The Music Forums > Jazz and Blues Cafe
BLUE RATS....95'-present.a decade of blues
blues2death:
so they start rehearsing. SRV, BB king, Muddy waters...you name it...it was an encyclopedia of blues and rock n'roll.
first gig...it was like an audition gig.the bar?hobbit house..known for it's midget staff,frequent home for struggling artists and media who's who.
audition? the blue rats didnt care..all they thought about was having a blast playin the music that they hold in their hearts...it was a 'joke'.i have just been corrected that the rats who were there only knew 4 songs :lol: .
they rocked, they rolled , they conquered...hobbit house offered them a regular friday slot.
panic time...
although, they enjoyed and had a great time in their firsts gigs...it was apparent that their dayjobs were gonna present a problem.priorities w/school, job and dayjobs.scheduling the growing number of gigs :lol: .the only solution would be, get musicians who actually did it for a living :lol: to support and augment the band when certain key members weren't around.
so enter the UST musicians...of which i was a part of ...joining what would become the nucleus for the early lineup(s) of the Blue Rats.
blues2death:
on vocals...Trice Gomez
on lead guitar---Butch R.
rythm guitar--A.L.
bass guitar--Apa
Ust musicians who joined:
sax:Joe Ingarra, New Yorker sax player who was a former navy service man who actually went here when there was a naval base in olongapo.also a member of the Navy's Orchestra or Band or whatever.came here in the mid 90s.discovered by butch...the rest was history.
apparently, apa and AL had jobs who werent as flexible as butch's.so butch took it upon himself to find replacement musicians who could fill in when apa and AL couldnt play.
keyboards: JJ Coloma
bass: Percy Bautista
drums: Houdini
enter me...yes that's right.ako pa din ang bida...well i only know how i joined the band..medyo hazy ang memory ko sa iba...so sorry po..hehe
i started out as a student of classical guitar in UST.where i had butch as my teacher.it was ok nung una...but i never showed my powers in electric guitar on campus.strict classical e.
so sometimes butch would catch me practicin blues on my nylon string during our lessons.sasabihin nya.."ano yan?"...wala po, medyo pampatanggal antok lang.
eventually joined the ust jazz ensemble....butch saw me play there...and then i got invited to play w/blue rats.
blues2death:
so there you go :
first line up of blue rats:
trice gomez-vox
AL--rhythm guitars
Butch--lead guitars
Apa--bass guitars
Joe--sax
me--'3rd'guitar player--classical guitar student gone bad.. :twisted:
nyahahahahaha
JJ coloma--keyboards,classical pianist who learned to play them blues in the process.got barrelhouse piano licks and tricks up the wazoo.and also delved into harp for further studies.not 'blues harp' mind you....but the really big one, that you see played by tadao hayashi. :lol: JJ was great playin his organ...not his organ mind you :lol: but the hammond b3 type...of course he did it with a synthesizer...not a real hammond organ.
Houdini--drums..yes his name is houdini.he would really escape the world with his music...i met him in the UST jazz band...great chops.would always remember his first name. have no luck rememberin his last though.but he is a very good drummer..big part of the reason that the blue rats 'swinged' harder then great big axe in a red wood forest.
Percival Bautista--bass...who actually played a stinkin mean upright blues bass guitar...it didnt hurt that he had jazz chops to spare.also a member of the UST jazz ensemble.acting as the 2nd person in the blue rats swing part invention..haha...big jazz manner in a small package, that was how percy was.
played fridays at hobbit house....the occasional wedding and party...the once a week gig in hobbit became fri and sat...also an unplugged set in the grand boulevard hotel back to back with jun lopito...budhha i still have the flyers man....
exciting time for me...coz i got to meet my heroes...had a great time...and it was blues university for me....
deltaslim:
... great stuff... can't wait for the next episodes... :-)
blue buddha:
Me too, me too.... I can't wait for the next episodes too! :lol:
You're doing pretty well b2d... Percy's last name is Bautista (last seen on a Norwegian Cruise Ship as part of the house band). Can't remember Hodini's last name... Don't forget Cesar in your next episode....
And you forgot to mention that the "audition" at Hobbit was really done as a joke more than anything else. The band knew 4 songs -- that was literally it. That they even hired the Rats was ludicrous....
O continue, continue.....
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