• • • •
Radio PICA –
La Hora del Blues
Apartado de Correos 12.085
08080 Barcelona – Spain
SOBERBIO 4.5
Vicente P. Zumel
Radio PICA - La Hora del Blues
Apartado de Correos 12.085
08080 Barcelona - Spain
Review:
Chris Daniels & The Kings "Stealin The Covers" Moon Voyage
**** ½ Stars
“Translation”
“Chris and his Kings have made a record that will make people happy that like Blood Sweat & Tears and funky blues lovers will dance like crazy.”
November 10, 2008
Bluesfenomeen Chris Daniels (USA) &
Nederlandse band Bmaster
Chris Daniels, vooral in de VS een populaire muzikant, toert bijna jaarlijks door Europa met de Nederlandse band BMaster (voorheen Bluesmasters).
Uit deze vriendschappelijke en vreugdevolle samenwerking is een live-album voortgekomen. Een eerder in Leiden opgenomen, gezamenlijk optreden is te horen op het live album: ‘We’ll Meet Again’ – the Music that makes you happy-. Het album (officiële releasedatum 25 juni) is te koop bij optredens van BMaster en te downloaden via
www.legaldownload.net/downloadshop/albums/bmaster
Op dit album staat een opzwepende mix van swing, funk en soul: eigen composities van Daniels, maar ook van gelauwerde componisten als Russell Smith, Gregory Barnhill, David Bromberg en David Steen.
Zelfs een dampende New Orleans Jump ontbreekt niet; speciaal hiervoor is als ‘special guest’ Rowwen Hèze’s accordeonist Tren van Enckevort te horen in het nummer ‘In The Night’. Met recht: muziek waar je blij van wordt!
Chris Daniels trekt al sinds 1991 volle zalen in de VS en Europa met zijn band The Kings. Met een verrassende mix van blues, soul, en funk en een spectaculaire show krijgen zij al vijftien jaar steevast iedereen op de banken.
Zij speelden van Rome tot Seattle en waren top of the bill op festivals als Parkpop, Oerol en Ribs ‘n Blues. In de VS deden befaamde zalen aan zoals The Bottom Line in New York.
Chris & The Kings werkten eerder al samen met o.a. Sonny Landreth, Bo Diddly, Bonnie Raitt, bandleden van Little Feat en Was Not Was.
Chris werd in Nederland ontdekt door Alfred Lagarde, destijds de presentator en initiator van Countdown Café. Sindsdien komt Daniels jaarlijks hier voor optredens.
Sinds 2002 speelt hij in Europa bijna altijd met Bmaster, die hij zijn ‘fellow hornband blueslovers’ noemt. Bmaster is een swingende funk-blues-soul-band die professionaliteit en kwaliteit koppelt aan behoorlijke gekte. Zeven mannen, speelplezier, onderlinge vriendschap en een schat aan ervaring maken elk optreden een belevenis.
Het publiek laten zweten, swingen en genieten: het is het onmiskenbare handelsmerk van Bmaster. En dat kan ook gezegd worden van de eigenzinnige en vaak theatrale bewerkingen van niet al te bekend Amerikaans blues- en Memphis soulrepertoire in een mix met bijna vergeten juweeltjes uit de populaire muziek uit de jaren 50, 60 en 70 van de vorige eeuw!
Voor meer informatie: Henk Schoemaker 06-55 581 808. Zie ook www.bmaster.nl, or bmasterblues.hyves.nl
For over 20 years, Daniels and his band have entertained local music fans with a souped-up mix of jump blues, blue-eyed soul and horn-infused rock.
Denver Post
Friday, August 08, 2003 - Anyone who has lived in Colorado for more than a few months and hasn't heard of Chris Daniels & The Kings needs to get out more.
For nearly 20 years, Daniels and his band have entertained local music fans with a souped-up mix of jump blues, blue-eyed soul and horn-infused rock. The Kings have also earned something of a worldwide fan base, especially in the Netherlands, where they've even coaxed the nation's queen to shake her royal booty.
In addition to making great music, Daniels has played a hefty role in shaping the Front Range music scene. The Mile High mainstay spent five years as executive director of the Swallow Hill Music Association, which promotes folk and acoustic music in Denver, and oversaw the group's 1998 move to its new theater/classroom complex on East Yale Avenue. He currently teaches three courses at Arapahoe Community College, including history of jazz. And he also gives private lessons.
"In 1987, the Kings were on the road, driving around the country in a couple of vans," Daniels explained recently. "To stay sane, I started listening to books on tape. I liked history, so I enrolled at CU to get my master's degree, sort of a correspondence course.
"I studied the various people throughout history who were not trapped by their circumstances, who kept going farther. You can also see it in music, but one of the most painful stories is people who got into doing one thing and it reached some pinnacle of success, and from that point on they had to keep recreating it. It's tough for all the bands out there with one original member selling memories.
"So I looked at those examples and tried to diversify. It's always been an adventure. There's an old saying - when you hit a wall, turn left!"
Daniels is shown in his most flattering form on his new CD, "The Spark." He's delivered a wonderful set, joined by such friends as Bill Payne of Little Feat, Richie Furay, Tony Furtado, Sonny Landreth, Sam Bush, Mollie O'Brien and Hazel Miller, as well as the always red-hot Kings.
The official CD-release show is at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood on Saturday (with blues legend John Mayall sharing the bill).
To others, Daniels is an inspiration for having lived his dream for so long, battling the obvious obstacles of survival in the cruel music business.
"He's a perennial," said Tim Duffy, another veteran of the Denver-Boulder scene. "He's always working because he's never disappointed an audience. He's not an old (expletive) at all - it's always fresh. An endless supply of creativity is behind that."
"He put Denver on the map," added Miller, a Denver blues-soul singer. "He's been in the trenches longer than any of us. He's the fairy godfather our scene - he will help anybody at anytime with anything that's within his power.
"When you go see him, you can't sit there and be untouched," Miller said. "You have to get into it, because he's so into it. It's probably one of your best investments of the year - right about now, it's better than the stock market!"
Originally from Minneapolis, Daniels moved to New York City as a teenager, where he worked as a backing musician for singer David Johansen, later a founder of the glam-rock band the New York Dolls. He relocated to Colorado in 1971 and served a stint in the group Magic Music.
"We did the hippie jam-band thing - Leftover Salmon before there was a Leftover Salmon," Daniels recalled. "We lived in school buses and a doughnut truck in Eldorado Canyon. We had two acoustic guitars, a flute, bass and percussion, usually tablas. The songs had a lot of elves, druids and fairies in them. We had all kinds of brushes with fame."
Magic Music held its own in local clubs and was often booked at the Good Earth with the funky Freddi-Henchi Band.
"Back then, it worked," Daniels said. "The hippies would get all blissed out and mellow with Magic Music, then Freddi-Henchi would take the stage and everyone would get the soul shakes."
Daniels left the area to earn a degree in music theory, then returned as a member of Spoons, an influential Boulder country-rock band. In the early '80s, he toured with former Amazing Rhythm Aces frontman Russell Smith, who lived in Boulder at the time.
In May 1984, Daniels formed a rhythm & blues horn band as a one-night joke at the old Blue Note in Boulder. Almost two decades later, Chris Daniels & The Kings have produced nine albums, toured worldwide and remained a top local concert draw.
"We wanted to do anything with horns," said Daniels of the Kings' post-new-wave genesis. "Everybody thought it was real cool, and they'd say, 'What's that stuff?' But it's really a love affair with what happens with horns. One of the things we did was push the hard rock 'n' roll sound with horns, which no one had ever done before."
After building a following on the local circuit, the Kings hit the road and built loyal regional audiences in such places as Nashville, Minneapolis and New York, even parts of Europe. The group was the first Colorado act to release a recording in the CD configuration and land hits on many of the Triple A (adult-rock) stations around the U.S.
Daniels deserves credit for keeping a big band together."The guys that I work with are phenomenal - every one of them is a more accomplished musician than I ever will be, and I don't say that to be patronizing," he said. "I have to work to keep up with them. They keep up with this incredibly grueling schedule - we do over 160 dates a year, and that's tough. They somehow pull it off.
"But you have to keep the business side together in order to get the kudos. If you don't get up in the morning and get on the phone, you don't get to go to Europe. A lot of musicians figure that they'll put all that work into practicing and getting good at their instrument and that should be enough. And sadly, these days, it's not. You have to be a jack of all trades."
The Kings' upbeat music is designed to make people smile as they head for the dance floor, and they succeeded on 1998's "Louie Louie," a collection of jump blues and swing done in tribute to Louis Jordan, Louis Prima and Louis Armstrong.
But on "The Spark," Daniels trades his trademark Stratocaster for an acoustic guitar, horn-based music for intelligent singer-songwriter material with hints of blues, bluegrass and funk.
"Scott Roche, Ed Kaufman and Kip Kuepper at Coupe Studios in Boulder hire me to do vocal and guitar jingle work," Daniels said. "As I started the record a year and a half ago, they said, 'Chris, you play acoustic guitar, but you don't do that on your records. Why not?' Sometimes it's the obvious things .
"I had stopped writing for the Kings, mostly because Dave Steen and Gary Nicholson were doing such a ... good job of it, great R&B. So I went and wrote an album."
Daniels also invited an A-team of pals and nationally recognized musicians to help light up "The Spark," a masterful collection of tunes.
The title track, which features Sam Bush and Tony Furtado driving an acoustic funk groove, might be the finest song about reaching a mature peak since John Hiatt's "Slow Turning." "Biggest Heartache On The Block" is a sassy breakup duet with Mollie O'Brien getting the last word: "All you gotta do is learn to live alone, maybe get yourself a Labrador to tell your troubles to." On "If I'd Only Taken You Dancing," Bill Payne's piano and Furtado's slide guitar weave magic.
Every detail, from the recording to the limited-edition matchbook packaging, drips with professionalism. And Daniels makes it sound like there'll be many more years as Colorado's most employed musician.
"There are three records I want to do in the next couple of years. One is 'Louie Louie 2,' a jump-swing record like 'Louie Louie' but taking it to Texas, more Bob Wills kind of swing, do it as Chris Daniels & The Sky Kings.
"I also want to do a straight-up blues record with the Kings, record it almost live in the studio. Already, 'The Spark' has been warped, gone in a completely different direction since we've played it live. That happens when you play as many gigs as we do.
"And I keep writing - once I got the bug, it bit hard. A lot of that stuff is very acoustic. So I want to do that Jack Johnson thing with standup bass and drums.
"You know, in all my spare time!"
La Hora Del Blues
Vicente P. ZumelRadio PICA –
La Hora del Blues
Apartado de Correos 12.085
08080 Barcelona – Spain
SOBERBIO 4.5
Vicente P. Zumel
Radio PICA - La Hora del Blues
Apartado de Correos 12.085
08080 Barcelona - Spain
Review:
Chris Daniels & The Kings "Stealin The Covers" Moon Voyage
**** ½ Stars
“Translation”
“Chris and his Kings have made a record that will make people happy that like Blood Sweat & Tears and funky blues lovers will dance like crazy.”
November 10, 2008
Europe review
We’ll Meet Again – the music that makes you happy-Bluesfenomeen Chris Daniels (USA) &
Nederlandse band Bmaster
Chris Daniels, vooral in de VS een populaire muzikant, toert bijna jaarlijks door Europa met de Nederlandse band BMaster (voorheen Bluesmasters).
Uit deze vriendschappelijke en vreugdevolle samenwerking is een live-album voortgekomen. Een eerder in Leiden opgenomen, gezamenlijk optreden is te horen op het live album: ‘We’ll Meet Again’ – the Music that makes you happy-. Het album (officiële releasedatum 25 juni) is te koop bij optredens van BMaster en te downloaden via
www.legaldownload.net/downloadshop/albums/bmaster
Op dit album staat een opzwepende mix van swing, funk en soul: eigen composities van Daniels, maar ook van gelauwerde componisten als Russell Smith, Gregory Barnhill, David Bromberg en David Steen.
Zelfs een dampende New Orleans Jump ontbreekt niet; speciaal hiervoor is als ‘special guest’ Rowwen Hèze’s accordeonist Tren van Enckevort te horen in het nummer ‘In The Night’. Met recht: muziek waar je blij van wordt!
Chris Daniels trekt al sinds 1991 volle zalen in de VS en Europa met zijn band The Kings. Met een verrassende mix van blues, soul, en funk en een spectaculaire show krijgen zij al vijftien jaar steevast iedereen op de banken.
Zij speelden van Rome tot Seattle en waren top of the bill op festivals als Parkpop, Oerol en Ribs ‘n Blues. In de VS deden befaamde zalen aan zoals The Bottom Line in New York.
Chris & The Kings werkten eerder al samen met o.a. Sonny Landreth, Bo Diddly, Bonnie Raitt, bandleden van Little Feat en Was Not Was.
Chris werd in Nederland ontdekt door Alfred Lagarde, destijds de presentator en initiator van Countdown Café. Sindsdien komt Daniels jaarlijks hier voor optredens.
Sinds 2002 speelt hij in Europa bijna altijd met Bmaster, die hij zijn ‘fellow hornband blueslovers’ noemt. Bmaster is een swingende funk-blues-soul-band die professionaliteit en kwaliteit koppelt aan behoorlijke gekte. Zeven mannen, speelplezier, onderlinge vriendschap en een schat aan ervaring maken elk optreden een belevenis.
Het publiek laten zweten, swingen en genieten: het is het onmiskenbare handelsmerk van Bmaster. En dat kan ook gezegd worden van de eigenzinnige en vaak theatrale bewerkingen van niet al te bekend Amerikaans blues- en Memphis soulrepertoire in een mix met bijna vergeten juweeltjes uit de populaire muziek uit de jaren 50, 60 en 70 van de vorige eeuw!
Voor meer informatie: Henk Schoemaker 06-55 581 808. Zie ook www.bmaster.nl, or bmasterblues.hyves.nl
For over 20 years, Daniels and his band have entertained local music fans with a souped-up mix of jump blues, blue-eyed soul and horn-infused rock.
Denver Post
The Kings are the greatest! Billboard Aug 1, 2005
For nearly 20 years, Daniels and his band have entertained local music fans with a souped-up mix of jump blues, blue-eyed soul and horn-infused rock. The Kings have also earned something of a worldwide fan base, especially in the Netherlands, where they've even coaxed the nation's queen to shake her royal booty.Denver Post, Friday Aug 8, 2003
Chris Daniels: Keeping it fresh (Longtime Colorado bandleader knows the secret to success is to diversify) By G. BrownFriday, August 08, 2003 - Anyone who has lived in Colorado for more than a few months and hasn't heard of Chris Daniels & The Kings needs to get out more.
For nearly 20 years, Daniels and his band have entertained local music fans with a souped-up mix of jump blues, blue-eyed soul and horn-infused rock. The Kings have also earned something of a worldwide fan base, especially in the Netherlands, where they've even coaxed the nation's queen to shake her royal booty.
In addition to making great music, Daniels has played a hefty role in shaping the Front Range music scene. The Mile High mainstay spent five years as executive director of the Swallow Hill Music Association, which promotes folk and acoustic music in Denver, and oversaw the group's 1998 move to its new theater/classroom complex on East Yale Avenue. He currently teaches three courses at Arapahoe Community College, including history of jazz. And he also gives private lessons.
"In 1987, the Kings were on the road, driving around the country in a couple of vans," Daniels explained recently. "To stay sane, I started listening to books on tape. I liked history, so I enrolled at CU to get my master's degree, sort of a correspondence course.
"I studied the various people throughout history who were not trapped by their circumstances, who kept going farther. You can also see it in music, but one of the most painful stories is people who got into doing one thing and it reached some pinnacle of success, and from that point on they had to keep recreating it. It's tough for all the bands out there with one original member selling memories.
"So I looked at those examples and tried to diversify. It's always been an adventure. There's an old saying - when you hit a wall, turn left!"
Daniels is shown in his most flattering form on his new CD, "The Spark." He's delivered a wonderful set, joined by such friends as Bill Payne of Little Feat, Richie Furay, Tony Furtado, Sonny Landreth, Sam Bush, Mollie O'Brien and Hazel Miller, as well as the always red-hot Kings.
The official CD-release show is at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood on Saturday (with blues legend John Mayall sharing the bill).
To others, Daniels is an inspiration for having lived his dream for so long, battling the obvious obstacles of survival in the cruel music business.
"He's a perennial," said Tim Duffy, another veteran of the Denver-Boulder scene. "He's always working because he's never disappointed an audience. He's not an old (expletive) at all - it's always fresh. An endless supply of creativity is behind that."
"He put Denver on the map," added Miller, a Denver blues-soul singer. "He's been in the trenches longer than any of us. He's the fairy godfather our scene - he will help anybody at anytime with anything that's within his power.
"When you go see him, you can't sit there and be untouched," Miller said. "You have to get into it, because he's so into it. It's probably one of your best investments of the year - right about now, it's better than the stock market!"
Originally from Minneapolis, Daniels moved to New York City as a teenager, where he worked as a backing musician for singer David Johansen, later a founder of the glam-rock band the New York Dolls. He relocated to Colorado in 1971 and served a stint in the group Magic Music.
"We did the hippie jam-band thing - Leftover Salmon before there was a Leftover Salmon," Daniels recalled. "We lived in school buses and a doughnut truck in Eldorado Canyon. We had two acoustic guitars, a flute, bass and percussion, usually tablas. The songs had a lot of elves, druids and fairies in them. We had all kinds of brushes with fame."
Magic Music held its own in local clubs and was often booked at the Good Earth with the funky Freddi-Henchi Band.
"Back then, it worked," Daniels said. "The hippies would get all blissed out and mellow with Magic Music, then Freddi-Henchi would take the stage and everyone would get the soul shakes."
Daniels left the area to earn a degree in music theory, then returned as a member of Spoons, an influential Boulder country-rock band. In the early '80s, he toured with former Amazing Rhythm Aces frontman Russell Smith, who lived in Boulder at the time.
In May 1984, Daniels formed a rhythm & blues horn band as a one-night joke at the old Blue Note in Boulder. Almost two decades later, Chris Daniels & The Kings have produced nine albums, toured worldwide and remained a top local concert draw.
"We wanted to do anything with horns," said Daniels of the Kings' post-new-wave genesis. "Everybody thought it was real cool, and they'd say, 'What's that stuff?' But it's really a love affair with what happens with horns. One of the things we did was push the hard rock 'n' roll sound with horns, which no one had ever done before."
After building a following on the local circuit, the Kings hit the road and built loyal regional audiences in such places as Nashville, Minneapolis and New York, even parts of Europe. The group was the first Colorado act to release a recording in the CD configuration and land hits on many of the Triple A (adult-rock) stations around the U.S.
Daniels deserves credit for keeping a big band together."The guys that I work with are phenomenal - every one of them is a more accomplished musician than I ever will be, and I don't say that to be patronizing," he said. "I have to work to keep up with them. They keep up with this incredibly grueling schedule - we do over 160 dates a year, and that's tough. They somehow pull it off.
"But you have to keep the business side together in order to get the kudos. If you don't get up in the morning and get on the phone, you don't get to go to Europe. A lot of musicians figure that they'll put all that work into practicing and getting good at their instrument and that should be enough. And sadly, these days, it's not. You have to be a jack of all trades."
The Kings' upbeat music is designed to make people smile as they head for the dance floor, and they succeeded on 1998's "Louie Louie," a collection of jump blues and swing done in tribute to Louis Jordan, Louis Prima and Louis Armstrong.
But on "The Spark," Daniels trades his trademark Stratocaster for an acoustic guitar, horn-based music for intelligent singer-songwriter material with hints of blues, bluegrass and funk.
"Scott Roche, Ed Kaufman and Kip Kuepper at Coupe Studios in Boulder hire me to do vocal and guitar jingle work," Daniels said. "As I started the record a year and a half ago, they said, 'Chris, you play acoustic guitar, but you don't do that on your records. Why not?' Sometimes it's the obvious things .
"I had stopped writing for the Kings, mostly because Dave Steen and Gary Nicholson were doing such a ... good job of it, great R&B. So I went and wrote an album."
Daniels also invited an A-team of pals and nationally recognized musicians to help light up "The Spark," a masterful collection of tunes.
The title track, which features Sam Bush and Tony Furtado driving an acoustic funk groove, might be the finest song about reaching a mature peak since John Hiatt's "Slow Turning." "Biggest Heartache On The Block" is a sassy breakup duet with Mollie O'Brien getting the last word: "All you gotta do is learn to live alone, maybe get yourself a Labrador to tell your troubles to." On "If I'd Only Taken You Dancing," Bill Payne's piano and Furtado's slide guitar weave magic.
Every detail, from the recording to the limited-edition matchbook packaging, drips with professionalism. And Daniels makes it sound like there'll be many more years as Colorado's most employed musician.
"There are three records I want to do in the next couple of years. One is 'Louie Louie 2,' a jump-swing record like 'Louie Louie' but taking it to Texas, more Bob Wills kind of swing, do it as Chris Daniels & The Sky Kings.
"I also want to do a straight-up blues record with the Kings, record it almost live in the studio. Already, 'The Spark' has been warped, gone in a completely different direction since we've played it live. That happens when you play as many gigs as we do.
"And I keep writing - once I got the bug, it bit hard. A lot of that stuff is very acoustic. So I want to do that Jack Johnson thing with standup bass and drums.
"You know, in all my spare time!"
• • • •
The Kings' Schedule of Events
Come rock with the Kings! You'll love our live shows.August 5 to 15
Kings Horizontoer North Sea Sailing Festival-- www.horizontoer.nl
There's lots more videos on our video page.
• • • •
Chris Daniels and the Kings
709 Bendemeer, Evergreen, Colorado 80439
Email Chris
Cell (720)837-4332
MANAGMENT AND USA BOOKING -- Steve or Chris at Sailfish Entertainment
Email Chris
(303) 320-7599
Shows with Chris Daniels & the B Masters contact: Henk Schoemaker
Email Henk
(no phone number)
or Ed at Bepop
P.O. Box 530, 3500 AM Utrecht, Holland
Phone 00 31 (0)30 2730220
709 Bendemeer, Evergreen, Colorado 80439
Email Chris
Cell (720)837-4332
MANAGMENT AND USA BOOKING -- Steve or Chris at Sailfish Entertainment
Email Chris
(303) 320-7599
Shows with Chris Daniels & the B Masters contact: Henk Schoemaker
Email Henk
(no phone number)
or Ed at Bepop
P.O. Box 530, 3500 AM Utrecht, Holland
Phone 00 31 (0)30 2730220
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