The Santa Cruz Planning Commission will review permits on Jan. 18 for a mixed-use housing project on the site of the Food Bin and Herb Room, located on the northwest corner of Mission and Laurel Street.
The proposed five-story housing project would have 59 units and will include ground level parking, with the Food Bin and Herb Room occupying the ground floor. The plan also includes eight affordable units for tenants who meet state-set requirements for very low incomes. In compliance with state law, the project seeks a density bonus, permitting a building taller and denser than conventional city regulations due to the inclusion of affordable housing units.
The Planning Commission meeting can be attended at 809 Center St. in Santa Cruz, at 7 p.m.
Local Santa Cruz organization, Our Community Reads, in collaboration with The Friends of the Aptos Library, combined with the tireless work of the volunteers from Friends of the SC Public Libraries, has prepared a truly impressive month-long festival.
This unique experience features 14 engaging events, throughout Santa Cruz County, that focus on the book, The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers. The book is a true story about a San Francisco resident, Mokhtar Alkhanshali, who travels to Yemen during a civil war to find the perfect coffee bean. So, throughout this one-month celebration, the caffeinated crux that ties it all together is America’s favorite legal stimulant, coffee.
Our Community Reads, Program Chair, Denise Ward is bristling with energy about 2024’s itinerary. “We have 14 events this year because we were so thrilled with the book,” she says.
From the behind-the-scenes roasting process of Verve coffee, to an art workshop at the Felton Library, to an aria of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Coffee Cantata (Bach drank 30 cups of coffee a day!) sung at the downtown Santa Cruz Library, one cup of Joe you don’t want to miss is an evening of conversation with The Monk of Mohka’s author, Dave Eggers.
Dave Eggers is a prolific, internationally acclaimed author, who also has a passion for activism that includes being a co-founder of the literacy project, 826 Valencia, the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness and is now lending his prowess and voice to fighting the rampant book bans, that plague our country.
The Circle, (Eggers 2013 dystopian novel), along with about 600 other books, was banned a few weeks ago in Orlando, says Eggers.
“So we’re doing what we did in Rapid City, South Dakota, which was to offer any of these banned books free to high schoolers in that district. In Rapid City, 5 books were banned last year, including The Circle, and for the last year and a half, through the local indie bookstore, we’ve offered high school seniors all five books for free.
“To date about 500 sets of these books have been given away. So in the end, far more young people in Rapid City are in possession of these banned books because they were banned.
“It’s the usual counter-productive nonsense that book-banners specialize in. Art Spiegelman’s Maus, too, has been read by infinitely more people now than before it was banned a few years ago.”
With illiteracy rates topping 21% in America the dumbing down of our populace is nothing more than a way to control the masses, Eggers says.
He’s clear on what the consequences of book banning will achieve.
“It goes without saying that a healthy democracy relies on an informed, well-educated citizenry. I should say that I think the stat you’re citing is for English proficiency, not necessarily across-the-board literacy, given there are millions of Americans who read and write in another language but haven’t mastered English yet.
“Still, we have to make basic English literacy classes more readily available. In California, there are a lot of classes, but a good portion of them cost money. I love it when public and private K-12 schools offer literacy classes at night and on weekends — often for the parents and grandparents who have kids at that school. These classes can be taught effectively by volunteers, and everyone wins. That’s just one thought,” says Eggers.
With all that in mind, the public library is still a place where one can immerse themselves in new thoughts, different worlds and experiences and grow as a constantly evolving human.
Eggers values what founding father Benjamin Franklin contributed to America with the first library.
“One of my oldest friend’s mom was a librarian at our local library, so I had the experience of walking in and seeing Mrs. Wolfgram there most days. It seemed just an extension of home, really. The first grown-up book I really read on my own, for fun, was Dune, and it required a unique library-like environment,” says Eggers.
“I tell this story to anyone who has kids who don’t love sitting still (I was like that) and who don’t read a lot on their own (I was like that, too). Until high school I always read whatever my teachers told me to read, but it wasn’t until I was a freshman that I had that Formative Experience with Fiction that I think you’re talking about.
“We had an advisory period, where you would either meet with your counselor, or read. If you didn’t have an appointment with the counselor, he sent us into a separate room, where there was nothing but books and pillows.
“We had nothing else to do for an hour, couldn’t bring in homework, and of course this was long before phones or computers. It was only then, in this extreme sort of setting free of distractions or other options that I found a book that looked cool, and began reading.
“I read the first two books in the Dune series over the next month or so, and that was the first time I felt that experience of having lived another life. I walked around in a daze. I’d chosen a book, and I’d walked through an entirely different existence that felt as real as my own,” says Eggers.
Eggers is adamant that reading is instrumental in young people developing their brains.
“And the only way I — or kids now — can do that is if they’re given time to read. Away from TVs and phones, away from all other options and distractions. Even if it’s 30 minutes a day, we have to give kids this time.
“And better yet, model the behavior for and with them. As corny and impractical as it sounds, the happiest people I meet are the ones who have a family reading period every day or so. Some even read aloud, together. That’s how you make a reader,” says Eggers.
Eggers was recently in Highwood, Illinois, right near where he grew up. He was interviewing people who had witnessed the Fourth of July massacre in Highland Park, which is next door to Highwood.
“Highwood has a high percentage of recent immigrants, and (their library) has become the most trusted place for those newcomers to get information about legal issues, about Covid, about interactions with police, and when the massacre happened, they brought on grief counselors and therapists to work with their patrons.
“In most cities, and in so many smaller towns, too, libraries have become front-line providers of so many services. It’s astonishing, and sometimes you wish the librarians weren’t stretched so thin and asked to do so much.
“But when I’ve interviewed librarians, there’s an activist strain there, too, which has been extra-activated since 2016 in particular. They’re the ones combating hate, misinformation, xenophobia, ignorance, book-banning, the list never ends.
“But in a way it makes sense that it’s libraries that have become this hub. Librarians are activists at heart, and as vital to our democracy as any elected leader,” says Eggers.
It’s become obvious, to anyone paying attention, that reading has become politicized.
“Trump has admitted that he hasn’t read a book since college (and even then, can’t remember any books he read in college). So we had a president of the most powerful nation on Earth who doesn’t read. That’s tragic, and it’s embarrassing, and it trickles down. But these waves of censorship and ignorance have come and gone dozens of times in American history, and as long as we keep fighting, the forces of enlightenment and free thinking will win out. They always have and always will,” says Eggers.
How does a widely acclaimed, superhero, literary novelist relax? Eggers goes to his favorite library where he sits by the window in a cozy chair and reads and writes. But, he’s not about to name the branch and ruin his Fortress of Solitude. So you, dear reader, will need to go, in person, and engage, with one of the most brilliant minds of the 21st Century. Tickets are moving quickly, don’t hesitate.
This event takes place Jan. 24–Feb. 27. The Our Community Reads Passport allows you to attend all the events. Single day options are also available. For more information please go to www.SantaCruzPL.org For the full schedule of events, please visit Good Times online.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
1/24 WED 11am
Book Discussion
Join your fellow readers to talk about our 2024 selection and discuss major themes in depth. Casey Coonerty Protti, owner of
Bookshop Santa Cruz, will facilitate the conversation. Sandwiches provided by Aegis Living Aptos.
The Loft coffee shop — 2701 Cabrillo College Drive, Aptos
1/30 TUE 7pm
An Evening with Dave Eggers
Monk of Mokha author Dave Eggers talks about the multiyear collaboration that became the story of Mokhtar’s quest, traveling
from San Francisco to the remote coffee farms of Yemen in search of the world’s most dangerous cup of coffee. Questions from the
audience are encouraged.
Radius Gallery at the Tannery Arts Center — 1050 River St #127, Santa Cruz
2/2 FRI 6pm
Sacred Brew? TheReligious, Political, and Cultural Role of Coffee in Yemen
Dr. Flagg Miller, UC Davis Professor of Religious Studies, talks about the role coffee plays in Yemeni culture and about his current
coffee-growing research project in Yemen. Dr. Miller’s academic focus is on cultures of modern Muslim reform in the Middle East,
especially Yemen. Dessert and coffee will be provided.
Fireside Room, Scotts Valley Library
2/6 TUE 7pm
Yemeni Stories: The Yemeni Immigrant Experience
Jehan Hakim, a 2nd-generation Yemeni-American Muslim, founder of the Yemeni Alliance Committee and board member of Just
Foreign Policy, will join us for a virtual talk from Texas. Her experience spans interfaith coalition building, Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion training, and consulting. Geneffa Jahan, Professor of English at Cabrillo College, will moderate further discussion, and there
will be a bag of Harazi Blend Yemeni Style coffee for a lucky audience member!
Ow Family Community Room, Capitola Library
2/7 WED 1pm
Coffee Warms the Heart (art workshop)
Hearts and flowers are familiar symbols of love. With Valentine’s Day just a week away, you’ll create a bouquet or a greeting card
using coffee paint as your medium. Artist Lise Bixler leads this fun art workshop. No experience needed. All materials supplied.
Felton Library Community Room
2/10 SAT 11am
Writing Under the Influence of Coffee! (workshop)
Starting with a few coffee-flavored writing prompts to get you motivated, facilitators June Langhoff and members of the Santa Cruz
chapter of Shut Up & Write follow up with silent writing, and end with optional sharing. Loads of encouragement and coffee will be
provided.
Fireside Room, Scotts Valley Library
2/13 TUE 6:30pm
“Baristas” (film)
Follow four passionate National Barista Champions — from Japan, Ireland, the USA, and Germany — as they represent their
countries at the 2017 World Barista Championship in Seoul, South Korea. You’ll get a terrific behind-the-scenes peek into the
preparations required for this tense competition. (And yes, popcorn will be available!) [This film contains some profanity.]
High School Art Competition Winners
We’ll also view designs from our High School Art Competition, where students redesign The Monk of Mokha book jacket. Judged by
staff members from Bookshop Santa Cruz.
Ow Family Community Room, Capitola Library
2/15 THU 6:30 pm
Brewing Revolution: Coffee and Class Struggle in 20th-Century Central America
Back by popular demand, Nick Rowell, Professor of Political Science at Cabrillo College, discusses how coffee is a factor in
contributing to peace and prosperity in some instances, and civil war and revolution in others.
Rio Sands Hotel Community Room — 116 Aptos Beach Drive, Aptos
2/17 SAT 1pm
Coffee Botanical Illustration (art workshop)
Facilitated by art educators Sharon Ferguson and Jo-Neal Graves, participants will learn to look closely at each part of the coffee
plant and create a botanical illustration. You’ll be guided every step of the way. No experience needed. Materials, Instruction,
support, and encouragement will be provided.
Ow Family Community Room, Capitola Library
2/18 SUN 3pm
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Coffee Cantata (live music)
Bach’s aria will be sung by lyric coloratura-soprano Lori Schumann, co-founder of the Santa Cruz Opera Project. She will be
accompanied by piano and flute. Come enjoy the music and learn about Bach’s relationship to coffee. (Hint: He drank 30 cups a day!)
Learn a bit more from Dinah Phillips about the intertwined history of coffee and music over the years.
Downtown Library Meeting Room, 2nd floor — 224 Church Street, Santa Cruz
2/21 WED 1pm
“A Small Section of the World” (film) and Coffee Tasting
A moving documentary about a group of women in a small, remote farming community in Costa Rica as they spark a revolution in
the coffee growing world. Stay to taste some Costa Rican coffee after the film. (Program ends at 2:30pm)
Felton Library Community Room
2/24 SAT 1pm
Verve Coffee Tour and Tasting (field trip)
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the coffee roasting process and learn about the secret sauce behind third-wave coffee. Our tour
leaders, Hannah Meade and Laney Drury, represent this world-famous coffee company headquartered in our own backyard.104
Bronson Street – Suite 19, Santa Cruz
2/25 SUN 1pm
Dror Sinai Musical Adventures
“Rhythm is all around us, in everything we see, we touch, we breathe.”
Experience this true force of nature as Dror Sinai shares his musical gifts and tells stories about his Yemeni roots.
La Selva Beach Community Church — 26 Florido Avenue, La Selva Beach
2/27 TUE 6pm
Trivia Night
ZACH IS BACK! The ever-popular 2nd District Supervisor Zach Friend poses challenging questions from The Monk of Mokha. Join us
for a fun-filled evening. Bring your book club members, friends, or come solo to show off your knowledge of The Monk of Mokha and
all things coffee-related. Dinner and drinks available for purchase at this new venue, 41st Ocean Breakfast & Grill, 2623 41st Ave, Soquel (behind Café Cruz).
Musical child prodigies typically make their mark in the classical arena. But Indonesian pianist Joey Alexander became a certified jazz prodigy in 2015 when he released his first album as an 11-year-old protege of Wynton Marsalis. In doing so, he became the first Indonesian musician to chart on the Billboard 200. Today, at 20, he’s a recording veteran, releasing his seventh album as a bandleader, “Continuance,” in 2023. It includes five original compositions, evidence of his early classical training and spellbinding technique. At Kuumbwa, Alexander will collaborate with bassist Kris Funn and drummer Jonathan Barber. DAN EMERSON
INFO: 7pm, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $57.75/adv, $63/door 427-2227.
FRIDAY
ROCK
HOT FLASH HEAT WAVE
It doesn’t get more fun than Hot Flash Heat Wave, a group of childhood best friends from Davis who have found their way to San Francisco rock ‘n’ roll heaven. With unquestionably catchy songs like “Gutter Girl” on their 2015 breakout Neopolitan, the band hit the scene with a shimmery surf-pop sound. Their 2022 album Sportswear finds them trading in some of their vintage rock romance for a more synthy cinematic vibe, punctuated by some psychedelia and goth. This band doesn’t sit still, and no matter what direction they go, they always seem to carry dreamy Day-Glo energy with them. ADDIE MAHMASSANI
INFO: 9pm, The Catalyst, 1101 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $22 adv/$25 door. 713-5492.
FOLK
MICAH SCHNABEL
Micah Schnabel of Columbus, Ohio, is one of those artists who seems to have tapped into a secret, endless source of motivation. Indie to the core, the singer-songwriter is a prolific lyricist with an unflinching eye for the absurdities of modern life. Those who found Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell a bit too glamorous to relate to will delight in the fact that Schnabel did it first with his 2017 album Your New Norman Rockwell. What’s more, Schnabel has just published his second novel, a pandemic-born story about a struggling entertainer who can’t give up on his calling, titled The Clown Watches the Clock. AM
INFO: 8pm, The Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz. $10. 429-6994.
SATURDAY
ELECTRONIC
PHUTUREPRIMITIVE
Phutureprimitive is the musical moniker of Rain, a combination cinematographer-photographer-DJ who lives his life searching for the Truth with a capital T. Rain’s music is trancelike, building slowly, infusing meaning into everything he does. Phutureprimitive focuses on the interplay of light and sound, influencing the body’s rhythms to create a potentially spiritual experience. Fans of Coachella’s Yuma tent and folks counting the hours until the next Burning Man will find everything they love at the Phutureprimitive show, where the beat will surely drop at just the right moment. JESSICA IRISH
In the Before Times of the early to mid-’00s, an explosion of bands hit the scene, all playing different types of fusion rock. The music quickly grew commercial via summer festivals and Hot Topic sales, and genres like metalcore and deathcore got a bum wrap. They were—often unfairly—lumped in with other genres like screamo and (shudders) emo. Thankfully, some groups are keeping the music alive and moshing. This Saturday, be prepared for a night of shredding riffs, blasting breakdowns and a wall of death (or several) with Kavalkade, Hellsgate, Severed One and Skin Stripper. And what better place than the cavernous Blue Lagoon with cheap PBR and whiskey? MAT WEIR
INFO: 9pm, Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 423-7117.
SUNDAY
ALTERNATIVE
CALVIN ARSENIA
He strums the harp, sings from the gut and covers the unexpected (like, say, the Britney Spears classic “Toxic,” which Calvin Arsenia turns into a moody, almost creepy ballad). His music is sometimes quiet, occasionally plaintive, often emotional and always beautiful, with striking sonic layers and a voice resonating with a familiarity recalling the great soul singers of the past. There is playfulness in the lyrics, as well. The titular song from his 2018 record, Cantaloupe, refers to that classic pun about the fruit that simply can’t elope. It all combines for a performance that is modern, moving and memorable. JI
Wooten Brothers from left, Victor, Joseph, Roy “Futureman” and Regi Wooten. PHOTO: Steven-Parke
Over the last 30+ years, innovative funkmaster Victor Wooten has played a major role in elevating the electric bass from a mere rhythm section tool to a lead instrument, winning five Grammy awards in the process. The four Wooten brothers—who toured nationally as teenagers and recorded for Clive Davis’ Arista Records—are making their first tour together since 2010, when they were derailed by the unexpected death of their saxophonist brother, Rudy. The other remaining brothers are keyboardist/vocalist Joseph, guitarist Regi and percussionist Roy. They recently released a single and video from their upcoming album of impeccably tight funk originals, Sweat, and plan to unveil more slices as 2024 unfolds. DE
INFO: 7:30pm, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $42-63. 423-8209.
MONDAY
JAZZ VOCALS
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT
Cecile McLorin Salvant
Singer, composer, storyteller, visual artist . . . Floridian vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant is all these and more. At only 34 years old, she has taken the jazz world by storm with her unique vision and satin voice. In 2010, she won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and released her debut album. Between 2016 and 2019, not one, not two, but an astonishing three of her consecutive albums won the Grammy for Best Vocal Jazz Album. Last year, she dropped her seventh album, Mésuline, a concept album (sung mainly in French) about the medieval European folklore mermaid-like spirit of fresh water known by the same name. MW
INFO: 9pm, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $47.25/adv, $52.50/door. 427-2227.
WEDNESDAY
INDIE ROCK
Y LA BAMBA
Okay, Y La Bamba might have started in Portland, Oregon, but lead singer and co founding member Luz Elena Mendoza originally hails from good ol’ San Francisco. Her childhood was filled with influence and appreciation for traditional music from Mexico, passed down from her Michoacan-born parents. Today, Y La Bamba’s music is a thoughtfully crafted blend of the traditional music of rancheros, boleros and more, including Tex-Mex and indie rock. Their seventh album, Lucha, was written during the isolation of the COVID-19 lockdowns and then recorded with layers of fine-tuned production to create a sound bigger than Y La Bamba has ever had before. MW
Deadly and delicious. Magic and mouthwatering. Ubiquitous and mysterious.
Welcome to the world of the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz, whose love language for mushrooms includes all of the above and the taglines like “Keeping the fun in fungus” and “When it rains, it spores.”
Now that the mainstream holiday activities have passed, the FFSC is settling into the real celebration, and this year marks a biggie. After springing forth back in 1974, the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair is now in its 50th—yes, five zero—installment.
The re-created woodland forest that displays hundreds of wild mushrooms remains a main draw, but there’s a lot more going on than that.
A peek at the lineup proved tantalizing. Some talks that tingle my shroom senses in particular: “The Magic Mushroom Class,” “Exploring the Unknown: Cryptic Mushroom Diversity In Your Backyard,” and “Medicinal Mushrooms – Traditional Usage and Modern Science.”
Meanwhile Chef Chad Hyatt oversees the 10th After Hours Mushroom Dinner with wine pairings by Frank Virgil of De Vincenzi Cellars.
More at ffsc.us.
EAT UP THE INFO
Bonus mushroom news, arriving right on time: The recent passage of Assembly Bill 261 means the California golden chanterelle is officially CA’s state mushroom, joining the likes of the California redwood (official state tree) and the golden poppy (state flower). The bill itself is actually a pretty fun read, announcing in part, “Long loved by Californians, scientists recently recognized it as a unique endemic species. Thus, Cantharellus californicus is a symbol of the rich and special biodiversity of California.”
BIG NEWS BREWING
Female-powered Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company started making Westside proud with its organic ethics and progressive instincts way back in 2005, before the city’s now thriving craft beer scene was a thing.
Now it’s been sold. Which scared me at first blush, until I learned the new leadership will involve Adair Paterno of internationally celebrated Sante Adairius Rustic Ales and Brad Clark of Private Press Brewing. SCMBC co-founder Emily Thomas, who describes the brewery as her third child, has been friends and colleagues with Paterno for a solid decade.
“We believe that Adair and Brad will innovate, expand our reach and continue providing our loyal customers with exceptional craft beers,” Thomas says.
NOTES AND NUGS Early returns from late December debut The Midway from chef Katherine Stern are good, thanks to farm-to-fabulous dishes like crispy Fogline Farm pork belly with pickled vegetables, jalepeño, herbs and brown rice.…Eat for the Earth screens Forks Over Knives, which explores the disease-preventing powers of a plant-free diet, for free (please RSVP), Jan. 22 at Sundean Hall, eatfortheearth.org…The Dry(ish) January grind is real here. My recent taste test rankings amid the so-called “sober-curious” drink market, in ascending order: 3) Lagunitas NIPA; 2) Sierra Nevada Hop Splash; 1) Athletic Run Wild IPA…An awesome connective hub awaits at Environteers.org, where locals can plug into helpful updates and great opportunities to volunteer/hang/participate in Santa Cruz-centric and eco-savvy happenings, which often involve foodie-friendly side effects…A final mushroom update: Yours truly will be down at the Big Sur Foragers Festival Jan. 20-21 serving as a judge at the Fungus Face Off. Happy mushrooming.
A.J. Ghimire combined his passion for entrepreneurship and interacting with people to the food service industry in Nepal, where he was born and raised. He came to America in 2019 to work in his family’s restaurants. He says he began to mature and take the business more seriously, further learning the ropes of the industry from his uncle Dilip, the owner of Namaste.
When Dilip opened Namaste Bar & Grill in July 2023, he tasked A.J. with running the newest beachside location in the family’s chain. A.J. says the place’s concept is all about giving beachgoers what they want: a family-centered diverse and approachable menu with everything from pizzas to curries.
Pizza options range from outside-the-box choices like Indian Butter Chicken and Tandoori Chicken to pepperoni. Myriad curries with multiple vegetarian and meat options also highlight the menu, along with chicken wings in exotic flavors like Mango Masala and Aachari (a pickle-based flavor). The full bar features Indian-inspired options like the Spicy Mango-rita, Ginny Tamarind and Mumbai Mule. Dark on Mondays, hours are 12-10pm (until 10:30pm Fri/Sat) every other day.
Compare the industry in Nepal vs. America?
A.J. GHIMIRE: In Nepal, owning a restaurant is all about the customers coming in, having the food and then leaving. There’s not much personal connection or intimacy, or getting to know them on a personal level. But here in America, I enjoy the industry more because it is more like family and knowing what’s going on in each other’s lives.
What sets Namaste apart?
AJG: When we started, it was one family-based location and every time we added one, we had a different family member run it. It’s all about baby steps and having the right team in place. The employees really know the food and recipes at all five locations, and this keeps the food extremely consistent and we never compromise quality. And the recipes are not overnight recipes, they’ve been developed over 15 years. The food is a collaborative effort amongst the family, and we constantly try and perfect our recipes to stay in line with the needs of the people.
303 Beach Street, Santa Cruz, 831-713-5430; namasteindiabistro.com
During the first month of the year most of the country is hibernating. It’s winter, it’s cold and everyone needs a break after the tumult of the holidays. But not in our little town.
I thought in January we would get a breather, but musically, this month looks like July. We’ve got great national and local talents coming through. We have a surprisingly full schedule.
Every week managing editor Jeanette Bent and I wrestle with what articles will fit in the printed page and what we should run online. As one of the last bastions of print, we take the publication seriously and with reverence. Not everyone wants to read everything on their phone. We are one of the last free weeklies you can pick up and hold onto, combing through articles at your leisure, clipping them out and pasting them to your refrigerator or circling them and passing them on to friends.
So, this week we had six music articles to choose from and Jeanette came up with a brilliant idea: let’s scrap a cover story and let the music take over.
I wish I could tell you which of these shows you must see, because it’s like asking a parent which kid they liked best. The answer is all of them.
With Tommy Castro, you’ve got a blues man trying a first blues opera; The Third Mind is a conglomeration of world famous artists coming together for the first time, each of whom plays sold out shows; Wynton Marsalis says a singer like Cecile McLorin Salvant only comes through “once in a generation or two”.
The Santa Cruz Symphony has steadily brought in new music and new ways to play it. This week’s performance features the U.S. premiere of Jean Ahn’s Jajang, Jajang for Gayageum and Orchestra, a world music mashup with roots in Korea. Then there’s Victor Wooten, who is hailed by Rolling Stone as one of the “Top 10 Bassists of All Time.”
Finally, John Wesley Harding, who is famous as an indy artist, also tours under his real name, Wesley Stace, and is playing an intimate gig in Watsonville.
Which of these would you choose, if you only had to pick one? Let our readers know in the online comments below.
Thanks for reading.
Brad Kava | Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
SUN RISE Spotted this pair enjoying the sunrise the beautiful morning by the Bay. PHOTO Kathy Isonio
“At CDTFA, we give team members access to quality training, mentoring opportunities, and upward mobility programs to propel their careers,” said California Department of Tax and Fee Director Nick Maduros.
GOOD WORKS
The City of Santa Cruz is now accepting applications for its 2024 Master Recycler Volunteer Training Program. Over five Tuesday evening and two Saturday morning sessions from Feb. 6 to March 5 participants will train to become “Master Recycler Volunteers” in areas related to waste reduction and recycling.
Saturday field trips will provide a behind-the-scenes tour of the Recycling Center where 30-50 tons of material is recycled every day, and a trip to the Grey Bears campus for a presentation on “Rethinking Your Purchases.”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender.”—Keith Ellison
After driving around for three weeks in my homeland of England in the fall, I was ready for a mini-break when I got back – part of that due to covering close to 900 miles and driving a car with a stick shift!
So off we went to Mendocino for a few days – one of our favorite coastal getaways famous for its superior Anderson Valley wines. There are so many wineries on the stretch of Hwy 128 that it’s hard to choose, but one we found to be charming and un-glitzy is Lula Cellars. One of the wines that caught my attention is their 2021 Guntly Red ($32), a red blend primarily made up of Pinot Noir from the Anderson Valley and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Pine Mountain-Cloverdale Peak AVA. Rounding out the blend is a touch of Zinfandel from the Fashauer Vineyard on Mendocino Ridge.
One of our favorite places to stay is Brewery Gulch Inn. Not only is the place warm and welcoming, but the food prepared is outstanding – with the opportunity to try many complimentary local wines offered with dinner. Breakfast is cooked to order and service is excellent. Another place we love to stay is the Little RiverInn, which lies smack on the coast and is an icon in the area – famous for its hospitality and stunning ocean views. We enjoyed a glass of wine on our balcony to the sound of waves crashing on the shore.
White Wine Weekend will be held Feb.17/18 with VIP White Wine & Sparkling Wine Experiences. A Pinot Noir Festival will be held May 17-19 with winery open houses, raffle, auction, and much more. And now you know of two fabulous places to stay when you’re there! AVWINES.com
Calling Cecile McLorin Salvant a jazz singer is kind of like calling Donald Trump a realtor. It’s a woefully incomplete description. Salvant is a jazz singer, but much more than that. As a vocalist, composer, bandleader, visual artist and filmmaker, the term “multidimensional artist” has been used more than once to describe her and really fits.
Salvant, who returns to Kuumbwa Jazz Center Monday night, has been drawing superlatives and awards from musicians, singers and critics since 2010, when she released her first album, Cécile & the Jean-François Bonnel Paris Quintet. Then, at the age of 21, she went on to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for vocalists.
She received three consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album for “The Window,” “Dreams and Daggers” and “For One To Love,” and was nominated for the award in 2014 for her album “WomanChild.”
In 2019, opera icon Jessye Norman chose Salvant for the Twelfth Glenn Gould Prize, an award not normally awarded to jazz singers. Norman described McLorin Salvant as a “unique voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality which lights up every note she sings.”
Brian O’Neill of the Glenn Gould Foundation Podcast extolled her “musical adventurousness, willingness to voyage across centuries and make music of different times, cultures and mindscapes uniquely her own.”
Salvant has toured with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, whose music director Wynton Marsalis, said, “You get a singer like this once in a generation or two.”
Salvant grew up in Miami, Fla., the daughter of a French mother and Haitian father, Salvant heard all kinds of music growing up. “Music was always on in the house, great singers and music from all over the world.”
She started classical piano studies at five, began studying voice at the age of eight and didn’t crossover into jazz until 2007, while studying at the Darius Milhaud Conservatory in 2007, Salvant says that her main jazz influence is Sarah Vaughan.
Salvant received a bachelor’s in French law from the Université Pierre-Mendes France in Grenoble while also studying baroque music and jazz at the Darius Milhaud Music Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Her wide-ranging curiosity and quest for artistic fodder makes her a more worldly version of a “crate-digger,” mining jazz, blues, vaudeville, blues, musical theater, jazz, baroque and folkloric music to create new art.
One project in the works is a feature-length, animated film based on her album “Ogresse,” a musical fairy tale in the form of a genre-blending cantata–using her own drawings–which Salvant will direct. Her idea for “Ogresse” was sparked by a painting by Haitian artist Gerard Fortune depicting an Erzulie, or Vodou deity. Salvant brought it to life with a 13-piece chamber orchestra.
Salvant talked about her penchant for challenging herself, fellow musicians and audiences.
“As an audience member, I love to be stimulated and challenged. I don’t want something regurgitated and spoon fed to me. But I also don’t think music or art needs to be the spinach you feel you have to eat because it’s ‘good for you.’ I am for pleasure and laughter. Truthfully, though I am much more process-driven than impact-driven. I can only say for certain that I would like to move people and connect with their emotions.” Has her multicultural, multilingual background been an asset?
“I think different languages give you different sounds to work with. Writing is the product of thinking, but sometimes thinking is the product of writing. I feel like sometimes I think slightly differently in different languages.”
Being placed in a stylistic category can be anathema for a free-range creator like Salvant.
“I think there is a certain creativity required in the act of categorization. It’s a natural process, something we do all the time for everything in our lives. It can be fun. But I think it’s only fun when you’re doing the categorizing, not when you’re being categorized. As a musician, it can be paralyzing to be placed in a genre. You start to believe in the genre everyone has said you’re in. It exists as an entity separate from other genres, there is no bleed-through. Then it even becomes a responsibility to keep it “alive”, or “authentic.” You start making music in harmony with that category, or sometimes in conflict with it. Either way, you must contend with it, there’s no escaping being labeled by others.
Salvant has performed enough times at Kuumbwa to become an audience favorite, according to creative director Bennett Jackson. This upcoming visit will be her first visit to Santa Cruz since 2019, B.C. (Before Covid)
Her band at Kuumbwa will include her most frequent creative partner, pianist Sullivan Fortner. “My favorite thing is how open he is, spontaneous, and willing to try anything,” she says. Salvant will be singing with the band’s bassist, Yasushi Nakamura. “I love his sound, his feel, and his freedom as a musician. He has a freakish memory as well.”
Up and coming drummer Savannah Harris is the other member. She has worked with a wide range of today’s top indie and experimental artists, and jazz people. “Her playing is infectious, really creative, and she has incredible time and versatility,” Salvant says.
Referring to her band, Salvant says, “What I love about these three musicians is how dedicated they are to the music they make, and how much they want to grow even though they are masters at their craft.”
Spontaneity and in the moment creation could be considered the essence of jazz, and it’s ultra-important to McLorin Salvant.
“I follow my intuition,” she says. “I don’t like for any song or arrangement to be written in stone. Everything we do needs to be flexible, needs to allow for change. Sometimes we play the structure of the song upside down, sometimes we skip sections, sometimes we play it at half speed, in a different key, sometimes I add a poem at the end of a song, that I improvise a melody to on the spot. Last March, Nonesuch Records released her latest recording, “Mélusine,” an album mostly sung in French, along with Occitan, English and Haitian Kreyòl. What music will she be doing at Kuumbwa?
“I don’t know this yet, but I want to add some new songs to the mix. I often pick songs in the moment but I’d like to start sticking to set lists! The set lists change every night, especially since I’m often coming up with what we’re doing in the moment! But that might change this year, I think.”
7 and 9 pm, Jan. 22, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St, Santa Cruz $31.50–$57.75 kuumbwajazz.org
HOLDING COMPOSURE This season, Daphnis & Chloé offer an exciting sound that weaves between cultures. Photo: Santa Cruz Symphony
Winter Romance
By CHRISTINA WATERS
Live music to enthrall new and experienced concert-goers alike will be performed by the Santa Cruz Symphony Jan. 20 and 21 under the direction of Daniel Stewart joined by guest soloist Hwayoung Shon.
Daphnis & Chloé, a musical landscape by Maurice Ravel gives its name to this winter concert, that begins with the sumptuous Adagio from Symphony 10 by Gustav Mahler. Following the Mahler will be the US premiere of Jean Ahn‘s Jajang, Jajang for Gayageum and Orchestra.
The work has been created to highlight the haunting zither-like sound of the traditional Korean gayageum. Sensitively working at the edge of contemporary orchestral music, yet maintaining the distinctive authenticity of the gayageum, award-winning composer Ahn brings a rare entwining of cultures to audiences in this new work.
Soloist Hwayoung Shon, a master of the Korean stringed instrument, performs worldwide, enchanting audiences with her virtuoso performances of an exciting sound that many in the West are just getting to know. Shon, 48, made her performance debut at the age of 10 and has been working extensively ever since with jazz practitioners, world musicians, K-pop stars and classical orchestras. The blend of traditional Korean music with contemporary styles gives her performance at this concert added excitement.
Gustav Mahler was one of the giants of early 20th century Expressionist music. Big, bold, sweeping and experimental, his work sits at the very center of the repertoire for worldwide orchestral performances.
In addition to creating enthralling songs for solo voice, he is renowned for his ten symphonies, each of which explores the depth of huge emotions, including the anguish of heartbreak, utilizing the full sonic reaches of the orchestra. Famed for the sheer intensity of color and rhythm, Mahler’s 10th Symphony was his final statement on love, betrayal and the oceanic sweep of human desires. There’s not a boring moment in this Adagio, large-scale orchestral music intended to move and inspire each listener. Mahler’s long, slow build-up of sound leads to a spectacular climax.
And about the Ravel, Daphnis & Chloé is an early 20th century Impressionist suite originally created for the Russian superstar dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Highly romantic, the music tells the story of two children, found and raised by shepherds, who fall in love.
Taken from a Greek myth written in the 3rd century, Ravel’s music paints an orchestral picture of the two young lovers—Daphnis the goatherd and Chloé the shepherdess—their adventures and the music that the god Pan taught Daphnis to play.
Created for ballet, a musical story intended to be danced, Daphnis & Chloé is a highly popular part of the orchestral repertoire. The music seems to guide us through the love story, the adventures, utilizing four recognizable leitmotifs—musical themes—that helped underscore the dance choreography when the piece was played for ballet dancers.
With lush harmonies, and passionate instrumentation this piece is considered Ravel’s masterpiece for orchestra. Many listeners will already be familiar with Ravel through his entrancing Boléro, a 1928 piece for large orchestra that is not only his most famous work, but his final completed musical composition. As with the Boléro, Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloé Suite no. 2 places us in the midst of the story as it unfolds. Ravel’s highly accessible music is emotionally compelling, and completely engaging.
The upcoming Santa Cruz Symphony concert—Daphnis & Chloé—offers innovative programming with broad appeal: Mahler’s Adagio, a US premiere concerto for Gayageum and orchestra, and finally Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloé, Suite no.2.
7:30pm Jan 20, Santa Cruz Civic, 307 Church St., $40-$110
2pm Jan. 21, Mello Center for the Performing Arts, 250 Beach St., Watsonville, $40-$110.santacruzsymphony.org
The Third Mind | Photo: Leslie Campbell Photography
Uncertainty Principle
By BILL KOPP
From one perspective, the sounds made by The Third Mind, a 21st century collective of artists each acclaimed in his and her own right–has little to do with the music each of its members has made before. The group features Dave Alvin, co-founder of powerhouse proto-roots rockers The Blasters, along with bassist Victor Krummenacher, bassist with indie rock heroes Camper Van Beethoven.
Other members of the group include folk-rocking singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes, Michael Jerome (in-demand drummer for Richard Thompson, John Cale and many others) and multi-instrumentalist David Immerglück of Counting Crows and Camper Van Beethoven. (For the tour, Ratdog guitarist Mark Karan will take the place of Immerglück.)
And while it’s true that The Third Mind’s improvisational approach places it well outside the scope of nearly all of those groups, Alvin and Krummenacher don’t view their latest collaborative project as an outlier. “In my other bands,” Alvin explains, “there are certain songs of mine where we don’t know how they’ll end. That keeps everybody on their toes, and they don’t get like, ‘”Oh, I’m so tired of this.’”
“And that’s why I come and see you play a lot,” Krummenacher tells him. Because although Krummenacher’s journeys have taken him to wildly different musical places, he says that The Third Mind represents the realization of a long-held desire. “I think there’s something special,” he suggests, “about having a song as a general guidebook, and then working with people who are crazy enough–and competent enough–to use that script and then go off.”
That kind of unpredictability and reliance upon spontaneity and communication–writ large–is at the core of The Third Mind aesthetic. Using classic folk-rock songs of the ‘60s as raw material, The Third Mind embarks upon musical excursions that soar well beyond the parameters of the songs in their original form.
The group tackles songs both beloved and obscure. The Third Mind’s 2020 self-titled debut featured Fred Neil’s “The Dolphins,” and the band’s latest (The Third Mind/2, released last October) included reinterpretations The Electric Flag’s ‘‘Groovin’ is Easy’ and The Jaynetts’ haunting “Sally Go Round the Roses.”
“One of the reasons why I’m leaning toward the ‘60s sort of underground songs,” explains Alvin, “is that all of those [artists] came out of the folk/blues/garage band kind of thing.” He says that within tradition is where he has always worked. “It’s a different way of playing it,” he admits, “But it’s the same stuff; it’s the same starting point.”
Only on an improvisational classic like The Butterfield Blues Band’s “East West” (featured on The Third Mind) does the group present an arrangement with more than a passing resemblance to the original. And even in the case of “East West,” Alvin and his band mates are never reined in by preconceived ideas as to where the song “should” go.
Yet neither Krumenacher nor Alvin is comfortable with the label “jam band” being applied to what The Third Mind does. Alvin admits that “all of us have been involved in enough jams” to concede that there’s a fine line between the two. But with a chuckle, he observes that in group improvisation, “you’re listening to each other more than thinking, ‘Boy, I got off a good lick!’ And you’re going toward something. Where in jamming, it’s like, ‘Fuck it; I don’t care!’”
Krummenacher agrees. “Rock and roll jamming does leave a bad taste in my mouth,” he says. But the give-and-take of improvisation at its best is something that he has grown to love. “When I came up, the Grateful Dead were poison,” he admits. “Now I listen to them and love it.”
Alvin says that with most of his other musical endeavors, “there are those one or two places where we don’t know what’s going to happen.” That keeps things interesting for the players and the audience alike. “But with The Third Mind,” he emphasizes, “that’s the whole show!”
Asked to what degree that spontaneity extends with The Third Mind–do they even use a set list?–Krummenacher and Alvin cast glances at each other before breaking into laughter.
“We did, the one time we played live!” Alvin cackles. For these dates on the band’s first-ever tour, audiences will simply have to show up and find out.
Playing together during the completely improvised sessions that yielded their debut–and more recently its followup–has helped the five musicians develop a kind of mind meld, unspoken communication between them. So while they’re conforming to structure ever so briefly as each tune lifts off, from there it’s anybody’s guess. “It’s in the interior of the songs where things are going to happen,” says Alvin.
At this point in their respective careers, the members of The Third Mind are willingly facing–inviting, even–the unknown. “We’re trying to embrace the good, forward-thinking elements in the music,” Krummenacher explains. “The idea is really rooted in what great music [represents]: freedom, exploration, fun.”
“So much of contemporary pop music is choreographed completely,” Alvin says. “Roots music, too.” He says that he gets bored with “dance moves and AutoTune.” And taking that into consideration, he chuckles and suggests, “So maybe the most punk rock thing to do is have a group like The Third Mind.”
Wooten Brothers from left, Victor, Joseph, Roy “Futureman” and Regi Wooten. PHOTO: Steven-Parke
Welcome to Wooton
By BILL FORMAN
If you’re a bass player who suffers from frequent bouts of career envy, you may want to skip this introduction and head straight to the interview.
That way, you won’t have to dwell on the fact that Victor Wooten has won five Grammy Awards and been hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the “Top 10 Bassists of All Time.”
You’ll also be able to overlook his work as a founding member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, his solo albums for the legendary Vanguard jazz label, his power trio with bass legends Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller, and his session work with artists ranging from Bill Evans and Jaco Pastorius to Gov’t Mule and Keb’ Mo’.
Wooten’s professional career began earlier than most. He was 6 years old when he and his older brothers—Roy, Regi, Rudy and Joseph—graduated from performing in their front yard to touring as the opening act for Curtis Mayfield.
Moving from base to base with their military parents, The Wooten Brothers were naturally drawn to playing USO shows overseas, and went so far as to record a not-so-successful self-titled album for Arista Records. Not long after, the brothers disbanded to pursue other musical projects, with Victor and Roy going on to form the Flecktones with the multidisciplinary banjo player Béla Fleck.
Wooten has also written a pair of critically acclaimed allegorical novels, The Music Lesson and The Spirit of Music: The Lesson Continues. The Washington Post praised the latter as “a book that stands happily against traditional music pedagogy and canned notions of achievement.”
Now, Wooten is back out on the road with brothers Joseph, Regi and Roy for a winter tour as the Wooten Brothers. We caught up with him between rehearsals to talk about legendary bassists, being compared to Carlos Castañeda, and what happens when you can’t get your fingers to play the right notes.
Q: You’ve been pretty busy over the past few decades: 15 albums with Béla Fleck, 10 albums of your own, the bass collaborations…
Victor Wooten: I’ve been fortunate, I’ve been very fortunate.
Q: You’ve also played on tons of other artists’ albums. Was there a point where you realized you were becoming a kind of “hot-call” session player?
Wooten: That didn’t happen until I started playing with Béla Fleck. I’d grown up playing as the bassist with my four older brothers, the five of us, The Wooten Brothers. I always thought my whole career was gonna be with them. And it was a bad record deal in the early ’80s that caused the five of us to not be playing exclusively together.
And then, a few years later, I met Béla, and I wasn’t doing much, so I did some stuff with him. And here we are, 35 or so years later, and we’re still doing it. But I didn’t know that was going to be my kind of call to fame, where people started to recognize me. Once the Flecktones became very popular, then I started getting more calls.
Q: And how old were you when you figured out that the bass would be your primary instrument?
Wooten: Oh, I knew that from birth…
Q: How does that work? Were you listening to a lot of Stanley Clarke in the womb?
Wooten: Not in the womb, unfortunately. I was born in 1964, and by the time they [Return to Forever] hit the scene, I was already out playing gigs. I’d started playing gigs before I started kindergarten.
Q: Seriously?
Wooten: I’m not joking. My brothers got me doing it, because they needed a bass player.
Q: How did you even hold a bass at that age, let alone play it? I mean, maybe if it was a short-scale Hofner….
Wooten: That’s exactly what my first bass was. Well, it was a Univox copy of a Hofner, and it looked just like Paul McCartney’s Hofner.
But actually, my very first instrument—I was looking at photos of me playing my first gigs—was a four-string guitar. Reggie took two of the strings off his electric guitar, and I used that as a bass in those first early days. But then my parents found that Univox.
Q: Were your parents musicians?
Wooten: No, but they were very musical. They grew up in a Baptist church where instruments weren’t allowed. They were allowed to sing, but there were no instruments.
Q: In “The Music Lesson,” you write about a teacher who appears out of nowhere to guide a young musician on his journey. Were there teachers you encountered in your life who played that kind of role?
Wooten: Absolutely, absolutely. And we’ve all had them. That’s how we learned to talk, walk, or do anything, is through teachers. Whether they were labeled a teacher or not, that’s how we did it.
One of my biggest influences was Stanley Clarke. And I remember exactly when those records came out, even though I was very young. My brothers were into it, and so I was into it, too. Stanley played with fire, in a way that bass players weren’t doing at the time. So when Stanley came with that heavy attack and those rapid-fire notes, it woke all of us bass players up to something new.
But he’s not the only one I’ve learned from. Larry Graham, Bootsy Collins, Jaco Pastorius, there’s a bunch of them. James Jamerson, of course, Chuck Rainey, Carol Kaye, Bob Babbitt, Duck Dunn, all the people that played on the music that a lot of us players grew up with in the ’60s and ’70s. But Stanley was really—and still is—my No. 1 hero when it comes to electric bass.
Q: So going on to record with Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller, two very different and very legendary bass players, I can’t imagine not being freaked out by just the idea of that. I know you were well into your career at that point, but what was that like for you?
Wooten: Yeah, there were some freak-out moments. Because I met Stanley Clarke when I was 9, and I was much older by the time I met Marcus. So every time I’m near Stanley Clarke, I feel 9 again. It was hard to get over that, because I was being treated as an equal. And, in my mind, I’m not. I’m the little brother.
Q: When your second novel came out “The Washington Post” critic Ben Ratliff compared it to Carlos Castañeda’s books about Don Juan, the Yaqui Indian guide that he insisted was real, and others say was fictitious. But you don’t make any claims that the teacher in your novels is real.
Wooten: Well, you know, the main thing with these stories—whether it’s the teacher in my story, or Don Juan, or whatever—is that you weren’t there. So to you, it’s just a story, right? And whether I say it’s real or not, it’s just whether you believe. So what’s real or false? It’s up to you.
Q: I’m sure a philosopher could debate that with you endlessly.
Wooten: Yeah, and he’d be wrong. Because you decide what truth is.
Q: So the author’s intent doesn’t matter?
Wooten: No, it’s up to you. I’d like to know the author’s intent. But I don’t want the author to decide for me.
Q: A lot of lyricists won’t reveal to fans or critics what a song is about, because that can spoil it for the listener.
Wooten: Yeah, I mean, it can. But that’s also up to you, too. I approach my book as fiction, just to try to alleviate the argument of what was real and what was false, because it doesn’t matter. What’s real are the lessons. The story may not be. And I read every story that way. Whether you tell me it’s real or not, whether it’s the Bible, I don’t care whether it’s real, I wasn’t there. By the time it reaches my ear, it’s a story. So I put my attention on what I can learn from it.
Q: There’s a book devoted to James Jamerson, who you mentioned earlier, called “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” which has nearly 200 pages of transcripts of his basslines. The problem is that there’s really no way to get the feel of that music onto the page. Was that something you contended with doing your own book of transcripts, and were there tricks you used to get around that?
Wooten: Well, what I did in my transcriptions is, I would not only write the notes, but I would put a number under the note. In other words, if I wrote a C, I may put a 3 underneath it. That lets you know, I play that C on the A string, third fret. And then, if I was hitting the note with my thumb, I put the letter T under the 3. So I put as much technique in this as possible. And the hope is for you to listen to it and get what it’s supposed to feel like, at least when I played it. But it’s allowed to be different when you play it.
Q: The James Jamerson book did include two CDs. But it’s still impossible for me—I mean, I’m a white guy—to get that vibe. I hope that doesn’t sound racist, but….
Wooten: No, not at all. I get it. The same way you have a certain voice, I have a certain voice. Our accents are going to be different, and it’s supposed to be that way. The thing is, if Jamerson played it, he would not be able to play it like you.
Q You mean like a metronome that’s not working quite right?
Wooten: I mean, if that’s what it is. But either way, James Jamerson only has his voice. Everybody has their own voice—they play the way they play—and it’s hard to be able to speak someone else’s voice.
Q: One last question. I read an interview a while back in which you mentioned having an affliction where your brain tells your fingers to play the wrong notes. Is that a real thing? Because if it is, that means I’ve had it ever since I first picked up an instrument.
Wooten: [Laughs.] It’s totally legit. It’s called focal dystonia, and people from all walks of life get it. And what ends up happening is you lose the ability to do what you’ve done all the time, whether it’s writing, whether it’s golf, whether it’s gymnastics, whether it’s walking. And it’s something that takes over your brain and tells your limb or your digit to do it the wrong way.
Q: How have you managed to deal with that?
Wooten: I’ve had to learn to play around it as I work on it. The thing is, my fingers work perfectly without the bass. I can still imitate playing it. But as soon as I pick up a bass, three of my fingers on my left hand curl into a ball and don’t want to operate. So I’m working with a woman who’s helping me retrain my brain. But it’s a struggle to get them to hit individually on the string. It’s just the brain has learned to tell the fingers the wrong thing.
Q: There are times, maybe not frequently, where the wrong note can be a good thing.
Wooten: Of course. Mistakes are usually just things I didn’t mean to do. It doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It’s sort of like when you’re driving, you take a wrong turn, that road will still get you to where you’re going. Any road will get you there. And when you take that wrong turn, it might mean that you see something you didn’t expect.
So wrong doesn’t mean wrong, it doesn’t mean bad. And wrong notes can definitely take you into a better place than you were headed in the first place. If life happened exactly as you wanted it to every time, you would be bored.
7:30pm,Jan 19, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz, $42-$63, riotheatre.com
MASTER JUGGLER Harding offers a spicy mixing bowl of artistic cookery to stimulate the imagination. Photo: Ilya Mirman
Wonders Never Cease
By ADDIE MAHMASSANI
Wesley Stace—also known by his former stage name, John Wesley Harding—answers questions in the most delightful way. In his English accent—he’s originally from Hastings—he flits and swoops and dives like a thoughtful bird, the kind that folds itself into a bullet every so often. I’m sure I have this image in mind based on something he once said to a class I was in: for him, making music is like juggling a feather, while writing is like juggling a much heavier thing.
Whatever the case, he’s juggling.
Stace is doing a tour up the West Coast this month, playing in Watsonville at Studio Judy G’s on Wednesday, January 24th before heading north to Novato. During the pandemic, he recorded an album that has proven pivotal in his career—2021’s Late Style—but to catch up with Stace involves much more than harvesting a few new tales from the studio. In the last year alone, he has edited and written the introduction for the Music Stories anthology for the Everyman Pocket Classics collection (a stunning hardcover, out on February 13), published several high-profile book reviews, begun teaching a public class on 18th century writer Laurence Sterne, seen his libretto for Errollyn Wallen’s opera Dido’s Ghost produced in San Francisco, and—alas, for the sake of this article’s word count, I have to stop there.
Astounded by the breadth of what he’s been up to, I ask him the loftiest question right off the bat: Wes, you span genres, mediums, and centuries…what’s at the core for you?
“I like stirring the artistic pot,” he says, “and seeing how you can make things that are quite different from each other all cohere.”
This ethos—somewhere between mad scientist and unbridled collector of curiosities—finds perfect embodiment in Stace’s Cabinet of Wonders, a variety show that he curates at City Winery in New York City, just a hop from his homebase in Philadelphia. Billed as “a little bit vaudeville, a little bit literary and a lot rock ‘n’ roll,” the ongoing series brings together eclectic mixtures of musicians, literati and comedians for a madcap night. Around this time last year, CAB104 included bassist Toby Leaman of the rock band Dr. Dog, singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim, actor/writer Amber Tamblyn, comedian David Cross, and more.
“What’s basically happening with the Cabinet is I’m taking a lot of disparate things that are all quite distinct from each other and trying to mold them into a coherent beautiful show” Stace says. Time Out New York described the show, wonderfully, as “an awesome mythological beast.” The same description could go for Stace’s whole career.
Comfort with risk is a key ingredient in Stace’s creativity, and lately it has led him toward an unexpected genre evolution. After decades of albums in the folk-rock lineage of Bob Dylan—whose 1967 album John Wesley Harding inspired the name Stace used to record under—the songwriter has moved toward jazz in Late Style on Omnivore Recordings.
“I just got to a bit of an impasse with my own kind of folk-rock albums,” he says, “and I just was like, why can’t my music swing a bit more like the jazz that I listen to in the kitchen?”
With artists that have successfully merged jazz, folk and pop in mind—Joni Mitchell, Mose Allison, Randy Newman, etc.—Stace turned to long-time friend David Nagler for help breaking out of familiar folk chords, rhythms and melodies.
“I suddenly thought, why don’t I just give him some lyrics? Why don’t I just give up the tunes?” he says. “Because we’ve been traveling in vans and cars and doing shows together for ten years, we speak the same music language. He knows what I want without me having to explain it for him.”
The resulting album is smoother (and more relaxing to sing, according to Stace) than the rest of his oeuvre. The songs retain his signature playful storytelling, tinged this time with undertones of a pandemic. On “Do Nothing If You Can,” for example, Stace snaps his fingers and croons a strangely menacing refrain: “Here’s the plan / Do nothing if you can.”
A second album in this hybrid, jazzy domain is already deep in the works. Stace is enjoying the challenge of arranging the songs for his upcoming solo acoustic performances.
Oh, and he’s writing another novel, which will soon join Misfortune and the three others he has published. “I’m trying to make it the most beautiful thing I can possibly imagine writing, because I think lockdown affected us in those kind of ways. I just wanted everything to be nice and beautiful—that everything would seduce you and be lovely.”
I can’t help but wonder how this push toward polish and elegance in all his work of late squares with Stace’s longtime association with the rough world of rock ‘n’ roll. (This is the same musician who opened for and performed with Bruce Springsteen in the 90s.)
“There are certain rock bands I love, but it’s generally not for that strutting-around-the-stage kind of thing. I don’t like that,” he says. “What I like is brilliantly beautifully thought-out lyrics and songs. And they can be in any genre because I love words.”
7pm, Jan. 24, Studio Judy G, 430 Main St. $20 donation, studiojudyg.com
HOMELAND San Jose native and self-taught guitarist, Castro rose to play with huge
names in the music scene before becoming one himself. Photo: Victoria Smith
Tommy in Town
By Bill Forman
From the Who’s “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia” to Green Day’s “American Idiot” and Beyonce’s “Lemonade,” the pop music world has produced more than its fair share of rock operas and concept albums. But unless you count Muddy Waters’ “Electric Mud”—a psychedelic blues project that producer Marshall Chess described as “a concept album like David Bowie being Ziggy Stardust”—blues artists have steered clear of all of that.
So when Tommy Castro first hit upon the idea of writing and recording a blues opera—or, as he puts it, “sort of a blues opera”—he was surprised that no one had thought to do it before. Soon, the six-time Blues Music Award winner was in the studio with Nashville producer Tom Hambridge, co-writing and recording tracks like “Child Don’t Go,” “Women, Drugs and Alcohol” and “I Want to Go Back Home” for a concept album about an aspiring guitarist who leaves the family farm in search of success, gives in to the temptations of life on the road, and realizes that there is, in fact, no place like home.
“Tommy Castro Presents A Bluesman Came to Town”—which came out in September 2021 on Alligator Records and debuted at No. 2 on the “Billboard” magazine Blues Chart—may not have the most original plotline, but that wasn’t really the point.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be as epic as, you know, the Who’s ‘Tommy’ or ‘The Wall’ (by Pink Floyd) or ‘American Idiot,’ where people had giant recording budgets and all kinds of amazing creativity,” said the soulful singer and guitarist in a recent phone interview. “But the idea of telling a story from the beginning to the end, that appealed to me. I kicked the idea around with the record label, and then I talked to my producer, who got really excited about the concept. So that’s how it came about, and then it was just a matter of doing it and hoping it was good.”
“A Bluesman Came to Town” is also a departure for Castro because his band The Painkillers doesn’t play on it. “I usually prefer to use my own band—I’ve done that on 18 out of 19 records—because they’re out on the road with me doing all the hard work,” said Castro.
“But Tom Hambridge wanted to use his studio guys, and he’s kind of a big deal. He’s got a few Grammys under his belt, and he’s worked on the last few Buddy Guy albums, as well as with ZZ Top, George Thorogood, Johnny Winter and Joe Bonamassa, you know, a lot of people. So I kind of followed his lead on this album.”
Since the album’s release, Castro and the Painkillers have returned to the more than 150 shows per year schedule that the San Jose native has maintained for most of the past four decades. Along the way, he’s earned a loyal fan base as well as the respect of artists like John Lee Hooker, who did his final session on Castro’s “Guilty of Love” album. All of which still amazes him.
“Where I grew up was a notch or two below a working-class neighborhood, and nobody there was going to college or getting music lessons or any of that stuff,” said the self-taught guitarist, who spent his early years playing along to records by his favorite blues artists.
“I tend to like the slower guys—like Michael Bloomfield, B.B. King, Albert King, Muddy Waters and Elmore James—because I could figure out what they were doing,” he said.
As time went on, Castro realized he was going to be making his living playing music. He tried taking guitar lessons and studied music theory. “But it was too late,” he said. “I’d already learned to play the way I did, and I couldn’t really switch over to the proper way of doing it.
“I still work on my guitar technique every day, trying to learn something new, even if it’s just some new licks,” Castro said. “But I’m no virtuoso, I’m no Bonamassa, I’m not that kind of guitarist. I’m more of a cross between John Lee Hooker and, I don’t know, Michael Bloomfield, maybe. Somewhere in there. I kind of just play the way I play, and it works for me, you know?”
Yes, we do not give enough credit to the Indigenous people of our county . The Awaswas are long gone, but the Amah Mutsun are still here. and YES, they deserve the right to rename the college . The two campuses of our community college are ON THEIR LAND. Thanks for your continuing tribute to our predecessors on this land, and their contributions to our beautiful state of CA.
Steve L. Trujillo
CAR WORSHIP?
I am always fascinated by other people’s fascination with the internal combustion engine, which, when prettied up with a curvaceous body, fancy trim, custom wheels and a shiny paint job, suddenly becomes an object worthy of unquestioned worship. To see a group of car lovers staring slack-jawed with admiration while peering under the hood is to witness these lovers lost in cultish reverie.
Time to wake up. This god-awful thing that we call the automobile is responsible for more death and destruction, more despoiling of the environment, more checkerboard, unwalkable neighborhoods, more pollution, and more cost to our wallets and peace of mind than practically any other invention we’ve come up with. In fact, if Henry Ford had it all to do over again, he’d probably think twice. A car at rest is 3,000 pounds of potential violence. But when gussied up and showroom ready, it’s apparently a real thing of beauty.
Allow this contrary opinion: cars suck. And I own one of the damn things!
Tim Rudolph
Don’t Forget the Insurrection
As we mark the third anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, it’s important to remember how we got to that moment and who was responsible for it. Donald Trump and his allies engaged in a months-long criminal conspiracy after the 2020 election. They spread lies about voter fraud and used those lies to put pressure on state officials to illegally overturn election results. When their scheme to interfere with Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results failed, Trump and his co-conspirators incited a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
MAGA Republicans nationwide have continued this assault on our democracy by introducing radical voter suppression bills in Congress and state legislatures, spreading false election conspiracy theories, and threatening to overturn election results they disagree with.
If Trump is re-elected, he plans to pardon himself and his supporters, use the Department of Justice to exact revenge on his enemies, and purge the federal government of anyone who doesn’t agree with him until there’s no one left to say no.
Just last month, Trump said if he was reelected, he would attempt to be a dictator on “day one.” We need to take him at his word. It’s up to all of us to say no to a second Trump presidency before it’s too late.
ARIESMarch 21-April 19 Aries chemist Percy Julian (1899–1975) was a trailblazer in creating medicine from plants. He patented over 130 drugs and laid the foundation for the production of cortisone and birth control pills. Julian was also a Black man who had to fight relentlessly to overcome the racism he encountered everywhere. I regard him as an exemplary member of the Aries tribe, since he channeled his robust martial urges toward constructive ends again and again and again. May he inspire you in the coming weeks, dear Aries. Don’t just get angry or riled up. Harness your agitated spirit to win a series of triumphs.
TAURUSApril 20-May 20 Taurus actor Pierce Brosnan says, “You struggle with money. You struggle without money. You struggle with love. You struggle without love. But it’s how you manage. You have to keep laughing, you have to be fun to be with, and you have to live with style.” Brosnan implies that struggling is a fundamental fact of everyday life, an insistent presence that is never far from our awareness. But if you’re willing to consider the possibility that his theory may sometimes be an exaggeration, I have good news: The coming months could be less filled with struggle than ever before. As you deal with the ease and grace, I hope you will laugh, be fun to be with, and live with style—without having to be motivated by ceaseless struggle.
GEMINIMay 21-June 20 Gemini author and activist William Upski Wimsatt is one of my role models. Why? In part, because he shares my progressive political ideals and works hard to get young people to vote for enlightened candidates who promote social justice. Another reason I love him is that he aspires to have 10,000 role models. Not just a few celebrity heroes, but a wide array of compassionate geniuses working to make the world more like paradise. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to gather new role models, dear Gemini. I also suggest you look around for new mentors, teachers and inspiring guides.
CANCERJune 21-July 22 I want you to fulfill your desires! I want you to get what you want! I don’t think that yearnings are unspiritual indulgences that divert us from enlightenment. On the contrary, I believe our longings are sacred homing signals guiding us to our highest truths. With these thoughts in mind, here are four tips to enhance your quests in the coming months: 1. Some of your desires may be distorted or superficial versions of deeper, holier desires. Do your best to dig down and find their heart source. 2. To help manifest your desires, visualize yourself as having already accomplished them. 3. Welcome the fact that when you achieve what you want, your life will change in unpredictable ways. You may have to deal with a good kind of stress. 4. Remember that people are more likely to assist you in getting what you yearn for if you’re not greedy and grasping.
LEOJuly 23-Aug. 22 I regard Leo psychologist Carl Jung (1875–1961) as a genius with a supreme intellect. Here’s a quote from him that I want you to hear: “We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.” You may already believe this wisdom in your gut, Leo. But like all of us, you live in a culture filled with authorities who value the intellect above feeling. So it’s essential to be regularly reminded of the bigger truth—especially for you right now. To make righteous decisions, you must respect your feelings as much as your intellect.
VIRGOAug. 23-Sept. 22 Poet Rainer Maria Rilke exalted the physical pleasure that sex brings. He mourned that so many “misuse and squander this experience and apply it as a stimulant to the tired spots of their lives and as a distraction instead of a rallying toward exalted moments.” At its best, Rilke said, sex gives us “a knowing of the world, the fullness and the glory of all knowing.” It is a sublime prayer, an opportunity to feel sacred communion on every level of our being. That’s the erotic experience I wish for you in the coming weeks, Virgo. And I believe you will have an expanded potential for making it happen.
LIBRASept. 23-Oct. 22 Even if you are currently bonded with a spouse or partner, I recommend you consider proposing matrimony to an additional person: yourself. Yes, dear Libra, I believe the coming months will be prime time for you to get married to your own precious soul. If you’re brave enough and crazy enough to carry out this daring move, devote yourself to it with lavish abandon. Get yourself a wedding ring, write your vows, conduct a ceremony, and go on a honeymoon. If you’d like inspiration, read my piece “I Me Wed”: tinyurl.com/SelfMarriage
SCORPIOOct. 23-Nov. 21 Talking about a problem can be healthy. But in most cases, it should be a preliminary stage that leads to practical action; it shouldn’t be a substitute for action. Now and then, however, there are exceptions to this rule. Mere dialogue, if grounded in mutual respect, may be sufficient to dissolve a logjam and make further action unnecessary. The coming days will be such a time for you, Scorpio. I believe you and your allies can talk your way out of difficulties.
SAGITTARIUSNov. 22-Dec. 21 Sagittarian cartoonist Charles M. Schulz wrote, “My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?” I suspect that in 2024, you may go through a brief phase similar to his: feeling blank, yet quite content. But it won’t last. Eventually, you will be driven to seek a passionate new sense of intense purpose. As you pursue this reinvention, a fresh version of happiness will bloom. For best results, be willing to outgrow your old ideas about what brings you gladness and gratification.
CAPRICORNDec. 22-Jan. 19 We all go through phases that feel extra plodding and pedestrian. During these times, the rhythms and melodies of our lives seem drabber than usual. The good news is that I believe you Capricorns will experience fewer of these slowdowns than usual in 2024. The rest of us will be seeing you at your best and brightest on a frequent basis. In fact, the gifts and blessings you offer may flow toward us in abundance. So it’s no coincidence if you feel exceptionally well-loved during the coming months. PS: The optimal way to respond to the appreciation you receive is to ratchet up your generosity even higher.
AQUARIUSJan. 20-Feb. 18 In the fall of 1903, The New York Times published an article that scorned human efforts to develop flying machines. It prophesied that such a revolutionary technology was still at least a million years in the future—possibly 10 million years. In conclusion, it declared that there were better ways to apply our collective ingenuity than working to create such an unlikely invention. Nine weeks later, Orville and Wilbur Wright disproved that theory, completing a flight with the airplane they had made. I suspect that you, Aquarius, are also primed to refute an expectation or prediction about your supposed limitations. (Afterward, try not to gloat too much.)
PISCESFeb. 19-March 20 Your sweat and tears are being rewarded with sweets and cheers. Your diligent, detailed work is leading to expansive outcomes that provide relief and release. The discipline you’ve been harnessing with such panache is spawning breakthroughs in the form of elegant liberations. Congrats, dear Pisces! Don’t be shy about welcoming in the fresh privileges flowing your way. You have earned these lush dividends.
Homework: Indulge in “Healthy Obsessions”—not “Melodramatic Compulsions” or “Exhausting Crazes.”
The Santa Cruz Planning Commission will review permits on Jan. 18 for a mixed-use housing project on the site of the Food Bin and Herb Room, located on the northwest corner of Mission and Laurel Street.
The proposed five-story housing project would have 59 units and will include ground level parking, with the Food Bin and Herb Room occupying the...
Our Community Reads, in collaboration with The Friends of the Aptos Library...has prepared a truly impressive month-long festival. This unique experience features 14 engaging events...
Phutureprimitive is the musical moniker of Rain, a combination cinematographer-photographer-DJ who lives his life searching for the Truth with a capital T.
Musically, this month looks like July. We’ve got great national and local talents coming through. Wynton Marsalis says a singer like Cecile McLorin Salvant only comes through “once in a generation or two”.
Spontaneity is Key
By DAN EMERSON
Calling Cecile McLorin Salvant a jazz singer is kind of like calling Donald Trump a realtor. It's a woefully incomplete description. Salvant is a jazz singer, but much more than that. As a vocalist, composer, bandleader, visual artist and filmmaker, the term “multidimensional artist” has been used more than once to describe her and really...
Yes, we do not give enough credit to the Indigenous people of our county . The Awaswas are long gone, but the Amah Mutsun are still here. and YES, they deserve the right to rename the college.
ARIES March 21-April 19Aries chemist Percy Julian (1899–1975) was a trailblazer in creating medicine from plants. He patented over 130 drugs and laid the foundation for the production of cortisone and birth control pills. Julian was also a Black man who had to fight relentlessly to overcome the racism he encountered everywhere. I regard him as an exemplary member...
