January 2004 Jazziz

from Genesis

by Bill Milkowski

When I was growing up in Milwaukee during the early '70 s, there was a fusion band in town named Sweetbottom that played at a local haunt called Sardino's Bull Ring Ltd.
A dark, red-carpeted, naugahyde-covered lounge, it was a quintessential '50s holdover run by a gruff little fireplug named Jimmy Sardino. And while Jimmy had no discernable neck to speak of, he did have big ears for music.

During the summer of 1975, Jimmy's jukebox was stocked with such hip tunes of the day as Grover Washington's "Mister Magic," Ramsey Lewis's mellow rendition of Earth, Wind & Fire's "That's The Way Of The World, " Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Making Love." and "We Got By" by Milwaukee's own Al Jarreau.

Sweetbottom was the house band at Sardin o's during that pivotal summer of my youth. Occasionally, during a given set, they would feature guest vocalist Donna Rene on mellower jazzy offerings, no doubt to appease Jimmy. But this band really hit its stride when it kicked into high gear on fusion covers like Tony Williams Lifetime's "Fred," David Sanborn's "Duck Ankles," and the classic jam vehicle "Chameleon" by Herbie Hancock's Headhunters.
Sweetbottom's secret weapon was guitar monster Daryl Stuermer, whose sizzling chops and imagination rivaled those of the Al DiMeolas, Larry Coryells, Lee Ritenours, and Tommy Bolins who were at that time making waves on a national scale. Furthermore, Daryl's original compositions were first-rate-as intricate, harmonically challenging, and ultimately exciting as anything going in fusion music during that summer.

I had been hooked on fusion since first seeing the Mahavishnu Orchestra open for Frank Zappa in 1974 - the same year I caught Return to Forever at the Performing Arts Center in Milwaukee, with a young, hotshot guitarist named Al DiMeola (who, I noted, was one month older than me). So while dutifully catch- ing every national fusion act that came to town, I got my local fix on a weekly basis at the Bull Ring Ltd., courtesy of Sweetbottom.

By the end of 1975, Stuermer would join Jean-Luc Ponty's band, recording three albums with the Flying Frenchman —Aurora, 1975; Imaginary Voyage, 1976; and Enigmatic Ocean, 1977, in which he went toe-to-toe with guitar god Allan Holdsworth. Stuermer would later become a regular member of Genesis ' touring band (appearing on two live recordings) as well as an integral part of Phil Collins' band, a working relationship that continues to this day. Stuermer still resides in Milwaukee (when he's not touring) and continues to record local artists at his Urban Island Studio, while also releasing discs under his own name, including Steppin'Out, in 1988, on GRP Records, and the instrumental Another Side of Genesis, 2000, on his own Urban Island Music label. Late last December, Stuermer got together with his old Sweetbottom bandmates (saxophonist Warren Wiegratz, drummer Mike Murphy, and his bass-playing brother Duane) for a 30-year-reunion concert at Milwaukee's Shank Hall (formerly Teddy's, where I had seen the likes of George Benson, "Sugarcane" Harris, Harvey Mandel, and Howlin' Wolf back in the early '70s).

Augmenting the original Sweetbottom quartet with keyboardist Kostia, they ran down basically the same set that they might've played on any given night at the Bull Ring back in the day opening with Don Grolnick's "The Whisperer," peaking with Daryl's high-energy original "The Archer," and closing with Jeff Beck's rous- ing "Freeway Jam."

Their set was as nostalgic as it was exhilarating, and Daryl wailed with the same fiery abandon he exhibited back at the Bull Ring 30 years ago (and with a much ballsier tone to boot). Fusion fans who want to catch this buzz can check out Sweetbottom's Live: The Reunion (available through darylstuermer.com or cdbaby.com).