EXCLUSIVE CONCERT REVIEW:
STEVE MILLER, ELVIN BISHOP, SAMMY HAGAR, OTHERS PLAY "BLUES FOR SMART ASS" AT SLIM’S
Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Joel Selvin

Subjects of chapters in the new book took the stage last Tuesday at Slims to celebrate the release of "Smart Ass," a paperback doorstop weighted down with old articles of mine. Jazz great John Handy etched a soulful "Nature Boy" with a gorgeous Miller vocal. Seventy-five year-old R&B queen Sugar Pie DeSanto sang "Hi Heeled Sneakers," pulled up her dress, shook her ass, pulled some guy out of the audience and climbed all over him. "That’s what 75 is," she shouted.

"He’s a real smart ass," Miller said of the book’s author.

"If Joel likes you, you’re through," said Sammy Hagar, proud recipient of several bad Selvin reviews. When he was in Van Halen, he once gave my home phone number to the Cow Palace audience and told them to call me and give me hell. The phone didn’t stop ringing for weeks.

The big surprise hit of the night, 75 year-old Sugar Pie DeSanto doing the nasty to "Hi-Heeled Sneakers."

A few hundred pals and associates – a collection of the town’s literati and rockocracy -- crowded into Slim’s to launch in grand festive style my latest publishing venture, "Smart Ass: The Music Journalism of Joel Selvin," four hundred pages of articles written for the San Francisco Chronicle and others over the last 35 years or so., with a cover photo taken by the late Jim Marshall in one of his final sessions.

Miller and Bishop opened the evening with saxophonist John Handy on the bandstand, trading licks on a hard-driving set of blues standards, clearly enjoying each other’s company. They have known each other since they were beginning their careers on the Chicago blues scene, but rarely get the chance to play together. John Handy, who worked the Oakland R&B scene before heading east to embark on his distinguished career in jazz with Charlie Mingus and everything, dipped back into his roadhouse bag for the occasion. Bonnie Raitt’s rhythm section – bassist Hutch Hutchinson and drummer Ricky Fataar – joined Marin County’s two top keyboard assassins, John Allair and Audie de Lone, in the killer band.

After closing an opening set with his stunning duet with John Handy on "Nature Boy," Miller returned for a power-packed second set with Sammy Hagar on guitar, singing Freddy King’s "Going Down." Hagar and Miller swapped vocal lines on "Got Love If You Want It" and Miller closed the set with a raucous, bluesey take on "The Twist." Roll Over, Chubby Checker.

This was a real jam session. The musicians, who had never played together before, didn’t even have the benefit of a sound check. They met on the stage. Miller spent some time working out some equipment problems before the show in full view while the crowd nibbled canapés and swilled cocktails. The drummer left his stick bag in the car and the band started without him.

Above (left to right): Steve Miller, Elvin Bishop and Sammy Hagar. Below: Steve Miller

He came back, slipped behind his kit and kicked in the drums. It was fresh, uncanned music, made for the moment and all the more rugged in its beauty for that. No concerts sound like this – it’s an increasingly rare experience in public performance. I love a good blues jam and this was as good as they get.

Three of the owners of Slim’s – Frank Caufield, Joe Tobin, Nion McEvoy – along with my concert-going podner Rick Swig, hosted the evening – and the crowd hung out long after the music ended. Punk rockers rubbed elbows with old folkies. Slim’s laid out a buffet table. Book parties don’t get much better than this.

"One thing makes me sad," someone said to me at the end of the evening. "It used to be when something like this happened, there would be an article in the paper the next day."

I know what he means. Now you have to look on the Internet.