When Lehighton native Denny Seiwell left the tiny Carbon County town for a burgeoning career as a drummer in the lodges of the Poconos, then the clubs of New York City, jazz was his music of choice.
He played with greats such as Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Anita O'Day. But then Seiwell's jazz career got sidetracked, in a great way.
After a secret audition, former Beatle Paul McCartney chose Seiwell as his drummer for his new projects. Seiwell played with McCartney on his second solo album, Ram." And Seiwell was the first musician to join McCartney and wife Linda in McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings.
For the next three years, Seiwell was a part of Wings, performing on two of his albums and the hits "My Love," "Live and Let Die" and "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey." After leaving the band in 1973, he had a successful career as a sessions drummer on albums byJames Brown, John Denver and Billy Joel, and for TV shows and movies such as Disney's "Atlantis."
Now, 40 years after that fateful audition, Seiwell is back in his jazz groove.
On March 30, he performs at Mauch Chunk Opera House on the first East Coast dates of The Denny Seiwell Trio, a combo formed in 2010 with renowned jazz guitarist John Chiodini and top organ player Joe Bagg. The trio released its debut disc, "Reckless Abandon," last year. It includes jazzy renditions of a few of McCartney's songs that Seiwell was a part of — such as "Bip Bop," "Dear Friend," "Loup (1st Indian on the Moon)" and "Coming Up."
Just as McCartney is enjoying renewed popularity with his new album of standards, the Top 5 "Kisses on the Bottom," Seiwell says returning to the music that first influenced him is "probably the most exciting thing that's happened, musically, in many years for me."
"I'm really loving this," Seiwell says. "It's like one of those rare finds where you find people that just understand where we're headed and every time we play, it's awesome. I can't begin to tell you how great it is."
The Jim Thorpe show represents a homecoming for Seiwell. Except for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Carbon County Band — made up of the county's best scholastic players — a few years ago, he has not played in the Lehighton area since he left as a young man.
Seiwell, 68, grew up in a musical family. His father, Don, was a drummer, and his younger brother, Daryl, became a band director in the Jim Thorpe School District. Seiwell says that at 7, his father enrolled him in Lehighton Boys Band under the tutelage of director Charlie Fronheiser.
"That's probably one of the greatest things that ever happened to me," he says. "It really got my musical career off to a good start." After a stint in the Navy — he played in the Navy band — and marrying his wife, Monique, in Lehighton in 1966, he started his career in the Poconos.
While in the house band at Mount Airy Lodge, he says, a bass player named Russ Savakus who contracted musicians for New York sessions told him, "Wow — you're way above these guys, and you should be coming into the city and start recording."
Seiwell did, becoming the house drummer at the iconic jazz club The Half Note and establishing himself as one of the city's busiest drummers. That status in 1970 got him a blind audition in a basement in the Hell's Kitchensection of Manhattan, where he found himself face to face with McCartney and his wife, Linda.
The audition got Seiwell a spot among only three musicians hired for "Ram," which is set for a deluxe, remastered re-issue May 22 to commemorative its 40th anniversary. It will be the first time it's available on CD and will include a new documentary, "Ramming," about the making of the album and narrated by McCartney, as well as original music videos for the songs "Heart Of The Country" and "3 Legs."
Then came Wings.
"Working with Paul, we had such a good working experience and an artistic endeavor that he asked me to come — to leave my position as a sessions drummer in New York — and move to England and form the band Wings with him. And we put Wings together," Seiwell says.
Through two albums — 1971's "Wild Life" and 1973's "Red Rose Speedway" — and three tours, Seiwell drummed with Wings, even getting Lehighton highlighted when a 1972 television special identified his childhood home on screen. Seiwell and McCartney even had farms near each other in Scotland.
But by 1973, Seiwell says, there were strains in Wings — mostly monetary.
"I was just there at a bad time," Seiwell says. "When [McCartney] was starting up a whole new life with Wings, at the same time, he had to sue the other Beatles and break up the band because of financial problems that they were having and their management.
http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/music/mc-denny-seiwell-jazz-jim-thorpe-20120329,0,924405.story
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