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The TaxiCab Verses continues
ITS INTERCONTINENTAL COLLAB
' Happy Hour >
Monday-Friday
4-6pm y
ATHENS??? INTIMATE LIVE MUSIC VENUE
See website for show times & details
hendershotscoffee.com
237 prince ave.
k 706.353.3050
hcndcrshot's
bar ??? music
Hope for Agoldensummer
The Skipperdees
with the Jazz Smoothies
Erin Lovett of Four Eyes
Willower
Smoothie Jazz
Old Skool Trio
Hobohemians
Glasscrafts
Titans of Filth
speakeasy
Wednesday, December 18
Wine
Tasting
featuring
NEW EXECUTIVE
CUEE
Ericin Cead
Heavy
Hues d???ceuvres
+
??? Wines
S2C
RESERVATIONS
REOLIRER
??
tiR5FR5
CATERING AVAILABLE
269 E. BROAD ST. 706.546.5556
ocal musician Jim Wilson spent May
of 2008 in the West African country of
Ghana, where he filled much of his time
with, as he puts it, "play dates" with
native musicians. What time was left he
spent socializing, making field record
ings with a handheld Zoom recorder and
soaking up the atmosphere and inspira
tion. In particular, Wilson says he was struck
by a curious phenomenon: many of the local
taxis touted written statements on their win
dows, but in a way that was far more intimate
than the traditional Western bumper-sticker.
"Towards the end of the trip, I was relax
ing on the roof of the place I was staying at,"
Wilson says. "I was listening to the percussion
field recordings and looking over hundreds of
phrases that I had collected... while [also]
mulling over the fact that I ran into several
teenagers on the trip that were all listening to
early/mid-'90s West Coast hip hop. I started
thinking how cool it would be to put those
three things together somehow."
Although he wasn't formally planning it,
this stream of thought planted the seeds for
what would become the TaxiCab Verses. The
band takes its cues primarily from Ghanaian
High Life music???itself a blend of Ghanaian,
Western jazz and European instrumentation???
and other African styles, such as Afrobeat.
Wilson himself demurs at claiming any
expertise or even staking leadership of the
group. "As far as the style of music that we
do, I see it like this: I'm a dude that is a
part of a thing," he says. "Rather than drive
the thing and steer it wherever I want to
go, I make it a point to take a more impro-
visational, find-out-what-happens approach
and let the thing take us where it wants to
go???with me holding the wheel just enough
to make sure everything doesn't come out too
crazy."
Indeed, collaboration is integral to the
entire spirit of the project. Case in point:
many of the band's members live over 5,000
miles away. After befriending Ghanaian per
cussion ensemble Kofi Atentenben & the
Warriors in 2008???the musical spark that
first ignited the Verses???Wilson reinterpreted
some of that group's material and recorded it
in Athens. In 2010, Wilson and guitarist Matt
Stoessel returned to Ghana, where the Warriors
laid down overdubs. (Wilson also assisted in
completing the Warriors' album Vorsah!, which
translates to Sacrifice!, in 2011.)
"With our rock background, the Athens
songs have a 4/4 feel that the Ghanaians
adapted to, and the songs that the Warriors
contributed had a fixated pulse, a totally
different meter, that we adapted to," says
Wilson. "At times, what we ended up with is
two parallel rhythms, or even tempos, stuck
together."
The list of musicians that make up the local
version of the TaxiCab Verses is a veritable
who's who of Athens scene veterans, including
Wilson, Stoessel, Chuck Bradburn, Chris Heron,
Bryan Howard, Brad Morgan, Jef Whatley,
Richard and Kate Mikulka, Paul McHugh, Jacob
Morris, Trish Scurry, Mumbi Okundaye and,
occasionally, John Fernandes.
Missing from the current lineup is the
late Craig Lieske, of whom Wilson still speaks
in the present-tense. "Craig is a founding
member of the TaxiCab Verses, and had a
big hand in a lot of us meeting and play
ing music together over the years," Wilson
says. "[It was] probably 10 years ago [that]
Craig started asking me to sit in and play and
experiment. [He] brought me in to the world
of improv. [He] continues to be an inspiration
to me."
With tentative 2014 release dates for
both the TaxiCab Verses' long-awaited debut
LP and an EP of traditional percussion from
the Warriors, Wilson and his many colleagues
have their hands full. When asked about the
practicality and functionality of such a long
distance collaboration, Wilson says, "[I take
it] step by step, and [fly] by the seat of my
pants. We live in a time where it is easy to
capture an idea, share the files, tweak it how
you want it and then present the idea... I see
Kofi and the Warriors' lifestyles and goals as
similar to mine and [those of] many of my
peers here. We are musicians... We are who we
are, and we will do what we do.
"Plus, I'm a caveman," he adds, "and I like
to take the long way home."
Gordon Lamb
/ \
WHO: The TaxiCab Verses,
The 19th Brood
WHERE: Green Room
WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 12, 9 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $3 (suggested donation)
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10 FLAGPOLE.COM DECEMBER 11,2013
ANN YARBROUGH