About the band
The core of the Happy Lucky Combo is a trio, with Pippin Barnett playing percussion, Barry Bless on accordion and Dave Yohe on bass. They play original music inspired by Klezmer, Tango, Zydeco, Oriental music and always the Blues.
Happy Lucky began as a street band. The instrumentation was bass drum, snare drum and accordion. This combination of percussion and accordion is popular worldwide. These instruments are loud enough to be heard within the urban soundscape and they permit the musicians to rove.
As Happy Lucky Combo evolved, string bass replaced the bass drum. Pippin began using his trap set for stage performance. The band now performs on stage and roves. Often guests artists are invited to perform.
The members of the band come from diverse musical backgrounds.
Dave Yohe (bass) comes from a musical family. His father was a jazz musician and friend to Art Pepper. Dave says, “When I was a child, my dad would bring me along to gigs. I got to play with these incredible musicians.”
Pippin Barnett (percussion) spent formative years in Japan. Asian melody and percussion continue to interest and influence him. Pippin says, “As a child in Japan, music was everywhere, coming out of shops and sung by street venders.”
Barry (accordion) has had a lifetime attraction to what he calls “diasporic modes of longing .” “I was deeply moved by the chanting of the cantor when my friends would take me to synagogue.” Later he found that same beauty in the blues and the modal jazz of the 1960s.
Responses to hearing the band are varied. A Croatian man said the music reminded him of music from his homeland. Others hear the music as Klezmer or Romanian or Zydeco. Japanese listeners always smile at the band’s version of a popular Japanese folk tune. On the street, the band often attracts Hispanic listeners.
“It’s those diasporic modes of longing,” says Barry. “We’re all motherless children, a long way from home. We’re all homesick. It’s the human condition and music is the medicine.”
Photos by Tommy Drexul and Isaac Harrell