The Steve Lucky-est man alive

If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, then interviewing swing band leader Steve Lucky for a blog, as he meanwhile navigates the streets of San Francisco in a van, is like climbing the new Anish Kapoor Olympic sculpture via a Jaron Lanier virtual 4G app. 

Actually, it's easy, as in Big Easy.

Steve Lucky and his musical and life partner Carmen Getit and band perform a free concert Saturday, July 9, 2011 -- about 50 hours from now -- on California Avenue, part of the City of Palo Alto Twilight Series. 

As it happened, the Oakland-based couple were also in Mountain View yesterday, performing for the students of Cheryl Burke Dance Studio, near Gold's Gym, nearer The Century Theatres, so the interview took place in two parts. "Have you played here before?" I asked Steve as he was loading in. "Once before" he replied, before changing into his gig-costume, for my photo op. He wasn't sure whether Cheryl's studio was local or part of a chain a la Arthur Murray's, although Carmen, fixing her make-up in the front seat of the van, indicated, yes, local. Although I felt slightly paparazzi (if that can be an adjective) ambushing their load-in, I was too polite to shoot the lovely guitar-player, singer and mom Ms. Getit (and believe you-me, she gets it, in the sense of being hip, hep and with it) in such a candid moment. (I shot the van two minutes later from a discrete distance). 

The second part of the interview was about 20 minutes, by phone. (18:10; compared to 90 seconds with Mike Park, like 32 minutes with Mary Armentrout). Steve said he was talking to me while doing the ultra-glamorous Swing-set jobs of retrieving a gear bag from Cafe Claude, and a personal document (plastic money) from Cafe DuNord. I joked that he was doing a tribute to Tony Bennett. 

Speaking of swing sets, the musical duo, who have been playing together since 1994, and met originally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, have announced to their considerable fan base that they have a daughter Monique Rose who is "4 years old and two thirds". That's 14 thirds or a waltz time if you are a jazz drummer. 

I mentioned to Steve Lucky that today, July 7, "lucky 7-7" is Pinetop Perkin's birthday and Steve said that was "fantastic." I had met up with Steve and Carmen at a Pinetop Perkins show in Petaluma a few years back; Carmen played her vintage Gibson on his Grammy-nominated album. He would have been 98 today, but left the building earlier this year. 

"We got to know him pretty well" Steve said, of Perkins, who was Muddy Waters' piano player and an originator of "boogie" and "boogie woogie."

"Pat Morgan, his manager,  said Carmen was his favorite female guitarist".

Lucky and his band, the Rhumba Bums, will be playing material from their two most recent cd releases, "Some Like It Hot" and "Come Out Swinging". One song to look forward to is the old New Orleans chesnut "That Mellow Saxophone" by Roy Montrell, which was also covered by Brian Setzer. Lucky says that a third of the songs are originals. 

I called him a quintuple threat in that he plays piano, writes music, leads a band, sings and can dance. He's also a father, as I mentioned above, so I could have called him a six-way threat if I could have quickly thought of the correct Latin prefix: Sex?

"Entertainer is my strongest card," he said, although he has played piano in bands lead by blues legends Johnny Clyde Copeland and Elvin Bishop.

I asked him about his side-project, which he names Hammond Cheese Combo, an organ band. Although the name is indelible, and has been on my radar for years, I didn't realize he considered it his "jazz project" in that the music is more intricate. (The dance band we will see Saturday is called "swing" but is really "jump-blues"; they play blues and jazz festivals, although the music is not jazz in the sense of heavy on improvisations, due to wanting to stay in the pocket with the dancers).

I asked Steve if he has plans to record the organ combo and he said yes but the plans were "languishing." I asked if "Languishing" were a type of cheese, and he politely obliged me with a soft, Brie-like chuckle. 

Noting in my recent re-reading of V. Vale's 1997 interview with Steve and Carmen, for his Re/Search publication "Swing" that Lucky was an anthropology major (and ethnomusicologist) from University of Michigan (where his wife-to-be studied engineering), I meant to ask him about Sapir-Whorf: I wanted to know if calling himself "Lucky" has proven to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think it has. See for yourself, dear reader, or post here as you see's 'em.