Alone traveler dressed in an overcoat and a tip
ped hat carries a guitar case into a dark and
almost-vacant Oregon Electric Station. He’s
barely noticed as he sets his case down and
settles onto a bar stool. A train is heard roar
ing outside in the distance. The bartender,
who finishes mixing a drink for a young woman sit
ting at the bur's end, approaches the newcomer.
... ..... _.
"You got any music?" the stranger replies in
monotone.
"On Saturday nights," the woman interjects.
The stranger, undaunted and relaxed, looks pen
sively away as visions of a slow-moving train carrying
his lover emerge. And amidst railroad-station steam,
jazz guitarist I)uir Latarski strikes the beginning
chords to his new locally-produced music video
‘ "Private Affair." now being aired on cable stations
• nation-wide. • ' •
The video focuses oh latarski as a traveling jazz
musician, stranded overnight and looking for a place
. to musically demonstrate the emotion he's feeling-for
hip absent .girlfriend, Interspersed in this sort of
.. musical.'reverie are. images of a crowded barroom,
where Uitarski and fellow musicians are set playing in
the company of liatarski’s lover; wh’o:a perched at a
• '•front table, holding a yhllovy h)se; . •
•“The video closes much the; way jt begins. Song
•‘. completed., latarski- gathers his belongings and,
before parting; moves tp pick uprhe.ye1.low rose lying
• on the table once occupied by his girlfriendLv . ,.
latarski says his new Venture’, which tiMik about,
six months’to complete, marks a hew direction for
o .Him as a. rehording artist.-He says the Video" was pro
. duced in Eugene last sprang because ’it was "less ex
pensive to-pull people.and machinery together,-fof a
..’ video here," and is played on about 12 different cable
' stations.across the country. . • ' •
. "VVe're trying to*get the attention of .major recor
ding companies .through - a ’ grassroots .mpyement
. because I'm'not as weti.knpwn in other.pjacos in.ihe
- country as I'd like, tojbe" latarski says,-?; . ■
The music, that accompanies the video; c*n-be
’ found on "a 12-inch'single., also'called "Private Af
fair!", latarski. says° the music itself gdyesrlse to new
horizons because he ’ s incorporat i ng VocaIs w 1th It for
the first time; "Private Affair.’’ a high-energy jazz
. piece, .runs about three. niinutes,and includes backup
vocals from the Portland:based-Linn Sisters. The flip
_ side features.the lead sing'ing’ of Calvin Walker on a
. song called. "Poor Man!!' >
• ,.. Like many Eugene, jazz musicians striving to gain
greater recognition. latarski keeps busy looking for
Ways, to expose his talent on a national scale He says
the song "Poor Man" was jargely. the result of his
playing and mixing all'the instruments arid rhythms
in a friend's garage In Edgene! "
"It was cheap because.of that,.", he says, "and
also because I; got to do .all the engineering, putting
things together." building. And I like to dp that. I like
to be. »n charge of turning all’ the knobs. 1 can just
remember that as a kid; ( always liked to build things
Now i like to put things together musically "
Because there are no major recording companies
in Eugene^. latarski says"■ he'll, continue to diversify
" w’hat: he. knows and can- do "with music until
/ .'.'something turns out to lie very worth while."
V “I’ve gpt.lpts.of fishing lines out in the water." he
saya!.".lf.something really bites! i'll have to seriously
cut back on all’the other things I'm doing."
From the looks of what the 32-year-old guitarist
has going now. that could mean a lot. He's currently
an adjunct faculty menjberat the University's School
of Music, a member of the Performing Arts faculty at
Lane Community College. and a private instructor to
about 30 students. latarski says he's also often spon
sored by the Oregon Arts Commission to tour outside
the state.
The National Young Audlonces program
schedules him at elementary-school assemblies in
Portland once a week. For example, latarski might
take a song like "Old McDonald" and demonstrate to
the children how it can be rewritten to include jazz
rhythms. Then he invites them up on stage to scat
sing to the improvised sounds.
"You get these little kids up there, and they’re
not afrr d to try anything." be says. "It’s really a
gas."
to do when I’m soloing and when I'm writing tunes.”
Latarski admits he can play any style of guitar
music, but says he’s found a niche in this funkish jazz
style he picked up over the years. An example of his
style can lie found on his "Haven” or "Lifeline”
albums, which he says didn’t "bust any charts” but
remain important to him.
latarski has published several books on chord
structuring and scale patterns for guitar as well. On
the wall of his small home-recording studio hangs a
framed letter from a guitar player in Poland who had
requested a copy of l.atarski'8 ”Moveable Guitar
Chords.”
Longhours in-the' mcimling'stadia paid off for Kugene jazz guitarist lion iMtarski in the form of a high
energy t2-irn:h single, ■'Private-Affair' .1..’ , '
.1 jitarski says he's also gelling a fair amount of
work writing music for commercial" videos. . And
recently.' he's been hired to compose aSO-miniitesong
for an aerobics- video by. the American Gymnastics
training center in Eugene v • : :
Which'brings us to the question of how all this
got'8tarteiJr ■' ' . '•
hafurski first .picked up the guitar at age lO-when
he. was living on a.small farm 40 miles outside of
Detroit. He ssys he took many lassorts so that "I could
read music pretty well by the time I was 12 Since
then i haven't stopped playing the guitar for more
than three days in niy; life:"
In 1073. he decided to study in Eugene on a
"whim." lie says he'd never been away from home
for more than iwo weeks at a time before then but he
“just decided, though, that it was time to go."
latarski was most influenced by early Eric Clap
ton and George Hitmson music, and now by some of
P»t Metheny's-lyrics, lie says he was able to combine
those influences into a style unique io the way he now
plays. • . • \ '
"I jike George Benson because he's got such an
incredible rhythmic kif^nsityespecially his earlier
stuff." he says. "And"Pat Metheny 1 like because of
his I’yrkis and his sense of melody. When I'm playing I
really try tb'play with rhythmic intensity and sort of a
funky edge. Metheny doesn't have that, but I like his
lyricism. So I try, to combine funky lines and yet have
good lyrica.! ideas. That's essentially what I'm trying
Amidst all the business of squaring contracts for
video commercials, writing guitar excercise books
and teaching , lessons to... young guitarists. Latarski
does find time ti> perform here and in Portland. The .
Don l^iurski Croup. which he says is too intense for
Oregon night-club audiences out to socialize, plays
concerts mostly;in auditoriums, parks and "an occa
sional wedding in the woods”. • ■
"People here drag a generator out to the worlds,
and hire a band to play at their wedding out there." he
says. ..V ' y
His other grpup,- The Don Latarski, Quartet,
features singer Jqe Borland and performs in places like
|o Faderigb's and the Oregon Electric Station, latarski
says that BO.pnrcerit of the quartet’s repertoire in
cludes vocal music, and "people can talk then if they
want to." "V . >
Why dries l-atarski remain in Eugene, when
there’s a gooti chance that he’d survive in a larger city
with a larger recording industry? He says he’s entren
ched in his work here and would leave under only one
condition -^"guaranteed dollars.”
"You have to do more than be a good musician in
this world to make a living at doing music," he says.
"Being a good musician just isn’t enough. You’ve got
ta teach and do other things until you get a contract
that’ll take you places."
Story by Eric Eoloff
Photos by Ross Martin
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