Soulive, Larry Baeder, Tony Vacca, Festivals
By Seth Rogovoy
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., July 13, 2000) -- Speaking of groove (weren’t we
speaking of groove?), one of the most talented of the flood of new groove,
jam-rockers and acid-jazzers is Soulive, a guitar, organ and drum trio. On
the group’s CD “Turn It Out” (Velour), the Boston-based trio displays a
penchant for classic soul-jazz style tunes in the tradition of Jimmy Smith,
like the funky “Doin’ Something,” which recalls the theme song to the old TV
show “Sanford and Son.”
The young band, whose members played for Moon Boot Lover, Karl Denson’s
Tiny Universe, and Greyboy Allstars, displays its lyrical side on the George
Benson-ish “So Live,” and plays an inventive version of the Stevie Wonder
chestnut, “Jesus Children of America.” Soulive is at Club Helsinki, Great
Barrington, on Saturday night at 9.
Speaking of funk (weren’t we speaking of funk?), the Larry Baeder Group’s
newest CD, “Maximo Strut” (New Moon), kicks off with the very funky title
track, on which Baeder sprinkles big chunky guitar licks and wah-wah riffs
atop a bedrock of New Orleans rhythms.
Baeder cranks things up on “Natural Fact,” a bit of ZZ Top-style Texas
boogie, and tones it down for a bit of acoustic, Delta-slide blues on “Dobro
Interlude,” before essaying some soul balladry on “Tell All the World,
John,” in his Dr. John-like croak. Baeder, who has performed with Carly
Simon, James Taylor, Dan Aykroyd, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Bonnie Raitt,
Buddy Guy and James Montgomery, revs it up for a bit of jump-blues on “Drink
Muddy Water,” and acknowledges his Cuban roots on the Santana-like “New
York-Havana Blues.”
You can catch the Larry Baeder Group at Club Helsinki on Friday night at 9.
Also at Helsinki tonight at 9 is Jigawattica, whose music is described as
mixing roots and r&b.
Festival fever
Summer is here, and the Berkshires are bookended by two of the
longest-running festivals in the region this weekend, beginning today with
the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. The name is new, but Grey Fox has basically
inherited the location, lineup, crew and program of the venerable Winterhawk
bluegrass festival (which has now moved to the Long Hill Farm in Hillsdale,
N.Y., home to Falcon Ridge, where it will present an eclectic lineup of
rootsy Americana the weekend of July 28-30).
The four-day camping festival at the Rothvoss Farm in Ancramdale, N.Y.,
begins today and features five stages, including workshops, dance, and
children’s performers, and includes such top-name bluegrass acts as Ricky
Skaggs, Del McCoury, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice and Peter Rowan, Tim O’Brien,
Ralph Stanley, the Seldom Scene, Laurie Lewis, Robin and Linda Williams,
Donna the Buffalo, and Bill Keith. (1-888-946-8495;
www.GreyFoxBluegrass.com)
The 14th annual Green River Festival takes place this Friday and Saturday
on the grounds of Greenfield (Mass.) Community College. Saturday’s
headliners include Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Band, Grammy-nominated
Cajun superstars Beausoleil, Irish-roots band The Sevens, bluegrass outfit
Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem, country-roots singer-songwriter Stacey Earle,
roots-rocker Robbie Fulks, folk-blues singers Kelly Joe Phelps and Louise
Taylor, and alternative folk singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey. The festival
also includes hot-air balloons, fireworks, food, crafts, and children’s
activities. (413-773-5463; www.greenriverfestival.com)
And in Northampton, the Pines Theater Summer Music Festival continues its
star-studded festivities with a triple-bill of top folk-pop talent on Friday
night, featuring singer-songwriters Rickie Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin, and
Richard Thompson. Look for the musicians to perform solo and to help each
other out. (413-586-8686)
Tony Vacca: World rhythms
Time has caught up with Tony Vacca, and now the sort of open-ended
explorations of rhythmic grooves the percussionist has been investigating
for the last 20 years are all the rage, with entire festivals, such as the
upcoming Berkshire Mountain Music Festival in Great Barrington (Aug. 11-13),
being devoted to the art of the groove.
Vacca’s voyages have taken him to West Africa 10 times, and his musical
discoveries have been shared in performances and recordings with the likes
of pop star Sting, Afro-pop superstars Baaba Maal and Yusef Lateef,
avant-jazz innovator Don Cherry, Gambian griot Fody Musa Suso, and
Senegalese master drummer Massamba Diop.
Vacca’s most recent discoveries can be heard on the CD “Rhythm Mission”
(World Rhythms), credited to Vacca and the World Rhythms Ensemble, and
featuring Diop, Joe Sallins, Steve Leicach and longtime duo partner Tim
Moran. The album veers from the pulsating Afro-funk of “Funky Rhythm Thing”
to the jazzy, saxophone-laced Afro-R&B of “Gon-Gon Groove” to the
impressionistic balafon workout of “Baoule Dance Song.”
Perhaps the most ear-opening cuts on “Rhythm Mission” are several
hip-hop-based numbers on which Vacca himself acquits himself as a skillful
rapper and poet. Numbers like “Tama Doctor,” dedicated to Diop, reveal the
African pulse that beats beneath the breaks of funk and hip-hop music.
Along with bassist/drummer Joe Sallins, Tony Vacca will present a workshop
and concert this Saturday, July 15, from 2 to 5, as part of the Bryant
Homestead’s two-day Craft Festival in Cummington. Other musical events
include Old World music by the Four Score Quartet, Celtic music by Coleraine
Road, and traditional fiddle music, by the Chapel Hill Band. Other festival
activities include a hot-air balloon demonstration, crafts, pony rides, hay
rides, a petting zoo, classic car and tractor displays, a Victorian fashion
parade, and guided tours of the homestead. The festival runs both days from
10 to 5; for more info call 413-634-2244, or visit www.thetrustees.org.
Backstage bits
Rory Block will make the short drive over from her home in Chatham, N.Y.,
to Great Barrington on Friday night to perform in the Guthrie Center’s
Musical Folks at the Church series at 8. Block picked up her fourth W.C.
Handy Award last year as Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year for her
most recent album, “Confessions of a Blues Singer” (Rounder). And Saturday
night, the Guthrie Center hosts the Kennedys, whose brand-new album,
“Evolver” (Zoe), has the husband-and-wife duo gleefully exhilarating in
their sinuous blend of psychedelic folk-rock.
The Lion’s Den features an unusually strong lineup of original performers
this weekend, including two of the Berkshires’ best singer-songwriters.
Robby Baier will perform with his band on Saturday night at 9, and Meg
Hutchinson, fresh from the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas where she was a
finalist in the new-folk competition, holds forth on Sunday at 8.
Still in its infancy, the Berkshire Mountain Music Festival, or BerkFest,
as it has come to be known (when it’s not being called MudFest, that is),
has apparently already gained national recognition as a presenter of
cutting-edge improvisational rock music. The festival, in its third year
this summer, is name-checked in the latest issue of Spin Magazine, in an
article devoted to trends in groove music (“Jam Bands 3.0” by Richard Gehr,
August, 2000).
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 13, 2000.
Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]
