Latch Music's Ezine #30
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* "The Zine" content is contributed by Dave Latchaw and colleagues who use the Internet to promote their musical projects. You can check out previous issues at "The Zine" Archives.
- Article: "Fusion" by Dave Latchaw
- Guest Artist: lanceKC - Cool, creative soundscapes.
- Featured Web Site: Sheet Music Plus
- Featured Web Video: Mike Keneally
- CD Pick: Joe Zawinul "Faces & Places"
Fusion
by Dave Latchaw
Fusion is an occurrence that involves the production of a union. Musically, for years "Fusion" was described as music that blends jazz elements and the heavy repetitive rhythms of rock. To me, Fusion can be thought of in more ways. It can be the union of a multitude of combinations of different musical influences and musicians to create something new, or bring new ideas to old music. The spirit of Fusion with music, musician, and audience is one of the most needed aspects of performing, necessary for the development of fresh performances. Being a "Fusion" minded musician is not the easiest thing to do because society has been trained by mass marketing to consume products that are easily labeled. New approaches to old music and creating new music is just not as easy to market.
In a performance there needs to be a union between the music, musicians, and audience to create the optimum musical event for all. Musicians that train for years to play their axe learn to play a lot of various styles of music. Being able to play in many styles is important for the evolving musician because they can bring more to each performance that they are involved in. This can aid in making the musical event more of a special occasion. Sometimes, musicians who play the same material over and over tend to go on auto-pilot when performing, because the music has become easy for them, and boring. When an artist is on auto-pilot, they lose the connection between the performer/ensemble and the music, and the performance becomes disconnected and uninspired. When this disconnection happens, the listener can get lost in musical oblivion. Being proactive and engaged with your music is a musician's responsibility, and creates an inspired union between the music, musicians, and audience, which makes a collectively wonderful experience for all.
To develop creatively, one has to take the total range of their musical influences and experiences, and blend all that into their own voice. How one mixes their musical soup is the way they develop their own sound and style. Musicians can learn to sound like someone else, but the real kick is to develop your own thing. One can spend hours studying one person or another and begin to take on those studied qualities in their own playing. You can learn all the licks in the world, but when playing you have to filter all that information through you, your own way. Taking the whole range of one's musical experience is an essential part of the creative process. If one doesn't do this they are just repeating what has come before. That's cool if you are trying to recreate some historical aspect of music, and it's important educationally to understand what has come before, although I think if Bach or Mozart were around today they would think, "Why is this being played the same way it was hundreds of years ago?". The more engaged one is with developing their voice, the more inspired they will sound when either creating new music or performing old music.
Without the Fusion of musical ideas and directions, Miles would not have changed the face of jazz so many times, or we wouldn't have had the collaboration of Aerosmith with Run - DMC doing "Walk This Way", both cool in their own ways. The spirit of Fusion allows for innovation, which is healthy for music. It takes persistence from an artist to have success as an innovator, especially if they are not already famous. Being famous makes it easier to market an artistic whim. Developing your own thing should be an artist's prime motivation. Sounding like yourself can bring great satisfaction, and if you can make money doing that, even better, but money should not be your motivation.
Fusing different genres of music makes for more of a marketing challenge because of the unfamiliar qualities that makes the music unique. The reason pop music all sounds pretty much the same is because it becomes familiar to consumers, and is easy to label for the retail market. Mass marketing has led to the unavailability of much of the really creative music that is out in the world today. Marketing costs are so extreme that it's more beneficial for record companies to only promote known commodities. The fusion artist has to educate them self on promoting and selling their creative music. The more efficient the Internet becomes, the better the chances that creative fusion-minded artists will have a chance of finding a market for their musical endeavors. Creative types are often put off about the financial aspects of their art. If one can get over that and spend some time on getting your music out there, they might have a chance to make some money. Making money is how an artist can support their creative habit.
The Internet can be a perfect fusion of global artistic influences and markets for creative activities. Educate yourself, your friends and fans and lets put a dent in the boring crap the mass marketers want us to think is cool!
lanceKC
#1 Where on the Internet can people find out more about you and your musical activities?
The mp3.com artist page for Zygote Productions is basically the home internet base. Unfortunately mp3.com seems to be a fast sinking ship... but in my view it remains the best Online Music Distributor with regards to unlimited storage, traffic, branding and promotion.
#2 With such a wide range of influences, who are the main artists that have inspired you to pursue music and develop your own voice, and why?
I could sincerely write a whole book on influences and inspirations. My parents had me when they were quite young so their listening was early Beatles, Motown, some Urban Funk/R&B station out of NYC in the 70s, and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".... Mom bought that album when it was first released in '74 (?)... I was 5 years old and that damn thing scared the crap outta me (later, of course, I came to appreciate the genius of that LP). Led Zeppelin banged my head around too before I was even a teen.
Then it was the obligatory rite of passage in junior high: the metal phase... AC/DC's "Back In Black" was the first vinyl LP I bought with my allowance... then it was the first two Ozzy solo albums... followed by a quick 180 degree shift as I discovered the Rutgers and Princeton University stations: New Wave. I was way into The Fixx and Flock of Seagulls (even the dreaded Duran Duran)... and all the 80s one hit wonders.
Then in '84 it was REM and U2... to this day my favorite pop/rock bands, these two bands coupled with John Lydon's Public Image Limited got me through high school. From P.i.L's 'generic' album, I started to discover the genius of Bill Laswell... his name kept popping up as bassist and/or producer on all these wonderfully new and strange sounding albums that fused World Beat (especially Indian and African sounds) with Dub and Electronica. He's probably one of the influences with the most staying power for me. Everything he touches from Golden Palominos, to Material, Tabla Beat Science, etc is all top shelf innovative and exciting music. He's incredibly prolific, releasing like a dozen albums a year and works out of Brooklyn... hope to collaborate with him some day.
Peter Gabriel and his whole Real World roster (especially Geoffrey Oryema) has been a big influence: again, there it's all about mixing in indigenous folk music from around the Globe into a pop/rock and electronic/dance mix. Jai Uttal is one of my favorites... very spiritually uplifting... there's an absolute pure beauty in his writing and singing... he was a direct inspiration for my song, "Why?" which was an internet collaboration with Ed Drury, a really good guy, talented multi-instrumentalist who composes mostly World Fusion... one of my faves.
Other influences from the college years include Peter Murphy (still one of favorite writers and singers: just a perfect combo of ethereal haunt and melancholic beauty... he definitely transcended his Bauhaus years, especially with his latest Dust album... basically a World Fusion album with Turkish/Middle Eastern instrumentation). Echo & The Bunnymen rocked my world in college too. I still love tracks by them like "Show of Strength" and "In Bluer Skies".
I guess, to answer the "why" of these artists influencing me... I tend to love artists who can be both cerebreal and gutteral in their work... songs that can make me think and want to get on the dance floor as well, or simply shake out some demons with a 'purgation' of negative crap. Songs that are spiritual in a non-organized religious way. These are the artists that stick. AC/DC and Duran Duran etc. had no real lasting influence on me. It's these artists who fuse pop/rock with World and Electronic forms and have something to say while making people shake their booties.... these are the ones for me.
#3 What is your compositional process, and of the many instruments you play, do you tend to gravitate towards one instrument over another when composing?
Wow... another hard one to answer without writing a novella. Writing/composing can happen in so many ways. If it's a vocal piece (a proper 'song')... sometimes the lyrics are there first (I always have like 3 or 4 journals going, .txt files on the PC, and countless scraps sprawled throughout my apartment). The past few years I've tended to construct rhythmic patterns first, sometimes with some sense of a bass line. For me, these past few years have been about rhythmic figures dictating melodic ideas. So usually I'll start with a loop which is first completely twisted and morphed on the PC... fly it out to the Roland hard disk recorder and work from there. Improvisation is a major part. Most of the non pop/rock tracks I've done over the past five years have been in large part improvs.
Yeah... so when I'm composing, I actually tend to start with the djembe, talking drum, a pattern on the Roland SPD-11 (a real time 8-pad drum module.. great piece of gear). Then I'll add some synth colors and work from there. Or the other typical scenario is to start with guitar, my second instrument (of about 20 years... trumpet was the first, having played on and off for about 26 years, though my chops are presently nil). After about 6 months of guitar lessons, I bought a delay pedal and taught myself guitar by 'dueting' with The Edge on U2 tracks. I'm a big digital delay head... it's an instrument in itself to me. I use it as a metronome and it's a huge part of writing. If I start with just laying down some guitar tracks, the delay opens up whole new worlds of rhythm... keeps me in time and reveals whole new melodic ideas as well. Even if I start with percussion, the delay is always there as a groove device.
These past few months have found me composing on the one octave beat up hand made marimba since I'm working on an album to sell out in the subway... (stay tuned)
#4 What kind of music training have you had, and how do you feel about music education in this day and age?
Let's see... music training.... Well, again I started out with trumpet at the age of 8. Took private lessons as well as being involved with every school music group possible from 4th grade on through sophmore year at Syracuse. Had one month of basic lessons in drum rudiments and sixth months of guitar lessons from jazz great Harry Leahy's son, Pat. Very cool... but I was 15 at the time and thought I could go it alone.
How do I feel about music ed? Hmm... we need more? Hasn't it been scientifically proven that music ed ties in well and enhances math and science comprehension? Personally, I wish I had followed through on my plans to go to Berklee. I auditioned and everything... got insecure and bagged it. I suppose, to answer the question, I believe in formal music education for technical purposes, for performance... especially if it's well rounded. Classical performance will only get one so far. We need to know about jazz and composition. Then again, all the rules of a formal performance education seems to be a constraint on truly innovative compostion. I mean, whether or not you dig The Edge as a guitarist... his self taught style and use of effects makes him one of the most distinctive performer/writers the rock world has ever witnessed... and he's technically quite simplistic. So....
I believe we also need to respect and learn from the technology ie- knowing what it can do for us, knowing when to turn it off and not allow it to be the main performer. I love electronica. I dig sampling, loops, and all that MIDI can do. But, even more, I like the dichotomy of placing the human organic touch within this often sterile realm.
#5 What is the experience like busking in the NYC subways?
Ha! It's a total trip! Mind-blowing. Humbling. Frustrating. Exciting. Instant gratification and instant rejection. New Yorkers are still as cold and hard as they always were. That post 9/11 togetherness lasted about 4 months. People soon became their pissy selves again.
It's so interesting to see thousands of New Yorkers 5 or 6 days a week. It's a people-watching thing as well. That's actually mostly frightening.... My rig consists of the one octave marimba, a cymbal; a tambourine attached to one side of the marimba and a custom doumbek-as-kick-drum set up. So the moment I start setting up... inevitably I get like 5-10 people who just sit there with blank zombie stares. And that's actually the majority reaction. I'm always telling my girlfriend Tania about this: I see thousands of zombies everyday who look at me like I'm some live flesh they want to feed on... that's the look. And/or they stare at me like I'm a TV... like that Kurt Cobain line, "here we are now / entertain us"... I keep waiting for the motion to click me through to the next cable/satellite channel. Yet their remotes are not present. They can't click me through.
Wow! Busking is the most significant learning experience I've ever had. Been doing it full time for about a year now. It pays my bills (barely) with supplemental income here and there from other live gigs, demo production, etc.... I get a good amount of work from busking too. People end up wanting to hire me for their daughter's 4th birthday, their CD, etc. Lots of leads... mostly leading nowhere... but every now and again I get legitimate work from busking. I play 5-6 days a week, 6-9 hours per day.
Needless to say... my marimba chops are quite amazing. I know this sounds pompous and self-important, but I'm just blown away and excited by what comes through my body after less than a year on this instrument. Especially in front of so many people. I'm playing the big stations in Manhattan 'cause that's where the money is: Times Square, Union Square, 59th & Lexington, West 4th, etc.
We're such an Attention Deficit Disordered society (again, thanks to sound bites and TV in general) that I end up having to play across extreme dynamics, time signatures and styles all within a matter of 5-10 minutes in order to wow the commuters into dropping me a George. It must work, 'cause again, it pays the bills. I even had somebody in a Holiday Giving Spirit drop me a Benjamin at West 4th on the evening of 12/18/02... a VERY kind gift. When a live musician is competing with the sensory overload of a big city, thousands of marketing messages a day, Top40 crap rammed down your ear canals by Clear Channel and MTV, and an individual's own psych issues... it's a hefty task to get their attention. But I've always been keen on picking up body language so they give me musical cues quite well. And I use the dynamic range of the station as well... the natural ebb and flow of loud and soft activity... the voices... the screeching train brakes... the sound of the train revving up as it departs for the next stop all get incorporated into the performance. That part is extremely invigorating. I want to eventually do a live subway recording that includes all the glory of these random ambient/noise occurences.
And oh, the hecklers. Not so bad now that my chops are established and people are starting to know who I am. But I've had spitballs fired at me, people stealing from my donation basket, people banging on my rig, threatening me with Ralph Machio/Karate Kid martial arts poses. Often it's the Hip Hop kids that behave with a certain unrestrained bravado who are the biggest hecklers. They come down the steps to the platform loudly rapping or yelling and screaming at each other... striking macho and stereotypical gangsta poses... it's what they identify with strength (?) They find me there.... I think, out of a typically insecure teen posture, they feel subconsciously threatened and/or envious that they won't be the center of attention for the 5-10 minutes between trains. It's interesting. Usually they're the ones that subtly unerve the other commuters with their often angry behavior.... Then again, the more enlightened folks realize that much of my playing is informed by African music and appreciate it... yet also feel that it would be decidedly unhip to admit enjoying a white guy in his 30s playing this geeky zylophone type thing... so it's a mixed bag. It's all really funny actually because I barely pick my head up... I need to focus so much on the marimba keys and picking my head up often distracts me (it has been the same playing guitar and singing on stage in rock bands). I'm playing mostly at really fast tempos with technically demanding music... again to keep the zombies awake. I play my ass off, come home sore nightly... very physical which I also like. Reminds me of my years as a carpenter in Dad's business.
I know I'm coming off as cynical and "above" my busking audience. But that's precisely the tough attitude New Yorkers have forced me to take in order for them to make the donations. Yet, there are always a few people every day who look me in the eye, say "thank you" and give me a big smile. Or it's the tough teenager who tells me how "f**king sick" my playing is (ie-they appreciate it). And the little ones in the strollers are priceless. Those little eyes sometimes double in size... some of them actually bop along... then mommy or daddy puts a dollar in their hand and wheels the tot over to my basket. THAT makes my day and gives me hope for the future.
#6 Describe your recordings that are available on mp3.com, "Global Grooves One", "Soundtracking Sounds", and "lanceKC: modern rock ditties", and what you want the listener to get from them?
Hmm... "Global Grooves One" is basically a collection of World Beat / World Fusion Grooves. "Soundtracking Sounds" is an ecclectic collection of what I'd like to hear as scoring / incidental music in film. And "lanceKC: modern rock ditties" is a collection of mostly older pop/rock material.
#7 What future projects should people look for from you?
Who knows?! Actually, I'm working on the marimba album that I hope to finish soon. It is a collection of marimba motifs that I've honed on the platforms, mostly set to 'ethnotronic' type backing tracks. That will be available through mp3.com and I'll be selling it while busking. Several tracks are already available for streaming and I am uploading pieces as they are completed. The only reason I even planned a whole marimba album is because I get about a dozen inquiries a week on the platforms... "where's your CD?"
My track "Talking Drum and Doumbek Jam" will be on the soundtrack for a student film by a guy named Brett Stagg... I have no further info on that yet.
And I'm really excited about a film called "My Garden State" by indie filmmaker Fred Soffa. I'll be contributing live and improvised acoustic marimba tracks (with the auxillary percussion rig I busk with). It's a beautifully executed 'art house' piece. No dialog. Almost no direct imagery of humans at all. Imagine the mind's eye glance of staring out the side windows of a car as you travel through the Holland and Lincoln tunnels... over the bridges and the surrounding NYC roads. It's all about the surreal rhythmic oscilliscope type patterns your eyes see. It's difficult to explain... It's like the first two Godfrey Reggio / Philip Glass *qatsi movies. The music actually plays a very significant role with the absence of dialog and human images. It's very mechanical yet full of life. And Soffa's footage includes some moving shots of the Twin Towers as he had shot much of the film before the attacks. Even if I wasn't involved in this project, I find it very aesthetically interesting, thought-provoking and emotional. I have a lot of hope for its success on the Indie Film festival circuit.
...putting a package together to audition for The Blue Man Group!!! I've got promo photos of me in 'blue face' as well as a head shot... gonna send an audio demo.... This was NOT my idea. It was proposed to me by a professional symphonic percussionist with some coaxing from my girlfriend... we'll see what happens. I'm doing this one as much for kicks as anything else.
... auditioning for a TV commercial for the Chilli's mexican restaurant chain... a big sellout maneuver. It would be great exposure because, if I get the gig, it will be ME performing on the marimba live! Again... the experience of the audition alone is fun and potentially good exposure.
#8 How has the Internet affected your musical activities?
Being involved with OMDs like mp3.com has literally changed my life. I'd have never imagined five years ago that my music would be available to anybody in the WORLD with an internet connection. It's a beautiful thing. And it has inspired me to continually present new material... there's a real audience there if you can let them know how to find you. I hang a sign on my busking rig that has my mp3.com URL. It definitely gets results.
The internet has been a great sounding board for feedback from other musicians... something you don't always get in the 'real world'. GarageBand.com has been great in that regard because of the built-in listener review process.
It has also linked me up to a whole network of like-minded artists. I've collaborated via internet with several artists and love it. I'll be releasing a CD in the near future called "The Quid est Nobiscum Remix Project"... a collection of all the wonderful remixes of my 'secular' gregorian chant piece from artists ManicD-, Sain, K.O. and AutoCad. I'm also seriously considering hopping onboard an indie label called Overthrow! put together by GangLu and Sain who are working from the Ampcast site. They are coming together from the online world and want to launch a proper label. So I'll most likely offer them a few exclusive tracks and see what happens....
Sheet Music Plus
Time seems to be a precious commodity these days. Anything that one can do to save time is a cool thing. Sometimes driving a half hour across town to get to the local music store is going take up too much of the day. Sheet Music Plus makes it easy to get the music you need for yourself or your students. With 366,000 titles, you can easily find whether they have what you need, and more than likely they will! They offer three safe ways to pay, and they are also part of the Better Business Bureau On-line. Save some time when you need music and go to Sheet Music Plus, you'll be glad you did.
Mike Keneally
Mike Keneally, who was stunt guitarist for Frank Zappa and recorded or performed with XTC, Robert Fripp, Sting, Kevin Gilbert, Steve Vai, The Loud Family, Henry Kaiser, Michael Manring, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Andy Prieboy, The Persuasions and more, certainly is taking full advantage of the web to get his music across to the masses. The Digital Club Network makes available two very cool webcasts of live gigs by Mike and his band, playing live at the Met Cafe on 05.11.2001 and 11.18.2001. The more recent, 11.18.2001, is a 4-piece line up, and 05.11.2001 is a very cool 7-piece line up. Mike is definitely leading the way toward proving that progressive fusion-based music is not dead. Mike is great at using the Internet and web video to promote his music. Be sure to check out his two web concert videos.
Joe Zawinul
"Faces & Places"
For those into World Fusion and keyboards, Joe Zawinul is the Jedi Master. At the age of 70, "Faces & Places" is Zawinul's latest release and is a musical stew of world influences combining acoustic instruments with contemporary electronics on a sonic global adventure. Many of the tracks display worldly grooves with the influence of dance music. Zawinul's keyboard playing and song construction show a great understanding of how to make dance music cool. With Zawinul's endless musical energy, exploring and fusing music from around the world, he will be an artist to study always. "Faces & Places" is a great example of an artist evolving and moving forward.
Musicians for "Faces & Places"
Joe Zawinul - Keyboards
Victor Bailey - Bass
Etienne Mbappe - Bass
Richard Bona - Bass
Alex Acuna - Percussion
Manolo Badrena - Percussion
Paco Serry - Drums and Percussion
Rudy Regalado - Percussion
Nathaniel Townsley - Drums
Zakir Hussain - Tablas
Dean Brown - Guitar
Bobby Malach - Woodwinds
Harry Kim - Trumpet
Lester Benedict - Trombone
Amit Chatterjee - Vocals
Kitty Winter - Background Vocals
Lori Perry - Vocals
Darlene Perry - Vocals
Sharon Perry - Vocals
Carol Perry - Vocals
Richard Page - Lead Vocal
Sabine Kabongo - Vocals
Maria Joao - Vocals
Tracks for "Faces & Places"
- The Search
- All About Simon
- Introduction To Tower Of Silence
- Tower Of Silence
- The Spirit of Julian "C" Adderley
- Familiar To Me
- Cafe Andalusia
- Good Day
- Barefoot Beauty
- Rooftops Of Vienna
- Borges Buenos Aires Part 1
- Borges Buenos Aires Part 2
- Siseya
- East 12th Street Band
Click here to learn more about "Faces & Places"
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