Arts Presenters, Jan. 12, NYC

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Arts Presenters, Jan. 12, NYC

POSTED: Sunday, January 13, 2008, 4:51 PM

Filed Under: Music Last Night

photo | Mary Armstrong

Slamm!

So precise and delighted.

The Arts Presenters conference is about the onliest thing in the world that could persuade me to head north in January. Five days of any kind of lively that can manage to scrape the cash together to put on a showcase at a highpriced Manhattan hotel or get itself booked into a nearby venue.

Yes, the folkies are in force: bluesmen Guy Davis and Eric Bibb are here. One showcase is titled Northern Realms, from which Le Vent du Nord reassures fans that while you may fondly recall the gorgeous and charming Benoit, the group continues to play with energetic dances and songs from Québec just fine without him. The Gothenburg Combo was charming, two classical guitarists so precise and delighted with what they were doing, everybody in the room grinned, too.

Hearing Strindberg and Steve Reich played next to Debussy's “The Golliwog's Cakewalk” -all on nothing more than two acoustic guitars is a real ear stretcher. Around the corner Salsa Celtica from Scotland convinced me with their live performance, something their studio CD had not. Yes, these guys have done enough listening/jamming in both traditions to now have pipes and tenor banjo seamlessly start up in a guajira and weave in a reel over the latin pattern. Add sax, four percussionist, one of whom is a Cuban vocalist, along with an able fiddler and the requisite latin keyboard and you have big fun.

Rock is not neglected here, from soft to raucous. Jeffrey Gaines was powerful, just himself and acoustic guitar. Watching Gaines feels like dreaming, his persona seems to swell and shrink, like a cartoon. He seems so candid, so intimate, yet he assures us, “It's all context!” as he talks about revisiting his Harrisburg roots. “I'm here [at Arts Presenters] cause of a promise I made in junior high [to “rock on!'].” His boys came out to see him when he played the hometown saying, hey we don't even listen to music anymore, too many kids, but “I saw you on TV!” Yes, he mused, it's context. It looks impressive when your face is up in giant monitors on either side of the stage, but here, playing in one of a line of banquet halls, competing with how many others, “Who are you?” So, he repeats, “It's all context. Create a context and I'm there for you!” pitching for work. He ticked off all the myriad gigs, from schools to... well, the only one he forgot was goat ropings.

At the other end of the hall Slamm! drummed and danced and got physical with drum kit and improvs -those plastic five gallon buckets sound just as good on stage as when the local drumkids press them into service. The group is sold by its association with “legendary drummer Carmine Appice” (“Do You Think I'm Sexy” etc) [according to the one-sheet]. Health problems kept him away.

Now he's gonna be sick all over again, because rhythm addicts didn't miss him. Ziolo and Veronica lead the way through set pieces and challenges, with Mattie and Felipe taking turns joining them. If you have any love for drums, keep an ear out for this new show.

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