Broadway ROCKS!

"These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray, right through the very heart of it...." The strains of Frank Sinatra were echoing through my head as I walked through Times Square today on my way to my first-ever Broadway performance. It impressed me as a particularly New York, New York experience upon which I was about to embark. And if I can make it here, I can make it anywhere; or so the legend goes....

The great bassist, Winston Roye, very kindly asked me if I would be interested in subbing for him on his Broadway show. His bass chair is in the 80s rock musical called "Rock of Ages," starring Constantine Maroulis of American Idol fame. It's a love story set in Los Angeles on the Sunset Strip in the mid 1980s using existing hard rock Top 40 radio hits from that era by: Journey, Whitesnake, Twisted Sister, Poison, REO Speedwagon, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, Styx, and folks like that.

The main difference from playing on a typical Broadway show is that the band in "Rock of Ages" is in costume and makeup, rocking full-tilt on stage the entire show. As such the entire 2-1/2 hour musical score must be completely memorized. In service of the show's story, the music is a bit complex with copious medleys, surprising modulations, intricate connecting passages, rubato sections, short expository musical bursts, and the like. The memorization process took me 3 weeks to the day from when I received the materials and first saw the show until my matinee debut.

I arrived at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre 1-1/2 hours before curtain to check out my costume, makeup, and stage rig. Guitarist Tommy Kessler very kindly snapped the attached photo of me in costume and in position on stage. Note the "rock" stance and requisite "devil horns" hand signal so integral to the genre. The band is very much a part of the action in this show.

With the great conducting talent of Henry Aronson on keyboards, burning guitar playing of Tommy Kessler, and rock solid drumming of Jon Weber, the band did everything to make me feel immediately at home. Keep in mind that there is no rehearsal for a sub on The Great White Way. One just shows up, assures the conductor that the music is memorized...and curtain!

As much as I practiced the material at home, actually being on stage with in-ear monitors, lighting cues, 1,000 sold-out seats, and actors running back and forth just inches from the bass guitar took a minute to get used to. I had been warned that the doorway to my immediate left was used constantly, often at high velocity whilst carrying large props. The bandstand was just barely big enough for me to orient at just a certain angle to not catch one of the actors in the head with the neck of my bass as they run on stage.

There was one other slight distraction. Most of the women in the ensemble cast play strippers, excuse me, exotic dancers. Suffice to say that there is a great deal happening right in front of the bandstand to potentially distract from the musical task at hand.

Past the initial orientation process in the heat of battle, I thought the show went very well. And by the finale I was truly having a blast. We well and truly did ROCK....

I'm very grateful to the band, cast, and crew for running a tight ship, being at the very top of their craft, and making me immediately feel a part of the team. I can only hope that I'll get the opportunity to share their stage again, each time growing more comfortable in the bass chair and freeing up my right hand even more often for appropriate rock gestures....

Ivan Bodley
Brooklyn, NY

PS, Please check out my new CD, "Pigs Feet & Potted Meat" on iTunes, CDBaby, Amazon, etc.

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Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley uses Warrior Basses, Hartke Amplification, DR Strings, and Digitech and Line 6 signal processors. Ivan eats only Little Debbie snack cakes.

It's Time for "Pigs Feet"

Are you ready for "Pigs Feet & Potted Meat?" Well, I certainly hope so. Because it's been a long hard slog. But it's finally HERE!

(also here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/ivanbodley3)

Preview the tracks. Purchase CDs or MP3s from iTunes or Amazon. If you're on Blogger with me right now, you're listening to a track from the CD as you read.

Here's more info about the album:

Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley

“Pigs Feet & Potted Meat”

Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley is bass player and musical director to the stars. He has performed with 24 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame™ inductees and counting. He is musical director for Sam Moore, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Shirelles, The Crystals, The Tokens and has performed with: Sting, Elvis Costello, The Temptations, Solomon Burke, Ben E. King, Percy Sledge, Eddie Floyd, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Bo Diddley, Buster Poindexter, The Uptown Horns, Paul Rodgers, Wynonna Judd, and David Foster.

Appearances include: Creative Coalition Obama Inaugural Ball as featured in the Barry Levinson documentary “Poliwood,” Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Today Show, Emeril Live, Imus in the Morning, Charlie Rose Show, Live with Regis & Kelly, Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Istanbul State Symphony and Israel Symphony Orchestras.

Ivan is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the Berklee College of Music. To date, he has traveled to 26 countries around the world and played to audiences of up to 30,000 people in performance settings ranging from jazz duos to 150-member symphony orchestras.

“Pigs Feet & Potted Meat” is Funkboy’s third recording as bandleader. It is feel-good funky music, unapologetically buoyant and fun. It ministers to the human condition, soothes the soul, and penetrates all shields, surfaces, and obstacles. It’s soul-jazz that even has jam-band crossover appeal.

With Jim Dower on keyboards and Joe Goretti on drums, Ivan & company travel the world together backing Sam Moore, The Temptations, Martha Reeves and other royalty of soul music. On days off back in New York City, the trio creates instrumental groove music that might result if The Meters joined Lou Donaldson and Ramsey Lewis for a jam session. There’s plenty of pithy jazz harmony and arranging for the intellectually minded. But there are NO prerequisites for enjoying this music. Everything is rooted firmly in the groove. The songs evolved very organically during the trio’s creative writing and recording sessions every week or so at Joey’s house.

“Pigs Feet & Potted Meat” is equally nutritious for the cerebrum and for the booty. It is a healthy part of a balanced diet. Use only as directed. Void where prohibited. Shake well. Apply liberally.

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More information is available at: www.funkboy.net. Email: ivan@funkboy.net

Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley uses Warrior Basses, Hartke Amplification, DR Strings, and Digitech and Line 6 signal processors. Ivan eats only Little Debbie snack cakes.

Ivan Bodley
Brooklyn, NY

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Tribute to Grandfather

Morris aka "Bob" Stoller, 1914-2009

In tribute to my grandfather, Morris Stoller, I wrote and recorded this song: "Kaddish for Sabba." To listen click: HERE.

(or go here: http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/1522157) My special thanks to Jim Dower on keyboards and Joe Goretti on drums for helping me to record this tribute.

Kaddish is the prayer for the departed. Sabba means grandfather. He spent 95 years on this planet and was married to my Grandmother, Florence, for 69 of those years (from 1940-2009). They had three daughters, including my mother, 3 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren.

He lived a long and full life with few regrets. He and my grandmother lived independently and took no medications at all. Grandmother, still a spry 90 years old, continues in this mode.

I'm well aware of the fact that I'm posting this tribute on the Internet about a man who was born at the dawn of the First World War. It's almost unimaginable the amount of change he saw in the world over the course of his life.

Ever curious, Mr. Stoller carried a valid NYU student ID in his wallet for most of his life, continuously attending lectures and auditing classes. He never completed any advanced degrees because I think that would have signaled an end to his education, which he never intended to do.

He had a ferocious work ethic, which he attempted to teach us all. He serviced jukeboxes in the 1950s on a route and worked as office manager for a big entertainment law firm for decades. He finally "retired" from that job so that he could continue coming into the same office every day, but on a volunteer basis. He held various volunteer positions until the very end of his life.

He also played trombone in the Brooklyn Navy Yard band during lunch hours as he served there in WWII. Though I never heard him play, somehow I think his musical legacy filtered down to me.

Ivan Bodley
Brooklyn, NY

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