Change It Up Charlie – Gatsbys in Gahana, Ohio – 7/6/24
(I have to apologize for the less than excellent sound quality on this video. We were in a bad place regarding the speakers. I was simply testing the sound quality of the GoPro Hero 11 using the Media Mod microphone. Given this, I think the mic performs well.)
My good friend Rich and I are two jazz fanatics. It’s so good to find one. They’re hard to find these days. Both of us are from California and both have driven to Pittsburgh to hear Elian Elias or Indianapolis to hear Stacy Kent. Both of us have lived in Columbus for a number of years. Rich, steadily a lot longer than me who’ve bounced California and Ohio (my mother’s home state).
It is not as if we haven’t been out to the music scene in Columbus. Rich knows Columbus like the back of his hand and has explored virtually all of the city. When I first moved to Columbus (from Sonoma County) Rich and I spent much time together and became good friends. We went to hear a number of live events during those years. Great musical venues like the Woodlands Tavern nearby where I lived in Grandview or Dick’s Den on High Street when one of the greats performed there from time to time. Seldom announced much in advance.
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Rich has listened to possibly more music than I have. He has one of the most incredible stereo systems I’ve ever heard with a speaker bank of world class speakers driven by classic stereo components you can’t find anymore. (Although I must also claim I play music in my digital studio now)
I scan 614 Magazine and Columbus Underground for listings of jazz and blues events in town. Their recommendations are usually right on and remind me of the local newspaper of cultural news and events in the East Bay of Oakland and Berkeley: The East Bay Express. The standard in local reporting and journalism and music reviews at the time I lived in the East Bay.
We both hear about a group with the unusual name Change It Up Charlie almost at the same time it seems. I write Rich and he writes me about the group almost at the same time. Neither one of us refer to the others email.
A few weeks ago. I forget when I first heard about them I think it was on the local TV program Broad & High. Not sure where Rich heard about them.
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I send them an email to them asking where they are playing next and they write back at Gatsbys, July 6th. Rich and I drive over to Gatsbys in Gahana around 6:30 pm on 7/6. It’s been around for 40 years and has become an institution. I first came across it at my wife’s graduation class reunion. I loved the place. It reminded me of a bars I loved that fought looking “cool” by today’s standards. It was an “I don’t care attitude” about the rest of the world, a not uncommon Ohio attitude it seems to me.
There were the usual number of motorcycles in the parking lot when we arrived tonight around 6:45 pm for the 7 pm beginning of the band. Inside Gatsby’s up front, a reunion for the nearby Bexley high school class. They’re cramming the front patio of Gatsbys when we arrive. We go through the open side gate into the back outdoor patio part of Gatsbys. It has a small wooden fence and lights strung over it.
To the right in one corner is the band’s stage surrounded by picnic tables all over the place. In the middle of everything, a square bar. It seems appropriate that my video and Rich’s pictures would start out here to give one the context of things.
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A few minutes before the band starts. Intermittent clouds but without the intense heat of the past few days. Rich orders a tall Marguerita and I order a Yengling Light. We’re sitting at the square bar in the middle of the patio parking lot. We watch the band finish set up. Singer Holly is appropriately in patriotic red, white and blue garb.
Holly / The Powerful Voice of Change It Up Charlie
I had not been to the outdoor patio area before and thought that recording from the bar might not be a good thing as people began to fill the dance floor. So I said to Rich lets move to the picnic table on the right of the stage. Almost a part of the stage it was so close.
I set my Go Pro Hero 11 on the picnic table and operate it by the remote control device for the Go Pro. I have a twenty ounce Yengling in front of me on the picnic table when the band starts up on the above piece. The band plays for an hour and a half and they are every bit as good as we hoped they would be. I record six pieces in all. Jason Marquez, the bands harmonica player, does an amazing six minute blues pieces on his harmonica.
Jason Marquez / Photo by Richard Yost
Afterwards, Rich and I introduce ourselves to the group and there’s an immediate musical bonding with them. We meet their drummer Angela who looks like some quite PTA mom but is really a kick ass drummer recognized in Blues circles around the nation. We talk to Holly for a long time. There is a power and passion in Holly’s voice like few other singers today.
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After maybe fifteen minutes, and before the band goes on for their second set, we excuse ourselves and leave. It had been a 90 minute first set. I have six recordings on the GoPro and Rich almost 200 iPhotos on his iPhone from his moving around and getting photos of various band members up close. Captured at times of great musical expression. The evidence in the images of this post.
Thom Reed (Group Founder) / Photo by Richard Yost
Today, I put the six recordings and 25 photos into iMovie and to create this blog and video. Much was left out but one must leave a lot out today in order to be recognized over the constant distracting humming of life.
Bob Hamilton Lead Guitar / Photo by Rich Yost
For me, it’s the real thing I’ve heard on the Columbus music scene in a long time. The type of music Rich and I like. Blues, jazz. With south American bossa nova in much of it. Jobim. Others like Elias. With Change It Up Charle, there is the sound of a defiant, powerful singer backed by a powerful group of musicians. Lead singer Holly Schmidtt is spectacular as a star in her own right.
Holly Schmidtt / Photo by Richard Yost
A combination Helen Reddy and Janis Joplin as I quickly characterize Holly’s performance tonight in my mind. And this was without even attempting to compare her voice to modern jazz giants like Sarah Vaughn and Nancy Wilson. It was a strong voice that did not hesitate to move forward with vigor and speed and a clarity of purpose.
The Mascot of the Band (On Angela’s drums) / Photo by Richard Yost
In our world of fake news and AI, Change It Up Charlie is the real thing. Everyone in the band is a recognized musician with many years of experience. Holly’s voice seems to me a combination of great torch singers from the past as well as powerful out front singers for bands.
Holly and the Band / Photo by Richard Yost
Holly reminds Rich a lot of Anita O’day in her stage presence and emotive character. As Rich notes about Holly and the band in an email to me, “Anita had that sense of expression through full bodied somatic choreography that Holly exhibits. I too believe she has the vocal chops to succeed wildly if ever so inspired. But also knows the life of being on the road is one few aspire to, due to the demands, and fewer still succeed at. Holly’s vocal range is impressive as well as she can navigate scale of several stylings. The band is tight as they say. Owing to the long tenure of 15 years they have been in cohesion musically. Tight and talented as each member brings their own professionalism and abilities of many hours to the project. This ability is evident should you decide to take the time to sit, observe, and listen. A reward of time well spent in today’s world.”
Angela Kozarich drummer & Jason Marquez on Harmonica / Photo Richard Yost
Rich says the drummer Angela reminds him of Charlie Watts with a mastery of drums few have. Observing her, he says, one sees how a drummer looking relaxed progresses through her dimensional reality. “This is something Charlie had,” Rich notes, “that relaxed style of playing that says I am confident in what I do and am at ease with this setting always.”
Check their schedule on their site. They next play at Gatsbys August 17.
Change It Up Charlie at Gatsbys / Photo by Richard Yost
Allan Stull on Saxophone / Photo by Richard Yost