Local quartet Surfer Blood, which is enjoying another nice wave of critical acclaim for their EP Tarot Classics, is going to be getting a good dose of national exposure — especially for night owls and DVR users.

The group will be performing Monday night — well, technically, since it’s at 12:30 a.m., Tuesday morning — on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC.

It’s yet another landmark on a big couple of years for the group, ever since they released their debut LP Astro Coast in early 2010 — they’ve toured nationally, played the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in England, opened for the Pixies, had remixes of their songs done by the likes of Connor Harwick of The Drums and Peggy Wang of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and are now working on their second full-length LP.

On Fallon’s show, the group — lead singer John Paul Pitts, drummer TJ Schwartz, guitarist Thomas Fekete and bassist Kevin Williams — will be performing the single “Miranda” off Tarot Classics.
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The author’s mantra "write about what you know" certainly isn’t lost on Lake Worth resident Jill Switzer. A voice coach who’s the singer for Palm Beach favorites The Switzer Trio (with backing vocalists in multi-instrumentalist and husband Rich Switzer and drummer Carlos Cocuy), Switzer’s 2006 book debut was The Diva Next Door: How To Be a Singing Star Wherever You Are (Allworth Press), hence her thedivanextdoor.net website.

Her follow-up is the new, self-published fiction e-book The Chick Singer, available through Amazon.com or BN.com. It’s a comic novel that takes a tongue-in-cheek look inside the South Florida music scene through the eyes of advertising agency employee-turned-budding vocalist Riley Sands, complete with stereotypical bosses, co-workers, managers, musicians, audiences, critics, and family reactions to such a career change.

Yet Switzer says it’s not as autobiographical as it seems.

"I did draw from 20 years of experience as a professional singer," she says, "but not just from my own experience. There are parts of stories, from musicians and other people, that were practically subconscious. I’d forgotten where some of it came from, but friends call me after reading the book and remind me of something they told me that triggered a scene."

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Don Kirschner was voted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame on Tuesday; Rod Stewart, already in the Hall as a solo artist, gets in a second time as a member of the band The Faces.

Nearly a year after his death, legendary producer Don Kirshner can boast a credit he wanted but never achieved in life: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

It was announced Tuesday that Kirschner, creator of “The Monkees,” “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” Brill Building mainstay and the man who helped introduce Neil Diamond, Carole King, The Eagles and others to wide audiences, would received the Ahmet Ertegun Award, a non-performer classification that in the past has been awarded to Clive Davis, Berry Gordy Jr. and David Geffen.

 Jack Wishna, CEO of Rockren, a company Kirshner was CEO of at the time of his death, called the producer “one of rock and roll’s greatest treasures” and noted that he was a “giant among his contemporaries, unwavering in his commitment to talent and excellence.”

 ”While we will miss him and his quick wit and infectious laugh, his footprint on rockcityclub.com and the world of music will remain forever. We are so happy for his wife Sheila and his family that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognizes our friend and partner with this incredible honor” Wishna added

 Also headed to the hall: Part-time Palm Beach resident Rod Stewart, who is already in as a solo artist but is now being inducted as part of The Faces.
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West Palm Beach keyboardist/vocalist Robert Goodman (robert goodmanband.com) is best-known for his heady patriotic tunes, but he goes for the heart on his band’s new release, Everything Is Beautiful (Forward Motion). Utilizing longtime members Dave Rubinstein (guitar) and Rick Shepherd (bass), plus guests like original drummer Mark Nemcek (since replaced by Tim Moss), Goodman mixes classic American and British pop influences.

You, with his orchestrated keyboards and Stephanie Shepherd’s flute and piccolo, hints at The Beatles. The Todd Rundgren-like Story features Goodman’s strong falsetto and Rubinstein’s best solo, and Make You Smile highlights a strong second half by recalling Tears for Fears through Goodman’s arrangements and vocal phrasing.

See Goodman and Rubinstein duet at 8 p.m. Saturday at Asian Fin, 4650 Donald Ross Rd., Jupiter (561-694-1900), and the full band at 8 p.m. on Dec. 10 at South Shores, 502 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth (561-547-7656).

Lake Worth singer/songwriter John Ralston (john-ralston.com) released the neo-symphonic gems Needle Bed (2006) and Sorry Vampire (2007) on Vagrant Records but goes smaller-scale on his new independent release Shadows of the Summertime. The results unearth different influences from his familiar blend of Wilco and the George Martin-era Beatles.

Lump Ralston into pop, roots music or alt-country at your own risk. The infectious opener, Bedroom Walls, is reminiscent of the Traveling Wilburys. The subtle rave-up Love Will Come Around blends pop, gospel and Motown elements, and the muscular title track is another layered duet between singing multi-instrumentalists Ralston and David Vandervelde.

Vandervelde’s drums work to great effect on Oh Lord, adding nuances of Led Zeppelin and Neil Young. Though Ralston spends more time in the studio with eight-piece band Invisible Music lately than on stage, that’ll change when the demiorchestra debuts.

‘Round town
Florida-raised singing siblings Derrick and Keith Lee, along with guitarist Alvin Lee, join nephews Roosevelt Collier (pedal steel), Alvin Cordy Jr. (bass) and Earl Walker (drums) in the Lee Boys (leeboys.com), a most soulful and cerebral family sextet. See their “sacred steel” mix of bluegrass, gospel and other roots styles at 9 p.m. on Friday at the Bamboo Room, 25 S. J St., Lake Worth ($12, 561-585-2583). … Jupiter-based blues band Big Vince and the Phat Cats (bigvinceandthephatcats.com) has a busy week — 8 p.m. Friday at Tiki 52, 18487 S.E. Federal Highway, Jupiter (561-746-3312), 8 p.m. Saturday at the Square Grouper, 1111 Love St., Jupiter (561-575-0252), plus open mikes on Monday (7:30 p.m. at B.B. King’s, 550 S. Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach, 561-420-8600) and Thursday (7:30 p.m. at the Sugar Cane Island Bistro, 353 N. U.S. 1, Jupiter, 561-743-4177).
~ bill_meredith@pbpost.com

Leslie's weekend fun included shows by Avery Sommers, Babyface and Craig Ferguson.

The show: Avery Sommers at The Royal Room at the Colony Hotel, Palm Beach

When: Friday, although she’ll be there next weekend as well.

What happened: Broadway and stage star Sommers (“Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Chicago”) is by now a frequent headliner at the Royal Room, which doesn’t mean that she’s just phoning in the same show all the time. She’s not — every song the gloriously big-voiced singer wraps her gifted pipes around is a passionate treat, whether she’s revisiting her stage career (a rollicking “Ain’t Misbehaving” and the saucy “When You’re Good To Mama” from Chicago), getting patriotic (a lovely version of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The U.S.A.”) or getting her disco on with the buoyant fun of “I Will Survive.”

Part of the trick of a good cabaret singer is to mix well-chosen songs with a confident, comfortable rapport with the audience. And Sommers is, as always, the very definition. She tells a fun story, and comes down into the crowd a few times to get up close and personal. She looks like she’s having fun, and that helps the audience to as well.
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The logo for West Palm Beach jazz/world fusion quartet Treebo (treeboband.com ) is, logically, a tree. But like all trees, there’s more underneath the surface. The name means “tribe” in Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines, and reflects the heritage and mind-set of bandleader Noel Lorica.

The 45-year-old guitarist relocated from the Philippines to the northeastern United States in 1984 after earning a degree in veterinary medicine, then moved to South Florida in 1990. His performing and recording career includes solo CDs (First Glance, Second Glance), Christmas CDs (Christmas Jazz, Christmas Guitars), and SunFest appearances in 2007 and 2010.

If it takes a village, then it takes a tribe to start and grow one. The finger-picking acoustic and electric guitarist was inspired by the work of Colombian drummer Arturo Afanador, so the two formed Treebo in 2008. Bassist Steve Constantino made it a trio in 2009 after arriving from Boston, and vocalist Z Washington arrived from New York in 2010. The quartet’s new self-titled debut CD sounds like a cross between the jazz, R&B, rock and fusion of Earl Klugh, Bonnie Raitt, Santana and Return To Forever.

“We’re an eclectic fusion band,” Lorica says. “I’ve always loved Brazilian jazz, and when you add what the other members bring to the mix, it makes us unique. We think it sounds cool to blend different genres together.”

See Treebo at 8 p.m. today on the waterfront stage for Jazz on the Palm, 100 N. Clematis St., West Palm Beach (wpb.org , click on “calendar” ).

Now hear this

John Wurm, the Kravis Center soundman who suffered a hemorrhagic stroke (brain bleed) in 2007, continues to get help in his quest for $15,000 by Dec. 1 to start uninsured adult stem cell treatments. His friends The Dillengers have organized an all-day benefit show with special guests Marc Ward, Sean Hanley, Illumination and others from noon-midnight on Saturday at South Shores, 502 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth (561-547-7656). There will be raffles, and donation stations will be set up throughout. If you can’t attend and want to donate, visit www.gofundme.com/AdultStemCellsforJohn. … Masterful 75-year-old Lantana drummer Christian Buckholz has a new jazz release called Cool Again. It’s a series of standards that also features Miami-Dade County bass wiz Jamie Ousley and dazzling Romanian pianist Marian Petrescu, and is available at Melody Acres Music, 6169 Jog Rd., Lake Worth (561-969-0037). … Port Salerno roots act the Nouveaux Honkies makes a rare Palm Beach County appearance at 9 p.m. Nov. 26 at a great little restaurant called the Food Shack, 103 S. U.S. 1, Jupiter (561-741-3626).

Kevin Kaufman and Chris Peet of Kaufman Daenzer Productions in Lake Worth.

When Kevin Kaufman moved to South Florida from Delaware in 1978, it didn’t take him long to establish two connections that continue to fuel his livelihood in musical instruments and audio equipment.

The 54-year-old Lantana resident became the production supervisor from 1978 to 1989 at Music Mart, the former retail instrument store in Lake Park. He also became the technician for Jaco Pastorius – the fretless bassist who revolutionized the instrument with Weather Report and as a solo artist – from 1978 until Pastorius’ death in 1987.

Kaufman subsequently founded Kaufman Daenzer Productions (kdiproductions.com) in West Palm Beach in 1989, bought out partner Tim Daenzer in 1995, and moved his rental, repair and production shop to Lake Worth in 2002. His expertise often extends overseas as the soundman for jazz/fusion stars like the Yellowjackets, bassist Richard Bona, and guitarist Mike Stern.

"I met Mike through Jaco in the ’80s," Kaufman says, "and I still go to Europe or Japan with him every year. Here, I’m usually installing sound systems, running sound and lighting for events, and renting and repairing equipment."

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John Wurm and Maggy Alonso have been married for 17 years. He was a technical director for the Kravis Center. (Photo courtesy Maggy Alonso-Wurm)

When Maggy Alonso promised John Wurm for better or for worse, in sickness and in health 17 years ago, it’s unlikely she knew what "worse" was.

Now she does.

On March 1, 2007, John Wurm, the then-46-year-old technical director of the Kravis Center, suffered a devastating brain hemorrhage while he was fishing with Maggy’s brother.

Maggy said doctors told her the damage was equal to having a gunshot wound to the head. To this day, he needs round-the-clock care, is confined to a wheelchair and communicates through eye and hand movements.

"This (brain injury) is completely spontaneous and they might not have even seen it if they had looked for it," Maggy said last week. "It can happen to anyone at any time."

As they have in the past, Maggy and John’s friends have rallied around them to organize a fundraiser, this time, for a round of stem cell therapy. Tonight they’ll host a concert at The Orange Door in Lake Park featuring three members of Lite-N-Up, the band John once played in and whose members introduced Maggy and John.

Directions to the venue, nearby dining

"I’m without insurance because we had insurance through John’s job," Maggy explains. Maggy was a full-time mom home-schooling three children when he was stricken.

"He loved being behind the scenes," Maggy said. And John loved being part of the Kravis Center family, and they loved him.

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Earlier today I called “The X-Factor,” FOX’s underwhelming talent competition, on what I thought had to be fishy editing to make Broward mother/daughter duo Dreamgirlz look like non-talents, and the mom’s brother look like a rageaholic, because I’ve heard them both sing in person and knew they were fabulous.

Turns out I was right. Charleze, the mother of the duo, left a long, sweet comment on the blog confirming that not only were they great, but that the audience loved them, and that the judges’ comments were not only inconsistent with reality, but were in some points mean. Simon Cowell can clearly be telling the 15-year-old daughter that her father must have let them because he couldn’t stand to be in the house with them screaming.

‘The X Factor’ Miami spot misleading, whole show underwhelming

First of all, they’re wonderful. They not only got a standing ovation, but the audience chanted “One more song! One more song!” It’s madness! And who says that to a kid? TO A KID? That’s below the belt, Cowell. And to hear L.A. Reid, who I used to love, tell them that even if they sang separately, as Paula Abdul suggests, that they’d never sound better … maddening. Because he has to know he’s lying to the camera.

Ditto Nicole Scherzinger, who says “You didn’t connect with the audience,” as the audience screams “Yes they did!” I think that the reason the video of them singing was edited so much was so the show could lie to the TV audience that they were bad.

It’s pretty awful. But Charleze was gracious about it on the blog, that any exposure was good exposure. She’s a lot nicer than I am.

Good luck wherever you go, ladies. Sorry this happened. And while, again, contestants on these shows know that editing can create a whole new reality … it’s pretty scuzzy to do this to a kid.

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UPDATE: Questionable reality on ‘X Factor’: Simon Cowell insults local mom on video

Well, you gotta hand it to Fox – they’ve spared no promotional expense trying to convince the world that the American version of Simon Cowell’s “The X Factor” was the second coming of entertainment, that it’s a superior product to every other talent-stravaganza because of its focus on the entire star-making package.

And so far, it seems that the package is sorta phony baloney, over-hyped, melodramatic to an extent that would embarrass a telenovela, and, at least in one case, meanly misleading in its editing. I am refering to Dreamgirlz, a mother-daughter duo from Broward County who was seen singing Heart’s “Barracuda” in a choppy segment that showed about three seconds of the song from their Miami audition. All we saw was the judges saying that they didn’t think the act would sell, the dignified reaction of the ladies, and the undignified freakout of one of their family members, who got the usual bleeped-out tirade treatment as he stormed off.

The thing is, I kinda feel him that the whole deal was rigged, because if the Dreamgirlz sounded anything like they have when I’ve personally heard them, they weren’t rejected because of their singing. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it – they were rejected because they’re both overweight and not cookie-cutter.

BECAUSE THEY’RE AWESOME.
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