Concert Memoir from Rhythmatist Tour 1994

[cpriddims]

Someone asked me what this show was like, so I thought I would share my recollection of it. Maybe some of you saw the tour and can add to this thread with your story.

Rhythmatist show in Columbus, Ohio February 1994. Here's what I remember....

The Percussionists of New Guinea opened up with a fantastic display of djembe and djun-djun master drumming. They played a constant thumping of sound for about 25 minutes. I will never forget how great that was and how the drummers played with so much heart and love. It was truly a deep cultural and musical experience.

Vinx came out and played MC for the whole show. He told jokes, sang accapella, and played with wonderful technique on djembe and talking drum. He did go on way too long at times. It seemed as if they did not have enough songs on the setlist for the night, so he would go on and on with jokes and there was alot of time in-between songs he did.

When Stew came out, he was joined by Ray Lema, Armand Sabal-lecco (bass), Vinx (perc) and Rene Heredia (guitar) and I forget who on keyboards. They did Koteja (Oh bolilla) from Rhythmatist, and two other Ray Lema songs that were NOT from Rhythmatist. This was GREAT! Especially for seeing Stew live for the first time ever. I blew my wad practically. They also played a few Vinx tunes which were laid back, somewhat mellow, but not bad.

Uakti (pronounced Wak-a chee) percussion group from Brazil came out and put the audience into a trance with their minimalistic pulse-like music, (similar to steve reich). After a while it started to make me sleepy, not that it was boring, but it was so very smooth and calming. Audio-therapy if you will.

BTW...You all should check out the Uakti cd entitled "I Ching." It will transform you into another world. It's very spiritual. I also reccommend Airto Moriera's "The Other Side of This."

Back to the show..

Stew did a flamenco duet jam with the amazing flamenco guitarist Rene Heredia. This was one of the highlights. The musical interplay between the two was intense! He did another funk jam with the bassist Armand Sabbal-lecco. That was fun too. It was mostly ad-lib, fly by the seat of your pants type thing.

Stew did a great job of course, and I did get to meet him briefly after the show. He and Ray Lema signed my cd booklet from Rhythmatist. Like a dummy I forgot to bring my camera!

It would be really cool to see the setlist from that tour so I can figure out the other song titles from Ray Lema.

After the show, I was generally satisfied because I finally got to see Stew play and meet him. However, the show itself was kind of thrown together, and Vinx was the glue to hold everything in place. Stew probably played for a total for 45 minutes of the 2 hour concert. The rest was ok, but I wouldn't have gone without Stew being there.

I guess I was expecting more songs from The Rhythmatist cd, and more Stew, but walked away satisfied nevertheless!

[zilboy]

I remember all of the things you mentioned. The show I saw was very similar, maybe even identical.

Stew was wearing white jeans and a white t-shirt. It was really interesting to see the contrast in dynamics between "Koteja" and "Flamenco Jam." One was slamming, in-your-face - I thought that 12" tom would fall right off the stand! Then he used brushes on the flamenco tune. It was so classy.

Uakti (Oo-vak-ti) used a lot of homemade percussion stuff, much like Blue Man Group.

I didn't go to the party afterwards. I'm regretting that to this day. I did try to give Stewart 6 pair of Regal Rock sticks, wrapped up in shiny paper, with a note of thanks. Who knows if he ever got them. I had a former bandmate who was in charge of security. He told me he would see that Stew got them, but someone probably made off with them.

It would be great to see one of the gigs released on DVD one of these days...