Toledo is full of talented musicians across different genres and generations. Throughout downtown Toledo and all the suburbs, there’s music almost every night. Wednesday being the “most organic day of the week” according to Tim Tiderman, is no exception. Why is it the most organic day of the week? You’ll find the answer at The Tip Jar (in the Maumee Bay Brewing Company basement) every Wednesday night with Organic Ingredients.
Consisting of Tim Tiderman (Hammond organ, vocals), John Johnson (guitar, vocals), Bob Manley (saxophone, flute) and Clark Brooks (drums, vocals), they call themselves Organic Ingredients.
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For the last five to six years, they’ve been performing jazz, blues and soul standards at the Maumee Bay Brewing Company every week. Most performances feature local guest musicians performing with them. Even in 2020 when performers and audiences couldn’t be together in person, they took their weekly show to YouTube. True Toledo music veterans, they’re still having fun and not showing any signs of slowing down.
About Organic Ingredients
Tiderman, Johnson, Manley and Brooks started Organic Ingredients in 2010. The origin of the name derives from the Hammond organ. Throughout music history (particularly in the 20th century), many groups came up with band names to play off the word “organ” since a lot of bands revolved their sound around the organ, more or less. According to Tiderman, they threw in the word “ingredients” based on how the group collaborates.
“We’ll get together and work on a song. I’ll tell Clark to pick a beat and start playing it, then I’ll start playing the song on the organ, followed by guitar and sax on top of that. With that, each ‘ingredient’ from the band is added until we have a song,” Tiderman said.
From 2010 to about 2014, the four musicians would play together occasionally when they had time away from their other respective projects. They would play at Treo Restaurant in Sylvania once a month or so just for fun. There was a period of time where Organic Ingredients didn’t play together for a while, mostly because we were all pursuing different things.
In 2017 or 2018, the owners of Maumee Bay Brewing Company called Tiederman and asked if he knew of a band who wanted to play Wednesday nights in their warehouse. Tiderman suggested Organic Ingredients, leading to the group’s reunion. Since 2017 or 2018, they’ve played at Maumee Bay Brewing Company every Wednesday (switched to Thursdays during the pandemic).
Adapting to the Pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, while performers couldn’t be in person with audiences, some found a way to be “together” via the internet, which included Organic Ingredients. The group was able to play through the pandemic by live-streaming their performances to YouTube with the help of Rick and John Grafing of Grafing Productions. They used the warehouse at Maumee Bay Brewing Company to have room for social distancing. It was just Tiderman and Brooks in the beginning doing the performing with occasional guests before Johnson and Manley felt comfortable getting out and performing with the group again. The last season of the live streams features the whole band.
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“I know Rick and John Grafing personally; I even play in my other group (The Grape Smugglers) with John. Shortly after the pandemic started, they began doing a Wednesday night show and I caught wind of it not long after they started it. I asked John if they could do the show at Maumee Bay Brewing Company on Wednesday nights with Organic Ingredients, and he was game for it. With every episode we did, the production got better from a technical and performance standpoint. We made sure to wear masks and social distance and we did not have an audience inside the building while recording,” Tiderman said.
When asked what makes Maumee Bay Brewing Company a great location for their weekly shows, Tiederman said, “The owners are the best people to work for. They let us do what we do and don’t complain about our volume or what songs we play (or don’t play). They just turn us loose.”
Organic Ingredients – Looking Forward
At this time, Organic Ingredients’ only plan is to keep playing.
“We just love playing music and we love to still have a gig at our ages,” Tiderman said.”We love that people still care to come out and watch us. Getting to play music we like without any pressure from anyone else is perfect.”
The Tip Jar (formerly Mutz at Maumee Bay). 27 Broadway St, Toledo, OH 43604.
Every Wednesday night. 7pm-10pm. Free admission. https://mbaybrew.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@jgrafing/streams
