The Seven Stringed Wonders of Edo Castro

The Bay Area is home to some of the most talented and eclectic musicians I have ever seen; tonight at Berkeley's famed Cafe Trieste comes another such talent, the seven stringed bass virtuoso Edo Castro. Castro has performed with a plethora of jazz greats; Roy Haynes, Ed Thigpen, Johhny Griffin, Armando Peraza, Stu Hamm and Mark Egan, just to name but a few. His talented quartet, featuring the amazing saxophonist Charles Moselle, guitarist Erik Lindquist and drummer Alex Aspinall will be joining him and performing selections from his first album, the self-titled "Edo" as well as his critically acclaimed and Grammy nominated latest, "Phoenix". For those who have yet to see this incredible talent, tonight's performance is another wonderful opportunity you won't want to miss.

A native San Franciscan who grew up in the Haight-Ashbury during the 60’s, Castro has been called "an eclectic modern instrumentalist borrowing from jazz, ambient, folk and world music - a chameleon who adapts his musical surroundings to create his montage of compositions". “ I was influenced by Sly Stone, Tower of Power, Cold Blood and Santana. There was so much music going on, it was pratically oozing out into the neighborhood. You couldn’t help not being affected,” Castro recalls.

Castro was initially a self-taught bassist, but later attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. “My Teachers were not only schooling me, they’d recommend me for gigs," Castro marveled. During his stay in Chicago he played with some of the finest young bloods of the music scene at that time, Jim Trumpeter, Fareed Haque, Mark Walker and Hassan Khan. Of course there were the jazz icons, Miles Davis, guitarist Pete Cosey and drummer Roy Haynes that Castro was fortunate enough to play with. Castro recalls," After playing a set with Roy Haynes, there was a bunch of us standing around talking to him and out of the blue Roy handed me his card and said, ‘Man when you’re ready, come to New York and give me a call. That was the greatest stamp of approval in front of all my peers.’ I’ve yet to get to New York and collect on that call.”

Castro soon completed his studies, earned his Bachelor of Music degree in 1987 and continued to hone his craft in Chicago. "Phoenix", Castro's latest CD, was released in 2006 to an enthusiastic crowd at the Larkspur's Sweetwater Cafe Theatre and in October of 2006, "Phoenix" made the 49th Annual Grammy entry list for "Best Contemporary Jazz Album."

In December 2003, Castro released his first solo effort of original music, simply titled “Edo”, and released under the fledgling Mill Valley Label, "Earthwire Records". Seven of the ten pieces were songs written using his myriad of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 string fretted, fretless and MIDI basses, later adding some percussion, keyboards and guitar for “color”. “The last 3 tunes were written on pieces of paper and handed out to whomever would play them. Luckily for me I got some of the finest players in the Bay Area to interpret my music,” Castro enthused.

"46 West", the opening cut on the CD, sets the tone for this album and it's clear Castro's languid and thoughtful playing is influenced by the guitarist Pat Metheny. "Cause for Concern" and "Intuition" are also in that vein and fine examples of his matured writing. Not a one trick pony, Castro's renown solo bass playing comes to the fore on both albums as well; "The Waiting Cafe" and "Quietly" from his first effort, and "Song of Electric Whales" and "Chance of Rain" from "Phoenix" are simply gorgeous.

In 2006, Castro signed with a new label, Passion Star Records and his latest album "Phoenix", was co-produced and recorded by Larkspur engineer Ray Cooper. “The name Phoenix is not only a beautiful name, it's also the mythical representation of change or transformation" says Castro. "Phoenix is about transforming personal moments," Castro explained. Many wonderful musicians are featured on this album including Mark Egan, former bassist with Pat Metheny, who has played on over 100 albums and is a guest artist on Phoenix.

"Phoenix", also the title song on the album, is one of my favorite cuts and it's clear why it was a Grammy nominee. Other stellar songs from the CD include the tabla-flavored "Bone Dreams"; the beautifully crafted "Chance of Rain"; the grooving "Blue Asia" and a pleasantly surprising version of the classic "Amazing Grace", complete with a full choir.

Castro's group tonight will also feature the ridiculously talented Charles Moselle; part saxophonist, flautist, Tuvan throat singer and "hip-hop" percussionist all rolled into one. He has to be seen to be believed. Rounding out the quartet is the Scofield-flavoerd Lindquist and the crisp drumming of Aspinall. They'll be missing the equally awesome keyboardist Greg Sankovich, who thrilled the crowd during a recent show at Larkspur's Sweetwater Station, but don't let that stop you; Edo Castro and his band will not disappoint.


Edo Castro with Charles Moselle, Erik Lindquist and Alex Aspinall
Friday, March 14th, 8:00 PM
Cafe Trieste, Dwight & San Pablo, Berkeley, CA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building the Phil Collins Gretsch Kit - Part One

Image
Back in 2017, I managed to acquire a dozen of the revolutionary new wireless Versatriggers from Poland; Battery powered drum triggers you can mount inside a drum shell. Replace the acoustic drum head with a mesh head and you have yourself a v-drum. I first tried out the Versatrigger on an old Viking snare I'd converted previously with an internal Pintech trigger, and a Remo Silent Stroke mesh head. After connecting the Versatrigger wireless USB hub to my MacBook Air, I was able to tweak the sensitivity and trigger the drum surprisingly well. I also learned I needed to be able to access the trigger for adjustments and battery replacement, so double headed toms weren't practical. The kick and snare are easy enough to cut out a round hole in the bottom head, but the toms would have to be easy to access as well. A modest kit with concert toms would work perfectly. I didn't want to build just another small v-drum kit of virtually identical trigger pads either, so when
Read more

Building Bill Bruford's Symmetrical Tama Kit

Image
In two of my previous blogs, I wrote about successfully restoring a Tama "Bill Bruford Signature Series Palette" snare drum , and then building a duplicate version wrapped in chrome . Although they looked and sounded great, I thought about completing this project by adding a kit to go with it. Now I suppose I could always could buy a Tama Starclassic kit, and use the snares I built, but where is the fun in that? Bruford's Signature snare drum had all black Tama lugs, just like his Tama kit with King Crimson. That particular kit was a Canary Yellow Tama with deep power toms. Bruford would reappear with a another version of that yellow kit at the 1999 Modern Drummer Festival alongside his all acoustic Earthworks band. That kit also had black lugs, and featured an 18" kick drum, 16", 13", 12" and 10" toms. That kit appeared to be a rarity, perhaps even custom-made for Bruford. I've never seen another Tama kit that matched it. If I could gather
Read more

Building the Bill Bruford Signature Snare - Part One

Image
Bill Bruford's "rimshot" is one of the most unique and exquisite snare drum sounds ever heard. From his earlier days on his 14"x 5.5" Ludwig Supraphonic Super-Sensitive snare with Yes, to his brass 14" x 6.5" Tama Big Beat snare with King Crimson, Bruford's crisp rolls and sticking technique were a thing of beauty and a joy to behold.  In his later years, Bruford moved away from the metal snare drums of rock, to the jazzier sound of the all-maple 14"x 6.5" Tama Starclassic snare drum with his all-acoustic group Earthworks.  It was during that era that Tama offered the "Bill Bruford Signature Palette Series" snare drum, a customized, 6 ply Starclassic; 2 ply Maple, 2 ply Birch and 2 ply Maple. It was also outfitted with all black hardware; lugs, hoops, strainer and a custom "Black Metallic Sand Blasted" finish, with Bill Bruford's personally autographed and numbered decal. Listing for around $650, the snare quic
Read more