Combining elements of traditional African and Afro-Cuban rhythms with innovation, Tony Vacca and World Rhythms create a hypnotic sound.
By: Susan Van Dongen
Percussionist Tony Vacca has settled on what sounds like the best kind of therapy a combination of travel, discovering new music and spending as much time near the sea as possible.
"We went to Italy last year and I had one request," he says. "Wherever we went, I had to be able to see a body of water."
Currently visiting Block Island, R.I., Mr. Vacca certainly has plenty of ocean to look at. It’s remote enough so that he has to walk up to the roof to get decent cell phone reception. But he’s been to much more far-flung places.
"In my junior year (at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst) I took a course called ‘Cultures of West Africa’ with Jonetta Cole," Mr. Vacca says. "I wanted to see if I could connect the jazz traditions I understood with West African music. Jonetta took me aside and got in my face, just like a mama would, and said ‘You’ve got to go to Africa.’ So after graduation, I went out on my own seat-of-the-pants journey through West Africa. It was really interesting. They looked at me like a stranger, but when I told them I was a musician, they were very welcoming, especially in the villages. It was like, ‘Let’s show him some stuff.’"
Since then he’s gone back numerous times, mostly to Senegal, Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso. Mr. Vacca has also adopted the balafon, the West African cousin to the xylophone, as his instrument of choice. His very physical style of playing and astute understanding of African traditions has made Mr. Vacca in demand with a wide range of musicians, from Sting to Senegalese Afro-pop superstar Baaba Maal.
In the last decade Mr. Vacca also has gathered an eclectic and highly skilled bunch of musicians for his group World Rhythms, which combines electric violin and bass, saxophone, spoken word and all kinds of percussion. Throw in a traditional African dancer, and a concert by World Rhythms is more like a world music "happening," mixing storytelling and music, as it is in West Africa.
"The story comes first and there are always historical references," Mr. Vacca says. "When you play music, you celebrate the identity of a certain group of people."
Mr. Vacca and World Rhythms are among four culturally diverse groups performing at The Power of Percussion, the third annual West Windsor Music Festival, at Nassau Park Pavilion in West Windsor July 28. The free event, sponsored by the West Windsor Arts Council, also features Philadelphia-based Animus, Ray Rodriguez and Swing Sabroso, and the Chuck Staab Group.
Mr. Staab, a 2007 graduate of Princeton University, is the Philadelphia/Princeton area educational director for MIMA Music, training interns at Temple University, the University of the Arts and the University of Pennsylvania to teach music appreciation, improvisation, songwriting and performance to children, as part of its Spin Jazz music lessons.
MIMA Music has hosted Spin Jazz sessions for audiences of all ages in Brazil, China, Spain and throughout the U.S. For the West Windsor concert, during set changes, MIMA Music will invite audience members to bring their own instrument to the performance and join in a jam session. No music-making experience is necessary.
Sharing different musical traditions is the outgrowth of a trend Mr. Vacca believes has been in America since its inception, but has really blossomed since the ’60s, thanks to technology and travel. He’s not even sure he’s comfortable with the title "world music," since the planet is getting ever smaller and connections between cultures are becoming more organic.
"It’s only ‘world music’ when a bagpiper plays with a tabla player," he says. "It’s like speaking to each other without obliterating our respective languages."
He got turned on to music from the other side of the world after Ravi Shankar’s appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Since George Harrison had befriended and introduced the great Indian classical musician to a wide audience in the West, it seemed only natural to invite Mr. Shankar to the festival. His music was a good place for Westerners to begin to embrace non-Western sounds.
"His music fit in, although it was so different," Mr. Vacca says. "The festival was a place to improvise you weren’t going to do a four-minute song there. And Ravi played these expansive compositions. Listening to it as a drummer, it was a perfect fit. I can sing parts of (his performance) even now.
"The Beatles added an exclamation point to world music," he continues. "They were doing their thing and then with ‘Revolver’ everything changed. The gates (to world music) were thrown open. The Beatles were setting the course at 100 miles per hour, for anyone who could keep up. They proved what I always thought was true. Just play the music that you love and don’t pander to the audience. That’s the only rule I know for success you might as well be who you are so you can be happy with yourself."
Growing up outside of Newark, Mr. Vacca remembers listening to music by New Jersey native Count Basie, along with Duke Ellington and other jazz greats. His parents were big fans of jazz and swing and, unbeknownst to young Tony, often went into Harlem to dance and listen to live music. His foundations in jazz drumming shifted when a teacher introduced him to Latin styles of mambo, merengue and samba.
"This went back to sixth grade," he says. "It suddenly dawned on me that you can play other rhythms. My teacher explained that mambo and whatnot were Afro-Cuban in origin. That woke me up to what American music is in the first place. In the earliest part of the (colonies) there were as many Africans here as Europeans. America has always been this great, culturally diverse place."
When Mr. Vacca plays the balafon, he says a careful listener can hear Count Basie’s piano lines, even a rock or funk bass line. But because it’s a balafon, it sounds exotic.
"Without thinking, I was mixing the balafon with my favorite music and it wasn’t a stretch at all," he says. "It’s such an unusual sound. It’s tuned a little like a pentatonic scale on the piano but it’s modal. So you ‘live’ in there, you live in those modes. The guys who play with me are knowledgeable enough about music theory that they can stretch the tuning."
Traveling in West Africa, Mr. Vacca was energized by the sheer spectacle of live music.
"There are these ensembles, even whole orchestras of giant xylophones, mixed with hand drums, dancing and masks," he says. "You know how music videos try to tell a story through a song? It’s like that.
"There’s a certain mythology to Africa, it’s dark and mysterious partly because it’s so big," Mr. Vacca adds. "But through taking a focused approach to my travels it was very up close and personal to me. Music was the building block and it opened so many doors of curiosity and interest. Years after I left college, I called (my former teacher) Jonetta and told her she was right. Traveling to Africa was the right move."
Tony Vacca and World Rhythms perform at The Power of Percussion, the third annual West Windsor Music Festival, at the Nassau Park Pavilion, Nassau Park Boulevard, West Windsor, behind Panera Bread, July 28, 1-6 p.m. This free event includes Animus, Ray Rodriguez and Swing Sabroso, and the Chuck Staab Group. (609) 919-1982; www.westwindsorarts.org. Tony Vacca on the Web: www.tonyvacca.com. MIMA Music on the Web: mimamusic.org/index.htm