Brazzaville in Echo Park
I first heard the group Brazzaville back in 2003 really quite by accident. I had just set up my computer network at our condo and I wanted to check out the download speeds using our new DSL. A friend of mine from a previous computer company I had a worked for had a few CDs ripped on his server for me to download to test my speeds. I know, it’s a nerd thing. I downloaded Brazzaville’s first three albums because one of the albums sounded different and intrigued me. Somnambulista.
Years earlier I saw a special screening at the Director’s Guide Theater in Los Angeles of the German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). They were screening that with Blade Runner (1982), one of my favorite movies, where the art director, David Snyder, was there in person to talk about the visual similarities between Dr. Caligari and Blade Runner. One of the main characters in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was a somnambulist, a sleepwalker, who was under the mind control of Dr. Caligari. So when I saw the Brazzaville album, Somnambulista, I thought to myself, “Clever name, let’s check these guys out.”
The music is like nothing I have heard before. It’s a fusion of rock, lounge jazz, and world music with a familiar attitude. Growing up in Southern California, I was able to identify with some of the lyrics about Los Angeles. I connected to the music and the lyrics that are so poetically written in the word painting style of one of my favorite writers, Jack Kerouac. Since then I’ve bought all their albums and have been amazed ever since.
Fast-forward 2009.
Earlier in November, I received an email from Facebook about an event I was invited to. It was from David Arthur Brown, the lead singer from Brazzaville. It was for a show in January at The Echo in Echo Park. I told Skye when I got the email. “Okay, I know what I would like to do for my birthday.” We bought tickets and waited for January 6th.
Although family time is very important, our new year’s resolution this year was to have at least one ‘date night’ a month, just Skye and me. Since the birth of our 2 year old we’ve noticed we hadn’t really gone out as ‘adults’ in a while, occasionally but not regularly. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with Skyler; he is such a joy to be with. Once a month isn’t that bad, in way it’s really a win-win situation. Skyler gets to spend the night over at Nana and Papa and eat ice cream and cookies all night long and Skye and I get to go out to diner and show.
I did a quick search on the Internet as to what kind of restaurants were in the area. The Echo is off of Sunset Blvd. just north of Echo Park. The restaurant that caught my eye was called, Masa of Echo Park. It is an Italian bakery and Café, known for great Chicago style pizza. My review to be posted.
After dinner we headed down to The Echo, it was just a couple of doors down. We stood in line to wait for them to let us in. The line wasn’t too long we were probably 7th or 8th in line.
The doors opened at 830pm, the first show was at 9pm. The Echo is a rather small but clean venue. I was impressed. There was a bar one side, house left. The stage and a ‘dance floor’/ general admission area about the size of a 2 1/2 car garage. It wasn’t big but it was big enough. The opening band was just okay. They called themselves, Salt Petal. I really can’t comment on the music much. The lead singer sang and played the accordion, which was cool but other than that it was really quite unmemorable. I guess the bad thing was that I feel she didn’t make a connection with the audience. Still, live music is much better than sticking in a CD until the main event.
10pm and the main event. Brazzaville was on stage. Before starting David introduced himself and the band and said if we wanted to hear any songs, just shout them out and they would play it. They started off with a nice number called “Love is the Answer,” a song about a runaway from their Hastings Street CD.
I was really impressed with the musicality of the band and their leader. The band was having a good time and the audience was having a good time. What surprised me was how grateful and polite David was up on stage acknowledging the applause. He seemed very personable and very passionate about his music.
Now for the drama. So we were standing about one-third back from the stage, a perfect view of the band when I leaned over to Skye to say, “Wow, we can see the stage.” Normally when we’d go to events the tallest people or people with the biggest hair will stand or sit in front of us. I had spoke too soon. I’m all for enjoying yourself and having a great time, however, there was a group of three people that shoved their way in front of us, an older gentleman, an older lady, and what was maybe their twenty-something year old daughter, not sure. What I am sure of was that the two women were on their way to being drunk and already past obnoxious. The guy just kept to himself and kept beat to the music, but the women just bounced around, sang along, would knock into me or Skye with their beer in hand spilling here and there; the big kicker, the older lady’s hair smelled like dead flowers. Seriously, if you’re going to push your way to the front of a crowd and act obnoxious, please don’t put on old lady perfume. Please, for the love of God! It took me two weeks to get rid of that smell… I digress.
The concert was awesome, it being a small venue made it even better. I just wished it could have been a little longer. The best part of the evening was towards the end when David asked the audience what song we wanted to hear. Skye asked me what Skyler’s favorite song was that we play in the car for him when he is tired. “Peach Tree!” she shouted. Another random voice shouted from the crowd “Yeah, Peach Tree.” David’s response, “Oh, that’s a good one.” I was able to record the song on video. It really is not a very good recording, mainly because I was not using a tripod, and the other reason, because the dead flower hair woman in front of me came back from the restroom halfway through the song and knocked me a few times. All I could do was laugh.
Okay, the back-story to this song for me. It’s the first song on their East L.A. Breeze CD. When Skyler was about 3 weeks old we were going to visit my parents for the weekend in San Diego. It was our first major car trip that was going to be more than 10 minutes. Being first time parents everything about babies was pretty much new. We got 5 minutes down the road and Skyler was still crying uncontrollably, I was about to turn the car around when I switched the music over to this CD. It’s one of those songs that paints a picture, layer upon layer. It starts off with a shaker, chh, chh, chh, chh, chh, chh, chh, chh, then on top of that a smooth count in “One… two…one, two, three, four.” Enter the guitar and standing bass plucking softly, then violin and it haunting theme, then the poetry of song. Skyler stopped crying instantly; he sat there in the back wide-awake, just listening. We headed to San Diego with no problems we just had to play this song a few times until he fell asleep. To this day I have this CD in the first position on the CD changer in the car. Skyler is almost 3 and their music still captivates him and me.
More videos can be seen on my website at CounterPointPhotography and on my YouTube Channel.
To hear samples or purchase check them out on iTunes . For more information visit their website Brazzaville-Band.com. Check out their Band Manifesto. It begins with, “Brazzaville is dedicated to the naïve idea that the world is a beautiful place filled with wonder.” Enough said.
This was the last song to close the set, “Single Apartment.” What a great night!
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