Category Archives: Charlie Landsman

Das Racist: Silly and Poetic, or Just Plain Silly?

By Charlie Landsman

“I like the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell!” Profound commentary on corporate America, or something said after just about any lengthy toke session? Das Racist’s blend of electronic hip-hop beats and humorous lyrics made them a fun group to dance to at the ‘Sco, but a profound voice of the youth they are not.

Photo by Ben Rowland. www.benrowlandphotography.com

The group, composed of rappers Victor Vazquez, Hinanshu Suri and hypeman Ashok Kondabolu (Dap), stumbled on stage last Tuesday night to house-shaking bass and an energetic crowd. The three were extremely high energy, and they hinted at the reason why.

“When we went to Oberlin, we had mountains of cocaine this high!” said Dap, motioning to a location a foot over his head. Since the group’s members went to Wesleyan, I’m not entirely sure if Dap was knew where he was.

Das Racist performed for only an hour, playing hits like “Who’s That, Brown?”,a song that samples a track from A Tribe Called Quest. They were also quick with a joke. “Give it up, class of 2014,” they said at one point. “It’s a shame the world’s gonna end before you graduate!”

For an encore, the group played their most popular song, “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”, which, while being very catchy, has no intrinsic value whatsoever. “Man, you just have to understand it’s a metaphor for capitalism,” I overheard a fellow Obie explaining to his friend. No man, it’s not. Das Racist is funny and creative, but not poetic. They don’t take themselves seriously, and neither should you.

Lost in the Trees at the Cat

By Charlie Landsman

Picture from Facebook.

The combination of a tuba, accordion and cello might seem strange on paper, but Lost in the Trees, led by singer/songwriter Ari Picker, pulled it off beautifully. Playing for just over an hour at the Cat in the Cream on Wednesday, September 23rd, the band laid down an emotional (though sometimes awkward) soundtrack for the night.

The distinguishing quality of Lost in the Trees’s music is the diversity of their instrumentation. The band boasts two cellists, a violin player, a drummer, a guitarist/lead singer, and several other members who seem to switch between bass, tuba, French horn, xylophone, accordion, backing vocals and drums at will. Most of their songs were dark and melancholy with frequent classical string interludes and haunting melodies, like a mix between Conor Oberst and Sufjan Stevens. The lyrics often walked the line between heartfelt and sappy.

Ari Picker is the mastermind behind Lost in the Trees. Trained at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Picker uses Lost in the Trees as a platform to combine his love of folk and pop music with his knowledge of classical composition. Despite being a talented musician, Picker’s stage presence left a lot to be desired. “A lot of times I don’t know what to say,” Picker said, stalling for time. “Play some music!” shouted a frustrated audience member.

Where Picker fell short, Oberlin graduate and French horn player Emma Nadeau ’06 filled in. She engaged the audience with stories of her daughter and of her time at Oberlin. “I was a biology and theater major,” she said, “and here I am!”

To conclude their performance, the band entered the crowd for an acoustic sing-along. The harmonies had three parts, but the Oberlin students in the crowd were able to join right in.

Lost in the Trees provided an easy listening atmosphere that was enjoyed by everyone in attendance. Wednesday’s show was the band’s second performance at Oberlin, and they will undoubtedly be back at the Cat in the future.

Historic Concert Featuring Stevie Wonder Celebrates Opening of Jazz Building

By Charlie Landsman

The Kohl Building Celebration Concert, with a special guest performance by international superstar Stevie Wonder, added to the magnitude of the opening of the Bertram and Judith Kohl Building. Though Wonder topped the bill, the night really belonged to Wendell Logan, Chair of the Jazz Studies Department and Professor of African American Music. Logan founded the Jazz department in 1973 and has been instrumental in establishing its repute among classical musicians. Many distinguished graduates and professional musicians toasted his accomplishments on Saturday in Finney Chapel.

 

 

The first group of alumni performers included best-selling author and Oberlin graduate James McBride, who studied under Logan during his time at Oberlin. McBride thanked Logan on his work before launching into Logan’s  composition, “Howl for Albert Ayler.”

The second quintet of the evening, also consisting of five Oberlin graduates performed the song “Skylark”, which they dedicated to two recently deceased Conservatory professors, Donald Walden and Neal Creque. The song had a slow, sullen melody and sweet, heartfelt solos, especially from trumpeter Farnell Newton ’99.

 

Next up was a saucy performance of George Gershwin’s “The Man I Love.” This song highlighted the vocal talent of 2009 graduate Nina Moffitt and got the audience tapping their toes. The song was well chosen and the saucy solos from the four instrumentalists were a definite high point.

 

The performance that followed featured several recent graduates. Theo Croker ’07, Sullivan Fortner Jr. ’08, Christopher Mees ’09 and Kassa Overall ’05 performed a rendition of “My Funny Valentine”, a jazz standard. Theo Croker exhibited fluid improvisation and was a pleasure to listen to throughout, though I would have liked to hear more from the rest of the band.

 

For ’83 graduate Allen Farnham to perform his composition “Foot Prince”, two additional pianos were wheeled on stage. Farnham was joined by fellow pianists Allen Baker ’00 and Ted Baker ’83. The song was very complex and featured very little improvisation. After a few minutes, Baker stood up and finished the piece on drums.

 

The last song before intermission was another three piano arrangement called “Star Monk: 3 Regenerations” written by Wendell Logan. Before the song, master of ceremonies Bobby Jackson referred to Logan the “conductor of the underground space train that runagate beyond the loniussphere where ‘many thousand go.’” The tune was very funny and was well received by the audience.

After the intermission, the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble took over the show. Joined by singer Lamont O’Neil ’91, the ensemble kicked their set off with a rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Take The ‘A’ Train.” The song began slowly, and then kicked into high gear toward the end exciting the crowd.

 

OJE then launched their tribute to Stevie Wonder with an arrangement of his song “You Are the Sunshine of My Life.” For their third song, OJE called on stunning vocalist Joanna Lemle ‘10 to sing Wonder’s “All In Love Is Fair.” Then the ensemble, accompanied by a large string section, delved into a Stevie Wonder medley that included instrumental versions of “Higher Ground”, “I Wish”, “Isn’t She Lovely”, “Sir Duke” and more.

 

After over two hours of incredible music, Stevie Wonder took the stage, welcomed by a standing ovation and applause. He spoke humbly, thanking the crowd often and thanking God even more. His tone then shifted to humor. “People ask me, ‘how do you feel about the first African American President?’ And I say, ‘Well, I can’t see him but I’m happy about it anyway!’”

Stevie introduced his first song by saying, “My heart must be a polygamist because I think you’re all ‘My One and Only Love.’” He continued with renditions of “Send One Your Love” and “All I Do (Is Think About You).”

Several faculty members joined Wonder onstage for a raucous performance of “Superstition,” which was definitely the climax of the night. Finney Chapel was on its feet. He closed the night with a song he wrote for Michael Jackson entitled “I Can’t Help It.”

To express Oberlin’s gratitude for Wonder’s charitable performance, Dean of the Conservatory David Stull announced that one of the piano practice rooms in the new building would be dedicated to Stevie Wonder. Because his 60th birthday was only a few days away, Nina Moffitt and Joanna Lemle presented Wonder with a birthday cake and started the audience in the chorus of his song “Happy Birthday.”

The Kohl Building Celebration Concert was the biggest show Oberlin is likely to ever see, with overflow seating in both The Apollo and Warner Concert Hall. With almost three hours of spectacular performances, the concert was a world-class salute to a world-class building.

Righteous Babes Rock Finney

By Charlie Landsman

Photo by David Roswell.

Ani DiFranco and her band, following solo artist Erin McKeown, performed on Wednesday night at Finney Chapel to a less-than-full house. Those who did not come to fill empty seats missed a truly memorable show.

A young, tattooed woman dressed in a sleek pants suit took the Finney Chapel stage on Wednesday. The edges of a tattoo protruded up past her V-Neck. “Who is she?” I thought, as she strapped on a beautiful pearl Les Paul guitar. Little did I know I would soon be downloading the provocative, hard-hitting music of Erin McKeown on my iTunes.

Erin McKeown. Photo by David Roswell.

Her first song, an edgy rockabilly tune about cowboys and cocaine, allowed her to show off her technical Travis-picking guitar style and catchy song-writing ability. McKeown’s voice was polished and had a lot of character; she had such a charismatic stage presence that she made a show out of tuning her guitar. She evidently loved to perform and the audience hung on her every word, even when she poked fun at Oberlin. “I wanted to go [here],” said McKeown, “[instead], I went to Brown.”

This unknown talent interacted with the audience like a seasoned veteran. “Since you all applied to Brown, you know that it’s in Providence,” she said before her second song, “I wrote this tune about a strip club in Providence called the Satin Doll. I’d go with a fist full of one dollar bills and hope that the ladies would saddle up to me. They never did.”

McKeown’s lyrics were very provocative and a tad profane, perfectly suited to Oberlin’s audience, who loved every minute of it. The songs off her new album, Hundreds of Lions, frequently referred to strip clubs, drug and alcohol use, and S&M. At one point, a crying baby interrupted her performance. “There are children in the audience?” She said, “Oh Shit! Oh well, I’m just going to do what I had planned on doing.”

McKeown closed her half-hour opening set with a classical American guitar version of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and got the all of Finney Chapel to sing along. This badass chick-rocker exemplifies the label that signed her, Righteous Babe Records.

After a short intermission, Ani DiFranco took the stage. She looked very fidgety and a tad uncomfortable at first. Her voice was soft-spoken but still engaging. She started her set with a few newer tunes that went almost unrecognized by the audience. “It’s only going to get weirder and more bitter from here,” she said.

Photo by David Roswell.

DiFranco prefaced each song with a story. One song she wrote about her newborn baby, another she performed at Pete Seeger’s birthday party. In the middle of her set, Difranco played a fast-paced protest song condemning nuclear power. “I wanted to play this song at the Republican National Convention,” she said, “but I had no one to ask. I have to befriend some Republicans.”

At the end of the night, DiFranco played a few up-tempo songs requested by the audience. Seemingly out of nowhere, “the freaky guy in the blue jump suit” danced his way around Finney chapel, and surprisingly, inspired everyone else to get out of their seats and into the aisles. Difranco played a double encore and finished her show with the song 32 Flavors, an audience favorite.

DiFranco is not the world’s greatest singer. She doesn’t have the smooth tone and effortless picking of Erin McKeown. Instead, her guitar work is harsh and staccato. However, while listening to her performance in the beauty of Finney chapel, I didn’t care one bit. Her songs are drenched in personal experience, and her lyrics elevate her art. The haunting dissonance of her music combined with a precise rhythm had me tapping my toes while simultaneously on the verge of tears. One thing is certain: Ani DiFranco is not a pop artist. Her inspiration comes from deep within herself. Though the audience was overwhelmingly female, her lyrics were universal and were spoke to everyone in attendance.

A word of advice to Ms. DiFranco: don’t wait another 17 years to visit again. Come back whenever you’d like.