Oregon Music News

January 5, 2017 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for this week’s OMN Coffeeshop Conversations. You know, there are an awful lot of internationally known musicians who live in Oregon. They don’t necessarily work a lot here, they make their money all over the world and then come home to live here. One of them is guitarist Jennifer Batten. She’s a lot more than a guitarist, although she did do three world tours playing with Michael Jackson and spent time playing with Jeff Beck and a lot of others. She’s also a film-maker, glass artist, and well, a lot of other things. She’s known for her tapping technique on guitar and she’s pretty astounding with it. I’ve met most of the people who come to the coffeeshop but I had never met her until now.

December 29, 2016 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today we’ve got Clark Salisbury, guitarist/oud player and now one of the folks behind the group calling itself “While Rome Burns.” They’re doing what amounts to the fiddling, although no fiddles are required, the fiddle represents all instruments. The Rome in the title refers to America, which is about to be run by a madman. They say they’ve formed in response to recent social and political trends…that means Trump. Their mission is to leverage the power of music and community to support and confirm diversity and social justice in our neighborhoods. Needless to say, OMN is one of the media sponsors!

December 22, 2016 Back in the cupping room at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan our OMN Coffeeshop Conversations home, I’m Tom D’Antoni. Today we’ve got Dean Mueller in the room, a bass player formerly with the Insomniacs, still with Duffy Bishop when she comes up from Florida, bandleader with partner Julie Amici and for the past couple of years, promoter and curator at the very popular Lake Theater and Café in Lake Oswego. Imagine that! A successful new venue. How did he do that? Why would he even try? And how did it happen? He’s also one of the few bass players who specializes in (although not exclusively) the upright bass in with electric instruments. How did he get here and how’s he doing? Let’s meet Dean Mueller...and then at the end we'll hear a tune from Julie's album, not yet released:

December 8, 2016 We’re in the cupping room at World Cup Coffee and Tea, NW18th and Glisan in Portland for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. With me today is the spectacular Soul singer Saeeda Wright. You may know her from her time as a backup singer with Liv Warfield. Saeeda was right along with Liv as Liv’s career blossomed…recorded with her, appeared on the network TV shows. You may also know her from church and other inspirational events, both singing and speaking. You may not know that she also toured with Prince. We’ll find out about that. She’s working on a new album. It may just be her time.

December 1, 2016 Welcome to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another Oregon Music News Coffeeshop Conversation. Joining me is one of those people who is hard to categorize…as if we needed categorization. That’s another topic. The topic today is Andrew Durkin, who is generally lumped into the Jazz category, but he’s much more than that. He has a new album, his first in a long time. It’s called Breath of Fire and we’ll find out why. We’ll also find out about humor in music, something Zappa used to talk about, and Andrew’s music has been compared to Frank’s I have found Andrew’s new album to be a welcome respite to the awfulness of our current situation in this country. He didn’t plan it that way, but…….

November 21, 2017 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan, home of OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations. Today we’ve got Paul Brainard, a very recent inductee into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. If there is a more versatile musician around here I haven’t met him. This weekend (November 25-27) he’s hearding the horn section of the band at the annual Next Waltz show at the Alberta Rose Theatre.. You may know him better as that steel guitarist who plays everything from Ernest Tubb to Led Zeppelin to Thelonious Monk on this instrument. He’s a native Portlander and has an awful lot to say about his music and his instruments. How did he react to his Oregon Music Hall of Fame honor? How did he get from being a horn player to fame as a steel guitarist?

November 17, 2016 Back in the ole Coffeeshop again...World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan…and it’s not very old, but you know what I mean. I mean this is the 80th OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. This time I’m in the cupping room with Portland Cello Project’s (those are two url's) Gideon Freudmann, as you might expect, a cellist and composer. It’s the tenth anniversary for them and to celebrate they’ve got an amazing concert at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Friday, November 25. What were they then? What are they now? And what other projects is Gideon working on? A fascinating look back, look forward and a lot of the things you’ve always wondered about Portland Cello Project.

November 1, 2016 Back in the cupping room at World Cup Coffee and Tea again for another in the endless series of OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations. I’m Tom D’Antoni and with me today is the legendary and extremely celebrated Blues guitarist, composer and producer Terry Robb. He’s in the Oregon Music Hall of fame. He won the Cascade Blues Association’s Best Guitarist Muddy Award so many times, they had to stop their membership from nominating him any more and named the damned award after him. It’s always fun to catch up with Terry. I have the feeling we’re just going to sit here and bullshit about music, but first we’ll talk about Cool on the Bloom, his new album. We’ll hear a track from it, too.

October 20, 2016 Welcome back to the cupping room in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. I’m Tom D’Antoni and taking a minute off from the endless road is John Averill, one of the founding members of March Fourth, the giant endless party since March the Fourth, 2003 when they formed. Before going back out on the road in their bus full of 20 musicians, dancers and other creative folks, John was kind enough to take a few minutes out to come here and tell us about Magic Number, their new album which was recorded in New Orleans and produced by Galactic’s Ben Ellman. They’re also in town to play their album release at Revolution Hall on Friday, October 28. Two shows! If you’ve ever marched behind them in Portland, or just heard them play. You know how much Portlanders love March Fourth.

October 12, 2016 Hi there, welcome to another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation from World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland. I’m Tom D’Antoni Last week, we sat down with singer/songwriter Josh Malm Tree, just a few days before he moved to Nashville. He was a part of the Eckrich Music City Sing Off on Tuesday night (October 11), but he’s fixin’ to stay a while and try his hand and career there after a lifetime in Portland and decades being and playing in Redwood Son. Yes, he’s taking a chance. No, he didn’t win. But on his Facebook page, he said this, written above the video of his son who was unhappy that dad lost, “This is what I told Kaden, and it applies to Life in general. There's no such thing as "losing" when you're following your heart & working hard to achieve any dream that speaks to you. Sometimes, people get tied up in destinations. My personal preference is to enjoy the entire journey, and... (perspective IS power). Thank You ALL for supporting Me, and please know that I feel like a

September 29, 2016 Back in the coffeeshop again for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation, as always, right here at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Gilsan in Portland. Happy to have Soul singer Andy Stokes in today and he’s got with him his new album, Full Circle. We’ll find out the meaning of that title and a lot more from a man OMN called “Oregon’s King of Soul” in a story last year. He’s got an amazing story on the moment he knew he had to go out on his own as a solo and form his own band. A story which includes Charlie Wilson, George Clinton and Phillis Hyman in Japan. One which he has never told publicly before now. We’ll hear another track from his new album, too.

September 15, 2016 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland for another in the long line of Coffeeshop Conversations. Hard to believe this is number 75, but it is. Joining me today is journalist Cervante Pope. You may recognize her from the pages of Oregon Music News which is where she got her start in Portland. These days, however she is also the editor of The Deli, a music webmagazine, a full-time reporter for the Portland Observer, as well as writing for music magazines The Owl, mixdown and free-lancing for the Mercury and Willamette Week. How did she get t.here? How did she get to Portland from her native California? And a big question, “What does she have to do in order keep writing in her own special voice while keeping editors happy?’ That’s something she learned a lot about at OMN.

September 5, 2016 Time for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation conducted right here at world famous World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland. With me today is someone you have heard, and if you pay attention you’ve seen in almost every major venue in Oregon. You’ve seen her behind the sound board sliding pots, turning dials, punching buttons and screens. She makes the sound happen. Her name is Shira Otchis and I’m not kidding when I say she is beloved among musicians because of her talents as a sound engineer. Her company, She Rock Sound is always busy. From Storm Large to a Pink Floyd cover band. From world famous Jazz musicians in concert halls, to metal in dive bars.

August 25, 2016 Welcome back to the Coffeeshop…World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland and another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today Jim Brunberg, musician, music venue owner and now a podcaster with his twin seven-year-old daughters Vern and Dana. You know him from his music, from being one of the founders of Mississippi Studios and Revolution Hall. He’s a busy guy and we’re glad he took time to be here. His family podcast is called Roam Schooled, as he puts it, “a program about what happens when a father and his twin daughters put away their devices and go in search of answers.” We’ll find out all about that and where they’ve been, about the evolution of Mississippi studios which he helped build with his bare hands, and why on earth a person would start a major new venue! The tune at the end features Jim and Ben Landsverk as Wonderly.

August 9, 2016 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today composer/pianist/drummer George Colligan is here. He’s headlining the Third Annual Montavilla Jazz Festival the weekend of August 20 and 21…that’s a Saturday and Sunday. OMN is a media sponsor once again. George blew into town…well he moved here, but it felt like that…a few years ago and suddenly you couldn’t go to anyplace featuring Jazz and not see him. He tours internationally with Jack DeJohnette among others. He teaches and maintains an extremely busy schedule here and everywhere. He has two vastly different programs at the Montavilla Jazz Festival, ending the show both nights.

July 27, 2016 Welcome back to the coffeeshop in which we conduct the OMN Coffeeshop Conversations, that being World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland, Oregon. With me today is the mult-talented singer, dancer, band leader Pepe Raphael, he of the Bottle Blondes, Pink Martini and his new adventure Duo Kitty ~ Raphael. A vocal duo with Megan Yvonne. They will be staging a unique and exciting tango vocal concert, "Dueling Tango Duos" with the famed Argentinians Duo Fuertes ~ Varnerin, making their United States debut, at the Old Church, Friday, August 5, 7:30pm, $20, tickets. How are the Bottle Blondes? How does he feel about Pink Martini? And what about his long career as a ballet and modern dancer? There’s nobody quite like Pape Raphael!

July 15, 2016 Well the Blues Festival is over and it’s time to get back to the normal cycle of OMN Coffeeshop Conversations right here in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland. With me in the place is drummer Tyrone Hendrix and if you have heard funky music around here, you most likely have heard him…with Liv Warfield, Doo-Doo Funk, Farnell Newton, you name it and he has provided the means for you to shake everything you got. He has a new album called Rhythm On Life Vol 1. It just came out and since he calls it Vol. 1 he must have Vol 2 already in mind. The cream of Portland soul and funk are on it: Jarod Lawson, Tony Ozier, Farnell, Saeeda Wright, Nafisaria Scroggins-Thomas..i could do on and on.

June 23, 2016 We're back at World Cup Coffee and Tea for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. The 2016 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is coming up and I thought you’d like to meet the person who is responsible for allowing OMN to have our famed “Comfy Booth” at the festival since 2010. She’s Amanda Gresham who’s Delta Music Experience Louisiana Pavilion near the Front Porch Stage is also home to United By Music North America an organization headed up by Amanda and her mother Barbara Hammerman. UBMNA is performance-based program for musically talented people with development and intellectual challenges and delays. We’ll find out about all that and her adventures in New Orleans.

June 15, 2016 Coffeeshop conversations is back. I’m OMN’s Tom D’Antoni and today we’re not in our usual spot, the cupping room at World Cup Coffee and Tea and that’s because our guest is in Los Angeles where she had a gig last night. Liv Warfield, as most of you know, had a great run while she was living in Portland, Growing as an artist and a person. Then she was enfolded in purple as a singer with Prince. He shepherded her solo album, The Unexpected, and was the most important factor in her emergence as a powerful solo artist. When Prince died, the first thing on the mind of many Portlanders was…how is Liv? How will this affect her career…more importantly, her life. She’s not far into the healing and dealing process and she’s hardly talked to anyone about it. She and I go way back.

May 26, 2016 It’s another day in the Coffeeshop…World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan…and another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. with me today is bass player John Mazzocco who has been a major part of the Oregon music scene for decades as a member of Paul deLay and Curtis Salgado’s bands, and the several bands he’s in now. He toured with John Lee Hooker for three years. Boogie Woogie piano player David Vest told me to ask John Mazzocco about breakfast with John Lee…and I will. He also has a thriving business by the name of Blue Dot Communications which trains business leaders how to make presentations. There is a connection to his musical career there…we’ll find out what that is. Road stories, bandstand stories, a slice of what it’s like to be a working musician for a lifetime.