the hum / By Bob Doran

Oneness

Youssoupha Sidibe takes the kora new places, plus Anthony B, The Bad Lilas and St. Pat’s doings

(March 12, 2009)  For fans of African music, Senegalese kora player Youssoupha Sidibe was the highlight of last summer’s Reggae Rising, strumming intricate melodies on his 21-sting harp. Born in Dakar, Youssoupha did not follow the usual path to kora. Traditionally in his culture, sons learn from fathers in the musician caste. Famous players like Toumani Diabaté came from long lines of kora players. Youssoupha learned in a Dakar music school and took the instrument in new directions, mixing its sweet sounds with Islamic Sufi devotional chanting of the Baay Faal Mouride brotherhood.

“I’ve been working for like 20 years,” he says, “from going to school learning the instrument from scratch and being able to make up a song and come up with a repertory putting it within my spirituality. I believe my music can help people because I have the intention of healing and giving peace to people, blessing the people with the message of my master.”

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The message? “It’s a message of Peace. God. Love. A message of oneness, of no separation. That means we accept everybody and we can be anywhere; we can live any kind of life with any kind of tradition. That’s why we wear the patchwork: All the colors are represented so there is no separation. That’s the message in my music.”

His latest variation on kora tradition is playing with a reggae-style rhythm section, which is what he’ll do Thursday, March 12, at the Red Fox Tavern. He figures kora fits perfectly with reggae. “Reggae music is African music, played by Africans who came to the Caribbean. It’s all the same. It’s very upbeat, because the kora keeps singing and singing. The way I play is very percussive, a lot of rhythms so it’s very danceable. You won’t be able to stop dancing.”

Youssoupha has some serious competition on the reggae front Thursday. While he’s playing the Fox, Jamaican star Anthony B will be tearing up Mazzotti’s in Arcata (a show moved from Toph’s in Benbow). Anthony has played Reggae many times — his 2007 appearance was captured for a DVD, Anthony B Live at Reggae Rising. Along with 13 songs the disc includes interviews where, among other things, he discusses the depth of reggae. “In reggae music there’s a song for everything: sad moment, happy moment, simple moment, or just about the family, about the economics, about politics, about history. Reggae is so vast, so wide, it’s not going to stop for now. Reggae will live forever.”

Meanwhile, Thursday at the Jambalaya it’s the club debut of Greg Lojko‘s new band, The Bad Lilas. As you may recall, Lojko is a former Rubbernecker, same with B.L. bassist B.T. Hollister. Banjo player (and maker) Colin Vance comes from Striped Pig Stringband. Cellist James Westfall and second guitarist W. Scott Coulter have no apparent prior band affiliations. According to Lojko (in p.r. mode), “The Bad Lilas play a blend of folk, bluegrass, old time and rock ’n’ roll in an acoustic setting.” You might notice there’s no drummer. “We call it ‘chamber punk’,” says Lojko. The Bad Lilas name? It’s borrowed (or stolen) from Greg’s former upstairs neighbor, Lila Nelson (you should know by now she’s moved to Oakland and we all miss her). Lila used the term to describe her split radio personality: At a certain point in her KHUM folk show, “Bad Lila” would take over from “Good Lila” and she’d start playing harder, rockier “bad” music. Having seen Greg rock out solo and acoustic on guitar, I’m guessing that badass rock elements may overpower folk in his new band. Rockin’ country band Rooster McClintock fills out the bill at the Jam. Rooster McC also plays Saturday up in Trinidad — their hometown, I believe — sharing a gig at the Ocean Grove with Stolen Taxi.

The huge indie rock confab South by Southwest isn’t until next weekend, but we’re already getting bands on their way there. Among them: The Blakes, a moody, garagey band out of Seattle who won a lot of fans when they played here back in ’07. Guitarist Garnet Keim explains cryptically how the band name came from the mystic poet: “That dream about William Blake? I didn’t know I was dreaming. Was it an hour or was it just seconds? I remember walking into a workshop and he was working on some sort of copper etchings. We exchanged words as I was interested in what he was doing, then floated out into the street, which took me somewhere else.” Svelte Velvet opens for themFriday at Humboldt Brews

As mentioned here previously, Little Feat guitarists Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett play an intimate gig at Cecil’s Friday night. Opening the show is Jeff Jolly, a rootsy guitarist now based in San Fran, who somehow seems like a local. He’s sticking around Humboldt for a few days, playing Saturday at HumBrews with a pickup version of the Jeff Jolly Band, including drummer Danny Montgomery. Bona fide locals Old Dog share the bill.

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