Bees Deluxe

Bees Deluxe is an anything-but-basic blues band. They are hell-bent on a mission to drag the electric-analog blues of Chicago in the 60’s, the Blue Note catalog and the funk of New Orleans into the 21st century.

The band has won audiences from Maine to the Mississippi with their arresting and highly danceable originals and their innovative interpretation of less-travelled tunes by artists like Etta James, Joe Zawinul, J.B. Lenoir, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Albert Collins and the three Kings.

“...what might happen if Freddie King took a lot of acid then wrote a song with Pat Metheny and asked a strung- out Stevie Ray Vaughan to take a solo” — Blues Blast Magazine The four-piece band is spearheaded by the dual-frontline of British guitar monster Conrad Warre and Carol Band on keyboards, harmonica & vocals. Jim Gildea on bass & vocals and Paul Giovine on drums & percussion who provide the metamorphic foundation of the band on stage and in the studio. The musicians each bring their unique experience to the mix. Band was recruited from jazz bands that were playing the Boston circuit, notably Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge. Dorr has played the blues with almost every notable area blues band, including a stint in Jamaica as a reggae artist. Giovine was discovered by the band playing rock and roll in a slew of punk rock clubs in Allston, Somerville, Cambridge and Jamaica Plain. Warre, was in a high-school band in London, with Paul Kossoff, of the band Free, and has toured Europe with the English Beat and the Joe Jackson Band. He migrated from London to New York where he became a regular performer at the legendary CBGB’s. In Boston, he assembled Bees Deluxe, to pay homage to the music he fell in love with while touring and playing legendary London clubs like the Rainbow Theatre, Ronnie Scott's, Dingwalls, The Music Machine and the Moonlight Club. The band define their genre of music as “acid blues” with a layer of modern ‘funked up’ jazz.

“Solid vocals surrounded by a tight band, and check out the tones he gets out of his guitar; this cat can play.” — A.J. Wachtel.

In 2018 Bees Deluxe released, to critical acclaim, their all original acid-blues album Voice of Dog produced by Joe Egan on Slapping Cat Records. Voice of Dog, was produced, recorded and mixed by Egan and co-produced by Warre. It also features Carol Band on keyboards, Patrick Sanders on drums & percussion, Allyn "Aldo" Dorr on bass and Patrick Sanders on drums & percussion, with special musical guests Richard “Rosy" Rosenblatt on harmonica, Colin Rosso and Paul Giovine on drums, with Tad McKitterick and Jonn Smith on background vocals. More recently, they have maintained a break-neck schedule — touring the midwest, including a wild night at Cleveland’s House of Blues, headlining at Earl’s Hideaway in Sebastian, Florida, and gigging up and down the East Coast. All these performances polished the band’s repertoire to steely precision and inspired their new CD, Mouthful of Bees which is a tasty sample of the original sound that they call “acid blues.” With incendiary originals, like the haunting VooDoo Doll, and musically arresting covers of audience favorites, including a slew of re-interpreted and arranged classic blues tunes like Damn Your Eyes by Etta James, I Wouldn’t Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me) by Bobby "Blue" Bland and songs by Robert Cray, Robben Ford and Freddie King.

“You only have to look at the song titles to see that you do not have to deal with an average blues band here. And that also applies to the musical plane.” — Peter Marinus, Blues Magazine

Bees Deluxe have played with blues greats Walter Trout, Matt Schofield, Roomful of Blues, Joanne Shaw Taylor, David Maxwell and Fred Thomas (of the JB’s). Tinsley Ellis called their take on his tune A Quitter Never Wins “very soulful.” With original song titles like Strange Matter, Imaginary Conversation between Björk & Buddy Guy and Industrial (Espionage) – this band is not pounding the repetitive stanzas of “since my baby left me” or “woke up this morning” blues – Bees Deluxe is on a mission to create lightning in a blues-bottle and, in the wake of their onstage musical exploits, capture new audiences and touch their souls. The music is complex, thoughtful, emotional but still playful and irresistible for anyone who likes to get up and dance. Bees Deluxe is more than a band. It’s a blues revolution. Catch them if you can. In 2020 the band continues to tour, compose, record and push musical boundaries.

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