We had a great time the other night at
Ashkenaz, one of the best local venues for world music, just north of Berkeley. It has a long history as a club and was an important venue in the 60's.
The show was a benefit to commemorate the 40
th anniversary of the founding of Peoples Park, the famous place of 60's protest near the Berkeley campus.
At one point, the entire country was fixed on this little park, the protests that defined a generation, and the clash of differing American cultures. This was about Vietnam, social welfare, community self determination, the separation of rich and poor, and police brutality among other concerns. The debate continues, and its not difficult to see the same theme in the world bank/
imf protests of today.
The bill: Funky
Nixons, Wire Graffiti, Marimba
Pacifica, with Wavy Gravy
mcing and doing some spoken word/story telling.
It was so fun to be a part of this fund raiser, as I was a one year old kid when the park was founded. But have always had a connection to the event, somehow.
Hadley
Louden's band, Marimba
Pacifica, had a few of the lead players drop out at the last minute. So he threw in a Rumba tune to mix things up, called Rick and I up to play.
We did a slow
guaguanco. I was on
Tumba, Ruskin Vaughn on
Segunda, Hadley on Piano,
Yaya on
Quinto... Hadley wanted to play a smooth kicked back Californian groove, like a
Yambu without a care in the world... yea, its somewhat of an
oxymoron, but the sound he was after worked
beter with the band.. Ruskin wanted to play up on it like a Cuban,
Yaya was also trying to speed things up... and i was in the middle trying to make peace by playing just up enough while trying to groove. At one point, Ruskin is looking at me like, push it man! and behind him Hadley on Piano saying slow it down, behind me
Yaya trying to get
clave up tempo.. funny.
After, we were in the green room with the cats from Funky
Nixons and had the most
hilarious time.. these guys were cracking me up. These cats were sharp. .. quality comedy.. that was too fun.
One of the cats in the band, pictured in back to the right of this pic, is actually the mayor of Albany! He was a crack-up and we couldnt tear ourselves from the entertaining conversation, till they had to go on.
I didnt know his ax, but I expected him to rip on guitar or something... but he was rocking the cow bell! yea man! I can just see this band performing as teens in the thick of it.. back in the day.
Fun to be a part of it, as I was born late in '67. For some reason, I feel like an honerary hippy!
Tony
MY NEW CD-"BREAKING SKIN/ROMPIENDO EL CUERO' is available at cdbaby.com/cd/congajohnny 18 traks of Afro-Cuban/Caribbean drumming and Latin Jazz music...chek it out!...Volcano Percussion Artist-"JC" Johnny Conga
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