Street roots
June 7, 2013
P H O T O B Y SUE Z A L O K A R
Portland musician Chaz Mortimer blends the worlds o f tradition and technology
BY SUE ZALOKAR
Mortimer says. “We are always encouraged to
draw on the strengths of our personal
he popular adage says it takes a village
ancestors and at the same time wash away the
to raise a child. Local percussionist,
weaknesses that we may have inherited or may
educator and producer Chaz Mortimer
be at risk of passing on. Over the years I have
will tell you it also takes a village to raise a found the same spiritual support and healing
musician.
power from those who practice traditional
Mortimer has roots that tap deep into the
spirituality on the continent of Africa, too.”
music community around the world and here in
One of his first lesson with his godfather was
Portland. He mentors youth throughout the
playing bata drums. “If you really want to learn
city and will be making a trip to Nigeria this
bata traditionally,” Mortimer’s godfather told
summer to co-produce a documentary film
him, “part of your apprenticeship is to go out
about the Afro-Cuban tradition of bata
and make yourself a set to learn on.”
drumming.
Mortimer has become a part of the very
Mortimer has taken traditions that are
village that raised him.
steeped in the ways of ancestral Africa and
Since his arrival in Portland in 2007, he has
combined them with 21st century technology
dedicated much of his time to the community’s
in his music, mentorship and film projects.
youths, producing and teaching hip hop, audio
He grew up in Boulder, Colo., and started
engineering, production, songwriting and
playing jazz drum set when he was 8 years old.
developing a beat-building curriculum.
He progressed to congas and Afro-Cuban
“Working with youth has been a big calling
percussion, and in high school he took his first
for me,” Mortimer said. “When I work with
job working in a drum shop. He has studied
kids, I let them lead the way. My strength is
with diverse talents, including Portland-based
bringing out their strengths.”
trumpeter Farnell Newton, Oberlin College’s
His most recent work with youth is a team
collaboration with J. Ross Parrelli and Kevin
Dance Diaspora leader Adanika and Miami-
“Yamio” Winkle titled “Beats, Lyrics, Leaders.”
based master bata drum maker Ezequiel
It is a series of interactive workshops,
Torres.
“When I was a kid, music was a way to break
residencies, and projects developed to build
character and leadership skills through the art
down barriers and deal with reality,” Mortimer
said. Boulder is not a very diverse place, he
of music. The workshops used an iPad to
said, but it was there that his foundation of
create, which Mortimer says is a good tool for
passion and respect for other cultures began.
people who don’t have access to instruments.
“When I was growing up, kids around me
“I had been skeptical about the iPad when
were often very involved in their family’s
we wrote it into the curriculum, but when I saw
religious practice, but I didn’t have that
it in the hands of these kids, it just blew my
structure around me. I began practicing
mind.”
meditation as a teenager, and spent a lot of
One of Mortimer’s former students, Laray
time in nature, and always felt that music had
Thomas, was homeless, living in a shelter
this deep way of opening up the spiritual world. downtown and making it to class at Helensview
So, after spending more time around spiritual
High School intermittently. In 2008, Thomas
drummers from the Caribbean and the African
ankle was shattered in a gang shooting that left
continent I began to understand how deeply I
him unable to bear weight for seven months.
“I took a music development class at my
felt the connection.”
At Oberlin College, he was invited to play
high school,” said Thomas. “We had a studio
percussion for Dance Diaspora, an Afro Cuban
and Chaz would teach me how to make beats.
He helped me with memorizing lyrics and
dance troupe. The group traveled to Cuba were
basically just motivated me to be my best.”
Mortimer played and studied.
By the end of his time in the program,
“I went through a crisis in my 20s when I
Thomas was working eight hours a day in the
was at college and my grandmother had passed
studio. He would show up before school to
away,” said Mortimer. “I took time off from
work on his projects.
school and in some ways my life just fell apart.
“Working with Chaz was a real blessing,”
That is when I went back and reconnected with
Thomas said. “Before I met him I was so
my godfather, Baba Adetobi Ajibilu.”
wrapped up in the gang life I didn’t remember
The medicine and healing practices of the
who I was. I believe he saw something in me. I
Afro-Cuban Lukumi traditions became a natural
see now what Chaz saw in me then.”
source of therapy, Mortimer says.
Thomas is still involved in music today and
“In Cuba, it is not ‘weird’ for a white person
works under the name, Laray “Ray Ray”
to find sanctuary in African traditions,”
S T A F F W R IT E R
T
Thomas.
On May 23, Ibori Records -M ortimer’s label
he created in 2011 - released, “Iyaranla (Oro
Cantado)”, by Seattle-based Omo Alagba. The
album features a sequence of songs that that
are sung in ceremonies of the Lukumi tradition
from the Europa people in Nigeria.
“There isn’t really a recording that has that
sequence of songs, but they are sung in every
community,” said Mortimer. “We wanted to
create a CD that
people could study,
so that when people
come together, they
could participate (in
a w hile person to fin d
the ceremony).”
sanctwary In H rlc a a
In tandem with
traditions« We are always
the recording of the
album with Omo
encourage«! Io draw ©a the
Alagba, Mortimer
strengths of our personal
began a film project
ancestors and at the same
with two local
time wash away the
filmmakers: Sidony
O’Neal and Alex
weaknesses that we may
Riedlinger.
have inherited or may be at
Riedlinger owns the
ris k ©I passing ©n/?
E’Njoni Cafe, a
Portland restaurant
inspired by the
Mediterranean and
North African cuisine. The trio set out to
document the making of the Omo Alagba
album and established the film production
company, Ibeji Pictures.
Kola Bimbula, a visiting law professor at
Seattle University, is also a high priest of the
tradition of bata drumming. His family has
been organizing the International Congress of
Orisa Tradition and Culture festival since 1991.
Bimbula heard about the Omo Algaba recording
project and invited the group to perform at the
historic 10th International Congress this
summer in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
The group, which includes all of the
members of Omo Algaba, the film crew,
Portland poet Rashida Shani Young Miya’asu
and Mortimer’s godfather, Baba Adetobi
Ajibilu, will travel to Nigeria and continue their
documentation that traces the story of the bata
drum of Nigeria.
“With all of the projects I’ve taken on this
last year, there have been challenges and
learning experiences every step of the way,”
said Mortimer. “This trip to Nigeria is a
moment of fruition. It represents rising above
the odds to be a part of something that is
bigger than the individual - an experience that
will have a ripple effect in all of our
communities.”