*Band size can vary to meet your budget*
*Full Swing band available*

Romy's vocal expertise will make any event you are planning a memorable one.We provide the sound system and all musical equipment, including the capability to DJ your favorite recorded music between live music sets.
Romy will happily "M.C." your wedding reception or corporate party- so all you have to do is relax and enjoy your event.Prices vary according to band configuration (ex: piano/ bass/ drums/ vocals), location and duration of event.Please contact Romy for prices and scheduling at: (504 )606-3682 or romykaye@romykaye.com.

Press:

The swinging, sultry world of Romy Kaye
By John Chilson
(Originally appeared in D-Town.)

Flashback to 1988. The now-demolished Rio's nightclub in Point Loma. Tons of local bands, including Elvis Christ and the Trebels, perform sweaty punk, rock and/or roll for some unremembered benefit. After they finish, a well-dressed hipster jumps on the stage, gives a plug for Chesterfield Kings cigarettes, and announces the last band of the evening: Romy Kaye and the Swinging Gates. The crowd goes ape as Kaye belts out classic jump tunes, Dave Klowden wails Gene Krupa-like on the drums and some kid named AJ Croce pounds on the ivories---ten long years before the so-called swing revival.

After gaining popularity in the Swinging Gates, Kaye split San Diego for New York in the early 90s. Kaye explains, "It was pretty tough at first because I didn't know any musicians, but I somehow got hooked up through my actor and artist friends. I also went out every friggin' night and sat in with people, most of whom would look at me like 'who the hell are you?' But eventually people started getting to know me and the audience response was terriffic. Everybody was super supportive."

After she honed her chops in New York, she eventually found herself back in San Diego and started gigging around town. Musically she matured, playing more jazzed-influenced and straight-ahead vocal numbers. No big surprise, considering her influences. "My earliest influence was Billie Holiday. My mom had a bunch of her records and I listened to them everyday. I also love Billie for her perseverence and for being successful when all the cards were against her. Sara Vaughn, Chris Connor, and Anita O'Day have also influenced me tremendously," she adds. She's sang with some of San Diego's musical elite, including The Shapiros, The Dragons, Creedle, Shirley and Dave at the Red Fox Room, Gilbert Castellanos--back in the "Out Late" Ruse days.

More recently, she's been performing with pianist Paul Keeling, and working with the Buddy Blue Show (a must-see, beer-soaked, sweaty, bluesy affair). Although the words "jazz", "San Diego" and "gig" usually conjure up some horrid outside tent event, Kaye is optimistic. "San Diego has some awesome players out there and there are more and more cool venues popping up. What San Diego is missing is a larger, more appreciative audience. The gigs are out there, but ain't hardly nobody going to see 'em!"

Dipsomania Review
By Harvey Pekar
(Originally appeared in Clevescene)

Not all interesting or even successful artistic experiments are extended to the next level. Take, for example, the attempts of some rockabilly bands to integrate R&B and jazz influences into their music. The efforts of Bill Haley and His Comets in blending these genres in the mid-'50s was artistically praiseworthy, and Haley's records sold very well, but very few pop music groups seemed interested in exploring what his and similar groups had done. Until recently.

Former Beat Farmer Buddy Blue -- he wrote "Gun Sale at the Church," "Lost Weekend," and "Goldmine" for the Farmers -- probably doesn't relate what he's been doing to what Haley did, but he's put together the same elements and updated them to reflect the musical developments of the last 45 years. Blue, the featured vocalist, sings in what's basically a fast, Elvis-like vibrato, but he's certainly been influenced by black blues and R&B artists -- Romy Kaye contributes impassioned, technically solid R&B vocals on four tracks. The arrangement of her "Kick, Bite and Scream" has a lot in common with Haley's version of "Shake, Rattle and Roll."

Several of the compositions here are 12-bar blues, and they've been arranged in a manner that's rooted in the work of the jump blues bands and R&B groups of the early and mid-'40s. There are fine saxophone and trumpet solos in this tradition, but Blue's crew sounds more modern. Patrick Weil's especially impressive on soprano saxophone during "Lady Mekhong." Joe Marillo, a straight jazz tenorman, contributes a fiery, complex John Coltrane-like spot during "Monk Side Story," an instrumental based mostly on the chord structure of Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't." Blue's electric guitar work has R&B and bop components, and his use of amplification also gives it a rock quality. On some tracks, Blue shifts to dobro and duets with guitarist Dave Alvin. Blue features his slide guitar work on "Daddy's Drinkin'" and plays dobro on "That Yodelin' Hateful Rag." This isn't revival or repertoire stuff -- Blue's not a purist and isn't into re-creating anything. Rather, he wants to create something new by using a style of music that was abandoned almost as soon as it came into being.

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