Cripsy Duck's view from Charlottesville - 3.19.01

3/13/01
Matthew Willner and Friends at Miller's

I hadn't enjoyed a Matthew Willner-style psychedeli-funk futurist guitar freak-out since well before the now semi-infamous Michael's Bistro show a few months back when he ended his band Plutonium's tenure by throwing both of his guitars off the balcony and into the street below in a grand display of musical martyrdom. Talk about a show stopper.

Willner sort of went into seclusion after that, but the Plutonium rhythm section carried on with a couple of old friends and a new name-- the Wonderband. Then there was a brief period when Peter Griesar was rumored to be using the Plutonium trio (Willner, bassist Houston Ross and drummer Johnny Gilmore) for a short-lived but reportedly bichin' funkified version of his sub-pop vehicle, Supertanker. That project, too, was eventually scrapped for reasons unknown.

But Willner is a compulsive player, so he made use of his down time to woodshed and mess around with some new effects-- guitar synthesizers and loop generators, mostly-- working up to the day when he can refortify the groove with more of his over-the-top rippery and general musical avant-itude.

A taste of the new and the old came to Miller's on a happily rockin' recent Tuesday. Willner opened the show with a solo set of loop grooves generated by layering bass, guitars and synthesizers into a variety of mostly funky soundtrack scenarios. Most interesting among them (to me) were the rhythmless ambient grooves that sounded like waves wooshing on some distant moon. For the second set he hauled in Houston Ross and Brian "Nug" Gorby (former drummer for Humble Sacrifice) for a set of what Ross and Willner are known to do best: big, funky, butt-numbing dance grooves.

It was very refreshing to hear these two go at it again, although I've recieved no news of reunion tours or glory jams. We'll have to wait and see.

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3/15/01
Karl Denson's Tiny Universe with Olu Dara at Trax

I walked in to a room full of freaks. Long hair hippy freaks. Everywhere. This in and of itself is not so unusual, but combined with the fact that I didn't recognize any of them... well, that's pretty strange.

Whenever I see lots of dreadlocked hippy freaks in Charlottesville that I've never laid eyes on, I always know something is up. Harrisonburg must be in the house, yo.

It has to be Harrisonburg. Harrisonburg, with its notoriously supportive music community. Harrisonburg, with its real throwback hippy freaks migrating en masse to major events all over the country. Harrisonburg, whose spring break does not coincide with U.Va.'s so they can feel free to fill out a Trax with very few Charlottesvillians in it. Ahh, Harrisonburg.

It's pretty easy to tell a Harrisonburg jamband freak from a Charlottesville jamband freak. Charlottesville jamband freaks are usually UVa. students or alumni, and thus have a tendency to "blend in" a little more. Maybe it's the college education or maybe it's just rampant normalcy, but Charlottesville "heads" seem more cognizant of the reality that they are less likely to be hassled by the authorities if they don't look like the kind of person who'd know where to score a sheet of blotter acid at any given juncture. Harrisonburg heads, on the other hand, just let it all hang out. You gotta love 'em.

They certainly know where to find a groove. The Tiny Universe show was definitely a "must see" event, and thankfully the place filled up despite the fact that UVa. was on spring break.

Olu Dara opened up with a smooth set of his groovy Africanizations, a mature and mellow grandlord of an entirely different vibe. His music isn't funk or world beat, it's more a graceful display of sensual sambas and socas settling in blissfully for elegant stretches while Dara, relaxedly perched on a stool at the front, sings and blows his cornet like the only relevant voice of modern Africa. Too cool.

He played for just under an hour and people who had come just to see him began filing out, confused as to why this great performer should ever have to open up for anyone. (This is the second time I've seen Dara do this: open a show and outshine the headliner with sheer cool.)

"Wait," I tried to stop someone I knew, "the best is yet to come." And it did. Karl Denson's Tiny Universe is one of the most volatile forces in the modern soul/jazz movement, a divinely capable powerhouse that challenges the listener with both high art musicianship and deep butt-rocking dance music without ever compromising either.

From the opening bars of their own "Front Money" to the last notes of "The New Song with the Difficult Melody," (and it was really difficult) Denson's Tiny Universe laid out the whole goods, shredding with the sober intensity of a prototypically great fusionoid jazz crew while keeping the material close to, if not safely within, the bounds of irresistable dance music.

All night, they just kept flowing, and from the occasional James Brown cover to the twenty-five minute spooky deep space exploratory number that occupied the center of the set, I found myself constantly engaged in their groove, amazed and psyched that a band like this is out on the road, keeping the soul alive. They call themselves tiny, but Karl Denson's Universe is definitely huge.

--Cripsy Duck

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