New American music from Brooklyn
The Doggy Cats is a six-piece band I started in New York City in 2015. The music grew out of my first years in Brooklyn, especially the time I spent listening, playing, and hanging out at Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook.
The band brings together jazz, traditional American music, brass-band sounds, improvisation, and many other influences I had collected over the years. Some came from New Orleans jazz and country music. Others came from completely different places, including cartoons.
I never felt a strong need to give the music a specific genre. I simply wanted it to feel joyful, playful, and alive.
Finding Sunny’s
After moving to New York, I often felt a little lost. Then I discovered Sunny’s Bar.
On Wednesday nights, I would go to hear Western Swing, have a few drinks, and walk home with little melodies still playing in my head. Eventually, I also began joining the Saturday bluegrass jams on piano.
Those evenings introduced me to a kind of American music that I had not experienced in the same way before. It was informal and deeply social. People listened, played, talked, danced, and became part of the room.
The melodies I carried home from those nights gradually became music for The Doggy Cats. This story is also at the center of the liner notes for Daikon Pizza.
Music made for a room
The Doggy Cats performed regularly in the small back room at Sunny’s.
When the room was full, there might be only a few dozen people packed together with the band. There was almost no separation between musicians and audience. People danced, talked, stood beside the piano, and sometimes found themselves only a few feet away from the horns.
That intimacy became an important part of the music.
I wanted the arrangements to be simple enough to breathe, with plenty of space for the musicians to improvise and bring their own personalities into the songs.
—George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
“A work of open-hearted joie de vivre.”
—Debbie Burke, author of Glissando and Tasty Jazz Jams for Our Times
—Jon Neudorf, Sea of Tranquility
“A grand gumbo that will blow your mind from start to finish. This cat's a keeper.”
Piano
Tetsuro Hoshii (Leader)
Bass
Larry Legend
Drums
David Palazola
Recording Studio
Big Orange Sheep by Chris Benham
Mixing/Mastering
Bass Hit Stduio by Dave Darlington
Performance Venues
Hot Wood Arts
China Blue
The Doggy Cats
If you had a sad day or a happy day, you were always welcome
About an Album "Daikon Pizza"
About five years before this album was made, I moved to New York City, determined to focus on my art. But the city was overwhelming, and for a while, I felt a little lost.
Then I discovered Sunny’s.
Every Wednesday night in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Sunny’s Bar hosted Smokey’s Round-Up, a wildly fun Western Swing band. Once I found those Wednesday nights, I started going whenever I could. I would have a few drinks, walk home through Red Hook, and find myself humming happy little melodies.
Eventually, those melodies became the Doggy Cats tunes on this album.
Life was still not always easy, but it became easier with good live music nearby. Before long, I also began joining the Saturday bluegrass jams at Sunny’s on piano. Sunny’s became a kind of escape from everyday life, but also a place where I discovered music in a very direct and human way.
When I started The Doggy Cats, I wanted to give the musicians something simple but meaningful to play: the little songs that had grown out of those late-night melodies.
Through the Saturday jams, I had been introduced to a lot of traditional American music, and those sounds gradually mixed with all the other influences I had collected over the years. I wanted the Doggy Cats to play music that was catchy, playful, and rooted in traditional jazz, while still leaving plenty of space for good musicians to improvise.
I wanted the music to feel comfortable, something the band could slip into like a pair of old shoes.
We kept playing the songs until they really became ours. I am deeply grateful to the musicians who turned my passion into something we could share together
We performed often at Sunny’s, one of New York’s most beloved old bars and a place that always felt familiar and welcoming. It is a small room, but when the back room is full of music, people, and dancing, that little bar on Conover Street can feel like the center of the world.
This album is my attempt to capture that feeling: warmth, acceptance, humor, and the joy of making music together late into the night.