Davina & the Vagabonds at Miner Auditorium, March 8, 2020

SFJAZZ presents Davina & The Vagabonds, and the Hot Club of Cowtown
Robert M. Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:00 PM, Sunday, March 8, 2020

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2020 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2020 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:01 PM; lights down; band out; Introduction from the SBD]

1. [7:02 PM] Stay a Little Longer (all)
2. [7:06 PM] Oklahoma Hills (all)
3. [7:10 PM] It's Only a Paper Moon (EJ)
4. [7:13 PM] Far Away Blues (instrumental)
5. [7:16 PM] Along The Navajo Trail (WS)
6. [7:20 PM] Accentuate the Positive (WS)
7. [7:23 PM] Lover Man (EJ)
8. [7:26 PM] Shame on You (all)
9. [7:30 PM] Chinatown (WS)
10. [7:35 PM] I'll Be Seeing You (WS)
11. [7:38 PM] Don't Fence Me In (all)
12. [7:42 PM] J'attendrai (instrumental)
13. [7:46 PM] Ida Red (WS)
    [7:49 PM; add Dan Eikmeier: trumpet]
14. [7:49 PM] They Took the Stars Out of Heaven (EJ)
    [7:52 PM; add Connor McRae: drums]
15. [7:53 PM] Autumn Leaves (EJ)
    [7:55 PM; add Davina Sowers: piano]
16. [7:56 PM] It Had To Be You (WS)
    [set ends 8:00 PM… all off for break!]

Hot Club of Cowtown

• Jake Erwin: contrabass, lead & harmony vox;
• Elana James: violin, lead & harmony vox;
• Whit Smith: hollow-body electric guitar, lead & harmony vox.

• Dan Eikmeier: trumpet;
• Connor McRae: drums;
• Davina Sowers: piano.

[8:21 PM; lights down; introduction from the SBD; band out; opening remarks from Davina]

1. [8:23 PM] When My Sugar Walks Down the Street (DS)
2. [8:26 PM] Four or Five Times (DE)
   [8:31 PM; introduction by DS; drop BL]
3. [8:32 PM] As Time Goes By (DS)
   [8:38 PM; introduction by DS; BL returns]
4. [8:39 PM] Is You Is, or Is You Ain't, My Baby (DS)
   [8:42 PM; drop DE; Davina introduces the rest of the band]
5. [8:43 PM] I'm Beginning to See the Light (CM)
   [8:46 PM; introduction by DS; DE returns]
6. [8:47 PM] Good Morning Judge (DE)
7. [8:50 PM] I Wonder (DS)
   [8:55 PM; DS/CM song story]
8. [8:56 PM] Boogie-Woogie Na Favela (CM)
9. [9:00 PM] The Patty Cake Man (DS)
10. [9:03 PM] That Old Black Magic (CM/DS)
    [9:07 PM; drop DE, BL, GB; add Hot Club trio]
11. [9:07 PM] Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry (DS)
    [9:11 PM; everybody back for the finale]
12. [9:11 PM] Caldonia (CM)
    [9:14 PM; set ends; group bow; all off; back in a minute or two]
    
    Encore
13. [9:17 PM] Hey, Good Lookin' (DS)
    [show ends 9:19 PM; waves and then out to the merch tables]

Davina & the Vagabonds

• Greg Beyers: contrabass;
• Dan Eikmeier: trumpet, lead & harmony vox;
• Ben Link: trombone, harmony vox;
• Connor McRae: drums, lead & harmony vox;
• Davina Sowers: piano, , lead & harmony vox.

Hot Club of Cowtown

• Jake Erwin: contrabass;
• Elana James: violin;
• Whit Smith: hollow-body electric guitar.

Despite the psychic pall of the looming existential threat posed by COVID-19, and a really annoying case of spring allergies (brought on, no doubt, by the rain a few days ago stimulating the plants to start unloading pollen as fast as they could) we stuck to our schedule of a Sunday night swing show at SFJAZZ. Driving over was a concession to worries – a BART trip seemed to be unwise from a general exposure standpoint – and while it was an easy trip, parking seemed a little tough for a Sunday evening: maybe the free spots were all taken up by residents staying home instead of being out and about like normal? Anyways, a little creativity solved that problem, and being early (light traffic, yay!), we quarantined ourselves in the car to kill time instead of heading out the hall.

The hall was decently full – maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the house? Hard to know whether to attribute empty seats more to the health scare or lack of big-name draw from the two bands.

I was really psyched for the show. Billed as a tribute to the Post-WWII jump-blues and swing hits of 1945 (this being the 75th anniversary of that year), the two bands delivered a heaping helping of hopping good tunes. I would have preferred that the event was billed as a dance show – after all, it's really hard to stay still when that bass get's a-thumping – but I did my best to stay still and dance in my head until the finale, when a few other folks decided to get up offa that thing with Caledonia.

Looks like I'll be seeing Cowtown again in a few months – they were just announced as one of the two supporting acts for Bob Dylan's summer tour. Wonder if ol' Bob will bring them on for A-11 or some other honky tonk tune? Yay! Something to look forward to!!

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2020 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2020 event list! ☸ On to the next event!