"Yes indeed, we're psyched," stated Ocean Avenue Stompers founder Ian Gray as he talked the band, Asbury Park, their upcoming June 1 appearance at Michael Arnone's Crawfish Festival and more.
Ocean Avenue Stompers have quickly become a staple along the Jersey Shore area, more specifically, Asbury Park, which they call their "Base of operations."
Comprised of a staggering number of players allowing them to have various branches off of their far reaching tree, "The Stompers" can and will not ever be considered conventional.
With the ability to be a "House band, a Wedding band, Brass band or a DJ Hybrid," these talented musicians offer more than meets the eye. With a pretty regular residency at Asbury Park's rBar, they can go small, medium or very big; such as the 32nd Annual Crawfish Fest being held May 30 through June 1 at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, NJ.
Recently Ian and guitarist James McCaffrey discussed all of the above, beginning with their interest in the New Orleans style music as well as the who and the how he put the band together.
"It's a crazy thing," began Gray. "Brass band music, New Orleans music has been a passion of mine for like 10 years and we really started doing our thing under the name Ocean Avenue Stompers during covid. I've been putting stuff together with brass band music and different stuff in Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey for well over 10 years but it's been about five years for the Stompers; actually we're celebrating our fifth year, it's crazy."
"That's a good question," he continued with a loud laugh. "James McCaffrey plays guitar with us; it's actually a good old network. I'm a trombonist and an aspiring singer, we have a couple of different vocalists, different trumpet players, tenor sax players, rhythm section players; there are actually about 40 of us believe it or not. We have interchangeable parts but we have a main lineup which plays in Asbury Park every Monday night at the rBar and there has been a good core of us for a year or two now playing every week. Some of us go out on tour for a month or two with our own projects and so the idea is to be a local to New Jersey project. We say we're based here in Asbury Park and I like to say I grew up here personally in a spiritual sense. My parents opened up a shop here in 2008 and our good family friend used to sponsor The Stone Pony Summer Stage and so my musical upbringing personally was here and it's where I met most of these cats that play in the band and who are some of my longest musical comrades. We've been seeing the same shows here since the early 2000s so while we're from Manasquan, Wall, South Orange and Red Bank, Asbury Park is where we meet up and that's why we say we're from here."
"40?" Most would think that's an insane and inoperable number to organize but for the Stompers it works and not only does it work for them and their music but seemingly for others in their music community.
"It's definitely a mixed bag. I went to French Quarter Fest a couple of weeks ago and what you stumble upon are legendary brass bands like Hurricane, Storyville, Nightcrawlers, Dirty Dozen, Rebirth and then you get into the brass band music and there is a whole world just within brass band music and then you get into the other side of things like The Meters, Lee Dorsey, Doctor John, up to Jon Cleary and Galactic. We're sort of a band here in New Jersey that tries to take on a good chunk of all of it which in New Orleans, one band does the thing; The Neville Brothers vs The Meters (Laughs). We're here in Jersey playing some brass band music, some R&B, some classic soul music while also trying to keep it Jersey. Our horn section goes out with different bands. We were just on the road for a couple of weeks with a Talking Heads tribute, last September we played with Bruce Springsteen at The Stone Pony for a couple of tunes; we all know his music but we weren't playing his music, we were playing classic rock tunes, Chuck Berry, Cream, some good old '60s jams. Here is a really good parallel in New Jersey; Sea, Hear, Now is organized not only by a New Orleans music fanatic Tim Donnelly but by like Danny Clinch and his famous photography career behind Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and all of them, Danny not only has the gallery in Asbury Park and a big part of all the music but he's also down at Preservation Hall and being a humongous part of their culture in New Orleans; that's one bridge right there. When Danny Clinch sent me "Boom Boom" which I know from "The Tunnel of Love" tour in 1988 when Bruce Springsteen brought five horns out with him, I was like, oh, we're about to play a set of music with Bruce Springsteen (Laughs). That was at a flattering Sea, Hear, Now after party named after our band called The Ocean Avenue Stomp and it's part of the festival. Bruce was headlining Sunday night and he rolled up Saturday night at The Pony. We knew he'd be there because we saw a lot of security and all that but we were told, learn this song and we'll see what happens. We played the first song, "Boom Boom" and six songs later and a rockin' 35 minute plus set backing up Bruce and then playing some blues with Robert Randolph and Grace Potter; it was quite the night. So, we're sort of starting like our own kind of jazz fest, French Quarter New Orleans culture here with Sea, Hear, Now and I think that's sort of the idea around the band, to be this sort of house band. People can call us for a horn section or a killer rhythm section to record an album or to collaborate; we're here to play anyone's music, that's sort of the project."
Already immensely popular here and abroad, they must have done their own recordings; right? Gray says, "Well..."
"The band is so new right now and what we've been doing is so new; we're here at the rBar and our first thing we're gonna put out is a "Live at The rBar" EP. We're trying to sort of document what we've been doing so people know what that is and put that out there on streaming services but from there, we're definitely planning on not only original music and collaborations; sort of like Galactic does, that's the idea to start doing some conceptual records where we're collaborating."
Obviously, the band has a definite plan to promote their music as well as themselves but without any product; how did they happen upon a slot at the upcoming Crawfish Fest?
"When we started the band," said Gray, "There were a couple of people who became loyal supporters right off the bat. It feels like we made this band; some people want to win a Grammy, some to tour the world, it feels like we started this band to play Crawfish Fest. It's a legendary festival here in New Jersey, I have a bunch of family up there in Sparta, Hackettstown, Augusta, Long Valley, I've been hearing about this festival all of my life and I don't think we've ever done a show where somebody hasn't come up to us and said, "Have you ever heard of Crawfish Fest? You guys would be perfect for that." So, we have a lot of amazing fans to thank for the opportunity to get in Michael's ear and to be considered for the lineup; let alone to get Sunday's lineup with all of the amazing musicians that are happening. The stage set is like 75 or 90 minutes, I'm sure we'll be hanging out at some camp sites and hanging out late at night, getting in on all of the fun because I know it's a little bit more than just the stage as I've been told; or at least it has been suggested to us that maybe we want to go and hang out with some folk (Laughs). We're psyched to be kicking off the day and knowing all of the bands there; I just got back from French Quarter Fest seeing Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Terence Simien, Marcia Ball and bands like Southern Avenue and all these amazing musicians; this whole festival lineup is just amazing."
Long before the Stompers, Gray cut his musical chops with some local heavyweights, leading him to where he is today; continuing to add to his resume but he's also not ashamed of the "Sound" of Asbury Park and how he happened upon it.
"We ended up starting this band, Remember Jones which at that time was a band with a 12 piece lineup and that was in 2015 and in April of 2015 we did an Amy Winehouse show and started touring and doing original music while at the same time, I was working with a guitarist from Minneapolis named Cory Wong and from there I've gone on to work with Little Steven Van Zandt & The Disciples of Soul when he decided to put that back together. Thanks to Marc Ribler, working with him and Darlene Love and most recently I've been touring with Patti LaBelle which has been a humongous honor. I got into that because I started subbing with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes at a really young age, I think I was like 22 or 23 and I think these New York cats seeing me down here in Asbury Park playing with an Asbury Park band and saying, "Cool, this music should probably get the torch passed at some point" and that's sort of like the vibe and the idea of Asbury Park. This town is just filled with amazing original music and original concepts and we all keep really busy with these opportunities. Like I said, Patti LaBelle calls or if I'm out on the road with whomever, if Cory needs me for a tour, it's great to be part of a project where I know I can call a trombone player who is 10 times better than me and have him come rock this band. That's sort of the idea, we're surrounding ourselves with really good musicians, trying to uphold a pretty high musical caliber here in Asbury Park, a town that has gone overshadowed by New York and Philly pretty much all of its lifespan. I think that's the idea, Philly is an underdog city, Southside will tell you, of his 50 year career of touring that there is something special about saying, you're from Asbury Park and people sort of get it; they seem to get the rock 'n' roll vibe that you're referring to. I love that book, "I Don't Want To Go Home" by Nick of The New York Times; it's so important because it really explains who is the sound of Asbury Park and Bruce, Gary Tallent will say, "There is no sound of Asbury Park" and the truth is, the real sound of Asbury Park is Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes and that's Steven Van Zandt's writing influenced by Sam & Dave. That's sort of like the DNA of this band, we don't sound like Southside, we're not writing tunes like Little Steven did in the mid-'70s and not covering Bruce that much."
So many pieces to this musical pie; is there a defined leader or main cog of the band?
"I like to think we all do or could; I definitely am when it comes to tax time," laughed Gray. "The thing is, we do a lot under the covers. We do jazz funerals, we do backyard parties, our brass band may be second lining a wedding from the beach to a wedding venue and our wedding band is playing another wedding down the block. That's sort of the idea of this band, to be able to provide a high quality musical service here on the Jersey Shore that people can depend on. We're not based just on solely one front person and if that person isn't there, we're not wanted. I like to think I'm the weakest link and I surround myself with the most talented musicians I know and I'm just lucky enough to try and start and end songs."
"I'm gonna stop him and jump in there," laughed McCaffrey. "He absolutely is the ring leader of all of us. Before he put this thing together, all of us from that big group of people from Philly and New York and all over the place, we all played together in many projects over the years; some of us even 15 or 20 years ago. There was not one single collective that brought all of that under one moniker and that's something Ian has done and it's really special because they are not only just a lot of players that we've all played with together, they are our closest friends. They are our friends and our family and by putting them under the Stompers name and making a name, it did give this identity that is very much synonymous with the town now and there is a lot of action associated with this town so, it's good to be a part of that but Ian is definitely the ring leader that brought it all together. Now, I'm gonna say, strike that from the record to keep him humble (Laughs), but it's definitely him and Ryan, it's their DNA that brought all of this together."
Crawfish Fest is a high energy, downhome affair that promises a rockin' good time; what does this unit have planned for their June 1 appearance?
"We're going for blood bro, we're going for blood," laughed Gray once again. "We're going to be somebody, I mean, c'mon, you can't be on the same day as Jon Cleary and this new record he just put out; I've been listening to that record non-stop and all I can think of is, how can I make a set that sort of honors some of the amazing New Orleans and American root DNA that's in that record? I don't know if you've checked it out yet, it's freaking fantastic and it just came out, it's called, "The Bywater Sessions" but yeah, horns, full band, maybe some special guests, that's the short answer. We're so good at interviews, aren't we? (laughs) We have a conversation with the crowd straight up. That's the theme of this band, we're reading the room. If we have a bunch of Jersey girls jumping in front of us, we're probably gonna play "Me and Julio by the Schoolyard" into something by Bruce (Laughs), we're just there to make everybody happy and have a good time. That's the vibe, we just let it all hang out and the people love watching the process. There is not a rehearsed 90 minute set, the setlist is subject to change up to the downbeat."
"Whatever happens, happens and it's fun," added McCaffrey, "Things can change in the midst of a song; it's an amorphous blob, it's a proving ground."
To discover more about Ocean Avenue Stompers, please visit https://www.oceanavenuestompers.com/
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
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