Atomic
Lounge bursts with jump blues, R&B
By
Brian Brannon
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
When
songs like "Cha Dooky Doo," "Ooh
Eee! Ooh Eee!" and "The Goose
is Gone" come over the radio, it can
only mean one thing: it's Saturday night,
between 7 and 10 p.m., and "The Atomic
Lounge" is on KJZZ 88.1 FM.
Spinning
jump blues, rhythm and blues and everything
in between, DJ Sean Heitkemper plays songs
from the 1940s, '50s and '60s that laid
the foundation for virtually all popular
music today. Though the tunes are lively,
rollicking and infectious, most of them
haven't been heard over the airwaves for
decades.
"It's
kind of a wasteland out there in terms of
commercial radio," Heitkemper said.
"It's impossible to get anything on
the radio unless the corporations think
it's going to sell products."
But
the public radio format of KKJZ is a double-edged
sword. It gives DJs like Heitkemper the
freedom to play whatever they want, but
it also means the station survives on a
month-to-month basis, subsisting on listener
donations and fund-raising events like the
Long Beach Blues Festival.
Heitkemper
calls it a "beautiful struggle."
Though the station plays mostly jazz throughout
the week, KKJZ gets its boogie on during
weekend evenings with shows such as "Nothin'
But The Blues," "Blues in the
Night," "Soul Jazz" and "The
Atomic Lounge."
Jazz
listeners typically donate larger sums of
money to the station, Heitkemper said, but
"The Atomic Lounge" gets a greater
number of donations per hour, though usually
in smaller amounts. The contributions typically
come from younger listeners, he said, "mainly
allowances and part-time jobs."
It might seem unusual that the show
attracts listeners who weren't even born
when the songs it plays were recorded, but,
as Heitkemper says, "The music transcends
generations."
KKJZ
Director of Special Events Gary Chiachi
said Heitkemper adds another dimension to
programming on the station. "His show
is a bridge between contemporary blues,
early blues and the roots of rock 'n' roll,"
Chiachi said.
The
influence of musicians like Louis Jordan,
Ray Charles, James Brown, Chuck Berry and
Wynonie Harris is still felt, Heitkemper
said. Their music is currently enjoying
yet another revival as it is played directly
in clubs and dancehalls, and also indirectly
through the use of sampling in rap, house
and acid jazz.
"I
think it really has a lot to do with the
bass and drums and the rhythms," Heitkemper
said.
But
the lyrics, too, are timeless. Take for
instance, one of Heitkemper's favorite songs,
"Beware" by Louis Jordan. "
The whole song is a list of things you need
to beware of in women," he said.
Every
Saturday night, "The Atomic Lounge"
demonstrates how rhythm and blues gives
its devotees a way to turn their daily struggles
into something to sing and dance about.
But between all the jumping and shouting,
the show shifts gears at 9 p.m. for a tribute
to the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra.
Heitkemper
asks his listeners to raise a glass of their
favorite beverage as he plays three songs
by Ol' Blue Eyes. "He's just too cool,"
Heitkemper said. "It smoothes it out
for a moment, gives you the ultra-cool hip."
Besides
Sinatra's status as a singer with impeccable
phrasing, there is another reason Heitkemper
plays him during every show. Most of the
songs played on "The Atomic Lounge"
were originally classified as "race
music" because they were played by
blacks in a segregated society. That didn't
stop white people from imitating the styles
and beats, but the original artists rarely
got the credit they deserved. And black
musicians, despite their contributions,
were often treated as second-class citizens
up until the late 1960s.
This
was something Sinatra wouldn't allow when
he was around, Heitkemper said. When casino
employees in Las Vegas told Sammy Davis
Jr. he had to use the back door, Sinatra
wouldn't stand for it, and insisted Davis
come in through the front like everybody
else.
It
was a small act, perhaps, but Heitkemper
said those types of gestures compounded
to help create the sweeping social changes
and equality in the United States today.
The
music of "The Atomic Lounge" is
part tribute and part history lesson, but
all of it is something to celebrate, perpetuate
and enjoy.
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