We Certainly ‘Got Our Groove!’ with the Bruce Katz Band
The Bruce Katz Band just opened up their big fall tour and stopped at The Blue Rooster in Sarasota FL on Friday, October 12th, for two dynamic sets of blues, jazz, rock, boogie woogie, and New Orleans-inspired magic. Katz has been a mainstay on the blues and jam scene for more than a quarter century, having worked with Ronnie Earl, Gregg Allman, Butch Trucks, Jaimoe Johanson, Duke Robillard and numerous others.
Katz, playing the Hammond Sk2 organ, Roland FP7 piano, and Hammond bass, has been accompanied for years by guitarist and vocalist Chris Vitarello, who was also a member of Butch Trucks’s Freight Train Band along with Katz. On drums was Ray Hangen. They swung into action promptly at 8 with the classic “Hesitation Blues,” the first track from the trio’s recent album Get Your Groove! Vitarello had great space to show his guitar chops in addition to his excellent singing.
After another track from Get Your Groove!, “Beef Jerky” (which also appeared on Three Feet Off the Ground, 2000), Katz switched from organ to piano, telling us this was a 1934 tune. What poured out was some delicious solo slow blues which shifted to double-time before Vitarello and Hangen stepped in to help finish “Blues Before Sunrise,” a song that appeared on Homecoming (2014). Katz then dedicated the next song, also on the new album, to his departed friend Butch Trucks, appropriately titled “Freight Train.” The band then segued gloriously into “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” Hangen had been excellent so far, but he really stood out on this jam.
They went back to Homecoming for “The Sky’s the Limit,” a shuffle blues with Katz still on organ. Next was a straight-up New Orleans piano romp called “Night of Joy” from the band’s Mississippi Moan album (1997). “Take Me Off the Ground” was a swinging delight with Katz on organ, then piano; there was a superb Hangen drum feature as well. They honored the Allman Brothers one more time with a rockin’ deep track, “Stand Back,” and shut down the first set with some bouncing boogie woogie, “Don’t Feel So Good Today” (Out from the Center, 2016).
Throughout both sets, at set break, and at the evening’s end, Katz proved to be an excellent showman with great stage presence and a warm rapport with the audience. Vitarello and Hangen likewise were personable and willing to chat with everyone.
“Deep Pockets” launched set two. This was a track he wrote during his tenure with Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters; Katz has since recorded this twice, on Transformation (1993) and again on Live! At the Firefly (2011). For this one, Mark Richards, a Sarasota resident, sat in on bass. He and Katz played together long ago in The Blue Rays in Westchester NY. Vitarello got the chance to step out on Elmore James’s “Look Over Yonder Wall.”
The title track from the new album was another Crescent City piano workout that bobbed and weaved and then shifted to an awesome “out” ending. “Blues in D Natural” was a Ronnie Earl-era organ tune. Katz then offered a piano intro before turning Vitarello loose on “Drown in My Own Tears,” and Vitarello really ripped it up.
That left us with enough time for one more tune, and we were gifted with arguably Katz’s best-known composition, “Hippology,” also from the Ronnie Earl period. Katz also revisited this one, as “Hep-ology,” on Mississippi Moan. The trio were so perfectly in sync to close out the evening.
[ONE: Hesitation Blues, Beef Jerky, Blues Before Sunrise, Freight Train > In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, The Sky’s the Limit, Night of Joy, Take Me Off the Ground, Stand Back, Don’t Feel So Good Today; TWO: Deep Pockets, Look Over Yonder Wall, ?, Get Your Groove!, Blues in D Natural, Drown in My Own Tears, Hippology]
Bruce Katz Band Get Your Groove! Tour
10/18 Two Brothers Hoodoo Lounge | Punta Gorda FL
10/19 Terra Firmata Tiki Bar | Stuart FL
10/20 Heidi’s Jazz Club | Cocoa Beach FL
10/21 Blue Jay Listening Room | Jacksonville Beach FL
10/28 Wakely’s on Varick | Utica NY
11/02 Live at The Falcon! | Marlboro NY
11/08 Knuckleheads Saloon | Kansas City MO
11/09 Zoo Bar | Lincoln NE
11/10 Corner Bar | Fremont NE
11/11 Nice | Des Moines IA
11/12 The Alamo | Springfield IL
11/15 Slippery Noodle | Indianapolis IN
11/17 Guy Hollerin’s | Ann Arbor MI
11/18 Sportsmen’s Tavern | Buffalo NY
12/01 Black Eyed Sally’s | Hartford CT
12/05 JV’s Restaurant | Falls Church VA
12/06 Bus and Ned’s Real BBQ | Henrico VA