Inaugural is Kool gig for local band

They play swing, they play Motown, they play disco.

Big Ray and the Kool Kats is a band of all trades. But is BRKK a marching band?

“We might be marching up 66th [Street] playing our instruments,” Ray Caddell said with a ready laugh.

The Kool one himself was referring to the fact that his band will be joining millions of people headed to Washington next month to welcome the 44th president of the United States. Big Ray won’t be sightseeing, however. He will be trying to maneuver his 12-piece band and three crew members through the crowded streets so they can get to work. You see, Big Ray and the Kool Kats have been invited to perform at not one, but two, inaugural balls.

Caddell said he was both honored and surprised.

“I don’t know,” he said of the invites to play at the 2009 Florida Inaugural Ball on Jan. 19 and Link Americas’ Presidential Inaugural Gala on Jan. 20. Both will be held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, across from the south lawn of the White House.

“We do the Kennedy Center Gala every year,” he said. “We have done it eight years in a row, so we run into a lot of Washington muckity-mucks. I suspect it was derived from one of those things.

“I would love to tell you that we are playing the inaugural gala, but there are about 20. We don’t know who’s coming. The way it works is you get 15 minutes notice if the Obamas are coming.”

Still, it’s a pretty impressive to be a part of the party.

“My whole crew is very excited about it,” Caddell said. “It’s a pretty special event.

“There are two different nights and two different groups of people. These events are always sponsored by somebody, and many times it’s a state or a group of states.

“The first event is the Florida ball. It’s called the Shining Stars and is sponsored by the state of Florida. The event the second night is something called Link Americas, which has something to do both with high tech and North America, South America and Central America.

“So they are very different events, very different crowds. I’m sure it will be almost nobody in common.”

So the local bandleader isn’t worried about changing up his set list. His worry is making sure they get to the show on time.

“It’s an interesting inaugural,” he said. “They can’t figure out how many people are coming, somewhere between 1 and 6 million. That’s a pretty big spread.

“They can’t figure out what to do with everybody. The hotel rooms are non-existent. In fact, the hotels in Charlottesville have begun to fill up for, I guess, people who are going to try to head to D.C. The problem is, it doesn’t really matter if you are in Charlottesville or Manassas, if you are not in D.C., it’s a problem.”

All 90,000 hotel rooms in the greater Washington area are booked, but Big Ray had a plan.

“I rented a big house in Falls Church, which is about six miles out of town, right by the Metro,” he said. “That’s our plan. Of course, a lot of people have that plan. So we will be leaving pretty early for work both nights.

He found his accommodations on Craig’s List.

“I have been dragged kicking and screaming in the high tech world,” he said.

“But there are no hotel rooms. I believe they are going to close the bridges from Virginia into the District on the morning of the 20th to personal vehicles. So that’s kind of exciting.

“It is my understanding that they have issued paperwork for 10,000 charter buses and they are going to park 4,700 of them at the old RFK Stadium, which is a long, long way from the destination. So I don’t know what the plan is there. And the other 5,300, they don’t quite know what they are going to do with them. I guess they are going to ride around in circles for two days.”

But all the logistics aside — it’s a darn good gig.

“It’s certainly not the kind of thing you can say no to, and particularly this time, there is just so much excitement about it,” Caddell said.

“Even when Bill Clinton was elected there was only around a million people; and Million Man March, only about a million people; and Fourth of July eight or nine hundred thousand, so at the very least there is going to be twice that many people.

“So it’s a pretty exciting event. We are very proud, and we will definitely represent Charlottesville well.”