Moonlight Magic
MOONLIGHT MAGIC consists of four longtime mainstays on the Phoenix music scene: Jaime Paul Lamb (composer/guitarist), ex-Van Buren Wheels and subject of the recent 2-LP set entitled WE’RE LOUD: 90’S CASSETTE PUNK UNKNOWNS (a Phoenix-centric compilation on Slovenly Records), who has recently moved back to Midtown Phoenix after several years as a session musician in NYC and Los Angeles; Andrew Jemsek (organ/accordion/composer), an alumni of local faves the Andrew Jackson Jihad and Serene Dominic Band; Ruth Wilson (electric and upright bass), ex-member of Tempe’s legendary Flathead and intermittent duets over the years with her husband, the Meat Puppets’ Cris Kirkwood; the inimitable Eddy Detroit (percussion), a storied Phoenix icon and “tiki outsider/cult weirdo”; and Steve Asetta (saxophone/percussion), an frequent collaborator of Jaime’s from NYC’s jazz & avant garde music scene.
MOONLIGHT MAGIC began about a year ago due to a mutual love of all things lounge/exotica/bossa nova etc. and are all huge fans of composers such as Martin Denny (from whose composition the band takes their name), Les Baxter, Burt Bacharach & Antonio Carlos Jobim. Significantly, MOONLIGHT MAGIC plays all their own material, exclusively. The band’s sound is super-legit and is about the hippest representation of 60’s lounge culture one is likely to find – particularly here in the Valley.