BAU Wow!

Friday Night Jazz heats up the night at BAU in Beacon

by Jeffery Battersby

If the way a musician handles an interview is any indication of the musical ride you’re about to take, then Marvin Bugalu Smith promises to be something akin to a musical Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Within ten minutes of sitting down for a pre-gig meal of collard greens, fried chicken, and green beans at BJ’s on Main Street, Mr. Smith had already pursued a slapdash conversational journey that touched on at least ten separate subjects, from the quality of the proprietress’ new coif (very nice), the tools necessary for digital video editing (Bugalu has just finished editing and burning a DVD from a recent performance), to the perfection of BJ’s fried chicken and collard greens in comparison to… well let’s just say that Mr. Smith won’t be getting any advertising contracts with Kentucky Fried Chicken anytime soon.

In short, Marvin Bugalu Smith is a bundle of kinetic energy. His voice has a rough-edged Miles Davis-like rasp to it and his conversation is flavored with a kind of Beat Generation be-bop that makes you wonder what it must have been like to talk with Jack Kerouac. Interviewing Marvin directly is the equivalent of catching a whirlwind in a paper bag. And the best way to take care of business here is to fire up the tape recorder and hope you capture something good.

What brings Mr. Smith to Beacon on a Friday night is not, strictly speaking, the soul food on the table, it’s what’s about to take place an hour-and-a-half later in the back yard of the Beacon Artist’s Union’s (BAU) Main Street gallery space. Over the last several weeks BAU has been hosting a bi-weekly Friday night series of live jazz that features Marvin “Bugalu” Smith and Friends. The friends consist of two drummers, a sax player, guitarist, and as the night proceeds, a world class soprano sax player. Smith and Friends come to Beacon by way of Harald Plochberger and his wife Nora. Harald is one of BAU’s several artists and he and his wife happened upon the musicians when they were playing at a venue in

Newburgh, and asked if they’d be willing to come and play in Beacon. Always looking for new places to do business, Marvin instantly agreed.

Smith has played with an amazing collection of artists including Archie Sepp, Sun Ra, Chet Baker, Mal Waldron, Charles Mingus, and Art Farmer. He’s toured Europe and the US and for many years made a living nailing down the beats for a wide range of jazz greats. He now spends his time recording, teaching, and playing at local venues. But it’s clearly teaching that he loves. Among Marvin’s “friends” are two drummers—Kesai Riddick and Andrew Greeney—that Marvin has taken under his wings. Both were music majors at SUNY New Paltz and it’s obvious that they’re both talented, but Marvin is quick to point out that they were in the bush leagues until he started working with them. “The first thing I had to do,” says Marvin, “was teach these guys. I looked at the situation and said to myself that they were already in college studying for their B.A. so they could be music majors, but the level that the college was saying was the level had me saying that these guys were like my kids. They were playing in the sandbox. And I had to ask myself, ‘why is it that these boys are playing so weak?’”

While it may sound harsh, it’s clear that Marvin’s intentions are pure. He’s just a teacher that sees the native talent in his students and he isn’t afraid to push, cajole, and maybe even embarrass his students into being something better then they presently are. In fact, far from being offended or hurt, both Andrew and Kesai agree with the assessment, which makes the restaurant start to sound like the church next door when both the “boys” start shouting back their amen-like “He’s right! He’s not lying! He’s exactly right.”

Dinner ends with Marvin lamenting that he didn’t have time for the most important part of the meal: sweet potato pie. But he knows he’s got a job to do, so everyone follows him out the door.

The music kicks off at a little after 7:00 pm, a huge rainstorm having driven us all inside the gallery for a small prelude to the real show to come. Saxophonist Dereck James starts the set, with Kesai on drums, Kevin Golden on guitar, and Andrew Greeney’s brother Lewis on stand-up bass. They play for thirty-minutes inside the gallery’s cramped quarters until it’s obvious that the weather has cleared and they can move back outside to the stage in the garden area behind BAU. Here the acoustics are better. In fact, they’re great. The wedge shaped garden area pushes the music right into the laps of the listeners.

While the others play Marvin bounces around back in the gallery, walking outside to grab a smoke and then buzzing back into the gallery and to the back door while Kesai and Andrew play a tag-team on the drums. Solos pass from sax, to bass, to guitar, and drums and back again and the little area behind BAU starts to light up. Heads start hanging out of apartment windows and then disappear and reappear as they walk through the gallery’s front door. Kesai and Andrew continue to trade places and Marvin’s buzzing around begins to feel like a tease. He’s sticking his head in and out of the back door, walking up near the stage, checking out the scene, and grooving to the beats. Still, oyu’re not disappointed. So far the music is great. In fact it’s so great that if you didn’t know any better you’d swear you were in some outdoor club in NYC.

Marvin hits the stage at just about 8:30 pm and the first time his sticks hit the skins the air turns electric. He finds beats that you didn’t know existed. Beats between the beats. 16ths, 32nds, 64ths, and 128^th notes. He’s hitting everything with anything he can; the tip of the sticks, the neck, the shoulder, the shaft, the butt. At any given interval he’s using every single inch of the drumsticks, spinning them around and slapping them down in perfect time. Marvin Bugalu Smith isn’t just playing along with the music; he’s driving it forward. And every single musician on the stage rises to the occasion. Andrew and Kesai either playing percussion on the side or trading places with Marvin and each other mid-song and even mid-beat without a single slip.

Shortly after Marvin begins playing, soprano saxophonist Kali Z. Fasteau hops up on stage and begins trading licks with Derreck. First soprano sax, then alto, and back again, then the bass and guitar and over again to Marvin on the drums. It’s a jazz frenzy that you can’t, no, forget that YOU DON’T WAN’T to pull yourself away from. The whirlwind is out of the bag. The night is filled with music and you think to yourself, “this is world-class jazz at BAU in Beacon,” and you can hardly believe what you’re hearing.

BAU’s Friday Jazz series is a bi-weekly event. The cover charge is $5.The next show is Friday, July 15^th and will continue every other Friday night until the end of the summer.

Beacon Artist’s

Union

161 Main Street

845-591-2331

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