I took in two concerts recently. When both were publicized I nearly spit out my coffee. Neither band has ever visited Davenport, Iowa to my knowledge before. The first concert was the band Tower of Power on Friday, December 13th, 2024 and the second concert was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on Monday, December 16, 2024. I’m a big fan of both groups. I’ve never had the chance to see Tower of Power despite being a fan for nearly 40 years. Their brand of funk, soul, and R & B is lost on the country crowd that primarily makes up this area. I’ve seen Big Bad Voodoo Daddy many times previously. To be honest I’ve lost count and track of all the theaters I have seen them perform in. I think it is 15… who cares, I enjoy it every time.

Both bands were presenting their holiday shows. Tower of Power (TOP) released a Christmas record for the first time in their 56 year history. I was extremely interested in how the arrangements would pan out with the horns and rhythm section. Tower of Power’s horn section consists of two trumpets with one of them doubling on trombone, two tenor saxophones, and a baritone saxophone. The rhythm section consisted of drums, bass, two guitars, hammond organ, and an electric piano. The lead vocalist played the second guitar part. Emilio Castillo the band’s founder took his turn at lead vocals several times when not playing tenor saxophone.

The 90 minute TOP set featured a select few Christmas Numbers and many of their classic hits from years gone by. The Christmas set featured: Silver Bells, A Very Special Christmas, O Holy Night, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Each of these tunes had the TOP Soul infused into the arrangement with very nice horn solos and excellent vocal gymnastics by lead vocalist Jordan Johns. The most unique of the Christmas set was O Holy Night. This particular arrangement started in a Motown groove with the piano setting the groove, and it swung hard. By the time the drums and horns came in you felt as if the carol was meant for a soul fusion club. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined this classic carol in this manner. Just wow. I think this particular arrangement will transfer well to pops orchestra or concert band. Whomever arranged the carol made me a fan of this stale old classic. Silver Bells jazz waltzed its way off the stage with horn flourishes and excellent background vocals from the horns. It was far grander than anything Bing Crosby dealt in his lifetime. These juicy moments on old Christmas Songs convinced me to buy the cd. I haven’t bought Christmas music since the 1990’s when Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Squirrel Nut Zippers made their Christmas records.

The rest of the TOP set included You Can’t Change Horses in the Middle of the Stream, Knock yourself Out, Diggin’ on James Brown, You’re Still a Young Man, You’ve got to Funkifize, and What is Hip? amongst others. The musicianship in this band is amazing. Jordan Johns lead vocalist and the drummer Pete Antunes are just kids compared to the decades of music experience the rest of the band has on them. Castillo is 74 and Stephen “Doc” Kupka the only other remaining founding member is 78. The rest of the band is on the silver hair express like me. They all are between 50 and 70. There was nearly 300 years of professional music performance experience on that stage. They moved and played like men in their 30’s and 40’s. Kupka doesn’t move very well onstage with his baritone saxophone, but his playing is still crisp and clean. The horn section gets all the press, but this particular rhythm section was tight. The young drummer played with the virtuosity of the legendary David Garibaldi and the Bass player covered the late Francis “Rocco” Prestia parts with the laid back maturity of a seasoned musician. He never played too loud, or too flashy, but you felt his groove the entire time.

The one sad part of the show was the crowd. There were only about 300 in attendance. All of us were hardcore fans except for my wife and youngest son who is 15. Jordan Johns took the opportunity to descend from the stage and engage with us in the audience. Despite the let down for them in terms of crowd size we all musicked with them. I could hear many singing along while dancing. It was a night to remember.

Monday night my wife and I dressed up in our 1940’s clothes and hit the theater for her second Big Bad Voodoo Daddy show, and my 15th?!?!. This will be my 4th holiday concert of theirs. The set list of Christmas numbers is pretty much the same every show. Highlights are Mr. Heatmiser and We Three Kings. They have played Christmas shows going on 20 or so years and despite the repetition of the material they keep it fresh on stage. Scotty Morris the lead vocalist/guitar/banjo front man is the perfect amount of suave sophistication one would expect from a dance band. The quintet of horns includes two trumpets, trombone, baritone saxophone, and a reed player that covers clarinet, alto and tenor saxophones. The lead trumpet player has Bill Chase like chops. He is a touring member along with the trombonist. This is the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen him with the band. He exudes confidence and flare. We were sitting in row five dead center and it was a rush to hear his sound acoustically just a smidge before the amplification signal made it to the speakers during his solos. His articulations were crisp and his intonation was dead on.

Scotty Morris was struggling a bit on stage with his vocals. I recognized the laboring early in the 90 minute set. He was also downing water and hot tea with honey and lemon (most likely) at record pace. About 40 minutes into the set he came clean with the audience that he was fighting a cold, and he was drinking a lot to help his voice. He cracked a joke about it being vodka in his glass. I was impressed with his professionalism. He went up there feeling 85% and gave 100%. The audience let him know their approval.

The non-holiday music featured tracks from their earliest albums. They covered Kings of Swing, Minnie the Moocher, So Long Farewell, and Go Daddy-O. The bass player who sings a few songs on lead was given five tunes this night. He seized the day with his performance and an approving crowd gave multiple standing ovations. The crowd at the Adler Theatre appeared to be around 2,000+. I don’t think it was a sell out, but the crowd was large. It was nice to see a good showing for the BBVD crew. I watched my facebook feed and was surprised at how many people I knew that were there, yet I didn’t see them in the crowd.

This past weekend was a lot of fun. I’m glad I got to see both bands within a few minutes drive of my home. It was a marvelous experience. It was also fun to see my son’s reaction to Tower of Power. He had no idea a band could do what they did. This younger generation just doesn’t know what is possible with working musicians and no auto tune… maybe this is what a dinosaur feels like… but my son says… You’re Still a Young Man….