Oregon Music News

September 5, 2016 Time for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation conducted right here at world famous World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland. With me today is someone you have heard, and if you pay attention you’ve seen in almost every major venue in Oregon. You’ve seen her behind the sound board sliding pots, turning dials, punching buttons and screens. She makes the sound happen. Her name is Shira Otchis and I’m not kidding when I say she is beloved among musicians because of her talents as a sound engineer. Her company, She Rock Sound is always busy. From Storm Large to a Pink Floyd cover band. From world famous Jazz musicians in concert halls, to metal in dive bars.

August 25, 2016 Welcome back to the Coffeeshop…World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland and another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today Jim Brunberg, musician, music venue owner and now a podcaster with his twin seven-year-old daughters Vern and Dana. You know him from his music, from being one of the founders of Mississippi Studios and Revolution Hall. He’s a busy guy and we’re glad he took time to be here. His family podcast is called Roam Schooled, as he puts it, “a program about what happens when a father and his twin daughters put away their devices and go in search of answers.” We’ll find out all about that and where they’ve been, about the evolution of Mississippi studios which he helped build with his bare hands, and why on earth a person would start a major new venue! The tune at the end features Jim and Ben Landsverk as Wonderly.

August 9, 2016 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today composer/pianist/drummer George Colligan is here. He’s headlining the Third Annual Montavilla Jazz Festival the weekend of August 20 and 21…that’s a Saturday and Sunday. OMN is a media sponsor once again. George blew into town…well he moved here, but it felt like that…a few years ago and suddenly you couldn’t go to anyplace featuring Jazz and not see him. He tours internationally with Jack DeJohnette among others. He teaches and maintains an extremely busy schedule here and everywhere. He has two vastly different programs at the Montavilla Jazz Festival, ending the show both nights.

July 27, 2016 Welcome back to the coffeeshop in which we conduct the OMN Coffeeshop Conversations, that being World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland, Oregon. With me today is the mult-talented singer, dancer, band leader Pepe Raphael, he of the Bottle Blondes, Pink Martini and his new adventure Duo Kitty ~ Raphael. A vocal duo with Megan Yvonne. They will be staging a unique and exciting tango vocal concert, "Dueling Tango Duos" with the famed Argentinians Duo Fuertes ~ Varnerin, making their United States debut, at the Old Church, Friday, August 5, 7:30pm, $20, tickets. How are the Bottle Blondes? How does he feel about Pink Martini? And what about his long career as a ballet and modern dancer? There’s nobody quite like Pape Raphael!

July 15, 2016 Well the Blues Festival is over and it’s time to get back to the normal cycle of OMN Coffeeshop Conversations right here in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland. With me in the place is drummer Tyrone Hendrix and if you have heard funky music around here, you most likely have heard him…with Liv Warfield, Doo-Doo Funk, Farnell Newton, you name it and he has provided the means for you to shake everything you got. He has a new album called Rhythm On Life Vol 1. It just came out and since he calls it Vol. 1 he must have Vol 2 already in mind. The cream of Portland soul and funk are on it: Jarod Lawson, Tony Ozier, Farnell, Saeeda Wright, Nafisaria Scroggins-Thomas..i could do on and on.

June 23, 2016 We're back at World Cup Coffee and Tea for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. The 2016 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is coming up and I thought you’d like to meet the person who is responsible for allowing OMN to have our famed “Comfy Booth” at the festival since 2010. She’s Amanda Gresham who’s Delta Music Experience Louisiana Pavilion near the Front Porch Stage is also home to United By Music North America an organization headed up by Amanda and her mother Barbara Hammerman. UBMNA is performance-based program for musically talented people with development and intellectual challenges and delays. We’ll find out about all that and her adventures in New Orleans.

June 15, 2016 Coffeeshop conversations is back. I’m OMN’s Tom D’Antoni and today we’re not in our usual spot, the cupping room at World Cup Coffee and Tea and that’s because our guest is in Los Angeles where she had a gig last night. Liv Warfield, as most of you know, had a great run while she was living in Portland, Growing as an artist and a person. Then she was enfolded in purple as a singer with Prince. He shepherded her solo album, The Unexpected, and was the most important factor in her emergence as a powerful solo artist. When Prince died, the first thing on the mind of many Portlanders was…how is Liv? How will this affect her career…more importantly, her life. She’s not far into the healing and dealing process and she’s hardly talked to anyone about it. She and I go way back.

May 26, 2016 It’s another day in the Coffeeshop…World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan…and another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. with me today is bass player John Mazzocco who has been a major part of the Oregon music scene for decades as a member of Paul deLay and Curtis Salgado’s bands, and the several bands he’s in now. He toured with John Lee Hooker for three years. Boogie Woogie piano player David Vest told me to ask John Mazzocco about breakfast with John Lee…and I will. He also has a thriving business by the name of Blue Dot Communications which trains business leaders how to make presentations. There is a connection to his musical career there…we’ll find out what that is. Road stories, bandstand stories, a slice of what it’s like to be a working musician for a lifetime.

May 18, 2016 We;re in the coffeshop again. As always, it’s World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. With me today is an Oregon Music Hall of Fame member…known to all as the Boogie Cat, the best dressed man in town…Norman Sylvester. An Oregonian since 1957, he’s been playing music for almost as long as he’s lived here. He’s a Blues and Soul guitarist, singer, composer and ambassador to the world for Northwest music. But how much do you know about him? He’s got a great life story, inspiring and worth spending the whole hour with us. I ran into him at last Sunday’s memorial for Sweet Baby James Benton, a friend of his. He played there and when I was talking to him, invited him to the coffeeshop today. And he said yes.

May 12, 2016 Back in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland Oregon. This is another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today it’s…well I suppose we should call him a keyboard player because he can play them all but I think Louis Pain would rather be known as an organist because we’ve seen him so many times sitting behind the mighty, mighty Hammond B3 and playing with people like Paul deLay, Mel Brown, LaRhonda Steele, Sweet Baby James Benton, Soul Vaccination, Lloyd Jones…shall I go on? I could. He’s got a new album called Rock Me Baby with LaRhonda Steele which has gotten national recognition and airplay. We’ll find out how he got to be named “King Louie.” He’s one of the busiest musicians in the state. Glad he took some time out to talk with us. P.S. Just to clarify......During the conversation, I asked Louis about the bands he's currently in. Somehow the conversation took some left and right turns and we never got back to the fact that he plays with Lloyd Jones and, when he's in town, Ty Curt

May 5, 2016 We’re not at our usual stand, World Cup Coffee and Tea for this OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Because he’s so busy, we came to the temple of records to meet the Grand Vizier of music in Portland, Music Millennium’s owner Terry Currier. If there’s a more central figure in the music industry around here, I’ve never met him. Most of the time, when he’s interviewed, everybody always asks him how the store is doing and will the record store business survive. I don’t want to do that. If you’ve ever sat with Terry, the most fun is to talk about music. Thing is, his taste is so broad, he can be talking about the Kinks one minute and thrash metal the next. Let’s talk to the person who has done more for music and musicians in Oregon than anybody else.

April 28, 2016 An apology to Ms. Day and the rest of you. The author of this piece made a stupid mistake when recording and it sounds like we're in the bottom of a large metal cylinder. The author of this article feels like an idiot. Sorry. --The Author of this Article Welcome to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another Oregon Music News Coffeeshop Conversation. In the coffeeshop with me today is Valerie Day, who with her husband John Smith are Nu Shooz, the Oregon Music Hall of Fame band who’s tune, “I Can’t Wait” is still, after thirty years, still one of those tunes that can easily get stuck in your head all day. And it does all over the world, every single day. I’ll ask her how she feels about being responsible for that. They have a new album called Bagtown coming out in May. There’s more than one story behind that. Coffeshop Conversations are always one-on-one…even this one. I told her that if Kate Power would do one with the Steve Einhorn, than she could too. And she did.

April 21, 2016 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today we’ve got a true renaissance man with us. I know that term gets thrown around, but in this case it fits well. Composer/multi-instrumentalist David Ornette Cherry comes back to Portland to write but when he’s not here he’s constantly in motion, travelling coast-to-coast and world-wide and playing very diverse musics. He is, as you may know the son of beloved Jazz and World Music composer/trumpeter Don Cherry, one of the most influential musicians of his era. Don is gone, but the spirit of his music is being advanced by his son. Of course David has his own voice and is involved in a wide variety of performance, including theater. It’s always engaging to talk with him.

April 8, 2016 Here we are once again at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. I’ve interviewed thousands of people and I’ve never met one more gracious than the guy who joins us today. You have heard Eddie Martinez guitar on dozens upon dozens of big hits. From Mick Jagger to Robert Palmer…yes that was him crunching “Addicted to Love.” He was one of the premier session guitarists when he lived in New York. He still gets calls but he’s been a Portlander for a long time now. Ever wonder what goes on in those sessions? And how session players have to be part chameleon and part singular artists? He has a new album in the works, too. We’ll find out.

March 30, 2016 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Gilsan in Portland for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. I’m Tom D’Antoni and this time I’ve got with me J. Michael Kearsey of the Brothers of Baladi, a band celebrating forty years of making their own special brand of Middle Eastern music. Their new album is called Gravity of Love…we’ll find out what that means. It has been eight years since the last Brothers of Baladi album and this one is crafted with much care and patience over a four-year period. It also has a new twist. There are electronics on this one. A new step which we’ll also find out about. Michael is also Secretary of the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and we’ll find out the latest from them.

March 24, 2016 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. We took a couple weeks off while I had some R&R. I’m OMN’s Tom D’Antoni. I’ve been looking forward to sitting down and talking with Curtis Salgado around the time his new album The Beautiful Lowdown is coming out. It’s always fun to talk with Curtis, he’s a brilliant guy, a great singer, and the world has been waiting for his follow up to Soul Shot his last album. He and I have very similar taste when it comes to music, he returned an Otis Blackwell LP that I had loaned him about three years ago. He could have kept it longer,I knew it was I good hands. I had just handed him the new album, which he had never seen in it's final form ;and we just jumped on in from there.

February 24, 2016 Joining me today at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan is the man who is pretty much responsible for several generations of Jazz musicians in Oregon. I’m not exaggerating. Most of our greatest players have come out of Portland State University’s Jazz program. Charlie Gray invented it and was in charge for twenty-seven years until he retired last spring. He was named a PDX Jazz Festival Jazz Master this year and he’s going to tell us all about how he did all that, and maybe about directing the Ice Capades orchestra before he came here.

February 11, 2016 Welcome to World Cup Coffee and Tea for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. With me today is author and former Oregonian film critic Shawn Levy. Shawn’s 2014 book De Niro: A Life was an exhaustive, revealing portrait. It was his eighth book, others including Rat Pack, and Paul Newman: A Life. We’ll find out what he’s working on next, if he misses the daily grind of reviewing movies and how he found that topless photo of Sophia Loren for his next book. Is that tease enough for you to line up at the front door when it comes out in October? Maybe I’m just speaking for myself…I don't think so.

February 2, 2016 We’ve got a percussionist and a poet in the coffeeshop this week…all in the person of Heidi Shuler. The coffeeshop is World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland...and we'rewell into our second year of Coffeeshop Conversations. I met Heidi at the very first Mysti Krewe of Nimbus’ Mardi Gras Ball. She was the percussionist in Steve Kerin’s band. The 2016 Ball at the Wonder Ballroom on Saturday, February 6 is the 6th annual. OMN is a media sponsor again this year. She was a founding member of the Krewe. She’s more than an multi-percussionist. She’s also a poet and I’m going to ask her to read a couple for us.

January 28, 2016 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea, the coffeeshop home of OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations. With me today is a gentleman who doesn’t do hardly any interviews. Of course this being a conversation, it isn’t really an interview. At least that’s what I told him. He is Keith Schreiner, you may know him as Auditory Sculpture, although he isn’t using that tag as much anymore. He was one-third of the legendary Portland electronic trio Dahlia. He was a member of the Hip Hop group Suckapunch. He is known for producing and helping to re-imagine talents like Stephanie Schneiderman and many more. He has pretty much dropped off the performing landscape and we’ll find out why and what he’s doing. I got to know him from doing stories on him over the years but moreso from working with him on the assisted suicide documentary directed by Greg Bond and me, for which he did the score. Time to talk to Keith.