing for all audiences, she can't help but notice the younger people who come in search of a flavor missing from their generation.
Regarding the style and essence of the '20s and '30s, Smith says,"Young people never had a taste of that. There's nothing to really be a part of or caught up in. I think people are going back to the older days," Smith says. "We can have all the style and all the excitement without having all the repressive ways about it."
To catch Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers belt out a few of your favorite tunes, head over to Cafe Du Nord on Saturdays, or Enrico's on Mondays. But be forewarned-shows sell out quickly. You don't want to be one of the bozos that gets stuck jitterbugging in the back alley.
Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers will also be playing at Club Deluxe in San Francisco on March 10 and the Claremont Hotel in Oakland March 23.