Last week I spent the night with Al Kooper. Wait, that sounded wrong. What I meant was, I, along with about 20 other Minneapolis musicians all spent the evening jamming with him at The Dakota Jazz Club. Al Kooper is a name many of you know, and a name the rest of you should know. If you read his resume, you’d see what I mean. Here are some snippets:
He wrote “This Diamond Ring,” performed by Gary Lewis and the Playboys
Al played the signature organ riff on Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” as well as the Stones’ ”You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
He founded the group Blood, Sweat, and Tears
He discovered Lynyrd Skynyrd at a favorite hangout. Forming his own label (Sounds of the South) to put out their records, he produced their first three albums, which included the massive hits “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Saturday Night Special,” and “Free Bird.”
The list goes on…and on.
I got to hang with him during soundcheck where he gave me all kinds of advice on love and marriage. He’s on marriage #4, but says he knows he got it right this time. Let’s hope it doesn’t take me 4 shots to get it right. He also filled me in on his favorite clothing shop. He had nick named it “Pimps-R-Us,” or something to that effect. Sadly, it has closed down now. Shocking, I know! I think Al loves sequins and sparkly things even more than Kevin. They were about to battle it out. Maybe next time we can have a contest for the most hideous pantsuit. I can’t say who would win.
The song I chose to sing was a Staple Sisters song called “Brand New Day.” I didn’t realize how awesome it was going to be until our final rehearsal. The house band just killed it. Now, my band and I just may have to work it into our regular repertoire. I even got a shout out from Jon Bream at the Star Tribune. Here is what he had to say:
“Highlights were Kevin Bowe getting sassy on the energetic, mandolin-fueled “Mississippi Kid,” a country blues written for Lynyrd Skynyrd!s first album; Alison Scott wailing on “Brand New Day,” which was recorded by the Staple Singers; House Pet (that!s his stage name) tearing it up on the bluesy “Easy Does It,” and Dave Campbell and Brian Just harmonizing on the Band-like “Don!t Tell Ma.”
These were favorites of mine as well. It’s not often I get to see half the Minneapolis music scene in one place. For the finale, we had all 20+musicians squishing together on that Dakota stage for our rendition of “Like a Rolling Stone.” The whole evening was put together by Adam Levy, and he did a fantastic job organizing everything. Poor guy, having to deal with all those artsy types. Let’s hope he got a vacation afterwards, I’m sure he needed one.
xoxo
Alison
No shows booked at the moment.