Purebreds

Sinking your teeth into the Love Dogs

by Don Fluckinger

As the soldiers came back from World War II, the swing era had all but died. "Little big bands" were taking to the road because it was hard to find enough cash to support a full orchestra on tour. Count Basie was ushering in a new jazz scene in Kansas City, and bebop was king in New York. The first country twangers were yodeling their lungs out. Bluesmen were trading in their National Steel guitars for electric models.

This pivotal era is, to some fans and students of 20th-century music history, one of the best. Populated with inventive players who weren't afraid to cross over, borrowing licks from another genre if they sounded cool; it was an environment that spawned rock and roll. It's also the musical melting pot from which the Boston R&B septet the Love Dogs draw their inspiration.

"I think of it as `between Count Basie and Little Richard,'" says Ed Duato Scheer, frontman of the Love Dogs, who bring their rollicking revue to the EcoTarium this Friday. "It was a really exciting time. I love that stuff because you can hear different things happening in the music. You can hear a record -- and wow, it's almost a country record, but it's definitely a blues record. Or you hear something else that's definitely jazz, but it's sort of a R&B record, too. That's where rock and roll came from, the synthesis of all those elements."

What all this means is that the Love Dogs don't play swing. They certainly swing, and some of the grooves they play are in the ballpark, but no one will mistake these cats for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy or those other hipsters copping a patrilineal moniker, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies.

Instead of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman providing the foundation for their music, the Love Dogs bow at the altar of Ray Charles and Chuck Willis, the latter being a lesser-known R&B songwriter who penned a couple of classics ("Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes," covered by the Band, and "It's Too Late," covered by Eric Clapton's group Derek & the Dominos). Though the Love Dogs concentrate on pithy, upbeat original material, they managed to slip covers by both Willis and Charles onto their most recent album, Heavy Petting.

There's no doubt, however, that the swing scene has benefited the Love Dogs, especially on the West Coast, where Brian Setzer and his big band helped popularize the recent revival. By the way, Scheer points out, the Brian Setzer Orchestra isn't a swing band per se, but more of a rockabilly band -- with killer horn charts -- who happen to do a couple swing tunes. The Love Dogs took a trip out West last year and were generally well-received, thanks to airplay given to "Big and Hot," a tune from their debut I'm Yo' Dog.

"It's a scene created somewhat by dancers, but also somewhat created by Madison Avenue -- a record-company thing and an advertising thing more than a real musical thing," Scheer says of the swing revival, which is currently waning. "We've been able to get work we wouldn't have been able to get five years ago, when it wasn't really happening. But in no way do we hang our hat on it. We play rhythm and blues; if you're a swing dancer and you like it and you want to come out and swing, we'd love to see you, but we're not trying to program to the scene."

The band came together in 1994 in Boston, with Scheer -- who had played drums in other bands -- taking the frontman role for the first time. For some numbers he harks back to his percussive ways, donning a washboard. In addition to bass, drums, keyboards, and guitars, the Love Dogs include full-time saxophone players and a guitarist who also plays bari, bass, and sopranino saxes. Noted Boston player and Scheer's boyhood friend Gordon "Sax" Beadle (Duke Robillard, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Toni Lynn Washington) is listed as a band member on Heavy Petting, and he plays occasional gigs with them.

The interplay between the seven musicians breeds some of the same experimentation of their '50s R&B idols; when the Love Dogs get going on stage (summoning what they call the "tribal love vibe"), they sometimes let tunes evolve into jams, as jazz players might. This inventive and spontaneous side spurred one West Coast wag to call them "the Grateful Dead of jump bands."

And from where did the "dog" theme come, which pervades their CD titles, artwork, and lyrics? Scheer explains, "Ever go to a friend's house and they have a Lab, and the dog won't leave you alone -- c'mon, play with me, play with me! That's sort of the vibe this band gives off. Once we get our engine up and running, we're pretty relentless."

The Love Dogs play at 6:30 p.m. on June 11, opening the 1999 Jazz at Sunset concert series at the EcoTarium. Tickets are $10. Call 929-2700.