Live arts, lively discussion
REVIEW: AFROSONIC FRIDAY
Bands: 1. Low Water 2. Chachi Carvalho with the Eleventh Island Band
So how did this mashup between Low Water and Chachi Carvalho go? Sort of like a wedding party – slow and smooth for the good meal, then breaking loose for the family fiesta. Short by a guitarist, Low Water was a three-piece surrounded by stage; Carvalho's nine-piece Eleventh Island Band was a stage takeover, crowding the stage with horn section, keys, drum kit, conga drums, guitar, bass, and DJ tables. And every instrument was going full tilt.
Before Chachi Carvalho arrives on stage, he gets a musical buildup from his band. Right from his charged entry the energy was high, the glow from upheld phones, cameras, videocams showed the love like digital cigarette lighters. As they bounce melodies around, this tight nine-piece keeps up untold and interesting layers of rhythm. In "Showtime," the tablist's nimble fingers do a tricky vinyl tap dance and with four optional vocalists, there's a lot of mixing rap and tune, like two conversations in one room. In "Un Perde Cheu" sax and trumpet are individuating together, almost the same way the song brings Chachi, live, and his father, recorded, to sing their unique generations together.
With all its instruments, this band is tight; they punch together and end together and sometimes move together while each voice sings its unique song – e pluribus unim. Beautiful R 'n B vocals under Chachi's raps come from the doubly talented sax player. Sax and trumpet play tag in "Perde Chue." "Be in this moment, right now," Chachi tells the crowd pushed up to the stage. And in his moment, Chachi Carvalho creates a culture. He rolls out some easy, smirky humor before rapping on "stimulus check for the bailout plan": "Did anybody see a stimulus check?" he asks scanning the crowd. Chachi raps about living in a bad system and helping the next generation, about being Cape Verdean, and, after insisting everyone take out a dollar and hold it up, about valuing the people in your life. He then asks everyone to contribute that dollar to the Black Rep, which has been hit hard by the recession. The bad news is that this show marks the end the Black Rep's Afrosonic season of musical mashups; the good news comes in threes: Chachi Carvalho's CD will be out the beginning of 2010, Afrosonic will take up new residence, and DJ Blackdove promised that after a winter break, the Black Rep will be back.
So how did this mashup between Low Water and Chachi Carvalho go? Sort of like a wedding party – slow and smooth for the good meal, then breaking loose for the family fiesta. Short by a guitarist, Low Water was a three-piece surrounded by stage; Carvalho's nine-piece Eleventh Island Band was a stage takeover, crowding the stage with horn section, keys, drum kit, conga drums, guitar, bass, and DJ tables. And every instrument was going full tilt.
| Low Water comes on like a cottage by the lake, phased-guitar dreamy, horse-clop groovy, and Carvalho comes in like urban train wreck. Common to both bands are their stick-to-the-ribs melody lines. Low Water singer John Leitera's vocals drag you into a song; his lyrics -- when you can pick them out -- smack brain, and the fits-and-starts drum beats call you to attention. With Carvalho, you never know where the melody will show up. It could show up on bass as Chachi raps about a bad system. It could show up the next song on sax (as in "Un Perde Cheu"). In keeping with Afrosonic's reputation for mashing genres, cultures and age groups, these very different bands played together with the full respect of the crowd. |
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[Chachi Carvalho by artist Mario A]
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Like any first band, Low Water opened to a subdued crowd hidden in the club's alcoves, which is unfortunate since, as people mulled in and drew closer, the band obviously devoured and spewed back the energy. But the set had its sweet moments from the beginning, like songwriter and lead guitarist John Leitera's wistful guitar work in "House in the City." Also early on, their slow, soulful "She Shined Down" came out full and attention-grabbing. Other times the muddiness of live -- those bass-magnet pockets in a room that swallow lyrics like kid-fistfuls of gummy worms -- could make you wish for unplugged or at least Leitera's voice to bleed through it all. Providence had the honor of hearing brand new material from the band including a song, more gritty than pretty, with interesting Neil Young-ish roots. They finished strong over the last few songs, with Leitera's voice squeezing out melancholy like a sponge. By the final song "VooDoo Taxi," Leitera is slap-tapping his guitar, as if exorcising it, or himself, of a fatal flaw. It seemed the trio had just hit their mojo when their 8-song set finished. |
From Low Water's new video "Go"Before Chachi Carvalho arrives on stage, he gets a musical buildup from his band. Right from his charged entry the energy was high, the glow from upheld phones, cameras, videocams showed the love like digital cigarette lighters. As they bounce melodies around, this tight nine-piece keeps up untold and interesting layers of rhythm. In "Showtime," the tablist's nimble fingers do a tricky vinyl tap dance and with four optional vocalists, there's a lot of mixing rap and tune, like two conversations in one room. In "Un Perde Cheu" sax and trumpet are individuating together, almost the same way the song brings Chachi, live, and his father, recorded, to sing their unique generations together.
With all its instruments, this band is tight; they punch together and end together and sometimes move together while each voice sings its unique song – e pluribus unim. Beautiful R 'n B vocals under Chachi's raps come from the doubly talented sax player. Sax and trumpet play tag in "Perde Chue." "Be in this moment, right now," Chachi tells the crowd pushed up to the stage. And in his moment, Chachi Carvalho creates a culture. He rolls out some easy, smirky humor before rapping on "stimulus check for the bailout plan": "Did anybody see a stimulus check?" he asks scanning the crowd. Chachi raps about living in a bad system and helping the next generation, about being Cape Verdean, and, after insisting everyone take out a dollar and hold it up, about valuing the people in your life. He then asks everyone to contribute that dollar to the Black Rep, which has been hit hard by the recession. The bad news is that this show marks the end the Black Rep's Afrosonic season of musical mashups; the good news comes in threes: Chachi Carvalho's CD will be out the beginning of 2010, Afrosonic will take up new residence, and DJ Blackdove promised that after a winter break, the Black Rep will be back.
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