Dave Strange-MusicHead Magazine
If you’ve seen the movie “The
Commitments,” you can really appreciate what D.C. & Co. are all
about. The
movie – a story about a working-class Irish R‘nB/Soul band from Dublin
(the
Commitments) who view their musical mission as nothing short of
“returning soul
to the Irish people” – could easily be about D.C. & Co. Because, in
the
end, D.C. &
It ain’t an easy job. Just
ask D.C. (Dave
Costarella) how tough it is to hold together (let alone pay) an 8-piece
band.
But the fact is D.C. would have it no other way. “My fans demand the
horns,” he
says. “I got no choice.”
For sure, the 3-piece horn
section (Eric Ensminger on trumpet, sax
Doug Hill, and
Big “D”
on trombone) places
D.C. &
Co. in a special category all it’s own. It lifts the listener higher
and adds a
brassy boastfulness to DC’s sound, allowing the band to strut the
streets of
Blues, jazz and alleys between.
It’s no secret, the band’s
genre-bending
forays into R’nB, Blues, Jazz, Rock, Funk, Swing, and Soul keep boredom
at bay
and legs on the dance floor. D.C. & Co. plays music that moves you,
and
music that makes you want to move…
So
what’s the band’s secret? Well, for one, D.C.’s own electrifying brand
of
original music is top-notch. With the recent release of
Ain’t That
Somethin’ (and the band’s previous, Somethin’s Happenin’), D.C. keeps
the party happenin’ all night.
Inject a few classics like Santana “Black Magic Woman” or War’s “Low
Rider”
into the live mix, and you have the recipe for one helluva hot night of
music.
Fronting the band on
keyboards and lead vocals, D.C. cooks up songs that are witty, gritty,
and
honest, with enough clever hooks to reel in listeners and turn them
into
devoted fans. Powered by a souped-up rhythm section of dual
percussionists
(Dave Santana, drums and
Gary Miller, congas and bongos) and a driving,
jazzed-up bass (Bobby Fry), they invite you along for a thrilling ride,
through
an ever-changing musical landscape peppered with blues, jazz, soul,
salsa, and
more. Still others claim the band’s secret weapon is
Big Tone Torres
who keeps
the music from becoming too polished, adding a raw, rock ‘n roll guitar
sound
to keep the music fresh.
“The blues people say
it’s more rock, the rock people say it’s jazz, and the jazz people say
it’s
Blues,” laughs DC. He likes to call it “Live Music for Live People.”
One thing’s for sure:
D.C. and Co. has cultivated an impressive audience with their top-shelf
soulful
sound. Just check out any club or event where D.C. &
“We write and play music that excites us,” explains D.C., “we try to entertain the way we like to be entertained.”