BY MELISSA BEARNS
Breaking Down the Walls
Ala Zingara melds gypsy, rock and world.
O
n average, 20 or so CDs arrive at the
EW office each week with an aver-
age of 10 songs on each one. 200
songs a week times 50 work weeks means I
listen to about 10,000 songs a year. Sometimes
only for 10 seconds, but I listen to them all.
Ala Zingara ’s lead singer, bouzouki player
and acoustic guitarist Robert Parks wrote one
of the three best songs I heard in all of 2004,
“Because the Silence.”
But it’s live that Ala Zingara truly shines.
Their shows are amazing, high-energy cele-
brations and you won’t be able to sit still. On
the last release, Shackled To the Wind,
“Because the Silence” and “Golden Splendor”
(another gem) are the closest things to straight
rock songs you’ll hear. “Because the Silence”
builds slowly, the melody picked out on an
acoustic guitar with nothing but percussionist
Ben Morrow’s delicate, subtle rattle of back-
ground. Then comes Megan Larson with the
very first deep, humming notes on upright
bass. The song builds impatiently to the
moment where Brennan Dignan plays the first
bars of melody on electric guitar, with a
microsecond of hesitation, introducing Parks’
unique vocals.
Drawing strongly on middle eastern influ-
ences, AZ whips along with wild, twangy world
music in songs like “Macedonian Dance,”
which whirls you around and leaves you feeling
like you just flung your arms out and spun in a
circle until you fell down, too dizzy to stand.
Others, such as “D Minor” and “Invoking
Tara,” have moments reminiscent of Rusted
Root with a little reggae and Latin flair thrown
in. “I suppose I’ve always been attracted to the
unpretentiousness of world music,” Parks said.
“Music that has that community vibe to it. I buy
records of music all over the world.”
And those international influences make it
into AZ’s music even though each song stands
alone, a complete work unto itself. Within the
songs, all four musicians balance their parts
perfectly so that the end product is something
that sounds finished and whole.
Ala Zingara
9 pm, Saturday,
July 22
Cozmic Pizza, $4
www.alazingara.com
On bouzouki Parks is exceptional, and
with a Neil Young-ish voice, he would define
AZ if all the other players weren’t equally
strong. Larson and Morrow are masters of
musical white space. Tempo changes and
complex rhythms with slight pauses and hesi-
tations build and resolve tension within the
songs. On backup, Larson’s harmonies weave
light, bright threads through a tapestry domi-
nated by heavy, primary colors. Guitarist
Brennan Dignan falls in step with lilting beats,
strums and sparsely placed notes that rely as
heavily on the silence between the notes as the
notes themselves.
Don’t miss this one.
ew
From Eugene with Love
Local musicians invited to honor Chet Atkins at festival.
B
ack in March I told you that Eugene teenager Brooks
Robertson was wowing the world with his Chet Atkins-
style fingerpicked guitar wizardry. Robertson, along with
four other local musicians, was invited to attend the 21st annual
Chet Atkins Festival , held recently in Nashville by the Chet Atkins
Appreciation Society.
From July 12 through July 17 musicians from all over congre-
gated in Nashville to pay respects to guitar great Atkins, mingle
with instrument manufacturers and hobnob with industry bigwigs.
Robertson joined up with his mentor Buster B. Jones , guitarist
Bobby Gibson , whose first Portland-based band included Willy
Nelson, Nokie Edwards , who rose to fame as lead guitarist for The
Ventures, and saxophone player Paul Biondi . What, a saxophone
player at a guitar convention?
Biondi has accompanied many famous musicians on the horn
over his illustrious career, including Frank Sinatra, Tony
Bennett, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbara Streisand, Ray
Charles and Lena Horne. A career musician since high school,
Biondi toured for several years with Gladys Knight, Aretha
Franklin, Ike and Tina Turner, and later Smokey Robinson.
You’re thinking, what is this guy doing here in lil’ ol’ Eugene?
Blame it on the magic of Oregon’s natural beauty, because a
1992 visit to Florence drew Biondi away from Los Angeles and
into our convivial arms.
Biondi is thrilled to be welcomed into the Chet Atkins Festival,
thanks to his working friendships with Edwards and Jones and
other Nashville-based musicians he’s been introduced to. “It’s fan-
tastic,” said Biondi by phone from the Nashville Sheridan Hotel,
where the convention was held. “They pretty much are really cel-
ebrating Chet Atkins, his life and what he brought into the indus-
try and also his style of fingerpicking. If you’re a guitar player this
is pretty much what you try to learn and do.”
The Ventures’ first hit song was “Walk, Don’t Run,” a song
Atkins made famous, originally written by Johnny Smith. “He
recorded it, then Chet recorded it a second time, then we [The
Ventures] got it off of Chet’s album,” said Edwards, by phone from
Nashville. Edwards and Atkins became personal friends, and
Edwards said it’s great seeing all the recognition and respect paid to
Atkins year after year. “There’s so many world class players that
come here, it’s unbelievable,” he said.
Edwards and his wife Judy are in the process of selling their
Veneta home and have downsized to a large motorcoach. They
will return to Eugene after the festival to participate in the
American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in Eugene on July 29th
at Lane Community College. Edwards will open the event with
“Walk, Don’t Run.” Judy Edwards said, “It’s for a good cause and
there’s nothing more touching than seeing all those candles lit” for
survivors of cancer and those lost to the disease. –Vanessa Salvia
bambini
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