When The Vamps performed at Duling Hall in December 2015, attendees kept telling the musicians how thrilled they were that the band was playing a reunion show. Of course, the issue with that, drummer Denny Burkes says, is that they never broke up in the first place.
“It’s still very much a living, breathing organism,” he says.
In Mississippi’s ever-changing music scene, it is rare to find a band with the longevity of The Vamps, which first formed in 1998. While fans won’t find the Jackson soul and jazz outfit playing a monthly rotation of Martin’s Restaurant & Bar, Hal & Mal’s and Ole Tavern on George Street as it did in the old days, the seven-man troupe still plays weddings and corporate gigs as well as larger events such as the Township Jazz Festival.
One factor that has contributed to the band’s long life is that each member plays with a variety of other acts, keeping The Vamps as a sort of family reunion when they get together.
Both guitarist Barry Leach and vocalist-percussionist Adib Sabir play in several Jackson duos and trios; Burkes plays with Eric Stracener and the Frustrations and with the Steve Deaton Three; bassist-keyboardist Bob Pieczyk plays with the Big Easy Three and the Lucky Hand Blues Band; trumpet player Terry Miller also plays with the Big Easy Three and with Southern Komfort Brass Band; and alto saxophonist Kevin Lewis plays with Greenfish.
Those who haven’t seen The Vamps in the past year will notice Todd Bobo on tenor sax, following longtime member Booker Walker’s retirement from music last year. Leach says they had hoped Walker would join them onstage for their upcoming show at Duling Hall this Thursday, Dec. 22, but sadly, Walker died suddenly on Oct. 5.
Walker performed with countless local musicians over the years, but some people may not know that he also backed iconic acts such as The O’Jays and B.B. King, even playing on the late blues icon’s 1971 album “Live from Cook County Jail.”
“It brings it into focus to me just how amazing this group is,” Burkes says of Walker’s passing. “The more time goes by—we’re 20 years with this—it makes me appreciate it that much more, especially with someone like Booker passing, which affected me a lot. I had a real affinity for Booker, and any time we had an out-of-town gig, we’d ride together, and I’d drag stories out of him that he would never talk about.”
Despite life and other projects pulling the players in many directions, Burkes says The Vamps has been his favorite group to work with because it manages to be challenging and easy at the same time—the latter because the members gel so well and no one has an ego, and the former because the arrangements all happen on the fly.
