At the dawn of the 1990s, The Clams were making music unlike that being created by anyone else in Milwaukee. Rooted in jazz, The Clams blended a punk attitude and other genres of music into its decidedly unorthodox approach to jazz.
The Clams morphed into Clamnation and has had a long life on the Milwaukee scene. In fact, tomorrow, the group celebrates its 20th anniversary with a gig at The Nomad, 1401 E. Brady St.
"Various lineups will be featured," promises saxophonist Mike Pauers, "starting with the current members of the group. The highlight of the night will be a reunion of The Clams, the group that started it all; there are four original members still performing with Clamnation. We'll also have past members of Clamnation dropping by and sitting in all night."
The core band is drummer Jay Arpin, trumpeter Jamie Breiwick, guitarist Brian Dietz, bassist Dave Dinauer, percussionist Tom Presser and Pauers.
The guests on tap for the evening are harmonica player and singer Sean Maroney, guitarist Jamie Shavers, saxophonists Dan Sjogren and Aaron Gardner, trombonist Max Day, percussionist Jhames Finlayson and guitarist/saxophonist Robert Pavliscek.
In addition to hearing some great live music, Pauers says gig-goers will get music to take home, too.
"As a reward for anyone who comes down, they'll get a free copy of our latest recording, 'Cookin' at the Fox Note,' recorded live at the now defunct Fox Note jazz club in Green Lake."
How can you resist?
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
