Young Chang They crazy-fied what was once...

Young Chang

They crazy-fied what was once dismissed as yesterday’s jive, the

sort appreciated by seniors over cigarettes and brandy because of its

pre-wartime nostalgia.

And in hyping the ‘40s and ‘50s swing genre with a whole lot of

energy, a swirl of eclectic influences and the utterly today-ness of

each of the band’s members, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy stationed itself at

the forefront of the swing revival that crept out from underground in

the ‘90s.

“When the band first started, grunge music was happening,” said

Glen “The Kid” Marhevka, trumpeter for the group. “We’d go in and

play [as] a band and people would trip out. We’d show up in suits,

they’d stare at us.”

The retro swing group, to headline the Taste of Newport’s

entertainment tonight at Fashion Island, continues getting stared at

in this millennium with a style that welcomes everything from

straight-ahead swing to “New Orleans stuff” and even “Latin stuff.”

“I think a lot of people tend to think about swing music or big

band music and they think about a bunch of guys sitting on stage

reading charts,” said Marhevka, who is called “The Kid” because he

was the youngest when the band first formed 12 years ago. “But we

have really high energy... We started speaking to our generation

more.”

Performing also tonight at the 14th annual Taste, presented by the

Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce, is the disco revival group Boogie

Knights.

“Both bring a tremendous amount of energy onstage... and really

get into what they’re doing and they incite the crowd,” said Richard

Luehrs, Chamber president. “I project that Friday night will be a

terrific party atmosphere.”

Which is what typically happens when Big Bad Voodoo Daddy takes

the stage.

They started in the early 90s playing in lounges and for the punk

rocker/skateboarder crowd that was looking for something musically

different. The band, made up of seven original members and two others

who join the guys on stage, pulled on the swinging style from the

‘40s and ‘50s (literally, with the Zoot suits, and also in sound) and

developed a reputation in the underground but growing scene.

The group’s popularity soared with the release of the movie

“Swingers,” set largely in the lounging Los Angeles world, and the

accompanying soundtrack, which contained a Voodoo Daddy track.

After two self-released albums, Capitol Records released the hit

“Big Bad Voodoo Daddy” album in 1998, which was followed by “This

Beautiful Life.”

Band members have been influenced by everyone from Cab Calloway to

Count Basie and even James Brown. Their music is almost entirely

original.

“I think we take a little bit of everything,” Marhevka said. “A

little bit of the energy of James Brown, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy

Gillespie ... “

When asked if life’s gotten a bit easier now that swing has indeed

gotten revived, the 30-year-old Marhevka said they’re still working

as hard as ever to get, keep and grow their fan base.

“For awhile there it got to be the swing movement was the thing,”

he said. “And then [after] the second album, there was a backlash

against it... like this is just a passing fad type of thing. Now

we’re just trying to grow like that. I’m sure with any musician, any

style, you’ve just gotta keep working really hard to keep people

interested in what you’re doing.”

Marhevka adds that, to be honest, he wouldn’t want it to be easy.

“That would be kind of boring,” he said. “Uninspiring.”