One of the most memorable and surprising local
shows I’ve seen this year had to be the short, contest-winning
set the Detroit blues band Chef Chris & His Nairobi Trio delivered in February at
the New Daisy Theatre during the finals of the Blues Foundation’s International
Blues Challenge. Surrounded by five other finalists who (outside of the local entry,
the Handy Three) were accomplished but dull representations of different
contemporary blues styles, this motley bunch from
the Motor City flaunted convention by their mere presence.
Eschewing flashy solos and show-off indulgences, this lean, mean four-piece
offered lovingly deconstructionist takes on classics like Bo Diddley’s “Who Do
You Love?” and Johnny Cash’s “Folsom
Prison Blues” alongside highly original
originals. The band its name taken from a skit by anarchic early television icon Ernie
Kovacs also demonstrated a singular sense of style to go with their endearingly
oddball music. Drummer Vinnie D’Cobra looked like heavy-metal wildman Tommy
Lee’s little brother; bass player “Brother”
Bill Lewis sat down the whole time and barely moved; guitarist Sir Tim DuValier
was decked out in a leopard-print fezz and a red feather boa; and leading the way
was the gargantuan Chef Chris in a shiny brown suit, shinier red boots, yellow polka-dot
tie, cowboy hat, and massive goatee.
The band ended its set with a drawn-out story song in which Chef Chris
detailed the herculean task of making crawfish gumbo for his sweetie (“I get all
kinds of cayenne pepper/I like to see my baby sweat when she eats the gumbo”).
The song culminated in the double (though “double” seems too restricting)
entendre chant of “Eat the tail/Suck the
head,” which could have been an obnoxiously winking punchline in other hands
but was transformed into something like awe or bewilderment or mysticism by
Chef Chris. It even drew a standing ovation from much of the crowd. The
whole thing was sublimely weird. With the David Thomas/Crocus
Behemoth-like frontman leading the way, this band
must be what Pere Ubu would have sounded like as a bar-blues band.
Speaking by phone from Michigan, Chef Chris reveals that the band had
been just a part-time gig for the last four years, becoming a more serious pursuit only
in the past year.
“I live in this little farm community called Manchester,” Chef Chris
says. “There’s this little dive bar by the
lake, and there’s a real Harley biker culture there. Well, you combine that with
all the farmers around and it’s an interesting mix. On Sundays, people are
really looking to let loose, and we’ve been playing what we call ‘the matinee’ every
Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m. That gig has really given us an opportunity to
experiment. We take all the different ideas and
influences that each member brings to the band and let it rip on Sundays.”
Chris says he was raised with blues and jazz in his house but that his interest in
the music was cemented when, as a teenager, he saw B.B. King perform, an
experience that he calls “life-changing.” The
other members of the band unsurprisingly, given the extremely eclectic and
idiosyncratic flavor of the band’s music bring decidedly different influences into the
mix. Chris says that guitarist DuValier is a metal and punk fan equally enamored with
the Stooges and Howlin’ Wolf. Drummer D’Cobra was actually the frontman
for mid-’90s modern rockers Sponge, who had a couple of massive alt-radio hits. And
bassist Lewis is an ex-Nashville cat who used to play for Pam Tillis.
And the Chef really is one a 20-year vet of the culinary trade who achieved
minor celebrity in the Detroit area for the gumbo he prepared for a restaurant in
the upscale suburb of Birmingham. It was this experience that led to “Crawfish
Gumbo,” the band’s epic signature tune, which
Chris says will occupy their entire 10-minute Handy Awards slot. During a
practice, Chris recalls, Lewis was fiddling with a
bass line and Chris began reciting his gumbo recipe over the music, eventually added
the narrative about a lady friend, and turned it into a full-fledged song.
The band ended up in Memphis after entering and winning a Detroit blues
battle and being approached by the Canada South Blues Society, which was looking for an
area band to represent at the International Blues Challenge. Chris says that the band
has already felt the impact of winning the Blues Foundation’s contest: an upswing in
bookings and much more attention from club owners and festival organizers,
attention that is sure to increase from the
exposure the band will get on the Handys. The experience has certainly been a catalyst
for some of the competition’s past winners, including Sean Costello, Susan
Tedeschi, and last year’s winner, Memphian Richard Johnston.
The band may have seemed unlikely contenders, but Chef Chris insists he
had a pretty good feeling about it the whole time. “After reading the instructions,
what the judges were looking for, I felt pretty confident that we would do well,” he
says. “They were looking for originality.
They said that doing covers was fine, but they didn’t want you to do covers note for
note. Well, original music is our thing, and whenever we do covers, we twist it
around quite a bit. When we do ‘Folsom Prison Blues,’ it’s not anything like how
Johnny Cash did it. My goal was just to get to the finals, but once we did, I told the guys,
‘It’s just us and five other bands, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t win.'”
After being announced the winner, Chef Chris says that D’Cobra
expressed the thoughts of the rest of the band and, incidentally, this
writer as well: “Vinnie commented after the contest that he thought it was
brave of the judges to vote the way they did, because we are not your typical
blues band.”
Chef Chris & His Nairobi Trio
The Handy Awards
Thursday, May 23rd
The Pig on Beale
Friday, May 24th, through
Sunday, May 26th
Huey’s Midtown
Sunday, May 26th, 4 p.m.