6The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, March 31, 1988
Ac? PF
4
John Rossi (center), drummer for Roomful of Blues,
popularity is only "a short-lived fad."
The popularity of blues band 5 Guys Named Moe is local
" C X" 1
fey s XfKv VaV
A " IX k ttr f) i
W q T'o ft iff I
TJLw mi
I il' Y f Wf
if -: I :' j
' ' " 1Wm rm. , , - ! ' jf
"l l - - ,r' LA -f
thinks the genre's recent surge of
4 rfM v lr
evidence of the national trend toward roots rock
f CD
By RHYS WILLIAMS
Staff Writer
Considering that blues and jazz are the only musical
forms truly indigenous to the United States, it is
ironic how often it is left to the British to recognize
an artist's talents.
in the late 1960's it was the "British invasion" of
the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and Jeff
Beck that first introduced blues to a massive white
audience, and in recent years, both Stevie Ray
vaughan and Robert Cray have achieved commercial
success across the puddle before they received any
recognition at home.
in addition, since leaving the Police, Sting has
returned to his jazz roots with albums such as The
Dream Of The Blue Turtles and . . . Nothing Like The
Sun. The resulting critical acclaim is presumably
justifying the small fortune it must require simply
to keep Branford Marsalis in his band.
Sting is only one of many artists at the forefront
of a recent resurgence of interest in "roots music,"
such as blues, jazz, soul, and zydeco, an accordion
based dance music from Louisiana.
The former Policeman hired renowned jazz
musicians such as Marsalis and Gil Evans. David Bowie
has had bluesmen such as Albert Collins and Stevie
Ray Vaughan play on his recent records. Paul Simon,
with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, featured zydeco
heavily on his Craceland LP, and the Fabulous
Thunderbirds, Los Lobos and Robert Cray have all
achieved chart success with their jazz-flavored
recordings. Popular movies such as "La Bamba " "The
Big Chill" and "The Big Easy" have soundtracks
featuring zydeco, rockabilly and soul.
This nationwide trend has not gone unnoticed in
the Triangle area, especially in Chapel Hill, where clubs,
musicians and record stores are reflecting jazz's
newfound popularity.
Rock music as a genre has always had its innovators
as well as its plagiarists ready to exploit the latest
style. But the marriage of mainstream music to jazz
and blues is an unlikely one. Producing a hit single
is a very structured process.
in contrast, jazz and blues rely very much upon
improvisation and the interplay between members
of the band. The individual freedom of expression
allows for greater dynamics in the music, but also
limits the artists to a more select audience. But for
the moment, blues and jazz are in the mainstream.
in the record market, Sting might be selling more
records, but Robert Cray appears to be having a
wider influence in Chapel Hill. "Although Sting's
records are selling well, jazz represents more of a
constant," says Sherman Tate of the Record Bar on
Franklin Street. "Kenny c sells well, and the Marsalis
brothers, but sales haven't changed dramatically in
recent months.
"Blues, on the other hand, is doing great business,
a lot of which is due to Robert Cray," Tate says
Across the street at Schoolkids Records, the story
h-
gets j
is much the same. "The major labels don't want to
sink money into jazz," says Schoolkids employee
Freddie Jenkins. "It's far easier and cheaper to re
issue albums from the back catalogue, with some
digital remastering. This might sound cynical, but
the results are not all bad. CBS has re-mastered some
classic stuff by Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk, and
RCA has dug up and re-mastered a bunch of really
old Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. Some of it sounds
quite unbelievable."
Jenkins agrees with Tate, however, that blues is
gaining in popularity faster than jazz.
"Blues is more popular because it's where rock 'n'
roll comes from," he says. "It's a natural progression
- or regression, I guess - for people to turn to
the originals after hearir- a modern band play the
stuff, it'll probably stay tnat way, too, although I
don't think that jazz or blues will remain in the
mainstream for long."
Paul Simon's staggeringly successful, Grammy
winning Craceland album opened many ears to
zydeco for the first time, and this has also had an
important influence on the genre in general. "Alton
Rubin, the accordion player with Good Rockin' Dopsie,
plays on a lot of Craceland," says Peter Cashwell of
the Record Bar, "and its success has turned many
people onto the music of Clifton Chernier and
Buckwheat Zydeco. The soundtrack LP to The Big
Easy also has a lot of this type of music."
The band members themselves say they have also
noticed this renewal of public interest in the blues
"it's important to take the chances that come,"
believes John Rossi, the drummer with Rhode Island
based Roomful Of Blues. "At the moment, we're
trying to get out of a tour of Japan which clashes
with the Grammy Awards. Our LP, Glazed, is in the
same category as Robert Cray, and we feel it's
important to be where the contacts are."
But, while he is optimistic about negotiating a
better contract, Rossi remains cynical about blues
and jazz making a lasting impression on the market.
"I think it's a short-lived fad," he admits. "I mean,
we were at a festival this summer with Rockin'
Dopsie, and Paul Simon had just sent him a check
for 550,000 for his work on Craceland. it'll help him
for a year, but then he'll go back to where he was
before. That's why it's important for us to take
advantage of this while we can."
perhaps Rossi's cynicism is a result of almost 20
years on the road with Roomful Of Blues. But Danny
Morris, the singer-guitarist with local band Blue-Note
Special, says he feels that 1988 might be his year
to break into the music business, "it's been growing
steadily for a couple of years now, and Robert Cray's
success is going to help us a lot," he says. "It's just
a question of keeping going forward, and hoping
for the best."
in the Chapel Hill clubs, more people are coming
out for an evening of blues or jazz. David Allen, owner
of Magdaiena's La Terraza, 508 w. Franklin Street,
hlue
d up
has noticed the resurgence of interest in the blues,
and has brought several bands to Chapel Hill, as well
as providing a popular venue for local bands such
as Blue-Note Special and 5 Guys Named Moe.
"There appears to be quite a market for blues at
the moment," Allen says. "When I brought The
Professor's Blues Review here in October, we lost
a lot of money, because it was a mid-week gig and
the club had only been open for a short time. Now
that we're established, we can regularly fill out for
a normal weekday gig. Fridays and Saturdays are
always packed."
But does jazz appear to have the same attraction
as blues? "No, we don't hire too many jazz bands,"
he says. "It's because jazz is a very easy music to
mutilate, but it's very difficult to play well. There
just aren't as many good jazz bands around at the
moment as there are good blues bands."
Some clubs, however, are finding that there is a
market for jazz in Chapel Hill. The ArtsCenter in
Carrboro has a regular "Sunday Jazz Series" which
is approaching its third birthday, in the last couple
of weeks alone, the series has featured the Fred Lite
Quartet from New York, and T. Lavitz and the Bad
Habitz, which features another rock star (Lavitz used
to play with Dixie Dregs) who has returned to his
jazz roots.
Jane Reinecke, who is in charge of the series, has
noticed the recent increase in public interest and
attributes at least part of it to "the rock element"
- but she also says, "We are noticing more people,
but this is partly because we have a new building.
Also, local radio stations and newspapers have done
a marvelous job in giving us publicity. On average,
we get 75 to a hundred people coming to see a
local group, and we can get between 200 or 300
for a big group."
Armand Lenchek, guitarist and singer with local
blues combo 5 Guys Named Moe, also teaches guL.jr
at Oxbow Music, and he has noticed an increase in
local guitarists who want to play blues. Armand has
also noticed that most of the people wanting to
play blues tend to be in college and older. Younger
students still tend to want to play classic rock, he
says.
So, it seems public interest in Chapel Hill appears
to favor blues over jazz at the moment. Although
jazz took birth in the cities - contrary to the rural
beginnings of blues and gospel - blues has moved
successfully to both electric instruments, and the
urban environment, in doing so, it provided many
of the foundations for rock 'n' roll.
Much of the present popularity of blues and jazz
is probably due to a passing trend that will soon
give way to another. It's possible that in two years'
time, Los Lobos will be regarded in a similar vein to
Katrina and the waves in the one-hit-wonder stakes,
nut, for now, there is the distinct possibility of
commercial success for musicians who truly deserve
the term "artists."
rhe Daily Tar HeelThursday, March 31, 1So87
'''
I S. v. '1 J
x- lit S 4
)J
Joseph Shabalala and Ladysmith Black Mambazo brought
their form of South African zydeco music to Memorial Hall in
November. The group's sound was introduced to America
through Paul Simon's "Graceland" album.
. 0 "W IIP
Sting leads the wave of pop artists who've returned to their jazz roots
k: V :