BY VANESSA SALVIA
Embrace the Rhythm
Ozomatli plays
The Jungle
Tuesday.
The Jungle jams with Ozomatli; Vienna Teng returns.
T
here won’t be any better way to get over
the mid-week slump this week than to
head over to The Jungle Tuesday, May
18 for Ozomatli. Some of the players in this
amazing 10-piece band met each other on the
scene of month-long protests against working
conditions in Los Angeles in 1995. They
amassed other musicians, played their first gig
one month later, and woke people up to the idea
that love could turn their city away from the self-
destructive path of violence.
Ozomatli members’ ethnic make-up is as di-
verse as the city they live in, and their Grammy-
award winning sound is an energetic and ener-
gizing blend of hip-hop, ska, reggae, salsa, funk
and jazz. The band sings in Spanish, raps in
English and addresses political, social and cul-
tural issues in a way that helps everyone feel
they can make a positive change.
Ozomatli originally set out to play only polit-
ical benefits, but word on the streets quickly
spread and the band burst from its California
confines and took the nation by storm, debuting
in 1998 with Almo Sounds, a captivating CD that
challenged everyone to stop accepting language
as a barrier, find the love in life and unite on the
dance floor. Embrace the Chaos followed in
2001.
There’s something for everyone to love in
Ozomatli’s music; low-rider funk, beats, raps
and turntablism for the hip-hoppers, and hard-
hitting horn punctuations for the jazz fiend.
There are Latin dance grooves and a permeating
sense of good vibes. The band is set to release the
first studio album in three years, Street Signs,
June 22 on Concord Records. Ozomatli is an
Aztec word for “God of Dance,” and dance you
will, my friends, guaranteed.
Cozmic Pizza hosts Setting Sun on the
16th. The band is the brainchild of Queens, NY
native Gary Levitt, who migrated to San
Francisco.
Setting Sun’s first recording, Holed Up, was
made after Levitt hid himself away for three
months with nothing but microphones and sim-
ple recording equipment. With help from his
friend, Eric Layer, as well as a rotating cast of
musicians, Setting Sun’s second full length,
Math and Magic, was born. The title refers to the
alchemy of songwriting, the “logic and mystery”
that goes into the making of a record.
Levitt crafts songs with an intimate lyrical
style but expansive music, embracing driving
beats, soothing instrumental interludes and ag-
gressive rhythms. The overall rock feel is soft-
ened by catchy melodies throughout and a pen-
sive, somber lyrical view of life resembling
Elliott Smith.
Levitt was a member of New York indie
band The Kung-Fu Grip, who toured the country
and then broke up. While in S.F., Levitt formed
Heavy Pebble, who also broke up after just start-
ing to establish themselves.
Levitt became disillusioned with band rela-
tionships and decided that Setting Sun would be
solely his project, with a revolving cast of musi-
cians. He now calls Los Angeles home.
Also on Sunday at John Henry’s, Fields of
Gaffney takes the stage, featuring Eric “I Was A
Founding Member of Sebadoh” Gaffney on gui-
tar and lead vocals, Jessica Cowley of Pillows
and Run For Cover Lovers on bass and vocals,
and drums by former Alice Donut’s guitarist
Richard Marshall.
The band began in Massachusetts in summer
of 1998 then reformed in San Francisco in 2002
with this line-up. The new release, Nature Walk,
showcases 12 original songs and five interesting
covers.
Gaffney was loveable in Sebadoh because he
actually wrote good, quirky, slacker-cool songs.
He’s a talented songwriter and Gaffney-penned
“Broke Up” is a song you wish Sebadoh had
recorded. It’s not surprising that the originals are
the best on this release, but the covers deserve
listening time: among them The Troggs “Push It
Up To Me,” Devo’s “Gates of Steel,” Daniel
Johnston’s “I Did Acid With Caroline.” Nature
Walk feels like music for a mood swing; it’s quiet
and easy, loose and rocking, distorted and psy-
chedelic. Should be a great show.
Vienna Teng returns to Eugene on the 19th,
once again at Café Paradiso. The one-time
Silicon Valley software engineer turned touring
musician has released a new CD, Warm
Strangers, on Virt Records. Teng has embarked
on a nationwide tour to support it, moving away
from strictly solo performances and playing
some shows as a trio, with accompaniment by
cello and violin.
As soon as the opening track, “Feather
Moon,” begins, there’s a feeling of contentment
and familiarity. Teng croons, “breath in breath
out, exhale and inhale” and it’s immediately
calming. She sails into “Harbor,” and you feel
you’re listening in on a private conversation.
Aclassically trained pianist since age 5, Teng
left her high-pressure job as a code writer to pur-
sue her dreams of being a musician. She pro-
moted herself, aided by word-of mouth from
gigs she played during her college years at
Stanford. She appeared on the “Late Show with
David Letterman” six months after leaving San
Francisco.
One listen to Teng and it’s clear she’s not or-
dinary. The 11 songs on Warm Strangers are lush
and melodic and show her growth as a song-
writer. Her debut, Waking Hour, which was writ-
ten during her high school and college years,
was mostly autobiographical, while Strangers
finds her more as a short-story fiction writer. She
is able to find humanity in the people whose
lives we touch unknowingly every day, those
strangers we never talk to, particularly on the
haunting “Passage,” in which Teng vocalizes the
thoughts of a car-crash victim.
“The Atheist Christmas Carol” features min-
imal percussion, cello and piano. Teng’s beauti-
ful, crystal-clear voice projects her vision of
hope and salvation as she sings “it’s the season
of scars and of wounds in the heart/of feeling the
full weight of our burdens/it’s the season of bow-
ing our heads in the wind/and knowing we are
not alone in fear/not alone in the dark.”
ew
DIAMOND JOE PRESENTS
An evening with
Bobby Vega
DANCE INTO DIVERSITY
ALONG WITH:
Eugene Dance Festival
Scott
Law
5th Annual
A Weekend of Dance, Music, and Theatre for EVERYbody
SATURDAY, MAY 15
SUNDAY, MAY 16
11:30-1:30
1:45-3:15
11:00-12:30 SloFlowYoga Dance
12:45-2:15 High Voltage
Hip Hop
2:30-4:00
Breakdancing
4:15-5:15
African Dance for
Body & Spirit
3:30-5:00
6:30-8:00
8:15
DanceAbility
“Playmaking
Whoop De Doo”
Theatre
Argentine Tango
from the Inside Out
Guerilla Salsa
CALIENTE
DANCE PARTY
Class fees - $5-12 sliding scale
Weekend Passes - $25-50
Caliente & friends - $8-12,
$4 with class ticket
May 15-16, 2004
(Zero and KVHW)
(Hanuman)
Dale
Fanning
(Living Daylights)
Asher
Fulero
(Everyone Orchestra)
WOW Hall (CCPA) 8th & Lincoln • Eugene
Tickets available at the door.
Scholarships: 541.342.3273
FRI., MAY 21
JOHN HENRY’S
Sponsored by Joint Forces Dance Co., Oregon Communty
Foundation, Community Center for the Performing Arts, and
Lane Arts Council with support from City of Eugene Cultural
Services Division .
DOORS - 8:30PM
SHOWTIME - 10PM
All classes open to people with or without disabilities.
TICKETS: $13 AT THE DOOR / OR IN ADVANCE
MAY 13,, 2004 25