Poogie Wonderland

Poogie Bell: Jazz drummer brings his band to Funk’n Waffles on Saturday. 

A self-proclaimed “1960s baby,” Bell explains that when it’s complete he tentatively plans to name his current recording project Nights in 68 for his memory of being a child musician. “I guess when I was in school and everything, it was the first time when I got back to school I wasn’t writing {19}67 anymore, and I was writing {19}68, and just a bunch of stuff happened that year. And then it was {19}69.”

During that time, Bell performed as a youthful, drumming phenom on TV variety programs like The Mike Douglas Show and The Hollywood Palace. Bell’s teen experience led him through countless star encounters, culminating in coming-of-age gigs that included a stint with hip-hop master Afrika Bambaataa.

The pioneering rapper pulled Bell to perform during the U.K. Fresh Tour, a showcase of hip-hop acts that wowed audiences across the sea. For Bell, that experience resulted in a lifelong friendship. “I’ve known Bam for a long time, and it was great growing up in New York City, and being old enough to remember the emergence of hip-hop or at least the roots and the foundation of it,” says Bell.

However, jazz seems to be at the core of Bell’s interests, which isn’t surprising considering the childhood friends he’d developed. “My father, being a jazz musician, was real good friends with bass player luminaries like Paul Chambers, Ron Carter and Richard Davis,” Bell recalls. “I used to spend weekends in Ron Carter’s house for years.”

Especially because of his connection with bass players during his formative years, Bell picked up on the way-funky riddims of jammer and bassist Kevin Barefoot in 2003, a fact that led to the development of Bell’s namesake band. Looking to explore a jammier side of jazz, Bell also pulled in guitarist Juan Vasquez and keyboardist Howie Alexander.

Bell makes a point of staying limber with his musical pursuits, regardless of the fact that his band’s 2006 album, Get On the Kit (Yugi Sound), has grabbed the attention of the jam band crowd. To those who pigeonhole the artist as a funk drummer, Bell corrects them: “As a musician it’s my job to find a way to apply what I do to every form of music. Being a musician is like having a driver’s licence to play music. It gives you the right to mess the music up, but it certainly gives you the right to drive any vehicle you want to drive as long as you don’t wreck it.”

That relentless pursuit of originality has led him to having been featured as the man on the sticks on Angelique Kidjo’s Djin Djin (Razor & Tie), which won 2008’s Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Release. Bell heard the news on the Monday following the Feb. 10 awards (his birthday, no less) while driving home from a gig in Vermont. However, Bell isn’t sorry he wasn’t able to attend.

“The Grammys is a very expensive ticket,” Bell says. “Because I’m a side man on the project, it would have been nice to be there and show love and support and everything. And to watch her win would be really cool— I’m not going to lie—but it’s just nice to know.”

On the other hand, Bell has quite a bit to say about what jazz luminary Herbie Hancock’s win means. “Looking at the recent Grammy awards, the one thing that Amy Winehouse—God bless her and I hope she works it out—and Herbie Hancock have in common was that there were actual people making music on their records. They weren’t big, over-the-top, computer-assed records.”

However, Bell isn’t certain it will have that much of an effect on jazz music as a whole. “More attention needing to be paid to jazz in America is just daunting in and of itself. It’s like a secret inside of an enigma or something like that. If Herbie goes out and really pushes and works, and then some guys are able to slip in through the door that he has swung open, and come with the goods. . . I think it could benefit some individuals, but I don’t know over the long haul how much of an impact it will have over the nature of jazz music.”

As for himself, Bell is glad to be working on new recording projects, and even reported that he planned on tracking a new Poogie Bell Band album after he’s finished with his current menagerie. “For me, it’s real simple. In my own way, just like every musician, I want to be like Miles {Davis}; he was able to apply what he did to many different styles of music. I want to spend the rest of my life doing that.”

Admission to the Funk’n Waffles show is $7. For more information, call 477-9700.

—Matt Mumau