By Bruce B. Brugmann
I was elbowing my way past the bar last night at a Guardian party at the Elbo Room. Suddenly, an apparition suddenly appeared out of the crowd and declared loudly:
“Why haven’t you put my picture on the front page of the Guardian?”
She was a striking woman, flailing her arms, and it took me a moment to figure out who it was.
She was Nefertiti Jones, the female singer and banjo player I had wrangled with many years ago at the Slow Club on Hampshire Street.
Nefertiti was a waitress and a singer in those days when we had our offices at 520 Hampshire Street. My office was right above the bar of the Slow Club and, when the club had entertainment, I got the full blast upstairs.
In fact, when I was on the phone, people remarked that I must be in a cabaret somewhere.
Finally, I got annoyed and complained to the owner of the club. In no time, the apparition that was Nefertiti came charging into my office, demanding to know why I was trying to shut down her singing career and demanding that I stop making complaints about her.
I took one look at Nefertiti and decided I didn’t want to wrangle with her. But I told her I would stop complaining on one condition: that she would let me know when she was on stage so I could go down and listen to her like a normal Slow Club gentleman. I did, we became good friends, and I was sad when she went off to New York one day.
Well, she was back, in full plumage, bristling with stories about her success as a singer and entrepreneur in New York. And she said she was performing later in the evening at the Hotel Utah.
So I asked Mary Samson, a friend of hers from Slow Club days, to catch the show and write up a review.
Nefertiti Jones Back from the Slow Club!
The very talented Nefertiti Jones was in town last night for a short set at Hotel Utah. An iconic San Francisco pop songstress who worked below the old Bay Guardian building at the Slow Club as a waitress, Nef, as she is known to her fans, frequently played Café DuNord and the Elbo Room.
She was an opening act at the Fillmore before returning back to her hometown of New York City over seven years ago. Nef is in town for a few days and graced the stage at Hotel Utah last night where she brought down the house with familiar songs from her San Francisco days as well as new ones from her recent album. With a raw acoustic version of her regular band, last night’s set featured two guitars and a drummer on Hotel Utah’s intimate stage. Fans went down memory lane when Nef opened her set with “Got my Gun” an older original tune that had fans singing along with every word. She had the audience on its feet with ”Blink”; a beautiful rock song off her album “Life is Perfect” .
Nef had a huge fan base last night, including a crowd of X- Slow Club staff, and many others who have followed her career throughout the years. Someone even shouted to her between songs “MOVE BACK !” Nef currently plays with Jimi Bones, her husband of two years and you can hear her music and read more about her at: http://www.myspace.com/jonesbonesband
Viva Nef-Star!
Besides Nefertiti’s music career, she and her husband Jimi own Jonesbones Productions, a full service music studio and production company. Nef and Jimi have written and recorded songs for many emerging young artists as well as their own album “Life is Perfect”. They are at work on their second album to be released fall of 2008.
Nefertiti is currently creating a music program at the Founding Center, (NYC’s largest and most respected social service agencies) in conjuction with Gibson Guitars. Nef has freelanced as a casting director of the past 5 years in New York and specializes in “real people casting” ; she is gifted at finding the right people in the clubs and on the streets of New York.
Nefertiti also works as an actor and has been featured in five national television commercials.