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Speech
Enlightens the Masses In 1992, Arrested Development broke new ground in hip hop with their platinum-selling album 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of …, giving a voice to the hitherto underrepresented South. With gangsta rap at its peak of popularity, the group offered a unique, more spiritual message, relating the experiences and perspectives of young African Americans from a region of the U.S. that had previously lacked a solid identity in the hip hop community.
With Todd "Speech" Thomas acting as the conceptual buoy for the sometimes immense cast of players (reaching up to nine members), the group examined racism, culture and poverty through an Afrocentric point of view that melded the experiences of both urban and rural life. But their success amidst the landscape of popular music faded after their debut album. Friction between Speech and DJ Headliner, the group's two founding members, forced the members of Arrested Development to part ways in 1996 and prompted Speech to go solo. Speech's new album Vegabond, his fifth since leaving Arrested Development, has resurrected interest stateside in his solo career, which up to now has found success mainly on the international market. "There is a big push with this new album to make it in the U.S.," Speech says. The album weaves hip hop with Southern blues and funk, creating a sound that shadows the old Arrested Development aesthetic. It features a stripped-down sound replete with live instrumentation, soulful falsettos and spirited choruses, found more often in soul or jazz recording than anything currently at the forefront of hip hop. The jazz guitar and keyboard that grace nearly every track compliment Speech's uplifting lyrics in a manner that lends a gospel-like feel to the entire album, even though it's something he admits to deliberately avoiding. "I think I've tried to stray away from the gospel realm. There's definitely not a spiritual purpose per say," Speech says. "I don't have a religious agenda." Admittedly having matured both spiritually and musically since his early days with the band, Speech's earnest desire to lyrically champion the cause of oppressed people has intensified. He claims that the current state of hip hop is in dire need of more socially and politically charged artists. "There's a need for youth to be aware," he says. "Most people would agree. They need to learn about what is going on in our culture and what has happened in the past." Speech makes his Eugene debut alongside Pharcyde's Tre Hardson. Hardson, no stranger to Eugene, just released his new album SlimKid3's Café, which comes backed with the well praised single "Roots Love and Culture" featuring MC Lyte.
Traditional
Fiddlin', No Foolin'
Ann Savoy (pronounced Sav-wah) is the Cajun music go-to woman. She contributed three songs for the soundtrack of Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, has written about Cajun music for Rolling Stone Press, was featured on the PBS series "American Roots Music," produced a CD for Vanguard called Creole Bred — A Tribute to Creole and Zydeco and more. Actually, if I listed each of Savoy's accomplishments, there would be no room to tell you about her band. Along with her husband, Marc Savoy, and Michael Doucet (perhaps best known for his band BeauSoleil), she performs with Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, who appeared in Eugene as part of OFAM a few years ago. Savoy says the band insists the music remain traditional, which means following the music's thread from its French Canadian roots. "Basically what we love is some of the older songs," Savoy said. "We find old 78s, and we have old friends who were early Cajun musicians and we learn from them. We have taken [the songs] and made them come alive again in this period. There's some beautiful old melodies." The band specializes in barn-burnin' dancehall Cajun music, but in a concert setting like the Jaqua Concert Hall, they offer something different. "We'll do ballads and fiddle music, twin fiddles and different versions of Cajun music, like sort of an evolution of Cajun music," she said. The band doesn't just offer music. They also share history and anecdotal musings about the songs. "We tell the history, Marc might tell a few jokes, and we talk about the traditions, like Mardi Gras," Savoy said. Though the songs are sung in French, they'll make sure you understand the poetry. When at home in Eunice, La., Marc Savoy hand-makes six Acadian accordions a month and sells them through the family's Savoy Music Center. To find out more about the history of the accordion and Savoy's bands, visit http://www.savoymusiccenter.com
Brazilian Jazz The latest in a noble tradition of seductive Brazilian chanteuses, Luciana Souza's voice has that elusive richness, that piquant flavor that can instantly transport you to thoughts of warmer climes and sun-drenched verandas. She is a master of that particular Latin phrasing, lazy and luxuriant — the audio equivalent of watching a cat waking and stretching from a nap in a sunny windowsill. Hearing her, you can't help but feel a bit more worldly and sophisticated.
One reason for that could be her impeccable taste in lyricists. Her 2004 album Neruda set the poems of Pablo Neruda to music, just as she had done with an earlier album of songs based on the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. Born into a family of musicians, Souza began her recording career at age 3 with a radio commercial. By the age of 16, she had recorded more than 200 jingles and soundtracks. Leaving her homeland, Souza went to Boston where she earned a bachelor's in jazz composition from Berklee College of Music and a master's from the New England Conservatory. Her six albums since her 1999 debut have earned her three Grammy nominations. For her Eugene concert, Souza is joined by classical and jazz guitarist Romero Lubambo. A graduate of the Villa-Lobos School of Music in Rio, Lubambo arrived in New York City in 1985 where he experimented with combining Brazilian music with American jazz. He joined forces with fellow Brazilians Duduka da Fonseca and Nilson Matta, recording under the name Trio da Paz. Lubambo has also established himself as a solo composer who has collaborated with dozens of jazz and classical artists ranging from Dianne Reeves and Harry Belafonte to Yo-Yo Ma and Kathleen Battle. Luciana Souza & Romero Lubambo play at 7:30 pm Thursday, April 6 at the Jaqua Concert Hall. $32/$28/$24. — John Ginn
Musical Forecast: Subtle, Fog and Jel
Subtle, Jel, Doseone, Themselves, 13 + God, cLOUDDEAD. It's not some cryptic military code, just names for bands and musicians who have formed a tight network, making music that defies labels and expectations. Jel, a premier drum machine manipulator, and Doseone, a whipsmart, non-linear thinker with a rapper's ear for melody, first collaborated in 1998. Subtle is Jel and Doseone, plus three others, including Dax Pierson. In 2005 the band was involved in a disastrous car accident that left Pierson quadriplegic. Pierson will join the band on stage on this tour, which finds the crew returning in support of their 2004 CD/DVD Wishingbone. That release contains "all of our reworks and some new music, so it's reapproaches to songs on [2004's] A New White plus other songs that sort of flesh out the ideas on that," Doseone explained. The DVD is a collaboration with the animation team SSSR. None of the animators or musicians spoke the same language, so they communicated through drawings and storyboards. (View an excerpt at www.warprecords.com/fko) The band has spent the past year hard at work on new material, which helped them deal with the emotional hardships they all faced after the accident. I recently caught up with Doseone at his home in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he welcomed a phone interview to take a break from finishing the new Subtle record, for hero: for fool, set for a summer release. "The new record has been everything for us," he said. "A New White carries over into this; they're sort of sequels to one another." Doseone travels to California to collaborate with the other members of Subtle. Pierson, back in the Bay Area after recuperating elsewhere, helped out on this record too. "We got him singing and playing harmonica and beatboxing on the record, and it's sounding great," Doseone said. Find out more about Dax Pierson and his recovery efforts at www.daxpierson.comSubtle, Jel and Fog play at 9 pm Saturday, April 8 at the WOW Hall. $10. — Vanessa Salvia
Luca's Back at Sam Bond's Nick Luca is one of those complete package deals. A well-traveled studio musician, he is also a sound engineer at Wavelab Studio in Tucson, Ariz., where he has been involved with the creation of many of the finest indie albums of the last 10 years. In the studio, he's worked with Calexico, Richard Buckner, Giant Sand and Evan Dando as well as many others.
As a touring and studio musician he's got your back singing, or playing guitar, piano, organ, harmonica, vibes, accordion, mandolin or synthesizer. He and his band, Luca, have toured the U.S. and Europe with Calexico, John Doe, Robyn Hitchcock, PJ Harvey and Neko Case. His music has been described as moody and evocative, mixing rock, jazz and soul for a mellow, haunting sound, a bit spacey but not so far out as to go floating off unmoored. Taking the lead on guitars, keyboards and vocals, Nick is accompanied by Chris Giambelluca on bass and vocals and Paul Ellis on drums. The group is touring heavily in the Northwest in support of their 2005 CD You Win Again, a follow up to 2004's Little Town. Having hit Eugene once already on April 5 with a gig at Cozmic Pizza, the trio returns to Sam Bond's Garage where they may be trying out new material from their upcoming album Sick of Love, due out this summer. Featuring a much harder rock sound, the CD includes guest performers from Calexico and Giant Sand as well as Tony Furtado. Luca plays at 9 pm Sunday, April 9 at Sam Bond's Garage. $5. — John Ginn
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