Author: spencer-lathrop

I have always subscribed to the theory that you can find out as much about someone through their record collection as you could ever want to know. I could start a dating service based on what is in the  record collections of single men and women, and virtually guarantee success. Some people predict criminality through craniology, but I stake my reputation on too many Daniel Johnston records.
    For the last “On The Record” column, I went to someone who is as quintessentially Charlottesville as you can get. He worked for a number of years at Charlottesville’s proto-health food restaurant, The Garden Gourmet, where he met Johnny Gilmore, his drummer of choice ever since. You can catch him out most nights of the week, playing all kinds of styles with all kinds of different players. He is currently recording and mixing his own first record. I give you Matthew Willner.

Spencer Lathrop: Guitarists?
Matthew Willner: I love Jeff Beck on Blow by Blow. So many tones, and he doesn’t use a pick. A huge influence on my playing. I loved Jimi Hendrix before I even played the guitar. All his albums are perfect. Jimmy Page, who is about vibe and not about perfection. Physical Graffiti is my favorite. I love James Brown’s guitarists, like “Cheese” Martin or Jimmy “Chank” Nolan. Taj Mahal is a huge influence on my playing. I like a lot of his stuff, but especially The Real Thing, that double live album with the four tubas. And Jerry Reed, especially, has been a huge influence on me. And early King Crim-son—Robert Fripp has been a big influence, like the album Red.
    And Tim Reynolds. So versatile and so phenomenal, especially that stuff he was doing in the early ‘90s.

Jazz fusion?
Billy Cobham Spectrum, hands down. One of the most incredible, ridiculous drummers of all time. Plus it has Tommy Bolan on it. That leads to Mahavishnu Orches-tra’s Birds of Fire. Jaco Pastorius’ two albums. The first one, but especially Word of Mouth. His composing and arrangements are transcendent. I have listened to it for 18 years, and I still hear new things. And Stanley Clarke’s School Days, which is about the bass playing. 

Soul?
Sam Cooke’s Night Beat with Billy Preston is just crushing. Anything by James Brown. I like my bootleg of him live in Paris in 1971. He left his band there the next day. Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. Early Temptations with David Ruffin. Aretha Franklin. They are all very good. Soul ’69 is great. But then Aretha Arrives is so good. And the funk band Mandrill is great. Omar Mesa is one of my favorite guitar players. And Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On is amazing.

New records?
The new Stevie Wonder, A Time to Love, is amazing. And Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine is really good.

When Martha Mendenhall was thinking about the idea of Wunderkammer, a multifaceted arts carnival profiled in C-VILLE just last week, she picked longtime Zen Monkey Dance Troupe member Zap McConnell to take the reins as artistic director. McConnell has been involved in many different aspects of performance art, from theater and dance to studying clowning in Mexico. When I talked to her, Zen Monkey was in preparation for their seventh annual Summer Dance Intensive, which hosts students from all over the region, and I got to ask Zap about her influences.

Spencer Lathrop: Dance influences?
Zap McConnell: I started late, at 19. I was in the theater department at North Carolina School of the Arts, and I was watching actors and I didn’t believe a word of what they were saying because of their body movement. I switched to dance and fell in love with improvisation. Pina Bausch is a choreographer who is so visual, and I feel like I have more of a visual style also. I got to see her work at Brooklyn Academy of Music several years ago, when the whole Zen Monkey troupe piled into a van and made a crazy midnight voyage up to Brooklyn. She makes things larger than life. The Bread and Puppet Theater has influenced my art through its combination of theater and dance. Bill T. Jones is a heavy hitter. And Sigfrido Aguilar was my teacher in Valencia, Mexico, when I studied abstract-movement theater. Later I took some workshops in New York with him. He is a real old-school clown.

Music?
One reason I started dancing was because of music. My older brother was turning me onto music, and I was sneaking into clubs in Charlotte at 12 and listening to a lot of punk bands. The bass player from Anti-Scene was working in a record store, and for my birthday he picked out Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced. I listened to that a lot. I love when people mix sounds, like Bad Brains. And I am finicky, but I love all genres: Neil Diamond, Ralph Stanley, The Kinks, Flipper, Bauhaus. And for dance, I love Radiohead. They create an environment, and for me dance is all about an altered state.

Wunderkammer?
Wunderkammer is a celebration that bring artists and people together, which attracts me to it. It is about embracing the spectacle. And it is really good to look at all we do have here in town. The festival will be a combination of dance, theater, installation art, ritual and storytelling. We will have jugglers and an aerial act. And, of course, music: The Falsies, Las Gitanas, American Dumpster, Jim Waive, Three Dollar Date and others. Plus, I  always wanted to grow up and join the circus.

Bahlmann Abbot grew up in Fayetteville, in southern West Virginia. His grandmother was a picker and singer and his father played music as well. Abbot says, “It was in the storyteller tradition, sitting on the front porch and passing the guitar around.” He came to Charlottesville in 1972 to attend UVA, and, because he was busy raising his kids and practicing architecture, he put guitar playing on the back burner. But lately he has made an appearance on the “Mountain Stage” radio show, and is set to release his first CD, which includes a lovely song written to his wife for their anniversary. You can check out Bahlmann at his CD release party at the Gravity Lounge on Saturday, July 22.

Spencer Lathrop: Songwriters?
Bahlmann Abbot: There was a whole group of Texas songwriters that I liked, Townes Van Zandt among them. But Guy Clark is probably my favorite of them. In particular his record Old No. 1. I built a guitar at McGuffey Art Center that I gave the same name. Clark is a great storyteller. And I like just about all the records of Mary Chapin Carpenter. She is a superb crafter of words and her melodies are seamless. I like Bill Morrissey and John Gorka, whom I lump together as great craftsmen, even though they are different. I like Gorka’s Jack’s Crow. He is a little darker than some songwriters I like. And though he’s less known for his songwriting, I like Mark Knopfler’s solo records. Sailing to Philadelphia is a great CD, and I’ve sung the title tune with Debbie and Peter Hunter. It’s about the two guys who came from England and drew the Mason-Dixon Line. And I like Jay Farrar from Uncle Tupelo. One of his recent records, Terroir Blues, has some steel guitar parts that are nice and spare. I play some spare steel guitar parts on my CD.

New records?
I don’t buy a lot of new records, but when I get a new CD, I listen the heck out of it. I am really tickled by this local group, The Sons of Bill, who have a new record out called Far Cry From Freedom. They’ve taken up the banner of country rock, and moved it ahead. It sounds familiar, and still fresh. And Mary Chapin’s last CD, Between Here and Gone, is really good.

Guilty pleasures?
I don’t know if it’s a guilty pleasure, but I love the soundtrack to Amelie. There is something very basic about it.

“Mountain Stage?”
I had written a song about the New River, and through that I got invited to play on the radio broadcast. I went from not playing much at all to playing on “Mountain Stage.” I was pretty damn nervous.

Talking to Tim Reynolds, you get the sense that he eats, sleeps and breathes music, and in reality his whole life, family, politics and everything else gets reflected back into his art form.
    Reynolds played here in town in TR3, many musicians’ favorite local band ever, as well as countless solo performances at Miller’s and elsewhere. He left Charlottesville in 1997 for New Mexico, a place he started to visit in 1993. On his first trip there, he says, “My body knew that I would be here to stay.”
    Reynolds explored jazz while he lived in Charlottesville, but at the time of his move he had developed a serious love of heavy metal. He also had a long fascination with drum and rhythm machines. Anyone who saw him at Miller’s can remember the interplay between guitar and effects. “For a long time I played with drum machines. You can program all kinds of mad shit, but you also have to play with it.”
    During the past 10 years, Reynolds only toured with a band in his own name once. Besides making records and touring solo, he has played gigs with DMB and also tours with Dave Matthews. He also enjoyed his time on the Dave Matthews & Friends tour. “It is a dream rhythm section. And on the record it was much more sparse. The fun thing for me with that band was doing covers. We played ‘Rocky Mountain Way,’ and there is so much joy in those three notes. You can feel they joy that [Joe Walsh] felt when he wrote it.”
    He also put in a lot of time with Ohio
congressman Dennis Kucinich. Based on
the recommendation of his wife, Diane, Reynolds checked out Kucinich and was immediately impressed. Later spotted wearing a Kucinich t-shirt on a TV appearance, Reynolds was recruited by the politician to tour on his 2004 presidential campaign. Reynolds says, “He travelled more than any punk band. Ten gigs a day. But he gave me courage. He speaks some mystical stuff, but I kind of dig that way of thinking. I call him a freak of the mind in the best possible way. At the same time, I saw the ultimate depression [in politics]. I was dark, dark, dark after the 2004 election.”
    It has been years since Reynolds last played in town. He says that he has been in the area, and one time he was close and drove by without stopping, and later regretted it. “Because Charlottesville was part of my education. I came from the Midwest and there were people here who helped me shed that mental continuum. Like John D’earth. And [local journalist and music aficianado] Martin Kilian. Kilian helped open my eyes to a lot of the bullshit out there. They didn’t tell me as much, but I saw their reactions.”

Musically, Reynolds has gotten away from the drum machines and metal influences. He travels now with two acoustic guitars and a ring modulator, which he calls “the ultimate weapon.” He spent the last couple of years learning covers, by everyone from Nick Drake to Sam and Dave. And then he began writing again. “Full moon energy is really good for writing. I learned that from Neil Young.” Reynolds also began singing again during performances, a practice he had abandoned for some time. Tunes include everything from Noam Chomsky speech notes set to music to The Beatles. If you want to see a true artist, check out Tim’s show at Starr Hill on Tueday, July 11.
    If you want to check out a feat of DJ derring-do, go to Sean Thomas’ opening in The Starr Hill Gallery on Thursday night, July 6. Thomas will be showing his photographs of all kinds of bands, from Earth to Andy to Cibo Matto, as well as travel photos. DJ Pinkerton will be jetting in from New York City and will attempt to spin an entire dance party with 7" 45s.

   There are those who view hip-hop as a commercial entity, and those who see hip-hop as a way of life. The latter is how Rob Jackson, a.k.a. Blue Black, looks at hip-hop culture in his own life. Jackson, who grew up in The Bronx, met fellow MC Asheru when they both lived in Charlottesville and they began recording together as The Unspoken Heard. The Heard released two CDs that were well received. While Asheru and Black have relocated to the D.C. area, they have landed some great gigs. Asheru has written the theme song for “The Boondocks” TV show now airing on the Cartoon Network, and also has a new mix-tape release, While You Were Sleeping, which is available online.
    But Jackson is looking for more that is positive in his work than bling. Currently, he is working on an independent news, politics and music podcast called Free Mix Radio. It is the brainchild of Dr. Jared Ball, journalist, WPFW (Washington, D.C.) radio host and grassroots activist. Jackson describes the vision as a “parallel education” that happens alongside kids’ school education. He likens it to our own Music Resource Center, but on a broader scale. Part of the idea came from mix tapes, which for kids now are often more popular than the albums where the tunes originated. Jackson thought that a mix tape could involve not only independent music, but also independent news and information as well. Find it online at http://freemix radio.voxunion.com.

    On the music side, Jackson says, “What I’m doing is working within the Free Mix Radio format to create a marketable alternative to the standard LP. Album sales are down and digital distribution has become king, so the idea is to embrace the change in music consumption and use our talents and time to create a new type of product that would be distributed like a podcast from a weblog.”
    Also, kids have a lot more technology available to them than he did. Today, they are creating beats on their Macs, taking them home and coming back the next day with a finished product. Jackson sees the production of tunes as equally important as the consumption. While a kid can dream of being Jay-Z, it is just not that realistic, and Jackson sees the greater value in hip-hop as a system in which people consume, trade and produce culture as an end in itself.
    On a less digital level, Bobby Read, who is well known locally as a fine producer of records, will release a CD with his own band Monkfish at Gravity Lounge this Thursday, June 29. Read, who also has another more personal production in the works, is known in front of the scenes as the reed player in Bruce Hornsby’s band. But Monkfish, which features some of the best musicians in the area, is playing all Read originals and will put on a great show of instrumental music.

Apart from the music, of course, the best thing about Robin Tomlin’s "Soulful Situation" show on WTJU (every Monday from noon to 2pm), is the amount of history that he provides with the music. "Bad musical history really pisses me off," he says. Tomlin moved to the States from England in 1986 to see live go-go music, and he has been here ever since. He has a Sex Pistols bumper sticker on his truck and a lot of photos of Memphis studios around the house. Just recently, Tomlin got to have his photo taken with his idol, James Brown.

Spencer Lathrop: James Brown?
Robin Tomlin: There was Motown, and there was Stax, and then there was James Brown, who was a genre all to himself. He was definitely the first soul act I ever heard—his record Live at The Apollo, 1962, which was recorded five days after I was born. The day I was born was the day Smokey Robinson and The Miracles recorded “You Really Got A Hold On Me.” I saw James Brown in Brighton in 1981 with an 18-piece band and 200 people showed up. There is a DVD called Live at Montreaux, which is essentially the show that I saw. James also has a DVD, Live in Boston, which was from 1968, the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. They begged James to let them broadcast it live on WGBH, and it was the one city in this country where there were no riots. That is how big James Brown was. Having my photograph taken with him last month was a 25-year ambition for me. I found out where he was staying, and then met him just as he was leaving for the show. I got 15 seconds with him.

Essential soul?
The best female soul singer was Candi Staton’s stuff from Fame Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, 1968-1972, which was really the golden age of soul music. And I really love Betty Harris and Betty LaVette. For male singers, nobody can top Bobby Blue Bland, except O.V. Wright, who was the greatest soul singer of all time. Everyone should buy The Soul of O.V. Wright. Even his last record, when he had lost all of his teeth, still sounded great. And I absolutely adore Joe Tex. You can learn a lot about rural black American culture by listening to Joe Tex. The best of the soul groups are The Dells, and The Spinners on Atlantic, which is really high quality. I love The Dramatics, and you have to throw The Staple Singers in there because they have done it all. The more I listen, the more I love Southern soul, recorded in Memphis and Muscle Shoals. And New Orleans too, but the city is really its own country. Or was.

WTJU?
I consider it an honor and a pleasure to DJ on WTJU. Charlottesville is a very open-hearted town.

The thing about the popular local burritto restaurant Atomic Burrito is that there is often a band, always a crowd, and usually the crowd is as diverse as it gets. Part of the secret to Atomic’s success, according to bartender and music booker Josh Lowry, is that the staff really loves music. Typically, the bartenders will make the call on which band plays the bar on the nights that they work, and the resulting live shows cover everything from country to hip-hop to garage rock. Lowry, who heads The Hillbilly Werewolf and Bucks and Gallants (recently recorded at Monkeyclaus), gave me some of his personal favorites, live
and otherwise.

Spencer Lathrop: Atomic bands?
Josh Lowry: The Spinns from Chapel Hill, who are an absolutely phenomenal garage band. They will be back at least once this summer. No matter what you are into, they make you a fan. Just last month, a band of young kids from Harrisonburg called The Nervous Habits played. They are sloppy and fast, but they really got it. Some good friends of mine from Chapel Hill, Jimmy and the Teasers, are a fun band. Jimmy is a real showman. He plays guitar solos standing on top of the bar.

New records?
My favorite band right now is The Black Lips from Atlanta. They get their inspiration from ‘60s garage music, but they have their own weird atmosphere. Their most recent record is called Let It Bloom. I like the King Kahn & BBQ Show, who are a couple guys who do a stripped down doo-wop sort of sound. Lo-fi, but with really good singing. And I like this one man band from Montreal named Bloodshot Bill. His new album is called Dig It Up. He is like Hasil Adkins, but with a lot more talent—just him, a bass drum, high hat and guitar. And The Exploding Hearts’ record from a couple years ago, Guitar Romantic. They had a very catchy pop sound and were being groomed for a major label, but there was a tragic car accident and only one of the guys survived.

Find out about music?
My “big brother,” who turned me onto music, was radio station WTJU. I listened to a lot of late night radio when I was in middle school. And I also bought a lot of albums in Plan 9 by looking at the album art. Now, I find bands by word of mouth, or through magazines whose reviews I trust, like Horizontal Action, which is half record reviews and half porn reviews.

Fans of piano jazz know Evan Mook from his gigs tickling the 88’s around town. Mook, who toured with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra for two years, was a student of local Suzuki method teacher Kay Pitt.  When Pitt decided not to take on more new students, Mook became the Suzuki instructor for piano in town. Although it’s unusual, he has dedicated himself as much to jazz as classical music. In fact, Mook has gradually spent more time teaching jazz music to advanced classical players and musicians with a rock background. Local rocker Brian Kingston, whose music has appeared on MTV, and also been written up internationally, has been studying jazz with Mook over the past year. 
    Like many musicians—jazz players in particular—Mook wanted to find out what the music scene in Paris is like. Ever since Josephine Baker relocated there, France has had a reputation as being very supportive of American jazz artists. “I wanted to go check out the music, not as a tourist,” Mook says.
    Mook enrolled in an eight-week French language crash course at UVA, and as soon as it came to an end he booked a flight. Eager to travel cheaply, Mook placed an ad online at Craigslist.com, and was ecstatic when he was offered a room in a house for a very cheap price because the family wants to support artists and musicians. To cap off a good thing, the house had an artist studio with a grand piano that Mook was able to play whenever he wanted.
    Mook says that he did not do a ton of research on music sites in Paris, because he “did not want to take any of the adventure out of the trip.” He visited clubs Le Petit Journal, where the cover charge includes both a prix-fixe dinner and music, and the legendary New Morning jazz club. Unfor-tunately, the club was hosting free jazz (which is played with little regard for the rules of time, melody and harmony) that evening, which Mook says is “not his thing.” During the start of his second week, Mook went to a spot in Saint-Germain-de-Prés called Le Bilboquet that is one of the oldest clubs in Paris—everyone from Duke Ellington to Charlie Parker has played there. Mook says it is one of “the most beautiful rooms that you have ever seen.” The pianist of the quartet playing that night asked Mook if he wanted to sit in for a tune. He played one tune to an audience that received him very warmly, and later the owner of the club offered Mook his own slot for a week. Later, Mook was recognized by the bassist and sat in at another club nearby.
    Mook has yet to decide when he will return to Europe, but he plans to travel more. When he does, he says, “I can think of no better place to go than Le Bilboquet.” There are pianos in many clubs in Paris, and Mook says, “It is very cool to play for a crowd that is actually listening and shows the ut-most respect for musicians.” Mook says Parisian clubs make it based either on cover or more expensive drinks. At Bilboquet, beers cost 18 Euros —about $23. You can catch Mook during dinner hours every Wednesday with no cover and reasonably priced cocktails at Fellini’s #9.

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Marah played at brilliant set at Starr Hill this past weekend. If you want to find the pulse of rock ‘n’ roll, catch them at Bonnaroo, or pick up their latest CD.