#1. Booking MITCH WOODS & HIS ROCKET 88’S! Get Answers & Fast Service.

Mitch
Woods and His Rocket 88’s are the torch bearers of a great American musical heritage. Taking 
their inspiration from the great jump n’ boogie outfits and swingin’ little big bands of the 40’s, they breathe fresh life into the vanishing brand of music that gave birth to rock ‘n’ roll.

Mitch takes his cue from his jumpin’ n’ jivin’, shoutin’ n’ honkin’,
pumpin’ n’ poundin’ predecessors, Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway,
Joe and Jimmie Liggins, and Louis Prima, just to name a few. Mitch’s
pile drivin’ piano licks and energetic stage persona combine with
the Rocket 88’s swingin’ horns, thumpin’ bass, rockin’ guitar
and jungle drums to send a crowd into dancing delight.

They
are one of the first bands on the West Coast to reach back to an
earlier time in American music using humor, style, musicianship and
showmanship to forge their own swinging brand of music — which they
coined rock-a-boogie.
Call it Nouveau Swing or
whatever, Mitch Woods & the 88’s have distilled the
essence of jump, swing and boogie woogie, made it their own, and
deliver it to the present.

Mitch
Woods was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He moved to the San Francisco Bay
Area in 1971 and began performing as Mitch Woods & His Red Hot
Mama, featuring his boogie woogie piano and the sultry voice of the Red Hot Mama (Susan Savoy) on tunes by Billie Holiday,
Bessie Smith and Fats Waller. The band broke up as Mitch moved to Hawaii to embark on a solo career in the late
70’s. He returned in 1981 to form the first incarnation of the
Rocket 88’s with former members of the David Bromberg Band,
including John Firmin on sax, now leading his own swingin’ big band, The Johnny Nocturne Band.

Mitch Woods And His Rocket 88’s have built a large
national and international following as they perform at clubs and
festivals worldwide. Look for tunes by Mitch & the 88’s on "Next
Generation Swing Vol. 2"
(Simitar) with
Squirrel Nut Zippers,

Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, "Swing
Sucks" (Liberation) with Royal Crown Revue, and
"Swing This, Baby
Vol. 2" (Beyond/BMG) with New Morty Show, Lavay Smith, Steve Lucky.

What
better way to go than kicking up your heels with a smile on your face,
jumpin’ and jivin’ to Mitch Woods & His rocket 88’s.

• Mitch Woods and the 88’s recorded their first of four albums for the
  Blind Pig label entitled "Steady
  Date" in 1984. Hailed by Billboard as "a Whitman sampler of
  American jump, bump and boogie," it features Lance Dickerson on
  drums (of Commander Cody fame).
   
• Their second release, "Mr.
  Boogie’s Back in Town" (1988) features Danny Caron on guitar,
  who has since gone on to become blues legend Charles Brown’s
  musical director.
   
• Mitch’s third release "Solid
  Gold Cadillac" (1991) features a stellar lineup of special guests, including
  Charlie Musselwhite, The
  Roomful of
  Blues Horns, and Ronnie Earl. The Washington Post goes on to say
  about this swingin’ album: "Woods is a rising figure in the
  boogie-woogie and jump blues revival."
   
• On their fourth release, "Shakin’
  the Shack" (1993) Woods
  and the 88’s combine the elements of jump/swing with New Orleans inspiration on 11 original tunes,
  of which Relix Magazine says: "If Shakin’ The Shack doesn’t
  get your toes tapping, shoulders swaying, fingers snapping and hips
  gyrating, it’s time for resuscitation!"
   
• Mitch’s solo project, "Keeper
  of The Flame" (1996) on Viceroy/Lightyear distributed
  worldwide through WEA, is Mitch’s tribute to the blues masters
  that inspired his career. On it he plays and sings duets with
  John
  Lee Hooker, James Cotton, Johnnie Johnson (Chuck
  Berry), Earl King, and Lee Allen (Fats Domino). Hooker enjoyed
  these sessions so much that he asked Woods to join him in his own
  recording "Boom Boom" (Pointblank/Charisma).

Top songs include: .

• Blues Hangover

• Shakin’ the Shack

• Solid Gold Cadillac

• Rocket 88

• Moanin’ N’ Ticklin’

• Jump for Joy

• Honkin’, Shoutin’, Pumpin’, Poundin’

• Jive Mr. Boogie

• Blues Hangover

• House of Blue Lights

• Boogie Woogie Barbecue

What others say —

• Keyboard:
  "Woods rocks the joint with
  some of the jumpin’est piano we’ve heard."
   

• Downbeat:
  "Mitch Woods…give
  heart and soul to jump blues…Woods sings with smooth ebullience and
  hammers the piano keys with the unchecked gaiety of mentors Fess
  Longhair and Amos Milburn."
    — Frank-John Hadley
   

• Offbeat:
  "Piano master Mitch
  Woods is one of the brightest exponents of West Coast swing,
  Kansas City boogie-woogie and Chicago blues. Woods also has a fine
  touch for New Orleans’ piano polyrhythms."
    — Scott Jordan
   

• Washington Post:
  "It’s not easy to play that
  Professor Longhair piano lick – those rippling rumba triplets in
  the right hand against a driving, eight-to-the-bar boogie in the left –
  but San Francisco’s Mitch Woods plays it as well as anyone
  outside New Orleans ever has. This may be complicated music to play, but
  it’s very easy music to hear. There’s something about the
  syncopated bounce of boogie-woogie that lifts one’s spirits even as it
  shifts one’s shoulders and hips."
    — Geoffrey Himes
   

• San Francisco Examiner:
  "Few pianists around have
  better captured the definitive boogie-blues, eight-to-the-bar styles of
  Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Otis Spann, Meade Lux Lewis…and all the
  rest – Woods is one of them."
    — Philip Elwood
   

• New York Post:
  "One of the top
  boogie/blues piano men around."
    — Dan Aquilante
   

• San Francisco Bay Guardian:
  "As a keeper of the
  flame, Woods has always been able to blast headlong through the
  inferno on the strength of his dazzling boogie-woogie chops."
    — Derk Richardson
   

• Blues Revue:
  ""Keeper of The Flame"
  has to be one of the most uplifting recordings to have vibrated my
  woofers in a long time. It’s like witnessing one of those breathtaking
  moments of music where the unspoken communication and the resulting
  musical dialogue can raise a goose bump or two. It has the power to
  charm and to entertain, the power to inspire and to motivate. Definitely
  do not miss out."
    — Maureen DelGrosso
   

• Southland Blues:
  "If it takes 88 keys to
  open the door to your heart, then pianist Mitch Woods ought to be
  your doorman."
    — Bill Kisliuk

Mitch Woods & his Rocket 88’s
may be available for your next special event!