the hum / By Bob Doran

Afro-electronica

Chris Berry returns, plus Joy Kills Sorrow, Available Jelly, and band re-branding

(July 16, 2009)  It was 1993 when I first interviewed Chris “Toosa” Berry in an Arcata garage where he was building the traditional Zimbabwean thumb pianos known as mbiras. He’d actually discovered the instrument while attending Humboldt State in the late ’80s.

“The first time I heard the mbira was in the HSU Library,” he told me in a call from New York City, his current home. “I would always go through the ethnological recordings there. I checked out this record of Shona mbira music. When I heard it I started crying sitting there in the HSU Library. That’s what made me want to go to Zimbabwe. I thought, wherever this music comes from, I have to go there.”

CB 3 (The Chris Berry Trio) with special guest Michael Kang

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Berry not only went to Zimbabwe, he ended up living there for most of the ’90s, studying with Shona musicians/spiritual masters and marrying the daughter of the country’s Chief Justice. He also formed a band called Panjea and recorded a hit record.

“The album did really well over there; it went platinum in Africa. But it took a long time to get my feet under me back in the States. People didn’t want to hear some white dude playing African music. World music just wasn’t that hip back then. There was no label that would support it.”

The world music hipness factor has changed in recent years, and since 2002 he’s been living in the U.S. touring with a new multinational version of Panjea and finding success. Now he has a new project — the Chris Berry Trio, aka CB3, with Berry on electric mbira backed by drummer Aaron Johnston and bassist Jesse Murphy, both from the red hot NYC electro-dance band Brazilian Girls.

“It’s Afro-electronica,” says Berry. “It’s like the Brazilian Girls sound, but with African rhythms. It’s very dubby with big fat electronic bass sounds, 808-kicks and all that kind of shit. This is brand new. This is the first tour ever of this trio.” For the West Coast leg, including a show at the Red Fox Monday, July 20, the band will also feature Michael Kang from String Cheese Incident on mandolin and fiddle. (The Berkeley-based country-rock band High Heat opens.)

The songs Berry wrote for Panjea touched on politics and spirituality; new work for CB3 is along similar lines. “I’m still writing about the same things,” he says. “A lot of times I’ve sung about the evils of the world, but this music is more about the potential for the future. One song is called ‘Long Time Coming.’ It’s basically talking about the new thing that Obama’s ushered in. It’s been a long time coming, but we feel it coming our way now with positive change that could possibly happen.”

Why wait for the reintroduction of the condor? Mendocino’s Kerosene Kondors are coming to Humboldt this very weekend for three nights of what they describe as “a volatile mix of roots rock, jug band, outlaw country and backwoods swing that gets feet moving, hearts breaking and jaws dropping.” If you liked The Rubberneckers, you’ll like this band — in fact if you were a ’Neckers fan, you’ve probably already heard the K. Kondors. You’ll find them at the Lil’ Red Lion Friday, at Six Rivers Sunday and the Alibi Saturday for a birdwatchers’ special double-bill with that fine rock ‘n’ soul band, The Ravens.

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