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Reggae's
Living Legend
In the late 1960s, Jamaican music was in the midst of a revolution. American and British Top 40 hits dominated the Jamaican airwaves and rock-steady was moving into what is today considered reggae. After writing the seminal "54-46 That's My Number," which helped introduce an aura of militancy into the sound of Jamaica, Frederick "Toots" Hibbert and his band the Maytals were sitting back, playing some music, trying to write some new material. "I was just playing my guitar and humming something and it just came out. I sing a little song, you know," Toots says on the phone from a San Luis Obispo, Calif. hotel room, minutes before a sound check. "I didn't plan it; it just happen, you know." The simple song Toots was humming became "Do the Reggay." That song is credited with coining the term "reggae," and put a name to the sound that was wafting through the alleys and crowded marketplaces of the Kingston ghettos. Toots took the word "streggae," a slang term used to describe people who walked around barefoot and in torn clothing, and combined it with the emerging sound he was pioneering. But he won't take credit for the birth of Jamaica's most revered export. "I'm no creator," he says. Reggae fans would probably disagree with that statement. Toots has helped create the familiar sounds of reggae and ska; there's no doubt about that. And he has influenced myriad artists, from The Clash (who covered "Pressure Drop") to today's dancehall reggae artists, such as Sean Paul. On his 2004 album True Love, some of the best known artists in the world paid tribute to Toots's influence. Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Trey Anastasio, Willie Nelson, Bootsy Collins, members of No Doubt, Ben Harper and Bunny Wailer all recorded tracks with Toots. Last year True Love won a Grammy for best reggae album, signaling Toots' impact on the world of reggae, nearly 40 years after naming the genre. The recognition is long overdue. When Toots and the Maytals first recorded hits like "Bam Bam," "Pressure Drop," "Funky Kingston" and "Sweet and Dandy," producers took home most of the profits. It wasn't until the 1990s, when Toots first recorded the hit songs never before registered in his name, that he started garnering the royalties he was owed. Since the Grammy award, Toots hasn't had trouble staying busy. "Yeah mon, it keeping me busy. We sell more records, more CDs," he says. Toots remains unquestionably upbeat, saying that, when touring the States, he doesn't even miss his homeland of Jamaica, where he lives in a Kingston suburb with some of his seven children. "[Touring] is my work. I never feel bored," he says. "A lot of [our] audience is younger, every day, more and more." Despite popular reggae's move in the direction of a hip hop-influenced dancehall sound, Toots says he's still "no bling-bling, just clean-cut." He's working on establishing a non-profit foundation in Jamaica, which, among other things, will fund quality health facilities and classrooms where poverty-stricken youth can learn music, first on his home island, and then in Africa. Toots lives and breathes Jamaican music. And through his music and the naming of reggae, he has breathed life into the music of Jamaica.
It
Takes a Village For the second year, the organizers of Oregon Country Fair's Community Village are throwing one hell of a shindig. Building on the success of last year's fundraiser to rebuild some of the Village booths, they've expanded the event, moved to the McDonald Theatre, and if they make beaucoups bucks, some of the money will go to support the Rainforest Action Network too.
The Community Village is in the heart of the fairgrounds and since 1976, has been dedicated to promoting awareness of social and environmental issues. But come fair time, the funky wooden booths bedecked in Day-Glo paint and other wild decorations are subject to the stern eyes of building code inspectors who don't care that the booths are only used one week a year. Older booths must be maintained and upgraded, and new booths must accommodate the building codes. Organizer Bob Fennessey, coordinator of Community Village stage entertainment and publicity guy extraordinaire at Eugene's WOW Hall, has been with the Village since 1983, when he was a paid political activist for Oregon Fair Share. He explains the situation: "In the old days the booths were slapped together by people scrounging around and bringing in re-used lumber and stuff like that, but now the county is a lot more strict," he said. The fair also has its own building practices. For instance, the flow of rainwater from the sky to the ground during the winter must not be restricted. "So now, a good deal of what would be considered walls and floors have to be removable," explained Fennessey. "It makes building a booth a more expensive proposition than it used to be." Last year, Seattle's Joules Graves headlined the show. She's performed in Community Village many times and draws big crowds to her increasingly rare performances. She'll be back, along with Jamaican reggae performer Prezident Brown, also from Seattle, who headlined 2005's Eugene Celebration. Well-known vaudevillian entertainer The Reverend Chumleigh will provide stunning stunts and dialectic diatribes in support of Community Village, a part of the fair he holds dear to his heart. Eugene's own Samba Já turns any event into a celebration with its Brazilian percussion. If you have yet to experience this group's wild street-style Carnival rhythms and energy, you have seriously been missing out. First and not least, spoken word artist and poetry slammer Jorah LaFleur will open the show. Find out more about Community Village at http://www.efn.org/~comvill. April Fool's Day Village Dance. 7 pm • Mon. 4/1. McDonald Theatre. $14 adv./$16 dos. 345-4442
Island
Dreams Spring in western Oregon can be depressing; despite what the calendar says, we're all impatient for the chill and gloom to abate, but it might stay gray for another two months or more. Luckily, we get welcome relief every few months when a musical Pineapple Express blows through town: slack-key guitarists-singers-songwriters from Hawai'i. On April 9, three of the islands' finest award-winning musicians will bring their warm voices and sultry guitar sounds to The Shedd.
Slack key (ki ho'alu) guitar is what happened when Native Hawaiians took instruments brought by would-be colonizers (in this case Portuguese sailors) and retuned them to produce music that, to Western ears, sounds at once more exotic and more natural than standardized tunings. Cyril Pahinui boasts one of the most famous names in slackerdom; his father Gabby was one of its earliest stars, and his brothers and collaborators Bla and Martin starred in renowned second-generation groups. For three decades, in various settings, Cyril has perpetuated the classic slack-key sound in both his effortless guitartistry and his vulnerable vocals. Like Cyril, Maui's George Kahumoku Jr. has brought Hawaiian sounds to audiences all over the world; his poignant renditions of songs from the hula tradition (which his family has participated in for six generations) shimmer like waves lapping at the shore. Dennis Kamakahi also comes from a musical Hawaiian family and studied with masters of earlier generations, eventually replacing Gabby Pahinui in the all-star ensemble Sons of Hawaii and bringing a more upbeat, expressive style to ki ho'alu. West coasters are lucky to have such chances to hear the masters of one of the world's most beautiful musical traditions, and this warm reverie should sound especially dreamy with the Shedd's clear, intimate acoustics. On April 14, the Shedd hosts keyboardist Wayne Horvitz and his Seattle all-star jazz group Sweeter Than the Day. This acoustic group slings a slightly less funky sound than their electric incarnation, the equally estimable Zony Mash, but more than compensates with a strong melodic emphasis and a easygoing atmosphere that can catch fire when guitarist Timothy Young lights a spark. Horvitz's various projects, this one in particular, transcends rigid categories; they're harmonically restless enough to pique the ears of listeners in search of new sounds, yet they're accessible and lyrical enough to appeal to those who fancy a memorable, sometimes melancholy tune. With one of Eugene's finest and most interesting bands opening, the electrifying funk-jazz-turntable ensemble Eleven Eyes, this should be of the city's best jazz concerts of the year. We think of the saxophone as a jazz instrument, and it's certainly that in Labirynt's April 1 show at Jo Fed's (see story page 29). But there's also a somewhat obscure classical sax tradition that new UO faculty member Idit Shner will showcase in her April 11 concert at Beall Hall. Except for Bartok, the composers and repertoire will be new to most listeners, and that's a good thing for classical fans. Shner will be abetted by excellent UO colleagues: pianist David Riley, harpist Laura Zaerr, and flutist Nancy Andrew. Another UO show on April 9 presents the school's Collegium Musicum (featuring world-class tenor and UO faculty member Eric Mentzel and sterling soprano Jamie Weaver and Laura Berryhill) in Luigi Boccherini's Stabat Mater. The free concert happens at 5 pm at Church of the Resurrection, 39th and Hilyard. And early music fans can hear yet another free concert on Saturday afternoon, April 1, when the quintet Fantasia plays music for recorder and viola da gamba. Those interested in music's future might want to check out the half-dozen electronic music concerts happening at the UO during the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) conference March 30-April 1; the 100 or so new pieces include the world premiere of Mario Davidovsky's Synchronisms. And if you're willing to hie yourself to Portland that weekend, you can see one of the great contemporary operas, John Adams's magnificent Nixon in China, a co-production that's drawn raves at its previous stops in St. Louis and Minneapolis.
Jazz Virtuoso Polish Style One evening almost a decade ago, Oregon sax master Tom Bergeron strolled into a jam session in Lyon, France. A virtuoso who'd played with jazz luminaries from Robert Cray to Ella Fitzgerald to Anthony Braxton to the Temptations, Bergeron knew good jazz when he heard it. And he was hearing it this night from Labirynt, a Polish trio fronted by jazz violinist Henryk Gembalsk. The trio and Bergeron connected so well that they invited him to join them when their transatlantic schedules coincided. Labirynt has since toured Europe and cut a pair of trenchant albums that embrace world music, fusion jazz, and even classical influences. Of course, anyone who experienced the Tomasz Stanko quartet's limpid nocturnes last year at The Shedd needs no further evidence that Polish jazz is no joke. And Bergeron, a prof at Western Oregon University, has been taking the soprano and tenor sax into new territories with various ensembles around here for years, not to mention orchestras including the Eugene Symphony. He and his Polish collaborators might take off on a tango on one piece, uncork Brazilian rhythms next, evoke Weather Report on still another. Anyone who likes modern jazz should check them out on their first Oregon tour on Saturday, April 1 at Jo Federigo's. $2. — Brett Campbell
In Hardcore Memoriam It's rare that devoted fans — the ones who support the local scene by buying merch and showing up at local shows — get recognition. In the case of the late Hopper William, who died in a car crash on March 10, 2005, however, his accomplishments in the Eugene hardcore and metal scene are being remembered through what he loved the most: a kickass show. "He was at every single show, it didn't matter who it was," says Nick Smolak, the drummer for hardcore band Grounds For Assault who was friends with Hopper since grade school. "Hopper was always a very cool guy and had a lot of close relationships with many people in the scene," says lead singer Jay Schmitt. "He'd be the first one at the shows, and then afterwards be the first to give a kind word to the bands." The show will be a massive get together of many popular hardcore and metal bands from the area, including Grounds for Assault and Outreach. Smolak and Schmitt will be pulling double-duty playing for both bands. If you knew Hopper well or just feel like paying tribute to one of the greatest music fans in the Eugene rock scene, drop by, sing along and have a blast in his memory. The Hopper William Memorial Show featuring Grounds for Assault, Outreach, Blood Stands Still, Prepare for War, A Taste for Murder and Jean Grey goes down at 7 pm Saturday, April 1 at Agate Hall. $6. — Dan Hoyt
The Beautiful Heaviness Isis is a band where every part is equally important. Drums, vocals, guitar, bass — they're all equal players. Their progressive sound dips into both ends of the metal spectrum, with tunes that both pummel you senseless and lull you off to an atmospheric dreamland. Most of all, however, the band experiments with being an instrumental band while still having vocals. "The vocals are always placed during certain emphasis parts in the music," says bassist Jeff Caxide. "We look at the vocals as just another instrument. As an instrumental band, we don't really write songs with vocals in mind, but once they're added we look at the song more as a whole and decide what needs to be added or what needs to go." Isis is currently working on their follow-up to 2004's critically acclaimed Panopticon. That album takes listeners on a journey that moves along with quiet, harmonious melodies not unlike Pink Floyd, and then, in the case of back-and-forth songs like "Backlit," explodes like a time bomb with snarling death vocals, heavily distorted guitars and cymbals crashing everywhere. The band is entering the recording studio soon with seven or eight songs ready to go, minus the vocals, which are added later. "It's going to be busier," says Caxide. "A lot more technical and a lot more progressive. Cliff [Meyer] usually splits his time between keyboards and guitars, but on this new record he's playing a lot more guitar, so that's an added dynamic to it. But you never really know what's going to come out in the studio." With a North American tour beginning on the 28th and a possible summer tour with prog-giants Tool in the planning, the sky's the limit for how far Isis can go. Isis performs with Zombi and These Arms Are Snakes at 8:30 pm Sunday, April 2 at the WOW Hall. $10 adv./$12 dos. — Dan Hoyt
Musical Journeymen
Think the only music jam musicians can make is boring, spiraling torrents of notes with no form, structure or melody? Think again. In fact one of the missions of Zilla, the side project of Michael Travis (String Cheese Incident), is to avoid the noodling, meandering solos that mar jam music and make it unlistenable and create a complete sound. Every Zilla show is completely improvised, so you'll never hear the same thing twice. Travis, Jamie Janover and Aaron Holstein are all about creating a sound that's tight, pulled together and whole. With no pre-plan going into shows, they rely on instinct, honed by years of playing together. Zilla shows are the essence of the moment, with every twist and turn on the music inspired by something that happened just seconds before. It's an incredible experience. Drawing inspiration from each other and feeding off the energy of the crowd, Zilla shows are not just about music but about the experience. The music, with its beautiful melodies wrapped in intense percussion that pulls from trip-hop, jungle, break-beat, trance and every other genre of music with heavy grooves, bears about as much resemblance to jammy crap as say the Sex Pistols do to Mozart. Using samples, drums, hand drums, keyboards, hammer dulcimer, guitar and singing, the three rely heavily on the funky rhythms that ground and drive every song. Around that rhythm they build melody upon melody until the music naturally changes into another song with the fluidity of day falling into night. The opportunity to see Zilla live is rare and should not be missed. Zilla plays the WOW Hall 9 pm Monday, April 3. $10 adv./$12 dos. — Melissa Bearns
RobinElla and Her Prince Charming In the foothiils of Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, inspiration comes easy. RobinElla (her real name) took hers from church, her Baptist deacon and choir leader father, art and music. When RobinElla met Cruz Contreras in 1997, they inspired each other, forming RobinElla and the CCStringband. Speaking with RobinElla by phone from her Maryville, Tenn. home, she calls their music Americana, "for lack of a better title." While that's not inaccurate, it is underwhelming, denying much of what the band can do. "We're a mix of genre's — country and pop and we even do some things that are on the jazzy side," she said. After listening to just one song, "All I've Given," it is apparent that while RobinElla's voice is youthful and lively, it's also smooth and sultry. She croons the first line, "Waiting for my man to change," with the rawness of a '20s blues singer. The song is languid, with a sinuous bass line and a warm, lounge-y atmosphere. Though Contreras plays string instruments with the band, he majored in jazz piano, and that jazzy influence comes through. On record and in gigs at home, the couple is backed by four others, but on this tour, it's family members only. RobinElla's retired dad is along, helping them take care of their almost 2-year-old son. "My songs are about love and life, and my family, and a little bit of inner turmoil," she said. "Simple things that are maybe not so simple." Their newest album, released in February, is called Solace for the Lonely and features 12 new originals. RobinElla plays 9 pm Wednesday, April 5 at Sam Bond's Garage. $8 adv./$10 dos. — Vanessa Salvia
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