Big Bad Swinging in the Sunshine

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the swing music and jump blues band whose members hail from Ventura and Santa Barbara, got its start in the early 1990s with club gigs that include twice playing the Santa Barbara Independent’s Christmas party at El Paseo Restaurant. As the swing revival hit SoCal, BBVD scored a pivotal on-screen appearance in the 1996 indie movie Swingers – which propelled Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn to stardom – then grew in popularity to the point where they performed at the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999.

Long outlasting other swing revival bands, BBVD has ridden the strength of such hits as “Go Daddy-O” and “You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby)” along with propulsive covers of songs by influences Louis Prima (“I Wanna Be Like You” from The Jungle Book) and Cab Calloway (“Minnie the Moocher”) to an enviable longevity including appearances at sold-out venues from the Hollywood Bowl to Lincoln Center. The (still) Ventura-based band has logged well north of 3,000 shows in all, but somehow none of them at the Lobero Theatre. 

That all changes on Saturday afternoon, August 10, when BBVD headlines the second (annual?) street concert that will shut down Canon Perdido for a free community block party as part of the Lobero’s centennial celebration. Technically, the band won’t be playing inside the hallowed theater, but rather on the esplanade in front, sharing the bill with Ozomatli, L.A.’s salsa/hip-hop/reggae/rock/funk ensemble.

“I’ve always wanted to play the Lobero, so it’s a start,” said Scotty Morris, BBVD’s big-voiced lead singer and chief songwriter – who named the group after what blues guitar legend Albert Collins called him in an autograph. “I’m hoping after this they might book our 17-piece Big Bad Big Band to play inside next year.” 

In the meantime, Morris is thrilled to be performing in Santa Barbara for the first time in years, bringing the band’s horn-infused high-energy show to fans and newcomers alike. 

“I’ve been in love with this music since I first heard swing, when Betty Boop cartoons would come on between the Popeye episodes in the mornings,” he said. “There’s just something about that music that resonates with me, and I’ve been chasing that sound ever since.” 

Morris partly credits the BBVD’s success to the fact that all the band members share his level of passion and are dedicated to playing their best at every performance, infusing the mix of swing music – mostly Morris originals with a passel of classic covers – with a more modern-day edge. 

“The footprints we have to follow are enormous, and it takes years to just get to OK,” he said. “We still hit milestones of merit, of musical abilities as a whole, and every few years we jump up a little bit higher as the 10,000-hour thing starts to set in. It’s pretty incredible.” 

It’s also the fact that the band has been together for decades, Morris said. 

“We’re all still friends,” he said. “It’s the underlying thread of what we are and do. The combination of musicians, it takes on its own personality. It’s a chemistry thing, and we don’t try to challenge it.”