You may not realize it, but Straight Up With A Twist was, wasn’t, then was again, and is now at the heart of Retro Moderne Jazz. The name changes and the changing personnel over the years, over the decades, has both helped and hurt them. Still the core, the nerve center of this musical powerhouse is the duo that originally made up The Johnson & Johnson Trio — Michael “Johnson” LeFevre and Brian “Johnson” Newbury, keyboards & drums respectively.
It all started back in the late 1970s when LeFevre and Newbury began playing together just for fun, as a duo of piano + drums, that called themselves a trio. That was the joke. They were both music majors at the University of Dayton in Ohio. Under the tutelage of jazz music professor Larry Blocker, the two began developing their style; a style that really wasn’t around at the time, but which came to be known as Retro Moderne Jazz — the mixing of standards played in different styles than the one it was originally famous as, plus non-jazz tunes done in a jazz feel.
After going their separate ways, they hooked up again in Atlanta, GA, where they once again began playing as The Johnson & Johnson Trio. On and off they tried working with several local guitar players, most of whom wanted to take the band in a considerably more pronounced rock direction. Vocalists also became problematic.
The two kept their vision of Retro Modern Jazz as pure as possible. With the help of local musician-producer Bert Elliott, they made their first of several recordings. These early sessions are much sought after by archivists of the most obscure jazz genres.
Finally, in the early 1990s came a move to LA, where they have remain based presently. Also, finally, they found in Ken Pace a lead instrumentalist who shared their concept of “messing with” traditional jazz and non-jazz played jazzily.
Now they really were a trio, as the name implies. Almost immediately the three landed a regular weekly gig at Villa Roma in beautiful downtown Burbank. They were a Friday evening staple up until the place closed and the owner left town for Cancun with his partners’ money. Naturally, this leaves the trio with the occasional gig or party or picnic or whatever as their only current outlet.
Which is why they’ve happily and luckily turned to recording.
But not before the trio recently added Bernie ‘The Noodler’ Hooterman on vibes and became known as Straight Up with a Twist [a name that they all feel more accurately relates their style of music]. Hooterman, not unwellknown on the Desert Hot Springs music scene, brings his usual lanky style of play to what is already a pretty lanky sound.
As for recording, there were many abortive efforts made in the studio world, none of which panned out quite right for wont of a lengthy list if reasons. Having jumped from one label to another: first starting with Musica!Musica!, then getting signed at B# Records, then jumping back to Musica!Musica! — it’s no wonder they never had a chance to become the household name they’ve always deserved to be.
After a short stint at Arque in New Zealand, the group returned to Musica!Musica!, and landed finally at Minor Music. Minor disbanded a few short months later, so the band decided to expand keyboardist LeFevre’s radio production company — FeevCo — into also being their own record label. So far that has been working out just fine.
Embracing their significant contribution to what in the beginning was only a sub-category under a sub-heading in the overall jazz matrix, makes it all the more ideal that FeevCo Entertainment is releasing two CDs simultaneously: So Hip It’s Tedious and Sure Happy It’s Thursday. Both albums were recorded at FeevCo Studios in Shadow Hills, CA.
Both albums will be marketed on the internet, as well as at any forthcoming Straight Up with A Twist gigs. There have already been subsequent recording sessions, so a 3rd and 4th album are probably not far behind. And plans remain on the books to continue these often chaotic and spontaneous recordings in the future.