Holliday's Club Cafe

All About That Bass

Early in 1975 I was “paying my dues” in Nashville, trying to figure out how to break into the music business as a songwriter/musician. My background as a “folksinger from Iowa” wasn’t exactly helpful, and my love of jazz and swing music didn’t seem to be creating any positive waves. I was working as a picture framer at The House Of Frames on Church Street to pay the bills, and had started hosting a songwriter’s night at a little club that opened nearby called Mississippi Whiskers. ( See my Substack post for Riverboat, Sail Downstream ). It gave me the opportunity to share my new material, and brought in a bunch of talented folks who also just needed somewhere to play. One day I came up with an idea for a little swing tune about a jumping cabaret called “Holliday’s Club Cafe” and started playing it for people here and there.

It was an homage to Billie Holiday and all the struggling musicians out there who “play what they love…and love what they play”. The more I fooled with the song, the more I realized that it absolutely needed a good bass part, and over the years I have had the chance to record it with some wonderful bass players….always giving them a chance to solo and show off their stuff.

Here is the first version I have which was recorded in 1975 at the Hancher Music Building in Iowa City with guitarist Chuck Henderson and bassist Paul Berner.

Paul married his girlfriend from the Netherlands, and moved there to pursue a career as a jazz bass player….please check him out online and sample his new recordings sometime at Paul Berner Website.

We had a little reunion at the Boondocks Cafe on I-35 a few years ago.

By 1976 I had migrated back to Colorado Springs, and was trying to get some gigs as a solo artist. Eventually I met a cool dude from Texas who played a fretless bass and sang some great harmony….Doug Seiter. He started sitting in on gigs with me at a restaurant/bar downtown called Jose Muldoons and the Smith & Seiter duo was formed. We never got around to taking an official band photo.

After a few months we decided to try and attract a drummer, and ended up with fellow named Jano Mossman who thought congas might be appropriate for the music we were doing. We managed to record some pretty cool demos in my garage in Manitou Springs using Doug’s four track reel to reel. Here’s what Holliday’s sounded like then:

By 1978 I had a “record deal” with a new label out of Minneapolis called Cognito Records. ( See Substack post Yankee Cowboy ) and we recorded an album at West Minist’r Sound Studio ( now called Junior’s Motel ) in Otho, Iowa. Gary Durr, another tall Texan, played bass on this session, along with Chuck Henderson on guitar, Bruce McCabe on piano, and Dolor Adams on drums. We called ourselves The Billy Buffalo Band and cut a nice version of Holliday’s.

L to R. SS, Gary Durr, Dolor Adams, Chuck Henderson & Bruce McCabe.

Otho, Iowa March, 1978

Fast forward to 2009 when I was back in Iowa, working at Rieman Music and playing a few gigs here and there. My old friend Dartanyan Brown came up to Fort Dodge and we played a gig at the Blanden Art Museum as Dr. Jazz Revisits Billy Buffalo. We recorded a few songs in my home studio getting ready for the show. Dartanyan is also using Substack these days to help promote his musical and journalistic aspirations….and you should check it out at Dartanyan's Substack.

Here’s our version of Holliday’s…..

Now for any of you musicians out there that would like to try and learn a lively little swing tune, I posted an “instructional video” a few years back on YouTube. Would love to hear any new versions you come up with….be sure to let the bass player cut loose on a solo!

Thanks for reading this far and listening to these recordings. I am not sure how much longer I will be “Substacking”….as I may have started to repeat myself. Of course if I happened to get a few more paid subscribers….it would help! Feel free to comment and share if you enjoyed this post.