Summerfest is, despite the presence of musicians of all ages, a bastian of youth. At least it was on the Briggs stage on Monday, thanks to 9-year-old, Elkhorn guitar whiz Tallan Noble Latz, whose band performed Monday afternoon. I stopped by to see.
Latz is young, he's got the stage strut down and he could pass for a shrunken down version of just about any blues rocker at this year's Summerfest.
Opening with a Hendrix-style solo electric wail of a "Star Spangled Banner," Latz from the start swaggered with confidence.
This in contrast to his low-key support staff of drummer, bassist and keyboard player -- on their own they would look like a pretty young band, but seem weathered vets next to their leader -- who perhaps keenly remember whose name is on the marquee.
Wearing black shades and a black shirt engulfed in flames, Latz performed in front of a pretty impressive crowd of about 500 who whooped and hollered after each tune.
Not bad for a Monday afternoon, especially considering by the time he cracked into his second tune, the sky turned black, rain drops fell and the winds blew.
Latz is a real showman, with all of the blues rock poses, facial expressions and licks down pat. He even pulls off covers of standards like Muddy Waters' "Hoochie Coochie Man" by re-purposing it as "Hoochie Coochie Boy," playing the youth card.
Latz certainly has the skills and you can't help but seek out the other kids in the audience and wonder if they'd be able to do the same given that special mix of passion, drive, determination, encouragement and dedication.
Yet, he's still clearly something of a novelty, as evidenced by the way the crowd chuckles when he says something like "this next song we're gonna get a little funky," before launching into a rocked-up version of The Meters' "Cissy Strut."
A stronger guitarist that vocalist, Latz has plenty of time to work out whatever kinks there are. There's no fear he won't improve, only that people may lose interest once he's not a prodigy anymore and joins the ranks of adult blues guitarists. But at age 9, that's a long way off.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
