ON the Beat | Shiny Musical Gifts, Locally-Sourced

This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on December 14, 2023. To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox each Thursday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

This was the year that beloved band leader and hip party ringleader Spencer Barnitz hit the big screen as the deserving subject of Robert Redfield’s fine documentary More than Just a Party Band. The documentary, which screened at the New Vic, Alcazar Theater, and the Ojai Film Festival, beautifully chronicles the tale of the triumphs and struggles of veteran Santa Barbara music spark plug Barnitz, going back to his days in the ’80s band The Tan and the keeps-on-chugging life force that is Spencer the Gardener.

An important component of the umbrella project was the creation of a polished new album, aptly named Shine On and produced by Emile Milar, which has hit the streets/data portals and reminds us that STG is alive and kicking and moving forward, rather than resting on laurels. A gem in this band’s discography (fallow since 2012’s Breaking My Own Heart), Shine On tills STG’s familiar musical soil, but with richer, more lived-in fruits and a keen balance of studio sheen and natural grit.

Barnitz kicks the eight-song album into proper gear with “Carolina,” admitting a certain genre affection with the line “Cumbia is the rhythm I ride.” They ride it again on the album in varying degrees, especially on the hopelessly infectious “To the Sea.” “Hello Moon” is a moody, moon-y sweetie of a song, with major 7th chords lining its key refrain and coda, “shine on, shine all alone.” A sensitive singer-songwriter persona shows up in Barnitz’ moving song “Tragedy of Dreaming,” a one-that-got-away love ode, before the rollicking retro-now loper “Disappear”  — with its savory vocal layering. The stripped-down album finale “Where do Dreams Go” sports only Spencer, armed with only voice and strummed acoustic guitar in lo-fi mode, as if the product of one of his countless beach-going jaunts at Hendry’s.

Although he is front and center as quirkily unique singer and songwriter, Spencer couldn’t do it alone: STG features a potent and soulful pack of allies, a baker’s dozen of participants including longtime members John Schnackenberg (tenor sax), Gary Sangenito (bass), Nate Birkey (trumpet, commuting from his NYC home), guitarist Rob Taylor, and vocalists Liz Barnitz (his singsome sister), and Lynette Snow.

STG’s well-oiled machine of a band, representing on the album, also includes drummer Robert Rachelli, conguero Cougar Estrada, trombonist SkaBone Stan Morrison, violinist Nicole Mackenzie and Mr. Squeezeboxer Brett Larsen. 

The upshot of Shine On is that STG is still much more than a party band, riding the cumbia/surf/spy/funk/soul/what-have-you train into a still-promising future.

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Transferring to Golden Year Mode

There was clearly something bittersweet about last week’s Lobero Theatre appearance by vocal quartet Manhattan Transfer, on its “50th Anniversary and Farewell Tour.” Underlying that farewell feeling, though, was a sense of gratitude for their service and an appreciation for the fact that, on their watch, the joint was jumpin’ for two hours.

The group, focused on its often intricately organized and harmonized four-part charts and joined by a rhythm section, ran through a nostalgic summary of its public life. In effect, they were a band outta’ time upon arrival in the ’70s, stirring up the nostalgic — and challenging — sound of such jazz vocal groups as Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. They went on to take a stab at the then-popular “sophisto-soul” sound of the late ’70s/early ’80s, Brazilian music and other side trips, accounted for in the career-sweeping concert. A brittle sound mix got in the way of fully savoring the group’s trademarked vocal clarity, but the musical message prevailed.

The Lobero show officially ended with their hip hit, “Birdland,” the classic Joe Zawinul/Weather Report tune, with projections in homage to jazz legends and 52nd Street lore. Encores got down to the simpler, get-down business, closing with “Tequila” — but juiced up with a few sneaky modulations. The Transfer can’t help but throw in a few musical curve balls in the line of duty. Or couldn’t help. Unless, of course, a post-retirement rebirth is in store.

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Doing the Hallelujah

The Santa Barbara Choral Society has done their host city a great favor by making the variety show concept of its “Hallelujah Project” a cherished part of the 805 season. Led by veteran director JoAnne Wasserman, the ninth annual affair took over the Lobero last weekend, bolstered by sublime Bach (Magnificat) and featuring a few charming songs with the youth-fueled Sing! ensemble. Dishwalla vocalist Justin Fox was tapped for the job as the reader in the rocking chair, in the customary, orchestrally-dressed up reading of The Night Before Christmas, replete with rapt children onstage and Santa roaming the aisles and Christmas tree down front.
        
Once again, the “Project” proved to be a felicitous holiday blend, mixing religious genuflections, token Hanukkah songs, and Christmas kitsch, to boot. And the musical resources were primed and well in order.

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TO-DOINGS

For those of us craving the natural flourishing of choral music around this time of year, this weekend’s highlight is Quire of Voyces in the annual return of this luminous and vibe-alicious (yes, we can use that term for Renaissance-to-Modern a cappella music) outfit. Founding director Nathan Kreitzer has kept the faith, and the deeply musical ensemble going for 30 years, and their “Mysteries of Christmas” program is a strong tradition in a Santa Barbara Christmas season. It helps, too, that the prevailing venue of the St. Anthony’s Chapel (at Garden Street Academy) — tucked up and away from the Everyday — supplies a sacred, reverberant, and spacious ambience.

Samara Joy brought along the family for a spectacular concert at The Granada Theatre last Friday (see review here), mixing the Grammy-winning jazz sensation’s local debut with a special sidebar of holiday “joy” featuring her gospel music-gifted family. Speaking of gospel music with Christmas in mind and in voices, SOhO is a go-to spot on Sunday, December 17, at noon: local artist and teacher Miriam Dance will lead the MDance & Friends Holiday Gospel Brunch. Taste is a doubly-relevant term here. (Read Rebecca Horrigan’s story here).