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Wayne Krantz jams and talks shnp
■ Krantz will play Taylor’s on
Saturday and lead a free,
two-hour workshop on campus
By Mason West
Oregon Daily Emerald
Guitarist Wayne Krantz complet
ed his latest CD, “Greenwich
Mean,” by compiling recordings of
his band’s weekly gigs at 55 Bar in
New York City.
Krantz said he owes the wealth of
material to Marc Bobrowsky, a de
vout music fan who attended the
performances every week with
small microphones attached to the
side of his glasses that would record
the sets on digital audio tape. Krantz
said having so many recordings to
choose from was great, because “re
ally stellar” nights of improvisation
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often go unrecorded.
Krantz said Bobrowsky started
giving the tapes to him, and they
sounded good enough to use for the
CD instead of setting up a special
recording session. Krantz selected
portions of music from the tapes
and edited them together on his
computer, though he said there
were no alterations. He said the re
sult sounds just as good as a profes
sional live recording, with one
small exception.
“A couple times you can hear
when he turns his head,” Krantz said.
The unorthodox recording of
“Greenwich Mean” reflects the atti
tude Krantz is taking toward his
musical career. The CD is only avail
able on his Web site,
www.waynekrantz.com, which he
designed and maintains. Krantz
also organized the tour he is on cur
rently, which stops in Eugene on
Oct. 27 at Taylor’s Bar and Grille.
B jom Estlun d, talent buyer for Tay
lor’s, said he booked Krantz after get
ting a heads up from friends at Jam
Base, a Web site for jam bands touring
the West Coast. Estlund said his con
tacts would let him know “whenever
something amazing came through. ”
Estlund quickly read the informa
tion on Krantz available through Jam
Base and listened to “Greenwich
Mean.” Those two things alone per
suaded Estlund to book the gig.
“The guy’s incredible,” he said.
Estlund worked directly with
Krantz to book the show, as Krantz
has done for all his other tour stops.
Krantz said all the responsibilities
he is taking on are beginning to wear
him down, and it’s starting to have
negative effects.
“In the last two or three months,
I’ve never played guitar so little,” he
said. “I’ve gone two or three days
without touching it.”
The 45-year-old musician has
been playing guitar since he was 13
years old and said he hasn’t done
anything else since. He said he has
become so familiar with the instru
ment that music has become a sec
ond language for him.
When I m playing, I don t even
know how to talk,” he said.
Though he said re-entering the
world after a show can be draining,
he said he never tires of performing.
“I want to play as many nights as I
can, but that means you have to ap
peal to as many people as possible
without compromising your mu
sic,” he said.
Krantz said one of the draws of
his shows is the note on his bio
which says “ex-sideman with
Steely Dan. ” The title means almost
nothing to Krantz, and he said he
wouldn’t even include it if it
weren’t for media desire for a tie-in.
He added that he didn’t think any
one “who comes to Taylor’s even
knows who Steely Dan is. ”
For whatever reason the audience
comes to his shows, once a person ar
rives, he said “they’re in our hands.”
“On a tour in England, a substan
tial number of Steely Dan fans came
to the show because they saw me
play there with them a while ago,”
Krantz said. “They were expecting
something like Steely Dan, but they
got something completely different
and were happy with it.”
Courtesy photo
Former Steely Dan guitarist Wayne Krantz is on a solo tour of clubs to promote “Greenwich
Mean, ” his latest CD. Krantz booked the shows for the tour himself.
Krantz said his music is “pretty
open-ear” and is based almost en
tirely on improvisation. He said 99
percent of the music on “Greenwich
Mean” is improvisation based on
skeletal song bases.
“It’s so improvisational... that the
songs almost didn’t matter. Usually
the people that see us are those that get
off on creation like that,” Krantz said.
The 21 tracks on the album are all
instrumental sections from long
jams. To make the CD more struc
tured, Krantz gave titles to the selec
tions that became “songs. ”
“I just wrote out names that I like,
and I tried to match them to the
tracks. I’m really happy with the ti
tles on the record,” he said.
Aside from being the title of the
CD, “Greenwich Mean” is one of the
song titles, along with “the end of
Wednesday,” “escape from obliv
ion” and “elephant.” Krantz said ti
tles have always been tough for him
because he doesn’t generally write
songs about specific people, places
or things. On a previous album,
Krantz said he titled the tracks after
people he knew.
“Greenwich Mean” was re
leased in 1999, and Krantz said al
though it is a good album, the ma
terial is dated with highly
experimental improvisation.
“I feel that, at this point, I’ve gone
as far in that direction as I’m going
to go,” he said.
Though he and his band still rely
heavily on improvisation, Krantz
said they have been writing more
coherent songs, which is mostly
what they will play on Saturday.
Another aspect of “Greenwich
Mean” that Krantz said was unchar
acteristic was the amount of solo
guitar improvisation. All 21 tracks
feature Krantz and leave drummer
Keith Carlock and bass player Tim
Lefebvre to play rhythm. But Krantz
said the band members do much
more than play backup.
“I can’t say enough about them.
The concept of this band was not to
be ‘Mr. Guitar Player’ up front with
an anonymous bass and drummer
in the back,” he said.
Krantz has been with Lefebvre and
Carlock for more than three years and
said they are “irreplaceable.” Krantz
said he has received offers for more
steady work if he were to use famous
people as sidemen, but he wanted to
form a band.
“The power of a band is undeni
able,” he said.
Krantz will share that power
Saturday afternoon before the con
cert at a workshop offered through
the University School of Music.
Steve Owen, director of Jazz Stud
ies at the University, has been
working with Krantz to organize
the free workshop from 2 to 4 p.m.
in the music building. The loca
tion is still undetermined, but
signs will be posted in the build
ing. Owen said in a good year, the
school will have between four and
six workshops where musicians
will answer questions and share
knowledge when they pass
through town.
“These things usually happen by
dumb luck,” Owen said.
The small fee the musicians are
paid for the workshops comes di
rectly from the students of the jazz
program. Owen said it is called the
“jazz tax.”
“(The musicians) are pretty much
doing it out of the goodness of their
hearts,” Owen said.
Krantz said he enjoys doing
workshops because “students are
cool; they’re interested.
“There are always a bunch of
questions because nobody knows
how we do what we do,” he said.
Mason West is the senior Pulse reporter for
the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be reached
at masonwest@dailyemerald.com.
Thriller
continued from page 7 A
are going for, drawing on their ex
perience bringing modern inner
city problems to the screen (“Men
ace II Society”) and successfully
applying it to the equivalent 100
years ago. Viewers have been
trained by countless Merchant
Ivory and Edith Wharton adapta
tions that the 19th century was a
time of etiquette, cleanliness and
order; “From Hell” tears those per
ceptions apart.
But the Hughes brothers bring
more to the film than violence and
gore. Jack the Ripper’s famous
quote, “One day, men will look
back and say that I gave birth to the
20th century,” is displayed at the
beginning and provides the basis
for their approach to the material.
“From Hell” is most definitely a
look from the 20th century back to
its beginnings, and the direction
lends itself accordingly.
During one of the early crime
scenes, the action fast-forwards
from night into day, with passersby
zooming in every direction; as the
Ripper makes his escape, he fades
into nothingness instead of ducking
into a dark comer. Abberline’s hal
lucinations also have the quality of
similar scenes in “Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas,” another
film in which Depp explores the
wonders of drugs.