Acoust. Band seeks Cello & Percussion (NYC)

[Richard Groff]

Hey, we're a singer, acoustic guitarist and accordion player looking for a cellist and Percussionist to round out our lineup. We are playing everything from Led Zeppelin to Jeff Buckley to Mahavishnu to Yes, and want to finish original music to play later down the road. We're going to gig on cover tunes to get things started and start building an audience.

The ideal cellist would be able to improvise and likes world music or at least world music influenced rock. We have musically literate members and will have no difficulty writing things out if you need it, but we'd like you not to need charts at a gig.

The ideal percussionist would be someone who is into African or Afro-Cuban from an improvisational standpoint. We're very into African music and looking for someone to do more than just shake an egg in 8th notes. Palo/Obi/Lukumi players are not only welcome, but encouraged.

Basically, we're looking to have a great time playing great music and hope the ideas, arrangements, and composition will rub off and help us finish up what we believe to be a very strong songwriting start. We like to collaborate and are influenced by a wide range or sources, but have a very cohesive idea of where it can go.

The singer is a female from Southern Africa and can sing Miriam Makeba as easily as Ozzy; the guitar player is influenced by Norman Blake and Bert Jansch as much as Jimmy Page and John McLaughlin; and the accordion player is otherwise a highly skilled keyboardist/pianist from the Dominican Republic who loves his Zeppelin as much as his Herbie Hancock and Rick Wakeman.

We are rehearsing in Washington Heights currently and will be gigging around the NY Metro as soon as we can get it together. We have a station wagon that will easily fit 5 + instruments and are loaded up gear wise. Age, gender and image count for nothing in this band (we've got it covered already), but loving music and being able to play does. We're open to lowering the musicianship bar a bit to accommodate someone with a positive personality and a hunger to learn. We are seeking to build this up to pay as well (and as soon) as possible, but it is a start-up, so if you need to get paid from day 1, this isn't your gig.

If interested you can give me (Rick) a ring at 212-923-1108, or email.

[congamyk]

somewhat interesting

[jorge]

Hi Rick,
I am assuming you posted here to get conceptual feedback, not just to advertise a potential job. Your concept sounded interesting at first, until I thought about how it would actually work. I think it would work much better if you had between 3 and 5 percussionists playing AfroCuban style. It seems to me that having only 1 percussionist in the group would require throwing out a fundamental concept of AfroCuban music, ie, polyrhythms organized around the clave. The whole idea of multiple parts with superprecise timing fitting together into a single integrated polyrhythm almost by definition needs multiple percussionists. Even assuming your Dominican accordion player can play the accordion as a rhythm instrument, eg like in perico ripiao, that would only be 2, and I have not yet heard an accordion player play in clave. If you can play your guitar as a rhythm instrument, eg like Arsenio in Patato y Totico's album, that would make 3. A good trap drummer who can play timba or songo could play 3 or 4 parts simultaneously, but the few guys I know who can do that are in much demand. I am not saying it can't be done, but my point is that not having a solid clave-based rhythm underlying the music, all the great improvisational licks on a conga or bongo would be sort of up in the air, and no one would understand what the percussionist was doing. If the percussionist played straight time all the time, it would be kind of lonely and not very satisfying being the only percussion player holding time for everyone else to solo. Even Daniel Ponce or Jorge Niño Alfonso, 2 great conga players who could play 2 or 3 parts on 5 congas, always played with multiple other percussionists.

So if you really want to integrate AfroCuban rhythms into your group, I would encourage you to consider adding a percussion section of at least 3 percussionists who can play AfroCuban music. If you want to add a "touch" of AfroCuban feeling to your music in parts of certain songs, 1 percussionist along with 2 or 3 other musicians in the group picking up and playing percussion instruments (in clave) could work if you could find a talented AfroCuban style percussionist willing to play straight time most of the time for no money in the startup phase, and if several of the other musicians are willing and able to learn the parts on claves, cata, tumbadora, and maybe chekere.

[Richard Groff]

Actually, thats exactly where we'd like to go, but its hard enough to find 1 for a start up gig, let alone 3. I'm actually playing guitar in this project (my main instrument, although you wouldn't know it by looking around my studio gear! ), and am looking here to see if 1 (or more) of my Congoboard friends would be interested in joining a band.

I really appreciate the thought and comment. We're of like mind, however I'm trying to be realistic about who's out there and available. To be perfectly honest, the absolute perfect fit would be 3 percussionists who all play together and like to Rumba, where one is also a kit drummer so if down the road we start cranking up, the unit can stay perfectly intact. On acoustic gigs, use 3 perc. and on electric gigs use 1 drummer and 2 perc. (but its the same 3 guys. I think it would also work if I could find 2 perc. for the acoustic gigs and just add a kit drummer for electric gigs. Even 2 guys can make a much more interesting groove, than 1, but if I can start (at least) with one and my singer pitching up with some of the metal timeline/shaker sounds, maybe it would attract another player. Just a thought.

The singer can seriously sing and is a 3x John Lennon Songwriting Comp winner, so the gig has some potential, but without a good rhythm section, this (and any) gig will suck.

[jorge]

There's a ton of conga players in NYC who can play AfroCuban music, ranging from beginners to great players and a few real masters. The better players generally, not always, want to get paid to play, but a lot play for free in Central Park and other rumbas. If it hits 70 tomorrow (predicted high 66), there might be a rumba in Central Park (72nd St. level, at the benches on the path by the lake), but if not, there will be a rumba on Sunday Nov 9 at the Brecht Forum downtown on the West Side Highway between Bank and Bethune St. Usually starts at 6 and goes to 9:30 or so.

[Richard Groff]

There's a ton of conga players in NYC who can play AfroCuban music, ranging from beginners to great players and a few real masters. The better players generally, not always, want to get paid to play, but a lot play for free in Central Park and other rumbas. If it hits 70 tomorrow (predicted high 66), there might be a rumba in Central Park (72nd St. level, at the benches on the path by the lake), but if not, there will be a rumba on Sunday Nov 9 at the Brecht Forum downtown on the West Side Highway between Bank and Bethune St. Usually starts at 6 and goes to 9:30 or so.

I've thought of heading down that way and checking some guys out, but assumed it was done for the season. My work schedule just changed recently, giving me off on weekends, so until a few weeks ago I was always working on Sun afternoons.

Its a great idea, though. Finding a guy who can "just" jam (with traditional patterns or not) is really what we need. I would like to reach out to guys who are at least interested in the traditions because it informs the kinds of licks they play. Its the same kind of influence with hand drums that is analogous to the jazz guys who grew up with Pratt. Their snare work is more informed and they're using rudiments as part of a language rather than as practice licks. You can really hear the difference (just listen to Steve Gadd or Billy Cobham who are Pratt fanatics).

I thought I'd get lucky here on the forum because I know there are some guys on the forum who have come to this music from rock and love Led Zeppelin too, if you know what I mean, and also guys who grew up with the tradition, but have also developed an interest in original music. If we're doing "Roundabout" we're going to look to flip the rhythms to "Africanize" the parts a bit, but no one imagines we're going to play Oshun's toques to a 70s rock classic.

[Richard Groff]

As an update...

It looks like we've found the perfect cellist for the gig. He's a classical player who does rock gig dates (including Trey Anastasio, Bela Fleck, Vince Gill, James Morrison, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, etc.) and a performed composer. That gives us our core unit minus percussion. I've heard from one of our friends here who I'm definitely looking forward to playing with, however we will need someone local. All of us (incuding the new cellist) live in Washington Heights, so if there are any percussion brothers out there who would love to be an equity member and co-creator in an active band with direction and industry connections, here's your chance.

This is Tutu singing in her native Bemba (from Zambia) with the keyboardist...
http://www.blackwaterexperiment.com/tutu_neka.mp3

Here she is singing a verse of Black Sabbath with me playing guitar...
http://www.blackwaterexperiment.com/tutu_blksab.mp3

Tutu on stage...


me on stage...