WHO
IS THAT BAD ASS ON THE BASS?
An interview with Colin
–
by Jennifer Barone, featuring some questions from the audience
from Tuesday Nights at Club Deluxe!
We've decided to turn the spotlight on one of our favorite and frequent
musicians at Club Deluxe–Colin Williams! Not only does he love to
play with our poets, he does it well and has been known to sing the blues
too. Is there anything this man can't do? Yes, he truly is a "Bad
Ass on the Bass." Read our little interview and find out some interesting
facts on the man behind the bassline.
Q:
What jazz tune makes you totally lose your shit when
you play it and why?
A: I like any and all blues. You'd Be So Nice to Come Home
To, because no one ever plays it. I also like all the New Orleans Tunes, like
Down By the Riverside. So Nasty. As a club owner once told me, "girls
with clean panties are nice, but girls with dirty panties are even nicer,
heh heh heh." Man, I miss New Orleans.
Q: Compare and contrast: Charles Mingus and Shakespeare:
A: Shakespeare put the ancient world into English. If you
read Lucan's account of the witches of Thessaly, you'll see where Shakespeare
gets his ideas for the witches in MacBeth. If you read Seneca's Thyestes,
you'll see where Shakespeare got his ideas for Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare
is the link between the ancient world and the modern.
Likewise, Mingus is the missing link between crazy modern jazz and swing.
Mingus was Duke Ellington's bass player until he chopped up a trombone player's
chair with an ax. Mingus understood swing, but he went and tweaked it. Most
of the crazy modern cats got their start in Mingus' band. Like Shakespeare,
he's the link between the elder statesmen and the young turks.
Q: How did you first get into jazz and what song did it for you?
A: David Friesen's Early Morning Rising ! He plucked the strings
below the fingerboard, recorded it, and looped it back over and over again.
Then he took the bow and rapped it against the fingerboard like a drum, recorded
that and played it back so that it was perfectly locked in with what he had
down. Then he bowed a melody on top of all that. Took my sixteen-year-old
breath away!
Q: Is the marriage of jazz and poetry a happy marriage or a rocky
one?
A: It's a Happy One at Deluxe, but I've seen it get ugly at other
clubs. Everyone respects each other here.
Q: Any recommendations as to what instructions you'd like to hear
when poets ask for your accompaniment?
A: They're actually really clear.
Q: You sometimes take off your shoes when you play. Is it for comfort
or because the band makes you?
A: The P.A. System feeds back because I stomp so hard. Sorry.
Q: If you had to ex-communicate one poet and choose one to listen
to all night who would they be?
A: Yeah, I'll take the fifth on that one. What question could possibly
be more awkward than that?
Q: Who's hotter Jennifer, Ingrid or Katarina?
A:You know, Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera asked Paris the same question.
But I think Paris had an easier time of it. It would be easier to find some
blemish on any of them, some defect of carriage, some gaffe in any of those
goddesses than in any that frequent Deluxe. Suffice to say they have all made
my bass skip a beat.
Q: Any favorite musicians on Tuesdays you love jamming with?
A: Shane really impresses me. I love James' energy. Stacy's tone
is flawless. We've got a good crowd.
Q: What was the most moving and/or shocking Club Deluxe moment so
far?
A: That woman who did a Margaret Cho routine invaded my comfort zone.
Man, where did that come from?
Q: What jazz artist and album do you recommend to listen to while
between the sheets with a special lady?
A: Oooh, the last track on Joshua Redman's Timeless Tales for Changing
Times is perfect. So is all of Kind of Blue. Don't even try Bill Evans' trio,
though; the girl will hate it.
Q: Do you have a favorite poet or poem?
A: Yes! Catullus!
You will feast well with me, my Fabullus, in a few days, if the gods
favour you, provided you bring here with you a good and great feast,
not forgetting a radiant girl and wine and wit and all kinds of
laughter. Provided, I say, you bring them here, our charming friend,
you will feast well: for your Catullus' purse is full with cobwebs.
But in return you will receive a pure love, or what is sweeter or more
elegant: for I will give you an unguent which the Venuses and Cupids
gave to my girl, which, when you smell it, you will entreat the gods
to make you, Fabullus, all Nose!
Q: What's your favorite Katarina Club Deluxe cocktail?
A: I always get wine.
Q: If your upright bass was a woman, what would her name, nationality
and appearance be like?
A: My bass is a woman, and she is Romanian, elegant, petulant and
impatient, like all great beauties.
Q: Club Deluxe has seen you tear it up on the bass and sing the blues,
will we ever see the day Colin reads a poem?
A: Only time will tell.
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