The Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs, of Triple Ave.

Bill Macbeth's fabulous little club, The Ivy Room in Albany, has seen it's share of musical diversity; blues, rock, folk, and even experimental. San Pablo Ave. is no stranger to a rich musical heritage either, having seen acts like the legendary Johnny Cash to the irrepressible James Brown. Thursday nights, Macbeth has flung his doors open to the ever popular Hip-Hop scene, hosted by "LCJ" and his spin master "True Justice", and featuring some of the best and brightest stars the bay area has to offer.

One of these luminaries continues to captivate me with it's glare; the trio known as Triple Ave. Led by a veritable titan of the turntable, "Hyp", Triple Ave. rounds out it's sounds with the sultry "Gypsy Luv", the silky smooth "Louie Da Saint", and bassist Mike Shea. This is not some high class kareoke band, playing to only CDs, Triple Ave. is a live, spontaneous, performing group, whose infectous grooves and lyrics, (most notably on their hilarious KRS-One send up song, "Suckaz"), will leave you dancing groovin' and singing "Wicky-Wicky- Whack!"

I loved the Subterraneanz while they existed, however, Triple Ave. may yet prove to be one of the most prolific survivors of that heralded group. Hyp, as half of the production team for the Subterraneanz/Exile Society, and as sole producer for Triple Ave, has done production for Bostons Tek-MP of Cekret Society, The Bay Areas: Kofy Brown, Infamous MC and Golda Supanova. He has worked with other Bay Area artist such as Mystic, Latrice Barnett and the Hieroglyphics. His production has appeared on the Best of the Bean Mixtape Vol. 2.

GypsyLuv, singer and MC of Triple Ave and for part of the Subterraneanz career, has collaborated with BavGate, Black the Ripper, Ricky Watters (NFL) album, Steady Mobbin, Marion Meadows, Killa Tay, and Sisters of the Underground. Louie Da Saint, (who receives my most improved "playa" award), has appeared on songs with Kansas City Artist The Veteran Click, Tech n9ne (QD3 record label), Bay Area Artist: Code blue, Conscious Daughters, Dj College,The Rich Phezzantz/Noize and L.A's 44 Dawgs.

The group Triple Ave are the prodigal decendants of the legendary Subterraneanz/Exile Society originally out of Boston. During the inception of The Golden Era of Hip Hop (92-95) 4 Lyricists known as The Exile Society blazed through Boston with their underground classics: Through The Looking Glass, I'd Rather Be Alone and The Buzz, which recieved regular rotation on Emerson Colleges WERS and WILD. In 1995 with the help of 4 musicians they met at The Berkelee School of music, "Exile" made history with a performance on WERS Live Music Week: They developed a sound which consisted of drums, bass, guitar, fender rhodes, sax and the 4 mc's....that could only be compared with that of The Roots (before the world had ever heard of them.)

They recorded the underground sleeper: "The Shady Ones", and went on to be heralded as part of a famed underground scene with a diverse, almost cult-like following lasting through three European tours, and shows throughout the United States. The group opened for such acts as Tribe Called Quest, the Pharcyde, Sugarhill Gang, Arrested Development, Sade, India Arie, and Bobby Byrd. Their European tours hit Amsterdam, Austria, Belgium, Brussels, Germany, Paris, and Switzerland. Reluctantly the Exile Society left Boston, but forever being trail blazers, they moved to the Bay Area to form The Subterraneanz. Employing the talent of a soulful Filipino singer by the name of Locana and a suave rapper out of St. Louis named Louie Da Saint, they went on to record The My Crew EP and the LP Subterranean Means. Subterranean Means reached critical acclaim in many ways.

In St. Louis the album was released the same week as Bjork’s Vespertine, and sound scanned higher than her highly publicized album. Singles appeared on several international compilations such as Nova Tunes 2004, Boom Bap Teil 3 vom Ei, and MC’s Im Wandel Der Zeit. The Subterraneanz/Exile Society appeared on the WB Networks Saturday night hip-hop show: Distortion2Statick in 2004. Although the Subterraneanz as a whole was dismantled, the quest did not stop.

Keeping in the tradition of their predecessors Triple Ave carries the torch. The group has played alongside: E40, the Frontline, Dwayne Wiggins and MC Lyte. "Wanna" from the Ambitions EP receives regular rotation ("one of the most requested songs")on KNOZ 96.5 Sacramento, as well as "Untouchable" on Connecticuts WVOF 88.9. Songs are also featured on several online playlists on independent internet radio stations from Smallworldpodcast to San Franciscos www.radioindierock.com to Australias www.isonliveradio.com.

Through this long and prodigious journey Triple Ave acquired the aphorism: "Bridging The Gap Between Hip-Hop and Rap". With a plethora of talent, Triple Ave. can only blossom. A planned trip to China in April, and continuing U.S. tours will only increase their popularity and spead the word their musical prowess. If this is the new face of Hip-Hop, please... Bring it on. Peace.

Visit Triple Ave. at http://www.tripleave.com

Matt Renzi's "The Cave"

Local tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Matt Renzi is one the most prolific musicians on the scene, and his latest album, "The Cave", is another fine effort. Like many other listeners, I had not been much of a fan of the "sax-bass-drums" trio concept, however after spending time with Seattle's great trio known as "Critters Buggin'", with the legendary "Skerrik" on saxophone, and the former rhythm section of Edie Brickell's New Bohemians, old friends, Brad Houser on bass and Matt Chamberlain on drums, I became a convert.

Renzi's pairing with bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Russell Meissner, and their beautiful work on The Cave, can most definitely be added to that ever growing concept.

After listening to The Cave, and reading a multitude of stellar reviews, I found myself turning once again to the words of All About Jazz senior editor, Canadian John Kelman, who wrote, "While not an uncommon format, the saxophone trio is often a more challenging context than piano or guitar-led groups. Without the benefit of a chordal instrument, a saxophone/bass/drums trio can feel like a quartet minus one, as opposed to a complete entity unto itself.

Not so with this group led by saxophonist/clarinetist Matt Renzi, a San Francisco native who has spent the past few years living in a variety of locations—Japan, New York, India, and Italy. His trio with bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Russell Meissner did a couple of tours before recording The Cave, developing a vocabulary that capitalizes on the potential harmonic freedom of the chordless trio, as well as its inherent spaciousness. Renzi’s rich sense of melody and Ambrosio’s ability to provide harmony and/or counterpoint to Renzi, as well as serve as rhythmic anchor with Meissner, act as constant reminders that understated suggestion can often be more powerful than overt declaration.

Renzi’s trio takes as precedent Dave Holland’s classic Conference of the Birds (ECM, 1973)—with Holland’s pastoral title track feeling like a not-so-distant cousin to Renzi’s “Poison Ivy,” which opens The Cave. But Renzi has a gentler touch, with none of the harsher qualities that woodwind multi-instrumentalists Anthony Braxton or Sam Rivers demonstrated on Holland’s session. Similarly, while Ambrosio possesses an unerring sense of groove that's similar to Holland's, this trio date demands that he assume a more dominant harmonic role much of the time. And while this trio’s idea of freedom never reaches the kind of jagged extremes found on Conference of the Birds, it comes from a similar space, where strong compositions acts as jumping-off points for deeper exploration.

Renzi’s writing is consistently thematic, but the chemistry he shares with Ambrosio and Meissner is what allows the material to be rooted in form yet so open to free play. Miessner is as comfortable in a textural role on the rubato “The Rice Shed” as he is a more straightforward rhythmic one on the delicately insistent “In Circles.” Ambrosio may show considerable contrapuntal intuition on the three-part closer, “Three Stories,” but he balances that with a more definitive groove on both the uptempo “Faces and Places” and the hypnotic, Indian-inflected “To the Cave,” which feels like a calmer version of John Zorn’s Masada Quartet.

Despite a free and responsive style that finds serendipitous connections with Ambrosio and Meissner, Renzi’s openmindedness is rooted in a lyrical approach. Almost despite his command of extended techniques—tonguing the reed to create pointed percussive sounds and making restrained use of multiphonics—he remains a highly approachable player who favours smooth surfaces over hard edges. His approach is surprisingly vocal—or perhaps not, considering that he’s studied South Indian vocal music with R.A. Ramamani.

The Cave proves it’s possible to be free without being abstruse, open to any possibility while remaining focused. A fine disc from a group which also puts to rest any suggestions that saxophone trios are inherently missing something.”

I am speechless after reading Kelman's words, his observations once again ring true, and deserved to be repeated here. Growing up on the east coast, I had always heard that San Francisco was home to two distinct musical phenomena, the music of the Grateful Dead, and incredibly gifted saxophonists. Matt Renzi and his trio proves the latter continues to be true.

Tonight at the Ivy Room: The Subterraneanz Return?!

Well no, not exactly. The members of Subterraneanz have gone their separate ways since their demise a few years back, LCJ is hosting "Just Scratch 2", and "Live Hip Hop", Thursday nights at Berkeley's Ivy Room. Their spinmaster supreme, "Hyp", singer "Gypsy Luv", and "Louis Da Saint", formed the trio "Triple Ave.", keyboardist and Subz co-founder "Nyambezi" continues his exciting solo career, and the incredibly talented bassist Mike Shea somehow finds a way to still perform with all of them. As for the inimitable "Tranque", he has apparently re-surfaced in Brooklyn, New York's Hip-Hop scene.

All of these forces are scheduled to collide, (minus Tranque), at the Ivy Room, late tonight, March 9th. This will NOT be a Subterraneanz reunion in the strict sense of word; each act will be performing separately, however one can only imagine there will be some "sitting in" that night. We'll keep you posted, but I'm told a certain "Drummstick" player may also join in the fun!

The World Drummers Ensemble: "A Coat of Many Colors"

Four of my favorite percussionists, masters in their respective disciplines, come together for a highly-charged musical exchange; explosive, unpredictable, and unusual. Doudou N’Diaye Rose (Senagalese master of the sabar ), Chad Wackerman, (Frank Zappa, Allan Holdsworth), Luis Conte (Madonna, Michael Jackson), and Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks), are known internationally as the World Drummers Ensemble. For those unfamiliar with, or unpersuaded by, the astonishing and increasing grip of the percussive arts as an innovative force in music across continents, this new Dual Disc CD/DVD, "A Coat of Many Colors", offers conclusive proof, were any needed, that rhythm beats at the heart of all things.

I've worked with both Bill Bruford and Luis Conte, and I've seen the work of both Chad Wackerman with Frank Zappa, and Doudou N'Diaye Rose with Youssou N'Dour, so my anticipation of this new release has been extreme to say the least. A true cultural ambassador for Senegal, Doudou N'Diaye Rose is today considered as one of the great musicians of his time. Chief drum major, founder of the Drummers of West Africa, he is the most famous griot in Sengal. Both guardian of the tradition and untiring innovator, this virtuoso of percussion is now perceived as a true conductor, the African equivalent of a great conductor of a symphony orchestras, regularly leading groups of from 20 to 100 drummers. As part of the World Drummers Ensemble he has immersed himself in less familiar ideas of odd-metered rock, jazz improvisation and small group interplay.

Born 1928 into a griot family, he soon rose from the shadow of traditional drum major to become the rising darling of the Senegalese drumming community. With Independence in 1960 he joined the Senegalese National Ballet, propelling him to international stardom. For many years his ensembles of varying sizes have toured world capitals to huge acclaim. In 1996 he was the center of attention at the opening of the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, and he has invented more than 500 new rhythms in African percussion.

Chad Wackerman’s drumming combines the power and conviction of rock with the sensitivity and finesse of jazz. His playing is remarkably free of predictable patterns and licks, relying instead on invention and interplay with the musicians around him Phenomenally skilled, he has amassed a remarkable body of work including a seven year association with Frank Zappa, with whom he toured and recorded 26 albums including the London Symphony recordings. He has also recorded and /or toured with, among others, Allan Holdsworth, Barbra Streisand, Steve Vai, Andy Summers, Men At Work, Albert Lee, James Taylor, John Patitucci , Joe Sample, and most recently with another ex -Zappa drummer , Terry Bozzio. As a band leader and composer Chad has four critically acclaimed CDs titled 'Forty Reasons', 'The View', 'Scream', and his latest release 'Legs Eleven'.

Grammy-winner Luis Conte is an acknowledged master of Afro-Cuban percussion. His celebrated career includes working with some of the greatest names in contemporary music, including Madonna, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Santana, Jackson Browne, Celine Dion, Barbara Streisand, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, James Taylor, Shakira, Ozzy Osborne, Queen Latifah and Cuban legends Arturo Sandoval and Cachao. He can also be heard on the scores and/or soundtracks to such box office smashes as Mission Impossible, Rain Man, Waiting To Exhale, Coming To America, and countless others. His percussion clinic tours take him around the world teaching musicians the essentials and history of Afro-Cuban rhythm, and he has recently just released his signature line of congas, timbales and shakers for the Meinl Company.

By the tender age of 27, Bill Bruford’s musical character had already been forged in the fiery furnace of four of the biggest progressive rock groups of all time; Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and UK. Early success propelled Bill, by nature a restless innovator uncomfortable with the well-worn path, into a fascinating 30 year career as a band leader and writer. Groups such as Bruford and Earthworks led the way with advanced harmony in electric rock in the 70s & 80s; samples, electronics, and odd-metres in electric jazz in the 90s; and stylistic innovation with strong compositional identity in his current acoustic jazz. His taste for the unpredictable in live performance has led him to collaborations with countless of the world’s top musicians, not least the World Drummer’s Ensemble, in an endless search for the innovative, the unusual, and the unlikely. 30 years after Progressive rock, Bruford remains a vital force in all things percussive, and his life’s work is well documented on CD and DVD at Summerfold and Winterfold Records.

The music includes pieces from all members, but also from Switzerland via Pierre Favre, Turkey via the Harem Percussion Group, America via Max Roach, and there’s even a re-working of King Crimson’s “B’Boom”. This Dual Disc CD/DVD documents over an hour of their ambitious programme from concerts in Amsterdam and Brussels, and includes a complimentary 15 minute DVD on the reverse side.

Like Mickey Hart's Planet Drum, and other modern percussion ensembles, the "World Drummers Ensemble" is a fascinating blend of cultures that was until now, only dreamt about being performed. The pyrotechnical abilities of Wackerman, the smooth and tasty latin rhythms of Conte, the old world Senegalese flavor of Rose, and the jazzy stylings of Bruford, make this album one that will be talked about for years to come, and I hope, the beginning of many more such musical excursions.