Big Beat Blues in a Big Swing Suit
R&B
is the order of the day on a night with Easy Bill & The Big Beat
by John
Hult
It’s easy to support Easy Bill & The Big Beat.
Denver’s Easy Bill Towber adheres to a simple mission without a thumping missionary’s fiery fist: Bring the blues to the boys and girls and let ’em dance. Even the simple bluesmen and -women of today sometimes seem unsatisfied with such simplicity, spinning yarns of unappreciative fans, musical illiteracy and bogus replacements for the blues and R&B of the 1940s and ’50s. B.B. King, whose early work in particular inspires much of Bill’s music, wishes more young black musicians would choose the blues instead of hip-hop.
Easy Bill doesn’t seem to give a damn about such artistic pretensions. Granted, B.B. King has earned the right to say whatever he wants about the blues, but Towber just wants to get some of the big beat out there for dance-hungry fans.
“
I wanted to hear a band play all that kind of stuff, and there weren’t
too many out there playing it,” Bill says, noting that most bar blues
is of the roadhouse variety. “So I guess I figured we might as well
play it.”
For the past year and a half, Bill has hosted a weekly R&B showcase
on KUVO in Denver, serving up the so-old-it’s-fresh blues and R&B
hits from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s for anyone who cares
to listen. Over his time as a big-beat musician and radio host, Towber
has developed a fan base as dedicated as it is diverse.
“ I don’t really try and use it for self-promotion, I just like the music and enjoy having another outlet to share the music with other people,” Towber says. His band provides backing for swing dancers and R&B fans of all ages, he says. The Fort Collins swing troupe the Jumpin’ Jive Cats are big fans of his big beat and frequent attendees. “It’s like building a community.”
Diversity valued as it is, it should come as no surprise that Towber himself is a relatively young pup in the age-aphilic sport of the blues. He may be young, but his goal has been to play the blues since he picked up a guitar ten years ago as a freshman in college.
It all started in high school, however, when one of the “Music in Your Schools” programs governments love to cut funding for showed up at his Denver school with a blues musician in tow.
“ The guy was just playing Delta-style blues, like Robert Johnson-style, but when you’re in high school in the suburbs, you’re not really exposed to that kind of thing,” Towber says.
The radio show and the saxophone and guitar-driven jump blues he spreads across the Front Range are ways for Towber to keep the heritage alive. The studio in Denver that hosts his radio show also served as the recording studio for his band’s first CD, Midnight Creep. At this point, Towber and friends are bringing “Blues in the School” to kids in their own highland homes.
“ It’s always nice, when someone calls up to request something and they sound like they’re 17 years old,” Towber says, “and they want to hear something that was popular back in the early ’50s.”
(Article originally appeared in the May 20, 2004 Rocky Mountain Bullhorn)