If your toes don’t start tapping to this video, your shoes are too tight!
Za Zu Zaz has been making finger-snapping, toe-tapping musical sunshine for more than 30 years. Charter members Grover Kemble, Machan Taylor and Dave Miller will celebrate this enviable legacy on Friday, May 27, at The Minstrel in Morris Township.
We caught up with them rehearsing in the “Green Room” — Grover’s lawn. This Cab Calloway tune should answer the question of where these cool cats got their name.
“There’s a lot of dust and rust. This is fraught with mistakes…and we’re having a really good time making them!” said Grover.
The guitarist honed his musical chops touring with Sha Na Na in the early ’70s. He fine-tuned his jazz/swing/bop sensibilities during six years as front man for Za Zu Zaz, and in stints at the Jazzkeller in Frankfurt, Germany. Back home in Morris County, he has been generous with his musical gifts–mentoring kids bands such as The Jersey Girls and using music to help patients at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, where he was recreation director for 25 years. Once in awhile, he plays for lucky fans at Shanghai Jazz in Madison.
“It’s a passion. It’s something you really can’t stop,” Grover told aspiring performers at our MG Songwriters Night.
Machan, who was known as Margret back when Za Zu Zaz was playing the Newport Jazz Festival and Wolf Trap, has toured or recorded with Sting, Aretha Franklin, George Benson and Pink Floyd, among others. Her resume includes film appearances and loads of TV and radio jingles. What worlds are left to conquer?
“We’re working on a tour, actually, of nursing homes,” Machan deadpanned.
Cruise ships, corrected Dave, the bass player.
Dave has performed with John Pizzarelli, recorded voiceovers with Annie Ross, and studied bass with Rick Laird of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He works at Rutgers in the Mason Gross School of the Arts, making sure the keyboards sound their best.
If we have one knock against Z³, it’s that we don’t see nearly enough of these bop masters. Since their heyday in the late ’70s and early ’80s, they come around with the regularity of … Halley’s Comet.
Friday’s reunion, in other words, is one of those rare, celestial events that should not be missed.
Za Zu Zaz performs on May 27 at 8 p.m. at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, 21 Normandy Heights Road in Morris Township. Tickets are $25, and they are going fast. Call 908-591-6491 or visit the Folk Project website for more details.
VIDEO: GROVER KEMBLE SINGS HIS BIO AT MG SONGWRITERS NIGHT
VIDEO: JERSEY GIRLS SING ‘I’M CHANGING’ AT MG SONGWRITERS NIGHT
Celestial, yes.
It’s in the stars that I’ll be there tonight.
Open sandals so you can see my toes tappin.’
Grover and Za Zu Zaz together again! It is a WONDERFUL THING …
They had it then and they still have it now. Can’t wait to hear them tonight at their Uniterian Fellowship gig.
Love it! You are right, Alan – simple and just plain great….
Thanks, Alan. Za Zu Zaz could sound great in a phone booth… they are really something.
It’s amazing how great 3 voices, 2 guitars and a bass can sound, even in a backyard setting
Great stuff Kevin!!!!!