Home Sweet Home
Mercer West's Free Jammy Jamm Parties Bring The House Show To Local Club Stages
originally published February 6, 2008
If home is where the heart is, then Athens' heart - its vibrant, creative, ever-churning music scene - is where its home is. Packed with too many roommates, friends and visitors, many local musicians are content to write, record and perform in the confines of living rooms, bedrooms and basements. After all, every era of Athens music has been characterized by influential do-it-yourself venues, from the Milledge Avenue house where the B-52's played their first show to the numerous locations today cultivating a thriving underground scene.
Local musician and show organizer/promoter Mercer West has been bringing the same comfortable, anything-goes-and-nothing's-too-serious house show vibe into local clubs for the past several months - primarily the 40 Watt Club, though he's also put on events at the Flicker Theatre & Bar - calling his shows Jammy Jamms. Most have been on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, traditionally slower nights when clubs are happy to have any heads poked through the doors. This weekend, however, the 40 Watt's giving West free reign over setting up shows on both weekend nights.
Mike White
Mercer West
The Jammy Jamms are always free (though the 40 Watt requires a $2 door charge for show-goers not yet 21 years old), and will usually feature anywhere from five to 10 bands. West has established a precedent of taking risks and breaking audiences out of the regular rituals, setting up side stages where the 40 Watt's back couches or merchandise tables go - conveniently allowing for almost non-stop performance during band changeovers, and shorter sets for individual bands.
"It's really great," says 40 Watt booking agent Velena Vego. "There's always 150 people out, and that's really great for week nights."
The Jammy Jamm's crowds are diverse, and that nonexistent cover charge has a lot to do with both who comes in and how satisfied they are after the last band wraps up, says West. "It could be some people who see it's a free show and wander in, and maybe they stick around, maybe not," he says. "But there's a lot of people who are really dedicated who will show up and see seven bands back to back, and I can't even do that most of the time."
"Velena at the 40 Watt asked me to fill a date because I'd set a few Mouser shows up there," say West. "I thought of the idea of overloading the 40 Watt… almost punishing them for giving me free reign! [Laughs] I asked them if I could put a PA on the merch table and run it festival style, almost arbitrarily to see if they'd say yes. It was just a stupid fun idea on a Tuesday in the summer, which is usually a boner kind of night for a big club like them. But they were down with the idea, so we went with it. It went really well, and they kept asking me to do shows like that. It was basically a summer experiment that has carried on throughout the year."
Mike White
Dark Meat
"It's almost making a joke out of the fact that there are so many bands in town," says West. "There's six or seven bands on each bill, half of them are upstart bands that only a handful of people have heard of anyway, some of them don't even names yet, things like that. This music is everywhere in this town anyway, so I'm trying to focalize it in one place and then throw it in people's faces. I think it kind of underscores the fact that people don't really need to come to shows anymore, so it's creating an atmosphere for people to go to where there are creative things happening."
West says he means that any one show with assorted local bands will be of little interest to audiences, and he's trying to break out of the ordinary. "There's shows any single night, every single night, so there's no real reason for people to go to any one particular show. Bands in Athens play with alarming frequency, mine being a prime example. I mean, Mouser was almost playing every week for a while with any band, almost as a goof, despite the fact that that goof doesn't really make any sense. So there's no real reason to bring people out, and I'm hoping to create that reason."
One way of achieving that goal has been to put on shows that haven't taken place before - last year's "Athens Face/Off," is a good example, in which local musicians threw their names into a hat and then were paired off randomly and given a month to come up with 10 minutes' worth of performance per pair. That format resurfaces this Saturday night, this time with a more structured twist: members of the notoriously expansive band Dark Meat are each pairing up with non-members ("civilians," as West says). Dark Meat backing vocalist Sara-J Ursrey, for instance, performs alongside Ginger Envelope frontman Patrick Carey. Horn player Nick Canada's matched with former Winter Sounds / Boulevard drummer Donovan Babb, while flautist Emily Armond tackles some tunes with Long Legged Woman guitarist/vocalist Gabe Vodicka.
Cinemechanica
The free shows West sets up aren't entirely without criticism, though; several musicians who aren't part of the Jammy Jamm crowd and other club owners and staff have grumbled in private that the free shows devalue musical performances, and set up audiences to expect not to pay. None would speak on the record, though.
"My intention's not to piss anyone off," says West, "but it's not like people are making tons of money off shows anyway."
"This is a certain group of bands that Mercer invites," says Vego. "Most have played [local DIY venue] the Secret Squirrel, so they expect it to be free. We used to do cheap dance nights or other theme nights a few years back… it just goes with the times."
That West can afford to give up his time and energy assembling the Jammy Jamms speaks to his enthusiasm for local music, he says, and not so much to the economics of the scene.
"I get really excited when I see a new band in town that I'm into and want to see play and do well," says West. "I'm really grateful to a lot of the bands who play these shows."
Bands have reciprocated West's goodwill, and it's thanks to his cachet in the scene that they're often willing to play for free and to take risks with things that might work. Audiences have often come to trust his aesthetic, which tends to veer towards the experimental and abrasive, though he's got a good ear for some of the younger pop bands in town as well.
"It's more about entertainment than anyone's particular taste, so I can be a little looser with lineups," says West. "It's also allowed me to expand my tastes a lot, and there's a lot of stuff in this town that I never got to see until they played some of these shows. I'm not a music snob, or try not to be, and I like exposing myself to a lot of things. One of the most exciting things for me is to see a band you think you might not like and have them turn your opinion around."
Expect the shows to continue, at least for the foreseeable future, and not just weeknights. "I believe Mercer and I work really well together. I think he feels good about putting on shows for us," says Vego, "and we appreciate him doing them here. So yes, there is a big future for Jammy Jamms throughout the year."
In addition to Saturday's "Face/Off" show, West has put together a strong lineup for Friday night, one that could normally pull in a $5 or $8 door charge, with Cinemechanica, Mouser, Sweet Teeth and others on the bill.
Full information on both lineups, and specifics on Saturday's pairings, should be posted on West's promotional site www.heyguys.biz.
WHO: Missing Children, Golden Triangle, Cinemechanica, Knyfe Hyts, Mouser, Sweet Teeth, The Buddy System
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, February 8
HOW MUCH: FREE! (21+), $2 (18+)
WHAT: "Athens Face/Off II: Dark Meat & Friends"
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Saturday, February 9
HOW MUCH: FREE! (21+), $2 (18+)
Back To The Garden
Richie Havens Delivers Songs Of Change
originally published February 6, 2008
Richie Havens
Casual music fans familiar with singer-songwriter Richie Havens know him primarily for his soulful opening performance at Woodstock. But the 1969 music festival is just the tip of his iceberg of accomplishments. His guitar style and unique open tunings have been adapted by several generations, and most of his influential catalog of work is now available to the world via iTunes. He even appears in Todd Haynes' filmic Bob Dylan meditation I'm Not There, and on its soundtrack.
The Brooklyn-born performer also runs his own record label, sculpts, paints, creates computer art, collaborates with scores of musicians and still makes time to devote nearly every weekend to performing. His urgent and intuitive style, percussive guitar strumming and sage-like countenance are belied by his off-stage easy-going charm and quick wit.
During a genial and wide-ranging conversation on a recent weekday afternoon, Havens, calling from his New York home, discussed everything from Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons to his collaborations with Groove Armada. The weekend warrior for peace comes to town this Saturday for a show at the Melting Point.
- Flagpole
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Let's talk about your new album, Nobody Left To Crown. What a great title. It's not out yet, but can we hear some of it at the show coming up?
- Richie Havens
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Yes. It's almost here. It'll be out in Europe in February. The 19th or so. And then here a week later. Derek Trucks is on it, and I'm looking forward to people hearing it. The guy who put the deal together with us in France is a fan, and he wanted to have something we did together put out in his lifetime. And for over here, he wants to give it to the right person [for distribution], so it'll be heard, which is so nice of him.
- Flagpole
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It seems like Europe has always embraced you, maybe more-so than the United States.
- Richie Havens
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Well, the thing that is really different is I play all year round, but on weekends. The only tours I do that I can call a "tour" is going to England for 10 days so it has the real feel of a constant, but other than that, I've been playing weekends for 29 years now. So I'm used to it and always busy.
- Flagpole
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For this visit, your show is billed as The Richie Havens Trio.
- Richie Havens
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Yes and I love it. We've been playing for a while now. My guitar player Walter Parks has been playing with me for the last five years. And Stephanie Winters, the cello player, has been with me for three and a half years now. So it's a band now. They used to play as a duo, and they'd open in certain places that I'd play. I never knew where they'd pop up from because it was all over the country. Basically they were working out of New York, too, but I only heard them out on the road. I thought, "Man would I love to work with these guys." Eventually it happened, two records ago, or two CDs ago, I guess now. And it's worked out great, so we've kinda stayed together. I said, "I'm workin' weekends, and we can play together all year if you want." They said, "Great," and here we are. It's been that easy.
- Flagpole
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It seems like a lot of your work is intuitive, so it would be a a bit of a challenge to follow you musically.
- Richie Havens
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Well, yes, especially for drummers. Because I'm doin' more rhythm than they are! And it reduces them to playin' the ones! It is a challenge. I've found a few guys over the years that can do it, but you're right, it's not easy. But, Walter and Stephanie, they're feelers. It has to be more a feeling than anything, because I never tell anybody what to play. It's wonderful. I used to carry a percussion player along, and I do still, but only in Europe.
- Flagpole
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You've had your own label for a long time, Stormy Forest.
- Richie Havens
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Right. I've had a label since 1970. I knew nothing about running a label, but I had friend who helped, who missed being my manager by three days. I'd signed the papers with [legendary folk kingpin and manager of Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul And Mary and other NY-based artists] Albert Grossman. We became friends in '63 when I was playing clubs in the Village.
- Flagpole
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You were popular in the folk clubs back then, but your debut album didn't come out until 1967. That's a long time, especially in those days when people had two or three LPs out every year.
- Richie Havens
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It is. But Albert didn't know what to do with me. He sent me in the studio with a country group, and that didn't work; then a rock group, and that didn't work; then a jazz group, a blues group. None of it worked, because I was singing songs from everywhere and from all kinds of music. I finally went in and did the whole first album in about four days, after waiting years to get it right! And I've usually worked fast like that ever since.
- Flagpole
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Did Albert ever try to pair you with Bob Dylan, like he combined Peter, Paul and Mary? You obviously go way back with Dylan.
- Richie Havens
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Oh, yes. We hung out a lot back then and I've always loved his music. But Albert knew what he had with Bob. He loved music and he could recognize people who were truly unique.
- Flagpole
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And that way you were exposed to a wealth of material firsthand. Some of your covers, like "Here Comes The Sun," for example, are as well-known as your originals.
- Richie Havens
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I've always had an incredible amount of providers, people who wrote songs that changed me. The songs I sing now are all of the songs that have changed me. That's what I do.
I share songs that have affected me, songs I'd go buy on a record and learn, and with the songs I write, it all makes that statement of what I believe.
- Flagpole
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Did you have any idea when you played Woodstock that it would have the impact it did then, and continues to have, nearly 40 years later?
- Richie Havens
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I expected it to have impact because they were shooting for it to bring maybe 60,000 people, without thinking it would be 520,000, of course. It was the times. It was our breakthrough. We all had broken through from the underground to above ground, and rightfully so. And I don't mean just the artists, I mean the generation.
It had been a lot of hard work, but it was also a time of discovery. That's what made it special. I was seeing people there for the first time, too. It was an East-Coast-meets-West-Coast type of coming together. So we all grew from it. But I can tell you that we, as a generation, wanted something like that for a long time, even in the '50s. So it was the culmination of everything, from the old Alan Freed package tours to Newport Folk Festival to Woodstock. It just took a while to happen.
- Flagpole
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But Woodstock wasn't the first festival you'd played. You were already a big attraction in the folk world, but it was still your introduction to a lot of people.
- Richie Havens
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That's right. At Woodstock we were really expecting some change or input, so for me it was just a confirmation. The big door opened up. The Newport Folk Festival was the first place I'd played where there were like 9,000 people in front of me. And my knees were shaking!
It was the same stage they'd booed Bob [Dylan] off of, so I thought, oh no! But I said to myself, "I've gotta reach that back wall. If I can reach the back wall, then this giant lying down in front of me will look up and we can connect." I had this image of this giant with his head way back there and his feet were the first row. And as I started playing and people were getting into it, they started applauding, like they were happy or something! I thought, "Wow, he looked up!"
- Flagpole
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Speaking of the lyrics of "Woodstock" [a Joni Mitchell tune on Havens' 2004 album Grace of the Sun] - can we ever get "back to the garden" again?
- Richie Havens
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Yes we can! The young people are gonna create the pathway for us all. There's so many talented young people now, and they don't even have to get beat up anymore to be heard. They haven't in at least 30 years.
See, we created it, and now it's in the DNA. And change is coming. Now we are open to the whole world. Really, I call it "The Great Becoming." We're all in it, and it's still on the way. I knew when I was 13 years old that this country ain't finished yet. It ain't even made yet!
WHO: Richie Havens Trio
WHERE: Melting Point
WHEN: Saturday, February 9; 8:30 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $30 (advance), $35 (door)
The Force Is With Him
Legendary Jazz Pianist And Composer Dave Brubeck Settles In For A Week In Athens
originally published February 6, 2008
Dave Brubeck
Jazz piano legend Dave Brubeck returns to the Classic City this week for his first visit in many years and a rare, 40th anniversary performance of his difficult and rewarding oratorio The Light In The Wilderness.
It'll be a busy week for the 87-year-old artist, with two full performances and two lectures. A favorite on college campuses for decades, the prolific Brubeck released his first album in 1949; ten years later, he released one of the all-time greatest hits of cool jazz, the unique and swinging Time Out. He could retire and enjoy the past glories of perpetual reissues of his extensive body of work, but the restless raconteur stays busy.
In fact, he promises the best is yet to come, with an upcoming DVD and exclusive, commissioned works on the way this year. His newest album, Indian Summer, was released this past August and continues to receive glowing reviews and was honored on numerous best of 2007 lists. Brubeck arrives in this week to speak and teach at the University of Georgia, and give two separate performances alongside conductor Russell Gloyd. He's also accompanied by a traveling exhibit called "The Times of Dave Brubeck," on display on the third floor of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music building. The exhibit is dedicated to the groundbreaking keyboardist who brought unusual time signatures, controversial polytonal structures and cross-cultural performances to mainstream jazz and popular music circles.
In addition, Gloyd and Brubeck will give two lectures: “Experience in the Music Business,” on Thursday, Feb. 14 at 3:30 p.m. and “The Sacred Choral Music of Dave Brubeck,” on Friday, Feb. 15, at 10:10 a.m. Both lectures are free and open to the public, and will take place in the School of Music. Brubeck spoke with Flagpole by phone during a break from composing at his winter retreat in Sanibel Island, FL.
- Flagpole
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Let's talk about one of the most ambitious pieces of your catalog, The Light In the Wilderness. This is a massive undertaking for any organization, and the Athens performance is the 40th anniversary of it.
- Dave Brubeck
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I can't believe somebody is taking it on. It's very difficult. The original title was "The Temptations of Christ," which is all through this piece. I'm glad we're doing it at a university again. We did it the first time at a university; it was at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Time Magazine gave it such a great review.
It was done with just a choir, three musicians with me, organ and a small orchestra, mostly percussion. Eric Kunzl and the Cincinnati Symphony later recorded it, and we also did it at the National Cathedral in Washington. It's not been performed a lot, and this will be a good place to do it.
- Flagpole
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There's a solid Athens connection to the presentation of the piece.
- Dave Brubeck
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Yes, I'm anxious to see [Hodgson faculty member] Allen Crowell again. He really helped to bring it there. And he's a great musician. I was introduced to him years ago in Washington, DC, by my conductor Russell Gloyd. He said, "I want you to meet one of the greatest musicians I've ever known." And he's known a lot of musicians!
Then I said, "Do you think they have the forces in Athens to do this piece? It's very difficult." And Russell said, "Well, Allen said he had the forces, and if Allen said it, then we've got them." I'm looking forward to hearing the [UGA] chorus and the orchestra.
- Flagpole
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It'll be great to see you in Athens. Have you played here before?
- Dave Brubeck
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Years ago, we did one of my oratorios there and I've played a jazz concert there a couple of times. You don't get time to get too familiar with any city, because there are so many rehearsals going on. And there will be again this time, but I'm looking forward to being there. I hope we can pull this thing off.
- Flagpole
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What inspired it? It's usually cited as your first major work, at least on such a grand scale.
- Dave Brubeck
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Oh, it was! I had no idea I was gonna write it. It just grew. My brother's 16-year-old son died of a brain tumor, and my brother was in such a bad state, I wanted to comfort him. So I did my first religious piece, "Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled," for him. And from that it expanded. It was published, we added to it and then it was eventually recorded. It's just difficult. My conductor will go to Athens soon and start rehearsals, and then we come in.
- Flagpole
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It's considerably longer than most oratorios, so the very length seems to push people away from it sometimes.
- Dave Brubeck
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Yes. Well, you know, it's 71 minutes, and to do it takes a lot of effort and a lot of people to do it. That's one reason why I was so surprised to see somebody like Allen take it on again. It's often hard to program because you can't do it in halves of the show. It can't be broken up or divided.
- Flagpole
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It's going to be a busy week for you.
- Dave Brubeck
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Well, I just hope I'm up to it. But yes, that's right, we're doing one night of jazz and then one night of the oratorio.
- Flagpole
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And couple of lectures, too. One about your experiences in the music business, and also one about your sacred choral music.
- Dave Brubeck
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Oh, now. Don't scare me.
- Flagpole
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How do you prepare to basically talk about yourself during the lectures? Is that difficult?
- Dave Brubeck
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It's different, I'll tell you that. Sometimes it's Q&A format. I'll have to think about it. I'm finishing a new commission while I'm here at Sanibel Island and I haven't stopped to think about that. I'm not the greatest at lectures, so I hope it's question and answer.
I'm just too busy with all these new things. And I'm not even telling you everything, because some things I can't tell you about yet, but they're things I have to get prepared for. Some big things are ahead.
- Flagpole
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You could live off of the repackages of Take Five from now on, but you are always working and touring.
- Dave Brubeck
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There's great stuff to come! Soon. I have a lot of things coming out this year. Clint Eastwood's doing a documentary on me. He's a jazz fan, been coming to see me play since he was 15 years old. He loves music. That'll be out in the spring.
- Flagpole
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Was the positive reaction to the Indian Summer album a surprise?
- Dave Brubeck
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I can't believe it. Some places, it was album of the year above other artists that I can't believe I'm ahead of. Because they're people like Springsteen! How can I be ahead of him? The Chronicle in San Francisco put it in their top 10. And I thought it wouldn't even be noticed.
- Flagpole
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Do you keep up with modern jazz and pop trends?
- Dave Brubeck
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I wish I had more time to do everything. Just today, I heard a new jazz album, and I have four sons that are playing, so I hear new things from them all the time. The kids, they're all out on their own and doing great things. "Kids," well, I mean they're all in their 50s, and only one left in his 40s, but they're my kids and I'm proud of them.
I'll listen to their new things. The piece I'm working on now will include my son Christopher. I'm proud that he'll still come back to help the old man.
- Flagpole
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Since you have had success in jazz and popular circles, do you consider yourself a jazz purist?
- Dave Brubeck
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We've been lucky. Am I a purist? I've stuck pretty close to what I believe in for over 50 years, and if that makes me a purist, then maybe so.
- Flagpole
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I've read about the backlash from within the jazz world when the pop side of the business embraced you.
- Dave Brubeck
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Oh yeah, well they go through that sort of thing. But it's nothing that has much of a bad effect really, because we just keep doin' our thing and don't get distracted by things that aren't positive.
- Flagpole
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When you recorded "Take Five" in 1959, did you have any idea you'd be revisiting it every time you play and talking about it every time you're interviewed?
- Dave Brubeck
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Every band needs a song like that. A lot of people have sure heard it, and they say it helped open some doors, so that's about all you can ask from a song.
- Flagpole
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To close, I want to go a couple of years past 1959's Time Out LP and talk about your album called The Real Ambassadors, which came out in 1962, and was the soundtrack to the touring musical you wrote. That was a milestone in cultural exchange, race relations, the music business and collaborations in general. Back then, it was still a big deal to see a mixed-race lineup of artists onstage together.
- Dave Brubeck
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That's right. You know, President Eisenhower and the U.S. State Department sent Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie and me out on tour in 1958 because [Eisenhower] felt the country needed some cultural exchange. It went all over the world, too. It was a true cultural exchange, all over the world. It was called The Real Ambassadors, and we were. It's part of the tradition of music.
People loved Louis everywhere. He said, "I don't care if you're purple!" He loved to play with Jack Teagarden, the white trombonist. He called him his "real brother." That's an exact quote from him. And The Real Ambassadors was dedicated to bringing people together. Have you heard it? It's back on CD [in a '90s era issue from Sony Legacy] and the great jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross were on it, and Carmen McRae. It opened with "God created Man in his image and likeness / And in His image and likeness created He them," and while they're singing that, Louis is singing, "They say I look like God. If both are made in the image of thee, could thou perchance a zebra be?" We thought the audience would get a kick out of that.
But Louis had tears in his eyes [when he sang it] and there wasn't a laugh in the audience. We thought that'd be a funny line, but Louis took it with such emotion, that audience went away knowing that we're all one.
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