About Jeff Bove and His Music
Jeff’s musical career was initially shaped at a young age by his Uncle Charlie Briggs, whose own high school “big band” featured well-known arranger and director, and close family friend Nelson Riddle. Jeff watched Nelson’s orchestras on Academy Awards shows, and his arrangements and musical directions on notable works performed by Frank Sinatra, Nate Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. From this, Jeff recognized the key role of disciplined arrangers, producers and directors. Jeff was always a prolific composer, arranger and producer, who started at age nine creating his own styles of music with his first “band”, the “ Termites”, performing instrumental songs Jeff wrote in school assemblies that he assembled as a platform for his music.
Interestingly, this music used Latin and calypso instruments and rhythms. At age ten, Jeff started classical training in woodwinds, initially with the clarinet and later oboe. Eventually, his creativity overwhelmed the standard music program at his school where he took over the school’s symphony orchestra practices wanting the orchestra to jam as he laid down the rhythm on orchestral tympanis.
His next band, the “Knaves”, gained popularity with all ages including those listeners many years older. This band featured Andy Eaton on vocals and Pete Booker of WSTW and local broadcasting fame, on bass. Other band members included Tim Tamany on guitar and Kevin Shaw on drums. The Knaves’ look and sound was distinctly influenced by the many acts launched from the UK.
Next came PWG Radio Band in 1967, which featured another area first, a theatrical light show which included strobes, real “lava” lights (overhead projectors with colored oil floating in water), florescent suits illuminated by stage wide black lights, smoke generators and a full time member of the cast to operate the lights. PWG also uniquely made use of huge theatrical sound systems to project its music over larger houses. To some, the band resembled an off Broadway show. Band members joined the actor’s guild and took the stage with professional actors during summer stock at the University of Delaware’s Mitchell Theater. Jeff again showed his musical versatility in this band, playing electric bass.
Jeff’s next influence came in another unusual manner – riding the bus home from school with lifelong friend Geoff Daking, who lived in the same hood as Jeff. The elder Geoff, a drummer, upon graduation from Tatnall School in Wilmington, was called to a session in NYC to play on Tobacco Road, a tune performed by a new band called the Blue Magoos. Suddenly, elder Geoff’s career took off with a series of hits and major national tours including a summer tour with The Who.
PWG was followed in 1968-69 by yet another highly original act, “Allitriller”. This four piece combination, featuring Andy Eaton on vocals,introduced another groundbreaking feature, a full size Baldwin stereo harpsichord shaped as a baby grand. The instrument, played by Thorpe Moeckle, was used for bass, rhythm and lead. The percussionist, Ted Jenner, used a double kick drum rig. Jeff played his 335 Gibson and a Fender lap steel guitar. Allitriller featured an eclectic mix of original blues, rock and country harpsichord.
PWG and Allitriller were given rehearsal space in the lower level of Immanuel Episcopal Church in the Highlands area of Wilmington, Delaware where the bands worked intensively after school three days per week preparing their material and shows. Weekend nights were spent performing. The relationship with “the Church” proved to be a special one over a five year period.
Bove’s music continued to evolve. In 1969, he held summer long auditions for his next band and, after tight competition, eventually selected vocalist Julie Alexander, guitarist Blake Ring, drummer Jim Russell, and bass guitar player Dave Berry. Bove wrote a few sets of songs and “Martha Lidd” was born. Later, Andy Eaton and bassist Bob Cullen were added. The band continued to practice at the Church. In fact, its original music and special style was so captivating that crowds would gather outside of the Church to catch closed rehearsals through the thick stone walls. The rehearsal crowds grew so large that Bove decided something had to be done. He approached the minister of the church, George Chapman, and persuaded him that this was an opportunity to draw the youth of Wilmington to a supervised church environment. They decided they would open a coffee house on Friday nights in the Church’s basement and call it Grimslade. Bove agreed to split the proceeds with the Church.
“Grimslade” rapidly gained popularity. Crowds frequently stretched around a city block. Chapman and Bove received national recognition when they were invited to the United Nations Council of Church’s in NYC, where they received an award for operating the top church sponsored coffee house in the United States. CBS’s 60 Minutes even booked a segment on Grimslade, but the war forced a last minute cancellation. “Live at Grimslade” was recorded at the coffee house. It captures the spirit and songs of Martha Lidd, the driving lead guitar of Blake Ring, intricate solos of Ring and Bove, the ecclesiastic voices of Alexander and Eaton, anchored by the steady rhythm section of Jim Russell and Bob Cullen. Bove composed, arranged and directed the tunes with wise advice from his band mates.
As a gauge of Martha Lidd’s influence, in a space of ten months during 1969-70, the band was featured in six articles in the Wilmington News Journal, including a full page article in the news section containing a series of photos by the well known photographer Fred Comegys.
Another highpoint came when the band opened for the Electra recording artists the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. During Martha Lidd’s set, the entire Butterfield Blues Band left the backstage area and sat in the first row of the theater to listen. After the concert, they were so excited about Bove’s music that they contacted their producer, Albert Grossman, who managed Bob Dylan. Grossman tried to persuade Martha Lidd to let him record the band.
Instead, Bove decided to pursue school and Martha Lidd faded quietly into the 70’s. Bove became an honor student, but returned to music a year later to embark on a new series of sounds and songs, joining up with folk singer and prolific composer Scott Birney. The two began writing and from this effort came “Later Days”. Bove again called on Andy Eaton for singing and along with Tom Fisher, he and Birney created Little Tommy Tittlemouse. To this day, both Birney and Bove marvel at the incredible sounds of this acoustic group. Luckily, they were able to capture an entire set of their music on tape and they have decided to release it thirty-eight years later. With Tittlemouse, Bove’s arrangements and productions jumped to another level. It epitomized his use of strings with octaves, 12 string guitars, autoharps and banjo. Only fitting for a person who once wrote country and western music for a full sized harpsichord. Tittlemouse even contains a musical rendition of a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, “Sing Me A Song”. Birney’s highly successful musical career was launched from a solid platform.
A year later, Bove teamed with composer, showman and comedian, Ian Mair and the two worked up another unique catalog of acoustic guitar music featuring original compositions, including their instrumental “Typical Romance Poem”. This was complemented by Mair’s wonderful selection of J.J. Cale, H. Leadbetter, and “jug band” music. Again, Bove called on Andy Eaton to add vocals, also joined by vocalist Charlie Reese, and the old Martha Lidd rhythm section of Jim Russell and Dave Berry. Scott Birney would later retain Jim, Dave and Andy to form the Sin City Band, a Wilmington institution. Birney proved to be a top level composer, arranger, director and performer.
In 1975, Bove headed for law school, taking another hiatus from music, but ranking first in his class. He returned to Wilmington where he joined a major Wilmington firm and, fittingly, practiced intellectual property litigation. His ever present organizational and entreprenual skills surfaced and he eventually became managing partner of the firm, opening offices in D.C. and L.A. However, his love of music never died.
Twelve years later, in 1987, he started back into music and wrote new sets of original material. He also acquired recording equipment and his first sessions started where he stopped twelve years earlier, with Ian Mair. Three of these songs appear on the Luther Lidd CD. Later, he retained session drummer Chris Bergman, bassist Randy Coleman and lead guitar player Tom Alderson. The rhythm section worked on Bove’s songs for two years. At the suggestion of guitarist Wayne Watson, Bove then added vocalist Mindy Reynolds and the group recorded for another year. They called on Wayne Beardwood for saxophone solos on three songs. Bove then brought Andy Eaton back and persuaded another notable musician who Bove had known for over thirty-five years, Lindsay Lee, to record the final series of his songs. All these works appear on the CD which Bove fittingly calls “Briggs”, after his Uncle Charlie. Bove wrote, arranged, produced, performed and engineered the Briggs project which was completed in 1994, but was never released. Lee, Reynolds and Eaton provide masterful vocals and Alderson’s “Martha Lidd” like guitar work weaves in and around the intricate vocal arrangements. The project is well anchored by the solid rhythm work of Coleman and Bergman.
And so after forty years, the work of Jeff Bove is finally being made available to all who performed it, to all who watched the concerts, to all who want to remember it, and to the next generation of aspiring composers, arrangers, directors and producers.