Since 1995 the jazz/lounge sounds of
Voodoo Martini Drink Contest | Fan Poem about Voodoo Martini | Loungin' with Lee and Laura Article | More Drink Recipes | Voodoo Martini Interview from LO-FI MAGAZINE #10
 "Midnight on main street U.S.A. Outside a smoky lounge you hear a music so evocative and compelling that you are driven to step inside. Upon entering, you see across the room of well dressed patrons, a beckoning stage upon which all eyes are focused. Intoxicated by the hypnotic rhythms, you are drawn, trance-like, closer and closer. After fighting through the crowd, you finally reach the stage front and before you stands a group of dashingly handsome men who command the stage. Their commanding vocals, hypnotic vibraphone, and sultry saxophone seduce and transport you to another world... "
The jazz lounge combo known as Voodoo Martini can trace it's origins to New York in the mid-90s. Musician Phil Gammage (aka Roulette, aka Fontaigne) a recording artist/performer with several solo LPs under his belt, began to write heavily jazz and latin influenced songs. After composing about a dozen or so of these songs Phil began to organize a vehicle in which to record and perform them...
 Shortly thereafter in 1995 Phil assembled the first group or musicians collectively known as Voodoo Martini. The group performed their first show at New York's Sidewalk Cafe in September of '95. The lineup for the first show was Phil (guitar, harmonica, and vocals), Dennis DeMeo (guitar), Martin Blazy as Pel Mel Torme (percussion and vocals), and Chris Marek (bass). Shortly after this first performance the band added another percussionist Pedro Callliente.
Soon the combo was performing at many noted New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia venues to enthusiastic crowds and great press writeups. Sharing the bill with other like minded bands (Everlounge, The Last of the International Playboys, Cocktail Angst, and Beat Positive) the group became a fixture in the new east coast "lounge scene" and were regulars at such noted nightclubs as The Greatest Bar on Earth (at the late great Windows on the World), The Fez, Ed Sullivan's, S.O.B.s, Louisiana Bar & Grill and Rodeo Bar in New York, and the immortal Five Spot in Philadelphia. In addition to live work the band were regular on the New York based pseudo.com internet only audio show "Chatterbox Lounge" hosted by swing music impresario Luigi Babe and actress/lady on the scene Allison Gordy.
With the departure of Marek and the addition of new bassist Pablo Marengue the group went into the Harold Dessau Recording Studio in 1997 to record their historic debut CD Exotic and Mysterious, The Sounds of Voodoo Martini". The CD contained 10 original tunes all written or co-written by Gammage and his collegues. The CD was extremely well received by the press and charted nationally on several college, jazz, and alternative stations. Often described by the press as 'power lounge' this recording helped define the new retro/lounge/swing music movement of the late 90s. It remains a timeless classic and the definite musical testament of it's genre.
Personnel changes (original guitarist DeMeo departed for the west coast to pursue his California dreamin' visions and bassist Merengue from the band in an ill advised attempt to rekindle his 1970s midwestern dinosaur punk-rock hero career) proved to be the catalyst for new change in the band's lineup and sound. The group's reptoire began to include more jazz classics and originals written in that style.
Monti diMonti
September 2005
Phil and Pedro perform in Vegas, 1998.
Original advertisement from 1998 Swingtime magazine. |
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"Led by Certain General/Corvairs crooner Phil Gammage, VM mix a potent cocktail of dark, irresitable film noir romance with "fake Latin lounge," first drenching each moody number with melodrama, then lifting it with the dead seriousness of great musicianship and Gammage's true-blue voice."
Melanie Bush, Village Voice
"The best thing about the bubbling lounge music scene is how it mixes the pleasant, sentimental music of the 40's and 50's with 90's smart-ass attitude. On Exotic and Mysterious, the Sounds of Voodoo Martini , New Yorks Voodoo Martini mix Latin-tinged guitar work and percussion with Elvis Presley-meets-Steve Martin vocals, the result of which is an oddly soothing cocktail. Singer/songwriter Phil Gammage doesn't tip toe around his subject matter, as demonstrated in "Men Without Shame" a story of love gone awry. "When you got her back to the motel you found out she was a he but you went ahead anyway."
While the Martinis call their music "power lounge", theirs is not a blend of hard rock and swinger's music, as that term might connote. Rather the boys in the hand groove on salsa riffs ("Hungry for Love"), Bohemian bongos, Mexican love ballads ("Lap Dance"), and jazzy vocal stylings ("Not Afraid Anymore") in pasting together their world. Make no mistake about it, Voodoo Martini are for real. Deft without being overbering, Gammage and his band mates offer up the perfect soundtrack for your next cabana bash."
Dave Brigham, Webnoize
"I was expecting something similar to Combustible Edison after looking at the cover art for this new release from New York's VOODOO MARTINI, yet this is a much moodier affair. You can just feel the smoke seeping into your pores as you listen to this, a ten track collection of songs filled with heartache, lost love, and plenty of booze to chase 'em away. These tunes sound like soundtrack music to a film only seen in singer Phil Gammage's mind, filled with romance, intrigue, and plenty of cigarettes and alcohol. "
Continental #4
Read the Voodoo Martini interview from Lo-Fi magazine here.
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