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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2004)
Austin’s Wayne Hancock plays John Henry’s on Wednesday. ADVENTURE SOURCE RAFT & KAYAK RENTALS WHITEWATER TRIPS FISHING TRIPS FLY FISHING CLASSES Located on the McKenzie River, next to Mom’s Pies FREE RAFT DELIVERY & PICK UP! Adventure River Center 49701 McKenzie Hwy, Blue River, Oregon www.AdventureRiverCenter.com • 822-3888 BE A PART OF… MTV Real World Road Rules… MTV Stars Abe and Jeremy will judge for a Beauty contest of sorts. Butt-Ugly contest and Hot Butt contest… $500 in Cash prizes. Friday, August 20…8:00 Sign-ups all week long and nite of contest A chance for your butt to be on MTV. I-5 Coburg Exit ★ 686-8686 Prodigal Sons Eugene jazzers come home. O ne of the frustrations — and pleas- ures — in covering the rapidly de- veloping Eugene music scene is watching promising young local musicians — many from the UO — take their talents to larger ponds. It’s a natural migration, I sup- pose: artists on the make usually wind up in New York, San Francisco, LA or wherever, and we feel a surge of pride when we hear about Oregonians we knew back in the day making it big in the big city. So it’s always re- freshing to see homegrown talents returning home to show what they’ve learned since they left. so the great singer-songwriter chose to raise his family in the calmer, safer environment of Eugene. He tours the world much of the year, occasionally returning to Zimbabwe for per- formances that often draw tens of thousands of listeners. When his band (keyboards, bass, drums, guitar, amplified mbiras, harmony vo- cals, sometimes dancers) settles into a groove worthy of James Brown, Mapfumo’s songs can transport audiences into dancing ecstacy. In the history of so-called “world” music (as if there’s any other kind), Mapfumo will in- habit the pantheon along with Fela, Marley, Sunny Ade, and the other demigods. So we in Austin’s Wayne Hancock channels THE GHOST OF HANK WILLIAMS MONKEE TORTURE ©2004 Pabst Brewing Company enefit Dirk Fund BY BRETT CAMPBELL Your McKenzie River Constantly rocking crowds around the Northwest with their self- deprecating humor and raucous live shows, this Eugene punk-metal band is definitely a hometown favorite. Monkee Torture pulls its inspiration from old, unruly, authentic punk rock and heavy metal bands like the Ramones, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden and Motorhead. With one full-length album released in 2003, Monkee Torture is at it again with another CD on the way. Make sure you see them live this Saturday night. Check out Eugene Weekly’s clubs page for details. 30 AUGUST 19, 2004 Toby Koenigsberg grew up in Eugene with a jazz pedigree — his dad Larry is a for- mer (and much missed) KLCC jazz DJ — got his bachelor’s degree at the UO, then studied at the Peabody Conservatory before obtain- ing a master’s degree at New York’s presti- gious Eastman School of Music. Last year, the UO brought Toby back to town when it hired him as a music professor, which means we’ll probably get to hear a lot from this young Downbeat award-winning composer/ arranger/ performer. At Luna, Koenigsberg leads his trio in jazz standards and classics along with original compositions and compositions by modern jazz composers. He’ll be joined by New York City jazz bassist Chris Higgins and probably a few other guests. You can read about another prodigal jazzer returning home for a visit, James Zeller, on page 26. What I’ve heard of his music on CD reveals a solid, stylish mainstream performer whose music will ap- peal to fans of classic late-1950s and ‘60s jazz as well as contemporary neoclassicists. Thomas Mapfumo re-balances the mu- sical migration equation in Eugene’s favor. A resident here for the last few years, Mapfumo won fame in his native Zimbabwe in the 1970s for his anti-apartheid anthems, then gained worldwide acclaim as one of Africa’s greatest musicians for his irresistibly dance- able fusion of Shona mbira music with Western soul and pop. But his criticism of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe’s cor- ruption and economic mismanagement re- sulted in government threats and harassment, Eugene can count ourselves amazingly fortu- nate to be able to hear one of the world’s greatest musical performers in relatively inti- mate settings here. The next opportunity is at Cozmic Pizza on Saturday, Aug. 21. The rootsy banjoist/guitarist Tony Furtado has played here often enough to al- most count as an adopted son, and he’ll be performing material from his new album, These Chains, as well as some older songs in a solo acoustic gig at the McDonald Theatre on Saturday. Furtado’s music draws on folk, bluegrass, blues, and rock, and the new disk showcases his singing and songwriting abili- ties, which are sometimes overshadowed by his instrumental prowess. Another fine roots- oriented picker, Austin’s Wayne Hancock, channels the ghost of Hank Williams and has been finding his own voice lately. He’s at John Henry’s on Wednesday, Aug. 25. Finally, speaking of talents moving on, I’d like to extend muchisimas gracias to the EW editor who, among her many other duties at the paper, supervised this column for the last few years. The editor-writer relationship can sometimes make Itchy and Scratchy look like the Blues Brothers, but Aria Seligmann caught most of my gaffes, accommodated oc- casional deadline delinquencies and word- count excesses, and frequently made my oft- meandering musings more intelligible, if not always palatable (editors can only do so much), to EW’s readers. She’s contributed a lot to the paper and the community, and we wish her the best as she moves on to new ad- ventures. ew
