Sunday June 4, 2023
The Full Flower Full Moon overhead was in its waning gibbous phase. There was no energy waning inside the walls of the Back Room at The Burren in Somerville when Amy Kucharik and her A - List musicians, with special guest Cheryl Arena, stepped onto the stage.
Full moons are notorious for casting energy with the sweep and intensity of a cosmic purse seiner. The Burren was in its thrall from the jump. Tiger Moan promises “Vintage and modern blues with sass and class.” Add the sense of call and response heard in a Sunday morning clapboard church south of the Mason-Dixon Line and you get the idea.
Tiger Moaning? No sir…Tonight was Tiger Testifying.
Scores of blues and swing dancers deftly swirled around the packed dance floor with uncanny radar they’ve acquired from dancing at close quarters to smoky blues and syncopated swing. From the jump, the crowd was ready to rumble. They were not disappointed.
Amy Kucharik - vocals, ukulele, guitar; Greg Toro - bass; Erica Risti - saxophones, backing vocals; Tim Lewandowski - trombone; Michael Valdez - piano; Stephan Chaggaris - drums’ and special guest Cheryl Arena were locked and loaded.
There was nothing rote about solos by Kucharik, Arena, Toro, Lewandowski, Valdez, and Risti. Their eyes were not focused what was in front of them but what was spinning a mile a minute as the music spilled like a geyser from their brains into the fingering or mouthpieces of their instruments. Fresh paint, fresh newsprint, still wet.
Performances so uniquely creative that several dancers stood transfixed to admire the sheer artistry. You had to see it to believe it.
In the midst one smoky blues number, the only sound from the stage was Stephan Chaggaris’s soft subtle brush work accompanying the kind of slow drag that blues dancers love. Not one iota of energy was lost in the the downshift.
The gold standard for blues dancers, this is Tiger Moan’s second year of residency at The Burren. In these turbulent times, their music is a restorative elixir that, for a few transformative hours, lifts our load, fortifies our resolve, joins us in affirmative community.
Amy Kucharik - vocals, ukulele, guitar; Greg Toro - bass; Erica Risti - saxophones, backing vocals; Tim Lewandowski - trombone; Michael Valdez - piano; Stephan Chaggaris - drums’ and special guest Cheryl Arena
Cheryl Arena...
Ensemble
Tiger Moan testifying...
Hitting the groove...Energy from last night’s Tiger Moan show still keeping time in the marrow of my bones.
Hallelujah.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
Paul. You are such a picturesque writer
I can See the action . So glad you are getting to what you love to do
Posted by: JW | June 10, 2023 at 04:30 PM