Down-to-earth divas: Tampa's Women's Blues Revue hits the Beach Club

'It's about the music, and the fact that we're all women.' The Women's Blues Revue plays outside at the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club on Saturday

Friday, August 24, 2001

By NANCY STETSON,  nrstetson@naplesnews.com

As the name indicates, The Women's Blues Revue of Tampa plays blues. But somehow, when this band plays it, it's a joyous sound.

"We're real danceable. We get people moving, that's what it's about," says guitarist Patty Sanphy, the group's founder, manager and owner. "Everybody parties and has fun. It's a real boogie, an opportunity for everyone to get up and move around."

The band does a mixture of rhythm and blues, classic soul and jump blues. Not the old Chicago-style blues, but it's more a variety of styles around the blues form, Sanphy says. The nine-woman ensemble performs music by Marcia Ball, Maria Muldaur, Louis Jordan, Aretha Franklin and Etta James, just to name a few.

"(Our music) features back-up harmonies and lots of horns," she says.

Women's Blues Revue performs Saturday on the Watkins Lawn of the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club from 7 to 10 p.m. The free concert is part of the hotel's annual "Summer Jazz on the Gulf" concert series.

This is the 14th year of concerts for the hotel and the fourth year the ensemble will play the series.

Members of Women's Blues Revue are, front row from left, Nancy Johnson, Jennifer Meggs, Stacey Knights, Patty Sanphy, back row from left, Sandy Ross, R.B., Denise Moore and Linda Faust. Sandy Atkinson is not pictured. Photo courtesy Patty Sanphy

"It's been good," Sanphy says. "One year we had several thousand people."

"The people like them. They were clearly one of the more popular acts the first year we had them," says Jim Anderson, Beach Club director of food and beverages, who books acts for the hotel. "I received a number of calls asking us to bring them back. They're pretty exciting.

"They have an energetic, fun style. And they're great musicians."

Sanphy organized the group in 1996; their first show was on Mother's Day at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa. The show, a benefit for the area's domestic violence shelters, is an annual tradition for the group now.

"It was not a jam session," Sanphy says. "I called up a lot of different blues musicians in the area, put together a band. We rehearsed, and we featured different vocalists. We did several benefits. I kept the group going, and got some professional work. We don't play five nights a week, but a couple of times a month."

In 1999, they competed with other female-oriented bands in a Dueling Divas contest sponsored by Virginia Slims. They won, and Virginia Slims donated $10,000 to the Tampa AIDS Network.

"We became divas at this contest," Sanphy says. "No one ever told us we were divas before. We still had to go home and wash the dishes."

The ensemble has had as many as 14 members; now nine women are in the band.

"It's a fun group," Sanphy says. "We have a regular rhythm section: piano, guitar, bass and vocals, sax and trombone, and three singers who take turn singing lead. Actually, there are six different women who sing lead; three are instrumentalists and three stand and sing and dance around."

The women range in age from 20 to 54. Sanphy says that a lot of mentoring goes on in the group.

"We feed off of their energy," she says. "They inspire me, the younger women in the group. They inspire me to continue and feel that it's about the music. Ageism is very prevalent but it's really about the music. It's not about how we look. We try to look nice, but we're not glamour queens. It's about the music, and the fact that we're all women."

Playing in an all-woman group has a different feel for the musicians.

"It's very comfortable, and it's very free," Sanphy says. "We don't feel afraid to express ourselves as much as we may with males. We all play (in bands) with males, and we like that too. It's just a different type of energy and experience (playing with all women) and it's very fun.

"It's like being with your girlfriends and playing music together. We're friends and colleagues, we love music and the fact that we can share that."

The ensemble is used to playing different types of venues. "We want to do our music, so we go into all different slices of life," Sanphy says. "We'll do really nice gigs like this, or we'll play a dive. So one night you're in a dive playing for low money, the next night you're the Queen of Sheba. It's a funny business."

Sanphy originally wanted to play jazz, but a college instructor told her that in order to do so, she had to learn how to play blues first.

"I started doing that and really took to it," she says. "It's real basic. I think a lot of people can relate to it." She names Billie Holiday and Bonnie Raitt as strong influences. "I just got interested in that self-expression," she says.

"I think the blues, for women especially, has a facet of self-expression. Women are very emotional, and the blues are a real simple form of expression; they're not complex. It has a rhythmic drive to it that really appeals to the emotions. It's not all packaged in a lot of real fancy trimming. It's a real gut-level form of expression."

 

BEST OF THE BAY: Tampa Bay Women's Blues Revue   The Verdict All female, all blues and all for a good cause. Historically Speaking Tip Sheet One of Tampa Bay's Best Nominated for Best Local Unsigned Band for continually supporting Bay area social causes and showcasing some of the most talented women in blues. Dueling Divas The Revue recently took top honors in Virgina Slims' Dueling Divas contest. Competing with mere female-fronted bands, the all-women all-stars also convinced the sponsors to donate $10,000 to help the Tampa AIDS Network. Moms on a Mission The Revue directs its work by following its Mission Statement: 1) To promote, mentor and support professional female musicians; 2) To raise monies and awareness to help prevent violence in our community; 3) To provide healthy role models about the role of females in our society.   Guitarist Patty Sanphy assembled the Tampa Bay Women's Blues Revue in 1996 for a Mother's Day concert benefitting Bay area domestic violence centers. With 18 women performing in that first show, the Revue quickly established itself as the premier women's musical collective and continues to perform concerts that unify the community. Pause for the Cause In its fifth year, the Revue's annual Mother's Day benefit has become a tradition at Skipper's Smokehouse. Drawing around 600 supporters each time, the Revue has raised over $25,000 for Bay area domestic violence shelters and programs. Casting Call The Tampa Bay Women's Blues Revue's current line-up averages 10 or 11 musicians including Sanphy, keyboardist Linda Faust, drummer Susan Mejeras, bassist Ariane Cap, Sarah Murphy and Stacey Knights on saxes, and co-vocalists Denise Moore, Nancy Johns, Sandy Atkinson and Arlene Kaminski.                           ~ Curtis Hayes