A Sunday at Bangkok Blues

by Alan Greenblatt

My newest favorite way to kill a Sunday afternoon is to head out to Falls Church and make for Bangkok Blues, a Thai restaurant that features live music. Sundays are given over to swing guitar sessions led by Tom Principato and Rusty Bogart, but the joint features music five nights a week, low cover charge (like $4) appearance by local roots and r&b stalwarts such as the Grandsons, Whop Frazier and Robert Lighthouse on a small riser in front of a dance floor.

Yesterday, Principato joined with Pete Kennedy for a CD release party. Principato has long been one of the area's premier white bluesmen, with blistering guitar work and serviceable singing skills. He and Kennedy mostly played swing tunes on this occasion, light, melodic renderings of "I'm Confessin'" and some Gershwin and Ellington. They were joined for "Don't Roll Your Bloodshot Eyes at Me" by Kennedy's elvish wife Maura.

Kennedy plays all right, but it was a whole 'nother class when Principato took the spotlight. He is one of those players who makes it seem effortless, plucking out a big, gliding sound. He stuck fairly close to the melodies, adding some interesting voicings and harmonics at the end of phrases. You could relax because he's such a pro.

That's not always the case on the average Sunday, when Principato and Bogart invite all comers to take their chance on swing and blues tunes. They seem to attract a pretty capable group of players -- better than the average jam session -- and are smart about gently kicking the uncertain and out-of-tune off the stage and letting those with talent stick around for a while. That show is only a $3 cover and it's a perfectly relaxing sort of atmosphere, ideal for Sundays when the weather isn't too nice. The Thai food is not outstanding -- they're heavy with the salt -- but it's decent.

Bangkok Blues is at 926 West Broad Street, aka Route 7. Call (703) 534-0095 for schedules and directions.

Deeper into Virginia, a weekend or two ago we headed to an afternoon of Broadway songs performed by University of Virginia opera students at the performing arts center in Carysbrook (Fluvanna County). It would be cruel to make too much of this performance, since they're amateurs, even if they were charging a lot more than Bangkok Blues.

What was notable, though, was how stiff the kids were. Their voices were pleasant enough, but their gestures were completely shopworn (e.g., putting their fingers over their mouths to suggest that they were giggling, etc.). The program's director is not a native of this country but has obviously absorbed many of our vaudeville traditions. The thing had that air of highbrow performers thinking they were slumming by performing these old tunes by Rodgers and Hammerstein and their ilk.

And so the young people sang all the notes but offered no emotion, translating "Younger Than Springtime" into a dirge by putting no lightness into interpreting the words. When Kristy Wohlford sang "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair," she was like a breath of fresh air because her phrasing was actually natural.

The whole exercise was reminiscent of an educational program Leonard Bernstein hosted long ago called "What Is Jazz?" He had some opera singer do a Bessie Smith tune, complete with stiff, on the beat phrasing and heavy vibrato. You have to be conversational, a little bit, singing these songs. Otherwise, it's as stiff as little kids reading poetry in a "grown-up" voice.