Oregon Music News

Six years ago, the last time David Monette was our guest on Coffeeshop Conversations, we called him “Portland’s Stradivari” because the trumpets he designs and builds are the equivalent of a Stradivarius violin…and he makes them for some of the world’s greatest musicians at his shop out near the airport in Portland. He's back because he has a new book called “Calculus of Life: A Practical Guide to Transcendence.” What does that have to do with music? According to David, just about everything. He’ll be giving a talk at Portland’s New Renaissance bookstore on Saturday, May 25. On Tuesday, May 21st, he’s bringing musicians in from nearly everywhere to perform and to mark the publication of the book. The event is sold out but he’ll be streaming it. Watch it here. Let’s talk with David Monette.

Back in the Artichoke today with singer/actor Lo Steele, daughter of Portland’s LaRhonda and Mark Steele. Coming up soon…trumpet genius David Monette with his new book on transcendence, our National Editor Art Levine on UFO’s and (maybe) music, plus Adam East the talent buyer from the Alberta Rose Theater. But right now Lo Steele is sitting across from me. We’re so lucky in Oregon to have musician families like this one. After you’ve listened to this one, Follow the link to a video episode with LaRhonda and Mark. Right now, meet Lo Steele.

I hardly know what to say. Eddie Martinez, one of the best known session guitarists in history just left the Café at Artichoke Music after nearly an hour of inspired conversation. Now look. I don’t mean to disparage the over four hundred other guests we’ve had on in ten years of OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations but this one is at or near the top. It’s the third time he’s been on the podcast. I asked him to join me because he has a gig at Jack London Revue on Friday May 3rd. He also has a new EP on the way. We find out about both but mostly we had a bracing conversation. I hope you enjoy It as much as I did. I think he did too.

Every year at this time, we get together with Peter Dammann, Artistic Director of the Waterfront Blues Festival and ace guitar slinger to find out who’s in the festival lineup. He's joining me in the Artichoke Music Café. Next week Lo Steele will be here and coming up guitarist Eddie Martinez and also OMN’s National Editor Art Levine will be talking to us from Washington D.C. But now lets turn our attention to the fourth of July and the shores of the Willamette where tens of thousands of fans gather at the Waterfront Blues Festival. Here’s Peter Dammann to let you in on who’s playing this time around.

As promised, with me in the Café at Artichoke Music is Jennifer Carrizo, Senior Talent Buyer for the Crystal Ballroom, the Mission Theater and the Spanish Ballroom in Tacoma, all part of McMenamin’s wonderfully funky empire. It’s hard to believe we haven’t had many from the venue management side of de bizz eh nezz. But here we are. What does a talent buyer do? Senior or not. I’ll tell you this, the reason you can go out and hear music is because the talent buyer has made a deal which brought that band to you. Let’s meet Jennifer Carrizo.

I’m happy we’re back here in the café at Artichoke Music.. Next week, Jennifer Carrizo from McMenamin’s will be here to talk about what’s going on at the Mission Theater…the answer is a lot! But this week a new conversation from a couple of months ago (and I apologize for the delay) with one of our best singers and songwriters, Anandi. She has a lot to say about Jazz singing, especially the Latin variety. At the time we talked she had just released a new album called A Better Way. We’ll hear a track from it at the end of our conversation Please meet Anandi.

We’ll be back at the Artichoke Music Café next time but this episode had to be recorded today, before a fund raiser to help complete a documentary on the life and death of one of Oregon’s favorite musicians, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist member of Pink Martini and Lions of Batucada among others; Derek Reith who committed suicide in August of 2014. Today Director Joanie Fox will talk to us about Derek, the film and the fund raiser which is being held at Pink Martini World Headquarters in downtown Portland on Thursday, April 4, 5-30 to 7pm. Let’s welcome for the first time, Joanie Fox.

We’re not at the Café at Artichoke Music this time. We’re in Seaside Oregon at the Seaside Jazz and Blues Festival on March 16rh for a very special occasion . We told composer/pianist Gordon Lee that we wanted to talk to him onstage about the set he was about to play and also his new album. In reality we were going to present to him the first annual award in the name of the late beloved drummer and teacher Carlton Jackson for Excellence in Musical Education and Musicianship. Gordon, a friend and long-time musical collaborator with Carlton did not know anything about it. We surprised him. It was quite a moment.

Well this is getting as regular as a rainy February in Oregon. Grammy time rolls around and Cheryl Pawelski gets handed one. She won one for It’s Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers. She’s also won for The Garden Spot Programs, 1950. She was the compilation producer on Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition), which won the Grammy for Best Historical Album. And just a couple of weeks ago she won for the massive collection Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos for Best Historical Album. She also won Best Coffeeshop Conversation episode for 2021. Mostly Cheryl and I like to geek out, talking about music and records. That’s why she’s back at Artichoke again today.

The last time Lisa Lipton sat here in the Artichoke Music Cafe was in August of 2020. I noted at the time what a busy person she was with multiple artistic and executive directorships, plus teaching and a full schedule of her clarinet playing. She still does all that but recently she was brought on as Executive Director of 45th Parallel Universe in addition to retaining the same position with Opera Theater Oregon, as well as Co-founder/Co-owner of Mendelssohn’s, Portland's first classical music-themed bar. We recorded our conversation a few weeks ago on her first full day as the capo di tutti capi at 45th Parallel and to say she was psyched is putting it mildly. They have a concert on Tuesday March 5, Pulse and Pillars: an Evening with Andy Akiho and Gemini Percussion. But now let’s hear what Lisa Lipton has to say about her big day.

Returning for another episode of Coffeeshop Conversations is Lisa Marcicek, known to one and all as Miz Kitty that saucy character who has a major basis in real life as hostess of Miz Kitty’s Parlour, a vaudeville show that has been in our lives for twenty-two years at various locations in Portland. She was back this year at the Mission Theater, a favorite spot for her and the hand-picked troupe of fine performers and misfits, along with the thrift-store prizes she awards to lucky members of the audience. You will remember Lisa as a fiddler with the Flat Mountain Girls. One never knows what she’ll come up with, or as whom. Today, I’m guessing, we’ll be talking to both Miz Kitty and Lisa Marcicek, everything all in one. She’s always fun, no matter who she is at any one time.

Guitarist/composer/teacher Dan Balmer is in the Artichoke Café this time around. He always has a lot to say. I’ve been looking forward to sitting down with him again. Coming up soon on Coffeeshop Conversations, the new executive director of 45th Parallel Universe Lisa Lipton and a visit with Lisa Marcicek also known as Miz Kitty. Dan Balmer has a new album called When the Night. That name. What does it mean. I mean to find out. Listen to the title track at the end of our conversation. Here’s what happened. As soon as Dan got here, we started talking about…well, everything. That’s what happens with Dan. I stopped the conversation and turned on the recorder. The rest Is history.

The Biamp Portland Jazz Festival is rapidly approaching. It runs from February 16 to March 2. As we like to do when our major festivals come around, we ask the folks who are responsible for bringing them to us to fill us in. And as he has been for the past few years, actually since he got the gig, Executive Director Chris Doss is in the Artichoke Café with me to tell us all about every headliner in the festival. It’s an interesting festival this year, with some new faces. So let’s let the boss let us in on the details.

I hope you have been watching the development of OMN’s young Photographer Sydney Lewis. She started shooting for us at seven years of age, under the watchful eye of her father Mike, who also takes photos for us. Her specialty is Metal bands. Seriously. Her first shoot was at the 2019 Waterfront Blues Festival but she has shot almost exclusively Metal since then. After the covid break she continued to shoot with more confidence and authority. She’s eleven now and shows no signs of stopping. As a year-end treat, meet Sydney Lewis and her dad, Mike.

We’re going to wind up 2023 with a couple of Best Of’s but next time, that precocious 11 year old OMN photographer Sydney Lewis will be here with her dad to tell us about shooting Metal bands for the past 4 years. Today I’ve got one person who is in several of the most eclectic bands in Oregon, Galen Clark of Trio Subtonic, Outer Orbit…and others. He’s going to bring Outer Orbit and Greaterkind to McMenamin’s Kennedy School Ballroom on New Year’s Eve. There are at least a dozen or more great shows on New Year’s Eve, but this one would be my pick of where to go. How does he juggle so much talent and creativity in so many projects and do such a fabulous job at it? Welcome back Galen Clark.

Sometimes we have fresh new faces on the scene come to the Artichoke Music Café, and sometimes we welcome musicians who have been around the block a time or two. People who have long-time fans but who have never stopped evolving and discovering new music within them. Steve Wilkinson was in Gravelpit and Mission 5 and his current band Wilkinson Blades, but he’s releasing his first solo album Truth or Consequences, recorded over eight days with producer Rob Stroup in Truth or Consequences New Mexico. Want the truth? When we started rolling I got his name wrong. What a dope. I’m leaving it in.

I think this is the first time we’ve ever run two Coffeeshop Conversations in one week. It’s because of the concerts both Ben Darwish and Jeremy Wilson are doing this week and weekend. Jeremy Wilson is, of course, known for his music. He was a member of the Dharma Bums and others. But he is also known and loved for starting the Jeremy Wilson Foundation which helps fund medical bills for musicians. There are several fund-raising musical events during the course of the year. One happens this weekend at the Alberta Rose Theatre. It’s the Next Waltz during which a whole lot of our finest musicians sing and play all of the tunes from the movie, The Last Waltz which was the final concert by The Band. Let’s catch up on the concert preparations, the work of the foundation and what’s up with one of Oregon’s favorite dudes, Jeremy Wilson.

Nearly ten years ago we got the news that Ben Darwish, composer, producer and keyboardist was moving from his Portland birthplace to Los Angeles. He had been a part of a flowering of young Jazz musicians, coming out of college in the early two thousands. The other part of the news was that he was going to be playing with a Pop band. He is with me now at the Artichoke Café because he’s going to have his first Portland gig in eight years on Tuesday, November 21 at Mississippi Studios for an evening of what he calls “High energy Jazz.” Great news. We’ve got some story to fill in here.

There are various signposts by which we mark the beginning of the holiday season. My favorite is John Waters’ return to Portland for his annual “A John Waters Christmas” show at the Aladdin Theater. It always sells out, and has again this year. Nevertheless, it’s a chance to talk with John about the show and all of the exciting things he’s been up to over the past year. We know each other from my Baltimore days. I was born there and spent far too many decades there before I escaped to Portland. Mine was his final interview of the day about the show. Lucky us. Welcome back John Waters.

Arietta Ward: Looking forward to another 400 episodes of Coffeeshop Conversations @ Artichoke Music by Oregon Music News