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Millions of Ohioans woke up this morning asking what the prospect of a Democrat governor for the first time in 15 years might mean for them. For one man in Governor-elect Amy Acton’s hometown of Youngstown, the answer might mean life or death.
He is Keith LaMar, a prisoner on death row whose cause inspired Freedom First, a project of activism through music that returns to LaMar’s hometown Saturday for a concert at BOP STOP.
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“Black and orange? I’ve always liked those colors, you know. And when everything turns black and orange, I feel very comfortable. I like the pumpkin as a vegetable. I think that it’s a wonderful invention. And I’m into it, you know,”
That’s Frank Zappa’s response to a question about Halloween in a cringeworthy CBS interview conducted on Oct. 31, 1983. It’s hard to know whether he was being sincere or trolling the clueless interviewer because . . . well, he’s Frank Zappa. But taking him at his word, let’s assume that the Father of the Mothers of Invention would be secretly tickled about Saturday’s Schlenk Zappa tribute concert at BOP STOP.
But you never know.
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“I play energy, not notes,” Nathan-Paul declares on his press site, and if you’ve ever heard him play, you know it’s true. With interests as a broadcaster, musician, label owner and composer. Stephen Philip Harvey seems to be energy embodied. So catching up with these two protean creators reveals only a single frame in the epic film of their careers.
But this week is a rich moment to do so as both bring new projects to northeast Ohio on Friday, Harvey at BOP STOP and Nathan-Paul at BLU Jazz+.
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The image you see above wasn’t scraped from Kate McGarry‘s iCloud Photos account nor is it a promo shot, strictly speaking. But as a visual representation of the homey, intimate vibe you’re likely encounter when McGarry, Keith Ganz and Gary Versace visit Bop Stop Thursday night (sans doggo), it’s perfect.
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One of the most quoted lines from Naruto, the Japanese anime epic, is “Hard work is worthless for those that don’t believe in themselves.” Cleveland-born, Akron saxophonist and educator Chris Coles is such a “Naruto” fan that he wrote an album-length work, Love Deamon Song Cycle, released last Friday on Hidden Cinema Records, about it.
But when he takes the stage at BOP STOP Saturday with his Gleam ensemble, he’ll do more than just play music inspired by the Japanese anime epic, he’ll embody everything that quote represents.
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