The Big Ak and Zuie Topic

All about Steve Jay, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, Rubén Valtierra, and Jim West.

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stupidsurgeon27
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Post by stupidsurgeon27 »

Very nice review! I've read other reviews for Ak and Zuie and I hope one day to see them live. I can't wait for if/when they come to the Midwest and play. :)



-CindyBob
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Post by catanddogdoctor »

Very nice review! I've read other reviews for Ak and Zuie and I hope one day to see them live. I can't wait for if/when they come to the Midwest and play. :)

-CindyBob


Midwest would be good................. very, very good:)



Maria
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Post by catanddogdoctor »

Something you forgot....



How about Zuie/Pete? He happens to be an excellent drummer....



Maria
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Post by richegreen »

Something you forgot....

How about Zuie/Pete? He happens to be an excellent drummer....

Maria


Indeed he did an excellent job as well, both singing and playing drums. It seemed like during most of the show he was passing off the spotlight to Jim and Steve however. During one of the jams towards the end of the set, Steve kept saying "do a solo!" to Pete and he kept shaking his head. He eventually did do a really neat solo. I was really digging some of the more "ethnic" drums in his kit.
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scottidog
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Post by scottidog »

Neat review! Man, I would love to hear Steve, Jim, Rubén, Jon and even Al just jam and improvise. What a treat.



I tweaked the topic title a little. This is a Weird Al Forum, but I think since we all are interested in TBITB and their independent projects it is ok to have it here. I'm hoping WHiZZi will allow a little leeway here. But let's keep it to one topic out of respect for WHiZZi's WAY-Only policy.



STEVE?? Might be lurking here?? Woo hoo!
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TMBJon
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Post by TMBJon »

Are Ak & Zuie on tour or is more of a one show at a time thing?
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Post by catanddogdoctor »

Are Ak & Zuie on tour or is more of a one show at a time thing?


They are doing a parallel tour... They play late night at clubs after Al concerts and during days off from the tour at nearby cities.... For more info go to



http://www.stephenjay.com/akandzuie.html





Maria, rabid Ak & Zuie fan :biggrin:
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Ak & Zuie Review (BB King’s, NYC)

Post by taralyn919 »

(I am writing this review on 1.5 hours sleep, so if I miss something, I’ll add it tomorrow!)



First of all, THANKS to Moonbeam for letting me crash on her floor with zero notice after the Asbury Park show was cancelled. If it weren’t for her generosity, I’d have nothing to write about!



In a nutshell, the show ROCKED!!! This was my second Ak & Zuie concert. The first one was in Las Angeles in Sept. 2001.



The concert was in the Lucille ballroom (?) at BB King’s in the heart of NYC. The audience was a mixture of us hard-core fans, and the general public. I noticed during the concert that many of the bar patrons stopped talking and started listening to the performance. Wow, now I know what it takes to get a New Yorker to shut up!



I did not write down the set list but, to me, the actual songs were secondary to the overall effect. The whole was definitely bigger than the sum of the parts.



First of all, let me say that if you have only seen Steve perform with Al, you don’t even know the half of it. (All due respect to Al, of course!) Steve is the total package: writer, producer, arranger, and musician. Oh, and he is just as nice as he can be to all us fans. It all came together in NYC last night.



The first half of the gig was Steve (bass) and Pete (drums). If you’ve heard the CDs, you know that there are just so many layers of sound that it would take a marching band and a symphony orchestra to recreate live. The thing I find amazing is Steve and Pete can translate the smoky, shadowy musical layers from their CDs into a form that can be performed live and somehow still seems deeper than the music coming from just 2 instruments.



Steve was in great voice. Even when he’s singing really loud, his voice has an ephemeral quality to it. Plus, he looked as happy as I have ever seen him on stage. It seemed as if he had to will himself to stop smiling long enough to sing a verse or two. Though I couldn’t hear what was going on, it seemed like Steve was joking with Pete and Jim throughout the whole show. Everyone on stage was smiling and enjoying themselves.



Steve has a genuine “awww shucks” attitude and none of the annoying “I’M A STAR!” posturing. You could see it on stage. I thought whenever people applauded, he seemed just the tiniest bit surprised.



I invited my Uncle Steven, a huge jazz fan, to the show. He was blown away. His first question was how come nobody knows about Ak & Zuie. (Well, I don’t think **nobody** knows about them, but I understood his point…) My Uncle said that Pete was an excellent drummer. I told him that Pete was the drum tech for Bermuda. So my uncle replies, “You mean there’s a better drummer out there?” I won’t get into that debate, but you get what he meant. The tone in his voice was one of absolute shock, putting an even finer point on the subject. (I’d like to add that my uncle had no idea who Weird Al was. How could we possibly be related????)



Pete got a lot of applause after a few particularly tricky and well-done drum solos. I also think Pete’s voice is very compatible with Steve’s as they harmonized very well.



After the break, Jim joined Steve and Pete on stage. Again, you just do not know Jim’s talent if you have only seen him looking like Abe Lincoln in Amish Paradise. He also got a lot of applause after a few very cool guitar solos. It looked to me like Jim was reading music before each song (Jim, I apologize if this is wrong!), But when he was jamming, it was absolutely seamless. As if he was the “&” in Ak & Zuie! The addition of a guitar totally changed the character of the music.



I spoke to Jim after the show and told him that it was just great to hear him just play. With only 3 instruments, I could hear Jim clearly for the first time. It was a real treat. Jim surprised me when he said that what he was having some sort of amplifier problem (I think that’s what he said anyway) and that he just went with it because he couldn’t fix it. Well, Jim, on our end, whatever came out was fabulous and I couldn’t believe that was not what you intended.



If you haven’t been to see Ak & Zuie, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU WAITING FOR?



"Undying the Fan!"



:) Tara Lyn
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remmy
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Post by remmy »

Hi TaraLyn!



I thought that was you at the show, but I wasn't positive. I was sitting at the table right behind yours. I don't know if you remember me or not, but we talked a few times during the last tour. :)



The show really was great, and you summed it up so well! One more addition to the review: My mom and I were talking to some people after the show and were so engrossed in it that we were still at our table after much of the audience had already left. Ruben showed up about a half hour after the set ended, and seemed pretty disappointed that he had missed it. About ten minutes later, Steve and Peter were back up on stage doing an encore performance! They did many of the same songs, but they were still wonderful.



A bunch of people were at the Grill who hadn't been there for the first set, and they seemed to enjoy it. As one guy was leaving, he came up and asked us, "Who are those guys?? That bass player is AMAZING!"



Just about out the door for the Westbury show,

-Katelyn
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scottidog
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Post by scottidog »

Welcome to the forum.



Please post your review of Ak and Zuie here.
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