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Whole Lotta Culture
10-10-99
(printed in C-Ville Weekly Vol. 11, No.42)

Tom Morgan - Greg Howard - The Danny Morris Band - The Arcadian Trio - Aaron Binder Presents - Dark Star Orchestra - Charlottesville Swing Orchestra - Bell - Last Days of May - Pelt - Larry Coryell - Sonny Fortune

October 10, 1999 - First, I'd like to offer a tip of the bill to Tom Morgan, WTJU's Bartender, whose jazz show, the Bartender's Bop has graced Charlottesville airwaves for 18 years. He's moving on to New Orleans, where he'll be pursuing some sort of internet broadcasting, so maybe we won't have to live without him after all...

With that in mind, I decided it was time to concentrate (as best I can) on some Charlottesville jazz. It started Monday night with a visit to Miller's, where Greg Howard and his Chapman Stick held court over a half dozen awed onlookers. The "Stick" is a most peculiar electric stringed instrument which can generate several unique tones at once, allowing the musician to play different melodies with each hand. Greg uses it to lay down ambient soundscapes, performing with remarkable dexterity a series of Beatles-crashing-on-the-moon numbers and some formidable jazz and classical bits. It was awesome but short-lived so me and my little duckling, Daysi, decided to head up to Rapture, where the Danny Morris Band was rocking a small but happy crowd.

Danny plays classic rock guitar in the "Surf's Up!" tradition. Hauling along a two piece band and joined this evening by the Secret's Andy Rowland on sax, they put forth the original dance-rock recipe, inspiring the inclined to couple off and boogie. If you're looking for a band to play your next sock hop or beer brawl, look no further. Danny's retro Stratocaster stylings and semi-irreverent songs will definitely do the trick.

On Tuesday I lucked into two tickets to see The Arcadian Trio at Old Cabell Hall. Daysi and I were way out of our pond here, showing up late enough to incur a serious reprimand from the usher. Classical people are serious about that stuff. The Arcadian Trio are three young virtuosi who perform some really mesmerizing chamber music. The second piece by Arno Babadjanian was especially intense, and the unfortunately sparse audience left respectfully impressed.

After the cultural overload of Old Cabell we headed to Michael's Bistro where Aaron Binder Presents were settling into their hard-bop routine. Aaron is a phenomenally smooth jazz drummer and perhaps the most pleasantly understated musican in all of C-Ville. His band sounded great at the Bistro with John D'earth blowing some incredible solos. They were all reading off the charts and dissing each other's playing in that cool way that jazz musicians sometimes do. It was a great little show, but my mind was feeling a little too expanded, and so I passed out...

Only to wake on Wednesday to The Dark Star Orchestra at Trax. Now, if you hate tie-dyes or think Jerry Garcia was some washed up pusher, then these guys are not for you. It was a little creepy even having seen the Grateful Dead. But this is, without a doubt, the finest tribute band in existence. They play set lists from actual Dead shows, pulling off stunningly realistic renditions of the classic tunes. They sound alot like the Dead, and if you close your eyes...whew!... it's kinda scary. By the time they played "Morning Dew" late in the second set, even the most cynical skeptic was grooving and I, having once been a grateful duck, felt compelled to lay a rose upon that altar.

On Thursday I slept.

Friday came and I dropped in on the Piedmont Jazz Festival to check out the Charlottesville Swing Orchestra featuring John D'earth and Dawn Thompson. It was a little cold in the Downtown Ampitheater, but kids were running amuck and the C.S.O., all decked out in tuxes, were playing danceable big band jazz. John sounded incredible in this context and the band was putting on a very classy show, but I wanted to head over to the Tokyo Rose where Last Days of May were playing with Pelt and Bell.

In brief: --Bell are from the Pacific Northwest and do the "chicks with guitars too loud and low screaming obsenities at the tops of their lungs" kind of thing. They are awesome. Very rock and roll. --Last Days of May has taken on Baaba Seth's drummers and evolved from full-on feedbacking psychedelia into a very strange hesitant trance odyssey. Really beautiful spooky stuff. --One third of Pelt played guitar, banjo and home-made instruments with mallets and stuff, shrieking, popping and feeding back sans rhythm section until Last Days of May joined in for a nice fat group eruption. It was a very alternative evening, kind of like a whole other side of jazz.

On Saturday I took Daysi back to the Downtown Ampitheater for the second day of the Piedmont Jazz Festival. A light drizzle kept attendance down but the die-hards that endured were treated to guitar legend Larry Coryell and a band of regional jazz-heavies including drummer Robert Jospé, alto saxophonist James Gates and guitarist Royce Campbell. It was a fine exposition of Coryell's guitar genius and a great tribute to the potency of our local jazz family. At sunset the righteous Sonny Fortune went on with his band of bad-asses and laid the voodoo down, blowing like a man possessed, a truly gifted and humbling performer.

Your name here. E-mail cripsyduck@mindspring.com.

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