July 09, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Music with a mission

by Steve Shih

To date, 991 coalition soldiers have died in Iraq -- a grim statistic that is galvanizing artists all across the nation to speak out.

One of those artists is Bay Area saxophonist Ron Stallings, who responded to the situation in Iraq by conceiving a concert of Latin jazz and spoken word, stitched together by the theme of peaceful unity.

"One life is so incredibly important and irreplaceable and valuable to the nth degree how can we possibly ever involve ourselves in something like war in which we decide that many lives are expendable," Stallings said.

Called "A Context for Peace," it will be performed at the Stanford Jazz Festival tonight. Built around the rhythms of Afro-Cuban music, the concert will include eight original compositions by Stallings, Melecio Magdaluyo, John Santos, and John Calloway. Stallings, along with a nine-piece band, have collaborated to create two 50 minute sets that range from raucous dissonant screeching to somber and diminished harmonization.

Each new musical work will be followed by a spoken-word presentation by Hilton Obenzinger, Timm West and San Francisco poet laureate Devorah Major. According to Stallings, the pieces range from West's 20 ways to keep peace in the ghetto to Obenzinger's reflection on a cultural experience in the Middle East.

"We're so blessed in the Bay Area to have such caliber of musicians and writers it's a no-brainer to draw from that well," Stallings said.

The show, which debuted last December at Le Pena in Berkeley, opens with one of Stallings' own original pieces, entitled "Buscando La Paz" (translation: searching for peace). The composition was inspired by the fact that the idea of peace had become almost foreign, like an unexplored landscape.

Mixing the styles of Thelonious Monk and Tito Puente, the song vacillates, beginning with a harmonious sound, and then breaking apart in chaos, as several musicians improvise over one another, each dueling to be heard over the other.

"We took a lot of chances with the music; you're going to hear some pretty experimental pieces and everything is aimed at creating a feeling," he said.

Born in Oakland in 1946, Stallings came of age during the Vietnam War. He felt a disturbing similarity between that conflict and the current war in Iraq, but marching in demonstrations were not enough to satisfy his craving for peace. Stallings decided to use his music to look at peace while trying to inspire others.

"It's not a flower-power hour," he said. "I mean for the show to bring up in me the type of emotion I had in the demonstrations. I want to inspire movement within people."

Stallings grew up on the corner of Broadway and Kearney in San Francisco's North Beach area listening to John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Julian "Cannonball" Adderly at the Jazz Workshop. In 1994, he traveled to Cuba with the encouragement of his friend and peer, Wayne Wallace, and fell in love with Latin jazz.

"It was kind of like the first time you taste a new spice, like curry, you just can't get enough," he said.

In mixing the two sounds, Stallings -- who has performed with Jerry Garcia, Chucho Valdes and Dr. John -- blends two seemingly dissimilar forms of jazz into one. Be-bop, with its formless improvisation, merges with the strict rhythms of Afro-Cuban music.

But the show's fusion of musical styles is more than just a testament to his own abilities.

"I believe the topic is big enough to encompass all styles," he said.

And while Stallings doesn't think "A Context for Peace" is constructed in the same vein as Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," he nevertheless hopes the concert will confront the audience with the same issue.

"I see that it (the war in Iraq) is certainly becoming the proverbial 'elephant in the room', the enormity of the animal being such that it can neither be ignored nor simply wished away," he said.
Editorial Intern Steve Shih can be reached at sshih@paweekly.com.

What: "Ron Stallings: A Context For Peace." This evening of jazz and spoken word will showcase saxophonist Stallings and a group of Bay Area musicians and poets who are dedicated to creating a vision, and a context, for peace. The event is part of the 2004 Stanford Jazz Festival.

Where: Stanford's Campbell Recital Hall

When: Tonight at 8 p.m.

Cost: Tickets are $20 general; $25 students; $18 seniors/Palo Alto Jazz Alliance members. For tickets call (650) 725-ARTS (2787) or visit www.ticketweb.com.


Info: Please call (650) 736-0324 or visit stanfordjazz.org.

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