Darin Layne, Jeff Bloom, Dave Pulkingham, Greg Jones, Sergio Santos, Russ Scanlon, Christian Frenandez, Scottie McIntosh
Crying Monkeys is not a band as much as it is a musical fraternal organization. Actually, its more like a lodge except we dont hunt or fish or wear funny hats. Not yet anyway.
It all began when a few guitarists decided to meet at Darins house in the late hours of Wednesday evening with our choro music to practice our sight reading . Many of you out there will recognize the ironic futility of that last statement. After a while the core group of players (Darin, Greg, Jeff, David, Christian, and Russell) was large enough to make the event a dependable weekly hang. People would come and go but we could almost have a quorum present. The less fortunate of us who had day jobs would usually arrive grumbling about how tired we were or how late it was but it didnt matter. Once you were in the lodge you were there for the long haul.
When Sergio arrived and joined in we all looked around at each other and in an instant realized that all the necessary calibrations had kicked into place. When Scotty arrived we kicked it up a notch or two again and the present line up was complete. our informal little gathering had developed ominous signs of becoming a project.
But the heart and soul of the crying monkeys is still the Wednesday night lodge. the routine is well established: show up, catch up, drink cerveja, gossip, smoke, and swap gig stories. Then, being totally bleary eyed and full of ourselves, we play tunes from our choro bible and become at turns amazed, humbled, delighted, and moved by these astonishing songs written so long ago in Brazil. the mandate and mission of the lodge is nothing more than the performance and appreciation of this amazing musical style with its unique and perfect synthesis of rhythm and harmony, of singable melodies with African polyrhythm, and of classical elegance with the energy of street music.
Consider the crying monkeys as ambassadors of choro. We hope you enjoy this offering of one bright star from the magnificent universe of Brazilian music.
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Crying Monkeys is not a band as much as it is a musical fraternal organization. Actually, its more like a lodge except we dont hunt or fish or wear funny hats. Not yet anyway.
It all began when a few guitarists decided to meet at Darins house in the late hours of Wednesday evening with our choro music to practice our sight reading . Many of you out there will recognize the ironic futility of that last statement. After a while the core group of players (Darin, Greg, Jeff, David, Christian, and Russell) was large enough to make the event a dependable weekly hang. People would come and go but we could almost have a quorum present. The less fortunate of us who had day jobs would usually arrive grumbling about how tired we were or how late it was but it didnt matter. Once you were in the lodge you were there for the long haul.
When Sergio arrived and joined in we all looked around at each other and in an instant realized that all the necessary calibrations had kicked into place. When Scotty arrived we kicked it up a notch or two again and the present line up was complete. our informal little gathering had developed ominous signs of becoming a project.
But the heart and soul of the crying monkeys is still the Wednesday night lodge. the routine is well established: show up, catch up, drink cerveja, gossip, smoke, and swap gig stories. Then, being totally bleary eyed and full of ourselves, we play tunes from our choro bible and become at turns amazed, humbled, delighted, and moved by these astonishing songs written so long ago in Brazil. the mandate and mission of the lodge is nothing more than the performance and appreciation of this amazing musical style with its unique and perfect synthesis of rhythm and harmony, of singable melodies with African polyrhythm, and of classical elegance with the energy of street music.
Consider the crying monkeys as ambassadors of choro. We hope you enjoy this offering of one bright star from the magnificent universe of Brazilian music.
