LAVAY SMITH

Sign on for some
fine, rockin’ jazz time

Blending blues and sizzling jazz,
a Bay Area band prepares to
light up the LCC stage

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By Gary C. W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com

Showmanship is everything. Lavay Smith's got it in spades. And when it's combined with the formidable musical chops displayed by her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, that's some powerful mixture.

But even a red hot mama like Smith needs her downtime, and she was luxuriating somewhere in rustic Puna on the Big Island earlier this week with her musical/personal partner-in-crime, Chris Siebert. After the paradisiacal cooldown, things will heat up again when Smith and the eight-piece band hit the Leeward Community College Theatre stage tomorrow night.

The band has been a 13-year labor of love for Smith and Siebert. When not doing upward of 250 dates on the road, Smith and the band are a popular act in their homebase of San Francisco.

Smith's "lickers" bring a wealth of experience to the swinging music. Some of the wonderful veterans (some well into their 70s) like Allen Smith, Jules Broussard, Hal Stein and Herman Riley -- known by fellow musicians for their jazz and R&B contributions -- won't be making this trip, but, never fear, their chairs will be occupied by others of equal skill.

Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers Where: Leeward Community College Theatre When: 8 p.m. tomorrow Admission: $22.50 general; $18 students, seniors and active military Call: 455-0385

"There's always been rotating chairs in the band over the years," Smith said, "and I love what so many of the musicians have brought to the band. The horn section that we'll be featuring at the show will be made up of trombonist Danny Armstrong, a real crowd-pleaser who's from Johnny Otis' working band; trumpeter Bill Ortiz (who played that piercing solo on Santana's smash hit "Smooth") from Pete Escovedo's band; 22-year-old tenor saxophonist Howard Wiley, with his fat and strong, pre-1960s sound; and alto saxophonist Ron Stallings, who also tours with Huey Lewis and the News."

The band's latest album, "Everybody's Talkin' 'Bout Miss Thing," is the only independent-label act currently on the Billboard Jazz Top 10 list. Expect a handful of songs from that CD to be featured tomorrow, a mixture of standards and originals like "The Busy Woman's Blues," "Blow Me a Fat Note," "Big Fine Daddy," "Roll the Boogie" and "Honey Pie."

"We play classic American music, all kinds of great jazz and blues. It's a rockin' fun show!" she said. "Not only do we do jump blues like Illinois Jacquet, we also do some Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, R&B and bebop, a little New Orleans. The band does a couple of numbers before yours truly, Miss Thing, comes on stage!"

The word "voluptuous" comes to mind regarding Smith's stage presence. "I definitely like the classic style, the dresses from the '50s, the kind that Hollywood stars like Jayne Mansfield, Jane Russell and Ava Gardner wore that accentuate the female figure."

Smith's musical education began at the age of 16, when she and her family moved to Los Angeles from the Philippines, where her dad did government work as a civilian at Subic Bay. A singer "told me that you have to listen to the foundation of the music, so I picked up on Bessie Smith and those feminist-minded compilations on the independent Rosetta label of women singers of Smith's day.

"I originally wanted to bring this kind of music to people of mainly my age, but we've getting to audiences of all ages," she said. "Even though our overall musical cut-off point is somewhere in the '50s, I feel our music is not limited just to some time period, but so long as it's got the groove and soul, we'll play it."

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