Harvey Valdes likes pushing limits. He challenges conventions, breaks rules, innovates new concepts, and is on the lookout for alternatives. But don’t consider him an oddball iconoclast inventing systems to mask his limitations—he’s the opposite of that. He boasts prodigious chops on guitar and oud, is a master player in a variety of genres, has first rate compositional skills, and collaborates with many of NYC’s most progressive and innovative thinkers.
A New Jersey native, Valdes’ first exposure to music—aside from the salsa and cumbia in his Columbian household—was ‘80s MTV. “One of the first cassettes I bought was Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction,” he says. “That got me hooked right away. MTV at that time was a big product of metal and hair metal, so there was a lot of guitar that I was being exposed to. I wanted to know everything about it. And once I discovered Metallica I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is guitar music.’”
But Valdes didn’t join a metal band or wear spandex; he broadened his horizons, discovered new styles of music, and eventually earned a degree from New York’s New School in Jazz and Contemporary Music. Post-college he joined the ranks of the City’s progressive music scene and worked on notable projects like Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra, Butch Morris’ Luck Cheng’s Orchestra and Nublu Orchestra, Harel Shachal’s Anistar, and toured as part of the Wooster Group’s production of Francesco Cavalli’s 1641 baroque opera, La Didone. His trio—featuring Sana Nagano on violin and Joe Hertenstein on drums—released PointCounterPoint in April and that was preceded last fall by Roundabout, his collection of recomposed jazz standards for solo guitar.
We spoke with Valdes about his influences, his experiences on oud, the parallels between baroque music and jazz, odd meters and polyrhythms, his idiosyncratic approach to composition, and ergonomic guitar design. Continue reading Thinking Differently: An Interview With Harvey Valdes
I love the Rolling Stones. Who doesn’t? And it surprises me how few new bands cite them as influences. But that seems to be changing. Down In Heaven, the third release from Twin Peaks—a young Chicago band whose members were born when the Stones were already old—owes an obvious debt to the crusty masters. Big time. True, at times Down In Heaven languishes in that mid-70s period from Goats Head Soup until the early days of Ron Wood. But that’s cool. It’s still a great sound. Plus, Twin Peaks continue to draw from a host of other influences and haven’t lost sight of their Chicago-area DIY punk roots—the album offers plenty of that as well.
Twin Peaks are a great band. They are anything but one-dimensional. They have depth, creative songwriting, cool unexpected quirks, interesting chord choices, subtle textures, and enough humor to keep their music interesting, catchy, and begging for another listen.
Down In Heaven opens with “Walk To The One You Love.” It oozes a Stones-y vibe, although it’s less aggressive and the rhythm guitar part is borrowed from T. Rex’s “Get It On.” It grooves, has interesting lead lines, creative horn parts, and enough variation to keep you listening and boogying. It sets a great tone for the album as well and it’s spirit is revived on songs like “Butterfly” and “Keep It Together.”
But Down In Heaven is not a party album. If anything, the only real downer—if you can call it that—is that it has an abundance of slow and mid-tempo songs that veer into that dark Goats Head Soup vibe of songs like “Winter” and “Can You Hear the Music.” That isn’t bad, but it is low-energy and I wonder how many of those songs they’ll play live. And despite that criticism, the songs are strong and have enough meat to keep you engaged and listening. You don’t space out. Check out “Cold Lips,” “Holding Roses,” and “Wanted You” and dig the quirks—like slick ‘70s-style falsetto, oddball guitar modulation, and cool keyboard sounds—that grab your attention.
Twin Peaks added a keyboardist, Colin Croom, and Down In Heaven is his first album with them. Keys add another dimension and the cool piano plonking, B-3 sounds, and occasional weirdness flesh our their sound and enhance the vibe. Cool horns are another plus, especially the 60’s-era-TV-sounding arrangements and the Beatle-esque psychedelics on songs like “Lolisa.” The bluesy acoustics on a few songs are great as well.
Those sonic variations and colors are a huge plus, mainly because the guitar sounds are so unvaried. I am being super-anal here and this is something I only noticed after multiple listens with headphones, but for the most part, song after song is built around the same basic clean guitar sound without much tonal variation. That could get annoying if you fixate on the guitar parts, but the album has a lot more going on, which keeps your attention.
But I can’t help wondering how much better Down In Heaven would be if they paid more attention to that. For example, the second Black Crowes’ album, the Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, draws from the same period Twin Peaks draws from here. Listening to that album, it is obvious the Black Crowes spent hours sculpting tones and sweating the details. That obsessive attention pays off and makes for an amazing experience. The Black Crowes and Twin Peaks are very different bands, but with Down In Heaven, that could be the reason why it is a really good album but not a really great one. The songs are solid and the vibe is there, but at times I found myself hoping for a bigger kick in the ass that never seemed to materialize.
But I am not bitching. Songs like “Keep It Together” are amazing and the final song, “Have You Ever?” is a tour de force—it’s awash in reverb and psychedelic touches that send the album off on a strong note.
Down In Heaven is a really good album. It has a great vibe and solid songs. It isn’t perfect, but those imperfections don’t detract from its strong points. I liked it. I downloaded onto my phone for long car rides. I will rock out to it at loud volumes and annoy my kids.
Harvey Valdes likes pushing limits. He challenges conventions, breaks rules, innovates new concepts, and is on the lookout for alternatives. But don’t consider him an oddball iconoclast inventing systems to mask his limitations—he’s the opposite of that. He boasts prodigious chops on guitar and oud, is a master player in a variety of genres, has first rate compositional skills, and collaborates with many of NYC’s most progressive and innovative thinkers. 