MUSIC
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
ECLECTIC MIXES
Musicians blend older jazz and classical music
with today’s sounds
B
THIS
TIME IT’S PERSONAL
James Mercer has been listening to David Bowie.
Now based in Portland, Mercer is the primary songwriter and sole remaining original
member of The Shins lineup. A quirky, indie-pop guitar act, the Shins were first heard by
many on the soundtrack of the 2004 Zach Braff film Garden State.
In that movie, Natalie Portman coaxes Braff to listen to the now-classic Shins tune “New
Slang,” insisting it will change his life. The Shins come back to Eugene behind this year’s
Heartworms, a record hailed by many as a return-to-form for the band.
I’m talking to Mercer about songwriting as a medium, and whether you can ever get to
know a songwriter based strictly on their material. “You don’t get to know much about David
Bowie from his songs,” Mercer says. “Some artists are more like that than others.”
But Mercer’s managed a career making music that feels both personal and emotionally
remote, literate and heady but also confessional. “Early on in my songwriting this was
personal stuff,” Mercer says. He felt that if he simply told the truth in his lyrics, “it would be
unique and different.”
“On Heartworms,” he says, “it’s hypothetical situations,” with elements from his past “that
I can use to inform the writing.”
Mercer continues: “The song ‘Heartworms’ is about a guy who’s with a girl. He just knows
this isn’t gonna last. She’s moving on, she’s too good for me. That comes from relationships
I’ve had,” Mercer says, but also relationships “my friends had from back in the day.”
The Shins play with Day Wave 8 pm Monday, Sept. 25, at McDonald Theatre; $40.50 adv.,
$46 door. All-ages. — Will Kennedy
COWFISH Trap-House Tuesday w/
Wes Light—9pm; n/c
CUSH Poetry Open Mic—7:30pm;
n/c
DEXTER LAKE CLUB Acoustic
Night w/Brian Chevalier—6pm;
n/c
THE EMBERS DJ Victor—8pm;
current hits, standards, requests,
n/c
LEVEL UP Karaoke w/Kade—
9pm; n/c
LUCKEY'S Amusedays w/Chaz
Logan Hyde!—10pm; comedy,
open mic, n/c
MAC'S Roosters Blues Jam w/
Skip Jones & Byron Case—7pm;
blues jam, n/c
MOE'S Stone Cold Jazz w/Kenny
Reed—6pm; n/c
MULLIGAN'S PUB Steve Ibach—
8pm; acoustic, n/c
O BAR Peter Giri—5:30pm; rock-
in' acoustic, n/c. Karaoke w/
Jared—9pm; n/c
OLD NICK'S Weirdo's
Experimental Open Mic w/
Jevon—9pm; n/c
SAM BOND'S GARAGE Bluegrass
Jam—9pm; n/c
WHITE HORSE SALOON Karaoke
w/Slick Nick—9pm; n/c
WOW HALL Whethan, Bearson,
Opia—9pm; EDM, $15-$18
CLUB
WEDNESDAY 9/27
5TH ST CORNUCOPIA Karaoke w/
Slick Nick—9pm; n/c
BEERGARDEN OKTOBERFEST Dan
Cioper Band—7pm; roots, rock,
n/c
BLACK FOREST Karaoke w/KJ
Powers—9pm; n/c
THE COOLER Karaoke w/Caught
in the Act—9pm; n/c
COWFISH Local DJ Review—9pm;
n/c
HAPPY HOURS Mama Jan’s Blues
Jam w/Brian Chevalier—8pm;
n/c
HI-FI LOUNGE Funk Night—
10pm; funk jam, n/c
ISLAND HUT Karaoke w/Jared—
5pm; n/c
JERSEY'S Karaoke w/Sassy
Patty—8pm; n/c
LUCKEY'S Wednesday Night
Groove Sessions w/The Sunday
Bump!—10pm; funk, jazz, open
jam, $3
MAC'S Gus Russell & Paul
Biondi—6pm; n/c
MAX'S Lonesome Randall—7pm;
rock & roll historian, n/c
MOHAWK TAVERN Karaoke w/
Caught in the Act—9pm; n/c
MULLIGAN'S Open Mic—8:30pm;
variety, n/c
OAKSHIRE Meadow Rue—5pm;
benefit for Healthy Moves, origi-
nal string band, n/c
OLD NICK'S Sutherlin, Kaitlin
Sevey—9pm; country, $5
SAM BOND'S GARAGE Phoebe
Blum—9pm; singer-songwriter,
$5
SIDELINES SPORTS BAR Karaoke
w/Mike—9pm; n/c
VANILLA JILL'S Open mic—8pm;
poetry, music, n/c
WAYWARD LAMB Lipsync
Battle—9:30pm; n/c
WEST END TAVERN BTM
Karaoke—9pm; n/c
WHIRLED PIES Whirled Music
Series ft. Eric Stalker—6pm;
singer-songwriter, n/c
CORVALLIS
& THE REGION
LINCOLN CITY CULTURAL CTR —
Lincoln City
TH 100 Years of Recorded Jazz
w/the Cherry Blossom
Orchestra—7pm; $20-$22
SU Sofia Talvik—7pm; singer-
songwriter, americana, $20-
$22
100 YEARS
10PM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22ND
HURRICANE HARVEY BENEFIT SHOW WITH: CASCADE
SERENITY, DOOR NUMBER THREE JULIAN OUTLAW,
KEVIN HUSTLE, LIGHTNING OUTLOOK, ROCK FORMING
MINERALS, SEAN BAKUS, AND SOUL DECEPTION
$5 VARIETY, BENEFIT
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD
SCOTT YODER, NUDIE MAGS, TBD
10PM $5 GLAM, INDIE ROCK
933 Olive St | 541-687-4643
830 Olive St | 541-343-3204
luckeysclub.com • In the heart of the Barmuda Triangle
22
September 21, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
efore it was a band, Nerve was a jam session at a little New York bar that quickly
grew into a regular dance party at a bigger club and then became a touring band
(bass, drums, keyboard, DJ/mix) that blends jazz, electronic music and various
experimental strains into a true 21st-century sound.
It’s propelled by Zurich-born one-time jazz “drum god” JoJo Mayer, who in
his youth backed legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone, Sonny Fortune and Monty
Alexander.
But Mayer, son of a jazz bassist, realized that much “dinosaur” jazz remained stuck in
its mid 20th-century heyday and, if it were to remain relevant to younger listeners, needed
to embrace today’s technologies (including, lately, augmented reality) and audiences. He
was inspired by his idol, drummer Tony Williams, who along with his mentor Miles Davis
realized the same thing back in the 1960s.
Result: a groovy dance party that appeals to IDM and other electronica fans but also
packs prog-rock/funk power and jazz’s spontaneous energy — and Mayer’s virtuosic
drumming. Experience it at Hi-Fi Lounge Friday, Sept. 22.
More eclectic contemporary sounds are on the program Sunday, Sept. 24, at First United
Methodist Church when the new Terra Nova Ensemble debuts with an eclectic mix of
jazz, classical, klezmer and tango music. Eugene Symphony and Oregon Bach Festival
players (Annalisa Morton, Mike Curtis and Sandy Holder) deploy not only “classical”
instruments (oboe, bassoon and piano) in music by Bach and modern French composers,
but also sax, guitar and accordion.
More contemporary-classical-meets-jazz happens Sept. 29 at Springfield’s Cascade
Center For Spiritual Living, when Cherry Blossom Musical Arts founders Ben Farrell,
Nancy Wood and Paul Safar play duos and trios for voice, clarinets and piano — jazz,
classical and Safar originals.
Other classical artists who range beyond that confining category take the stage at
University of Oregon’s Beall Hall next week. On Sept. 28, accompanied by Korean pianist
Eun-Hye Grace Choi, UO saxophonist-prof Idit Shner plays contemporary classical
music by one of the UO’s most promising recent student-composers, Andrea Reinkemeyer,
as well as works by Evan Paul, Olivier Messiaen and more. On Tuesday, Sept. 26, at Beall,
Shner’s UO colleague Molly Barth plays flute-focused music.
And on Sunday, Oct. 1, the Shanghai Quartet comes to Beall. While they’re certainly
adept at the usual Western classics, the band also explores wider territory, including music
by traditional and contemporary Chinese composers and 20th-century composers like
American Alan Hovhaness.
Shner’s concert also features Tony Glausi’s 2017 composition “Another Sleepless
Night.” On Friday, Sept. 29, at the Jazz Station, that superb trumpeter/composer joins
local young jazz phenom singer Halie Loren for love songs from Cole Porter and Henry
Mancini through Elton John, Elvis Presley and more.
One value in embracing a wide range of music is bringing together diverse audiences.
These days, bringing together people from different perspectives is more important than
ever, for reasons that transcend music.
Accordingly, Heal the World: A Humanitarian Benefit Concert includes songs from
a vast variety of musical genres — folk songs, today’s pop, musical theater and beyond.
Instigated by two of our most famous local musicians, YouTube vocalists Evynne Hollens
and Peter Hollens, the Saturday, Sept. 30, show at First United Methodist Church features
well-known folk singers Mike and Carleen McCornack, musical theater star Dylan
Stasack, local singer-songwriters Keenan Hansen and Alessandra Ziolkowski, the
UO’s acclaimed Divisi women’s choir (where Evynne Hollens got her start), Oregon
Children’s Choir, various local high school choirs and the church’s own Restore band.
They’ll play Broadway tunes from this year’s Tony winner, Dear Evan
Hansen and Rent, multi-generational pop from Mumford & Sons to Simon & Garfunkel,
civil rights anthems and more. Bring donations to Food for Lane County and to disaster-
relief organizations.