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December 22, 2005
by
BOB DORAN
Most local jazz aficionados have heard young Anthony
Diamond play his alto saxophone one time or another. If you
didn't hear him with the North Coast Preparatory Academy jazz
group that played at the Jazz Festival, or jamming with some
small combo at a local club, you may have seen him sit in with
the Mingus Big Band when they were here a few years ago, or when
he joined Branford Marsalis on the Van Duzer stage in 2004.
After graduating from North Coast Prep in the spring,
Diamond headed for Palo Alto where he's in his first year at
Stanford, and no, he's not a music major. "I'm playing jazz
in a combo called False Cognate, but I'm majoring in mechanical
engineering. I'm still keeping my music up, of course,"
said Diamond when I called him last week. The classic query --
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" -- seemed
appropriate. His response: "Obviously I want to keep on
playing music, but I see mechanical engineering as a means to
better the world in some way technologically -- there's the fact
that 1.2 billion people don't have access to clean drinking water,
then there are the energy problems here and around the world.
Those are things I'm concerned about. The engineering program
at Stanford is one of the best in the country; I was fortunate
to get in. I guess I could be somewhere where the music [program]
is stronger, but I think I made the right decision. I think I
can continue my music education by playing music in clubs and
[other] places more removed from an academic setting."
While he's home in Humboldt for the holidays, he's
trying to do his part in connection with another pressing problem:
Housing for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina, specifically
for New Orleans musicians, many of whom lost everything they
own in the storm. Anthony says his involvement in the effort
came from his friendship with Marsalis, a Louisiana native. Even
before Diamond played with Branford at the CenterArts show, he
studied with him at a summer jazz residency program at Stanford.
"We kept in touch via e-mail. Through him I learned of this
Musicians' Village project. It's part of Habitat for Humanity;
basically it's an attempt to help restore the culture of New
Orleans, which was displaced along with all its people."
According to a story in the music industry trade
magazine Pollstar, Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr. are central
to the project dubbed "Operation Home Delivery." It
calls for establishment of a musicians' compound -- with the
musicians owning the homes -- to be established near the Ellis
Marsalis Center for Music, a combination performance facility
and music school named for Branford and Winton's dad. Habitat
for Humanity is already putting up homes in the N. O. area and
plans on building as many as 500 houses in the four parishes
struck most severely by Katrina. There's already $2 million in
the Musicians' Village fund including proceeds from "From
the Big Apple to the Big Easy," a pair of concerts held
in New York City in September.
Diamond's contribution will come from a show on
Friday, Dec. 23, at Pearl Lounge where he will be joined by bassist
Shao Way Wu and pianist Matthew Dowd. "We'll
probably end up playing two sets, maybe some Christmas songs
in the first set, and I've written some new things, so we'll
have some originals," said Diamond. "Then the second
set will be more like standards. It should be fun, and I'm hoping
we will raise some funds. The fact that the Pearl Lounge was
willing to have the door go to the effort is reflective of how
beneficent the owners are. I think the Pearl is going to be really
good for Humboldt County."
A bit of advice: Judging from the crowd at the
grand opening last Friday, it's best to show up at the Pearl
early. The place was seriously packed the entire night. Among
those in attendance: piano man John Raczka, home for the
holidays from Branson, MO. He'll be playing earlier in the evening
this Friday at Avalon with his old music partner Sam Maez,
who brought his trumpet last Friday to sit in with Michael Curran
and Co.
I was not sure what to think when I saw the words
"Class of 63" on the calendar for the Bear
River Casino for Friday and Saturday, Dec. 23 and 24. Two-day
class reunion maybe? No, it's a band, who, according to Art at
Bear River, are all former locals from the Fortuna area who graduated
that year. I'm assuming they play good ol' rock `n' roll from
the time before The Beatles invaded.
Speaking of rockin' casinos, Cher Ae Heights features
Elvis impersonator Travis LeDoyt next Tuesday,
Dec. 27. LeDoyt, who sort of resembles a young Elvis, focuses
his show on my favorite portion of Presley's career, the early
years, 1954-'59, when Elvis recorded all those great hits for
Sun Records.
It will likely be a pretty quiet week ahead, especially
since Saturday night is also Christmas Eve, but there will be
a few creatures stirring here and there between now and the New
Year.
Humboldt Brews has Ripple Effect Thursday,
Dec. 22, with Tie-dye Steve and friends paying tribute to the
Dead. Friday it's the ubiquitous Jimi Jeff, then Hum Brews
closes until Tuesday when Humboldt Hip Hop Community does
its usual Tuesday thing, but with less students in the crowd.
Then next Wednesday, Dec. 28, relatively new SoHum
residents Nick and Anna Marie Montoya, a husband and wife
duo aka The Volt per Octaves play analog electronica on
the Moog. Joining them, Vryl Society, a local self-described
"space noise psych rock" band, and "special guest"
DJ Flembo Jonez.
Coming up Tuesday, Dec. 27, at Six Rivers Brewery
it's Jonah Gabriel "J Wail" Lipsky, a former
Phish follower with a synth guitar who deems himself an "eclectic
one man band spacefunk conglomeration."
Far as I can tell The Alibi is quiet this weekend,
maybe because they're gearing up for a big show next Thursday,
Dec. 29, with heaviness from The Hitch plus Night Wounds,
an "art gunk" band from Los Angeles that includes Placebo
founding member Ryan Carlile, who has been down in the
City of Angels learning more about the music biz.
One place that will not have any music this weekend,
or any time soon for that matter, is Muddy Waters. I got a note
last week from Mike Kapitan letting me know that his Miles Ahead
show (mentioned here last week) was cancelled along with all
future shows. According to Kapitan, the Bump Foundation's funk
jam the Saturday before drew the ire of neighbors and the police
were called. As you may recall, the coffeehouse had troubles
with its dance permit earlier this year due to noise complaints.
It's common knowledge that Muddy's owner, Damon Woudenberg, has
moved on to other ventures out of the area, and has had the place
on the market. Apparently his worries about losing the beer and
wine permit, and thus reducing the value of the business, led
to the music shut-off. The good news: There's a potential buyer
waiting in the wings, one who prefers to remain anonymous until
the deal progresses further. I can tell you it's someone involved
in the entertainment business, so chances are, if everything
goes as planned, Muddy will not remain quiet forever.
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