Listen to: Jeff Chaz – Me Tratas Tan Mal BeBe

 
Jeff Said: Me Tratas Tan Mal BeBe is a song about A guy hopelessly in love with the wrong woman. Translated:

‘You treat me so bad baby…You’re lying when you say that you love me…
‘You treat me like a dog begging for your love…I can’t take it anymore, but I don’t have the strength to leave you.

About Jeff Chaz:
In grade school, Chaz aspired to Jazz trombone. In Jr. high, he switched to trumpet and played first chair in the band. At age 14, Jeff gave his efforts to the guitar for a while but grew bored.

Chaz’s family moved to California and he recalls, “All through high school I did orchestra but got bad grades because I missed a lot of things. I was too busy doin’ gigs, doin’ Latin and Soul weddings and dances. Then I did trombone.”

After high school Chaz took to the road with a Black Boston soul band. “I was still doin’ trombone and we played six nights a week and traveled all over the US. One night the guitar player, who was also the lead singer, quit, so the leader came up to me and said, ‘O.K. Jeff, you’re the new singer’. He worked with me until I got to soundin’ like Memphis soul.”

Still trying to find his niché, Chaz went back to California where he returned to guitar and studied music at San Bernardino College. “I played country for a while… it was like Chinese to me… it was one of the biggest challenges I’d ever had. Finally, I knew what I had to do — Blues Guitar.”

Chaz made the decision to go to Memphis to study with the masters of Blues. He played in little out-of-the-way Black Blues clubs, which led him to performing gospel. He sang Amazing Grace at the opening of the National Civil Rights Museum and won the first Beale Street Blues Award. Chaz has performed with Albert King, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Cab Calloway.

click for larger image In ’96 Chaz came to New Orleans to help organize a project with local promoter Ellis Paillet, who introduced him to Bourbon Street’s Famous Door owner, John Wehner. Chaz recalls, “I walked into John’s office…he looked at me, pulled his sticks out of his desk, and said, ‘Let’s go play’. After we played for a while, he said, ‘I don’t have a spot for you, but I’ll make one’.”

Six days later, Chaz was back in New Orleans with bags and guitar in hand. Within two months Chaz was drawing record crowds and, with Wehner’s direction and expertise, had put together the most exciting Blues band on Bourbon Street.

Photo by Don Medine

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