BASSH Brings it All Back Home

Derrick Curtis is justifiably proud of his two decades of producing BASSH, the locals-only teachers and dancers social dance showcase that marks its 19th year on the stage this weekend. Nearly left for dead after his producing partner Santa Barbara Dance Alliance dissolved and leaving the Lobero almost a decade ago, Curtis more or less single-handedly nursed the show – whose title came from the original selection of Ballroom, Argentine Tango, Swing, Salsa, and Hip Hop – back to health, bringing it to a place where the event not only serves as a showcase for both amateur and professional choreographers and local dancers but also draws healthy crowds for its three shows at the New Vic Theatre each spring.

“It’s helped a lot of individuals pursue their dreams of dancing, performing, and choreographing,” Curtis said recently. “When I look back over the twenty years at how many people participated and created their vision of an artistic expression through dance, I can’t help but feel good about it. There are so many who began with these opportunities of performing on stage in BASSH who went on to create their own troupes, shows, and companies.”

That would include BASSH regulars like Lauren Breese, whose company Airdance has a healthy three slots in this weekend’s program, and her sometimes partner Hector Sanchez, who presented his new company at the Center Stage for the first time late last year.

Those success stories bring a smile to Curtis’ face, he said. “I started BASSH partly to encourage people to dance and perform and grow. So it’s great that I’ve had some influence.”

But while retaining its original purpose, BASSH has also moved a bit more into the big time, attracting, for instance, a piece from longtime Santa Barbara ballroom institution Arthur Murray, who will perform an International Latin number, and State Street Ballet, making its first BASSH appearance. The 2019 show also features the return of Sinowest, who will offer a Chinese Folk selection.

To encompass all the varying styles that are part of BASSH – including Tap, Afro-Cuban Fusion, Contemporary and Jazz – the show would have to have an acronym stretching far more than five letters.

“It’s all good,” said Curtis. “Anything that gets people inspired to get out and dance.” 

(BASSH takes place 7:30 pm Friday, and 2 & 7:30 pm Saturday, March 22-23, at the New Vic Theatre. Visit https://sbassh.com or https://etcsb.org/rental-shows.)

Mitch Kashmar Comes Homes with West Coast Toast

Back when he was still in high school, Santa Barbara native Mitch Kashmar used to sneak into – or rather, above – the Santa Barbara Blues Society’s monthly show at the old Baudelaire’s club on State Street.

“They wouldn’t let us in because we weren’t old enough, but we found our way onto the roof, climbing up those old inset windows, which was really perilous,” Kashmar recalled over the phone. “We’d dissemble the skylight which was right above the stage with a perfect angle to watch the shows. I saw and heard a whole bunch of early harmonica heroes like Charlie Musselwhite and William Clark, and guys like Albert King. They brought everybody you could think of during my formative years. I saw ‘em in secret, but it was the coolest thing.”

Four decades later, Kashmar is coming back, summoned from his adopted home of Portland, Oregon, to help the SBBS – the oldest such continuously existing U.S. organization – celebrate its 42nd birthday on Saturday night at the society’s latest home at the Carrillo Recreation Center. The singer and harmonica player has performed at just about every other venue in town over the years, going back to the early 1980s, when he co-founded the Pontiax with the late guitarist Buddy Smith and played two or three gigs every week in the local bars. The band was named after the song “Pontiac Blues” by Sonny Boy Williamson, because “Someone asked us what we were called, and we had just finished playing that song,” the band became a Santa Barbara institution that continued long after Kashmar left town for the then burgeoning blues scene in Los Angeles.

“I was trying to stretch down into the market but I wanted people to think I was still a local, so I’d be driving the 101 and PCH nonstop like a maniac,” he recalled. The Pontiax even made a record in the late ‘80s, which begat tours across the country and over in Europe, where Kashmar still maintains a fan base. In those early days, he and/or the band also backed upped a bevy of aging blues masters, from Lowell Fulsom, to Big Joe Turner, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, and Jimmy Witherspoon. “Those were some good times, playing with all those greats,” he said.

When the SoCal scene dried up after another decade and a half – a period that found Kashmar gigging all over town and beginning his five solo CDs album association with the Delta Groove label (plus famously dating Marcia Clark, the prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson murder case, for eight years) – the harpist-singer spent five years on the road with “the legal version of ‘War,’ playing all the horn lines on the great old stuff that Lee Oskar did, all those hits – ‘Lowrider,’ ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends,’ ‘Cisco Kid.’”

In 2011, just a year after the car brand he’d named his band after went belly up, Kashmar packed up and moved to Portland, where the alt.folk and singer-songwriter scene has yielded several successful acts while the city still supports a bit of a blues scene in the clubs.

“It almost feels like you’ve stepped back in time as far as hanging out in music circles and scenes,” he said. “There are lots of little clubs where you can play, and unlike anywhere I’ve seen in the U.S. they still tip the band here, to the point where it’s actually substantial.”

But it’s some old LA compadres who will form the band for Saturday night’s show back here in Santa Barbara – his first local appearance in almost a decade, according to his own memory. The all-star outfit of “old blues survivors” known as West Coast Toast after Kashmar’s most recent album features Junior Watson on guitar and vocals, Fred Kaplan on piano, Bill Stuve on bass, and “a drummer who is young enough to be my kid” in Andrew Guterman. The band will play “a bunch of songs off that record, some of mine, some older ones,” Kashmar said, noting he’s excited to have a full band including piano behind him on stage, and a lot of friends in the audience.

”It’s going to be a really special trip. There are guys I went to elementary school with and haven’t seen in years who are coming to the show.”

Meanwhile, Kashmar said he’s playing perhaps the best he ever has, despite the limitations of a genre based on a 12-bar formula. “I don’t know how you evolve it and keep it fresh. I try to, but I’m not sure if I am. But I feel fresher now than ever. The act of being on stage and coming up with something new has never been more fun for me.” 

(Mitch Kashmar and West Coast Toast headline the Santa Barbara Blues Society’s 42nd anniversary show on March 23. Stiff Pickle Orchestra opens at 7:15 pm. Visit www.SBBlues.org or call 805-722-8155.)