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CD Reviews Dig these tunes By Kaitlin
King Friedrich Nietzsche said, "Life without music would be a mistake." In that same sense, what would a wedding be without - not just music - but really great music - perfect music...something out of the ordinary, fun and memorable? Well it just wouldn't be the perfect wedding. A good musical selection can make or break your wedding day. But don't worry, because Junior Valentine and The All Stars, an "alternative wedding band," may be that impressionable sound you've been seeking. Some locals may know him better as Lawrence Valentine Meyering, Jr., a graduate of Greenville High School, but Junior Valentine is now an established musician, with "the best rhythm section (he's) ever had" in drummer John Large and bassist David Spring, and "a real crowd pleaser" in saxophonist John Gist who Valentine says is "a gas to play with." Rhythm and blues is their main thing, covering hits of Otis Redding, Fats Domino, Bobby Bland, Freddie King, Jimmy Reed, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles, just to name a few. They perform regularly at restaurants throughout the area, but also are available for private parties, including weddings. "You're not going to get the Macarena and the chicken dance," said Valentine with a laugh, "just really good dance music that isn't the typical top 40." That's not to say they won't expand their parameters to fit the occasion. "We like playing weddings because it gives us a chance to play other styles and entertain well," said Valentine, adding that they get into Errol Garner's Misty, Frank Sinatra's It Had To Be You and The Way You Look Tonight, among other great classics. They have even mastered some traditional Jewish folk music, polish polkas and other specialty tunes. "This band, at the moment, tends to be really strong at good, syncopated dance grooves. That's where everybody's strength lies," said Valentine. "We obviously play other things, and I think we play them pretty well, but our natural deal is to play funky R&B, and that's a good thing." That's especially a "good thing" when performing for a wedding reception, where dancing is the main entertainment. Plus, what's unique about hiring a band like Junior Valentine and The All Stars is that guests don't have to dance to participate, they can have a wonderful time just relaxing and enjoying the live entertainment. So, if you want to avoid making a mistake on your wedding day, check out www.juniorvalentine.com or call Valentine at (616) 235-1502 to book a truly memorable celebration. Junior Valentine and the All-Stars By Curt
Wozniak Back in February 1990, when Grand Rapids-based guitar slinger Junior Valentine dubbed his then-new rhythm and blues outfit The All-Stars, he did so with the same sort of playful boastfulness employed by such R&B groups as The Chairmen of the Board, The Main Ingredient and Mother's Finest. Over the years, as band members drifted in and out and matured musically, the All-Stars moniker has gone from being a tip of the hat to R&B's past to becoming an accurate assessment of the acumen of players backing Valentine week in and week out. "It's kind of cool that at this time, all of the other guys are well known around here, and everybody's a mature player," Valentine said. "This version of the band is having fun together. We look forward to seeing each other, and that's really cool. That's what you really want ultimately, to look forward to playing with each other." What's not to look forward to when the set list includes such good-time favorites as "Mustang Sally," "Good Lovin'," and, when the mood is right, even "The Twist," all given the All-Stars signature funky rhythm-and-blues treatment? "This band, at the moment, tends to be really strong at good, syncopated dance grooves," Valentine said. "That's where everybody's strength lies. We obviously play other things, and I think we play them pretty well, but our natural deal is to play funky R&B, and that's a good thing." Valentine enjoys at least a 10-year history with each current member of the All-Stars. Drummer John Large has been a member of the band several times over the past decade. Bassist David Spring joined the band a year and a half ago but has been friends with Valentine since the two were teen-agers. According to Valentine, Large and Spring provide a formidable back beat. "They say a band's no better than the rhythm section," Valentine beamed, "and these two guys are very complementary. Both are solid players, so I have the best rhythm section I've ever had." Saxophonist John Gist rounds out the band. He did a year-and-a-half-long stint with Valentine in the early 1990s, then returned to the All-Stars two and a half years ago. Valentine noticed on this tour of duty, Gist is opening up more on stage. His showmanship takes some of the spotlight off of the front man, which is always welcome as far as Valentine is concerned. "He is a gas to play with," Valentine said of Gist. "He's become really comfortable being in front of people, and he's wireless, so he is a real crowd pleaser as well as being musically interesting." Besides performing with the All-Stars, Gist and Valentine also provide a classy atmosphere of standards and swing tunes as a duo for brunches and other gigs. It's a side project whose origins were economic. "There just aren't enough venues for the full band to play," Valentine lamented. "If this was a business, (the duo) would be the side business that you need to keep the big business going. I like doing it, it's just not as interesting musically, because there aren't four human beings up there." So the All-Stars remain Valentine's bread and butter, not just for its more dynamic sound, but also for its power to hit a groove and pack a dance floor. "I think the All-Stars' style is a bit more conducive to getting up and dancing and forgetting about whatever it is that you were thinking about," Valentine said. "That's where a lot of the meaning is for me, because we're not songwriters and we're not a sit-down-and-watch-it concert act. We're playing grooves people will want to dance to, and I think it's great when people do so." Blues musician recalls local rootsBy David
L. Felts Junior Valentine is a familiar figure on the West Michigan music scene. Mixing spare and sinewy guitar lines with a strong baritone, Valentine and his band brings the blues alive with power and passion. But back in the early '70s, Lawrence Valentine Meyering Jr. was just another kid going to Greenville High School each day while developing a passion for the blues, the African-American musical style that is the wellspring for rock 'n' roll and much of American pop music. One early experience came when he was "14 or 15 and living in Greenville. I was going to the Fountain St. Church in Grand Rapids and I got to see B.B. King up close and personal — twice." Turns out that the nondenominational Fountain St. Church had a progressive approach to music and brought musical acts to its auditorium in the late '60s and early '70s, acts like King Crimson, the Byrds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers and B.B. King. "I was active in the youth group, so I was an usher," Valentine recalled. After leaving Greenville, Meyering found himself in Chicago, pursuing another art form: acting. In time, he gave up acting and found himself increasingly drawn into blues music. Eventually, he had "a couple of epiphanies" that put him on the road to performing himself. "That was when Big Walter, Buddy (Guy) and Junior Wells were still giggin' around Chicago," he recalled Monday evening. "It was sort of the tail end of an era. I was interested and I had the 'guitar bug,' but my self-confidence wasn't high." "Then Billy Gibbons (of ZZ Top fame) turned me on to Jimmie Vaughan and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, although this was way before they broke big. I heard Jimmie, and I was just riveted. ...I thought, I've just got to figure this guy out." "One day I saw an ad in The Chicago Reader for his brother Stevie Ray Vaughan. I went to see him and I was just completely taken aback. Well, I was 28 — not too old, dammit, so I did the wood-shedding and got into the music," Valentine said. Once he decided to put all his talent and energy into fronting a blues band, the guitarist decided it was time for a stage name. There were "a lot of juniors out there" and his middle name was Valentine, so he turned it around and came up with a moniker that worked. "I said to myself: 'Junior Valentine ... Junior Valentine' and decided it was OK. If you're going to be a front man you want a name that works. If James Brown was calling himself Pete Skulovitz, it just wouldn't be the same...." Indeed, Pete Skulovitz and the Famous Flames just doesn't have the same appeal. In recent years, Valentine has entertained audiences with a sophisticated blues style that shows the influence of Jimmie Vaughan's "less is more" style. Rather than attack an audience with harsh, raging "in your face" guitar, Valentine does tasteful fill work, layering sound with the help of bassist Dave Spring, sax player John Gist and drummer John Large. He's capable, however, of passionate lead guitar that can sting, burn — or caress. That "less is more" approach is a reflection of Valentine's "minimalist taste in all kinds of artwork." The band also swings, a style he learned while living on the West Coast that he said delivers the blues "little more melodically" than some bands. Valentine said it's all a matter of delivery. "A guy told me once that Jimmie Vaughan was like the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated while his brother, Stevie Ray, was like the fold-out in Hustler Magazine. Same stuff, just a different delivery." The 1960s in Greenville: 'A cool little scene' When Junior Valentine, then known as Lawrence Valentine Meyering Jr., first moved to Greenville it was 1965. He was 10 years old and the nation was "in the throes of Beatlemania." There was a lot going on: "What truly amazed me about Greenville was all the little rock 'n' roll bands. There were four or five of them and the parents were all for it," Valentine recalled. "There was a parade for Memorial Day or Fourth of July and here came a flatbed trailer with kids playin' rock 'n' roll! Wow, it was really cool." By the time he was 13 or 14, he had become part of what Valentine remembers as "a cool little scene where kids were encouraged to play. ... It was a neat atmosphere ... a special thing because the parents were behind it too. It was a gas!"
By Chet Eagleman Without a stretch, Junior Valentine's I Can Tell, our only entry not released in the last few months, could have been billed as Junior Valentine and the Left Coast All-Stars. Drummer Richard Innes, bassist Larry Taylor, pianist Fred Kaplan, and producer/harp-meister Lynwood Slim all contributed to this definitive collection of West Coast swing and jump blues. Consequently, the band that got together in California for renowned engineer Jerry Hall has got chops. Junior's brand of hollow-body, New Orleans meets Kenny Burrell guitar serves to be a productive workday for all. Innes and Taylor, who have gigged with Hollywood Fats, Canned Heat, and most recently The Kim Wilson Blues Revue, are the best rhythm section for the job; together they fashion an enviable, laid-back and unobtrusive pouch for Junior's jazzy, R&B soaked strings to nestle in. Taylor's acoustic bass plucks along with measured grace, while Innes' feathery, never-too-loud touch is exclusive. Kaplan sees good piano P.T. throughout, and pumps up the Hammond organ funk on "Ain't Doin' Too Bad." The song fare is just what you could've expected on a Friday night at the good old Rhythm Kitchen. Throw in the occasional baritone sax and cover songs by Hooker, Dixon, and Little Milton, and there's no way to go wrong. -The Paper - December 20-26, 2001. Down
Home HOMEGROWN DEPT.
His easygoing but potent swing gives these songs a light but substantial texture that serves them well. Valentine's got a fine voice, too, and was fortunate enough to have some top-shelf West Coast blues cats drop in for these sessions, including Lynwood Slim on harp and Larry Taylor on bass.
-The Paper - December 17-23, 1998 Junior knows the licks and takes care of business By
John Serba Did you know that Slim Harpo used to play a shoebox, hitting it with rolled-up newspapers? Junior Valentine considers such rudimentary music-making to be folk music at it's purest. That's just one fact that Valentine harbors in his brain, and when he tosses out names like B.B. King and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, it's not unlike an English teacher referencing Hemingway or Tolstoy. He has volumes of information in that brain (and if you look at his multipage song list, it's also at his guitar-playing fingertips) and admits that he wouldn't be out of place teaching a class on American music history from 1940. "I liked history when I was a kid," he said. "I'm a freak. My record collection is pretty freaky—it's really obscure." But for the first time in his 15 years as a professional musician, Valentine can put his own studio record in that collection. "I Can Tell" is his first proper studio recording, an 11-song affair recorded in January during a hectic four-day trip to Los Angeles. "It took 25 hours total to make the record from start to finish," Valentine said. "I was a bit unsure of the final result, but, in the end, it was worth doing....It was scary and exciting. But I'm happy with it, in the confines of how it got done." The record features what Valentine considers to be some of the best session musicians in the business, with Lynwood Slim on harp and vocals, Fred Kaplan on piano and organ, Larry Taylor (of Canned Head, John Mayall and Tom Waits fame) on bass and Richard Innes on drums. The challenge the guitarist faced was putting the album together with this group behind him—a group he had never played with before—during a four-day period. "I had a plan half worked out," Valentine said. "I'd pull out the song list, the clock is ticking, and the guys are standing there saying, 'This is your record, you call the shots.' If we couldn't get a groove within 20 minutes, we'd move on to another." "I Can Tell" is the result, and Valentine considers the disc to be an accurate snapshot of his work and slice of what he's about. But he still calls the recording session a learning experience, his forte being the live stage, which is where he's been four nights a week, 50 weeks a year for over eight years in the Grand Rapids area. "The biggest deal is playing live," he said. "It's the most fun, and it's still pure. It's me, my guitar and amp, a roomful of people and some guys I like to play with." "What I play is R&B and roots music, and to me, R&B is just blues that you can dance to," he said. "You can look at R&B through regions. You can tell a Memphis record from a Texas, Chicago, New York or L.A. record. With my music, I just cruise from region to region....It's all based on dancing. In the bar business, you want to get people out of their chairs—but how quick is the trick." Valentine has had plenty of practice getting people up and moving. After growing up in Greenville, he moved to Grand Rapids, eventually living in L.A., Santa Cruz and Chicago and paying his dues on the road. Ultimately, though, he found his niche back here in town, where he does booking for the Rhythm Kitchen Cafe and plays countless live gigs, including private parties and weddings ("We're an alternative wedding band," he said. "We don't do the chicken dance."). Why does Valentine stay in Grand Rapids? Well, his son and a comfortable number of paying gigs have a lot to do with it. "I don't want to pretend to 'make it,' " he explained. "I have no illusion about that. I've been on the road enough. Being on the road nationally is hard, and there's little money. If you have the talent and the desire, you have to be at the right place at the right time, and it just didn't work for me. But as Grand Rapids grows, people and concept-wise, there's plenty of room to stay interested here." "Even as a kid, my ultimate goal was to be a professional musician," he said, pulling out another piece of American music history: "As trumpet player Red Rodney said, if you can pay the bills, you're a success." - The Grand Rapids Press - Friday, July 17, 1998 Junior
Valentine After years of filling Midwest dance floors with fans of the solid mix of R&B, blues and soul laid down by his band, The All-Stars, guitarist/vocalist Junior Valentine traveled to California to record this disc with a number of top-flight West Coast musicians included Lynwood Slim on harmonica and vocals, Fred Kaplan on piano and Hammond organ, Larry Taylor on electric and acoustic bass, Richard Innes on drums, Steve Marsh on tenor sax and Jeff "Big Daddy" Turmes on baritone sax. With individual credits including time spent with superstars such as Hubert Sumlin, Kim Wilson, Canned Heat, James Harman and Rod Piazza, each member of this group is a force to be reckoned with. Collectively, they represent an awesome ensemble of talent. That he was able to put together such a high profile back up group for an independent label release speaks volumes regarding the esteem with which Valentine is held in the blues community. This disc proves that the esteem isn't misplaced. With smooth, unhurried guitar lines that swing instead of sweat, Valentine leads the band through classics by the likes of Little Milton, Eddie Boyd, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon and Willie Mabon. While another disc of reworked blues classics may not be on top of the list of what the world needs, the cuts featured here have a vibrancy that redeems them from the repetition. In Valentine's hands, these aren't just songs to be played, they are calls to shake your tailfeathers. Instead of playing rote versions of the songs and hiding behind the assembled talent, Valentine steps firmly to the front and plays off the other musicians the same way he does night after night when his focus is on filling the dance floor. Every greasy hammond groove or fat punch from the saxophones that moves one part of your body is matched by ringing guitar lines that move the rest. Valentine's low key vocals ride on top of the swinging sounds in a fashion that leaves the focus on the groove almost as much as on the lyrics. While the mid-tempo groove of most of the cuts makes for easy dancing, a couple of faster paced numbers would have been a welcome change of pace over the course of the disc. With a sound and feel more at home in the 50s than the 90s, this disc is a delight for fans of traditional blues. -Mark
Smith |
I
Can Tell
Junior
Valentine: I
Can Tell (Monkey Nerve). Guitarist Junior Valentine has been
a fixture on the Michigan blues scene for some time now, and one
spin of I Can Tell, his first studio album, will tell you
why audiences have kept him around. Valentine is a fine guitarist
with a surprisingly light touch; unlike a lot of club-level bluesmen
who play big, loud and overly flashy to placate the boogie-till-you-puke
crowd, Junior's picking is snappy and understated, with a "burn
only when you mean it" feel not unlike Johnny Copeland or
Magic Sam.
CD available: Junior Valentine - "I Can Tell"