Gary U.S. Bonds Review

RED BANK--Resplendent in a glittery, sequined shirt, Gary U.S. Bonds smiled constantly on Friday night at the Count Basie Theater, laughing and joking with his audience.

"I'm wearing my 'Vegas' shirt," Bonds joked with his audience. Three or four tunes into his show with what sounded like a well-rehearsed backup band, he broke into a sweat and joked, "I'm gettin' too old for this."

Yet, Bonds and band, the House-party Rockers--including his wife and daughter on backing vocals, guitarist Mark Leimbach, drummer Gary Weiss, bassist Zerrick Foster, saxophonists Joey Stann and Jim Wecker--played on for a full hour and 20 minutes. Bonds rushed about to all corners of the stage, gazing into the front rows of his audience, working the stage like the veteran he is.

Bonds began his singing career in the late 1950's in his native Norfolk, Va., and topped the R&B and pop charts with songs like "New Orleans," "Quarter To Three" and "Dear Lady Twist" in the early 1960's.

Bonds and company shone on "New Orleans," "I Need A Job (I'm Outta Work)" "Daddy's Come Home" and "This Little Girl," a tune written for him by Bruce Springsteen. Bond's voice was reminiscent of Sam Cooke as he reached for the higher register and sang behind the beat on "Daddy's Come Home." That song, co-written with Springsteen bandmate-producer-impresario-actor Little Steven Van Zandt, was punctuated by Bond's soaring vocals and Joey Stann's full-bodied saxophone solos.

Between tunes, after noting that almost every member of his band lives in New Jersey, he joked with the audience: "Can I move to Monmouth?" The audience roared back, "Yes!" "It's cheap to live here isn't it?" he asked, and they roared back, "NO!!"

After singing his more familiar fare like "New Orleans" and "This Little Girl," during which he sauntered over to his daughter and put his arm around her, Bonds tried out a newer song on his audience, "Caught In a 1950's Kind of Mood."

"I was going to sing a song by the Shirelles," he told the audience, "but then I looked around here and realized there aren't gonna be that many people who know who I'm talking about," he said, commenting on the relatively young age of the crowd. Bonds then wondered aloud if his audience was old enough to remember the Elegants, the Duprees and the Capris.

After a rollicking rendition of "Quarter To Three" that had some in the audience dancing in the aisles, Bonds and band came back for an encore. They closed the show with a new tune from Bond's forthcoming album of roadhouse and swing blues. Bonds sang a stunning version of Delbert McClinton's "Roll of the Dice" that would have made the Texas-raised bluesman proud.

Friday's concert was a fundraiser for Ricky Ashmore, an 8-year-old from Keansburg with muscular dystrophy.

Richard Skelly
Asbury Park Press
10/05/99

Offramp Review

There are several names which come to mind, when thinking about the jazz-fusion trio Offramp,-but the lyrical sound of guitarist Dan Palladino begs for comparison to Jeff Beck. Mouse Hound, the second song on the demo, offers the most powerful example of Palladino's guitar passion-it's voice paints a clear, driving image reminiscent of King Crimson. This is not surprising though, because Palladino also uses some riffs very much in the style of Robert Fripp's post-Crimson Crafty Guitar on the lovely As She Sleeps.

Offramp really lets go on Ralph and Ed's Boogie, a piece with a rich variety of moods that best shows the talents of bassist Greg Novick on his chilling, no-holds-barred solo, and drummer Gary Weiss whose sharp precision is the backbone for the song's intoxicating beat. Overall, Offramp moves jazz-fusion with a force of rich textures that begs for more to be heard.

Billy Kaplan-The Splatter Effect

Offramp Review

They make no qualms about it. This is fusion, not veiled under any other pretense as bands so often do in trying to avoid the "F" word. What can be the label of death and compromise to many is a flag of honor for Edison, New Jersey's own Offramp. A taut, powerful, skilled, creative, you name it trio, Offramp is the pinnacle of good fusion for the '90's-not merely a retrospective rehashing of what has preceded them in the field. Describing themselves as a unique hybrid of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, the triumvirate submits an impressive four-tune demo of their work, leaving little doubt that they're the best at what they do in their locale.

Guitarist Dan Palladino, a graduate of Berklee College of Music, is the band's principal songwriter. With a Hendrix blues/rock edge and a tradition firmly ensconced in bebop, Dan's solos spell out the forms nicely, while stimulating the tunes with his signature energy.

Greg Novick (bass) has been active on the Jersey club circuit during the past decade and also has that balanced primal/educated duality in his playing, with lean, aggressive funk lines and his own "Chopsian Modal System" of advanced theoretical know-how. Gary Weiss (drums) rounds out the crew with alert, responsive playing, as comfortable in odd time signatures as swinging over a bop tune. In 1979, he won the Slingerland/Louis Bellson Drum competition and currently is a member of the Staten Island Alumni Stage Band, which plans to tour the Soviet Union.

The group's recording sounds live, with a minimum of overdubbing, maintaining the freshness of the tunes. As intricate as certain passages become, the band allows the material to breathe, using space as well as sound. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Offramp is their ability to build and release tensions and to create seamless transitions between disparate elements-the litmus test of any great fusion band.

Le Marquis de Rhythm
Rhythm Magazine
April 1990