Café R & B : Wild Thing...

If you're reading this, I assume you managed to wither the "holidays", and can get right to the rest of the weekend. Tonight, Saturday Night, there is no better place than where you can see Café R&B.

Right, Harvelle's it is.

Closed : Christmas Eve & Christmas

Harvelle's will re-open Saturday night for Cafe R & B.

Jessie's Grill : Harvelle's Weekend Round-Up

Jessie Payo's natural whiskey soaked vocal quality is ridiculously soulful, exuding hapiness and hippiness, and alternately delivering beautiful controlled moving ballads to king rockers (including ones by influential artists such as Black Crowes, Betty Davis and Bill Withers). Johnny Stachela slings his axe with rock 'n' roll force that brings modern blues rock guitar to new heights. Sitting in towards the end of the night, Amanda Watkins of Miss Willie Brown did what she does best, and brought it like a rock star!!

Thursday brought out local super group Grillin' Bunnyz. The Venice based quintet features Brian Allen on bass, Kris Hawkins on guitar, Luke Miller on keys and the dynamic Emily on vocals. They traversed the funk songbook, including the best of Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan with a heap of Aretha and a sprinkle of Marvin Gaye and Funkadelic

Jessie Payo : Stocking Stuffer

Recently, Harvelle's released a CD of live performances by some of it's most popular acts who play at the Westside blues bar. "Soul Of A Man" by Jessie Payo is the last track on the CD and also the most devastating. It burns through the speakers and sends shivers down the spine.

In person, it's pretty much the same except you have the dazzling visual of Jessie herself. A rare beauty with long dark hair and stage prescence to spare, she is electric, mind-blowing and rocks the house to it's core.

Jessie Payo is here Friday night.

Tonight: Get your bunnyz fix.

The return of Grillin' Bunnyz.

From fun to funky, the Grillin' Bunnyz handle both ends of the spectrum.

Workin and Broke : Soul Funk

There's nothing that sucks more than being broke around the holidays, and when you're working hard, it's like adding insult to injury. At Harvelle's the Tuesday night SoulFunk is a veritable church visit, one and all testifying. Blues and jazz and people playing to their hearts content, is a sure way to escape the bleakness of the situation. So I'm gonna be polite and comb my hair and be gracious this season and white knuckle it into 2010, where the future is.

OK. So this past Tuesday.... Ryan Cross brought his crew through. Keith Eaddy on bass, Dennis Hamm on keys and Gene Coye on drums. Featured singers Nicole and Tina sang some Xmas classics and some R&B and blues in tandem and solo.

Mayia Sykes took the stage and sang her heart out; she thawed me a little too. John Beasley - a keyboardist with an amazing resume - sat in on a few tunes. There's a video of Maiya jamming with Mr Beasley I have posted here. Lisa Foreman brought down the house with her sheer funkiness.

I hung out with guitarist Tom McNalley and chanteuse Hilary Van Lier throughout the night, and left broke - but slightly more enthused about life. A special shout out to Marcas Johnson, a keyboardist that sat in and a cool guy that I've recently gotten to know a bit.

I don't expect it to be any less funky this week.

Friday's Wild with Deacon Jones

Deacon Jones!

This incredible organ playing funkmaster took over and unleashed his wild blues and R&B into the night. The video below showcase singer blues legend Barbara Ivy, but wait until Deacon plays his organ solo a little more than mid-way through the clip.

Video : John Piazza y Greg Raymond

Singer John Piazza has been honing his R&B skills on Tuesday nights, playing before the House Of Vibe All Stars (of which he is also a member). Stop in and check him out live. His music will make your night better.

Check out keyboardist Greg Raymond.

He's the man.