`Native son bangs the drum for retro jazz`

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

Jazz has never been the biggest selling genre in music, but retro jazz has become remarkably marketable.

“Zoot Suit Riots” by Cherry Poppin’ Daddies is on the pop album chart, Squirrel Nut Zippers have been in and out of the modern rock charts with songs like “Hell” and Royal Crown Revue is ensconced on the jazz charts with a live album, while opening for rock bands.

One of the bands that has led the retro jazz emergence is the Brian Setzer Orchestra, which merges big band-swing with rockabilly, all centered on the guitar playing of the former Stray Cat, said Bernie Dresel, a Sharon native who plays drums for the band.

The band is starting to enjoy the fruits of the trail it blazed. The album “The Dirty Boogie” is likely to soon reach gold status for sales of 500,000, the single “Jump, Jive and Wail” is getting spins on a variety of radio station formats, and video for the single is in rotation on VH-1.

“After six years of blazing the trail, people started accepting us as a movement and not just an oddity,” Dresel said.

“The Dirty Boogie” is the band’s third, all with Dresel keeping the beat. “We keep getting better and better as a band,” Dresel said. “The first record was a little more traditional big band-swing. The second had more rock edge to it. This record is back to the swing, but rockabilly swing.

“We feel like we’re doing something that’s historic, but hasn’t been done before. It’s like what would have happened if the big bands continued through the ’50s and Elvis.”

With 16 members — including four trumpets, four trombones and five saxophones — the band is an accountant’s nightmare to tour. Setzer took a loss for a while to get the band on the road and push the name, Dresel said.

Dresel, who visited his parents in Sharon following a recent Pittsburgh date, said the band is playing six nights a week on a seven-week tour — with frequent afternoon miniconcerts for radio — and more dates could be added.

Dresel had molded his playing to include various styles, from the danceability of Gene Krupa to a heavy, hard-hitting approach ala Ringo Starr or Keith Moon.

“It’s a pretty powerful chair, the drum chair,” said Dresel, whose look includes hair slicked back on the side and curly on top, and small, black-rimmed glasses that were popular in the ’50s. “You can make it happen or ruin it.”

Although Dresel considers the Setzer band “more than just a gig,” it’s a small part of what he does. The “somewhat in demand” drummer does recording sessions and tours for high-profile and obscure groups, and producers of television and movie soundtracks. He’s played on albums by former Beach Boy Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Parks’ recently released “Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove,” three albums by jazz performer Keiko Matsui, commercials for Coca-Cola and Taco Bell and television shows such as “Suddenly Susan,” the “Star Trek” spin-offs and “JAG.” “People probably hear me play drums a lot on TV,” said Dresel, whose younger brother, Jonathan, also is a professional drummer and had been filling in for him on sessions while the Setzer band tours.

Setzer toured with former Police guitarist Andy Summers last year, including a show in November in Cleveland, played a song on Dresel’s last album and is seen in a Summers instructional video. The schedule makes it difficult to find time for his wife, Julie, and 2½-year-old daughter Lydia. “Even when I’m in town it can be so busy that it’s hard to find family time,” said the resident of California’s San Fernando Valley. “It’s a big juggling act.”

But as a free lancer he’s hesitant to turn down work, especially when called by someone he hasn’t worked with before. They might not call again, he said. “It’s tough to know when to take a vacation.”

The Brian Setzer Orchestra plays at 8 p.m. Saturday at Cain Park, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Tickets: (216) 747-1212 or at Kaufmann’s or Iggle Entertainment, Hermitage. Information: (216) 371-3000.

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Updated July 22, 1998
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