Jim Duffy: Blog

I work in Lower Manhattan, and when the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations started on Sept. 17, they didn't look like much. Just a few young people were marching up Wall Street, carrying signs and chanting. Some of the signs were, frankly, a bit idiotic. The police had set up barriers, and I had to walk 200 yards out of my way to get to work. Good luck to the protesters, but their little march looked ineffectual and a bit annoying.
A week later came the widespread video of a high-ranking New York police officer pepper-spraying nonviolent protesters. The next day, I went to Zuccotti Park, and the protest had grown overnight to triple the size. Some of the protesters' signs were a little more intelligent. I said to one demonstrator, "Your message seems to be getting more focused."
He said, "It's been focused all along. Why don't you join us?"
Since I work nearby, I started going over to Zuccotti Park at lunchtime, to see what was happening. The protesters were becoming more organized. They [...]

(photo by Stephanie Woodard)
I'm involved in an exciting music project that has been brewing for several months and is just now seeing the light of day: a Persian rock band. Yes, you heard right. Iran had a vibrant pop music scene in the 1960s and '70s, before the Islamic revolution moved in. And now, 35 years later, vocalist/arranger/bandleader Yvette Perez is giving that music new life here in the Western Hemisphere.
The group, Mitra Sumara -- for that is our name -- had a test run at the Westbeth Center for the Arts last Sunday, and so far, all systems are go. Yvette sings all lyrics in Farsi. The lineup is as follows:

Yvette -- vocals (Birdbrain, H.E.R.)
Julian Maile -- guitar (Loser's Lounge)
Sam Kulik -- bass (Talibam!)
Jeff Hermanson -- trumpet (Stew and the Negro Problem, Yo La Tengo)
Peter Zummo -- trombone (Arthur Russell, Lounge Lizards)
Jim Duffy -- keyboard (Jim Duffy Combo, Martin's Folly, Rods and Cones)
Bill Ruyle -- hammer dulcimer and tabla (Arthur Russell)
Michael Evans [...]

As I write, the rain is beating against the windows. Here in New York, we're waiting for Hurricane Irene to roll in with gale force. We don't get too many hurricanes here in the city. I'm in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where the local businesses downstairs have boarded up their windows with plywood. The supermarket was crowded this morning, and in the bagel shop, people were buying bagels by the dozen. The news reports on the AM radio dial have come back into fashion.
So while I'm hunkered down, drinking too much coffee, let me tell you about about a band I'm in. It's an exciting project led by vocalist Yvette Perez -- a Persian pop and dance band. Yes, you heard right. We're called Mitra Sumara, and we've been rehearsing for a couple of months, getting ready to bust out and get you moving.
As I have learned from my involvement in this project, Iran had a vibrant pop music scene in the 1960s and 1970s. The Teheran nightlife was aglow with fast-moving, sinuous, sensuous music, some of [...]

Something a little different -- my good friend Chris Gray, a.k.a. C.S. Gray, will be playing two sets on Friday evening, July 22, at Banjo Jim's in the East Village. He asked me to fill in on bass guitar, and I was delighted to say yes.
Chris and I go way back. Back in the early 1990s, we co-founded the band Martin's Folly. Before anyone ever heard the term "roots rock," we started writing songs that portrayed what we liked best about the American music we loved. That was the pre-Internet, pre-download era, so we were more or less working in the dark. We made three albums that were produced by Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, and for five or six years we played in the New York clubs, up and down the East Coast, and out to Cleveland, Chicago, Nashville, Asheville and points in between.
After I veered off into instrumental music, Chris took his brand of songwriting, singing and guitar tone-making up to the next level, and his solo album "Shoot Out the Star" is finally getting the exposure [...]

Rods and Cones say love and thanks to everyone who came out to see our rare (and I hope well-done) performance at the Brighton Music Hall on May 14.
Special gratitude to Eddy Schneider, who thumped some fine bass guitar while I was on keys, and to our friends Linda Page and Gabby Agachiko, who provided some fine vocal harmonizing.
Chris Kelley, vocals and madness
Mike Napolitano, guitar
Gary France, guitar and vocals
Jim Duffy, bass, keyboard and vocals
Jim DiNardo, percussion and vocals
Chris DiNardo, drums
Eddy Schneider, bass
Linda Price, vocals
Gabby Agachiko, vocals
To see the full cast of characters performing "Come Sunday," please go here.
Photos by Kristen Westhoven:
 


To hear Rods and Cones' "Round Room" from 1983, "Education in Love" from 1985, and "Seventy-Seven Degrees" from 1996, please go to the Music page on this site.