Haze from Sumatra Heat from Miami

Aka Behind every Dr. is a strong woman! 

A personal invitation from Debbie Wilson, the amazingly supporting and promoting spouse of Johnny James made me aware of the “Miami night at the Sultan”.  Johnny, by some better known as Dr. J, was going to perform with his daughter and son in law to be. At least that’s what I heard Dr. J say on Saturday he hoped him to become. The earlier announcement said Dr. J would be backed up by two high-energy individuals from Florida. Dr J, I observed before, has quite a bit of energy himself, in spite of the fact that he claims to be slightly older than I am. The stage usually is too small for him and during his performances he can often be found wondering the venue and beyond, playing his sax on a wireless mic. 

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To me that announcement sounded quite promising for a Saturday night on the town, but before all that high-powered fun we decided to have a relaxing dinner at Bodega y Tapas. The haze had mostly subsided so it was a perfect evening for an outdoor seat overlooking orchard road. The place is nicely located a little bit set back from the road, still close enough to get some dynamics from the traffic flow, yet far enough not to have the noise. I think it is nice that Bodega y Tapas, is back to its original format including some familiar faces. For us a perfect place to have a couple of glasses of wine and some nice tapas dishes. 

 When we arrived at the sultan a couple of hours and a few glasses of wine later, there was a jazz band playing. We caught only the tale end of it so cannot say too much about it but it sounded to me they had been sharing some relaxing jazz tunes with the audience. 

This was also the first time I saw Sultan Jazz having two events at one evening including separate cover. It also meant that we were early. For a four-piece band to get off stage and a seven-piece band to get back on that takes some plugging and tuning.

Brittany Starr James vocals

Chadwick Watkins vocals

Johnny James aka Dr. J Vocals Saxophone

G-man Drums

Sebastian Ho Guitar

Wei Tan Keys

William Gathright Bass

After a good 45 minutes though the band was ready to rumble and rumbling they did. The place was pretty much packed, but every one seemed to be able to settle in and ready for it. Johnny started off with some relaxing covers and some tunes instrumental compositions by him self, just what the doctor ordered to warm up the crowd for more Miami. 

The high-energy comment in the flyer was no understatement. Be it  a duet with Brittany and Chadwick, 

Johnny and Chadwick,

 Brittany and Johnny 

or  be it all three together, the audience couldn’t help it but move. It took only a little cajoling from the singers, to get a significant number of people dancing, in spite of the very limited space between the seating, It was clear that these performance were more used to getting a crowd of 500 and more on their feet than the smaller number of people that seemed already more that The Sultan’s capacity. 

Due to a late start and some 2 or three encores, it had gotten a bit later than usual at the Sultan, never the less the majority of the people that were there in the beginning was still hanging out, recovering from that Miami heat, what a show…slam dunk!