Boaz and Zito
ELI COLLIGNON and Jack Boaz must’ve spent the whole day in Abiquiu clapping. Their hands aimed for flamenco syncopation. The 23-year-old (Collignon) and 27-year-old (Boaz) were tipsy with whiskey and different forms of folk music in a 5-day, self-made artist residency last summer on a family ranch. Spaciousness and silence.
Except for the clapping. And an old, out-of-tune piano the two tried harmonizing with. And the wild, uninhibited, violin screaming of “Cure the Mourning,” the first song on the duo’s
PLAYLIST By Arielle Christian
2022 debut EP, “One for a Cello One for a Goat.”
What a spontaneous swell that tune was. The windy-like Hungarian melody that Boaz — who’s been playing violin since four years old — had familiarized himself with while studying in Budapest, Hungary; a land of his ancestors. This, swirled with the crazy-fast Mariachi rhythm Collignon skidded on his guitar. A surprising sound the pair had never mixed before.
Albuquerque-based Boaz and Collignon — who lives in San Cristobal and goes by Zito in the band — met once upon a jam at a mutual friend’s house in town. (Collignon is from Taos and was in a “garage band” by 12 and playing Simon & Garfunkel-reminiscent tunes at the Taos Mesa Brewery by 15.) Old jazz standards like Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father” lit up Collignon’s fingers across the piano that night. He was impressed with Boaz’s ability to improvise, something Boaz picked up at U.C. Berkeley.
“It was a brief period of self-discovery,” said Boaz, who’d mostly bowed classical violin before listening to the likes of Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman in college. “I realized I could use the instrument however I wanted.”
On the streets.
Building a table and playing the blues together sealed the deal. Boaz — who is transgender and loves the exuberance in masculinity the blues can bring (think: Mick Jagger) — enjoyed Collignon’s confidence playing the guitar in that style. They’d play with raucousness and imperfection, which translates over into their five-song album, and which balances out the obsession with form the two share.
“It has a very rough-around-thee-dges vibe,” said Collignon, remembering long days last summer working construction while Boaz farmed outside of Santa Fe. “It represents the way we write and perform.” (The album name is a shoutout to two gifts Collignon received in trade for roofing — a cello and a goat. The title emanates the labor in the love.)
The songs range from slow and sleepy with a subtle twang to full-on country waltz. There’re banjo and cello and salt shakers and, you guessed it, hand claps. There’re lyrics rough like “Tear the system down to the flames it deserves” and sweet like “When it all gets too hard, sing to me.” Most of the album was written during the Abiquiu stretch.
“Last year, we were very much focused on elements. Now we’re focused on more vulnerable songwriting,” said Boaz, who’s penning the changes in his body and voice and the way he views and loves himself as he transitions to male. “It doesn’t have to be Americana. Just write from the heart.”
Boaz and Zito released an album in February and play the Revolt Gallery on Thursday (April 14).
Find Boaz and Zito’s music on Spotify and bandcamp.