Fiddling Around Performances by two disparate violinists put the focus back on the grand lady of musical instruments. by Mark Jordan The was our angel, the sweet angel of sex, and the sugar of sex came up from her like a resonance of sound in the clearest grain of a violin.” Norman Mailer wrotE those words about Marilyn Monroe more than 25 years ago, and now, as then, it is not entirely clear who benefits most from the comparison — Monroe or the violin. But regardless, it is an apt metaphor. If the icon of Monroe represents our ideal of sex and femininity, then her soundtrack is most certainly set to the sound of a violin. More than 500 years old, the violin plays third fiddle only to the piano and guitar among tonal instruments. Despite its delicate nature, it is a remarkably versatile instrument, at home equally in concert halls, smoky clubs, and cotton fields. It is unbelievably frail looking, as if it could not possibly stand up to the vigorous attacks inflicted on it by its most passionate players, but it is as capable of muscular and vigorous rifts and sinister runs as of the sweet and delicate melodies most often associated with it. In addition to its pre-eminent place in classical music, the violin was an important part of early country and blues music. In such a folk setting, the violin is usually referred to as a fiddle, which was a distinct German variation on the violin in the Middle Ages. Today, however, the difference between a fiddler and violinist is more stylistic than in the actual instrument. Among the violin’s many masters are some of the best known performers in their respective fields — Niccolo Paganini, Stefane Grappelli, Clarence “Gatemouth’ Brown, Charlie Daniels. And with vastly contrasting styles two performers who will be in town this week. Appearing Saturday at the Bartlett Performing Arts Centre, South Carolina-born Vassar Clements qualifies as the elder statesman of American fiddle. Self-taught from the age of 7, his first big break came in 1949 when a 21-year-old Clements joined Bill Monroe’s legendary bluegrass outfit the Foggy Mountain Boys. Despite a stunning versatility, Clements worked the bluegrass circuit consistently until he started to cross over into the country and rock fields in the ’70s. The breakthrough came with his appearance on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s landmark album Will the Circle Be Unbroken. That exposure led to gigs with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, the Grateful Dead, and Jimmy Buffett, among others. Perhaps his best-known gig to many, however, may be his role in the bluegrass super group Old & In the Way featuring Pete Rowan, David Grisman, and Jerry Garcia. That group has released three collections of their short-lived union in 1973. Since the death of Garcia, they have reunited several times, including a 1997 appearance in Memphis at Germantown Performing Arts Centre. His most recent release is the bluegrass session Back Porch Swing. Performing at the Hi-Tone Cafe this Thursday, Andrew Bird is the young bow on the block. Only 25 years old, this Chicago native began playing violin at age 4. Eventually dropping out of Northwestern University’s music program (too confining, he said), Bird drifted into musical theater, Renaissance fairs, and a rock band, Charlie Nobody. A spot on the Squirrel Nut Zippers album Hot, seems to have been the direct inspiration for Bird’s current outfit, Bowl of Fire. But bird takes SNZ’s retro-jazz sound even further, mixing Latin rhythms, Brecht/Weill-style lyricism, Reinhardt/Grappelli gypsy feel, and Tom Waits atmospherics in with the New Orleans jazz. The effect — as heard on Bowl of Fire’s debut Thrills and its latest release Oh! The Grandeur — is music that sets in a group setting all of the many textures of the violin — moody, romantic, exotic, classic. Just like a woman. You can e-mail Mark Jordan at jordan@memphisflyer.com.

		Music Notes by Mark Jordan First and Foremost, the Blues This weekend several hundred blues society representatives and industry professionals will be in town for the first BluesFirst blues convention. Among the activities planned are a number of seminars and workshops on topics such as event planning and blues archiving and research. On Friday and Saturday the clubs on Beale will host the International Blues Talent Challenge, featuring more than 50 bands vying for more than $20,000 in cash and prizes (see After Dark for a complete list of Friday night’s performers). And Saturday afternoon, the foundation will present its 2000 Keeping the Blues Alive awards, with honors going to Northwest Airlines (blues sponsor of the year) and former foundation board member and officer Larry Bell. Registration for both days of BluesFirst is $150. See the Blues Foundation Web site (www.blues.org) or call 527-2583 for more information. In other Blues Foundation news, last week the nominees were announced for the 21st annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards. San Francisco bluesman Joe Louis Walker led the pack with five nominations, including best band, best guitarist, best contemporary male artist, best contemporary blues album, and album of the year nods for his Memphis-recorded Silvertone Blues. Among some of the other nominees with area ties are Holly Springs, Mississippi, native R.L. Burnside, who was singled out for traditional male artist and blues entertainer of the year honors, the latter category also including B.B. King, whose latest release is a swinging tribute to Arkansas native Louis Jordan, and the late Clarksville harmonica player Frank Frost. Frost was also nominated in the harmonica category and his surviving partner, drummer Sam Carr, was similarly recognized in his instrument category. Another posthumous nomination went to Furry Lewis, who died in Memphis in 1981, for Blues Magician, a release of a set recorded in Lewis’ Beale Street apartment in 1969. New Memphian Alvin Youngblood Hart was nominated in the acoustic blues and traditional male artist of the year categories. Mississippi fife and drum torchbearer Othar Turner was singled out in the miscellaneous instrument category along with the Memphis Horns. And Bobby “Blue” Bland was nominated in the soul/blues album category for Memphis Monday Morning and as soul/blues male artist of the year along with onetime Sun artist Little Milton and chitlin circuit veteran Bobby Rush, who also was nominated as blues entertainer of the year. The complete list of winners can be found on the foundation’s Web site. The Handy Awards will be presented Thursday, May 25th in a ceremony at the Orpheum. New Stuff in the Bins Isn’t synchronicity freaky. Just the other day I was talking to someone about the old Babylon Cafe, a funky bohemian coffee-shop/vegetarian restaurant sort of located behind the Seessel’s on Union. The Babylon was squeezed into an old, darkly lit house. A couple of downstairs rooms made up the restaurant, while upstairs you could find a gift shop full of candles and beads, and across the hall a small lounge where performers ranging from jazz combos to folk singers, even the occasional rock band, played. (In good weather bands would set up on the patio, too.) Anyway, just days after our conversation, Bruce Biles’ Babylon Cafe … Revisited comes across my desk. Biles was a frequent performer at the Babylon, often under the name Kid Blue. His name still pops up occasionally on the musical menu of Midtown coffee houses, but this is the first music I’ve heard from him in years and a remarkably strong effort at that. Babylon Cafe … Revisited is true to Biles’ gigs, featuring him in an acoustic setting with little more than guitar and harmonica. His playing is more than strong enough to carry him through, but Biles also serves up some fine songs as well. Like the Babylon, he occasionally slips headlong into hippie-dom, but the originality of his lyrical lines and the frequently vivid images they evoke make it a forgivable transgression. Bruce Biles will be playing songs from his new CD Babylon Cafe … Revisited at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Hi-Tone Cafe. Finally, new national releases in stores this week include: Fifty Tons of Black Terror Idle Hands (Beggars Banquet) Enigma Behind the Mirror (Virgin) Flavor Flav It’s About Time (Mystic Music) Lo Fidelity Allstars On the Floor at the Boutique (Columbia) Run-D.M.C. Crown Royal (Arista) — Collection of old and new material, featuring Aerosmith, Sugar Ray, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kid Rock, ODB, Nas and Method Man. Two Dollar Guitar Weak Beats and Lame-Ass Rhymes (Smells Like)