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Ronny Elliott's reflections on the Tampa Bay music scene

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The State of the Arts in Tampa by Lori Karpay Gainey

Local Guitarist Vincent Sims asks the question "Is That Jazz?"

Music Education:
University of South Florida's Jazz Studies Program

Live Reviews:
Charlie Hunter at the State Theater

CD Reviews:

Michel Camilo "Triangulo"

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Inferiority complex. The only possible answer that I can offer as to why Tampa has no music scene and never has. Oh sure, some offer up the good old days of the Rockers or the Impacs; the garage glory of the Tropics and the Outsiders; early country rock'n'roll with Duckbutter and the Outlaws.

If you aren't ready for the AARP, then you might have memories of Zenith Nadir, or Joe Popp or maybe the Headlights or November Foxtrot Whiskey.

The fact is, we've always had an abundance of talent in the area. We've always been blessed with radio better than most of the country. The music press has generally been kind, well informed and dripping with good intentions.

Club owners have suffered, if not quietly, trying to present good music to what I consider to be the sweetest, hippest audience on the planet. I've crammed bad taste down the throat of the same basic crowd for well over thirty years now and, thank God, they come back for more!

With all these necessary ingredients what could be missing? What makes Austin a music city and Tampa a place to move from? Why wasn't Pee Shy bigger than Lenny Kravitz?

I think we all buy into the idea that there is important music and there is local music. The local press is good to me. I'm old. I've been around for a long time. WMNF, God love them, gives me good airplay for which I'm very grateful. But guess what...the other press, in other locations is even kinder to me. Not only that, but I get more airplay in Texas than I do in Florida! I sell more records in Europe I hold myself up as an example because I probably get more help than most and I struggle at the bottom.

What would happen if the Tampa Bay audience agreed with the local press that the music being created in this area was world class and local radio was forced to play music made here due to listener demand? What if a critic from the Tribune or the Times noticed that a local opening act played a set superior to a headliner and said so in bold headlines? What if writers for Focus, Jam and the Weekly Planet all got up on the same shaky soapbox and announced that we were all gonna fix this broken wagon?

I've been called naive, and sometimes I think that's to keep from calling me dumb, but I think it will eventually happen. I'm whorin' myway through the process, promoting my new record,"My Nerves Are Bad Tonight." We're getting play on about seventy stations in the US so far and getting good press here and in Europe. I played Nashville last week (late April) and I play New York next week. We're playing Tropical Heatwave and we plan to rock'n'roll like we've never rock'n'rolled before!

Instead of moving, which I threaten and consider about twice a decade, I look forward to telling people that I live in the REAL music city: Tampa! Long live Benny Joy!