Myrtle Beach Jazz: Holman-Gravel & Friends, Aspen Grille

Myrtle Beach Music: From left, Bates Holman, of Pawleys Island, Taylor Lee, of Wilmington, N.C., and Jordan Gravel, of Charleston, perform as Holman-Gravel & Friends at Aspen Grille on April 12. In painting the former Jasmine Supper Club as the sole bright spot in an otherwise dim landscape noted Jazz site AllAboutJazz.com once mentioned that Myrtle Beach is "a town where Jazz is obsolete."

Though this may have seemed harsh at the time, the sentiment has been mostly true in the five-plus years since the the once-happening hotspot on Kings Highway closed its doors in 2006. There's been a severe lack of support for local jazz in Myrtle Beach music. 

Luckily, there's been a few signs to the contrary lately, the most recent being last weekend's Gold Key Jazz Society Jazz Festival at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. 

But even the most starved fans of the music would agree, it's going to take more than once-a-year events to bring the genre back to notoriety locally.

Luckily, there's places such as Aspen Grille, 5101 N. Kings Hwy., which are doing their best to keep the music alive on the beach. This classic fine dining establishment located in the heart of Myrtle Beach has been hosting live Jazz on a regular basis since chef/owner Curry Martin took over the restaurant in 2009.

Myrtle Beach Music: Aspen Grille, 5101 N. Kings Hwy., offers Jazz 3 nights a week and live music Wednesday through Saturday.In addition to top-notch cuisine and charming ambience Aspen Grille currently offers four nights of live music, running Wednesday through Saturday each week.

There's a combination of cool jazz and more upbeat music for dancing with well-known vocalist Jackie Beaumont and pianist Lee Layman on Wine Down Wednesdays where 1/2 price wine is offered by the glass, Thursday nights host jazz trio Holman-Gravel & Friends, Fridays are reserved for singer-songwriter/ keyboardist Becca Bongiorno and on Saturdays Layman performs a variety of classic and modern favorites on piano. 

We recently caught up with drummer Bates Holman and pianist Jordan Gravel, who along with a rotating crop of players perform as Holman-Gravel & Friends to talk about their weekly gig at Aspen Grille, the state or Jazz in Myrtle Beach and where the genre is headed. Here's what they had to say:

Catch Holman-Gravel & Friends beginning at 6 p.m. each Thursday at Aspen Grille. Visit www.aspen-grille.com for more information on showtimes & reservations or check out www.batesholman.com for more on the music.

Prowler set to release "The Stalker" on Friday the 13th

Myrtle Beach Music: A screen from "The Stalker"It’s been more than three decades since the release of the film which carries Prowler's namesake, but this Friday the 13th the local horror metal group will breathe fresh life into “The Prowler” with the release of a new music video for its song which pays homage to the classic 1981 slasher flick.

“The Stalker” was the third single to be released by the band — formed in September 2010 — and the first off its “Prowler, Pt. 2” EP, which was released in June of last year. Frontman Patrick Best says the band plans to make videos for each of its singles, which have been released periodically as two-song EPs that will culminate in a full length release at a later date. 

Best and bandmates Jak Sumwalt (drums) and Shawn Bruce (bass) will celebrate the release with a headlining spot Friday night at The Sound Hole, 1004 Chester St., playing alongside local death metal group Conception of Being and Wilmington-based metal group Salvacion.

The release party begins at 9 p.m. (All ages, $5 cover) and will be sponsored by Crystal Head Vodka, Surf Skate Music Culture (SSMC) and ListenUp. In addition to Prowler’s new video, the costume party — fans are encouraged to dress like their favorite horror movie character — will also mark the debut of Conception of Being’s first EP “Unearthed.”

Click to view flyer larger.Prowler’s third video release is by far its most elaborate effort to date with work with SSMC and local independent filmmaker Dwayne King (Kluckin Films) both contributing to its making.

Filming took five video shoots, five different sets, more than 200 takes, and countless hours of editing from SSMC Director and Producer Chris Canada. King, who has produced the band’s previous videos for “The Dead Rise Again” and “Friday The 13th,” acted as the Director of Photography during the initial shoots.

SSMC’s Mark Massey also contributed to the shoot helping with gaffing and electric work on the set and even Canada’s wife, Barbie, as a last-minute call-up to be the star — aka victim — of “The Stalker.”

Best says the video was a lot of fun to shoot and in addition to the horror themes in depicted, a strange twist of fate during shooting also gave the video a deeper meaning.

“We were filming in an actual classroom, with our ‘victim’ tied up to a chair and I looked up on the wall they had a flyer that said January was National Stalking Awareness month, which was really ironic and just gave me the perfect solution for the video,” said Best. “So we figured that if we shot the video to double as a stalker awareness month video and for people to see the seriousness of the crime, with the stalker chasing a female victim that would really help drive it home and address the violent nature of the video.”

And while bringing this ominous piece of work has been a lot of effort for both the band and the production team, it’s been a labor of love for all involved.

“I have been working countless hours on this project,” says Canada. “Seems like most every free hour this past month has been devoted to either filming, editing, helping promote the events.”

The SSMC creator — an up-and-coming videographer who’s nearing a degree in his craft — has done the work on Prowler’s video pro bono as a showcase for both his production company and to help promote the talent within the Myrtle Beach music scene.

“Everyone involved so far in this portion of the production, has been awesome to work with,” he said. “Overall I’ve enjoyed working with Prowler and now it’s all about the release! And for the future, who knows what’s next.”

While the future remains an uncertainty, both SSMC and Prowler remain focused on continuing to build support for their own projects while contributing to the growth of the scene.

“We were really lucky to have the greater support of both the local and regional music scenes,” says Canada.



Check out a preview of “The Stalker” above or get details on the release party here. Find out more about Surf Skate Music Culture here of visit Prowler’s Reverbnation page to hear more of the band’s music.

Behind The Scene: Kramer

Thomas Cunningham Photography ©

With our friends at Surf Skate Music Culture doing such a killer job with its local music videos, we've kinda taken a break from doing our "Behind The Scene" video interviews which were such a big part of what ListenUp was all about early on (Check out all our past profiles here).

However, we decided to get back on the wagon this week and had a chance to catch up with a longtime local who we'd heard a lot of good things about but hadn't yet had the pleasure of talking with. 

Jeff Hans (aka Kramer), has been performing as a solo acoustic cover act for the past six years, playing from North Myrtle to Murrells Inlet and beyond. Though he keeps a more manageable schedule with a day job nowadays, the soon-to-be 40-year-old Hans has performed as many as 12-13 cover gigs a week in the past.

Along the way he's learned a trick or two about keeping a crowd pleased, how to be a professional and when it's OK play obscure Flaming Lips & Flogging Molly covers and when to stick to the classics.

We sat down with Hans during a brief gig at the Myrtle Beach Beer Lovers Happy Hour at Damon's in North Myrtle Beach Wednesday and talked to him about how he keeps his cover act fresh aand why he loves playing in Myrtle Beach. Here's what he had to say:

 

Dinobrite Productions back with "South Carolina Rap"

Dinobrite Productions, the Columbia-based team behind last fall's smash YouTube hit "Rock Out (With Your Gamecock Out)" is back at it again this week, with their next big music video "The South Carolina Rap" which was released Friday.

Expanding beyond the confines of the Garnet and Black bond which "Rock Out" covered for University of South Carolina fans, "The South Carolina Rap" lampoons some of the finer points of S.C. living.

Featuring Dinobrite founders Joey Thompson and Fabio Frey, MCs Deejay "Diverse" Johnson and “In a lot of ways, the video is making fun of everything South Carolina isn’t, but it’s also embracing everything that it is,” Frey said.

Featuring Dinobrite founders Joey Thompson and Fabio Frey, MCs Deejay "Diverse" Johnson and Boss G as well as DJ Magic J, the video spans the state with scenes and verses from the Upstate, Midlands and Lowcountry — and even a few lines about the Beach.

“In a lot of ways, the video is making fun of everything South Carolina isn’t, but it’s also embracing everything that it is,” Frey told The State pop culture columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. (full article here).

Check out the video below or go back and read ListenUp's feature on "Rock Out" here.

Collective highlights surf, skate & music culture with videos

Myrtle Beach Music: Producer Chris Canada and SSMC founder Josh Sewell work togather in the studio.With the annual Guy Daniels Memorial Surf-off rolling in to town, it's a perfect time to look at one great place where Surfing and Music are coming together on the Grand Strand. For fans of this site, the name Surf & Skate Music Culture shouldn't be new to you as They've been mentioned a few times in Music Monday and had music from members J-Dub & Paterack featured in our Sonic Six-Pack.

But for those who may have missed it and still aren't hip to what this talented local collective is doing, the group is doing its best to grab some eyeball with a string of new videos, the latest which is being released today.

Consisting of founder Josh Sewell, engineer Patrick Richardson, producer Chris Canada and boardmaker Perry Anderson, SSMC has a number of creative pursuits including making music and video production, surfboard and skateboard pressing and T-shirt printing among them.

Though the members have been invovled in their individual pursuits for years, the collective came together in October with the goal of putting all these aspects into one business.

Since that time, they've been putting out new content periodically on Youtube, and recently picked up the pace with the launch of their first official video "All Night" by J-Dub & Paterack (aka Sewell and Richardson) in July and another out today.

The new video gives a first-person look at what it's like to be a surfboard, riding shotgun with Garden City-based surfer Shawn Clark who is sponsored by Surfside's Eternal Wave Surf Shop among others. It features a fitting song called "Set You Free" by Paterack as is background track.

"Here lately we have fell in love with filming video's and producing," Canada writes. "We have been working on many projects from building making videos, producing songs and commercials, to building websites."

Canada, who is currently a non-commisioned officer in the Army, is also studying recording and hopes to pursue a Masters in Entertainment Business when he retires from the service. 

Take a look at the video below and be on the lookout for more from Surf Skate Music Culture on Facebook and Youtube soon.