|
Up 'til Now |
|||
|
|
|||
|
"who are you and what the hell did you do with Leon Redbone!!" It’s true that collectively the sound of Zapata’s tunes conjure visions of saw horses, old 78 rpm records, a cast-off voodoo doll and a nylon wig or two, but the melodies, born in the fertile Mississippi Delta, treated by way of East LA and merged with workshop grind are infused with lyrics that bleed California-grown soul: it’s a nuevo blues-thing, and it’s the terrain he covers on his debut, Turo. The blue notes come natural to Zapata, no matter whether he’s floatin’ downstream to the tune of the supernatural tale “Boat Ride,” doing a dreamy take on the traditional tune “Deep Blue Sea,” transforming “Samson and Delilah” into a gritty roadhouse jam, or sliding on his National resonator guitar and evoking feelings on the instrumental “Father’s Son.” Recorded in 14 hours over two-days at San Diego’s Start Studios. “Most of my favorite music was created by accident,” he says. “If there were mistakes, we decided we’d keep them.” The album takes its title from a special in-studio guest. “Turo was my dad’s nickname,” explains Zapata. “It felt like his spirit was with us while we worked and the album is an unofficial tribute to him.” Raised in East LA and Whittier California on a fat dose of Mexican rock’n’roll and ‘60s and ‘70s AM radio, “My origins are easy to understand,” he says, “This is what you get, though when I say I’m from East LA people automatically ask me if I know Los Lobos. And when I say Whittier, they always bring up Nixon.” Zapata first discovered the blues when he was about 13. “An uncle took me to one of his apartment complexes to clean out a vacated unit filled with 78s and 45s. The one that caught my attention was one by Sam "Lightning" Hopkins. That was my first blues record and I kept digging deeper after that.” In high school and during the punk rock era, Zapata soaked in the primitive sounds at Hollywood’s notorious underground clubs; on more than one occasion, he relieved Tom Waits who was moonlighting as a doorman. “We mostly compared notes on Whittier,” he laughs. Eventually he found himself with one foot in USC’s architecture school and living in Pasadena’s historic Gamble House while his other foot was firmly planted in the blues clubs of South Central. “I started playing with serious intent when I finished school and immediately fell in with some local LA blues acts, people who were much better than I who made me become a better player,” he says of musicians like Charlie Chan, Coco Montoya and Denny Freeman, among others. For the recording of Turo, he was assisted by producer and saxophonist Archie Thompson (Los Straitjackets) whose brother Mike Thompson (Eagles, Johnny Rivers) had been a longtime supporter of Buddy’s work. “Mike once convinced me not to quit music,” he says. “And Archie really helped step things up with his unusual ideas.” Zapata also credits a gang of session players who generously got on board for the project. These days his live band features bassist Angus “Bangus” Thomas (Miles Davis, John Mayall, Albert King) and drummer Victor Bisetti (Los Lobos, Leo Kottke and Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum). “When players like Angus and Vic say they like what I’m doing, I listen with big ears,” he says. Stay tuned for more news on Zapata’s brand of junkshop blues as he prepares to tour his home state of California in 2007. “I think of my music as if it’s a curio shop, with broken pieces of dust-covered stuff scattered everywhere, a little bit of this and that, but it all means something to me,” he says.
|
|||
