Chris James Trio - cont'd.
The Chris James Trio touted a song repertoire that was flexible and deep with nearly all styles of music (except opera and cumbias). This provided more opportunities for lucrative bookings. Their flexibility of music styles worked to their advantage like this: if the trio arrived at a country club dinner dance or church social, sometimes they would be surprised by 'the Geritol set' of elderly seniors in attendance, But this presented no problem for the boys. They could custom pick appropriate songs on the spur of the moment in order to appease any specific audience's taste. No other bands around could play the broad spectrum of jazz to rock to swing band tunes from the 1940's. Ninety five percent of other No. California bands played only one, strict music style.
And this was the winning formula for the Chris James Trio. Another skill they were known for was performing great dinner music. This stemmed directly from Chris James' prolific piano work with jazz, big band, and pop standards from the 1930's, through the '40's, 50's and 60's. Plopping a thick, heavy binder of sheet music on the music rack above the keyboard of the grand piano meant the band's depth of music was light years ahead of any other band in Northern CA. No request from an elderly audience member would end in disappointment. If the song was good for that particular crowd, the band could play it!
But then the most entertaining part of their show started by picking up the pace for energized sets of dancing after dinner. The Chris James Trio was a refreshing relief for drummer, Scott Ebright. He had spent the prior decade playing drums and singing in slick, Vegas type show bands and music tributes. And these bands all exhibited tightly scripted stage lighting cues, fast costume changes and some choreography. But now...at last, Scott no longer felt the pressure (or boredom) to deliver a canned show. Spontaneity was the key!
Scott let Chris call the shots for mood changes in their act to pick up the energy. Only once per night, band leader Chris James would turn to Scott behind the drums and say off-mic, "Rocky Snow?" Scott would nod and quickly depart the stage.
"The Rocky Snow Show was a campy, funny shtick based on an imaginary 1950's styled Disc Jockey with a guady wardrobe and flamboyant ego. Chris and Mick would keep playing a ballad for people to dance to. This disguised the absence of Scott from the stage. About 4-5 minutes later, Chris would make an announcement about a special celebrity guest he would like to present for all to see. Then he'd play that all familiar theme from American Bandstand TV show. Suddenly, a spotlight would hit "Rocky Snow" (Scott) as he hopped up unto the stage, grabbed the mic with ferocious intent, and then spewed out a machine gun, rapid delivery of hip, teenage jive patter keyed into the mindset of teenagers from the 50's. It was a nonstop barrage of cool 50's - 60's words and phrases.
His patter went something like this: "You're listening to the station that's makin' this a rock and roll nation, K-R-O-K. And now it's time to tell you keen teens out there in radio land to lock your wig hats on, let the air out of your shoes, and keep your feet a dancin' as we get on the move with this number one tune....blah, blah, blah....."
And then the trio knocked out a volley of energetic songs from that era for about 15 minutes total time. Audiences LOVED THIS SHOW and wide smiles and laughter could be heard all across the room. On certain lucky nights, Rocky Snow would host a "Freeze Dance". Everyone would begin a fast dance, but whenever Rocky gave a squeezed a quick blat from the rubber squeeze horn, the music suddenly stopped,
Everyone on the dance floor had to hold their complete bodies motionless, and if anyone jiggled in the smallest way, they were ceremoniously kicked off the dance floor by Rocky Snow. The last remaining couple to never move at the horn signal was declared the winner.
