Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505190031
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Duke Ellington said he lived his life "with the mind of a child and an unquenchable thirst for sharps and flats." Those are the notes that give jazz its ugly beauty.
You see, jazz is organic. It's like this secret you have to listen really hard to get.
If you've heard Chet Baker sing "The Thrill is Gone" choked and pathetic like the needle's still in his arm, then you know. If you've heard Dexter Gordon breathe, just breathe, through his tenor sax, you know. If you've ever heard Ella cool out, or Ornette squeal, or Miles blip, or Art rumble ... you know.
And, while you can listen to it all day long, jazz is a pumpkin that turns into soulful music around midnight ... in some dark quiet corner.
But, if you go looking for a jazz scene in Roanoke, you're going to have to look hard.
We've got girls, girls, girls and a million keg parties where a fellow can wear a tie and J Crew shorts.
But we don't have jazz. That's because no one will turn the lights down. No one will put their forks down long enough to listen to the music, no one knows to clap after the solos.
Montano's on Franklin Road does feature occasional jazz these days. You can sit down and drink a beer from the other end of the world. The lights are dimmed so that the liquor bottles, lined up on glass shelves behind the bar, seem to glow.
And there are bands.
The Heather Banker Trio has been performing every other Thursday for several months. Crowds have been growing steadily at the atmospheric happenings.
Now, starting tonight, Ward's Rock Cafe downtown is getting into the act. It's featuring Heather Banker.
Heather is actually making a living playing music. She doesn't have a day job. This is a miracle.
"I do about three gigs a week, maybe one jazz and two solo," she says. "Amazingly, I've been able to make a living doing this for going on three years now."
When she sings she's kind of like a presence, still and smoldering and smoky as her voice smoothes new wrinkles from the old songs.
"I originally listened to a lot of rock 'n' roll growing up," she says. "But, I found that I was drawn to the blues songs that maybe the Stones did, but the old blues greats did first."
Sure enough, when she plays with her jazz trio she'll throw in a blues number for balance. "I just sort of resonate towards it," she says.
Banker does a solo gig as well. She plays guitar and sings some old folk and blues. "I play at Hurley's (Grandin Road) and places like that," she says. "I think the solo thing is how I'm able to make a living at music."
But it's playing with her jazz band, featuring Lenny Marcus on piano and Charlie Perkinson on bass, that she seems to love the most.
"I do wish Roanoke had more of a scene," Banker adds. "There are jazz fans in town. They follow us around and say, 'where are you playing?' And I'm like, 'talk to somebody about opening a jazz club.' I mean a real jazz club with local people during the week and somebody national on the weekends. It could happen! But, you have to love the music to be a bar owner and have jazz shows."
She does believe there's an audience for jazz in Roanoke.
"The crowds are here. Especially at the Henry Street Jazz Festivals. Those people really know how to listen."
Lenny Marcus played piano in New Orleans for twelve years. He's gigged with jazz patriarch Ellis Marsalis (father of Wynton and Branford) and he helped create a jazz audience in Baton Rouge.
"With jazz you have to build a consistency," says Marcus. "You slowly start building a crowd and then it's wonderful. The club owners here need to learn to wait and let it happen."
Marcus agrees that there are plenty of jazz fans in the area. "We get requests for Monk and Keith Jarrett. We've played the Skyline Jazz (at the Center in the Square parking garage) and the place was packed," he says.
"People are just dying to see jazz."
Charlie Perkinson wanted to play Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" in his high school's talent contest. He bought an old upright bass and practiced a lot with his friends.
His band won and he has never looked back.
Perkinson remembers when Roanoke had jazz. "There used to be jam sessions in the Windsor Room in the basement of the Hotel Roanoke every Sunday afternoon," he says.
"I used to go down there and record everybody and then feature local talent on my show."
Perkinson has been the voice of jazz for local public radio for more than two decades. His show, "All That Jazz," airs every Saturday night at 10 on WVTF in Roanoke.
Drummer Tyrone Walker will join the Heather Banker Quartet to play tonight at Ward's Rock Cafe downtown from 6 to 9. Heather's trio will be back at Montano's Thursday, May 25, where it will play from 7 to 10 p.m.
Now this is a great start, don't get me wrong.
But, it's still a pumpkin. Hopefully, one day soon, we'll have a place in town where a band can jam to 2 a.m.
Maybe someone will turn those lights down somewhere, turn 'em way down and let this town in on a secret, get us all hip.
We promise to put our forks down. We promise to be real quiet so we can hear Dexter breathe, just breathe through that sax.
OK, so I talked about jazz. Next column: Dancing About Architecture.
by CNB