San Francisco singer ready to wow the crowds
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer
 |
| Lavay Smith says her Skillet Lickers' plans for their Honolulu debut will make the crowd hoot and holler. She says their high-energy jazz will allow for people "to have fun and get crazy."
Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers 8 p.m. Saturday Leeward Community College Theatre $22.50 and $27.50 ($18 and $23 students, seniors, military) 455-0385 Also: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, University of Hawai'i-Hilo Theatre. $20 general (available at CD Wizard), $18 youths/senior citizens, $5 UHH/Hawai'i Community College students with ID. (808) 974-7310. |
"These guys were a great audience," said Lavay Smith, lead chanteuse for San Francisco swing and jump blues faves Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. "They were wild. They were crazy. And luckily for my mom, I didn't like any guy with short hair at the time. So that ruled out any sailors."
Not that Smith's parents — her dad worked for the U.S. government at the now-closed Subic Bay naval base — knew exactly what their daughter was up to most nights.
"I was sneaking off the base to Olongapo — otherwise known there as Sin City — to hang out and sing at clubs," Smith said. "One of the singers who kind of took me under her wing was a female rock star named Sampaguita."
A fan of American roots and folk music, Sampaguita introduced the U.S.-born, Philippines-reared teenager to her national birthright with ample doses of red, white and blue jazz, country, bluegrass and blues.
Smith fell particularly hard for the strong-willed, quasi-feminist swagger of jazz divas Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and, especially, Bessie Smith.
"These were women who would sing about women's independence and their demand for respect," Smith said, "with sexual themes that dealt with sex in a funny and light manner."
Founded by Smith in 1989 as a showcase for "any type of music that wasn't being force-fed to me through the mass media," Smith and her eight-piece Red Hot Skillet Lickers' on-stage repertoire is a tribute to the singer's favorite female vocalists from the 1920s through the 1950s. All mixed with an ample kick of swing and jump blues from the likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Illinois Jacquet.
Smith and the Skillet Lickers — all accomplished Bay Area musicians whose ages range from late 20s to 74-year-old alto saxophonist Bill Stewart — will perform tomorrow evening at Leeward Community College Theatre.
Blessed with a husky alto reminiscent of her idols, Smith's set list is also heavy on the singer's self-penned compositions mirroring their styles.
"I like trying to write tunes that maybe Dinah Washington would sing or write," Smith said.
Smith's on-stage patter and wardrobe selections — described in the band's own bio as "a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page" — are also delightfully retro.
"I'd say the way I dress on stage is more modeled after ... Jane Russell and that kind of '50s 'va-va-voom,'" Smith said. "It's a great style. It's glamorous and not afraid to be feminine, but never wimpy and feminine. And I would never think of Jane Russell as wimpy."
On the road for up to six months a year, the band has still managed to practically own Friday nights at popular San Francisco blues haunt Cafe du Nord for going on 10 years. It has toured the United States, Mexico and Canada, and is planning its first jaunts to Japan and Europe for later this year.
"We have excellent musicians, so you're going to hear some really good music ... some great classic music, as well as some of our own songs," Smith said of the Skillet Lickers' plans for their Honolulu debut. "Our jazz is high-energy. You can dance. You can hoot and holler. It's not just the kind of music that you have to sit there and intellectualize. You're allowed to have fun and get crazy."
