HEY CATS -
Thanks for buzzing Bohemian Knuckleboogie's cyber stage here in San Francisco, where you can keep in touch with the
get your regular dose of our Bay Area swinging, funky blues and jazz.
fever swamps of Port Arthur in the Lone Star State where I started honking my horn as a kid, when I wasn't thinking about pirates.
the blues and jazz clubs of the Fillmore District in San Francisco back in the day when cats from all over got down.
Now, the Fillmore's making a come back and it's the band's home base.
everywhere, and you're
your friends about us too. Our website is getting hits from all over. Hello Canada, Japan, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, China, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine !
release The Latrocinor, a happening selection of my original tunes with some of the best San Francisco sidemen playing in the pocket. You know, it's all the blues.
and dancing. Mike P.S. Check out my ebook with some more pirate stories, "Epic Life Poem Lived by the
The Knuckleboogie Story
SAN FRANCISCO -- Mike Pitre gives Bohemian Knuckleboogie its mojo, with his swinging swamp-blues beat that heats up clubs and dance floors in the Bay Area and beyond.
"Times come and go but
blues and we still got
that itch," says Pitre. Pitre's calling card is his pocket trumpet, which sends audiences over the top when he picks it up to be-bop, swing or samba through an original tune. There's no problem getting down, with Pitre moving between his horn, guitar, harmonica, soulful lyrics, scatting and rapping. As Pitre, or Coffee Picasso, says, "We be buzzing in your ears." Filling out the Bohemian Knuckleboogie bandstand, is a changing cast of sidemen who play in the pocket and "pull right up to your bumper," Pitre says. Backing up Pitre on the band's latest release, The Latrocinor, are Jeff Orchard, keys; Stu Odom on his fat girl; and Tai Kenning on drums. On another 2008 release, Digital Daydreams & Innuendo,  Huckaby on congas and Jeff Orchard, keys, to lay down Knuckleboogie tunes in a more laid back, folk/roots trio setting. "It's pure inspiration from the here and now," Pitre says of Daydreams. Pitre's been working on Bohemian Knuckleboogie over the last several years and says his music has found its groove.  early 1990s while working in New York as a sideman playing straight-ahead jazz at places like the famed Blue Note, Visione's and Arthur's Tavern. While trying to stay afloat in the uncertain music biz, Pitre tapped into the pop scene playing with disco divas Gloria Gaynor and Rozalla to sold-out audiences around the world. Pitre was also in Rozalla's horn section and the video cover version of the O'Jays "I Love Music" for Al Pacino's blockbuster movie "Carlito's Way." Despite demand for his horn playing, Pitre felt like a fake trying to follow jazz greats in their mold. That began to change while living in Brooklyn when he worked with Fugees' producer Jerry Duplessis and met various artists such as Chris Rock who told him to be true to his vision. Pitre decided to point his bow away from New York, first toward Texas, then San Francisco where Bohemian Knuckleboogie plays regularly at venues like the Boom Boom Room, Sheba Lounge and Rasselas Jazz Club. Again a popular sideman, Pitre is also playing his trumpet in SF-based bands like Sila and the Afro Funk Experience and Boomshanka. In addition, Pitre has worked with famed SF blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker who nicknamed Pitre "Picasso." More importantly, Joe exposed Pitre to the Bay Area blues scene. "San Francisco has showed me a lot of love," Pitre says. 
  
|
Happy New Year from Bohemian Knuckleboogie
Catching the band's funky blues & jazz LIVE @ Expressions 
  Swinging blues & jazz @ Rasselas, San Francisco    |
