Ralph De Palma has brought out a book of photographs and short essays about the singers and musicians who make up the pop music scene in Key West. The book is a celebration of the spirit of local music, which Mr. De Palma says is very much alive. Fifty performers are portrayed there, in hundreds of photos. It’s a beautifully put together book. The photography is really superb: there isn’t a single picture which is not both radiant and eloquent, to the point where some of the subjects, people I’ve known for years, look so good that I hardly recognized them.
I do have a couple of reservations. It’s nice to see the inclusion of John Vagnoni, the impresario of good music at the Green Parrot, but one could quarrel with certain other choices. There’s almost nothing about the concert scene, where singers—many of whom appear here– offer a more carefully designed and rehearsed presentation than they can provide in clubs, frequently with a top backup band which no club owner would hire. The choice is limited to live musicians, which means no mention of the late Ed Weech and Harry Chipchase, whose playing, in Doc Payne’s group at Two Friends and in the Bahama Village funeral band, went farther to express the spirit of the island than any musicians I know working now. As to individual selections, why Alex Okinczyc and not Les Dudley or Georges Hemund? Where is Chris Burchard? Hal Howland? Greg Shanle? Maj Johnson certainly belongs here, but where are Libby York, Queen Kathleen, Camille Toler, Christine Naughton, or any of the singers in the cast of that fine Waterfront concert last month? And there is one truly regrettable omission, that of the great guitarist Michael Gillis. I’ve written extensively about Michael’s musicianship in the late lamented Solares Hill; here I’ll simply quote what the world-famous guitarist Pat Metheny, himself winner of no less than 20 Grammys, wrote to Michael a few years ago, “I remember so much about the way you play and how awesome it is. Whenever anyone tells me about some new guy or another, I always say, ‘Yeah, but did you ever hear Mike Gillis?’” Michael is considered to be among the best in the world by people who really know, but he has been deeply underappreciated here for a long time. It seems that the beat goes on.
My main disagreement with Mr. De Palma has to do with his celebratory sense that the music situation here is flourishing. Thus: “The most common theme from all the musicians interviewed was that there was always plenty of work for a musician in Key West.” Whereas I’m very much aware, often painfully, of the disgracefully large number of fine musicians who have left town precisely because there wasn’t work. Kenny Drew, jr., Teddy Charles, Joe Donato, Howie Schneider, Terry Kiev, Jeff Hittman, Dave Pike, Matsu, Matt Smith, Marilyn Holderfield, and Tony and Gloria Nazzaro are long gone. So are the musicians who truly deserve to be called world class: Brian Murphy, who has played with Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall, and Tito Puente, for whom he wrote prizewinning arrangements; Johnny O’Neal, who played with Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, and Wynton Marsalis, and was chosen in the movie “Kansas City” to play the part of Art Tatum, the greatest of all jazz pianists. They have made it everywhere else, but not here.
Saddest of all was the departure last fall, after thirty-seven years, of Dave Burns. Dave had a long standing engagement at the Banana Café which was just about the ideal gig, both artistically and commercially: it worked for everyone, audience, management, and musicians, but no other club owner had the enterprise to pick that up and support it. Dave’s playing, like that of all truly fine musicians, has the power to move people profoundly. Marty Stonely gave him the ultimate accolade: “Every time I hear Dave Burns play, it makes me feel good.” On his way out of town Dave made a comment comparing today’s music scene with that of the past: “I’d have mixed feelings about leaving if Key West was the way it was when I came here. But not now.”
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Harry – I love ya man but… you need to get out more. The Key West music scene is thriving. I would love to read your review of what is actually in the book instead of a rant about what and whom is not in the book. I interviewed 46 musicians and could have easily interviewed 46 more. No one excluded from Volume 1 should feel slighted and most of the musicians I’ve spoke to including some of those you mentioned are understanding of the magnitude of this task.
The book was a labor of love, not a beauty contest. I did not categorize or list them in any order. I love them all. Your comment about “world class” is insulting to a number of World Class musicians featured in the book. Paul Cotton has filled Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden, and Richard Crooks has played with everyone but the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
As a music consumer and fan I would like to hear a few more horns around town and maybe a little more jazz, but that by no means diminishes the vibrant and amazing Key West music scene. You are way off base there.