Two special events happening Sunday
Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote in this space how fascinating and mystical I find the songwriting process. It’s been a topic of many interviews with some pretty well-known and accomplished artists. Well, I had a conversation with Victor Wooten the other day and he said something that made so much sense.
Wooten will be playing with his band on Sunday in The Caverns in Pelham, Tenn. Also on the bill is Sinbad, so you’ll hear great music and some funny jokes if you go. Sinbad might even play some music, Wooten said.
In case you don’t know, Wooten is a much-in-demand and very busy bass player, and I was fascinated how he could so easily go from studio session to live performance with so many different people and in so many different styles of music.
“It all starts from listening,” he said.
He said music is just another language that people learn to help them communicate, it’s just that there are so many different dialects. Some people, like himself, are better at picking up those dialects.
I told him I realized asking him how he was able to jump from genre to genre was equivalent to asking Larry Bird or Magic Johnson, who were both known for making unbelievable passes on the basketball court, how they even saw the pass, much less made it. That’s when he said, “It’s like being able to talk your child one second and then answer your wife the next.” ›
Robert Maier was a college student in his early 20s studying filmmaking in Baltimore when an equally young director named John Waters walked into the school looking for students willing and capable of helping him make a movie.
Maier would eventually work with Waters and actor, singer, drag queen Divine on such films as “Polyester,” “Hairspray,” “Female Trouble” and “Cry-Baby.” He also produced the 30-minute underground film “Love Letter to Edie,” a documentary on the life and career of actress Edith Massey, and wrote the book “Low Budget Hell: Making Underground Movies with John Waters” about making the movies of John Waters.
Maier will be in town on Sunday at The Palace for the next edition of Sunday Slashers. “Love Letter to Edie” and John Waters’ “Desperate Living” will be screened and Maier will talk about the film and his book.
“I’m really excited that people are interested in this,” he said. “I love talking about it.”