Edition: U.S. / Global

The Pop Life

By Sheila Rule
Published: May 19, 1993

Woody Allen's Career

Even at the height of his legal battle with Mia Farrow, Woody Allen showed up at Michael's Pub in Manhattan to play his clarinet with the New Orleans Funeral and Ragtime Orchestra on Monday evenings, a routine he began more than two decades aqo. Mr. Allen describes himself as a "completely amateur player," "not a real musician" and "not a particularly good musician at all." Now those who are curious about this film maker's musical talents can judge for themselves. Mr. Allen can be heard on a new album, "The Bunk Project" (Music Masters).

This album of traditional New Orleans jazz features the New York Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Eddy Davis, the banjo player, with Mr. Allen on clarinet, and was recorded over several jam sessions at Harkness House in Manhattan. The other musicians include Simon Wettenhall and Peter Ecklund, on trumpet; Dan Barrett and Graham Stewart, trombonists; Cynthia Sayer and Todd Robbins, pianists; Greg Cohen and Brian Nalepka, bassists, and John Gill, Giampaolo Biagi and Paul Keim, drummers.

Mr. Allen met Mr. Davis 30 years ago when as a comedian on the nightclub circuit he sat in with Mr. Davis's band in Chicago. When Mr. Davis was considering releasing the Harkness House sessions on an album -- the 14 tunes were unrehearsed and called out at random by the musicians -- Mr. Allen said he remembered saying: "Fine, as long as I'm just an obscure sideman on it. Keep me really in the background. I don't want to represent myself as a musician or be a musician."

But Mr. Allen, a self-taught musician who neither reads nor writes music, said in a telephone interview in Manhattan yesterday, "If I could live my life over again and pick anything I wanted, I would love to be a great instrumentalist."

"It's a wonderful, wonderful thing, but it's not how it worked out," he added. "I've always felt secure and have some talent in terms of comedy and film making, but in terms of music, I honestly feel it's something I love and have enthusiasm for but no real ear and no real gift. I've got a lot of mileage because I'm a celebrity so I get an opportunity to play. Another musician with comparable talent but who is not known would never get a jazz band at Michael's Pub for over 20 years or the chance to play much or record."

Mr. Allen describes jazz as "something that got into my blood" when, as a teen-ager, he heard the likes of the clarinetists Sidney Bechet and George Lewis. Even now, he says, some of his greatest enjoyment in film making comes from deciding the score. Although he says he loves all kinds of jazz, his favorite is the traditional New Orleans style because "the simplicity of it, the emotion of it has always got through to me." He has a collection of clarinets, including top-of-the-line Selmer and Buffet models, but plays a Rampone that "cost $12 in a pawnshop."

"I practice every single day," he said. "I practically never ever miss. There have been times in my life when I practiced two hours a day when I was really dedicated and other times when I practiced half an hour a day. But I always practice. Even to play at my level -- the rock-bottom minimum -- you've got to practice." Rap Plus

"Jazzmatazz" (Chrysalis/ERG) is the newly released album by Guru, who is half the rap duo Gang Starr. He calls the record an experiment in melding jazz and hip-hop and says it called for something old and something new.

"I wanted to work with three of the older jazz cats who had done records sampled by rap groups and bring them back on the scene," he said in a telephone interview in Manhattan the other day, "and I wanted to work with three newer, younger jazz cats who already know about rap."

He ended up with some heavyweights. Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith and Donald Byrd are on the album, as are Branford Marsalis, Ronnie Jordan and Courtney Pine. Guru also brought in M. C. Solaar, the French rapper, and the singers N'Dea Davenport, from the Brand-New Heavies, and Carlene Anderson, from the Young Disciples.

"I had a knowledge of everybody's music but I had no lyrics," Guru said of working with the jazz musicians. "I had a concept for 'Jazzmatazz' and 10 titles. I matched the titles with drum tracks I did and matched those up with people. One groove sounded like something Roy Ayers would like to play on. For every person, they heard the raw track and saw that I had the vibe. Every person would play what he wanted, improvisational stuff, for a couple of tracks. I was writing lyrics as they were playing. I wrote all my lyrics in the studio."

Gang Starr, which also features D.J. Premier, is considered to be a pioneer in connecting jazz with rap. But Guru says his new recording, while still keeping its "street credibility," is different from the duo's efforts.

"Point-blank it's different because of the fact that I use live instruments, and lyrically it's a more laid-back attitude for homeboys and older people," he said. "This is an album I could give to my uncle or godfather or father, who influenced me with a lot of jazz when I was growing up. I could give this to them and not have to explain it. They like Gang Starr, but it takes a lot more explanation." From Living Colour

Living Colour, a band rooted in the hard rock of Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Led Zeppelin, says its success has not brought it into that genre's mainstream. But that has as much to do with where the group is "coming from musically," its guitarist, Vernon Reid, says, as with the fact that it is a black band in an area of music that is almost exclusively white.

"When you hear the sound, you don't hear the color," Mr. Reid said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles the other day, where the group was performing. "The band had a successful first record, we toured with the Rolling Stones and that paints a picture of a band that is apparently mainstream rock-and-roll. But that's not at all the case. We've always considered ourselves an alternative band in the sense that we mix different music. In a lot of ways, we're a band that has been on the margins of a lot of categories. We have contradictory stuff happening with us that somehow manages to fit together."

Living Colour is to perform at Roseland in Manhattan on Saturday night; it also has a new album, "Stain" (Epic). The band's music, which ranges from heavy rock to funk-inflected rhythms and reggae, has been described as requiring one's attention, because of its quality and its social consciousness. For example, a song on the album titled "Auslander," which is German for foreigner, addresses xenophobia, and another, "Go Away," has to do with becoming overwhelmed by war, starvation and other ills. But Mr. Reid says Living Colour is not trying to turn people around politically.

"The lyrics are more about us trying to figure out how the world works and how these things that happen relate to our own lives," he said. "It's more about that than about telling people what they should or shouldn't do."