In was the early '80s. Ziegler was new in town. He'd been a musician all his life so it was just natural that he'd find his way to Jerome's famed Spirit Room.
"I was doing a solo show," Ziegler remembers a quarter-century later. "In walks this young guy. He says, 'Wanna jam?' He played slide guitar and I was blown away."
The "young guy" was Tony Bruno. It marked the beginning of a musical partnership with Ziegler that has lasted to this day. The two are best known as the founding members of the longest-standing band in Sedona-Verde Valley history: Major Lingo.
The Lingo Lineup present and past will come together for a good old-fashioned family reunion Saturday, Dec. 8, in the band's 25th anniversary show. The music starts at 9 p.m. at Jerome's Spook Hall. It'll be an all-ages show; no alcohol or smoking allowed. Ten bucks will get you in the door; 12 and younger, $5.
In addition to the band's current long-standing lineup - Ziegler, Bruno, Sally Stricker and drummer Steve Botterweg - the show will also feature such Lingo alumni as Dave Rentz and Teddy Rocha.
"Can you believe it? Twenty-five years," says Ziegler from the living room of his Old Town Cottonwood home.
As remarkable as the eclectic blend of music that is so distinctly Lingo is the longevity of the band. There basically have been 11 different musicians who have taken the stage as Major Lingo over the past quarter-century. The current lineup has been intact for the past 15 years.
What's more, even former band mates still consider themselves part of what Ziegler calls the Lingo "family."
"It definitely is kind of an extended musical family. Anyone who has ever been in Major Lingo is always welcome to sit in at any given time," says Rentz, one of the founding members of the band.
Rentz says he especially enjoyed the "wide open creativity" of Major Lingo. "Everyone brought their own special expertise to the group and everyone was accepting of that. The dynamics were such that you were able to be honest to yourself as a musician instead of doing what someone who considered himself to be the leader of the band wanted you to do. That was the magic."
Rocha agrees: "They've called me several times in the past few years to sit in when someone was unavailable and it's just like getting back in the saddle. They make it so easy and it's always an honor to play with Tony Bruno. He is phenomenal."
"I know it sounds like a cliché," says Ziegler, "but we're like a family. We love each other. We love each other's gifts. We love each other's faults."
"East meets West"
Collectively, they all also love music - all kinds of music. The Lingo sound is a mixed bag of country, blues, rock, reggae, Celtic, Caribbean Calypso and South America Salsa. There are African rhythms, Japanese motifs, Scottish folk ballads and raucous New Jersey roadhouse rock. It's not at all unusual to hear Major Lingo perform a Scottish Folk ballad to an African beat or add a reggae twist to a Beatles standard.
"You might say that when we play, East meets West," jokes Ziegler. "You can take a song that we wrote back in the '80s and when we play it today it won't sound anything like the original."
Even the band's name is reflective of the bottomless musical treasure chest from which the Lingo sound is shaped.
"This goes all the way back to the beginning," says Ziegler. "Dave Rentz comes in one day. He had two big columns of names. Anything and everything you could imagine. In one column there was the name 'Major Rays' and in another column was the name 'Lingo.' There it was. Major Lingo, a major, positive, musical language. It was perfect."
"That name definitely fit," says Rocha. "That really sticks out in my memory. We were up in Jerome, struggling to come up with a name for the band. As soon as we heard Major Lingo, we all knew that was it."
Today, Major Lingo is the classic Arizona highway band. They enjoy a following as far south as Nogales and Bisbee all the way north to the Grand Canyon and the Navajo Reservation and all points Arizona in-between.
The appeal, says Stricker, lies in the spontaneity and originality of the Lingo sound.
"I feel so lucky to be part of a musical experience that stays fresh and has such a high level of excellence. Our music is fresh and beautiful," she says.
All-Ages Appeal
Ziegler says the band has seen its audience grow from its original fan base to their children and even grandchildren.
That's due in large part because of Lingo's commitment to all-ages dances. Parents would bring their kids. Today, those "kids" bring their children.
"Early on," remembers Ziegler, "we'd be playing at the Spirit Room and we'd see all these young kids peeking in through the windows and dancing out on the sidewalk. And it would be cold outside. We knew we had to do something for the kids and that's how the all-ages thing started. No alcohol. No smoking. It was the greatest thing we ever did. We established a whole new audience."
For Stricker, the all-ages dances have been one of the most rewarding parts of the Lingo experience.
"Some of our original fans now have children in their teens and even in their 20s and some of them have children. They'll bring the whole family and there is nothing more fun than watching an entire family dancing together," says Stricker.
In what Ziegler calls the band's hey-day, Major Lingo would perform as many as 10 shows per month. Over the years, the band has recorded six CDs. They've written some 200 songs.
"Today, we do just two or three shows a month," says Ziegler. "Hey, we're not young any more. We don't like to haul all that equipment around."
Besides that, the members of that band are pursuing interests separate and apart from Major Lingo. Bruno has a vibrant solo career. Botterweg is an accomplished sound engineer and music producer. Striker is the business manager for a nursing network. Ziegler himself performs as a solo act and as part of the Johnny Lingo Trio with Rentz.
"We're not nearly as busy any more, but that's fine," says Ziegler. "We'll always stick together. Our band is a family."
