Speaking the Groove Lingo By Eric Brace Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 26, 1999

Bossalingo, led by guitarist Mike Harris, gets into the groove Monday nights at Chi Cha Lounge in Northwest. (By Tyler Mallory for The Washington Post)

One of the best local releases in recent years, the three-month-old CD is a calm, atmospheric affair, featuring such known songs as "One Note Samba" and "Autumn Leaves," side by side with some Harris originals. "That CD is more romantic and soft," says Harris. "The next one is going to be crazier, with a combination of hip-hop, Latin and high energy dance music."

Harris knows about high energy, as he also co-founded the local funk band Truth Groove that performs most weekends at Felix in Adams-Morgan. Like Bossalingo, that band is a collective of sorts. "I could name 20 or 30 local musicians who've played in Truth Groove the past few years," Harris says, "and Bossalingo is getting to be that way too." The revolving lineup of Bossalingo includes drummers Alejandro Lucini, Chuck Ferrell, Mark Prince and Tom Barrack, percussionists Juan Giovani Travez, Mamabi Nyazuma, Alfredo Mojica, Luis Marin and Jose Lopez and bassists Leonardo Lucini and Eric Leifert.

Harris, a Northern Virginia native whose passion for heavy metal didn't preclude an appreciation of jazz, performed while still in his teens with the Chantilly Jazz Band. "We were named the best big band in the country by Downbeat magazine one year," says Harris, who then enrolled in North Texas State University's notoriously tough music program before returning to Washington to study with local guitarist Rick Whitehead.

Besides Bossalingo and Truth Groove, Harris also leads the swing combo Blue Swing Jacket, plays with local singer Nicki Gonzalez and will be the house guitarist for "Slam," an upcoming production at the Studio Theater. "I like trying different things with different sets of musicians," he says. "It's more about attitude than what notes you play. What I really love to do is make up stuff and put the other musicians on the spot, challenging them and them challenging me, going for that climactic moment."

Monday at Chi Cha, Harris says the Bossalingo lineup will be Alejandro Lucini, Eric Leifert and Mamabi Nyazuma. He'll have CDs on hand for $10, but says that if you can't make it, you can also find the CD for sale at Barbara's Guitars, the music shop in Adams-Morgan. "We only made a thousand, and we're not pressing any more," he warns. Better get 'em while they're hot.

For a free soundbite from Bossalingo, call Post-Haste at 202/334-9000 and press 8121. (Prince William residents, call 690-4110.)

CATFISH'S NEW GROUP

If you were to do a bit of nightlife time travel and land in Washington about 20 years ago for some club hopping, chances are good you'd run into Catfish Hodge, the workaholic bluesman who could be heard regularly at places like Desperados, Mr. Henry's, Columbia Station, the Cellar Door, the Childe Harold and the rest of the joints on that circuit that made D.C. such a happening live music town back then.

Hodge left Washington in 1982 after 10 years atop the club scene, relocating to Los Angeles, where he spent the next 16 years making records, in between steady touring. Last year, he needed some breathing room, so he came back east, where he felt the pace more suited his soul, and rented a house on a mountain top near Front Royal. Using that as his base, he's made the mid-Atlantic his musical circuit once again, and we're lucky to have him nearby.

"I got so tired of big cities," says the 51-year-old Hodge. "Living out here in the Blue Ridge Mountains is a great thing, something I definitely needed. I'm in a big house on about 2 acres, and I can see 50 miles out my living room window. It's glorious."

Hodge went from a local favorite to a national act in 1981 when he formed the Chicken Legs Band, with several members of Little Feat soon after the death of that band's slide guitarist Lowell George. Chicken Legs didn't last, but the next year, after he'd moved to L.A., Hodge formed the Bluesbusters with ex-Little Feat guitarist Paul Barrere. They recorded a couple of albums in the mid-'80s, but when Barrere got Little Feat back together, Hodge went back to being a solo act.

This week, Hodge unveils his latest group effort, the Hillbilly Funk Allstars, another collaboration with some guys from the Feat (drummer Richie Hayward and bassist Kenny Gradney) along with country/jazz fiddle whiz Vassar Clements and Dixie Dregs/Jazz Is Dead keyboardist T Lavitz. "We've only got a small window of time where we can all do this, in between other commitments," says Hodge, "so we're just doing 12 nights, but I sure hope we can get it together again later on, when we all find the time. These guys are all such monsters, it's a pleasure to play with them. I just learn so much every time I'm on stage with them."

One of the nights of the tour is Sunday, when HFA plays at the Birchmere (703/549-7500). After the tour, Hodge will continue to perform regularly in the area, including a monthly gig at Madam's Organ (March 19th is his next show there, 202/667-5370). Hodge is also finding success with his recording of songs for children, "Adventures at Catfish Pond," which is being considered for adaptation as a movie or television show by major studios. "If that happens, I can probably make more money in one week than I could even make in the music biz in one year," says Hodge laughing. "But I'll always play. It's what I love to do."

Check in with Hodge online at www.catfishpond.com.

GUIDE TO THE JAM BANDS

If the Hillbilly Funk Allstars show some longevity, they're likely to end up in the next edition of "Jam Bands: America's Hottest Live Groups," a 300-page volume by Massachusetts-based writer Dean Budnick. Published by the Canadian ECW Press, "Jam Bands" is a surprisingly complete guide to bands plying the post-Grateful Dead waters of "groove rock."

"The idea came to me about a year ago," says Budnick, a music writer with a Phish bio already under his belt. "A lot of jam bands that I don't know come through [nearby] Boston, and I thought how we needed some kind of resource guide to look at before going out on a cold night. I guess I filled my niche by writing my own book."

Asked to define the music of his book's title, Budnick says, "a jam band combines some type of rock core with an improvisational ethos, and has a commitment to cross genres." But like a true jam band fan, Budnick says, "I improvise a different definition each time someone asks me." Available at Tower Records, "Jam Bands" includes succinct profiles of several groups from this region: The Emptys, Blue Yard Garden, everything, Boud Deun, Fighting Gravity, Vertical Horizon, Baaba Seth, the Pat McGee Band and others.

For more information, check out www.jambands.com online, a site that Budnick says gets more than 10,000 hits a day from fans checking out the touring schedules of their favorite groovin' bands.

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