Big band swing music circa 1940s saw a contemporary update through Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s Wild and Swingin’ Holiday Party. They kicked off their tour with their second gig at the Center for the Arts on Dec. 4.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is celebrating 15 years together as a group, with all original members performing for UW-Platteville. The band has three studio CD’s, and just before the band went on tour, they finished their fourth studio CD.

Graphic by Jessica Vretenar
The bells were ringing and the audience was swinging during the holiday show put on by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at UW-P on Dec. 4.

Songs that were performed were a mixture of original music and other songs. Their original music includes “You and Me and the Bottle Makes 3 tonight (Baby),” “Santa Clause Boogie,” “A Party for Santa” and “Christmas Time in Tinsel town.” Other songs that they performed were “I wanna be just like you” from the Jungle Book and “Mr. Heatmiser/Mr. Snow Miser.”

Two sets of partners and a young child got up to swing dance in front of the stage during an original song performance. The front stage was removed so that anyone who felt the need to get up and dance had the opportunity to do so.

“I have been looking forward to this all week,” Kaitlin Tschanz, freshman communication technologies major, said. “I kept looking at my clock today, saying ‘come on’.”

Photograph by Kate Olsen

“I almost jumped out of my chair. I’m a music major so anything music is great,” Alaina Leahy, sophomore music education major, said.

The band is made up of nine members: Scotty Morris, the vocalist and guitarist; Joshua Levy, the pianist; Andy Rowley, saxophonist; Karl Hunter, saxophonist and clarinet; Glen Marhevka, trumpeter; Tony Bonsera, trumpeter; Jeff Harris, trombonist; Dirk Schumaker, upright bassist; and Kurt Sodergren, the drummer.

Morris started a three-piece jazz, blues and swing combo in 1989, which included Sodergren. He named the group Big Bad Voodoo Daddy after Albert Collins, a blues guitar legend, had signed one of Morris’ posters “To Scotty, the big bad voodoo daddy” after one of his concerts. Morris liked the name and it stuck with him ever since, even after forming the rest of the band.

When asked why he got into music, Morris said that music was very important to him and that Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and other early big band leaders were his influences.

“I felt like I didn’t have any other choice, music was in me,” Morris said.

For more information, visit Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s Web site at bbvd.com.