Album Notes

Bohemian Knuckleboogie band leader Mike Pitre is a storyteller, whether he\'s singing, scatting or rapping one of his original tunes rooted in the Texas/Louisiana bayou. On guitar or pocket trumpet, Pitre tells tales too, as he lays down a groove with the fellas of Bohemian Knuckleboogie

\"The Show\" is Bohemian Knuckleboogie live. It\'s sure to get your party started.

A popular sideman on both U.S. coasts, Pitre\'s been working on Bohemian Knuckleboogie over the last several years and says his music has found its spot. He started song writing in the early 1990s while working in New York as a sideman playing straight-ahead jazz at places like the famed Blue Note, Visione’s, and Arthur’s Tavern.

While trying to stay afloat in the uncertain music biz Pitre tapped into the pop scene as a sideman for disco divas Gloria Gaynor and Rozalla. He played to big audiences around the world and fell under the spell of Gloria’s big hit “I Will Survive.” Pitre was also in Rozalla’s horn section and was in her video cover version of the O’Jays\' “I Love Music” and for Al Pacino’s blockbuster movie “Carlito’s Way.”

Despite demand for his horn playing, Pitre felt like a fake aspiring to follow jazz greats in their mold. That began to change while residing in Brooklyn when he worked with Fugees’ producer Jerry Duplessis and met various artists such as Chris Rock who told him to be true to his vision.

Pitre decided to point his bow away from New York, first toward his native Port Arthur, Texas, then San Francisco where Bohemian Knuckeboogie plays at venues like the Boom Boom Room and Rasellas.

Pitre is also playing his trumpet in SF-based bands like Sila and the Afro Funk Experience and Boomshanka. In addition, he’s worked with famed SF blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker, who first nicknamed Pitre “Picasso.” More importantly JLW provided Pitre a chance to be exposed to the Bay Area blues scene.

“Being from Texas, San Francisco has shown me a lot of love. They’ve let me fit in,” said Pitre, who considers his music “the swamp personified.”