Open Ears
February 2002

Open Ears
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By Laurence Donohue-Greene

Though most artists today have their own websites and may find it easier to network and even make a living today than say two decades ago, visibility is always an upward battle and the monetary aspect for many is debatable as well. Today, making waves as a musician or artist who has something new to say or add in regards to their respective art form is becoming more and more of a difficult task. The world is becoming a much smaller place through technology and the Internet, and consequently the ever-growing pool of talent and competition has over saturated the market with music, in this case, becoming more densely released week after week. Though sounds from around the globe are at all of our fingertips, “People are becoming real familiar with a wider range of things as an audience, so it’s not like you can make as much an impact,” says New York City based modern slide guitarist David Tronzo (a.k.a. Tronzo) in regards to one of the many struggles musicians face in their sound travels.

Regardless if you have something to say as a musical artist, the massive dependency of sales, marketing, and distribution in today’s entertainment world could be the back breaker factor for the low budgets of indie labels and independent musicians. Grass roots publicity can take you only so far—even MM&W (Medeski-Martin-&Wood), who started off with a significant following through their five early 90’s recordings, signed to a major record label deal. Now on their fourth recording under the mega sales and marketing machine of the reputable and legendary Blue Note Records jazz institution, they are reaping the awards of both the visibility and financial dilemmas that most other musicians struggle with on a daily basis. And so the plight goes for the music artist who has something to say, and would rather not compromise in his/her delivery of that music message by signing to a label whose inherent concern is selling records regardless of music content or originality (MM&W and Blue Note’s relationship actually presents an exception to that otherwise fairly accurate generalization). Though listeners have developed higher standards than ever before, music buyers and the general public, not to mention major record companies, have not.

Certainly hard to keep track of, recordings are coming out by the truckload each and every day—a lot of crap in addition to some truly outstanding recording sessions (the latter more commonly found on the independent labels that are not necessarily carried by your local record store). “If you look around a city like New York in the last 20 years, my peers have put out an array of records, (these) would be iconoclastic records if this were the 50’s”, says Tronzo who has himself been a sideman on a fair share of these potentially timeless records that are dangerously on the brink of slipping into oblivion, or at least the never-never land of being deleted.

Two recordings in particular from the late 90’s, which Tronzo contributed to, are unfortunately close to already falling into the annals of music history as a non-existent entry. His co-led group called Slow Poke features reedman, Michael Blake, a fellow musician of John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards group, as well as bassist Tony Scherr and percussionist Kenny Wolleson. Slow Poke’s Redemption (Intuition, 1999) is an amazingly dynamic recording that I repetitively refer back to, and whose music should be heard by more open ears. If Tronzo performs and/records with any semblance of regularity with one musician it would certainly be Blake, his musical comrade of sorts. In addition to Slow Poke (which also recorded a hard to find session entitled At Home), Tronzo has also contributed to Blake’s latest Free Association project as well as adding his essential bottleneck reverb into one of 1997’s best recordings, Blake’s Kingdom of Champa (Intuition).

Another Tronzo-featured recording is a trio entitled Crunch (featuring the son of the legendary jazz drummer, Jerry Granelli, bassist J.A. Granelli as well as saxophonist Peter Epstein), which likewise is music that sticks out head and shoulders above much of the last decade’s worth of deletions as well as the recordings not even worth mentioning that miraculously and curiously sell like hotcakes. Only time will tell whether “timeless” actually means crossing over the boundaries of time for generations to come, or whether it insinuates a literal fading out of music history memory altogether, that is if it ever even entered into the music world’s consciousness in the first place.

If you have not heard of Tronzo, there’s certainly nothing to be ashamed of. But if you’re a guitar fan of any music genre, then I recommend you refer to his selected discography left at the end of this piece. Go out and make a purchase or two, come back home, have a listen, and tell a friend. After I myself first heard his debut recording as leader (Roots, 1994) around its initial release on Knitting Factory Records, I thought then as I do now that Tronzo was not only trying to say something new, he was (and still is). Creating an altogether new and emotional language via the sounds, technique, creativity, and brilliant concept and original approach he possesses and plays on his electric bottleneck slide guitar, Tronzo is a pioneer of the modern slide guitar. It’s still somewhat of a shock, in the fact that now eight years after this first recording, most people still have not heard of Tronzo and his unique music even though around the time of his debut, he was being heralded as one of the "Top 100 Guitarists of the 20th Century" by Musician Magazine.

With Tin Machine group guitarist, Reeves Gabrels, Tronzo recorded Night In Amnesia (Upstart, 1995) which serves as a nice introduction into the world of Tronzo. Tronzo has proven that he is first and foremost a modernist who is as innovative and versatile as they come. His interpretations of jazz standards are as far from any related regurgitation or plagiarism, as he has obviously absorbed the jazz tradition in particular. From his Roots recording, on which he adds new life to Thelonius Monk’s “Monk’s Dream”, Ellington’s “Rockin’ In Rhythm”, and Eddie Harris’ “Listen Here”, he breaths fresh air into Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia” on Night in Amnesia. It should be mentioned, though, that in addition to his interpretational capabilities, Tronzo is a nonpareil composer of spacious avant-gardish as well as lyrical and rhythmically funky themes.

Like guitarist Marc Ribot, Tronzo played a significant role within Lurie’s Lounge Lizards (Queen of All Ears, 1998), as a special solo feature was dedicated to him for each and every performance while he was with the band. Also a regular member of slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein’s quartet, Spanish Fly (Fly By Night, 1996 and Rags To Britches, 1993), and having worked with Paul Motian as well as John Cale—Tronzo literally encompasses the history of the guitar (and not just jazz guitar) in whatever surrounding he places himself. In an era where musicians are no longer ashamed of admitting their varied musical influences, Tronzo goes a step further and reflects his jazz influences along with his non-jazz mentors within his playing, on record and in his live performances. From the late Lowell George (ex-guitarist and lead singer of the 70’s rock group Little Feat), Duane Allman, Ry Cooder, country & western lapsteel legend Buddy Emmons, and blues grand-daddy Son House, to Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix, and James Blood Ulmer—Tronzo has dipped his very personal and lyrical though greatly influenced style into the wells and worlds of be-bop, blues, country & western, rock, funk, and experimental atonal music. He has subsequently created not just a fusion between any random two music genres, but of all genres, as he is an unclassifiable player to say the least.

One of the instrument’s few (if not only) exclusive non-Blues music practitioners, with no equal let alone competition, Tronzo is the lone traveler on the road he paves. Though we could use a few more regular recordings to document his progress and versatility, it’s the live performances that truly capture Tronzo within his element. To witness his genius at work, or I should say at play, is to see and hear something you previously never would have thought imaginable. His resourcefulness ranges from an array of traditional slides to such slide implements as a plastic cup and medicine bottle, and when you see and hear him once you’ll want to see and hear him again, and again, and again.

Though Tronzo may share similar experimental guitar concepts as his contemporaries Fred Frith, Bill Frisell, and Elliott Sharp, he has created his own quite personal vocabulary via the bottleneck slide. A fluent player of dobro, electric dobro, and electric guitar, Tronzo’s bottleneck slide guitar represents his focus. The instrument certainly poses a dilemma to pollsters that have created the “Miscellaneous Instrument” category in nominating the guitar-related instrumentalist, which he admittedly is not holding his breath for in regards to a nomination any time soon.

As many musicians unfortunately have to face reconsidering their way of life due to the overwhelming financial challenges that the lifestyle of a music artist poses, Tronzo had to temporarily put music down and actually moved to Holland for a time. “I ran out of things to think of, to make things work. I got what you call the middle of the end. I wasn’t prepared to dive off and say fuck it, I’m still going to do this. I said, you know what, we’ve got to stop, back up, and regroup, and cook this turkey some other way.” Returning to New York City around 1998, his closer music friends fortunately would not let him stay out of the performance arena for too long, and thankfully Tronzo has been willing to selectively make a return to playing with certain friends and fellow musicians ever since. He has been able to find a more comfortable middle ground versus “middle of the end”, as he put it, and the time-off actually served as a learning and growing phase of his own musical development, which he now calls, “one of the best things I could have done. I rediscovered something that I had misplaced that I knew I had misplaced over the years—the joy of playing (simply) for the shear joy of playing.”

Tronzo now chooses when and where to play, not to mention with whom he plays. He is much more selective and “selfish”, as he uncompromisingly admits, not doing anything he doesn’t have to do, or want to do for that matter.

Be sure not to miss Tronzo, who will be the featured special guest with Michael Blake’s group on 2/15 & 2/16 at the Knitting Factory in NYC as part of the Knit’s 15th Anniversary month.

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY:

• Tronzo Trio ­ Roots (Knitting Factory, 1994)
• Spanish Fly ­ Rags To Britches (Knitting Factory, 1994)
• Spanish Fly ­ Fly By Night (Accurate, 1994)
• David Tronzo/Reeves Gabrels ­ Night In Amnesia (Upstart, 1995)
• Michael Blake ­ Kingdom Of Champa (Intuition, 1997)
• Lounge Lizards ­ Queen of All Ears (Strange & Beautiful Music, 1998)
• Slow Poke ­ Redemption (Intuition, 1999)
• Tronzo/Granelli/Epstein ­ Crunch (Love Slave, 1999)